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Changes to an old and beloved champion. Varus: reasons and excuses

SerdinorDarkRose·11/30/2017, 6:00:57 PM·61 votes·2,652 views

First of all here is a post someone made 8 days ago with all the concerns involving the new bio for Varus. There are various comments from Rioters who worked in the new Varus bio in this thread, in particular rioter DyQuill responded to many questions and I want to keep two specific things: "Completely agree that Varus had one of the better tragic bios - and the team updating his story worked hard to keep that true" and "the Rioters behind this agonized over the decisions they were making, and really tried to create a story that was true to Varus". So people in the lore team realized the significance in the old lore of Varus, or so he/she claims. But then we have this video about the creation of new Varus and I'm going through it, so bear with me:

  • 3:25 & 4:14 - Varus didn't fit in League's modern world. Understandable, the pit in Pallas in the old lore is never explored, his ties are to Ionia but the forces behind his corruption remained unclear, as such it made sense to shed light into his backstory. Making him a Darkin was an excellent idea. One can argue that you could use his lore and create a new force within League's universe, but the Darkin theme is solid for Varus. However what follows is...

  • 3:36 - The person speaking is from the Narrative Team. He's saying that the old story for Varus was "pretty linear". And the new one isn't linear? Every story needs some from of linearity, you're writing a story not an RPG, the current new lore also suffers from being linear. He also refers to it in a tone that sounds like a complete disregard to that story. Do you have any idea of the depth that goes for old Varus? He was a skillful and exceptional individual forced to make a decision between the village he lived in (and most importantly his family) and his duty as Warden. Trying to protect his family and the people in the village meant that the Corruption could escape and bring the world to ruins. Staying to guard the pit meant almost certain death for his family and everyone else he knew in the village. He was torn apart between the two options and chose to stay for the greater good losing everything he cared about in the process. He was left with nothing to lose and nothing to protect so he unleashed the corruption and gained new strength to hunt down the murderers of his family. An entire story about ideology, conflict of morals and fall from grace that could be greatly expanded, the Narrative team representative calls linear. I call bullshit.

  • 3:58 - No, Varus isn't just the bow, waving your hand as if to completely objectify his story into one object doesn't work if what you're after is to enhance his backstory. It looks childish and unprofessional, your audience isn't 80% kids, your video is addressed to a mature audience for the most part.

  • 5:12 - Yes it had to be driven by very strong emotions. Wasn't that was in his old lore already? Instead of preserving the idea of his family, creating a story for the creation of his family, the upbringing of his son and the devastation he feels after their loss, these are replaced by a pair of hunters with romantic feelings for each other. The idea doesn't break the lore, how you handled it did. They also mention they were looking for strong emotions. What's more powerful: Varus as a feather witnessing the slaughtered body of his wife and son or Val dragging Kai-who isn't dead yet-to the pit?

  • 6:02 - TL/DR Ultimately the power of friendship and love prevails over evil. The comics establish a great idea of connection between Kai-Val-Varus which starts to become interesting, only to have the lamest of conclusions.

  • 6:30 - I saw through the entire story. Varus is no longer a real character, he has been reduced to a cliche "love conquers all" story. In reality both the hunters would have been consumed by Varus the Darkin, they have no special abilities to withstand his presence or subdue him. They themselves mention realism, we get the opposite of that.

The entire video does two things: 1) It provides the idea behind the new lore for Varus and 2) tries to brush his old lore aside as if it didn't stand up to the new lore while providing excuses for altering his background to such an extent. The new lore has no gray areas, no question of morals, not the same powerful emotions his old story had. You think it was expanded? Every interesting part in it was removed, so allow me to call it simplified. The art is cool, the visuals are great, but the story is lackluster and seems more like a fanfiction rather than actual lore. It is flawed in multiple areas whereas the old lore was perfect and only needed more details added to it. I don't expect his lore to revert since Riot went to great lengths this time to establish the new lore. But to me, Varus will keep his former lore, expanded through the Darkin theme. The new story doesn't move me or make me question morality in any way, it feels lackluster so I disregard it from being cannon, just like you disregarded what made his character interesting.

To anyone who stuck with my analysis to the end, thank you and may your arrows strike true.

31 Comments

ModAcademy Kayn11/30/2017, 8:32:32 PM9 votes

I'll address this by the same time as your comments.

3:36: You're confusing Details and Story together. You are talking purely about the details of Varus's story, not the actual direction of the story. Linear Stories can still have themes, details, motivation, etc.

3:58: It's called Kinesics, when people use motion to demonstrate a message. Him "waving" his hand, was just him mimicking the grip of a bow, to go along with what he was saying. You also misunderstand what he meant. He explicitly said "When you look at Varus**", when you first see him or his splash for the first time. Out of everything, the most eye drawing aspect is most certainly the Bow he's wielding. People want to know what's up with this bow.

I mean, hell, look at his splash, his bow occupies the entire foreground of the picture. https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/1/16/Varus_OriginalSkin.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170615204206

5:12: Most definitely, it would be him dragging Val to the pit. While Old Varus has the choice of choosing family or Duty, ask any Soldier, and most the time he'll say Duty. While that's pretty humanizing, it's not as humanizing as choosing something akin to "I have the ability to save my lover or I can let him die". The effect isn't an aftereffect, it's currently happening in real time.

It's much stronger a feeling, to actually hold the love of your life in your hand, and having to choose whether he'll live ("live") or die. The effect of Varus's family dying is off-screen, so I argue that it doesn't hold as much as the "I'm here with you" type of scene. Hell, in Varus's old Lore, I think it's pretty implied that he knows that his family could potentially die, yet he still chooses Duty. He's already come to terms that his family might die, and their death only becomes an after effect, not something he truly experiences.

6:02: What connection ya talking about?

6:30: All Varus really had for him was a tragic backstory. There was no reason for him to involve himself with any of the other Ionian champions, other than them just randomly stumbling across him and give the whole "Give up yo vengeance." line. He is what people have criticized some current lores today, where they're self-contained bubbles.

What were his motives? Revenge against noxians. Potential Story conflicts? "Maybe I shouldnt?" How do you resolve any story with Varus? Personally, I had my Soraka x Varus ship, which was about her trying to save him, and him being unable to move on, but even I can't reasonably lead myself to believe that I could end that story in any way that isn't Varus dying. Just listen to his VO, there is no mention at all for him trying to fight the corruption.

He knows he's on borrowed time, but he is outright a fully broken man, whose only using his remaining time to kill. There is no resolving arc that isn't him getting rid of the corruption (Which lessens the impact of him getting corrupted in the first place), or him getting all the revenge he could want, which probably won't happen. There is simply no resolution, no reason to meaningfully interact with anyone, (Save a fightscene with Noxians), but then you just set him back as a purely antagonist character for other people to have to deal with.

I won't deny that the change has rubbed people the wrong way, but the old lore is not as nearly thorough or good as we think it is.

Dakuraigun11/30/2017, 9:49:48 PM6 votes

See, as someone who plays Varus a lot, I actually enjoyed his previous story, but it left me longing for more. I was looking for more details, how the weapon came to be there, and how it managed to change him so violently, and the fact it was slowly killing him.

This story reinvented the timeline in a way that gives the character more of a personality, or more three, if you will. Varus is nothing but pure Vengeance, wanting to destroy everyone and everything in sight, but feeding into Val's need for vengeance for Noxians killing Kal, which still molds to the main story arc and adds in characters that better define the entity that is Varus. Do I sense a VO updatye? I would love one, mainly because they should if they're going to completely change his back story. I wouldn't mind a 3 way conversation in his VO's, which would add a new layer of depth into new Varus. As I'm gay myself yes I am a sucker for new gay themes, and I like they way they incorporated it into Varus like they did because it better fleshed out him as a spirit of vengeance for his fallen Darkin brethren, and now he has to deal with the two voices in his head attempting to usurp control from him, however I did like the old story only for the fact it was more of a choice of self-sacrifice, but don't like it because it only spoke of corruption, but doesn't specify what kind, only that it's killing him slowly and painfully. Here it's more of a complete idea, where it's fulfilling the wish of the bearer in multiple facets, both having his love with him alive in a way and having his vengance sated, if only for a time, by killing Noxians. It gives a lot of design space for other characters as well because he was basically an outcast and didn't really have a purpose in the soon-to-probably-be-conjoined-storylines. Here he is given a meaning and a story behind why he is who he is and a deeper look at the inner turmoil he faces.

I enjoy this and commend how it was executed, and can't wait for them to streamline this in game, be it in a VO update or visuals to accompany it. I wait with open arms.

Also, wouldn't Varus be referred to as They instead of He now? Because the whole three entities thing or whatever, and Varus is the main entity but is being fought by the two separate ones. Just curious.

Weiss Guertena11/30/2017, 9:20:07 PM4 votes

This is one situation in which I'm glad Riot doesn't so small-scale model/VO updates anymore. Varus' VO doesn't fit new lore at all, and as such he isn't the character depicted there. This means that since actual Varus characetr doesn't fit his own story, I can completely disregard it.

Lord Phazanor 11/30/2017, 9:42:01 PM4 votes

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/1fBLUb9W-im-somewhat-disappointed-with-varus-new-lore?show=flat&comment=00180002000000030000
In the 7th Rioter Comment. DyQuill says he's gonna answer those questions after the full lore release. One of those questions is "If there is overwhelmingly feedback what actions will be done?". I want the answer now!

SanKakU12/1/2017, 3:44:48 AM2 votes

Varus had really good voice work. I'm sad he's going to lose it, but in the end it's not like I listen to voices while I play nowadays so I'll always remember his old voice anyway.

Fenikkusu112/1/2017, 5:33:11 AM2 votes

BUT OUR LIBERALISM!

Chembaron Yamada12/1/2017, 12:17:40 PM1 votes

  1. His past might be kinda linear, like you said. The difference is that Varus future isn't linear. Old Varus was just a grieving guy killing for vengeance until he dies. New Varus has conflict. The 2 guys in him could be able to defeat Varus and free themselves again. Or Varus could kill them and control the body. The story now becomes more interesting than just a guy killing people until he can't anymore.

  2. Why do you think it is unrealistic that they resist the Darkin together? Kayn is able to resist a Darkin on his own because he has strong willpower. So we gotta assume that a Darkin is mostly a test for your psychological strength. While they might be too weak to resist him alone, it is logical that the presence of the other one gives them stability. Going through an hard psychological test can become easier if there is a loved one with you to support.

NewGuy10112/2/2017, 12:11:58 AM1 votes

3:36 - The person speaking is from the Narrative Team. He's saying that the old story for Varus was "pretty linear". And the new one isn't linear? Every story needs some from of linearity, you're writing a story not an RPG, the current new lore also suffers from being linear. He also refers to it in a tone that sounds like a complete disregard to that story. Do you have any idea of the depth that goes for old Varus? He was a skillful and exceptional individual forced to make a decision between the village he lived in (and most importantly his family) and his duty as Warden. Trying to protect his family and the people in the village meant that the Corruption could escape and bring the world to ruins. Staying to guard the pit meant almost certain death for his family and everyone else he knew in the village. He was torn apart between the two options and chose to stay for the greater good losing everything he cared about in the process. He was left with nothing to lose and nothing to protect so he unleashed the corruption and gained new strength to hunt down the murderers of his family. An entire story about ideology, conflict of morals and fall from grace that could be greatly expanded, the Narrative team representative calls linear. I call bullshit.

thank you.

NewGuy10112/2/2017, 1:28:38 AM1 votes

Another note that I mentioned elsewhere, the story is not bad, but it's not Varus. The only real reason the couple dynamic exists to to explain why Varus isn't transformed as drastically as Aatrox and Rhaast, which could just be easily explained that Varus prefers a more human body for agility or for shooting or whatever; it's pretty simple. Or (assuming old lore) we could say that since Varus (the Darkin, let's just call the human ValKai) and ValKai both want vengeance, the transformation is a mutual one as opposed to a complete takeover; Varus let's ValKai control the body for now until the Noxus threat is eradicated, but will take over once the other Darkin gather.