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Neeko is openly gay for a reason. You're just not used to it.

SeaChange·11/20/2018, 10:41:26 PM·84 votes·19,301 views

**Neeko wears her heart on her sleeve, and there's nothing wrong with that. **

> "The Oovi-Kat were peaceful beings, of unrivaled potential. Their harmonious society blended seamlessly with the spirit realm, so that their sho’ma—their spiritual essence—could intermingle with other beings through mere proximity"

It says it right in her lore, she finds words "confining". She professes her love, hate, curiosity, anger and sadness to whoever whenever, because she's an Oovi-kat. Her tribe used their souls intertwining to communicate, that's why she has no boundaries. Why hold back from telling people you think shyvanna is really hot if you've spent your life letting your friends and family feel and experience your soul? Before her tribe was murdered, anyone could know that she liked them simply because they could feel it in her Sho'Ma. Like her bio says,

> "No secrets existed between the Oovi-Kat,"

So actually, it would be WAY out of character for Neeko NOT to say "hey, you're a cute girl! HELLO!". She has no concepts of secrets, she's used to having her whole identity out for others to see. She doesn't need to assimilate to the rest of Runeterra's less... out-there ways.

Neeko tries her best to use words to show her feelings, and even though it seems overboard, her blatant honesty about her feelings is all she knows.

On another note, to those of you saying that she's "one dimensional" because she talks about being a lesbian too much, I'd like to say, "huh?". She has around 5/6 lines about female champs that she likes. There's so much more to her. If a gay person talking about her sexuality is too much for you, that's your problem. This isn't "rubbing her sexuality in your face" it's people refusing to accept characters that don't act like them.

I mean come on, zoe has 10+ lines about how she wants a boyfriend and no one said anything! Zoe's mentally around 12-ish, and Neeko is around 16-19 (confirmed by a rioter somewhere), so she has more reason than Zoe to have crushes, she's a full-fledged teen! Awkward crushing is a hallmark of teenhood.

[slayer-pantheon-rainbows]

Let's just enjoy this new champion please, she seems real fun!

63 Comments

Ifneth11/21/2018, 12:15:05 AM24 votes

Yeah, she’s cute. League needs that. ^_^

MorgManBasher11/21/2018, 4:30:01 AM18 votes

The fact this forum is spammed about this makes me want to puke.

Why do people care one way or another, this isn't a story driven game and it has 0 effect on gameplay.

Unless you read lore, who honestly cares? Like, would be nice if this game actually had some form of story telling with it's characters but it doesn't so personality of champs barely matter other than listening to them talk once and a while,

Karn Bishop11/20/2018, 11:47:15 PM15 votes

I stick with poorly designed lore, why else would the elders buy time to ensure their continued bloodline then allow the only gay member who cannot have offspring be the person to escape? The elders would have been better served using neeko's shapeshifting to ensure several young could escape instead of neeko.

Either that or neeko is a heartless selfish monster who used her people as a meat shield so she alone could survive instead of using her abilities to ensure several of her people lived in exchange for neekos death.

Dracocrash11/21/2018, 12:52:30 AM14 votes

I was really excited when I heard Neeko was going to be openly lesbian. But after I saw all her quotes/interactions, I gotta say, I have a burning HATRED for this champion.

And I don't appreciate people attributing my hatred to her sexuality. Maybe I set my expectations too high when I heard she was also gay and was happy to finally see some representation after 144 straight champions; because I've almost never actively tried to look up every piece of lore/every interaction for a champion before. Needless to say, I was underwhelmed at the immature, ignorant mess of a personality I found.

I'm not saying its bad, I'm just saying I hate it.

And I'm sorry that the only openly gay champion in league was handed a personality I hate, But that doesn't mean I can sit silently while people laud her personality.

On the bright side: I do think her character is entertaining to watch, and she is a welcome addition to the game I like how well designed her personality is (note: Being well designed and being likeable are two very different things) example- I like and find kinda funny how ezreal justifies his stealing, but that doesn't mean I don't think ezreal isn't morally bankrupt, lol. Same applies to Neeko, Well designed, but I hate the design.

And yes, shame on people who think her sexuality represents her because it doesn't. It's just a part of her, its there and you will notice it. And that's not a bad thing.

MuffledGarbage11/21/2018, 7:16:08 AM10 votes

{quoted}

**Neeko wears her heart on her sleeve, and there's nothing wrong with that. **

Except that it creates a boring character who has two options to be interesting. Either: A: Neeko needs to be a villain whose intentions and motivations are deep and unexplored OR B: Neeko needs to have a compelling narrative that leads her to specifically show what she thinks at all times AND have her not be annoying

> "The Oovi-Kat were peaceful beings, of unrivaled potential. Their harmonious society blended seamlessly with the spirit realm, so that their sho’ma—their spiritual essence—could intermingle with other beings through mere proximity"

This quote from her lore shows that the Oovi-Kat easily transferred energy and shared their feelings THROUGH this energy sharing.

It says it right in her lore, she finds words "confining". She professes her love, hate, curiosity, anger and sadness to whoever whenever, because she's an Oovi-kat. Her tribe used their souls intertwining to communicate, that's why she has no boundaries. Why hold back from telling people you think shyvanna is really hot if you've spent your life letting your friends and family feel and experience your soul? Before her tribe was murdered, anyone could know that she liked them simply because they could feel it in her Sho'Ma. Like her bio says,

HOLD UP, "she finds words 'confining'"!?

If she finds words confining she sees them as a thing that RESTRICTS HER FROM WHAT SHE COULD SAY

If her whole tribe was murdered, do you REALLY THINK she'd want to go into a new world with the first thing she meets people is " HEY I LIKE YOU PLEASE HAVE LUNCH WITH ME!!" ? If that's how she's reacting to being in an unfamiliar situation, her tribe DESERVED it for not being cautious.

> "No secrets existed between the Oovi-Kat,"

We have no idea to confirm or deny this. It's very possible that the elders had secrets but they were written-down secrets in a location that will never be found again(unless in another character's lore like Ezreal or something) Speculation like this is what makes theory's as bad as NESS IS SANS FROM UNDERTALE

So actually, it would be WAY out of character for Neeko NOT to say "hey, you're a cute girl! HELLO!". She has no concepts of secrets, she's used to having her whole identity out for others to see. She doesn't need to assimilate to the rest of Runeterra's less... out-there ways.

All of this is based on the assumption that no secrets existed within the Oovi-Kat. All of this is also based on the assumption that the tribe didn't know how to exercise what CAUTION IS. A most BASIC function of any living being.

Neeko tries her best to use words to show her feelings, and even though it seems overboard, her blatant honesty about her feelings is all she knows.

This is a result of bad writing. Any character shouldn't need words that directly say "I AM HAPPY" "I AM SAD" "I SMELL BAD THING" because that's TELLING the audience what happened instead of SHOWING the audience.

If I TELL you that I beat up Sion that is 200% different than if I tell you I took a sword and slashed his body into 10,000 pieces. One is boring and has no effort put into it. The other leaves no option but for Sion to be dead which makes an audience member feel smarter for figuring out what shape Sion is in as well as makes the actual actions taken against and from Sion more compelling.

On another note, to those of you saying that she's "one dimensional" because she talks about being a lesbian too much, I'd like to say, "huh?". She has around 5/6 lines about female champs that she likes. There's so much more to her. If a gay person talking about her sexuality is too much for you, that's your problem. This isn't "rubbing her sexuality in your face" it's people refusing to accept characters that don't act like them.

When the amount of charisma given to a character stems off the fact that they know nothing and then that character immediately goes "HEY DATE ME CAUSE I LIKE YOU" that character should not be praised at all. The fact that she's lesbian has nothing to do with the fact that NEEKO IS HORRIBLY WRITTEN.

I mean come on, zoe has 10+ lines about how she wants a boyfriend and no one said anything! Zoe's mentally around 12-ish, and Neeko is around 16-19 (confirmed by a rioter somewhere), so she has more reason than Zoe to have crushes, she's a full-fledged teen! Awkward crushing is a hallmark of teenhood.

Zoe's lines about a boyfriend(and all but 1 of which are about Ezreal) were complained about during her release. Sorry you weren't around in the boards then to see it but there were a good 20ish threads all talking about how Ezreal was 20-something and Zoe is "1000's of years old loli" whilst also pointing out that if Ezreal accepted Zoe's advances he'd be a %%%%.

Yeah it was talked about. Stop pretending like it didn't happen to push your false narrative that SOMEHOW Neeko is a good character

[slayer-pantheon-rainbows]

Let's just enjoy this new champion please, she seems real fun!

Kit-wise, yes fun. Character-wise, barely fun. Her best interactions come from fucking KLED when she tries to imitate him, and that's just her stealing Kled's thunder.

Neeko being openly gay is slapped on to make her more appealing to any supporters of LGBT who haven't interpreted EVERY possible meaning of her lore, which would obviously be the majority of people period, let alone LGBT supporters.

Neeko is a horribly written character.

Opop11/21/2018, 12:30:45 AM8 votes

I mean considering most of her interactions to females are flirty, it feels off, unless she's that sex starved, it feels weird to me. I'm not gay but I assume that like straight people, they have preferences and don't look at the first thing that shows up with the intention to fuck. For example, look at Illaoi, she has like 1 or 2 lines to Braum, and she's being flirty there, after establishing that it makes sense she wouldn't have flirty lines for Ezreal. Yes you can say ''but in her tribe it works like this!'', however this is Riot's first attempt at making a character that has been gay since release. Her story didn't have to mention that, in fact it could be that her vo was recorded and then they decided to add that tidbit to her lore, it just comes of as ''hey guys don't forget she's gay and that's a big deal about her!'' In my opinion, if gay people are to be normalized then making a big deal out of their sexual orientation is just harmful.

Oh and in regards to Zoe, her flirty lines are directed to Ezreal, again, establishing that she has a preference and is not just flirting with every male character she sees.

The Great Duck11/21/2018, 9:13:37 AM5 votes

Is there any reason she has to openly hate males too? You want to be a horny lesbian.. fantastic. Just don't understand why Riot thought it was a good move to include such VO though.

4th3t0s11/21/2018, 5:57:29 AM4 votes

"Nothing wrong with that" doesn't mean it will ever have universal approval. That's what you idiots will never understand, disinterest or lack of respect doesn't make someone homophobic. Wouldn't matter if someone was straight or gay, if they "wore their heart on their sleeve"; I don't give a shit about someone's sex life, provided I'm not a direct part of it. Continually posting this crap is partially why people will never "get used to it".

Olath Quortek11/21/2018, 2:13:25 AM4 votes

I actually think this is some of the best examination and explanation of her character I've seen. It's rather well done. The whole Sho'ma thing is what really makes this character interesting so tying her sexuality and the way she acts to it is the right way to do it.

Honestly if Rito had expounded on this part of her lore more and not just randomly thrown it out on twitter after people had heard a few voice lines this all would have gone over much better heh.

SuffocateMeDaddy11/21/2018, 12:29:47 PM4 votes

openly gay is fine, I even praise riot for doing it, "Do I smell as bad as I look? Yep" "Yuck" is not fine. Especially if you consider that to be her quote transorming into ANY MALE. If she transformed into trundle and asked about the smell. OK. She is literally more okay with transforming into void creatures such as Kog maw which vomit all over the place and Cho gath that literally eats everything living, than transforming into Darius. Graves. Garen. ETC ETC.

StonePlatypus11/22/2018, 1:56:18 AM3 votes

Just let the LGBT community have their poorly designed character, it won't hurt anything. Just because it's a cash grab and pandering doesn't mean they shouldn't get to have their fun.

TopperH11/21/2018, 11:25:07 AM3 votes

Not that I care much but I find Neeko being lesbian a bit incoherent :

It is said that her race are all about sharing and connecting with the "spiritual essence" of other beings.

Spititual essence doesn't strike me as a gendered concept. Therefore if anything she should be bisexual as she should not care about the gender of the other person and be all about their "spiritual essence". It would make more sense to me this way.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone point this out.

ßasic ßitch11/21/2018, 9:51:43 PM3 votes

About time we get something like this, lets just ignore the ignorant homophobes and sip our tea c;

Illabethe11/21/2018, 12:34:21 AM3 votes

Have you ever considered that her admiration of specific "Girl" characters has nothing to do with a sexual preference? She also likes Ezreal, and several of the male characters, and has lines talking about their own little unique characteristics. She speaks fondly of them all out of a sense of discovery...... not a sexual preference.

Edit: The writer confirmed it...... found it.

Well... Gratz! (Until I saw that, I was thinking curious daughter vibe, but that ship's now sailed lol)

I don't have an opinion either way, but I'm glad for what she means to you guys :)

dankleave11/21/2018, 9:37:07 AM2 votes

League lore is cringey, whod of thought

Camille Ferrøs11/21/2018, 12:01:21 AM2 votes

Thinking about Zoe's crush on Ez now I think she is that far gone she would probably hunt him down.

rtbf22561824111/21/2018, 1:57:16 PM1 votes

Yeah, let's not use the word "Sho'Ma" like it's an English word. She propably means Soul.

And the whole thing about Neeko is that she is openly lesbian like some hippie. It's just controversial to some people and seems to be downright annoying since Neeko isn't a real character, but an avatar that is inserted into League by real life people, possibly for an agenda to make homophobia less-rampant.

But that's not how the internet works. Not saying i agree with it.