Religious Themes - Blog Posts

This is super interesting as an agnostic person who has a past in Christianity

Arcane and Jesus Figures

i grew up in a super Christian household and I don't really believe anymore, but whenever I see religious figures in fiction I always get super hooked and end up trying to analyse the entire piece of media in relation to religion, so when Viktor entered his Jesus arc I was like oh hell yeah this is gonna something I'm fixated on for weekssss.

He was prosecuted against yet performed miracles, and when Jayce came in feeling all out of sorts and killed him the first time, he was resurrected. He faced hardships of some sort, he encountered a sort of rebirth, and came out completely changed and changing the world for others.

However...so did literally everyone else.

Maybe that's an exaggeration but "rebirth" can mean a million different things depending on circumstances. The death of Cait's mother could've been her rebirth, and her promise to kill Jinx and eradicate her wrongdoings could easily be compared to the Christian campaign against the devil. Jayce's time in the trenches could've been a rebirth and his salvation of sins could've been his oath to destroy Viktor as the devil. Though we compare Ekko's alternate universe to a heaven, that could also be a rebirth of the same kind. Hell, even Jinx practically came back from the dead after Silco had Singed pump her full of shimmer, though I wouldn't say she had a rebirth of any kind until she met Isha. Basically what I'm saying is that Arcane has little faux-Jesuses running around everywhere.

But if we're gonna say that Viktor is definitively Jesus because he fits the mold the very best, and we're going to assume that the writers stuck pretty close to the actual story of Jesus then that poses one question.

Who is God?

Now my first immediate and obvious guess is the arcane.

But the arcane makes itself present in people who aren't even followers of Viktor (cough cough Jayce's wrist and Ekko's machine) while Viktor's spirit is pretty limited to those who chose to follow him (like he said himself); his disciples.

So, really, to stick to some kind of religious doctrine, the arcane is more like the Holy Spirit. So there's two out of three of the Holy Trinity, but still no God.

Now to revisit the point about the arcane being present within others, particularly in jayce's wrist, Viktor's position as Jesus becomes more complicated. To be so honest I only had this thought after seeing a tiktok comment saying Jayce held his hammer like a cross, but though Viktor is the one who has an emphasized Jesus arc, Jayce's is just as relevant; to reiterate, he doesn't perform miracles (he tried to with what could have been a life-changing peace deal), and he isn't hated save for prior to his success with Hextech, but he faces a sort of "hell" and comes back to save his people from a "devil." That's a Jesus figure if I ever saw one.

Yet.

Jayce is the reason for Viktors' rebirth, and he is also the reason (well, at least the major part of the reason considering all of the other factors which allowed Hextech to exists) for his own. Jayce kills him seemingly without second thought, and he did so in such a way that it seemed random and out of character, hence why so many people were outraged with him during the week between acts 2 and 3 (rough time for Jayce glazers like myself). Jayce has a Jesus arc, sure, but Jayce is Judas.

So there's always the easy answer, being that there isn't a god at all and maybe all this time it was commentary on how without something to believe in there is chaos but I both don't think that's it and think that that's boorrringggg.

Viktor could be God, but ultimately that would immediately place Jayce as Jesus and I dunno if the jayvik shippers fw a ship between cosmic father and son...

But Viktor could also be the Holy Spirit because he was the one controlling the husks, and could speak through them.

So maybe between those two men alone we have the Holy Trinity AND a Judas.

Alternatively, though, it would make sense for the arcane itself to be "God" and for its runes to be the Holy Spirit. Practically the same entity, but not quite.

The arcane as God, Viktor as Jesus, runes as the Holy Spirit, and Jayce as Judas....

Hextech as the Bible? Sure, let's go with that.

december 23, 2023 — holy

it was easier to believe

in tales of adam and eve

even though i could never find

the god they said was so kind

i'd grown used to it all

the gentle hoax the church befalled

a blind-faith religion or a cult of sacrifice

either way, it served only to pacify

so when you spoke the illicit truth

that you loved me despite my being a sleuth

you forgave the sins that were not mine to repent

and every dime, for you i'd spent

you showed me the truth of love

and it felt holier than any angel from above

— reddestofscarves, 1:35am

Bruh. Don't hide that shit that's poetic as hell

love as religion; am i doomed? / on aromanticism

all highlighted sections from ‘aromanticism’ by moses sumney - the album notes // other excerpts in order: ‘doomed’ - moses sumney / quote by Naïmah Janse / earthlings - sayaka murata / ‘sun bleached flies’ - ethel cain / unknown / ‘doomed’ - final verse

I remember having such vivid nightmare with Homelander as cult leader. Tbh, such a bad vibe,he killed my homie by impaling his body on the trunk of the pine tree