Why Jayce Killed Viktor In Arcane Season 2

Contains spoilers for Netflix's "Arcane"

Netflix's "Arcane" is a CG-animated series based on the popular "League of Legends" game from Riot Games. After several failed attempts, the developers took matters into their own hands and produced the show themselves. This gamble paid off, as the series has been critically acclaimed (though fans believe "Arcane" deserves even more accolades), helping to break the reputation of cursed video game adaptations.

"Arcane" is set in a fantasy steampunk world that merges magic, sci-fi tech, and mystical creatures. There, the city of Piltover — a vibrant, rich, and opulent metropolis — resides over the slum city of Zaun, whose citizens are subjugated and live underground. Class tensions have stewed between the two cities for generations, and it eventually spills over into all-out revolution.

While the series mainly focuses on fan-favorites Vi and her morally-ambiguous sister Jinx, the show provides substantial roles to other popular game characters as well. This includes Jayce Talis — the square-jawed hero best known for using gigantic, magic-powered hammers in the games — who takes on a more political role in the animated series. Another character the show focuses on is Jayce's best friend and closest ally, Viktor, a shy, introverted scientist who was born in the slums of Zaun but studies in Piltover.

Due to devastating events at the end of Season 1 and throughout Season 2, Jayce and Viktor drift apart and become enemies. Eventually, it gets to the point where Jayce embarks on a quest to kill his old friend. To find out how and why the best friends become mortal enemies, read on!

As mentioned above, the world of Netflix's "Arcane" is one where magic co-exists alongside fantastical, steampunk-styled technology. Furthermore, within the lore of "Arcane" — or, more accurately, the lore of "League of Legends" as a whole — magic used to be much more abundant in the distant past of the world of Runeterra (the place where "League of Legends" and "Arcane" are set). However, magic, aka "arcane" (hence the name of the show), is highly dangerous when used by the wrong people. There were wars fought between powerful mages, whose magical powers nearly caused the extinction of entire races and civilizations, and even almost destroyed the entire world at one point.

Because of this, the city of Piltover was founded to get away from magic users and the arcane. The city developed a more tech-heavy, rather than magic-based, society. Nonetheless, there are still people who are born with magical abilities, and, later on in the series, magic is merged with technology to help with transportation, energy, and — eventually — weapons.

Despite magic being considered dangerous by the people of Piltover, Jayce Talis is obsessed with it. This is because, when he and his mother were stranded in the snow when he was a kid, they were saved from freezing to death by a wandering mage. As a result, his studies at Piltover Academy involve figuring out how to merge magic with scientific technology to help people. However, the dean of the academy, Professor Cecil B. Heimerdinger — a renowned yordle (a tiny, furry creature who lives for centuries) scientist — says Jayce can't do this since it's too dangerous. As Heimerdinger was alive during the aforementioned devastating mage wars, he has firsthand experience with magic's devastating potential.

Meanwhile, Viktor is Heimerdinger's disabled, shy, assistant, and he sees the potential in Jayce's proposal of merging magic and tech. In a chance meeting between the two, they decide to go rogue and defy Heimerdinger to test Jayce's magic-powered tech, which they dub "Hextech." Their test is a success, and Jayce and Viktor's partnership and loyalty to each other are firmly established. As years pass, the pair's relationship deepens (resulting in one scene that left some "Arcane" fans in tears) and  Hextech becomes standard all throughout Piltover.

Eventually, Viktor attempts to use Hextech to cure his physical disabilities by creating the powerful — but unstable — Hexcore. These secret experiments eventually create an explosion, causing the unstable Hexcore to absorb into Viktor's body, transforming him into something more than human. Unfortunately, the explosion also causes the death of Viktor's assistant, Sky, which prompts Viktor to make Jayce vow to destroy the Hexcore for good.

During this whole time, the conflict between Piltover and the undercity of Zaun has been rapidly escalating. Eventually, at the end of the first season of "Arcane," Jinx shoots a make-shift rocket to blow up a Piltover Council meeting that, ironically, was going to bring peace to Piltover and Zaun. Unfortunately, both Jayce and Viktor were in attendance, and while Jayce emerges relatively unscathed from the attack, Viktor, sadly, appears to be mortally wounded by the blast.

Because of this, Jayce breaks his promise to destroy the Hexcore and instead uses it to save Viktor's life. This causes a large rift between the two. While the Hexcore arguably saved Viktor's life, it also forever altered him, making him one with the arcane and changing his appearance even more. Viktor then departs for Zaun, where he eventually becomes a messiah-like figure, healing those afflicted with addiction to "shimmer," a magical drug commonly used by undercity residents. Viktor also sets up a commune, amassing a cult-like following of people who he has healed and now protects. 

Meanwhile, Jayce begins to investigate a "wild rune," which appears to be the consequence of meddling with arcane magic and scientific tech, causing the barriers between the real and spiritual worlds to break down. While investigating the wild rune at the Hextech vault in Piltover, the wild rune destabilizes and causes Jayce to disappear and then reappear in a different time and place. After a while, Jayce eventually returns to his regular timeline — older, dirtier, and angrier. He also looks traumatized ... and murderous.

So why does Jayce come back so much more aggressive and vengeful? Well, when the volatile Hexcore Jayce was studying made him disappear, it teleported him to an alternate, dystopian timeline where an apparent apocalypse had occurred. In this alternate future, there appears to be no people, and all the buildings of Piltover are either reduced to rubble or covered by foliage. Through flashbacks, we witness Jayce explore this desolate version of Runeterra, climbing mountains, exploring the ruins, and piecing together what happened to the world. In that time, he grows weary, hungry, disheveled, and even goes a little mad, growing a beard and longer hair in the process.

Eventually, Jayce discovers another person living among the desolation, a figure wearing a flowing white cloak and a concealed face. Eventually, it's revealed that this person is an alternate-universe Viktor who had succumbed to the arcane. What's more, his power is the cause of the apocalypse. Wracked with guilt over what he caused, he makes Jayce promise to go back to his original timeline and kill his universe's version of Viktor before it's too late and that timeline suffers the same fate as the one Jayce has been transported to.

Jayce agrees, and the alternate-future Viktor uses his magic to transport Jayce back to his original timeline. He's now on a mission to kill his former friend to prevent the world's destruction.

Viktor has set up his peaceful commune in Zaun, where his magic facilitates the growth of plants, trees, and vegetation throughout the undercity. Somehow, the now-crazed Jayce — wielding an even more powerful version of his iconic Hextech-powered hammer weapon — discovers the underground commune and confronts the increasingly powerful Viktor. Jayce initially seems to succeed in his murderous quest, as his weapon blasts a hole through Viktor's body. This causes all of the people Viktor had previously healed to die.

Viktor survives, however, and is recruited by the primary antagonist of Season 2 — the despotic warlord Ambessa Medarda — to seize Piltover. This, in turn, leads to the massive final battle as Ambessa and Viktor's forces march on the city. Jayce once again attempts to fight Viktor in Piltover, but the once-weak scientist is now too powerful for Jayce, having become the Machine Herald from the "League of Legends" games. During the battle, Jayce, along with others, is sent to a spiritual plane called "The Hexspace," where he and Viktor (as the Machine Herald) glow white and float in a dark void.

As the Machine Herald and Jayce fight in the astral "Hexspace," Jayce tries — and eventually succeeds — to convince Viktor of the dangers of his newfound magical power. Once Viktor realizes that he is on a path that will end up destroying the world, he decides to sacrifice himself to prevent the dystopian future Jayce is warning him of. Before he does, though, Jayce joins Viktor in his self-sacrifice, and, in the end, the two become partners one final time.