Riot: Character Consistency and the New Lore

Yeah, it's another lore thread, but with Riot showing no signs of diverting course I think this really needs to be said.

Riot - Change the world if you must, but please keep the characters consistent.

Too often in your lore retcons, the character winds up being irrevocably altered as well. Some deeper element of the character that people always appreciated winds up being modified or even erased completely in the rewrite and the lore always suffers for it. Further, it's getting worse over time. Some of the Freljord lore changes were real dodgy, like Ashe's transformation from a wise and mature leader to a cocky King Arthur expy complete with Excalibow (and a new voiceover that makes her sound like a teenager). As the Shurima update approaches, we see more storm clouds. Let's examine two transformations where something major was lost.

Xerath's fatal flaw was always his obsessive ambition and pride rather than any sort of malice or evil. He was willing to sacrifice everything - His people, his love, himself - to achieve his goal, and nothing pained him more than losing his love because of his own actions. But he did it anyway. He regretted it immensely, and the consequences of his actions horrified him, but he went through with it. This isn't a mustache-twirling villain, this is someone who is so thoroughly obsessed with his goal that he's blind to the consequences. And one knows that, deep underneath it all, despite what he says, he still has second thoughts. He still regrets what happened the day he ascended. It wasn't supposed to happen like that.

Now he's an Evil Vizier. He's the Jafar to Azir's Sultan. Please, most of us are old enough to have seen Disney's Aladdin, we don't need one of the central conflicts rehashed in a different desert. Why take a perfectly good, poignant tale that leaves a lot of room for reading between the lines and replace it with something so banal and cliche? I hope your expanded lore is able to really make his story worth caring about in the same way the old one was without altering the fact that Xerath is a tragic monster, not an evil villain.

Let's move on. Ezreal. Boy, what a cocky little **** this guy is. Look at him. Listen to him. Everything about him screams arrogance, from his confident posturing the splash art (ALL of them) to his ingame quotes about how skilled and awesome he is, in both his normal and Pulsefire voicesets. He is League's take on a Mary Sue. How would he be embarrassed at being seen as a hero when he clearly thinks of himself as a living legend? Being seen as a hero would be exactly the sort of thing Ezreal would want since it justifies his perception of himself! Why change that core aspect of his personality? There's no reason for him to randomly turn modest now. Have him be hailed as a hero, but have him react as he should - He'd love it!

Let's not get started on Skarner. Holy **** did you guys just screw that one up in more ways than I can possibly go into here. There are threads that do it better justice than I ever could.

With the removal of the League of Legends and the Institute of War, this rewriting of characters' personalities is making lore aficionados nervous. A lot of champions have ties to the League and have subtle personality quirks and conflicts that could be lost in the rewrite. Whether their characters were deepened by their Judgements (Xerath and Lux stand out), by events in the JoJ (Many), or simply by their association with the place (Cho'gath, Fiddlesticks), or even entirely defined and given context by their interaction with the League (Kayle and Morgana), a lot stands to be lost in the upcoming revisions.

Please, try harder to make sure you avoid fundamentally altering the character and changing the very thing people liked about them.