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What to do with Jax? Art/lore discussion, passive-aggressive whining, and random thoughts

KING OF MASKS·4/18/2016, 3:45:31 PM·7 votes·2,456 views

Recently I got back into playing a bit of Jax (rather poorly, might I add). But regardless of my performance it's made me reconsider his place in the retconned lore, specifically in the context of his current visuals. So yeah, thought I'd make yet another Jax thread. We're not sick of talking about this guy yet, right?

http://img05.deviantart.net/c4ad/i/2013/072/3/e/jax_by_atryl-d5xxas3.png (artwork by atryl)

We all know Jax is one of those outdated champions who remains tied to the Institute of War, summoners and the Legend League -- all that pre-retcon nonsense that everyone hated. He shares this distinction with Fiddlesticks, Nocturne, Lee Sin, Alistar, and a few others I'm sure I'm forgetting. However, he is unique in that his background is comprised almost entirely of retconned lore. In the past it was even speculated that he was High Councilor Reginald Ashram, a character who no longer exists.

"It is seldom the case where a champion is defined by his actions after joining the League of Legends rather than before. Such is the case with Jax, for whom the argument could be made that he is the most prolific tournament fighter currently at the Institute of War."

This obviously presents a few problems. With the other outdated champs, rito can simply discard the relevant sections of their lore and still have a good bit to work with. Nocturne Nocturne is a spooky nightmare ghost. Alistar Alistar is a minotaur who hates Noxus.

Even Fiddles and Lee Sin, who are arguably just as strongly tied to the Institute as Jax, have enough going on visually and thematically that it's not much of an issue. Fiddlesticks Fiddlesticks is a spooky scarecrow. LeeSin Lee is a monk.

Each of the above could easily be reintegrated into the new, summonerless Runeterra without much hassle. You can do a lot with those archetypes and ideas; just type up some fancy new backstory, put it on the client, and boom, done. But if you were to attempt the same with Jax... Jax Jax is a... mysterious... hooded... duelist/gladiator? He fights with a lamp post for some reason. He's obviously not human, since he's lacking a few toes/fingers. He used to be some random mercenary? Also has a mask similar to Master Yi's? I dunno, I got nothing.

Case in point, if you strip away the retconned lore from Jax, you're left with almost nothing save for a confusing character design.

So obviously, the Grandmaster at Arms (even his title is completely out of context now that the League is gone) is in dire need of some kind of lore reboot. But this becomes more complicated when you consider the art side of things.

http://noobabble.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Jax-Poses.png

Visually, Jax is... pretty okay. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but his texture update from a couple years back went a long way towards making him look serviceable, at the very least. I remember when just glancing at Angler Jax was enough to make me retch, but now I can use the skin for an entire match without gagging once! Such progress.

In any case, opinions will vary, but I believe most people would agree that there are many champs who are in worse shape artistically. Off the top of my head, Evelynn, Mundo, Morgana and Akali come to mind. And either way, I don't remember/can't find any mention of Jax ever being on a list of upcoming/potential VUs (feel free to correct me on that if I'm mistaken).

And there you have it. With Jax, we have a champion who is wildly out of date in the lore department, but kind of okay art-wise. There's little chance of a visual upgrade in his (near) future, but without new art assets Narrative is hamstrung in what they can do with him.

More recently it has been speculated that Jax could be connected to the Darkin, possibly being one himself; a great idea, in my opinion (would help make the Darkin a little less fucking boring). But such a drastic change in direction for his character would almost certainly necessitate new art. Does his outdated lore justify him being pushed up for a full VU, in front of other champs like Evelynn or Morgana? Hmmm...

A true conundrum that is, I think, unique to Jax. http://i.imgur.com/5Cxo559.jpg

18 Comments

Ralanr4/18/2016, 4:12:54 PM5 votes

I personally like to see Jax as this timeless wandering warrior, with some of his skins representing his past exploits (Nemesis and temple in particular). A nameless but immortal mercenary that people don't really pin down despite him showing up (probably because he's not exactly flashy like Aatrox).

Headbiter4/18/2016, 10:16:37 PM2 votes

Just as a funny cheer-up for all Jax-fans.

http://goo.gl/goIIYm

This song for jungle-Jax...bullseye.

Ironclad Dragon4/19/2016, 5:31:35 AM2 votes

SELF-PROMOTION.

Skelenth4/18/2016, 3:50:05 PM1 votes

I think a future place for Jax to come from would be Ionia. It just fits his appereance and fighting style (as seen in the "A New Dawn"-trailer) imo.

Otherwise, he is, much like Rammus or Eve, a typical character from veeeery old, pre-retcon League. Even by that time you didn't knew much about them.

Bârd4/19/2016, 3:21:51 AM1 votes

I saw a boards post a while ago that had a pretty good idea for Jax.

Basically, it turned him into a kind of "cursed warrior", his soul cast out of his body by a power of the shadow isles and trapped in a lantern. He manipulates his body like a puppet of sorts.

I'll try and find the original post.

EDIT: Aha! Here it is! http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/ej1rfGR4-jax-the-isle-warden-champion-rework-idea Don't look so much at what the abilities do, exactly, but the theme they give Jax. Giving Jax that kind of character, I think would be cool.

Samakii4/20/2016, 12:14:15 AM1 votes

He looks like an old rotten egg plant and I too always wondered his origins and what he is. He reminisce of some vagabond guardian that is ethereal in nature. It will be interesting to see how he develops in the future.

GreenLore4/18/2016, 4:29:51 PM1 votes

I think Jax will remain a rather mysterious figure,I mean Jhin showed that riot is not afraid to introduce champs whose true identitys are unknown.

Though I could imagine him to be tied to the spirit world(after all he wears a mask similar to kindred or bard,what if he was a spirit that got bound to the physical realm?)