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Am I the only one not having an orgasm over Jhin's character?

dunkeroni·2/4/2016, 8:59:45 PM·9 votes·2,222 views

I don't mean to downplay the validity of the story that he has, because it's not that bad, but you have to admit that it's pretty cliche. People are claiming that he's a 'masterpiece' or marveling at the 'depth' of his character when in reality he shows about as much unique personality traits as the season long serial killer from any detective show. There's nothing wrong with using such standardized character concepts. He is a well done rendition of the usual trope, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Champions are designed to have a stark face value that we can readily compare to other character concepts that we've seen before. Mundo is from Jekyll and Hyde, Warwick is the big bad wolf, Yasuo is pretending to be Japanese, and Tahm is a southern usurer. From my perspective, I see Jhin no more compelling than the concepts behind lulu, even if Jhin happens to have a longer lore that fits better into modern fandom.

14 Comments

CupcakeTrap2/4/2016, 10:15:31 PM6 votes

I agree and disagree.

I agree that he's hilariously cliche. And I think it's odd that so many people are going gaga over his alleged originality. Then again, LoL has a very young playerbase; for some people, this might be their first real exposure to this archetype.

I disagree, though, that his tropey nature makes him a bad character. This is League of Legends. Everything is stolen. That's actually part of the charm, IMO. When characters tap into well-known archetypes and established tropes, or even are flat-out copies of familiar characters, it's easier for the audience to quickly get the gist of their personality and theme. One look at Lux and you're like, oh, this is a peppy anime "magical girl". Sure, there's more to Lux than that, but people "get" her superficial identity very fast. You look at Shaco, and you're like, "Oh, it's the scary clown". This means you don't need to invest a lot of energy in understanding the character to be able to enjoy the character or for the character to resonate with you.

http://i.imgur.com/JSLQcqd.jpg

LoL characters tend to be two things:

Utterly derivative
Really derpy

Some people reject these aspects. I embrace them. I applauded Tahm Kench because "cajun catfish with a funny hat" is classic Riot.

LoLYaHoO2/4/2016, 9:07:55 PM3 votes

agree, i have no idea what the hype is about. Also i still have no idea about his teaser. What was the purpose of killing Garen, VI, Sona and Zed?

TzQGRUST392/5/2016, 2:35:45 AM2 votes

The characters in LoL are pretty ingeniously designed. When you play them in-game, they are all just big stereotypes with no depth. But, when you start to look at their lore, they begin to become compelling and interesting. Gangplank is a good example of this, in-game he is just big bad pirate dude. In the lore however, he shows a lot of depth. I really can't think of a character quite like him. The characters are simple enough to digest at a glance, but intriguing enough to carry a story. Obviously some will be more cliche'd than others, but you still get the point.

The specific reason why people are impressed with Jhin specifically is because he shows more of the lore depth in his in-game VO, he constantly talks about his mental state and his likes and dislikes and add on the fact that he's bipolar (Not to mention that the voice actor is amazing). Then you see his lore that still gives you a good bit of information about him that you wouldn't get from just listening to him. The fact that he can remind you of a character that can carry a show as the villain for an entire season is a success all by himself. We got almost 130 characters to work with, not all of them will be all that original or hit the right note for you personally.

Ralanr2/4/2016, 11:09:51 PM2 votes

Couldn't care less about him. More interested in what his entrance changes.

And it changes a few interesting things.

GreenLore2/4/2016, 9:26:26 PM2 votes

While he is the "killer who thinks of his work as art"-archetype,which isn't that unique,I think its more about the fact that Jhins character is simply unique among the lol-champs.

Also there is the fact that the jhin-ama explained that Jhin is actually aware of what kind of monster he is and that he simply can't stop himself from killing,which adds a sad tone to his character.

And last but not least there is the fact that insane personalities are almost always very popular.

Lovely Pants2/5/2016, 2:57:30 PM1 votes

The serial killer bit is not really original or anything, but I don't know that most people are really making that argument. I think it's more that his in-game aesthetics and audio do such a good job at reinforcing his character that has people excited. Audio especially. There is a lot more emotion in Jhin's performance than what we typically get; his lines hit across a wide range of reflection, pleasure, and rage. The vast majority of League champions are extremely lacking when it comes to showing off the champion's alleged personality no matter how interesting the potential of their lore hints at.

PapaGreg212/8/2016, 6:19:14 PM1 votes

I call him Handsome Jhin