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

Linna Excel··8 votes·1,765 views

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.

19 Comments

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO5 votes

I enjoy the possibility of champions to do things and develop.

MysterQ3 votes

I enjoy erasing old champions that could have developed for new champions.

Whyte Lyon1 votes

Within reason I'll always be the antithesis to this debate.

As an example I've always liked Brand as a champion and would love to appreciate his lore. So when it is eventually updated I personally hope it's nothing like the original cut. You can imagine my personal disinterest to see the mini-bio update sticks to the exact same beats as the old (still optimistic tho).

Linna Excel2 votes

You can have a story were a character does something, develops, and then the story ends. Most good stories are like this.

Beyond Legends2 votes

But Varus lore wasn't a “good” story, it was a generic story told over a thousand times over dfferent medium over years.

MysterQ4 votes

One, Evelynn passive sounds cool. A little too much like LB, but still cool.

Two, I am glad the Varus threads have died down BUT BUT BUT I don't want the community to just forget about it. Because then Riot win sin just ignoring away problems again. We need a fair balance of complaints to keep Riot accountable. Even if it is their game, they won't go back on the decision, it would be nice to see them discuss their thoughts instead of only talking about the good stuff.

Beyond Legends2 votes

No the community is going to forget this whole shit fest in a few month. Cry all you want but your complaint will fall on deaf year with little care. Unfortunately for you, everyone outside the boards think varus was a success.

Also they did talk about their decission to ret con varus lore, unfortunately it was drown in this place pathetic salt. I wouldn't be suprise if the narrative team would stop comming here all together.

Quepha3 votes

People remember Trundle and Fiora, they're going to remember Varus.

Warlord Dienekes4 votes

Out of curiosity, since I’ve been basically just sitting at the edge of this whole Varus thing. When did Riot throw their writers to the wolves?

Quepha1 votes

I also have no idea what the OP was talking about there.

Linna Excel4 votes

https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/gameplay-balance/hUHqsRdg-please-dont-rework-varus?comment=000100010000

Meddler was supporting the change in that thread fairly well for someone who isn't a story-guy. I'm just reading between the lines on the "completed storyline" bit based on some things I've seen others bring up. I think it should have stayed as a completed storyline but I think a skilled writer would have found something interesting to do if he wanted to. So by saying that the writers on hand couldn't do anything with the old varus, to me that was a passive-aggressive way of telling the boards that they suck or maybe the people in charge of the lore suck, even if that wasn't the intent.

I also think all this soap-operaisity is a consequence of riot not making enough new champs to satisfy their creative needs. I'm guessing the people in charge are feeling trapped by stories with proper finishes because that's a story and champion who should be left alone but they need to keep stories coming. They are basically shifting to a comic-book model of storytelling. Now there's clearly downsides to more champs but I'm starting to wonder if riot needs to.

Champs with one-off stories like the old trundle or old varus are fine by me. There should be more of them.

Warlord Dienekes4 votes

No no no, you are vastly misinterpreting corporate and editorial jargon.

Ok, this post will probably sound condescending pessimistic and dickish, probably because I am a condescending pessimistic dick. But it's purpose is more to demonstrate how things work.

Riot is a company. Riot's only true goal, behind every decision they make, is to make money for the company. This isn't some empty complaint. This is the way it has to be. If Riot isn't making money for themselves, then they are failing as a business. Everything else takes a back seat to that.

And just about every decision they make comes back to that paradigm. Why are there so many Star Guardian skins? Because they sell. Why were Runes Reforged? Because the old model was a barrier to entry for new players, and removing it would also create a fancy new toy to get players excited about. It's a win-win.

Why is lore getting some focus? Because it has been proved, repeatedly, that players respond to characters and stories. That's why the Overwatch fanbase goes berserk over every comic and video. Is Overwatch really that much better than Team Fortress 2? Meh, maybe. But what it does have is a bunch of unique characters front and center with a cohesive story driving a mysterious and potentially fun narrative. TF2 has good jokes.

So, when a story is being rewritten there is a purpose behind that rewrite. The purposes are usually one or more of the following:

-Reshape the character to more closely fit the LoL brand. Galio, Pantheon, etc. were like this. Is a gargoyle really unique and memorably LoL-ish? Not really. Is a Spartan? Definitely not. Is a giant anti-magic statue with golden wings? Definitely. Is a space parasite? Sure. Now I think both these lores suck, but they are definitely more LoL.

-Rewrite the character to match the direction of the new LoL lore master plan. Does the fake smiling emotionally traumatized child soldier Lux really have that much less inner turmoil and meaning when compared to the new hiding her magic Lux? No, not really. But the choice to make Demacia anti-magic required Lux to be changed to match.

-Create hype, especially among potential new players for a champion. Urgot, Yorick, and Varus will go here. Since this post will probably mostly be about Varus, I'll focus on Urgot for this. Urgot was a corpse forced to continue to serve Noxus a shambling wreck of his former self who just wanted to die. In broad strokes that's a fine character, great even. It is, however, not a character that really garners a huge fanbase willing to spend money to get him. He's depressing. So when he got reworked he became BAD ASS. A strange, yet fearsome mix of Bane and Jigsaw (from the Saw franchise). Of course, a lot of people who wanted a dark power fantasy responded to that. Does Riot really care about the fans of Urgot who really liked the old character? All 5 of them. No. Because the new Urgot is more profitable and they already have the money of anyone who wanted old Urgot. And those numbers were not high. Now they could bolster those numbers by making some damn awesome skins for old Urgot. But, that's risky. He has a small player base, there's no guarantee that people will buy the champion or buy the new awesome skin. Especially when it's more profitable to give an already popular champion a skin from an already popular skin line.

Now, let's talk about Varus. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you ask) the question of Varus has been irrevocably tied to Riot's stance on homosexuality. Let me be clear, Riot has over 130 champions. It is 2017. And only now does Riot get to plant a little flag and say "look we're open and accepting of people too! We get it. We're with you." It is 2017. That probably should have happened 5 years ago. But, because our society is a strange and somewhat reprehensible one. That's still important news. So much so, that members of Riot literally had an interview on Rolling Stone basically to give themselves a pat on the back that they are now oh so progressive.

Again, whatever the writer's original intentions. You have to look at this from the perspective of a business. Is there a reason why Riot had a whole video and interview to celebrate a piece of lore change? Not even one tied to a new skin, new champion, or new VGU? That stuff is expensive. And time-consuming. And look at the production quality, that video is gorgeous. That took a lot of time and a lot of effort. And importantly, a lot of money. You don't spend money unless you expect to make that money back.

This was done to get liberal-minded people excited. People usually have a strong powerful emotional response to characters that remind them of themselves (as a side note, this is why a lot of main characters in stories are kind of bland. It's to make it easier for the audience to realize themselves as that character). Anyway, people have been calling for homosexual characters for years now, and you bet your wallet that there will be someone who was wowed by the beauty of the video, felt a connection to the struggle of the lovers and either bought the champion or downloaded the game. A win for Riot.

But now that flag is planted. Varus is the token homosexual character for Riot. They get to show how progressive they are, and how amazing their game is.

Only, it didn't really work out as intended. Now, I'm sure that they expected some backlash, there's always some backlash when they change a piece of lore. But this one was BIG. Now, Riot has to make a choice. They can cater to the backlash or stand their ground. Only if you were paying attention at all to what I just wrote, you'd realize that there is no choice there. The amount of negative press they'd get that they un-gayed their first gay champion would be enormous! Even contemplating that is laughable. Especially after all the money they just spent in order to make sure everyone knew about their first gay champion. So, now they have to go into Damage Control Mode.

And they have a playbook for Damage Control Mode. They will say how the old lore was incompatible with the new direction of things. They'll apologize to those who liked the old lore, even seem heartfelt. But in the same post, they'll subtly (and not so subtly) imply that the old lore just wasn't very good. And if it can at all fit, they'll say how there was nowhere for the old character to go. They said the same for Trundle, they said the same for Galio, they said the same for Urgot, and now they've said the same for Varus. And it has been a heaping pile of bull every single time they've said it. But people parrot it. You'll get people who defend the change, attempting not to get tangled in the LGBT debate just saying how the old lore had no room to grow.

But, we both know that's not true. Honestly, anyone with half a mind for story arcs can tell you how that's not true. These characters are pulp heroes more than they are literary examinations. There is almost always more room to put stories for a pulp hero. This goes back to the old pre-pulp heroes. Does Herakles have a definitive arc? Yes, being turned mad by Hera and murdering his family he faces labors to find redemption. Is that the end of his story? Hell no. Does he still develop through these later stories? Hell yes. And when there's no more room to explore (which Varus had a long way left to go for that) you can still plant them as a wandering hero archetype that shows up to be awesome with a vaguely dangling plot thread of what adventures they're going on.

Now, it's easy to say that Old Varus' development wasn't dead. But, to demonstrate it, I'm just going to spitball a few ideas to prove that he could still develop.

Scenario 1: The bow finally awakens, maybe it's a Darkin maybe it isn't. They vie for control, but ultimately the sense of loss that Varus suffers leads to the bow having a change of heart, and they begin to develop together as opposed to warring for control. Scenario 2: Varus in his murderous rage finds a character like Riven, or, just Riven. A Noxian who agrees that the destruction of Ionia was pointless and is shamed for it. He starts to waver in his conviction for destroying all Noxians. Scenario 3: Varus finds out that one member of his family wasn't killed, but actually taken alive as a slave. He searches to find him/her. Only to find when they meet, that the family member has gone full Noxian, like Darius. Scenario 4: Varus finds out that the increased brutality of the Noxians invasion of Ionia was caused by Ancient Evil Number 47 in this setting, because, of course, it was. His vendetta becomes focused on stopping this new ancient threat. Scenario 5: Varus plans to cut off the Noxian war machine at its head, destroying the entire Noxian high command. However, in the destruction he causes across Noxus he starts to see reflections of his family in the lives he takes to meet his goal.

Each of those could have a plausible and even powerful emotional arc and character growth for Old Varus, which makes the statement that there was nowhere for Varus to grow ring hollow.

So why do they say it? Is it because they think we're stupid? Not really. More they're giving a beacon to rally around for their own side. They can't just straight up say "We changed Varus because we wanted to fit our diversity quota" or "we changed Urgot because we think this new version is more marketable" whether that's true or not. They have to spin it as if they tried to make the fans happy, but there just wasn't any way they could possibly do it. They're not the bad guys, Riot's not a heartless money-focused company. They're the good guys. They love you and these champions. The old lore just wouldn't work, and trust them, no one is sorrier about that than them. Truly.

And that's not evil or even all that manipulative. That's just good business sense.

Linna Excel1 votes

But going back to my OP, why not just make kayne the gay one?

Given Varus's lore of two people being consumed by the weapon and kayne having the red pill/blue pill option it seems like that lore would have functioned better on Kayne. That's a big problem if you ask me. You've got a champ who's entire gameplay would much more easily work around this specific lore. Why screw up an old character people like when riot could have created a nice shiny yaoi edgelord instead?

  • You still get the quota you were aiming for.
  • You've got a champion whose gameplay reflects the lore.
  • You've got a deeper and more conflicted champion for future stories.
  • You can do blue kayne as the calm, cool guy and red kayne as the hot tempered boyfriend. You then set up the weapon as trying set up and feed off of the conflict because it wins no matter what in the long run. It's simple but it works.
  • People aren't unhappy about a champion getting screwed up.
  • Varus' lore rework had to have been started while kayne was in development, this could have easily been put on to kayne then if varus' rework team didn't just steal the idea to begin with.
Warlord Dienekes1 votes

Because Kayn was going to be designed around the angry teenager angst demographic, who still thinks that saying "Death! Murder! Kill!" and being moody makes you deep and special. Remember, Riot is a business far before they have a political agenda. I don't have any hard numbers, but I'm willing to bet that the edgy teenager demographic is less interested in the increased visibility of homosexuality in the shared cultural conscious.

Beyond Legends1 votes

It's a shame that there aren't more people like you Warlord, atleast you're willing to look at this debacle logically. I don't agree with you most of the time, but atleast you're willing to see this outside the pathetic salt fest.

GreenLore3 votes

About your 1. point: I don't think that riot plans to make someone else into a darkin.Varus with his organic bow and his lore where his body is slowly overtaken by a dark entity simply fitted the darkin lore too much to ignore.

Tegash2 votes

Reading the comics has implied that there are two more Darkin on the way actually. We've only seen three of them.

Hopefully these two will be new champions instead of just rehashes of. Say. Annie.

Annie is a darkin now. Soraka is a darkin now.

I think that's more what the OP was getting at.

GreenLore2 votes

Yeah,but none of the remaining champions really fit the darkin-theme anyway,so there is no real reason to assume that any of the other champions are gonna be turned into darkins. Varus was simply a champion who fitted the darkin theme so much,that it would have been odd if he wasn't connected to them,but no other champion fits the theme that much.

The only one who would even have a small chance of getting turned into a darkin is Irelia,but honestly that really feels doubtful considering that it'd be a gigantic change in design.

Robertsmash2 votes

I agree with you that some champions should have stories that end. Varus would have been great for that, but the infinite story potential gimmick they want for every champion feels pretty bad, and it's making me apprehensive about the future direction of champion lore.

I'm not sure I agree with you on your point about Amumu and Sona - I want to learn more about them because their lore atm is pretty vague or lacking. Sure, Amumu is just a lonely zombie, but I'd like to know who he was in life and why he became a zombie. Maybe a story about what he does these days in Shurima. He definitely doesn't need a huge arc or anything - just a story about him trying to find a friend, and probably hurting people around him.

Again, I see Sona as having more potential than a simple "heal or kill with music" chick. She could have a music focused story about how she moves a concert audience and manipulates their emotions through her total mastery over the etwahl; delicately, expertly, and subtly lacing her melodies with magic that opens the listeners' hearts and allows the music to affect their soul. Again, not an infinite arc (although she does use magic on unknowing victims in an anti-magic society), but just more depth than what we have now without retconning anything about who she is. This kind of lore treatment is what many of the old champs need imo.

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