The ending of Arcane season one sets up a potential new villain for season two, but the show would be better served with Viktor as its antagonist.
Spoiler Alert! Contains Details From Arcane Season 1
Despite how season 1 ended, Viktor should be the main villain in Arcane season 2. After the climactic events of Arcane’s first season, Zaun will be in desperate need of new leadership going into season 2. The cracks in Silco’s empire began to show in the days leading up to his death, and the criminal underworld is likely to devolve back into chaos in his absence. The stakes will certainly be raised in Arcane season 2, and the show will need a new, more threatening villain to personify the increase in severity.
Arcane is an adaptation of the video game League of Legends, borrowing characters and set pieces from the game’s lore. While Arcane season 1 uses only nine of the 157 playable champions from the game, it elaborates on their characters and gives contexts to stories that have remained unclear in the game’s lore. Some elements remained more faithful to the source material than others, but Viktor’s representation in the series has been perhaps the starkest deviation from the game thus far.
Much of the story in Arcane season 1 is original, but the show seems to be heading in the direction of an established story. It is difficult to say exactly how they will navigate the source material in season two considering the liberties the Netflix show has taken with the game characters so far, but it seems safe to assume that Viktor will be at the center of it. And with the fate of Zaun potentially on the line, Viktor would be the best option for an antagonist moving forward for Arcane season 2.
The end of Arcane season one sees Jinx stepping into the role that Silco had always wanted for her, wholly accepting her new persona and starting the war Silco had dreamt of. She is a brilliant inventor and a capable fighter, and her unseating of Silco and attack on Piltover are sure to gain her some notoriety, so she is perhaps the most likely choice to replace her adopted father as things currently stand. But Jinx is far from an ideal leader, and her rule would likely breed the kind of chaos that Silco sought to avoid.
Several of Zaun’s high-ranking criminals have voiced concern regarding Silco’s wound and history with Jinx, so her assumption of power is likely to embolden that feeling. She is impulsive and erratic, two traits that Silco decidedly did not possess. Jinx may be able to win over some of her dissenters through fear tactics, which were certainly a component of Silco’s leadership style, but the cornerstone of Silco’s empire was loyalty, which Jinx lacks. Sevika suggested that there will be more fearsome contenders to come for Silco’s seat, and Jinx will be hard-pressed to find support in such a cutthroat environment.
While Silco certainly preached a hatred of Piltover and its citizens, his motivations were ultimately for the benefit of the people of Zaun (in his eyes, at least), which is what made him such a compelling villain and gained him the loyalty of his followers. Jinx, however, has displayed no such concern for Zaunites, seemingly fueled only by her anger. But her relationship with Vi and Caitlyn and her history with Vander and Silco make her a compelling redeemable character, which makes it difficult to truly root against her. The series needs a villain that can compete with the complexity and relatability of Silco while being villainous enough for audiences to want them to fail, and Viktor could be a perfect fit.
Viktor is a much more sympathetic and mild-mannered character in Arcane season 1 than he seems to have ever been in League of Legends lore. He is sickly and often timid in the show, only being pushed to betray his morals by the worsening of his illness. In League of Legends, however, Viktor is far more apathetic and cruel than his Netflix counterpart, and his encounters with Jayce and the High Council were far more contentious than the Netflix Arcane show suggests.
Jayce and Viktor have worked together at times in League of Legends, but they never did so enthusiastically. The two inventors are diametrically opposed in their respective approaches to science. Jayce’s goals have always been to make life easier for the working class, designing tools to make labor easier for its operator, whereas Viktor views human nature as an impediment to progress. Viktor strives to remove the potential for human error from tasks, often resulting in him altering workers’ brain chemistry, which puts him at odds with Jayce more often than not. There hasn’t been much of that tension displayed in the series as of yet, but the end of the first season foreshadowed that there may be some coming in Arcane season 2.
Viktor has been changing throughout the series, his confidence and morals slowly eroding over time. His willingness to experiment with Shimmer caused the death of a fellow academic, yet he is still unable to destroy the device that killed her. The Hexcore appears to be affecting his mind as well as his body, and whether or not it eventually consumes him entirely, it will likely exacerbate issues that may arise in the war that’s to come.
Jayce has been wary of Zaunites for some time, which has already caused strife between him and Viktor, and the tension is likely to worsen in season two. Jayce gave Viktor his word that their technology wouldn’t be used to make weapons, but after Jinx’s attacks on Piltover, it is hard to believe that Jayce will keep his promise. Without the benefit of Heimerdinger’s age and culture on the High Council, they will almost certainly choose to go to war with Zaun, and as one of the few Zaunites to have made their way into high society, Viktor is likely to take objection to their decision.
Although their story so far has been largely original, Arcane season 2 has the opportunity to bring Jayce and Viktor’s story closer to the League of Legends lore. Should Jayce find out about the death in Viktor’s lab, Viktor will likely be cast out of the academy and forced back to the streets of Zaun where will supply the Zaunites with weapons to fight against Piltover. This possible story arc would be very close to the Glorious Evolution arc in League of Legends, and Viktor being betrayed by Jayce and having his home threatened would make him the most compelling option for a villain going forward.
