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A Common, Missed Point on Champ Reworks

Camulos·6/13/2018, 4:13:10 AM·19 votes·6,250 views

When GalioGalio was reworked, there was out-cry over the direction of his model and voice; the stoic, melancholy gargoyle replaced by a bombastic colossus. When SwainSwain was reworked, again there was out-cry that the demon-bird-mage was replaced by an amalgamation of Lucius Malfoy and Stalin. Now, with the AatroxAatrox rework, we have posts upon posts of players complaining that the quiet, poetic demon wielding a spiky dildo is to be replaced by a louder, angrier, great-sword wielding monster.

The thing is, all of these complaints make absolutely no account of the stories of the characters, and how they fit into the lore; which is a major factor in the design direction of a reworked champion.

GalioGalio, first and foremost, is Demacian. When looking at the concept art for Demacia, it becomes clear that there is no place for a gargoyle in the architectural style of the nation. While commonly referred to as "Gargoyles" the more accurate architectural term for what Galio used to be is a "Grotesque"; a statue of a hideous, demon-like creature designed to scare away evil spirits and attackers. Demacia as a nation does not use this type of fear to subjugate, but rather is designed to instill awe and grandeur, and their architecture reflects this. A gargoyle cannot fit into this context, but a Statue-of-Liberty-esque colossus can. His personality was also changed to be more boisterous and cheerful to reflect his joy at being able to move, which makes sense given his context.

SwainSwain's rework didn't remove any aspects of his character, but it did turn the focus of those characteristics on its head, and for good reason. The old Swain was a monstrous, bird-themed dark-mage who was known as "the Master Tactician" despite simply wading into battle; he also happened to rule a country. The new Swain is the Machiavellian leader of the proud and brutal nation of Noxus, He also happens to be a dark-mage who wades into battle so as to tear secrets from the dead and adjust his battle-plan on the fly (geddit? 'Cause he likes birds). Being the leader of a country should have a big impact on characterisation, and if you played the old Swain without hearing his voice-lines or reading his lore, there was no way you could know he was Noxian (Hell, when I first saw him I thought he was a hermit from the Shadow Isles).

AatroxAatrox is, to quote his lore page, "One of the ancient darkin, Aatrox was once a peerless swordmaster who reveled in the bloody chaos of the battlefield. Trapped within his own blade by the magic of his foes..." The contradiction for his current characterisation comes from mainly from the description of him "reveling" and him being trapped for millennia. The current Aatrox doesn't "revel", sure, he's content with the carnage he causes but there's nothing in his voice or actions to suggest that he's having FUN. His new voice and mannerisms are also more in line with KaynRhaast, which makes sense considering the common lore they share.

I have nothing against the characterisation which the people complaining about Aatrox want, but given the character's context, I think these attributes (Calm & poetic + Violent & malevolent) would be better suited to a different champion. The new Aatrox is a much better encapsulation of his lore, and tbh I'm very fond of his lines against mastery-spam.

EDIT: just had a thought, all of those attributes/lines would go great into a PantheonPantheon rework.

27 Comments

jocomotion6/13/2018, 7:22:10 AM6 votes

You’ve got a point, people do like to complain/cry a lot. Especially on the boards

GelsominoKiller6/13/2018, 7:49:22 AM5 votes

Preserving character personality should come first. Then it comes preserving story elements. Finally, preserving gameplay feelings and direction.

When you have tried to explore those three routes then you can modify the champion and its background.

Riot's current rework policy (which is lazy and retarded) is the following:

  • simplify and condensate the whole champion in an archetipe; maximum 3 words, no more! Something misses out? Too bad! Galio, for example was "demacian living statue", and Swain was "Noxian ruthless dictator". Their """professional storytelling teams""" do really operate with such trivial criteria.

  • building up from this epitome, completely reimagine a new story, a new character and a new design, following the holy, all-powerful guideline: it must be cool, badass, and appeal 13 years olds! Players must identify with him, or else people won't play it and won't buy skins" That philosophy is why we had "nobody wants to be a gravedigger" Yorick, and Lucius Malfoy "cripple and old but not really" Swain.

No fucking wonder Aatrox was turned into a generic edgelord anime fighter. "Come! Violence amuses me!".

Chicken N Soup6/13/2018, 7:42:36 AM3 votes

I think the logic is backwards here. League is a video game, so people are going to care more about what they see in the game than what is written on a universe page. Removing a character from the game because they don't match with an imaginary architecture style that the player never sees is obviously going to upset fans of that character.

Whyte Lyon6/13/2018, 4:20:28 AM2 votes

https://78.media.tumblr.com/fb39ea876dceba4a85fbd1022aaa4dd2/tumblr_pa8gwlYnvu1vkzuj9o1_400.gif

Neil was right to clean the toilet as thoroughly as he did.

SanKakU6/13/2018, 2:46:23 PM2 votes

They could have solved the Galio problem by not insisting on keeping him a Demacian champ.

Quepha6/13/2018, 4:40:52 PM1 votes

The characters are more important than the story in a game like this. If the characters don't fit then warp the story to fit the characters. If that's simply impossible, then accept that your story is going to kinda suck.

Riot forgot they're supposed to be making a game first and they are making decisions that either separate the story from the game or hurt the game to help the story.

Modl Ryden l6/13/2018, 6:32:17 PM1 votes

I'm really only going to miss his W and his R. I thought those were very unique aspects of his kit. But there's really no room for them as keeping them would only make it harder for the team to develop a more meaningfiul kit.

I'm also going to miss the Halo on Justicar Aatrox when he ults. It looked really cool, it gave him a Bayonetta evil angel kind of look.

NemeBro6/13/2018, 6:52:59 PM1 votes

{quoted}

AatroxAatrox is, to quote his lore page, "One of the ancient darkin, Aatrox was once a peerless swordmaster who reveled in the bloody chaos of the battlefield. Trapped within his own blade by the magic of his foes..." The contradiction for his current characterisation comes from mainly from the description of him "reveling" and him being trapped for millennia. The current Aatrox doesn't "revel", sure, he's content with the carnage he causes but there's nothing in his voice or actions to suggest that he's having FUN. His new voice and mannerisms are also more in line with KaynRhaast, which makes sense considering the common lore they share.

Aatrox's entire characterization shouldn't be thrown away because the Rioters who wrote his lore were stupid enough to use the word "revel" incorrectly.

You are seriously justifying them changing almost everything about the character and his presentation because one word in his backstory didn't fit his personality. And he was obviously enjoying himself, the same way that an artist enjoys painting a great work of art, or a composer enjoys directing a towering symphony. His joy was understated, but there, and should have been expanded upon.

Instead, we got the Assassination of Aatrox by the Cowards Blizzard Entertainment.

Also, him being similar to Rhaast is a bad thing. Like people, the Darkin should carry a range of personality types. Rhaast took the form of a crude harvesting weapon, so him being a crude, excitable murder machine is fairly fitting. Aatrox took the form of the sword, the most noble of martial weapons, but he has been made into a boisterous bloodthirsty barbarian.

His rework sucks yordle cock.