A few things about the Varus rework that hasn't been touched on so much.

Now that the initial reaction to Varus' rework is starting to die down, here are a few things I'd like to touch on that have been bothering me:

1. I'm sick of Darkin now. I'll be the first to admit that when Aatrox was first released I didn't and still don't care for him. Not all champs appeal to everyone and that's fine. I never really gave him much attention after that unless I saw a youtuber talking about him or saw him in game. Then Kayne came out and while I was a little disappointed that the scythe champ wasn't a gothic lolita, I think he's fine now except for being a little too edgy and more anime than Naruto's fan base could have hoped for.

However with Varus being reworked into being a darkin, I'm kind of sick of these bastards now. Maybe it's because the change was too soon after Kayne. Maybe its because the old lore of a non-darkin corruption was fine and seeing things being retconned in a poor comic book style for continuity sake was BS. Maybe there was some extra backlash in there because riot deleted evelynn two months ago and while some people liked the change, deleting older lores needs to be more spread out and sparingly used.

For me personally, I'm sick of Darkin and it seems like the Varus rework was the turning point for me. I mean yeah I could see nightbringer yasuo being made into a canon skin because he's the next in line to be darkin-fied and he really did kill his ward when his possessed blade awakened, but that doesn't mean riot should do that.

Ease off for awhile guys. Not everything needed or needs to be retconned into a darkin because of some terrible bastardization of continuity that only 10% of the fandom gets off on.

2. Not everything needs to be a bleeping soap opera. One of the stated reasons for the rework was that there was no were for Varus' story to go.

First of all, BS. Make the captain or general or whoever killed his family a champion. Second of all, just tell his story that ends with his death at the hands of his enemies, his corruption by the dark force, or his suicide because he was too close to getting fully corrupted and knew he couldn't enact his revenge.

Second of all, stories are fine if they end. The three act structure is a thing but the infinity act structure, not so much. You tell a story, it ends, move on to something else. This is why there was never a Romeo and Juliet part 27: the Necromancer Calls In His Favor or a Citizen Kane 12: Finally Elected. It's fine if stories end. Stories are suppose to end. You need a denouement and resolution. Most people are expecting it.

Let league stories end. You guys made he same mistake with trundle and now you are repeating it. I don't want to see Amumu reworked into everyone's best buddy or a mummy themed yordle strippergram. He died, he's a lonely zombie, the end. Sona's a mute chick with music that can heal or kill. The end.

Let the stories end.

3. Is riot creating a hostile working environment? While I can't speak for riot employees, part of me thinks that when your publicly stated reason for reworking a lore involves subtly telling the community that your lore team is a bunch of rejects you found in the DCU dumpster fire, that can't be good for morale. Even if they know its a lie, telling the boards that your writers suck and making them public scapegoats can't exactly be pleasant. I mean if they really do suck, that's a different story. If the lore team needs new leadership, then it does. Number 2 suggests you might. However in most cases, maybe you shouldn't be blaming your employees when they are doing the job you are paying them to do.

If they are bad, you could be a little more quiet about sacking them instead of publicly shaming them for being hacks who can only write bad slashfics.

4. Riot doesn't understand when to make new champs This has been a pet peeve for awhile now. I totally get the need to do reworks, even if some of them are objectively trash.

However I think riot needs to make more champs based on how they are doing these reworks. I know riot has heard the fans complaints about needing to rework older champs. However except for CertainlyT, I don't think riot has the capability to consistently do reworks justice. To me it seems pretty clear that riot has new ideas that they want to do and should be doing via new champs. The Darkin varus theme should have been a new champ from the ground up and not a rework of an old one. To me it feels like you take an idea that in the past would have been a new champion and use reworks to pivot an old champ into something it's not.

THIS IS NOT AN ARGUMENT AGAINST REWORKS! This is basically me calling riot's intentions out. They want and need to make new champs. That's very clear. However reworks need to be more about refining and fixing instead of rebooting a champ into what the crap is this monstrosity I'm looking at.

Case in point, if riot just announced a brand new darkin character based on the idea of varus's current lore: two guys consumed by a darkin weapon and trying to fight it off with the power of love and friendship, I'm willing to guess the reaction would have been a lot different. Specifically, I think a lot of the negative reaction would be non-existent because you guys didn't retcon a champion that was fine. Shoot, if Kayne's lore was two bromantics getting access to the darkin weapon, one being tempted by it and the other refusing it and being sucked into a new being, I think that would have made Kayne a lot more edgier, a lot more anime (yaoi), and would have provided a clear piggybacking on to his gameplay and themes.

Based on gameplay, Kayne would have been a better option for your gay darkin and it would have saved a lot of grief. This is why we can't have nice things, your lore team can't tell a champ obviously designed to be the yaoi champ is in fact the yaoi champ and pushes that onto completely the wrong person. If you did this riot, you'd have a unique champ. The blade just wants to be used, one of them wants to go blue pill because it is too dangerous and the other wants to go red pill because the power is worth the risk. Now you've got an interesting conflict in the relationship.

Riot had their perfect opportunity and they blew it.

This is like riot saying we want a J-cup ADC and then buffing Jinx's bust size when MF completely exists. Or you know, just making another ADC with big titties. Maybe she could be a right-clicker and crit builder since riot seems on forcing MF into the ADmage role. You know, it's been awhile since we've had a champ with a 3-hit passive.

Either way, don't put something on to a champion where it was never intended and doesn't belong. If there's something you'd like to add to league and there's no great fit for it on an existing champ, make a bloody new one around that. Also, if you have the opportunity to do something on one champ and blow it, don't screw up a different champ because you screwed the first one up.

5. Riot didn't get Varus Possession and mental illness (hearing voices/multiple personality disorder) was never Varus' theme. He was about falling, corruption, and tragedy. I mean I've heard great things about that Hellblade game's theme, but that character is Senua not Varus. If you guys want to do a possessed champion with mental illness, that's your call, but it needs to be a new champion.

Mental illness is a great avenue to explore, just do it on a champ created from ground up to support it. Take evelynn, it would have been really cool if you guys decided to make her theme core paranoia instead of a shadowlust demon. I mean her gameplay is about making people scared she's there and paranoid about her. Why not take advantage of that and explore that if you guys are interested in mental illness?

For example: what if Evelynn's passive also occasionally made a faint image of her appear randomly on the enemy's screens like she was coming in for a gank or running away from you. I mean that'd be awesome because people would be seeing ganks that aren't happening and would really get freaked out by it. Maybe the other jungler would think she's invading, react, only to find there was nothing really there. Then if she gets fed, you're suddenly terrified that her illusion might be the real deal. If she's not and you see her running away, you get frustrated and lazy after seeing that's not her... again. I mean you guys had the perfect opportunity to take a champion and really get into player's heads with it, and you make some cheap and terrible charm mechanic instead.

This is what really pisses me off, even when you guys want to do something interesting you waste opportunities left and right. Evelynn: Agent of Paranoia would have been so much cooler than what she is now. That would have perfectly fit in with old BDSM evelynn as well: she's making you anticipate and fear your incoming punishment because you are constantly reminded she's coming for you. Maybe add in a mechanic to encourage you to go gank someone who's seen illusions of her recently since riot loves its minigames.