This theme is probably best summed up by Singed, in the pre title sequence flashback for Viktor. Alone in his cave, Viktor stumbles across him. Victor himself a quiet and seemingly ostracized boy from Zaun due to his leg deformity, and Singed tells him: “Loneliness is often the byproduct of a gifted mind.” While applicable to the two characters throughout the show, it’s far broader than this. There’s a theme of intelligence (specifically scientific) equating to isolation, or achievement resulting in loneliness. This theme is applicable to every character in their own specific way.
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It might seem that the show itself declares this to be a rule, then breaks it constantly. Gifted characters such as Heimerdinger and Jayce are incredible social figures, but when exploring these characters closely, it becomes apparent that Singed might be right. The best way to test his theory is to look at some of the best scientifically minded characters from the show, and see if this rule applies. In addition to Jayce and Heimerdinger, two apparent outliers, there is also Viktor, Jinx, and Ekko.
Starting with the character who seems to be the most social, Heimerdinger is an apparently very gifted scientist who helped found Piltover. His achievements are stated to be great, but that’s just it. He’s not really a scientist anymore; now, he’s more of a political figurehead. He is no longer an active scientist, and thus is incredibly social. Heimerdinger is never shown creating or inventing, until one very notable and purposeful point: the moment he is cast out from the council and is at his most lonely. This is when he decides to take a secret trip to Zaun. Here, he not only crafts a spinning top from random junk, but shows incredible interest in Ekko’s hoverboard. This interest and creation is no accident on the part of the show’s creators.
Contrasting this apparent outlier is a character that seems to have been written to prove Singed’s point: Jinx. She is one of the best scientists in the show, figuring out the hex crystal with very little help and a lot faster than everybody else. However, she is also incredibly isolated, alone in her lab with only Silco and the various voices in her head for company. Singed is a lot like Jinx, but potentially even more gifted, inventing the evil substance of shimmer. But consequently, he is even more isolated, cutting himself off completely from society. Ekko is an interesting case, as a fairly gifted mind able to create hoverboards and paralyzing crystals. He is also perfectly, and very intentionally, placed as isolated. He has a community and his people in the wonderful paradise the Firelights have created for themselves, but that community itself is isolated, hidden from the rest of the world.
Jayce — even more than Heimerdinger — seems to be the exception to Singed’s rule. Yet, this taps into another fantastic and compelling theme Arcane is peddling: that of idealized versions of things, which are in fact lot more broken than they appear. Jayce seems to make a fantastic scientific discovery, one that will cause Piltover to thrive even more than before. As a result, he is elevated to celebrity status, a pivotal social figure within the city. With Jayce, scientific brilliance seems to equal social status, but that’s not quite the reality of the situation.
When looking at what happened, it becomes clear that Jayce’s biggest discovery — that of harnessing the Hex magic — happens at a point where he is at his most isolated, moments away from being cast out of society. That isolation coincided with creation. As he becomes more and more accepted in society, climbing the social ladder, his inventions diminish. He goes from a grand discovery of unlocking of hex magic to mining gauntlets and lasers. The exception to this is his creation of the more controllable hex crystal, but interestingly, it’s at this point that he decides to keep is a secret. Instead, he devotes himself more to politics and pretty much forsakes all science in the process.
That decision lasts until an important moment where Jayce creates the hammer. Again, however, this is a creation borne of loneliness. It’s an achievement made behind the backs of everyone around him, as he turns away from everyone he cares about in his life and returns to science.
Viktor does a lot of the same sliding along the social science scale as Jayce does, but ever more severely. He stays fairly neutral when first introduced. He’s not really a big figure in society, and doesn’t really manage to do any science (at least that audiences are aware of). This changes when he helps Jayce, but comes at the cost of the high possibility he will also be cast out from society. Luckily, he and Jayce, in this moment of isolation manage to master the hex crystal magic.
As they thrust higher into stardom together, Viktor also does less and less science the more social he becomes. When Jayce forsakes all his scientific brilliance for sociopolitical gain, however, Viktor does the opposite. He isolates himself and conducts secret experiments with the Hex crystal to help save his life. But Heimerdinger discovers what he has been doing, he forces him to shut it down, condemning him to death and casting him out once again.
These themes go a long way to explain the motivations behind a lot of the character arcs in Arcane. They represent an often subtle motif that permeates each and every big moment in the show. Loneliness and isolatio become the accepted price that few are willing to pay for true scientific brilliance. Sharacters like Singed and Viktor show that often society is not ready to accept them for who they are, and their creations are not deemed appropriate or are too extreme. It’s a rule the show not only strictly follows, but uses to trick audiences and give them a general sense of unease. Viewers get the feeling of standing at the precipice of scientific breakthrough, afraid to take that last step due to the fear of negative consequences.
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