I felt that way too, until it clicked for me that music has a history in war of keeping morale up, and that’s a messy relationship.
So I’ve reconciled Vic as being meant as a stand-in for a missing traveling ‘support the troops’ musician. Vics “what the hell did you all bring me to life, here in the middle of a war, for?!” sort of maps messily to the experience of a musician drafted during WWII and put directly into an army band.
I’m curious if the theory holds up to closer inspection on my next watch through.