Freedom and humanity - Inextricably Bound

Warning: This contains spoilers for Arcane Season 2.Earlier this month, I finished Season Two of Arcane, the hit animated series produced by Netflix. Partway through the second act, Viktor—a character who, through fusion with something called the Hexcore, has gained the ability to heal people, telepathically communicate with them, and other abilities—is dying. Struck down, he realizes he needs more power to accomplish his messianic goals. As his energy ebbs away, he delivers a moving monologue about humanity. Having become a sort of android mage, he lies there, contemplating his humanity before remaking his body and abandoning it entirely. He says: "Humanity, our very essence, is inescapable. Our emotions: rage, compassion, hate. Two sides of the same coin, Inextricably bound. That which inspires us to our greatest good is also the cause of our greatest evil." <img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000023835.jpg" alt=""> Ironically, Viktor leaves behind this very humanity he described. With all his power, he had initially tried to save people slowly, with their permission. But now, lying there, dying and failing, he decides to augment his power with shimmer to save all of humanity by force—a oneness he defines as the final glorious evolution. This monologue struck me because, the moment I heard “two sides of the same coin,” I was reminded of another, more overt villain I once watched. His speech went, in part, like this: "Listen, everywhere you look in this world, wherever there is light, there will always be shadows to be found as well. As long as there is a concept of victors, the vanquished will also exist. The selfish intent of wanting to preserve peace initiates war, and hatred is born in order to protect love. There are nexuses, causal relationships, that cannot be separated. I want to sever the fate of the world. A world of only victors. A world of only peace. A world of only love. I will create such a world. I am the ghost of the Uchiha." <img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000023832.jpg" alt=""> Viktor of Arcane is subtle—a delicate man for the majority of the story. One might initially draw parallels between him and a benevolent messiah rather than a villain. Uchiha Madara, however, is a villain from the start; his power is merciless and overt, making it easy to label his actions as evil. Yet, they are the same—the crimes are the same. Forgive me for stating the obvious, but the reason they are evil in their salvation plans is that they try to save human beings by stripping them of their humanity. Viktor seeks to connect everyone to himself, transforming them into mindless, perfect creatures linked through Arcane magic. No suffering, no violence, no weakness, or pain—just oneness with Viktor. Madara, on the other hand, wants to trap the entire world in an illusion where everyone lives out their best fantasies until they die. Both seek to eliminate the duality of human existence: the sides of the coin are erased, leaving only endless, undifferentiated bliss. <img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000023837.jpg" alt=""> However, the problem is that both do a fair job of identifying the duality that defines human existence. We are happy because we could be sad. We love while we could hate. We die because we have once lived. The consequences of our potential for good and evil are far-reaching, but the freedoms of human agency are fundamental to our humanity. If you shoved a mass of people into the gates of heaven in chains, when you looked in on them, they would be people no longer. Whatever they might then be, human beings enslaved are not human enough. <img src="/media/inline_insight_image/1000023828.jpg" alt=""> As Jean-Jacques Rousseau incessantly illustrates: the essential and defining property of man is his freedom.

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