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Will Kennen and Akali get any development soon?

SlyTactician ·7/5/2017, 9:52:16 PM·6 votes·964 views

I mentioned this in a previous thread...however, at this point it really is bugging me as to how little we've heard about the two characters - Kennen and Akali.

We've witnessed the lores of both Jhin and Kayn - two champions who are from Ionia and both have connections to Shen and Zed; leaders of the Kinkou and Order of Shadows respectively. However, barely any mention of Kennen and Akali are given outside of Akali's cameo at the end of one of Jhin's short stories and a passing mention from a Rioter that Kennen was probably the oldest ninja of the group due to being a yordle. Kayn doesn't even appear to have any interaction quotes towards Akali and Kennen as well despite his familiarity with Shen.

At this point, Kennen and Akali are simply Shen's sidekicks and are the yordle ninja/electric mage and female ninja in terms of importance to the game. Both characters have existed so long; yet, there have been barely any mention for the two as well. I love all three members of the Kinkou Order and I personally am hoping to know more about how they interact with each other and especially their personalities (Akali's supposed past with Zed which pushes her to want to kill him while Kennen is said to be a prankster who is also willing to redeem Zed on the other hand).

Even Shen's rework and his new lore mentions little about his companions other than that he continues to work with both Kennen and Akali at his side in certain missions. While Akali is currently pending for a VGU herself - what does this mean for Kennen? He hasn't been mentioned to getting a VGU anytime soon (at least compared to Akali) - so will both ninjas get a new lore when Akali's VGU is revealed or will he also get a minor VGU at the same time of Akali's update (similar to the Morgana/Kayle update)?

I'm curious to know how Zed feels about the two as well as we've seen plenty of interactions towards Shen himself from various champions including the soon to be released Kayn; however, there has been little about Akali and Kennen at all despite the fact that the Kinkou Order has been mentioned in both Xayah and Rakan's lore while Kayn himself is soon to be released as a member of the Order of the Shadows. Both Kinkou members are literal blank slates at this point and may very well not exist so far as there has been little to no mention of them in the past two years especially with the amount of Ionian lore we've received as well.

8 Comments

Monotachi7/6/2017, 12:14:32 AM4 votes

Posted in another thread, but speculations about Akali:

In the original AMA for Zed's release, it mentioned Zed had a former favourite student that left his order. It is heavily hinted that it is Akali, due to her out-of-place title in the Kinkou Order - the Fist of Shadows -> a title that sounds much more fitting for the Order of the Shadow. She also has abilities that could of came from Zed's teachings - Twin Disciplines, Shadow Dance.

Before Akali's passive got her rune requirements removed, if Akali is near Zed when he uses his dance, the shadow that spawns from the dance will trigger red/green lights on it's wrists just like Akali's passive lights - along with the activation sounds. Also clicking on the shadow one time on the PBE when the HUD got updated, the shadow will show Akali as it's portrait. Another hint is that death recap when slained by Zed used to have Akali in there as well, doing 1 damage.

With her being placed on the VGU list, hopely they get to flesh out the lore-relation connections much more. Especially amping-up the visual and gameplay thematic of Shadow Dance. This should be a skill that something Zed could make use of. Currently in-game, the visuals are awful, and gameplay-wise, it is just 3 simple dashes.

For lore-related speculations, I am thinking if Kayn and Akali are of similar age (there are mentions where Kayn and Akali are relatively young compared to their leaders Shen and Zed) , then both of them could of possibly been Zed's right-man/woman - forming the trio for the Order of the Shadows (probably something between Kayn and Akali happened hence why she left). Kayn's passive themes and effects are very similar to Akali's Twin Disciplines, the idea of 'two opposite halves' having two different effects. Both have one side that does bonus magic damage and the other side that gives sustain - spellvamp. It would make sense that their passives would be similar since they were students of Zed.

I'm not sure if keeping Akali a blank slate is done on purpose since they know Akali is on the VGU list, so nothing is set in stone as of yet. It wouldn't make sense to include something concrete such as voice lines unless they know a big change is happening in the future.

GreenLore7/6/2017, 9:28:51 AM2 votes

I imagine that they might leave Akali blank until she gets her VGU.

Because right now,Akali is a bit lacking in terms of thematic uniqueness,so I guess she'll get something added to her to make her stand out among the ninjas(similar to Shen who got his spirit sword)

Though I am not so sure about Kennen.They might wait for him until Akali gets her VGU,or they might update him with the yordle lore.

Krabohod7/7/2017, 2:24:52 AM1 votes

You can think about this way: everyone taunt Shen cause he is the head and the face of the order. Alkali is more of secret agent(so not a lot know her), and you could see or interact with Kennen only when you are in Order. He is kinda their old man.