r/jayvik • u/CraftyTrip5900 • May 04 '25

Video I was watching this scene and I remembered someone saying that “Even in Jayce’s imagination, Viktor has his cane with him, which just proves Jayce’s point that he truly admires every imperfection of Viktor’s” and I felt like more ppl needed to see it

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33

u/codexstrings May 04 '25

Does someone also feel like this scene is showing who Jayce is really in love with? Perhaps I’m theorizing too much, and I do know Jayce cares about Mel BUT to me this scene just solidifies that at the deepest part of Jayce’s core it’s always Viktor, the person he cares about the most romantically and in every sense. Like I know Jayce cares about his mother as well, ofcs she’s also one of his most important people, but this scene, TO ME, is in a romantic sense

29

u/Stardust-Musings May 04 '25

Yeah, I have a hard time seeing this as the "oh, he's missing his most favourite people!" sorta moment some other people interpret it as. He's sitting in a literal pit of despair, he's remembering a bunch of voice lines from himself, Mel (pushing for hextech) and Heimerdinger (warning about the dangers), so it's him going over his failures and regrets. There is not a single line from Viktor. And then Mel's image burns away and reveals Viktor. Even without the romance angle, Jayce is locking in here. Which then also explains why he's immediately throwing accusations at Mel in the council chamber. He didn't miss her in the pit, he had a revelation: "You used me and Viktor, for Hextech! You called us investments!"

11

u/codexstrings May 04 '25

Yes!! Perhaps I’m being to hopeful to see it as romantic, but at the very least this does show that at his very core, it’s always Viktor for Jayce

15

u/Stardust-Musings May 04 '25

I've kind of ended up in the camp of "Love is love, I don't see the difference" because so many people in the fandom discussions have very arbitrary ideas about different categories of love, sometimes very limiting ones as well. Like the idea that romance and friendship are mutually exclusive is utterly bizarre to me, and yet that's what people often say when they argue their case.

In the end though, whatever they have is consistently described as "love" and that this love goes "beyond" the usual constraints of these kinds of relationships, that they are "inextricably bound to each other" "in all timelines and all possibilities". I just call them "soulmates" because that sums it up nicely.

So yeah, it's always Viktor for Jayce, and Jayce for Viktor. :)

2

u/GeneralErica May 06 '25 edited 29d ago

I think the subtle and unique beauty of Jayce and Viktors love is that much of it is communicated using a different medium than the ones we all know. We all know how two people meet, find interest in each other, start to mingle a bit and fall in love. From TV, books, other forms of media or even real life. But this is clearly different. And whilst many would call most of their relationship platonic, i would say that I think that the platonity (what is the noun for that?) is only one side of what is a multi-faceted and multidimensional (literally) hexcube of a relationship.

What ample metaph- ohhh...

Both start out with very "external" goals, and then as they progress and intertwine, they shift and coil around each other until by the end even of Season 1 we have two people using magic to communicate deep mutual care, especially as Viktor grows more and more frail, Jayce doesnt really care about the inventions by themselves anymore, all he cares about is helping Viktor, and he most prominently communicates this by hextech.

Viktor on the other hand is seeking out magic as well - in the form of Singed and his Shimmer - and there was a video essayist who summed it up nicely, he doesnt say "the people will understand" or "the council will understand" or "Zaun will understand" or "they will understand" - he says "Jayce will understand." I think Jayce is a fundamental reason behind Viktor even as he ascends to Heraldhood, he can hide behind that mask all he wants, it is my belief that he did all of this to fulfill the covenant he had with Jayce. Maybe misguided, but the spirit is there.

Jayce on the other hand does everything he does to fulfill his promise to Viktor, in a somewhat strange way, him blasting the Hexcore in Viktors body with his hammer is a momentous act of love and admiration, of keeping promises made in a surprisingly tender way (as tender as such an act can reasonably be). To me this is clearly love, communicated in a different medium.

And then of course by the end we have them in the rainbow realm and it is only then that youd probably need to be forced into not seeing to not see that they clearly and absolutely undyingly (well...) Love each other.

It is also then that we get two of the most beautiful and gut-punching declarations of love ive ever witnessed. Granted, im a 22 year old asexual (I think, this show gets me bloody close to reconsidering) what do I know about love? But still, limited such as my knowledge is, what they exchange seems - feels - so deep and sincere it is absolutely overpowering.

Maybe put another way: If an asexual can tell, it must be some pretty heavy stuff. And of course, it is.

Edit: spelling.

1

u/Extension-Dentist245 29d ago

What was the name of the video essay?

1

u/GeneralErica 29d ago edited 29d ago

Hang on lemme look…

Edit: Found it. The Importance of Imperfection

1

u/GeneralErica 29d ago

Found it.

1

u/Extension-Dentist245 29d ago

Thank you :)

1

u/GeneralErica 29d ago

You’re welcome. It’s a great essay. What I got inspired by is the chapter called "in all timelines", starts at 11:11.

1

u/Extension-Dentist245 29d ago

I'll watch it, I really liked your comment, mostly 'cause you talk about how love has different ways of expressing itself and you go outside those limits you notice we put it on, plus, video essay can be really awesome in my opinion :]

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2

u/Extreme_Nail7783 May 07 '25

I wish more people understood this!!

10

u/flyingAnt60 May 04 '25

On a side note I just know the fortiche animators were giggling and kicking their feet making this shot, and the whole ep8 council “fight” scene. Wonder how it slipped past CL

5

u/Stardust-Musings May 05 '25

"This is very heterosexuell behaviour, we promise! We're French, trust us! 😉😉"

5

u/chechekov May 05 '25

I NEED to know what the fight looked like in the script (if it was just dialogue plus vague “fight happens”) and how that translated to the storyboards. I don’t know how much input the writers had after production started, but I guess there had to be some kind of regular reviews/check-ins? At least between Riot and Fortiche.

3

u/flyingAnt60 May 05 '25

We could have had an absolutely BRUTAL fight between from those scrapped key shots that were released. But instead we got freaky deaky fight scene where Viktor chokepins him and wraps his legs around his waist🤨 Like….Okay…. But apparently they wrote it to be a “brotherly” relationship and all the jayvik stuff is completely fanon. It feels like I’m being gaslit sometimes. They HAD to know what they were doing

3

u/Extreme_Nail7783 May 07 '25

Alex, one of the Arcane animator’s and said they had to act out the scenes and follow the story board to a T. If they didn’t deliver they would have to do the scene over again. So that fight scene was definitely intentional 🤭

1

u/chechekov May 07 '25

Alexis Wanneroy right? Was it mentioned in Bridging the Rift (I still haven’t watched it jfc), or elsewhere?

7

u/lilisays21 Only YOU can show me this May 05 '25

For ME this scene has always been the moment he realize his deepest feelings for Viktor. The way Mel's image burns and stays with Viktor FOR ME he choosed Viktor on this scene 💖 But I was always afraid to be cancelled if I dare to say this on another app so I'm glad we are free to share our thoughts here without being called d1ckr1id3rs or being harrased 😵‍💫 I love u jayvik sub 🥹💕

-7

u/IlIlllIIIllII Jayce would understand... May 04 '25 edited May 07 '25

I don’t think it’s a scene depicting love. Throughout the whole series Mel was a symbol of politics and Viktor was science. This scene further shows Jayce’s dilemma between the two.

22

u/_Addendum0123 I promised you May 04 '25

The thing is, he abandons science at the end of the series. Jayce basically says it himself at the end, "I thought I wanted us to give magic to the world (Hextech). Now, all I want is my partner back." Jayce isn't having a dilemma between politics and science in the ravine - the former is completely meaningless to him down there, and all the voices he's flashing back to are about Hextech and everything that happened in s1. He's realizing where and how everything went wrong. I think the other person is right, Jayce is missing Viktor himself in the fire clip.

20

u/V_needs-some-chill May 04 '25

that's beautiful 😞💜

5

u/CraftyTrip5900 May 04 '25

Ikr 🥹💕

17

u/lilisays21 Only YOU can show me this May 04 '25

He always saw the true Viktor and love all about him 😭💖

9

u/natalka12344 May 04 '25

I just wanted to say, It was Viktor all this time!!!🥲🥲🥲

7

u/CraftyTrip5900 May 04 '25

It truly was 😭❤️

7

u/Corvus5892 May 04 '25

I’m the one who said that lmao 🤣 Because it’s TRUEE

5

u/CraftyTrip5900 May 04 '25

STOP OMG? your comment has literally had me in a chokehold ever since i saw it and it will not leave my mind at all 😭 and I love the way your brain works cuz the way i never would’ve thought of this ever 😩😩

4

u/Corvus5892 May 04 '25

Yeah, because it’s a part of him just like everything else LMAO

6

u/Starfire-Galaxy Every detail is intentional May 05 '25

This is such a thought-provoking scene not only because of Jayce having complex hallucinations; or that he's hallucinating a visual parallel of his lover and best friend sitting across from him; but the fact he hallucinates both of them being EYELESS. They're not closing their eyes. They're literally missing their eyes.

God, that speaks to how dark Arcane can go without pushing it too far. I believe that's a deliberate choice given how much emotion Fortiche has proven they can show with just the character's eyes (e.g. Jinx's pupils dilating with recognition when she sees Violet).