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The tragedy of Sion's bio is that Sion is no longer a tragic character.

Ralanr·5/31/2019, 6:01:14 PM·27 votes·12,555 views

When Sion was first reworked and had his lore changed, we were given a connection to someone who knew him when alive (Boram) who decided to bring him back to life. Now, whether Boram brought Sion back because he needed his closest ally returned, a good general, or a more practical reason, we're not sure and based on the current lore that doesn't matter. What did matter was that Boram didn't expect Sion to become the monster we all know and love. A being so uncontrollable that he decided to lock him away.

The point being, Sion's warmachine like form was a mistake (or an intentional mistake from the Black Rose) brought on by a desperate man to a being who trusted him dearly. Sion's tragedy was that the man who he was before has been shattered, brought back unwillingly and unable to realize just how much he's been twisted. He's become the monster that everyone imagined he was in life.

The problem is that other people's perceptions of other people aren't 100% accurate. We still know very little on who Sion was when he was alive. We know his actions (though his "throwing the cowardly person in charge" section in his knew lore reads too much like old Darius to me) and we know his accomplishments, but that doesn't really mean much to invest in his character imo. Without some semblance of the person he was when alive, some reason to be sympathetic to the man looking in a fractured mirror, there is no tragedy behind him. He's just a dude that did a thing and became a weapon because of the thing.

Idk how many other Sion mains are like me, and I know that we as players cannot get the lore we want. But I figured that the purpose of new bios is to give us new information to work with. And outside of "last of a warrior culture" and rearranging the timeline of events so that Boram wasn't a near-immortal tyrant (because that was the reason why Boram used to be around since J1), all the new Biography does is just readjust what we already know.

I wanted to know who Sion was in life. If he had people he cared about, or if there were people who cared about him. Yes, I'll admit I'm a bit too stuck to my own headcanons that Sion is an ancestor to Riven, but when you don't have a solid idea of what a character was like then headcanon becomes more prominent.

Now granted, we don't need to know a whole lot about a character to have them be tragic. The best example of this is Warwick's new lore. We don't really know concrete details of who Warwick really was or who really knew him before he turned. We have suggestions, with Singed's observations of him and Warwick's interactions with Jinx, but nothing that actually stats Warwick was 100% X. What we have an idea of is that Warwick was a horrible man that was trying to be a better person, only to have that door slammed in his face as Singed kidnapped and mutated him. Warwick is tragic because he's a monster who tried to be good, but has been forced to become a monster. Yet despite this transformation, he tries to focus on harming those worth it. It's kinda like Krieg from Borderlands 2.

The key thing here is that we know a desire from Warwick, and we see it ripped away. We don't know why he had this desire, but we have it. With Sion, his desire as we know was to defeat the Demacians that were pushing away Noxus. He accomplished this with his death, but then people brought him back. Based on this, his character shouldn't have a problem being undead and killing, but his in game lines, lines written with his intended lore at the time, paint him as being possibly sickened by what he's become for the short lucid moments he has.

Sion is a monster, but he is also a man. We know the monster, and we know the legend, but we don't know about the man behind it all. Who was he really? Did he love? Did people love him? Was he driving forward to J1 knowing he was leaving people he cared about behind, or was he truly just a Noxian patriot who cared only about how many flags they planted?

This is what I want to know, and this new biography doesn't answer this for me. Maybe it does for others and I can't see it. I can only hope that Riot treats Sion as a character in the future, rather than an obstacle to be overcome by someone else.

17 Comments

Frontline Fury5/31/2019, 8:42:51 PM8 votes

I've always been thinking this, and about Urgot as well. Letting us know who they used to be will do a lot to tell us who they have become. At the moment they just feel empty, like comic book villains that show up for one issue.

NotaRobot10065/31/2019, 8:01:55 PM6 votes

You raise a lot of valid points. Some of my favorite Sion lines are the more reflective ones, and I would have liked to see more of the reason behind that reflection in his bio.

I guess I count as a Sion main, for what it's worth. He's my first (and thus far only) M7.

GelsominoKiller5/31/2019, 10:45:42 PM6 votes

I have come to hate and fear lore retcon. The new work is frankly not at the same level of the old one. We witnessed so many downgrades, and fortunately avoided disasters like:

  • Varus losing his whole "duty vs love" personal dilemma, and his identity as one of the very few parents in league of legends.

  • the internals at Riot somehow (but how is beyond me) being ok with stripping Nautilus of his lore to give it to Pyke.

The worse part? Ruining those great pieces of characterization is very often needless and arbitrary. The stories shorten and simplify; they become more vague, and core thematics can entirely disappear.

Warlord Dienekes6/1/2019, 1:02:50 AM5 votes

Was waiting for this post from you. But yeah, chalk me up as in agreement. The new lore takes all the character complexity and intrigue of the character and writes it out of the lore. Which is the exact opposite of what (most) fans of the character want.

We already know Sion was a badass. It’s LoL every Noxian is badass. But now his only character trait before being turned into Zombie Hulk is badass. And that’s boring.

Ahri Baka5/31/2019, 7:51:11 PM2 votes

Sion x Leona best ship

Zabulus5/31/2019, 10:22:15 PM2 votes

Sion so far based off what I can recall and read was the literal Embodiment of Noxus. Had no fear of death and his drive is what drove noxus to winning a lot of battles especially against Damacia. This made him 100% a fucking legend and his game style compliments it. but you are right about him we want who Sion really was. We knew he was a bad ass but can we find out if he was a true hero if he had a lover, if he was the king of noxus right hand man, RIOT you gave us sion but we want Boram.

YaraUwU6/1/2019, 4:28:58 AM1 votes

All i know about sion is hes a dude that died killing some dude then some other dude brought him back to life.

Oh and he seems to be angry all the time.

AbiwonKenabi5/31/2019, 10:40:39 PM1 votes

I don't know if they've changed Boram to be NOT near immortal, because that seems like the only reason they would change his connection with Sion. Darkwill always felt like he should have very clear Black Rose connections, and the near immortality is one possible perk of that. Or perhaps the near immortality was what kept High Command out of the Black Rose's grasp for so long. Either way, it was one thing that was iconic about this really distinct supporting character. Darkwill is one of the oldest and longest lasting supporting (non-Champion) League has, and with good reason, and I want to see him still involved and done justice.

But yeah, the nuance Sion had between the scream-y terrifying juggernaut vs the clarity he occasionally gains seems to be gone, and that's really a shame. That is what Sion a bit more interesting. One of my favorite lines is Sion realizing he might not be serving the same Grand General he remembers, heck he might turn on Swain if he was ever aware enough to realize it wasn't Darkwill. Even if this nuance is still here, its not made very clear in the bio.

Whyte Lyon6/1/2019, 3:25:18 AM1 votes

We've been told numerous times and should already be fully understanding that Biographies are a super broad summary about a character's origins/background. Comparable to a Wikipedia account, you get all the necessary information and nothing more. Yet time again, we get threads of this nature yammering on about how the new bio has 'lost or missing the entire essence' of the character... shocking.

People seem to always be looking for the emotional depth to their favourite character in the wrong place, bios aren't written to have that compelling deep dive that explores the emotional and nuanced depth. You can almost always find the meat and gravy your looking for in the character's extended stories. Take Ashe for example, her bio is fairly linear and reads in a particularly boring fashion, then you read her comic and oh boy is it vastly superior at conveying the character. Go read her comic, dont bother with the bio it's only useful as a very basic intro.

It only sucks that we have to wait and be patient still for that.