Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

So, what's up with Du Couteau family anyway.

Kazo Kurosu·6/6/2018, 6:51:11 PM·20 votes·13,694 views

Except for it being a somewhat closterf**k I mean. Let's break it down.

Overall: big guys in Noxus. Head of the family is literally a general. We can safely assume that they're way up there when it comes to Noxian nobility. Most likely helped Swain overthrone Darkwil (I refuse to believe that a single dude with a spooky ghost inside him and a funky cult managed to turn Noxian top upside down overnight by themselves. If that was to be true then Black Rose is officially broken and should be nerfed on the spot). Generally important. Now, why reminding about Du Couteaus importance in Noxus is something to remember in this discussion? Well, let's all look at the particular members of the family and find the issue together, starting with the biggest boy/best dad.

Papa Du Couteau. General, earned the title of legendary blademaster while still alive ("alive" part is debatable but we'll get to that), considered one of the best in the entirety of Valoran. Teaches young assassins how to be actually decent at their jobs. Schooled Katarina (his ultimate prodigy) and Talon (who was a killing genius while still young, styling on whoever High Command send to kill him, at least untill Papa came and slapped him in the face a few times). In old lore his name was Marcus but since Journal of Justice is no longer canon we cant say for sure what it is now. Speaking of "now"... Marcus has been considered dead/missing for YEARS. The problem is, we dont really know if he's actually dead or just missing, since nothing in current lore actually confirms it 100%. Best thing we have are Urgot's and Swain's quotes towards Katarina, but even those dont actually confirm any of the two completely. At this point, I just want anwsers. I have so many potential stories in my head centered around him that to be absolutely honest, I wouldnt even feel disappointed if he was confirmed R.I.P. 100% by a rioter in this very thread. I mean, I would be disappointead immensely but at least I wouldnt have to deal with constant ideas about what actually happened/is happening to him. But lets move past my personal issues with the current state of things and talk about next member of the family, the mother

Mommy Du Couteau is by far the most mysterious part of the house. But, considering she was "politically gifted" as said in Cassiopeia's lore, she probably wasnt the type to wash dishes. After all, she made a literal General interested in her (assuming she was the one marrying "up"). Still, we dont know anything more about her, which is saddening. And while I do have my theories, I wont bring them up since that's not the point of this thread. In the end, blank card, just like Marcus.

Going down the family tree we meet Katarina, oldest daughter and firstborn of Marcus and mommy du couteau. From young age she idolized her father to the extreme, forcing herself into inhuman conditions just to train her hardest and give her best whenever she had a chance to impress him. Much to his lack of general reaction, sadly. It ended up with her basically without childhood to speak of. We do know however that she was a prodigy, definitely getting it with daddy's genes. After that silly adventure described in her current lore, we can safely assume that she doesnt really care about following her father's footsteps, at least not directly, and does her own when it comes to serving Noxus. What's her current state however? Well, similar to her father and mother. We dont know anything about her reaction to Swain's actions in overthrowing the Darkwil, we dont know how Marcus going missing affected her, we dont know how she reacted to Cassio's sudden transformation into a raptile neither. Nothing.

Next is Cassio herself, younger of the two daughters Marcus and Mommy had. While Kat went daddy route, Cass went full "like mother like daughter", inheriting most of her political and social talents. But, as we know, she had an "accident". Cassio laying down with a snek is actually important. Having your only sister/beloved daughter suddenly turn into a blood (and other bodily juices) thirsting, venomous medusa is kinda big. However, we actually dont know anything about her parents reaction to her change of hairstyle. Hell, neither Kat nor Talon have any in-game quotes towards her nor she to them, not counting weird co-op vs ai interaction with katarina, which i didnt even know was a thing untill i made research for this thread. We got a short story, but its nothing of actual importance on a bigger scale, not counting literally last line of the story, which, on the side note, makes me go HMMMM, but lets not go further into that.

Last is Talon. "Adopted" "child" of the family. We dont know much about him, except that he's and orphant who lived in the sewers and got stomped 1v1 by Marcus back in the day. Same with Kat and Cassio, Noxus update changes or adds absolutely nothing to his lore.

Perhaps, that's exactly my issue. Recent Noxus update was huge. And yet it failed to mention anything about Du Couteau family, which consists of 3 playable noxian champions. Kat got a small lore update but it didnt actually say anything that we didnt know already, not counting making Marcus look like a complete a**hole, which is imo a big mistake and waste of a potentialy interesting character.

Overall, entire Du Couteau family currently sits in a sad, cold, miserable lore limbo. Nothing of importance changed for them in years, at least nothing we know about. A closed group thats one of the most important players in Noxus, group which holds 3 different champions. And there's nothing but our speculations. Sure, things DID change for them. I mean, Darkwil was K.Od by a bird guy and there's completely new goverment and stuff. But we dont get to see how their lifes changed, and thats my issue with this entire thing.

Not expanding on Du Couteau family lore is a waste that wasnt addresed since forever. We can only pray that Lore team sits down one day and finally decides what to do with those lost sheeps. Everything would be better than this miserable spot they're in.

Have a nice Kat to make yourself feel better (by momoko on pixiv) https://i.imgur.com/ad2467H.png

15 Comments

Linna Excel6/6/2018, 11:51:57 PM3 votes

What if LeBlanc is the mom?

Màv6/6/2018, 11:59:07 PM3 votes

More Katarina lore plz Riot. Nice job, it's a shame they haven't expanded on Du Couteau family.

ZaneShadow6/6/2018, 11:48:05 PM3 votes

This was a fun read! Thanks for compiling all of this

Lewanor6/7/2018, 3:49:16 PM2 votes

Very well written friend! House Du Couteau really is a big part of Noxus, there are 11 Noxus champs in game and 3 of them are in Du Couteau family. Noxus update was supposed to continue over the year. We had lore updates for the Trifarix(LeBlanc, Darius, Swain) and just a small bio update for Katarina at the start. Then we got Irelia rework and the Riven story update, and it was a really huge in depth story with three parts. Pyke brought nothing, it seems Bilgewater is the only place where Noxus doesn't have power on. And I think we'll have Vlad's lore updated with Aatrox gameplay update, because of blood magic. So Cassiopeia, Draven, Kled, Sion, Talon are still left. Kled is kind of a joke character so we get it ok. Draven was kinda adressed, he helped Swain. Sion, Cass and Talon are the ones left without anything. I think i should include Kat too because all we got was before events, as you said. Nothing after the death of the General(If Swain is telling the truth, but i see no reason for him to lie), nothing after the rise of Trifarix. Cassiopeia to me looks like a shurima hero more than Noxus. She got her lore there, she became what she is now there. And we literally got nothing on Talon and Sion. Maybe Sion will be updated too with Vlad, since he was reborn with the blood magic? But they are working on Talon's lore, and nothing on the current schedule seems fitting for him, perhaps it will be like Varus' lore update? Anyways thanks for the post! Mommy Du Couteau really should be addressed in the future.

Rivier6/7/2018, 5:46:19 PM2 votes

Seeing how riot resolved the riven yasuo rivalry i wouldnt have my hopes up. They will release some anti-climatic story where side characters solve the issues instead of letting the champions have their screen time and personal progress

Hay5eed6/7/2018, 6:19:45 AM1 votes

Not sure if fun fact but "Couteau" is a french word meaning "knife" or "blade"

"Du" is sort of a multi purpose word, but in this instance means "of the"

So everyone in the family is 1.) French and 2.) Named "of the blade"

if you are going to have a sinister family that uses manipulation and deception AT ALL then you might want to change your last name...my suggestion, "du Papillons"...meaning "of the butterflies"

Andevar6/7/2018, 5:45:13 AM1 votes

A rioter actually commented on Talon's lore status a bit ago. It was in the Talonmains subreddit and the question was about how far Sona, Vlad, and Talon were from a lore update. A rioter responded by saying that those 3 are pretty far from the bottom of their lore update list.

So hopefully, we can see some new things about them soon.

If you want the link to the thread, here it is. https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/ARysWkMM-dev-diving-into-champion-bios-nexus?show=nested&comment=00020000

Ganondorf6/6/2018, 9:00:14 PM1 votes

Nice review of the Du Couteau house here. I must admit that, as the most represented house of nobility from Noxus, there's a big gap from this lore update that is sadly hard to understand. Most especially due to the fact that it was mostly political, thanks to Swain, and as one of the most eminent house over there. But what if it was made on purpose and it is yet to be told ? Yeah, I know, we go places thinking like that, but you see what I mean. We have a few elements left to make us think about it. We are talking about Marcus Du Couteau. But like you said, only two characters are talking about him. That's enough to say that there's something that is left to be known. It is particularly strange that both Swain and Urgot seem to be convinced about something different. Urgot is convinced that Marcus have been killed by Swain, while the latter ask if "they" still blame him for his death. What does it mean ? Is he really dead ? Swain, as he knows everything, seem to have a complete different version of the story. He's far from being scared to tell if he had to get rid of someone or something, why would he lie ? What does he know ? For Urgot, it's only at the last moment that he knew that he has been played by Swain, so, it would be easy to guess that he is supposing that Marcus has been betrayed as well. Swain is very clever, and his new power gives him even more knowledge. He seems to be unbothered on the matter, as if it was not important, and he's not the kind of guy to let the odds decide for him. He might know that he is not dead, but he also seem to know that he is not a personal threat, well, for the times to come at least. There's something. Marcus is not only a master of the blades, he's also one of the greatest spy and assassin of all Valoran. What if he knew what would happen ? It's not difficult for someone like him to have some info on Swain's coup and the Black Rose. So, he decided to set his own death to let people think he's dead to dissapear. But why ? It is unlikely that he would try to overthrow Swain, as the man is far better than him at this game. Kill him ? Why ? He certainly knows that Swain means the future of the nation, and it would be odd to see him fight for the ideas of Darkwil the mad man. Someone is also determined to know what happened to his master. It's Talon and he is looking for something, and not for nothing. He knows that he isn't dead.

I think you might have a lot of this on your mind, but personnaly I prefer to imagine that it is yet to be worked on.

Also, I don't really like what they did for Cassio. It's a bit meh. Katarina is too edgy and "teeny" in the last update aswell. I'm looking forward for a next lore update. So, yeah, wait & see ?

P0IS0N IVY6/7/2018, 6:54:48 AM1 votes

I still pretty sure Elise Elise killed papa du couteau. For whatever reason, that story spelled his name wrong but there were quite a few references that identified him as Marcus.

ZedUsanGovos6/7/2018, 2:48:40 PM1 votes

Looks like that old Du Couteau = Zed theory is back up. :^)