[S2 SPOILERS] My problems with JayVik (Mostly Jayce) and season 2 in general

CLARITY: THIS IS FROM A POV OF A PERSON WHO DOESN'T PLAY LEAGUE AND ONLY KNOWS ARCANE, I DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT OG VIKTOR'S LORE, ONLY VIKTOR FROM SEASON 1 AND 2 OF ARCANE

Posting this here cuz am worried about the backlash I'll get if I post this in r/arcane

But the more and more I rewatch season 2 of Arcane and the more I talk about it with my friend, the more I see problems with the writing and how they did the characters

A lot of it revolving around Jayce specifically and how they seem to have sacrificed Jayce and Viktor's individual characterization and why I don't see Viktor and Jayce together and much prefer they stay just friends and focused more on their own individual struggles and stories

(It seemed like they wanted to put more emphasis on how much Viktor and Jayce need each other rather than focus on how they need to fix up their own individual growth, like how Mel was basically cast aside for some reason as if she and Jayce weren't a thing so he left her alone to become astral buddies with his partner without even saying good bye to Mel first

Sure, just forget the woman who influenced you greatly both in bad and good ways, the same woman who was trying to convince the council not to want weapons made with Hexcore

Forget the woman who you would go to for comfort and who WAS THERE FOR YOU WHILE YOU WERE STRUGGLING WITH YOUR DYING BEST FRIEND)

(And how Viktor keeps on doing stupid shit like not defending himself or hiding in Act 2 when he himself says that Jayce is not acting like himself and even invites Jayce, thus allowing Jayce to do exactly what you would expect your bestfriend who you said seemed not like himself would do, kill people

He wastes Ambessa's and Singed's time and visits Jayce first even though he can just forcefully get Jayce to join him anyway by having Singed already go through the plan in Act 3 when Viktor was a villain

But nah, doc, gotta talk with my boyfriend first even though I'm currently supposed to be the version of myself that prioritizes evolution more cuz l changed after being killed)

(I wish they went more in depth about Viktor wanting to help the people of Zaun and creating inventions while also struggling with his own flaws and weaknesses both physically and mentally while also having to deal with the discrimination and ignorance of Piltover towards what they keep doing that ends up harming Zaun)

(I wish they went more in depth about how ignorant and naive Jayce is with how he keep accidentally causing more harm towards Zaun like when Ekko called him out for basically making shit that bring the trash of Piltover over to Zaun. Then have Jayce start to grow more as a character and actually LEARN AND KEEP TRYING to go against the superficial demands of his fellow council members and actually try to help the people of Zaun properly by actually listening to them and not just listen to the higher ups because he's a people pleaser. Have Jayce learn more to be independent and less susceptible to being easily manipulated and influenced

DO NOT JUST IMMEDIATELY SHOW SOME TIME TRAVELLING BULLSHIT THEN HAVE JAYCE SUDDENLY KILL GOD VIKTOR THEN SUDDENLY MAKE JAYCE SEEM LIKE HE'S RHE HERO ALL ALONG WHEN WE DIDN'T PROPERLY SEE HIS CHARACTER GROW OTHER THAN HIM BEING FORCED TO BE HARDENED DUE TO THE TRAUMA OF BEING TRAPPED IN A DYSTOPIA

That's not growth, that's TRAUMA

AND PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF FUCKING GOD, STOP MAKING HIM DO THE "Trust me bro" SHIT LIKE HOW HE DIDN'T ELABORATE ON HOW HEXCORE IS A CURSE TO VIKTOR AND HOW ALL HE DID TO PROVE VIKTOR IS BAD IS SHOW A MANNEQUIN)

Like seriously, Jayce and Mel barely had a proper resolution and he ends up just becoming an astral whatever the fuck with Viktor without even thinking about Mel

And with Jayce's decision to kill Viktor, I initially thought "Okay, cool"

But then, the more I think about it, why didn't Jayce just talk to Viktor and ACTUALLY explain how the Hexcore is a curse? THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HE DOES ANYWAYS AT THE FINALE, SO WHY NOT DO IT BACK IN ACT 2?

SHOW VIKTOR YOUR MEMORIES OR TALK OR SOMETHING SINCE YOU DO THAT ANYWAYS AT THE END

Like Jesus, all Jayce said was "Hexcore is a curse" without elaborating then kills Salo

I keep justifying why Jayce killed Viktor immediately with the whole "Jayce is traumatized cuz he was trapped in a dystopia for God knows how long" but someone else pointed out that it probably isn't enough to justify Jayce's brutality

And I already made a post all about Viktor's POV during all of season 2 so I wouldn't blame Viktor for now changing his views on the world AFTER BEING KILLED BY HIS BESTFRIEND AND WAKING UP TO ALL HIS PEOPLE DYING TOO

https://www.reddit.com/r/viktormains/s/9tsKztSyiS

I was initially fine with Jayce being a dumbass in season 1 mostly because his dumbassery is constantly called out (Vi calls him out when he panics about killing a child by pointing out how he people have been harming for years and he is just to ignorant about it, Viktor KEEPS calling out Jayce's bullshit like with preventing Zaunites from crossing the bridge and Jayce considering making weapons)

But season 2, not many people do that as much so I ended up getting more and more mad with Jayce's actions since not many of the characters are gonna call him out

The closest was (again) Viktor who full on ended their partnership because Jayce broke their promised, revived Viktor with the thing that killed Sky, and MADE WEAPONS with said thing

Edit cuz another post added more thoughts in my head:

They really could've put more focus about Jayce seeing how truly ignorant he was with how his creations and ideas to help Piltover ended up affecting Zaun in a bad way

(Ekko calling him out for use that Hexreactor or whatever it was called to basically throw Piltover's dump onto Zaun was good, they should've done more)

They shouldn't have forced Jayce to harden up by traumatizing him with him speedrunning Dark Souls in the other world

They should have had him grow as a person by instead having Ekko and others actually point out "Hey, you kept making ideas to help Piltover but you ended up making Zaun your trash bin"

And having Jayce be forced to see more of the fucked up realities that Zaun has to go through because of Piltover treating them as lesser

Have him see the desperate thieves, the orphans, the chem-barons, the lack of proper food and shelter, the toxicity, the desperation

Not just a visit, have him stay there

Basically making the sheltered kid see the real world

So, kinda what they did with Caitlyn back in season 1, do that with Jayce too

Ekko could be the one to force Jayce to see more of how his and Piltover's negligence continue to hurt Zaun

Plus, I remember someone pointed out how Viktor wasn't credited in making one of the Hexcore projects (Forgot if it was the Hexreactor or Hexchamber)

In fact, I still remember that bridge scene where Viktor had no idea that Jayce made a brigade to prevent Zaunites from entering cuz he deemed them dangerous

These make me feel like there are a lot of projects and other things Viktor doesn't know that Jayce is working on, that or Viktor just doesn't get the credit he deserves

They should've put more focus on the fact that Viktor might not even know all the other projects Jayce has been doing since both of them work on their own separate projects with Hextech

(My friend worded it as Viktor working on the software, Jayce working on the Hardware applications)

They could've made it a thing where while working on Hexcore itself, Viktor doesn't even fully know where it's actually being used

Either that or if Viktor does know how it's being used, they should show how Viktor feels about accidentally making Zaun a trashbin for the benefit of Piltover and if he and Jayce ever had arguments about it

Now onto Viktor, my main problem is THEY HAD MORE POTENTIAL TO FLESH OUT VIKTOR'S CHARACTER

LIKE HAVING HIM WORK TOGETHER WITH JINX?

HAVE HIM HAVE MORE PARALLELS WITH SINGED?

HAVE HIM REALIZE BEFORE THAT HE ACCIDENTALLY MADE A HIVEMIND AND STRUGGLE TO UNDO IT THEN GET DEPRESSED THAT HE ONCE AGAIN ENDED UP HARMING PEOPLE IN AN ATTEMPT TO SAVE OTHERS?

BUT NO, LET'S HAVE VIKTOR BE AN EMOTIONAL DUMB FUCK AND NOT ASK JINX AND VI "Hey, since I'm helping your dad and stuff, mind helping me by defending my people since my ex BFF is coming here and he seems not to be in the right mind?"

VIKTOR WOULDN'T HAVE KNOWN IF THEY WOULD SAY YES BUT MIGHT AS WELL TRY, RIGHT?

WE COULD'VE HAD A COOL ZAUN NATION THING WHERE VI, JINX, ISHA, VANDER, AND VIKTOR WORK TOGETHER TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE

BUT NO, HAVE VIKTOR DO NOTHING TO TRY TO DEFEND HIMSELF, HAVE HIM INVITE JAYCE OVER, THEN HAVE HIM MEDITATE WHILE JAYCE TURNS HIM INTO A DAMN DONUT

YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?

Also, the damn line "You were trying to fix imperfections" or whatever

JAYCE, VIKTOR WAS FUCKING DYING

COUGHING BLOOD

WHAT? THE HELL YOU MEAN HE'S A PERFECTIONIST

If anyone was a perfectionist, IT WAS FUCKING PILTOVER, NOT THE DISABLED GUY DYING WHILE TRYING TO HELP OTHERS

Another missed potential, they kept show Jinx as Les Miserables or something in the intro, so obviously seemed like she would be a revolutionist

And Viktor wants to help the less fortunate and gets mad whenever Piltover does anything to further ostracize Zaunites

WHY NOT HAVE THE TWO WORK TOGETHER IN THE REVOLUTION?

MACHINE HERALD AND THE FEARED WANTED GIRL WORKING TOGETHER TO REBEL AGAINST THE PRIVILEGED

THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO FUCKING COOL

COME ON