Pennywise is what Shaco should be.

ModCaptainMårvelous·9/16/2017, 1:28:49 AM·33 votes·7,934 views
https://pmcvariety.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/it-trailer.png?w=670&h=377&crop=1

I just got back from seeing "It" and the movie was pretty good. What stole the show, however, was the actor portraying Pennywise. It got me thinking about how effective Pennywise was as a villain and it made me think of how much Shaco lacks in this department comparatively. I want to go over my reasons without delving into spoiler territory so, if you're worried I'll break things, don't worry. I'm going to do my best to avoid any sort of spoiler talk. I'll be focusing on the strongest aspects of Pennywise that could work with Shaco.

#Pennywise lives in the Uncanny Valley.

Just look at the picture I posted for the header. He's got odd teeth. His eyes don't seem to be completely right. He's got odd proportions that really make you question if he's even real. This is one of the best strengths of the way he looks: He makes you question if you're looking at something really there. So how could we do this with Shaco?

Shaco is an older model and, as such, moves stiffly. Oh, it works fine, but we can do better. Maybe Shaco jitters as he moves. Maybe as Shaco attacks, he's hitting in a way that really shouldn't work. Maybe he's just moving in such an awkward fashion that it's uncomfortable. Comparable to a creepy character like Jhin, who has fluid and refined movements to the point of it being creepy, Shaco should be the polar opposite; A shakey, inhumanly moving mass of parts in a vaguely human shape.

#The Story we're given.

Shaco's current lore is another "lol who knows OOOH SO SPOOKY" collaboration. While this could work, IMO it serves as a detriment. Without any even CORE theory to go with, we're just told to assume whatever we want about Shaco. This open-ended topic ends up hurting Shaco because we're told that Shaco is whatever we want him to be.

Comparatively, while we're only given a bit (Or perhaps too much if you read the books), Pennywise has a lot left to the unknown but still has legitimate rules. We know enough that he comes out at times, he does and most of all, we know that HE IS CLEARLY NOT HUMAN. Every little factoid we know about how abnormal this monster is drives the characters closer to being unable to explain things.

Shaco, imo, should be the same way. In making Shaco less human, you open the door to more frightening concepts of exactly what he is. The more horrible Shaco is, the easier it is for us to question what he is and where he comes from. This also makes it easier to design a kit around Shaco. After all, if he's bordering on that terrible territory of "eldritch beast we can't comprehend", there's way more interesting things you can do with his kit. Speaking of...

#The Core Goal

Shaco's goal isn't really clear, which I suppose is something "fun" about him; He does it just because! This, however, doesn't really make him too interesting of a character. Shaco is fairly one dimensional and does stuff just because he's getting a laugh from it.

In comparison, Pennywise has animalistic-but-clear goals. It wants to feed on both flesh and terror. It's a predator that hunts and kills easy prey (Children) to sate it's own desires. This is where Pennywise is most terrifying: It doesn't hate anything or kill out of spite. It just wants to live as it always has in the most animal-like way possible.

In this idea, Shaco might need a moire clear goal. That doesn't mean, of course, it has to be so clear that Shaco loses his chaotic nature. Maybe his goal is to cause as much strife as possible to as many people as possible. Maybe Shaco feeds on chaos and needs things to go as fucky as possible for him to thrive. There's a lot of angles you can take with this but in all of them, Shaco has a more clear goal. A method to his madness. Even if in the end he's just doing what he always did.


One thing I should make clear is that this is just personal conjecture and opinion. I'm not going to profess that Shaco should just be a carbon copy. However, this movie and the character gave me so many good ideas and inspirations for Shaco that it makes me sad that this is what Shaco is currently in the lore; a random murderer who has no clear explanation. I also want to add that I don't think Shaco's entire kit should change. It could, sure, but I'm not going to say that it needs to.

Shaco is a wellspring of untapped potential and Pennywise is one of the many paths Shaco could go down. Let me know what you think and if this is more in line with what you think Shaco could/should be or if you have another inspiration for the character.

41 Comments

Ebonmaw Dragon9/16/2017, 1:40:38 AM18 votes

I do believe that Riot can differentiate Shaco from Pennywise (and the Joker)

So, in my opinion Pennywise is what Shaco shouldn't be.

Just look at other champion that they remade: Warwick ... Before his VU he was an standart "werewolf", but now, he is an awesome chemtech Quimera.

Right now, Shaco is a simple copy/mix of The Joker/It, but he can be better.

Epicurus9/16/2017, 2:06:13 AM12 votes

Personally I've never liked the theory that Shaco is a demon. To me, this makes him basically Nocturne or Fiddlesticks in a different form, and not unique from the rest of League's champions. I prefer the idea that he is just an ordinary human who knows how to get under people's skin. I know this makes him very Joker-esque, but the Killer Clown archetype doesn't really leave room fro a lot of originality.

But in honour of Pennywise's glory, Shaco's dance post-VGU should be this: http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/293/317/1e5.gif

RiotInterlocutioner9/17/2017, 7:55:11 PM12 votes

Awesome post! It's amazing to think that not too long ago, Shaco was granting interviews to journalists, and threatening them with movie quotes. Which has a certain amount of charm. (Check out JoJ issue 13 [zombie-nunu-hearts]) But as Runeterra becomes a richer setting for storytelling, I think we can find room to make him Shaco even more horrifying.

And yeah, I saw the movie last night and can't stop thinking about it/It either.

dengen9/16/2017, 9:06:49 AM4 votes

You mentioning Shaco could feed and thrive off of chaos, and seeing Pennywise feed off of the terror and fear of children, could Shaco poison children's minds to act erratically? This made me immediately jump to Jinx.

In Ekko's lore, he says he had a crush on her until she started talking to a gun. Was this an immediate, sudden shift for her? I guess the stress of living in Zaun could drive a person crazy, maybe she was just born crazy.

What would this do to Jinx as a character if we find out shes been influenced by a Shaco, a chaos demon or whatever. Just my thoughts....

Craft Zeppelin9/17/2017, 11:44:29 AM3 votes

I always thought that shaco does not even care about anarchism. Just pure chaos.

For me shaco is a "anomaly" or glitch in the magic system of runeterra. He is no one, not even living but some sort of natural disaster lashing out.

Dreamspitter9/16/2017, 3:55:50 AM2 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmnLRSHJSg8

Think about it for a moment. Riot has plans.

Filthy Rank9/20/2017, 4:58:06 PM1 votes

i think the three core element of Shaco personnality as a chaos nightmare is his invisibility/boxes/clone, i wouldn't mind too much if the rest is changed :)

SomeDudeJoe9/16/2017, 10:05:20 AM1 votes

I disagree. Pennywise is a coward. He needs fear to kill. Shaco will just stick a knife in your back, whether you're afraid of him or not.

Gildarzt9/16/2017, 12:00:52 PM1 votes

I like your idea, I think he needs a better lore and a goal in life XD

And of course I think is nice that a archivestment talk about shaco in NA forum, I think maybe this helps shaco to get his full rework soon :P

pd: with full rework I mean vgu and kit rework, but actually kit rework needs only a few changes in my opinion (i would change E for a dash and Q with a bleed and speed boost) :P

COBRA C0MM4NDER9/16/2017, 2:27:33 PM1 votes

Pennywise is a multidimensional monster with many forms.

Shaco is a demonic Jester.

Shaco makes me think of Juggalos for some odd reason.

whereas Pennywise...conjures up all the scary things. Even things that cannot exist by normal laws of physics and evolution.

DrugsForRobots9/16/2017, 8:01:51 PM1 votes

For me, Shaco is like Littlefinger from GoT, but different in the sense that he's not playing with any end game in mind. He doesn't want power or to rule, he's just manipulating different events and heroes for his own amusement.

IGotScuttleCrabs9/16/2017, 10:48:18 PM1 votes

If they really wanted Shaco to have a Pennywise influence they could give him a scaling power based on kills/assist. The more "fear" he's caused the stronger he gets. I know this has caused issues with Kindred though.

Perhaps he can lose stacks when he dies but to reduce the chance of being shutdown so hard he's out he wouldn't fall below (x) amount.

Example: Shaco gain x power for each kill and assist. After gaining 1 stack he can't gain another for 60 seconds (to prevent things like shiv/tiamat and a good team fight from giving him a ton of stacks). Upon death he losses 2 stacks but can't fall below 5.

Edit: I'd also give him a timer before he can gain a stack on the same person again. Like how kindred can't just farm stacks on 1 person.