A respectful and mature discussion about Aatrox

I wish to respectfully and maturely discuss a point of view I believe to be very important, which I know many also feel. This is said out of love, not spite or anger. It would honor me if you would receive this viewpoint. Disagree if you like, and I will accept that. Just so long as we know this viewpoint is understood, it will set many at ease.

Let me start this off by saying this: It's pretty clear a lot of people are really into this new Aatrox change. I personally think I will like him too. I think it's clear many agree on that. He's definitely cool and I think it's clear we'd like for this character to be in the game. But let's talk about current Aatrox.

Current Aatrox is a stoic, calm, poetic being that ignites passion within the soul without having to scream and shout. He is truly a war demon. I know that a shouting angry man may seem like a better candidate for that role, but hear me out:

One of the most iconic aspects of a demon is that they try to get humans to commit sin. Humans relish personal glory, but demons are a different breed and they tend to thrive on creating sin within humans. We don't know why they like it, but they like it and it's interesting. Current Aatrox accomplishes this better than most any other demon character in fiction I know of. He is calm and quiet so that he doesn't put you off. Obviously you wouldn't even be willing to hear out someone who is clearly, bombastically evil and even admits it outright by saying things like "I am the world ender!" Current Aatrox is smarter and more effective than the other demons of fiction. Rather than saying something insulting about humanity, he instead calmly reminds you that you already know your kind is deranged, and he manages it in subtle ways that make you think it's your own ideas. Let me give some examples:

"Peace is the greatest lie of all." 'How many years of true peace has the world had? Yeah, that's what I thought.' That's basically what Aatrox is saying here, and you just can't argue against that. Yet he isn't forcing the idea upon you in a way that makes you want to resist. Rather, he simply states an indisputable fact that you can't really disagree with, which softens you up to the rest of his perspectives and makes you more receptive to what he's trying to tempt you into. He makes sin sound so reasonable. After all, if it is ultimately inescapable, why not participate and create a just world with your own hands to ensure it is done properly?

"They will greet you as heroes." He's reminding you of something you already know: Even your own people agree with him. Nothing is bad about what you're doing. Everyone else also agrees. It's okay. Be their hero and save them. Go. To. War.

"Honor will not save them." Here Aatrox plays with our human condition, convincing us that having ideals and morals like honor will only amount to death and suffering if it prevents us from swinging our blade at a threat... and what is moral about willingly allowing your loved ones to perish? Instead he emphasizes other good morals like courage and valor, uplifting these human notions as positive and making you see his perspective (war) as heroism rather than cruelty. Death comes, but you can be moral and save all of your people. All you have to do is fight back. It sounds so good when you put it that way, doesn't it? That's because Aatrox is the perfect war demon.

This new Aatrox seems to completely abandon that personality. Riot WAAARGHbobo defended this new Aatrox by saying that we haven't heard all of his dialogue yet. I respect that, but please also consider that in no way is "I am the world ender!" ever a convincing way to get people to trust you and willingly forget that you're evil. Regardless of his other dialogue, nothing else he says can wipe away the stain of his clear malevolence, which is also easily reflected in his arrogant, angry tone and mannerisms, which are all very clearly meant to create feelings of despair, inferiority and pitifulness in your pathetic human kind. He is very, very obviously evil, and is an absolute failure at his original demonic objective of tempting others into sin, instead replacing that with a much more human goal of having personal glory. I know that sounds disrespectful to the hard work that went into making this character, but let me ask you: Would you trust this new Aatrox? Certainly not. You clearly feel his malevolence radiating from him. He may be able to kill many by himself, but gone is his ability to lead people into sin, for he is so very obviously not to be trusted and only interested in making himself seem badass.

I'm not saying he isn't cool and that we don't want him! But! Considering he plays nothing like old Aatrox and has nothing like old Aatrox's personality, but is ultimately still fun and interesting, I just think you should've made this character a new, third Darkin. He IS cool, we all agree on that. But none of the people who know Aatrox currently would agree that this is the same being. Instead, that beautifully artistic character is gone forever, and it feels like we're just pretending that isn't the case because this new cool screaming demon man is awesome. He is! He just is not Aatrox.