Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

ONE Big Gripe I Have with the New Void Stuff

AbiwonKenabi·3/3/2018, 12:52:38 AM·15 votes·3,237 views

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I'm sure most of us have seen, but new Void lore is live. And while on the whole, I do really like it (especially the short story "Where Icathia Once Stood") I have one big gripe. Well, that's a lie, I almost never have only one gripe. But I do have one gripe that I think is most relevant.

Malzahar never meets Kaisa nor Kassadin. Ever. Presumably Kaisa and Kassadin spoke a lot (though the particulars of their relationship are never elaborated on, and they aren't even mentioned by name in each others' biographies), but Malzahar never speaks to either of them. I know the JoJ has long been non-canon, but one strength the Malz vs Kass storyline had over this newly imagined one is that Kassadin was present for the Void mishap and failed. Malzahar personally plucked Kass's daughter and sacrificed her to the Void. Kassadin and Malz clashed, and had a standing unresolved conflict BEFORE and AFTER, only it had escalated. Do you see what I'm getting at? This was way more personal for both of them.

I'm not suggesting Riot return to the exact plot detailed in the Journal of Justice, but I feel like this is a trap writers fall into very frequently. Having a protagonist and antagonist never face off before the "final showdown" is a mistake, and one that's easily avoidable. Obviously, Malz, Kass and even Kai'Sa will hopefully have opportunities for this in the future, but I feel with a few small tweaks, this could have been avoided.

I see a few options they could have gone with:

Option 1: Malzahar comes to town, preaching about the Void, Kassadin shrugs it off as the ravings of a lunatic. Kass leaves for one of his jobs. Meanwhile, Malz talks to Kaisa and being the spunky, brave, just-wants-to-help girl she is, she takes some of his advice to heart. She doesn't just "accidentally" release the goats, she purposefully brings the goats (giving her more agency in the story) to the spot Malzahar told her about. Boom, Void stuff happens, the story continues as is. They don't even have to name Malzahar specifically, they can just say "The Prophet" or "creepy hooded lunatic". That can be part of Kass's bio to figure him out and stop the Void, etc.

Option 2: Keep some of the JoJ's dramatic tension, have the big Void blowout happen when Kassadin is around, and he can stare Malzahar in the eyes as the Prophet cackles and leaves. Kassadin is a safe distance or escapes early or something, but is unable to go in and save his family. And this way he can still be Void-touched maybe, I think that was a big loss, too. Kaisa can have the story of Option 1 or her lore as is.

I think these little changes could amp up the drama way more. Suddenly, there's a name and a face to these arch-rivals. Kassadin doesn't just randomly hear about him in a drunken stupor or anything, the motivation is immediately present. Malzahar knows about this guy, too, even if he doesn't realize what a threat he will turn out to be. I was also disappointed by the complete lack of Kassadin fighting any Void-related things (alcolytes, monsters, nada) in his bio. Again, having him be present would help this.

Its small things like this that I think can go a long way in improving Riot's writing. That said, as I mentioned earlier, Where Icathia Once Stood was fantastic. The Void felt properly terrifying, learned some about Icathia and probably met a certain Champion... And the writing itself is good, too.

Please discuss your feelings as well. I am curious to see what everyone thinks of the new stuff. :)

44 Comments

Ebonmaw Dragon3/3/2018, 12:56:25 AM6 votes

But the lore of Kassadin do mention "The Prophet" and im pretty sure that they both (He and Kaisa) blame him for what happened to the village... Sure, they dont know his name, but they know that he exist and what he does.

They dragged him back to Zirima, but Kassadin would go no further. For years, he tried to drown his grief, reduced to little more than a vagrant… until word reached town of “the Prophet.”

In that moment, Kassadin swore that he would avenge his wife and daughter, by destroying this insidious Prophet, and the source of his abyssal power.

DarkSoul19943/3/2018, 5:39:50 AM5 votes

My biggest issue is actually that Kassadin is no longer corrupted by the Void in his new lore. He just has a bunch of tech and various blessings from mages and what not. It doesn't even make sense from a gameplay perspective seeing as in-game the origin of his powers is clearly the void.

What was the logic here? At best Riot made his weird Dark Vader VO make a bit more sense due to the Zaunite Augmentation so unless he's on the VGU list...

FlameHalbrdOkido3/3/2018, 6:47:42 AM3 votes

Also they need to put the part back in about Kass seeing the void, how would he know what to arm himself with if he's seen nothing to prepare for?

Beacon Academy3/3/2018, 5:02:36 AM3 votes

Malzahar changed from "mortal enemy" to "final boss" for Kassadin... lol

warmcorntortilla3/3/2018, 11:51:55 AM3 votes

I personally think Riot's been ruining, like, a lot of their stories with this new lore update? I think the lore in general was more interesting and unique when a lot of different people were working on it, it felt really disjointed and wild, but that's kind of how Runeterra feels, too.

Anybody with even a passing understanding of screenwriting 101 knows that the higher the stakes, the more personal the motivation, the more compelling the story. The fact that Malzahar and Kassadin have no... interaction at all makes their story so, so, so boring. Now, instead of wanting to prove himself, avenge his family, make up for the mistake he made, now he's just a Dude with a Cause and also a Drinking Problem. Like, yes, there is a connection between what happened to Kassadin and his family and Malzahar, but before it was this huge, dramatic, climatic moment (almost like... an inciting incident!) and then Kassadin's ultimate, utter failure to protect the people he loved the most. And all of this was super personal, it wasn't just a noble cause, it was personal, and that made it feel SO good when you murdered Malzahar as Kassadin in game. There have been multiple times I've been playing Kass into Malzahar and, upon killing him, said something out loud in the room akin to "that's for my daughter, b*tch". Like, it was so personal.

Now it's so much less personal. Idk I think the Void used to be a really cool concept and Riot kinda ruined it.

underscores2223/3/2018, 3:01:20 AM1 votes

I feel like this is classic "Phase I" lore. Many areas that have gotten new lore have only had the groundwork for the world built - champ interactions within the lore are almost unheard of (though references and nods exist). "Phase I" is riot setting up each character on their own in the world and then hitting go, sending them off to bump into each other as time goes on. Unfortunately, this has resulted in most areas not having as many champ connections as existed in previous lore simply because there has been almost no return to any of the "Phase I" lore areas yet. Bilgewater is kinda a unique case in that respect, though I believe the lore team indicated they wanted to touch base on the Frelijord sometime this year, which could mean we get to see some inter-character action going on there.

Anyway, it seems the focus on the lore released today was to set the three characters up. We know Malz is "pro-void" and Kassadin has heard of him and blames him for what happened to his family - which indicates that there will probably be that confrontation you desire sometime in the future. We don't actually know if Kai'sa is Kassadin's daughter yet (though in game references seem to indicate yes) since nothing ties their lore together aside from situational circumstance and implication. (similar to the Jinx/Vi sister question)

I would expect to see more regarding this as time goes on, but it could be a very long while before we revisit these characters' lore.

Killaburn3/3/2018, 6:53:24 AM1 votes

wait for kassadin and malzahar's color story. maybe one of them is a 1v1 fight with each other.

GreenLore3/3/2018, 11:49:26 AM1 votes

In the old lore it was also never clear if Kassadin was present when his daughter was sacrificed to the void.

The 2 will certainly meet each other(same for Kai'Sa and Kassadin) eventually.

AlienPrimate3/3/2018, 6:24:48 PM1 votes

When you think item 3135 got reworked. English is hard.

Ahri Baka3/3/2018, 3:39:50 AM1 votes

I tried to read it but it was so damn long