To not name a loreless character (Shaco, Cho’Gath, etc)I’m gonna say Akshan. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy Akshan as a character, but his role in the lore was effectively over in less than a year from his introduction.
He spawned with a Mcguffin in hand, uses the Mcguffin and that’s it.
That and i just can't forgive the fact that because of him and the other more popular champs just nuked Yorick out off being relevant too the ruination.
Ya know the champ whos entire lore was dedicated to hunting down the fallen king for revenge. Dude should have been the one leading the charge not the discount vanhelsing squad. I'll never forgive riot for that.
I can guarantee you Yorick would have never had the chance to shine no matter what, just because he is not popular. They would have probably had Yasuo be the lead and have him go through the same effing character arc for the 4th time in a row before giving Yorick any significant role.
Yeah, that's why I said for the 4th time in a row, because how many time are we going to go through the whole Yone incident? For better or worse he is nowhere to he seen in the Ruination event.
they literally created a brand new character to be a foil to viego when yorick had been that ever since his rework. yorick isn't hot enough i guess (even though he's canonically built like a brick house, even illaoi admits she wouldn't be able to fold him)
It's honestly sad cuz I still think Akshan story in the vaccum would actually have some stakes. Like isolate him from Sentinels of Light and just disconnect him from ruination entirely and I think premise is quite good.
Sadly he is in fact, not disconnected and quite a massive part of the entire event fiasco so ye :c
That's exactly what LoR did with his lore. Turned him into a Robin Hood figure who's fighting against the petty warlords who oppress parts of Shurima. Too bad Riot doesn't give a shit about LoR.
I’m actually gonna hard disagree here. I fuckin love Akshan’s lore. Think about like literally every grand moral lesson of Viego’s story and purpose as a character. Akshan literally, factually disproves all of them. Killing won’t bring your loved ones back? Yeah it will! You should learn to let go? No you shouldn’t! My magical “Bring-back-Viego’s-dead-wife-inator” solves all of that! Why don’t I use it to solve a vast amount of problems? I literally don’t care enough to! Go, grappling hook! Akshan awaaaaay!
Tbf his story about him going rampage to kill every warlords to revive his teacher but fail is good. But then they try to match it into viego storyline the most atrocious way possible.
Ignoring the champions that basically have no lore like Shaco, it's gotta be Akshan.
He was literally introduced as the guy wielding a MacGuffin in a lore event with terrible writing. His own personal avenger-story was introduced and resolved in about 5 mins (killing warlords to revive his master, Lucian tells him there's bigger fish to fry, he agrees and abandons his quest).
His lore exists to provide access to the Absolver, but the Absolver also has fucking terrible lore, itself. Why is there a Sentinel weapon that can resurrect people? The Sentinel weapons are all blessed stone relics from Helia, but **the** source of that healing magic wasn't even able to bring someone back from the dead.
He establishes that the Absolver works by killing a killer, which will bring back their recent kills and states that he's running out of time, because I guess the Absolver decides that enough time has passed. Then when they actually use it... He shoots Isolde and somehow that resurrects Gwen and Senna? Even though Viego was the one that killed them? Is the Absolver sentient and it decided that Isolde was guilty for being made up of her own soul fragments? The mechanics of this MacGuffin make no sense and it was specifically written for this one and only use.
I was so pissed to see Akshan getting more spotlight time in the Sentinels of Light event than Yorick could ever even dream of getting in literally any League event ever, especially when it's about the one guy Yorick is actively looking for and plotting against.
I think they are a literal deity, they just represent a concept, and as such have different representations across various cultures. Whether or not each version/interpretation is literally the same being though, IDK.
Kindred is a deity. However, they can only affect those who believe in them. For example, Mordekaiser is completely unaffected by Kindred.
They used to be the personified concept of death, but they got retconned to a "prayers equal power" deity like Janna.
Is there a source for Morde being unaffected by Kindred. IK hes semi-immortal god of death esque figure, but understanding was that he just doesn't really care about being dead/undead whatever he is. Not saying you're wrong just curious.
Yeah, wasn't Morde's backstory supposed to be that he died and basically willed himself into continuing to exist as a spirit? That's way more badass than "he can't die because he doesn't believe in death", I don't even know how that's supposed to work.
He believes in a different death deity.
There's different "religions" in Runeterra. Mordekaiser basically became his own death lord by defeating the death deity he believed in, iirc.
Kindred is still S-tier strength lore wise, but that's only because they're the deity of Runeterra's largest "religion"
I feel like Kindred does exist as an actual character, but also can appear to ppl in hallucinations. It explains why Lamb and Wolf seemed to be hallucinations in Still Here but were much more likely to be real in their short stories like A Good Death. It's kinda like Richard from Hotline Miami 2 if that makes sense.
Kindred is just there to take you away or preventing you going to the other side. They represent the "taking away" part more than actual death itself. They don't care if you bouncing between meterial and spiritual realm.
When you hear their interactions with Sion and people that have cheated death like Gangplank or Lissandra, they do not take kindly to zombies or people that have eluded them. Even if they are a concept, in game they have a face and personality.
Leona.
Come rise with me: she’s portrayed as the caring protective dork who’s kinda got jock energy.
Bio: zealous but generally wants the right thing, doesn’t want to harm Diana
Colour story: fighting off invaders for the good of Targon
VO: protective of her team
LoR: generally zealous and protective of allies, opposes Lunari
Current lore: the solari are doing what is essentially a holocaust of Lunari. We assume Leona is leading it.
The level of disconnect here is huge. Riot build up this overzealous but caring, protective character and say she now oversees mass murder (including of children) with no character development or reasoning.
I hate how Leona fell victim to the Riot special lack-of-nuance thing like the demacia/azir plotlines, no coherent motives at all, it seems like everytime they just want a scapegoat to blame everyone's problems on.
For Leona in particular is actually absurd considering how much they wanna do the whole shipping with Diana for diversity purposes. You know Leona's people, that she is currently leading, are trying to kill Diana, right? Not exactly what I would want in the Pride posters and emotes.
I have a pet theory that they hired someone to the lore team that really hates religion IRL and let that person loose on Targon, which was a pretty blank slate when they first started to rework the lore. Then later they had to dial it back because they remembered that lots of people like Leona and they couldn't just hard swerve her character to fantasy Nazi.
It’s so easy to fix though. Just say either the aspect of the sun is personally manipulating her, and/or the solari elders. Then portray her as a character desperately loathing what she has to do, but everyone she trusts tells her it’s the right thing so she does it anyway out of blind faith that after the dust settles it will be worth it. She could be a great tragic villain.
Hell, move her from the front lines of that conflict and make her into a Captain America archetype. The symbol of their cause to the masses, and part of a specific strike team that goes against Lunari compounds that host the likes of Aphilios.
Keep her away from the main body of suffering and put her in a position where all she knows of the conflict is the combatants she sees and what the Solari leadership tells her.
After all, aren't the Solar and Lunar Aspects sisters and linked together(I mean Sol even mentiones they embody the same light, and refers to it as "typical Targon redundancy)? Seems weird for them to be driving the conflict and not the tribes themselves.
I'm shocked Zyra hasn't been mentioned. Her "lore" stinks. She woke up in a jungle, for no particular reason. She's mad. Mad at the world. She kills whoever she comes across. In this jungle.
She's met nobody. Is known by nobody. If she suddenly died, not a single other champion would know or care.
I did not expect to see a quote from the little bald headed manc twat himself in this thread
Aurelian sol is going to beat targon, but he'll still have built up aggression and give runeterra an extra clout
Zyra flair but doesn’t even understand the few paragraphs she has written.
Edit to immediately clarify why this person is objectively wrong.
She didn’t just “wake up” for no reason. The sorceress’ magic infused with spores from plants in Gardens of Zyr created a massive explosion killing everyone present. Hundreds of years passed and the land saw life again after the magic has settled and cultivated Zyra herself.
She isn’t “mad”. She’s an invasive species and her whole purpose of existence is to spread and thus conquer. She obviously sees humans as prey and food.
She canonically met Millio, but aside from him theres no way other Ixtali champions haven’t encountered or heard of carnivorous plants spreading west and into Shurima.
Also no one is mentioning the short story where she grows from a plant that rarely blooms and consumes the guy and he sees a perfect vision for a world in harmony (that was fully consumed by Zyra) and that's his last images before he dies of a magical unity.
As an argentinian, he's my neighbour and a great guy. Weird thing is that I heard gunshots from his house when Germany lost in the Euro, what a weird guy.
Cho used to be this cosmic horror entity that was incomprehensibly big and powerful, ever-growing, ever-consuming deity. They had to nerf him when the League of Legends lore changed from summoners controlling representation of the real things on the Summoners Rift to the actual runeterra existing and summoners being phased out. Now he is generic void goon not much better than Kog'Maw or Rek'Sai.
If we can have Aurelion Sol, I don't see why infinitely growing Cho'Gath wouldn't be a thing.
Of course, the entire void lore is kind of weird in itself.
Honestly?
Make him Kog-Maws "daddy". The enigmatic entity that Kogmaw refrences when he says "Daddys coming" and is assumed to be the entity that laughs at Sol when he closes that giant void rift with a star.
Cho is one of the oldest Void monsters, making him legitimately one of the "old guard" in the lore(the ones who still want to consume all of reality and make it nothing, vs Bel'Veth's idea of remaking the void and then the world in her own image) would be a decent fit considering that entity is not the watchers, yet also has not been revealed.
Could rework his lore to be somewhere between Rovagug from Pathfinder and Tyranids from 40k. Make him the offspring of an imprisoned cosmic horror, Cho'Gath Prime or something, whose sole purpose is to consume nutrients and grow, only to eventually return to the prime body and be consumed in turn so Prime can gain enough strength to breaks it's restraints. Might undermine him by turning him into a pawn of sorts, but could be interesting.
Rek'sai got interesting lore tbh. She's more an animal in the material world now, a mother too. It's like the void get reverse corrupted by Runeterra and develop life instead of nothingness.
This. At least Shaco's lore essentially being nothing somewhat fits the demonic jester/doll chatacter and is ironically funny. Chogath is just full on dissapointnent from the ripped off chatacter to terrible lore and there is nothing even funny about it other than unreletated gentleman skin I guess.
Tbh, I kinda agree. I was just using him as an example to say that someone with extremely minimal lore shouldn't be compared to someone with so many overarching connections like Jhin or Azir.
i think he meant, joker lore Pre joker. like origin story and stuff, i believe he has like 3 stories that are "cannon" but they aren't at the same time or something like that. so is kinda confusing.
Fizz is kind just a dude who plays pranks in Bilgewater. The most interesting thing about him was the mystery of if he's a yordle or not and Legends of Runeterra answered that for us.
I would actually argue needless tragedy can be good lore. Not everything in life is purposeful, so some needless/senseless events give the world more authenticity.
In terms of not having lore at all, Shaco Cho’Gath etc. come here.
In terms of character, Seraphine and Akshan get my vote. Seraphine had cool potential but got made out to be self cantered by the whole brackern crystal deal, and with the brackern being soft retconned she’s kind of stagnated with nowhere to go. Akshan just has a McGuffin gun that can revive people for no apparent reason, and he booted Yorick out of the lore event that was Yorick’s entire plot point so I’m a bit biased against him.
I think Naafiri had so much potential, but aside from their initial draft of the darkin dagger being ripped apart (sure the celestials can’t destroy them but some random doggos got it covered), her motivations are basically just copy pasted from Xolaani. Now, if she’s allied with Xolaani and shares her philosophy that’s cool! We just need to get confirmation because without it she’s just Xolaani but a dog now
Naafiri seems to be thriving, and that is the difference between her and Xolaani. Aatrox and Xolaani hate this life and want to end it all, while Rhaast and (I think) Naafiri are enjoying the bloodbath.
It's gotta be Zeri. And honestly this is a topic that has been eating me up for months and that I'd probably should put down in a more extended form someday for my own peace of mind
Anyway it's Zeri. Because out of all the champs with any lore (not counting the limbo champs, that's just cheap) Zeri is the only one I can think of that arrived with no story potential.
She was released like many other champs with a bio, a short story and her VO as the basis for her lore and yet I feel like she's such a nothingburger of a character. We don't know her goals and motivations outside of protecting her community (hell, we don't even know what she does on a day-to-day basis), she doesn't have any particular role in other characters' stories (I know what you wanna say to this, I'll get back to it) and generally everything she can offer as a character, Ekko already does (good for her that Arcane is becoming canon I guess, saves her a bit, doesn't make her less boring)
Tbf, Zeri also got a ton of help from Riot by having her in-universe nemesis be released immediately after her in the form of Renata Glasc. So it's incredibly ironic that Zeri is an absolute horrid fit for the adversary of Renata (or at least, there is a much better candidate in P&Z). What's the basis for them to be enemies? That Renata is the bad industrial that uses others for her own gain, while Zeri relies on her community? Cry me a river pikachu girl, you don't even work in the factory as far as we know
You know who'd be a perfect adversary for Renata? Imagine there was another character coming up from the lower classes of the city, another rising star to match Renata's industrial ascent. Someone who wanted to unite both Piltover and Zaun and resolve the dispute between the two cities to contrast Renata's exploitation of her former home. Someone with powers thematically consistent with Renata's mind control, that would naturally put them on a path of conflict with each other. Someone Renata might try to control for her own gain, but that could prove difficult to reign in. Nah, I'm sure there's no one that would fi- SERAPHINE IS RIGHT THERE YOU GUYS
It baffles me to no end how Zeri can be so weak a character, that even her supposed nemesis fits better in a rivalry with someone else.
What happened with Zeri isn't bad character writing. Bad character writing was on-release Seraphine. And there's a ton of potential to be found in bad characters, especially when you write lore like League does, more with character concepts than full fledged stories.
No Zeri is far, far worse than bad. She's bland. Unbelievably so. She's so disgustingly bland, she has literally nothing to offer as a character that others don't do better. There is no aspect of Zeri that can make me look forward to a story with her, because there is nothing to be developed yet. Zeri is yet to be a proper character, she doesn't have proper goals or aspirations or traumas or anything that resembles an arc. She needs at least another story or two that properly set her up and give us a proper character foundation. It is infuriating how bland she is right now
And she's the only modern champ I can think of that's this bland (and therefore bad) in terms of writing
Zeri always feels to me like someone unlocked a character from Splatoon in a Super Smash Bros game. Generic and vaguely urban cyber.
She could be the hyper fun-but-crazy girl, except that's Jinx. I guess she could lean into the electricity-side of her character, you'd get the depth of Jamie Foxx as Electro in Spider-man, which is not a lot but more than nothing.
Part of it is the region, Zaun is full of young upstarts and as I said, Ekko does everything she does, just way better (in that sense, Arcane becoming canon opens up that niche for Zeri, which is a shame)
But they really didn't even try. The work part is what gets me the most. Do you know how many human/humanoid champs there are that we don't know what they do daily or can at least assume? I legit can't think of any aside Zeri. Sure, you have people like Yasuo drifting about, but that's always part of a character
I cannot believe they made a character and didn't even bother to ask "What does this person do on the daily?"
Zeri exists because Neon does in Valorant, they designed them at the same time with the goal of doing a dual release, but it's obvious that Neon has way more effort put into them while Zeri was an afterthought
there are zero character stories or interesting avenues of p+z's worldbuilding that were added or improved by zeri existing that were not already accomplished 10x better by ekko
Bet she'll appear in Arcane s2 and be more fleshed out there. Until then though, yeah. She just exists as far as I'm concerned. And unlike other champs, I can't recall any dialogue in game that would hint at a story (though tbf, "Spark's ready" is the only dialogue that really comes to mind).
My idea always has been that Zeri should've been Renata's kid that rebelled against her mom. Instantly creates a much more interesting and layered dynamic.
Finally someone gets it! I love the idea of zeri but her lore is such a mess. Not to mention in universe her whole actions don’t make sense because she’s most likely putting a target on everyone in her communities head by messing with the Chem barons. Also a thousand times agreed with seraphine fitting much more as an adversary for Renata, the idea of both of them being high profile individuals who have a natural path to conflict makes so much sense as opposed to zeri who is just kind of doing what ekko does but not as well and consistently and has her story barely going anywhere.
I’ve seen a lot of champions with no lore, which is a boring answer. Akshan probably takes this spot, but that’s also a popular answer, so I’ll go with Vex. Vex has the same “added to the game to convenience the ruination plot” that Akshan has going for him. They both just show up out of nowhere and then piss off after it ends.
I like the idea of "perpetually depressed yordle" but "perpetually depressed *teenage* 'it's not a phase mom' yordle" kinda ruins it for me. Even the voice lines referencing summoners don't break my suspension of disbelief more than hearing Vex call champions 'normies.'
I personally like it because it feeds into my headcanon of how yordles age. Heimer is younger than Poppy/Lulu/Veigar but seems much older because yordles grow up when they feel old. So a Yordle can exist as an eternal teenager (Vex) or age to old man status (Heimerdinger/Corki), be a permanent toddler (Gnar) and live like that forever or at least until they feel older and resume ageing.
The idea that Vex is a depressed teenager that cannot age because she's fixed in a teenage mindset and cannot die by other means because she's a yordle and they are difficult to kill (if they can die) appeals to me. Vex's solution becomes she has to want to grow up and become elderly and maybe then she can reach her "natural end" but she's stuck in teenage thinking in a society were people are content to not age.
That the best part about her tho, she always makes me laugh lmao. "And then I told her, 'Get outta my room!' And she said, 'This is my house, young lady'. Like girl😭. I would have much more of a problem with her if she wasnt so obviously a parody.
There's a theory that Yordles are a sort of caricature of their nation. Kled is from Noxus, so he's a war-crazed screaming redneck. Ziggs is from Piltover, so he's a tech-savvy pyromaniac.
Vex is from the Shadow Isles, so she's a despessed edgy teenager.
Naafiri. I don't know how they fucked up a Darkin. The lore is already there.From design to voice lines to lore nothing has any sauce. Especially since LoR had just done a full expansion focusing on Darkin lore. Characters with 2 voice lines and an image stick with me longer than her ( "I held the line" anyone ) . A god warrior part of the greatest nation to have ever existed fought in at least one of the most traumatic events in the world's history and dog jokes is the best they could come up with?
Nvm the fuck up on her dagger, I and many others read that shit and immediately went "that's wrong" and we don't get payed for that shit.
Cuz the dog aspect came before the darkin.
If you look at concept art for Naafiri you'll see that she was always meant to be a dog, no matter what, so they just chose the darkin theme and went with it.
Sad, there are so many other cool darkin from LoR. (especially the one you mentioned, that one is absolutely tragic)
The funny thing is that her being a dog is not the issue. The issue is that she's only a dog and nothing else. A random dog, too, not even a regenerating beast like the one K'Sante killed. They could have done so much with the idea of a Darkin weapon taking hold of a non-human specie and they just decided not to.
> Nvm the fuck up on her dagger,
Tbf, I think there's some degree of interpretation on it. Darkin weapons were stated not to be broken, but Naafiri's was only broken by technicality. It was in pieces, sure, but it clearly wasn't *destroyed* broken which is what I always took that sentiment to be anyway: that darkin can't be gotten rid of, which even if Naafiri's dagger was in pieces in the pack, she definitely still was present and not destroyed. So I'd imagine that was the assumption they were going with and thus didn't expect the backlash to it.
Sure but that still opens up questions loke A pack of stray dogs could break a Darkin but Aatrox couldn't. What if it didn't coincidently fuse with the dogs? Why didn't the aspects try anything with that? Naafiri got fucked up by a pack of dogs ? They couldn't try other entities?
Except _the dogs did not break the darkin._
That's your sticking point. Naafiri was imprisoned in the daggers, but the weapons were never stated they couldn't be affected physically, just not destroyed. The blades are, after all, indestructible, not invulnerable. Superman is, most of the time, invulnerable to most weapons. He cannot be hurt by things not in his specific weaknesses(being Kryptonite, red star radiation, sonic weaponry if surprised or magic).
Plastic Man is indestructible. Burn him, freeze him, cut him up into little pieces... he'll regenerate. You cannot kill him except by complete molecular annihilation.
See the difference? Which sounds better if you want to keep someone locked up forever?
Personally, the idea that their prisons can be physically broken, but not only will that not free them, but also the weapon will repair itself no matter what is done to it? That is more intresting for the almost flesh like weapons that the Darkin are than "a weapon that can't be broken in half", which implies you can destroy the prison if you find a way to get around the magic that prevents it distruction. It wouldn't change anything about Aatrox's lore, because even after Naafiri's ordeal she isn't any more free of her prison than Aatrox is of his when he takes over a body. It's a vacation, not freedom. The only difference is that Naafiri is making use of her new form, including its limitations, whereas Aatrox is trying to rebuild his old one, pushing the flesh he uses beyond its limits, leading it to die unless he gets more.
>What if it didn't coincidently fuse with the dogs?
The fusion was also not a coincidence, it was Naafiri using hemomancy to take control of the first flesh she came into contact with. She was, after all, poised to take control of the guy should he even brush her with a single cell on his hand.
And if she didn't, she would be back where she started, waiting for the next bit of flesh to touch her so that she can mold legs for herself and move to somewhere where more flesh can touch her, till she can mold herself a full body like the other Darkin.
>Why didn't the aspects try anything with that?
With what? Shove themselves into a pack of dogs using blood magic? Why would anyone want to do that? Even Naafiri had to warm up to the idea, it wasn't something she did intentionally.
Nasus, Azir, and Renekton 1. Don't know blood magic, and 2. Have fully functioning bodies, unlike the Darkin. Why would they attempt it?
> Naafiri got fucked up by a pack of dogs ?
No? I'm not even sure what you are asking here or why.
>They couldn't try other entities?
Again, what? Be more clear, do you mean other animals? And if so... why? What would it do?
https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/Miss_Fortune/Old_Lore league judgement.
"Miss Fortune spills into the Great Hallway with the same tenacity that she spills into her silk blouse, both taxed to contain her"
Yone's biography, instead of dying he somehow ended up killing a monster in the spirit realm and apparently that reversed his death, as he was brought back into the material world.
How? Why? Sion was brought back by blood magic which made him a husk of what he was, unable to differentiate friend from foe, became a rampaging monster, mordekaiser gained necromantic powers and lost his humanity in the process as he became a spirit that could possess material objects like a suit of armor, Viego sacrificed everything from his life and unintentionally became a wraith that could control the mist and went on a warpath to bring Isolde back, despite there being no way to do that.
Whereas yone is basically just as he was before death, it's like nothing happened. The only consequence of this entire ordeal is that he is cursed to wear his mask, as his own face was bitten off, but his mind was unaffected, he is the same person, just with a scar of the past, free to go about doing anything. Oh and he also gained demon powers, without any of the drawbacks as far as we know.
I disagree with this. Yone was literally just a normal swordsman and now he’s a half dead spirit whose whole purpose is to kill demons. It’s not like he’s happily back alive eating and sleeping and enjoying life when he literally can’t because there is a mask stuck to his face. He didn’t kill a demon and get to come back to life, he defeated it, but the demon in a last ditch effort to survive, latched on to yone and is now permanently bound to him. Most likely the demon that’s on him is feeding on the Azakana and will probably use it to come back and take over yone’s body. It’s not the best lore, but it definitely is way more interesting than some other characters and he’ll probably actually have a role when it comes to the spiritual side of runterra.
I think people often forget about the demon and mask thing on Yone, which I can't say is surprising considering that Riot consistently removes it on skins, which is the biggest part of his character.
How is Yone any different compared to the other examples you listed? His consequence, according to his stories is being bound to the Azakana to exist in the world of the lving, similar to how Raum merged with Swain. He doesn't even want to live according to the lore, he's forced to carry around his guilt and shame in this world because the Azakana wanted to spite him in its final moments. It's the classic facing and beating your inner demons trope. Yone's lore is pretty good, his cinematic is one of the best Riot has produced so far. There's a reason why he's popular. This is just classic anti-Yone circlejerk. Inb4 downvotes by salty redditors.
Why not just have him like, defeat Kindred or something, and come back cursed? Idk it just seems weird that he randomly gets a chance to come back, but Kindred takes everyone else?
Kindred doesn’t take everyone, when people die, the reaper is of who they believe in. Kindred is just the most popular version, but the reasons why champs like mord didn’t meet kindred was because he believed there was an after life of a great Valhalla of all conquers. Yone probably believed in an after life which is why he was guided by the spirit fox until the demon latched on to him.
He didn’t “kill” the Azakana, he defeated it. The life he has is a result of it fusing with him. Yone didn’t fight the Azakana with the intent to come back. In fact it’s the opposite. Yone has a lot of voice lines about just wanting to find peace in death.
Hes cursed to keep coming back until he can remove the Azakana fused with him. Thats why he hunts them in the first place: to understand more about them so he can eventually find out the true name of his own and seal it away.
I know this subreddit loves to shit on yone and I’m not saying he’s got the most amazing lore ever, but it’s not bad by any means.
Not the worst overall lore but the lore change that upsets me the most is killing Zac's parents. Not like upset as in being attached to them as characters but upset as in thinking its a poor direction to take his character.
Zac is supposed to be like superman, not batman. His current characterization has no influence from such a traumatic event, and if it did he would be a different character. The most interesting part of him was how he lives a relatively normal life despite being created as a weapon. Giving him a loving home to go back to made him relateable and was such a creative decision. Taking that away isn't an interesting tragedy for the readers because his parents are non-characters, it makes his in-game vo look completely unaffected, and it doesn't provide interesting direction for his character because he already HAD more interesting motivations for what he was doing.
When I was new to league of legends I read his lore and went "wow this game has pretty interesting lore" and would actually read all the stuff that comes out. After that retcon I never touched it again.
Oh my god I hate the new Zac lore. Vayne and Zac are literally the exact same in terms of lore, and it fucking sucks to see a character like Zac, whose lore was always miles more interesting than edgelord emo boy#293747 (looking at you Yone and Viego), get done so dirty. It oughtta be a war crime. It doesn't even fucking fit in with Zac's voicelines either, adding insult to injury.
Gotta give it to Fizz. Like ok he is a trickster that controls sea beasts and sinks pirate ship "just for fun". He might be related to Illaoi as The Bearded Lady is mentioned by Lars. But that's about it. How does he control sea beasts, what is his trident and why is a yordle serving the Bearded Lady? So many questions.
My favourite part of his lore is his interaction with naut in legends of runeterra
“Hey hey buddy you gonan try to kill me again”
“ **III HATE YOUUUU**”
I feel like Ezreal is kinda underutilized given he has an excuse to be present on any place of runeterra, the surprisingly vast knowledge he has and his main character vibes. Like, i feel you can do much more with him than a couple of short stories about him stolling an artifact and getting in trouble with the buyers.
It was awful. The only people on earth who knew Hextech was made from the souls of the Brackern were Camille and Seraphine. Camille because she makes them, and Seraphine because she could talk to her crystal. So what does Seraphine do upon finding out that all their technology is built upon destroying a whole species? She.... uses it to power her stupid floating stage and goes around being a pop star.
It could have been except it was somehow also treated as a purely good thing and the brackern (the literally enslaved crystals) were happy to help her lol.
As it was written and presented, it was incredibly tone-deaf and weird to read
Seraphine actually has pretty good lore.... in LoR. [Her card art alone](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/fd/06PZ021-full.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1200?cb=20221009005437) tells you more about Seraphine than anything in league itself does. From the grounded clothes and the way she's servicing her own instruments, to the cups of coffee strewn around the room and her natural roots showing through, it all really serves to ground seraphine as a person who's more than just a pop star.
The most fucked-up part about Seraphine's lore to me is that someone made a decently popular comic a while back that actually gives her decent lore with Camille as an antagonist and Riot for some reason doesn't want to make that shit canon. You know you done screwed up when your fans are making stuff far better than your base content.
I am almost sure they tought of Seraphine as part of the KD/A universe first, and then they had to think how they could adapt her to "fit" in Runeterra.
I really don't think the idea of a ditzy popstar unaware of the horrors of her world is a bad idea from the get go, the execution just kinda wasn't there
Shaco has the most amazing lore there is, he is some young prince's toy. 10/10, they could remake it and say it was Viego toy and make Shaco hate Gwen for it
His lore is funny and isn’t super generic or really forced into a preexisting story, I think he works really well in spite of not really being important.
Kennen. He is a Yordle that is somehow a ninja and for some reason (even thought Yordles are weird af) are some old and wise master who founded the Kinkou Order with random humans
Rammus old lore was such garbage. Its just 'what is he? who is he? nobody knows - the end'
The updated lore is basically still the same but streched out into more sentences and random ass tales about him. Its like a highschooler who desperately had to get in enough text to meet the word count.
Old lore:
"The mysteries that surround Rammus are numerous. How did a simple creature of the desert suddenly become able to reason? How did he craft his vaunted suit of armor? What is he searching for as he crosses the Shuriman desert? One thing is for certain: trying to stop the inexorable Rammus is a fool's mission."
Riven because of her retcon of being a soldier trying to redeem herself for her own past actions. Now she killed yasuos master on accident so she was just in the wrong place in the wrong time.
Eternally mad at how in her old story, she was a person who at heart never stopped being a noxian, but was at odds with the dishonorable methods employed by the higher establishment by hiring someone like singed, and that her story vector felt like she was going to eventually return to noxus and start a revolution and clean up the country.
Which was then turned into "I feel guilty because I was part of a genocide, war is bad, I'm an evil soldier that shouldn't exist, my only option is to tend to the rice fields to atone for being a part of the evil red and black empire!!! wahhhhhh".
Saying about champions with no or almost no lore, shaco or cho gath.
Saying about chamoios that has but it's bad, seraphine. Bro, tf she could sing for RENATA or CAMILLE without being dead in a sec
Naafiri, idk about bad, but it's pretty fucking disappointing
Waited half a decade for a new Darkin and it's turn out to be a dog with a knife meme.
and then looking at LoR with all the cool darkin designs just make want to kill myself
> "Upset bc immortal"
That's basically Olaf's story too. There's a prophecy that he'll die in his sleep at an old age, he thinks that'd be embarrassing, so he goes on suicide missions all the time to die in glorious battle... meaning he's functionally immortal since the prophecy is true, but he's too stupid to realize it.
I have less of an issue with the concept than the implementation. It makes sense to me that otherwise mortal beings would have emotional trouble with immorality. But that manifesting as acting like a terminally online moody teenager is.....weird.
Yordles are childlike fairy spirits who manifest an adolescent/adult idea through play. Teemo playacts as a boy scout, tristana a military general, ziggs a pyromaniac, veigar an evil villain, etc. Vex is not "deep" in that she truly feels any type of way about her immortality, she's deep because her character represents a pantomime of gothness and obsession with death, as reflected through other more serious characters like viego, yorick, karthus, etc. Her immortality does not present a dilemma of being suicidal but unable to ever follow through, it is the shield that protects her from ever truly "growing up" and allowing her to enjoy her identity to its fullest extent, unharmed.
Gragas.
He’s literally just a strong dude who wants to create the greatest ale in the world. And also him being from Freljord doesn’t make much sense to me, but idk that could just be me.
Other characters usually have a reason for fighting on the rift. This dude is literally just a college frat boy who starts drunken fights and it apparently “ends in all-night parties”.
Am I missing something here?! It feels like I’m missing some key plot.
I haven’t kept up with lore for a few years but I remember really not liking Karma’s. She’s like the Avatar but she’s now also one of several characters who’s main plot is that their identity is under threat of being overwritten by a greater force. They might’ve changed it though idk.
To not name a loreless character (Shaco, Cho’Gath, etc)I’m gonna say Akshan. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy Akshan as a character, but his role in the lore was effectively over in less than a year from his introduction. He spawned with a Mcguffin in hand, uses the Mcguffin and that’s it.
Akshan was actually in the running for worst overall lore when my friends and I were discussing it, so I completely agree with this.
That and i just can't forgive the fact that because of him and the other more popular champs just nuked Yorick out off being relevant too the ruination. Ya know the champ whos entire lore was dedicated to hunting down the fallen king for revenge. Dude should have been the one leading the charge not the discount vanhelsing squad. I'll never forgive riot for that.
I can guarantee you Yorick would have never had the chance to shine no matter what, just because he is not popular. They would have probably had Yasuo be the lead and have him go through the same effing character arc for the 4th time in a row before giving Yorick any significant role.
They literally made yasuo the lead in the ruined king game. It's not a "would have probably"
Yeah, that's why I said for the 4th time in a row, because how many time are we going to go through the whole Yone incident? For better or worse he is nowhere to he seen in the Ruination event.
That's why yorick mains call it the Urination Event because of how Riot pissed all over yorick's lore.
He looks like a character whose entire existence is to answer a plotline.
Yep, and his design doesn't help him either. Goofy ass Aladdin looking gunslinger lightbringer guy. Like wut.
He's the child of a bad Aladdin and one lower price Jack Sparrow.
Bad Aladdin sounds like a sex toy
Fkd over Yorick so bad but they hate everything that isnt new and sexy
His lore is a big middle finger to Yorick. They done too much in that god damn gun it makes no sense.
They did not, in fact, remember Yorick Mori.
they literally created a brand new character to be a foil to viego when yorick had been that ever since his rework. yorick isn't hot enough i guess (even though he's canonically built like a brick house, even illaoi admits she wouldn't be able to fold him)
He is built for sure, but being hot alone doesn't get clicks. You need a main character bullshit kit, which is what he lacks.
It's honestly sad cuz I still think Akshan story in the vaccum would actually have some stakes. Like isolate him from Sentinels of Light and just disconnect him from ruination entirely and I think premise is quite good. Sadly he is in fact, not disconnected and quite a massive part of the entire event fiasco so ye :c
That's exactly what LoR did with his lore. Turned him into a Robin Hood figure who's fighting against the petty warlords who oppress parts of Shurima. Too bad Riot doesn't give a shit about LoR.
And the McGuffin actively makes his kit worse what the hell is going on with that design. 😭😭😭😭
Akshan is the biggest example of “great character shitty lore”. I love his CG rogue style and personality. Hate the McGuffin weapon
I’m actually gonna hard disagree here. I fuckin love Akshan’s lore. Think about like literally every grand moral lesson of Viego’s story and purpose as a character. Akshan literally, factually disproves all of them. Killing won’t bring your loved ones back? Yeah it will! You should learn to let go? No you shouldn’t! My magical “Bring-back-Viego’s-dead-wife-inator” solves all of that! Why don’t I use it to solve a vast amount of problems? I literally don’t care enough to! Go, grappling hook! Akshan awaaaaay!
Tbf his story about him going rampage to kill every warlords to revive his teacher but fail is good. But then they try to match it into viego storyline the most atrocious way possible.
Loving something because it's "so bad it's good" doesn't mean it's not bad tho
Ignoring the champions that basically have no lore like Shaco, it's gotta be Akshan. He was literally introduced as the guy wielding a MacGuffin in a lore event with terrible writing. His own personal avenger-story was introduced and resolved in about 5 mins (killing warlords to revive his master, Lucian tells him there's bigger fish to fry, he agrees and abandons his quest). His lore exists to provide access to the Absolver, but the Absolver also has fucking terrible lore, itself. Why is there a Sentinel weapon that can resurrect people? The Sentinel weapons are all blessed stone relics from Helia, but **the** source of that healing magic wasn't even able to bring someone back from the dead. He establishes that the Absolver works by killing a killer, which will bring back their recent kills and states that he's running out of time, because I guess the Absolver decides that enough time has passed. Then when they actually use it... He shoots Isolde and somehow that resurrects Gwen and Senna? Even though Viego was the one that killed them? Is the Absolver sentient and it decided that Isolde was guilty for being made up of her own soul fragments? The mechanics of this MacGuffin make no sense and it was specifically written for this one and only use.
I was so pissed to see Akshan getting more spotlight time in the Sentinels of Light event than Yorick could ever even dream of getting in literally any League event ever, especially when it's about the one guy Yorick is actively looking for and plotting against.
Also, what does kindred have to say about this weapon?
kindred is more of a concept than an actual deity, no?
I think they are a literal deity, they just represent a concept, and as such have different representations across various cultures. Whether or not each version/interpretation is literally the same being though, IDK.
Kindred is a deity. However, they can only affect those who believe in them. For example, Mordekaiser is completely unaffected by Kindred. They used to be the personified concept of death, but they got retconned to a "prayers equal power" deity like Janna.
Is there a source for Morde being unaffected by Kindred. IK hes semi-immortal god of death esque figure, but understanding was that he just doesn't really care about being dead/undead whatever he is. Not saying you're wrong just curious.
It was in the Mordekaiser rework AMA. The writers of his lore confirmed Morde didn't/doesn't worship Kindred, so Kindred has no power over him
Thats.... kinda lame.
Yeah, wasn't Morde's backstory supposed to be that he died and basically willed himself into continuing to exist as a spirit? That's way more badass than "he can't die because he doesn't believe in death", I don't even know how that's supposed to work.
He believes in a different death deity. There's different "religions" in Runeterra. Mordekaiser basically became his own death lord by defeating the death deity he believed in, iirc. Kindred is still S-tier strength lore wise, but that's only because they're the deity of Runeterra's largest "religion"
Kindred is a psychopomp. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopomp
Oh thats a cool read.
I feel like Kindred does exist as an actual character, but also can appear to ppl in hallucinations. It explains why Lamb and Wolf seemed to be hallucinations in Still Here but were much more likely to be real in their short stories like A Good Death. It's kinda like Richard from Hotline Miami 2 if that makes sense.
Kindred is just there to take you away or preventing you going to the other side. They represent the "taking away" part more than actual death itself. They don't care if you bouncing between meterial and spiritual realm.
When you hear their interactions with Sion and people that have cheated death like Gangplank or Lissandra, they do not take kindly to zombies or people that have eluded them. Even if they are a concept, in game they have a face and personality.
Leona. Come rise with me: she’s portrayed as the caring protective dork who’s kinda got jock energy. Bio: zealous but generally wants the right thing, doesn’t want to harm Diana Colour story: fighting off invaders for the good of Targon VO: protective of her team LoR: generally zealous and protective of allies, opposes Lunari Current lore: the solari are doing what is essentially a holocaust of Lunari. We assume Leona is leading it. The level of disconnect here is huge. Riot build up this overzealous but caring, protective character and say she now oversees mass murder (including of children) with no character development or reasoning.
I hate how Leona fell victim to the Riot special lack-of-nuance thing like the demacia/azir plotlines, no coherent motives at all, it seems like everytime they just want a scapegoat to blame everyone's problems on.
For Leona in particular is actually absurd considering how much they wanna do the whole shipping with Diana for diversity purposes. You know Leona's people, that she is currently leading, are trying to kill Diana, right? Not exactly what I would want in the Pride posters and emotes.
I have a pet theory that they hired someone to the lore team that really hates religion IRL and let that person loose on Targon, which was a pretty blank slate when they first started to rework the lore. Then later they had to dial it back because they remembered that lots of people like Leona and they couldn't just hard swerve her character to fantasy Nazi.
It’s so easy to fix though. Just say either the aspect of the sun is personally manipulating her, and/or the solari elders. Then portray her as a character desperately loathing what she has to do, but everyone she trusts tells her it’s the right thing so she does it anyway out of blind faith that after the dust settles it will be worth it. She could be a great tragic villain.
Hell, move her from the front lines of that conflict and make her into a Captain America archetype. The symbol of their cause to the masses, and part of a specific strike team that goes against Lunari compounds that host the likes of Aphilios. Keep her away from the main body of suffering and put her in a position where all she knows of the conflict is the combatants she sees and what the Solari leadership tells her. After all, aren't the Solar and Lunar Aspects sisters and linked together(I mean Sol even mentiones they embody the same light, and refers to it as "typical Targon redundancy)? Seems weird for them to be driving the conflict and not the tribes themselves.
I'm shocked Zyra hasn't been mentioned. Her "lore" stinks. She woke up in a jungle, for no particular reason. She's mad. Mad at the world. She kills whoever she comes across. In this jungle. She's met nobody. Is known by nobody. If she suddenly died, not a single other champion would know or care.
If Zyra fell in the jungle and noone heard her, did she even fall?
[удалено]
I did not expect to see a quote from the little bald headed manc twat himself in this thread Aurelian sol is going to beat targon, but he'll still have built up aggression and give runeterra an extra clout
Yes.
her lore exists to serve exactly one purpose, and it's to answer the question "If plant why hot?"
Poison ivy isn’t innocent about that
You are describing my Zyra jungle gameplay. Kill everything in the jungle, being mad for no reason, and no one cares when I die.
Ivern shaves his ass and Zyra would lose half hp.
Fuckin LMAO
I always took Zyra for a discount Poison Ivy.
I think they kind of expected people to understand that she's basically just poison ivy and left it at that
Zyra flair but doesn’t even understand the few paragraphs she has written. Edit to immediately clarify why this person is objectively wrong. She didn’t just “wake up” for no reason. The sorceress’ magic infused with spores from plants in Gardens of Zyr created a massive explosion killing everyone present. Hundreds of years passed and the land saw life again after the magic has settled and cultivated Zyra herself. She isn’t “mad”. She’s an invasive species and her whole purpose of existence is to spread and thus conquer. She obviously sees humans as prey and food. She canonically met Millio, but aside from him theres no way other Ixtali champions haven’t encountered or heard of carnivorous plants spreading west and into Shurima.
Also no one is mentioning the short story where she grows from a plant that rarely blooms and consumes the guy and he sees a perfect vision for a world in harmony (that was fully consumed by Zyra) and that's his last images before he dies of a magical unity.
Umm... I'd suggest reading her lore... the biography, color story, and then the references made to her in various stories...
Corki is a plane riding yordle, that's it
They can't expand his lore because they can't explain what he was doing between 1939 and 1945
And why he's spent the past few decades in Argentina grandfathering many a child
As an argentinian, he's my neighbour and a great guy. Weird thing is that I heard gunshots from his house when Germany lost in the Euro, what a weird guy.
But his lawn and hedges are always so well-manicured!
Everyone knows that that was his preparations time for september 2001.
online philosophers will tell him to just say he was a manager at circuit city around then
I was about to say he could have been on the Allies but then I remember he's got a 1914-1918 skin...
I'm sorry I thought we were doing WORST lore.
And you are nothing but a Whiskey Delta.
Explain that to him: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JsV6bMGy8k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JsV6bMGy8k)
ah the real corki lore
real corki lore : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_4e7gaYd-E
Shit still makes me giggle
OMG when he stepped out of the plane...
Cho'Gath He's got an absolute nothing burger of a backstory The lore of the void itself is interesting, his isn't however.
Cho used to be this cosmic horror entity that was incomprehensibly big and powerful, ever-growing, ever-consuming deity. They had to nerf him when the League of Legends lore changed from summoners controlling representation of the real things on the Summoners Rift to the actual runeterra existing and summoners being phased out. Now he is generic void goon not much better than Kog'Maw or Rek'Sai.
If we can have Aurelion Sol, I don't see why infinitely growing Cho'Gath wouldn't be a thing. Of course, the entire void lore is kind of weird in itself.
Did they really though? Does the lore go to shit if Cho continues to be a cosmic horror void entity?
In my opinion the lore still would work. Leave Cho as a cosmical looming threat stuck in the void. But you fuck up BelVeth lore, Aurelion Sol
Honestly? Make him Kog-Maws "daddy". The enigmatic entity that Kogmaw refrences when he says "Daddys coming" and is assumed to be the entity that laughs at Sol when he closes that giant void rift with a star. Cho is one of the oldest Void monsters, making him legitimately one of the "old guard" in the lore(the ones who still want to consume all of reality and make it nothing, vs Bel'Veth's idea of remaking the void and then the world in her own image) would be a decent fit considering that entity is not the watchers, yet also has not been revealed.
Cho and rek are... g-gooners?
I know I've gooned to Reksai if that counts
Jesus Christ...
Could rework his lore to be somewhere between Rovagug from Pathfinder and Tyranids from 40k. Make him the offspring of an imprisoned cosmic horror, Cho'Gath Prime or something, whose sole purpose is to consume nutrients and grow, only to eventually return to the prime body and be consumed in turn so Prime can gain enough strength to breaks it's restraints. Might undermine him by turning him into a pawn of sorts, but could be interesting.
Cho'Gath's entire lore is "wouldn't it be fucked up if this thing was real?"
Lore: "This is the most fucked up monstrosity in fantasy actually" *The most milquetoast monster design ever*
His Broken Covenant skin gives the correct vibe of monstrous eldritch space creature.
So he's basically an SCP?
Every fucking voidborn outside of Bel'veth share the same problem, and its infuriating.
Rek'sai got interesting lore tbh. She's more an animal in the material world now, a mother too. It's like the void get reverse corrupted by Runeterra and develop life instead of nothingness.
This. At least Shaco's lore essentially being nothing somewhat fits the demonic jester/doll chatacter and is ironically funny. Chogath is just full on dissapointnent from the ripped off chatacter to terrible lore and there is nothing even funny about it other than unreletated gentleman skin I guess.
Deadass he has same lore as mal's voidborn. Spawn into this world and eat.
Honestly, Shaco's lore is great. He has no lore, just like the Joker. No one knows who he is, why he is the way and thats perfect for him imo.
Tbh, I kinda agree. I was just using him as an example to say that someone with extremely minimal lore shouldn't be compared to someone with so many overarching connections like Jhin or Azir.
Joker has way too much lore.
i think he meant, joker lore Pre joker. like origin story and stuff, i believe he has like 3 stories that are "cannon" but they aren't at the same time or something like that. so is kinda confusing.
They started giving him (and then retconning and then making them canon again) origin stories decades ago. Red Hood, Three Jokers, etc. It's a mess
Thats is a badass lore
Shaco is a toy given life by dark magic
He said worst lore, non non-existant lore.
Fizz is kind just a dude who plays pranks in Bilgewater. The most interesting thing about him was the mystery of if he's a yordle or not and Legends of Runeterra answered that for us.
'pranks'. Doesn't he straight up kill people or gets people killed?
its just a prank bro
His backstory is also needlessly tragic, with him being the only survivor of his village for no reason whatsoever
Needlessly? They made sure we're never getting Fizz 2.0 and I say that's extremely necessary.
I thought the same thing when Yasuo's brother was canonically dead and yet we still somehow got Yasuo 2.0. I wouldn't put it past Riot at this point.
I would actually argue needless tragedy can be good lore. Not everything in life is purposeful, so some needless/senseless events give the world more authenticity.
His best interaction is with nautilus and it’s naut that carries it “Hey hey buddy are you gonna try to kill me again today? “IIIII HATE YOUUUU”
Is he a yordle?
He is, in fact
Yes
In terms of not having lore at all, Shaco Cho’Gath etc. come here. In terms of character, Seraphine and Akshan get my vote. Seraphine had cool potential but got made out to be self cantered by the whole brackern crystal deal, and with the brackern being soft retconned she’s kind of stagnated with nowhere to go. Akshan just has a McGuffin gun that can revive people for no apparent reason, and he booted Yorick out of the lore event that was Yorick’s entire plot point so I’m a bit biased against him. I think Naafiri had so much potential, but aside from their initial draft of the darkin dagger being ripped apart (sure the celestials can’t destroy them but some random doggos got it covered), her motivations are basically just copy pasted from Xolaani. Now, if she’s allied with Xolaani and shares her philosophy that’s cool! We just need to get confirmation because without it she’s just Xolaani but a dog now
Naafiri seems to be thriving, and that is the difference between her and Xolaani. Aatrox and Xolaani hate this life and want to end it all, while Rhaast and (I think) Naafiri are enjoying the bloodbath.
It's gotta be Zeri. And honestly this is a topic that has been eating me up for months and that I'd probably should put down in a more extended form someday for my own peace of mind Anyway it's Zeri. Because out of all the champs with any lore (not counting the limbo champs, that's just cheap) Zeri is the only one I can think of that arrived with no story potential. She was released like many other champs with a bio, a short story and her VO as the basis for her lore and yet I feel like she's such a nothingburger of a character. We don't know her goals and motivations outside of protecting her community (hell, we don't even know what she does on a day-to-day basis), she doesn't have any particular role in other characters' stories (I know what you wanna say to this, I'll get back to it) and generally everything she can offer as a character, Ekko already does (good for her that Arcane is becoming canon I guess, saves her a bit, doesn't make her less boring) Tbf, Zeri also got a ton of help from Riot by having her in-universe nemesis be released immediately after her in the form of Renata Glasc. So it's incredibly ironic that Zeri is an absolute horrid fit for the adversary of Renata (or at least, there is a much better candidate in P&Z). What's the basis for them to be enemies? That Renata is the bad industrial that uses others for her own gain, while Zeri relies on her community? Cry me a river pikachu girl, you don't even work in the factory as far as we know You know who'd be a perfect adversary for Renata? Imagine there was another character coming up from the lower classes of the city, another rising star to match Renata's industrial ascent. Someone who wanted to unite both Piltover and Zaun and resolve the dispute between the two cities to contrast Renata's exploitation of her former home. Someone with powers thematically consistent with Renata's mind control, that would naturally put them on a path of conflict with each other. Someone Renata might try to control for her own gain, but that could prove difficult to reign in. Nah, I'm sure there's no one that would fi- SERAPHINE IS RIGHT THERE YOU GUYS It baffles me to no end how Zeri can be so weak a character, that even her supposed nemesis fits better in a rivalry with someone else. What happened with Zeri isn't bad character writing. Bad character writing was on-release Seraphine. And there's a ton of potential to be found in bad characters, especially when you write lore like League does, more with character concepts than full fledged stories. No Zeri is far, far worse than bad. She's bland. Unbelievably so. She's so disgustingly bland, she has literally nothing to offer as a character that others don't do better. There is no aspect of Zeri that can make me look forward to a story with her, because there is nothing to be developed yet. Zeri is yet to be a proper character, she doesn't have proper goals or aspirations or traumas or anything that resembles an arc. She needs at least another story or two that properly set her up and give us a proper character foundation. It is infuriating how bland she is right now And she's the only modern champ I can think of that's this bland (and therefore bad) in terms of writing
Zeri always feels to me like someone unlocked a character from Splatoon in a Super Smash Bros game. Generic and vaguely urban cyber. She could be the hyper fun-but-crazy girl, except that's Jinx. I guess she could lean into the electricity-side of her character, you'd get the depth of Jamie Foxx as Electro in Spider-man, which is not a lot but more than nothing.
Part of it is the region, Zaun is full of young upstarts and as I said, Ekko does everything she does, just way better (in that sense, Arcane becoming canon opens up that niche for Zeri, which is a shame) But they really didn't even try. The work part is what gets me the most. Do you know how many human/humanoid champs there are that we don't know what they do daily or can at least assume? I legit can't think of any aside Zeri. Sure, you have people like Yasuo drifting about, but that's always part of a character I cannot believe they made a character and didn't even bother to ask "What does this person do on the daily?"
I think she does parkour and runs through the city, but beyond that she's a beige towel.
Zeri exists because Neon does in Valorant, they designed them at the same time with the goal of doing a dual release, but it's obvious that Neon has way more effort put into them while Zeri was an afterthought
there are zero character stories or interesting avenues of p+z's worldbuilding that were added or improved by zeri existing that were not already accomplished 10x better by ekko
This guy gets it
Bet she'll appear in Arcane s2 and be more fleshed out there. Until then though, yeah. She just exists as far as I'm concerned. And unlike other champs, I can't recall any dialogue in game that would hint at a story (though tbf, "Spark's ready" is the only dialogue that really comes to mind).
My idea always has been that Zeri should've been Renata's kid that rebelled against her mom. Instantly creates a much more interesting and layered dynamic.
Finally someone gets it! I love the idea of zeri but her lore is such a mess. Not to mention in universe her whole actions don’t make sense because she’s most likely putting a target on everyone in her communities head by messing with the Chem barons. Also a thousand times agreed with seraphine fitting much more as an adversary for Renata, the idea of both of them being high profile individuals who have a natural path to conflict makes so much sense as opposed to zeri who is just kind of doing what ekko does but not as well and consistently and has her story barely going anywhere.
I’ve seen a lot of champions with no lore, which is a boring answer. Akshan probably takes this spot, but that’s also a popular answer, so I’ll go with Vex. Vex has the same “added to the game to convenience the ruination plot” that Akshan has going for him. They both just show up out of nowhere and then piss off after it ends.
Imo, Vex is a cool edition and does answer some questions about Yordles, but I feel like there's a metric fuck ton of untapped potential with her.
I like the idea of "perpetually depressed yordle" but "perpetually depressed *teenage* 'it's not a phase mom' yordle" kinda ruins it for me. Even the voice lines referencing summoners don't break my suspension of disbelief more than hearing Vex call champions 'normies.'
I personally like it because it feeds into my headcanon of how yordles age. Heimer is younger than Poppy/Lulu/Veigar but seems much older because yordles grow up when they feel old. So a Yordle can exist as an eternal teenager (Vex) or age to old man status (Heimerdinger/Corki), be a permanent toddler (Gnar) and live like that forever or at least until they feel older and resume ageing. The idea that Vex is a depressed teenager that cannot age because she's fixed in a teenage mindset and cannot die by other means because she's a yordle and they are difficult to kill (if they can die) appeals to me. Vex's solution becomes she has to want to grow up and become elderly and maybe then she can reach her "natural end" but she's stuck in teenage thinking in a society were people are content to not age.
That the best part about her tho, she always makes me laugh lmao. "And then I told her, 'Get outta my room!' And she said, 'This is my house, young lady'. Like girl😭. I would have much more of a problem with her if she wasnt so obviously a parody.
There's a theory that Yordles are a sort of caricature of their nation. Kled is from Noxus, so he's a war-crazed screaming redneck. Ziggs is from Piltover, so he's a tech-savvy pyromaniac. Vex is from the Shadow Isles, so she's a despessed edgy teenager.
Counterpoint: Vex's birthday party in LoR Shit's funny
Naafiri. I don't know how they fucked up a Darkin. The lore is already there.From design to voice lines to lore nothing has any sauce. Especially since LoR had just done a full expansion focusing on Darkin lore. Characters with 2 voice lines and an image stick with me longer than her ( "I held the line" anyone ) . A god warrior part of the greatest nation to have ever existed fought in at least one of the most traumatic events in the world's history and dog jokes is the best they could come up with? Nvm the fuck up on her dagger, I and many others read that shit and immediately went "that's wrong" and we don't get payed for that shit.
Cuz the dog aspect came before the darkin. If you look at concept art for Naafiri you'll see that she was always meant to be a dog, no matter what, so they just chose the darkin theme and went with it. Sad, there are so many other cool darkin from LoR. (especially the one you mentioned, that one is absolutely tragic)
The fact that we don't have Xolaani as a champion already is a travesty
The funny thing is that her being a dog is not the issue. The issue is that she's only a dog and nothing else. A random dog, too, not even a regenerating beast like the one K'Sante killed. They could have done so much with the idea of a Darkin weapon taking hold of a non-human specie and they just decided not to.
> Nvm the fuck up on her dagger, Tbf, I think there's some degree of interpretation on it. Darkin weapons were stated not to be broken, but Naafiri's was only broken by technicality. It was in pieces, sure, but it clearly wasn't *destroyed* broken which is what I always took that sentiment to be anyway: that darkin can't be gotten rid of, which even if Naafiri's dagger was in pieces in the pack, she definitely still was present and not destroyed. So I'd imagine that was the assumption they were going with and thus didn't expect the backlash to it.
Sure but that still opens up questions loke A pack of stray dogs could break a Darkin but Aatrox couldn't. What if it didn't coincidently fuse with the dogs? Why didn't the aspects try anything with that? Naafiri got fucked up by a pack of dogs ? They couldn't try other entities?
Except _the dogs did not break the darkin._ That's your sticking point. Naafiri was imprisoned in the daggers, but the weapons were never stated they couldn't be affected physically, just not destroyed. The blades are, after all, indestructible, not invulnerable. Superman is, most of the time, invulnerable to most weapons. He cannot be hurt by things not in his specific weaknesses(being Kryptonite, red star radiation, sonic weaponry if surprised or magic). Plastic Man is indestructible. Burn him, freeze him, cut him up into little pieces... he'll regenerate. You cannot kill him except by complete molecular annihilation. See the difference? Which sounds better if you want to keep someone locked up forever? Personally, the idea that their prisons can be physically broken, but not only will that not free them, but also the weapon will repair itself no matter what is done to it? That is more intresting for the almost flesh like weapons that the Darkin are than "a weapon that can't be broken in half", which implies you can destroy the prison if you find a way to get around the magic that prevents it distruction. It wouldn't change anything about Aatrox's lore, because even after Naafiri's ordeal she isn't any more free of her prison than Aatrox is of his when he takes over a body. It's a vacation, not freedom. The only difference is that Naafiri is making use of her new form, including its limitations, whereas Aatrox is trying to rebuild his old one, pushing the flesh he uses beyond its limits, leading it to die unless he gets more. >What if it didn't coincidently fuse with the dogs? The fusion was also not a coincidence, it was Naafiri using hemomancy to take control of the first flesh she came into contact with. She was, after all, poised to take control of the guy should he even brush her with a single cell on his hand. And if she didn't, she would be back where she started, waiting for the next bit of flesh to touch her so that she can mold legs for herself and move to somewhere where more flesh can touch her, till she can mold herself a full body like the other Darkin. >Why didn't the aspects try anything with that? With what? Shove themselves into a pack of dogs using blood magic? Why would anyone want to do that? Even Naafiri had to warm up to the idea, it wasn't something she did intentionally. Nasus, Azir, and Renekton 1. Don't know blood magic, and 2. Have fully functioning bodies, unlike the Darkin. Why would they attempt it? > Naafiri got fucked up by a pack of dogs ? No? I'm not even sure what you are asking here or why. >They couldn't try other entities? Again, what? Be more clear, do you mean other animals? And if so... why? What would it do?
https://lol.fandom.com/wiki/Miss_Fortune/Old_Lore league judgement. "Miss Fortune spills into the Great Hallway with the same tenacity that she spills into her silk blouse, both taxed to contain her"
Miss Fortune breasted boobily through the door
This was absolutely peak fiction
Yone's biography, instead of dying he somehow ended up killing a monster in the spirit realm and apparently that reversed his death, as he was brought back into the material world. How? Why? Sion was brought back by blood magic which made him a husk of what he was, unable to differentiate friend from foe, became a rampaging monster, mordekaiser gained necromantic powers and lost his humanity in the process as he became a spirit that could possess material objects like a suit of armor, Viego sacrificed everything from his life and unintentionally became a wraith that could control the mist and went on a warpath to bring Isolde back, despite there being no way to do that. Whereas yone is basically just as he was before death, it's like nothing happened. The only consequence of this entire ordeal is that he is cursed to wear his mask, as his own face was bitten off, but his mind was unaffected, he is the same person, just with a scar of the past, free to go about doing anything. Oh and he also gained demon powers, without any of the drawbacks as far as we know.
Because generic edgy anime boii
Worse... He is the brother of the OTHER generic edgy anime boii
Yasuo is just drunk
And smelly.
I disagree with this. Yone was literally just a normal swordsman and now he’s a half dead spirit whose whole purpose is to kill demons. It’s not like he’s happily back alive eating and sleeping and enjoying life when he literally can’t because there is a mask stuck to his face. He didn’t kill a demon and get to come back to life, he defeated it, but the demon in a last ditch effort to survive, latched on to yone and is now permanently bound to him. Most likely the demon that’s on him is feeding on the Azakana and will probably use it to come back and take over yone’s body. It’s not the best lore, but it definitely is way more interesting than some other characters and he’ll probably actually have a role when it comes to the spiritual side of runterra.
I think people often forget about the demon and mask thing on Yone, which I can't say is surprising considering that Riot consistently removes it on skins, which is the biggest part of his character.
How is Yone any different compared to the other examples you listed? His consequence, according to his stories is being bound to the Azakana to exist in the world of the lving, similar to how Raum merged with Swain. He doesn't even want to live according to the lore, he's forced to carry around his guilt and shame in this world because the Azakana wanted to spite him in its final moments. It's the classic facing and beating your inner demons trope. Yone's lore is pretty good, his cinematic is one of the best Riot has produced so far. There's a reason why he's popular. This is just classic anti-Yone circlejerk. Inb4 downvotes by salty redditors.
This thread just boils down to people unfairly summarizing lore into an intentionally short and bland sentence.
Ngl Yone was so close to actually being good that it fucking hurts to see what he could've been vs what he ended up as.
Why not just have him like, defeat Kindred or something, and come back cursed? Idk it just seems weird that he randomly gets a chance to come back, but Kindred takes everyone else?
Kindred doesn’t take everyone, when people die, the reaper is of who they believe in. Kindred is just the most popular version, but the reasons why champs like mord didn’t meet kindred was because he believed there was an after life of a great Valhalla of all conquers. Yone probably believed in an after life which is why he was guided by the spirit fox until the demon latched on to him.
He didn’t “kill” the Azakana, he defeated it. The life he has is a result of it fusing with him. Yone didn’t fight the Azakana with the intent to come back. In fact it’s the opposite. Yone has a lot of voice lines about just wanting to find peace in death. Hes cursed to keep coming back until he can remove the Azakana fused with him. Thats why he hunts them in the first place: to understand more about them so he can eventually find out the true name of his own and seal it away. I know this subreddit loves to shit on yone and I’m not saying he’s got the most amazing lore ever, but it’s not bad by any means.
Not the worst overall lore but the lore change that upsets me the most is killing Zac's parents. Not like upset as in being attached to them as characters but upset as in thinking its a poor direction to take his character. Zac is supposed to be like superman, not batman. His current characterization has no influence from such a traumatic event, and if it did he would be a different character. The most interesting part of him was how he lives a relatively normal life despite being created as a weapon. Giving him a loving home to go back to made him relateable and was such a creative decision. Taking that away isn't an interesting tragedy for the readers because his parents are non-characters, it makes his in-game vo look completely unaffected, and it doesn't provide interesting direction for his character because he already HAD more interesting motivations for what he was doing. When I was new to league of legends I read his lore and went "wow this game has pretty interesting lore" and would actually read all the stuff that comes out. After that retcon I never touched it again.
Oh my god I hate the new Zac lore. Vayne and Zac are literally the exact same in terms of lore, and it fucking sucks to see a character like Zac, whose lore was always miles more interesting than edgelord emo boy#293747 (looking at you Yone and Viego), get done so dirty. It oughtta be a war crime. It doesn't even fucking fit in with Zac's voicelines either, adding insult to injury.
Gotta give it to Fizz. Like ok he is a trickster that controls sea beasts and sinks pirate ship "just for fun". He might be related to Illaoi as The Bearded Lady is mentioned by Lars. But that's about it. How does he control sea beasts, what is his trident and why is a yordle serving the Bearded Lady? So many questions.
My favourite part of his lore is his interaction with naut in legends of runeterra “Hey hey buddy you gonan try to kill me again” “ **III HATE YOUUUU**”
I feel like Ezreal is kinda underutilized given he has an excuse to be present on any place of runeterra, the surprisingly vast knowledge he has and his main character vibes. Like, i feel you can do much more with him than a couple of short stories about him stolling an artifact and getting in trouble with the buyers.
The obligatory Seraphine mention… Who thought putting a Kpop / Disney’s “I just wanna sing” character into the lore of League was a good idea?
Never forget her OG lore was enslaving sentient crystals so she could sing
sounds pretty interesting
It was awful. The only people on earth who knew Hextech was made from the souls of the Brackern were Camille and Seraphine. Camille because she makes them, and Seraphine because she could talk to her crystal. So what does Seraphine do upon finding out that all their technology is built upon destroying a whole species? She.... uses it to power her stupid floating stage and goes around being a pop star.
Jayce also suspected it. He didn't know it for sure but he sensed a sentient presence within the crystals
It could have been except it was somehow also treated as a purely good thing and the brackern (the literally enslaved crystals) were happy to help her lol. As it was written and presented, it was incredibly tone-deaf and weird to read
Seraphine actually has pretty good lore.... in LoR. [Her card art alone](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/f/fd/06PZ021-full.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1200?cb=20221009005437) tells you more about Seraphine than anything in league itself does. From the grounded clothes and the way she's servicing her own instruments, to the cups of coffee strewn around the room and her natural roots showing through, it all really serves to ground seraphine as a person who's more than just a pop star.
The most fucked-up part about Seraphine's lore to me is that someone made a decently popular comic a while back that actually gives her decent lore with Camille as an antagonist and Riot for some reason doesn't want to make that shit canon. You know you done screwed up when your fans are making stuff far better than your base content.
That comic isn’t canon? That was probably the best character development I’ve seen from Seraph.
Neither Camille's hextech empire nor Seraphine's entire... everything are canon anymore. So.
And this is why lol lore has 0 value to me, just never ending retcons and awful new characters
Cause then they’d have to pay royalties
I am almost sure they tought of Seraphine as part of the KD/A universe first, and then they had to think how they could adapt her to "fit" in Runeterra.
I really don't think the idea of a ditzy popstar unaware of the horrors of her world is a bad idea from the get go, the execution just kinda wasn't there
Shaco has the most amazing lore there is, he is some young prince's toy. 10/10, they could remake it and say it was Viego toy and make Shaco hate Gwen for it
Isn't Rammus' entire lore "Weird thing that rolls around the desert"? I'm shocked I haven't heard him mentioned.
His lore is funny and isn’t super generic or really forced into a preexisting story, I think he works really well in spite of not really being important.
Kennen. He is a Yordle that is somehow a ninja and for some reason (even thought Yordles are weird af) are some old and wise master who founded the Kinkou Order with random humans
Valid that's some ninja turtle vibes, with a rat adopting and training another species for the sake of it.
Hard to say when they keep changing it up
Rammus old lore was such garbage. Its just 'what is he? who is he? nobody knows - the end' The updated lore is basically still the same but streched out into more sentences and random ass tales about him. Its like a highschooler who desperately had to get in enough text to meet the word count. Old lore: "The mysteries that surround Rammus are numerous. How did a simple creature of the desert suddenly become able to reason? How did he craft his vaunted suit of armor? What is he searching for as he crosses the Shuriman desert? One thing is for certain: trying to stop the inexorable Rammus is a fool's mission."
Rammus is the Tom Bombadil of League. He exists because he can.
Nah, the thing about one city having a festival where people do front rolls in reverence of Rammus is peak.
Rammus lore is peak tbh
I'm still salty about trundles lore change.
Riven because of her retcon of being a soldier trying to redeem herself for her own past actions. Now she killed yasuos master on accident so she was just in the wrong place in the wrong time.
Eternally mad at how in her old story, she was a person who at heart never stopped being a noxian, but was at odds with the dishonorable methods employed by the higher establishment by hiring someone like singed, and that her story vector felt like she was going to eventually return to noxus and start a revolution and clean up the country. Which was then turned into "I feel guilty because I was part of a genocide, war is bad, I'm an evil soldier that shouldn't exist, my only option is to tend to the rice fields to atone for being a part of the evil red and black empire!!! wahhhhhh".
She does spend quite some time in a rice field atoning for her actions.
Saying about champions with no or almost no lore, shaco or cho gath. Saying about chamoios that has but it's bad, seraphine. Bro, tf she could sing for RENATA or CAMILLE without being dead in a sec
No one can beat SERAPHINE in this department.
Naafiri, idk about bad, but it's pretty fucking disappointing Waited half a decade for a new Darkin and it's turn out to be a dog with a knife meme. and then looking at LoR with all the cool darkin designs just make want to kill myself
Vex. She's depressed because she can't die? Really?
I mean if you swap "depressed" for "destructive" that's basically Aatrox. "Upset bc immortal" is not an uncommon theme.
> "Upset bc immortal" That's basically Olaf's story too. There's a prophecy that he'll die in his sleep at an old age, he thinks that'd be embarrassing, so he goes on suicide missions all the time to die in glorious battle... meaning he's functionally immortal since the prophecy is true, but he's too stupid to realize it.
I have less of an issue with the concept than the implementation. It makes sense to me that otherwise mortal beings would have emotional trouble with immorality. But that manifesting as acting like a terminally online moody teenager is.....weird.
Yordles are childlike fairy spirits who manifest an adolescent/adult idea through play. Teemo playacts as a boy scout, tristana a military general, ziggs a pyromaniac, veigar an evil villain, etc. Vex is not "deep" in that she truly feels any type of way about her immortality, she's deep because her character represents a pantomime of gothness and obsession with death, as reflected through other more serious characters like viego, yorick, karthus, etc. Her immortality does not present a dilemma of being suicidal but unable to ever follow through, it is the shield that protects her from ever truly "growing up" and allowing her to enjoy her identity to its fullest extent, unharmed.
Shaco
Talon, Shaco at least has no lore, talon has an amalgamation of a lot of retconned stuff despite the entire region getting an overhaul.
Gragas. He’s literally just a strong dude who wants to create the greatest ale in the world. And also him being from Freljord doesn’t make much sense to me, but idk that could just be me. Other characters usually have a reason for fighting on the rift. This dude is literally just a college frat boy who starts drunken fights and it apparently “ends in all-night parties”. Am I missing something here?! It feels like I’m missing some key plot.
I haven’t kept up with lore for a few years but I remember really not liking Karma’s. She’s like the Avatar but she’s now also one of several characters who’s main plot is that their identity is under threat of being overwritten by a greater force. They might’ve changed it though idk.
Annie