I sure hope Leona's new lore doesn't mean she's getting any sort of personality change

darkdill·Feb 13, 2016·36 votes·2,989 views

If you would shine like a sun, first you must burn like one.

Imbued with the fire of the sun, Leona is a warrior templar of the Solari who defends Mount Targon with her Zenith Blade and Shield of Daybreak. Her skin shimmers with starfire while her eyes burn with the power of the celestial Aspect within her. Armored in gold and bearing a terrible burden of ancient knowledge, Leona brings enlightenment to some, death to others.

What happened to our kind and caring Solari? Now she sounds like she's trying to imitate Illaoi in some ways.

Please say she'll still be a really nice person who hates violence...

27 Comments

Von RevanchistFeb 13, 20164 votes

She is a Fanatic crusader now and I love it. Her original peresonalty is so boring and too perfect. "I protect everyone! teehee!" = [slayer-jinx-unamused] "For the crusade!!! LET NO ONE STAND IN OUR WAAY >=O"=[zombie-nunu-hearts]

Downvoted myself for the lols ^_^ My opinion still stands

Malicious MetalFeb 13, 201627 votes

We already have this kind of character though. Her name's Kayle.

SharjoFeb 13, 201610 votes

I feel like you can get a mix between the two and I feel like that's what Riot's going for with this.

Leona and Diana suffer from the fact that their relationship is essentially "insert rival for drama" in that Diana was made to be the villain immediately for Leona, even if we consider what happened to Diana in her own lore. The rivalry's between Graves and TF, Viktor and Jayce, Shen and Zed are similar in that the later character had their lore built around the concept of being X character's foil.

The way I see it they want to balance out Leona and Diana so the relationship between them isn't cut and dry so to speak. Before their relationship boiled down to Defender of the Innocent vs Vengeance focused warrior. They want that balanced out so that the relationship is a bit deeper. In the same way that the Graves/TF relationship was balanced out so that it showcased both of them getting screwed and overcoming things while retaining the same general story direction, they want Diana to not be so inherently about the murder of the Solari and have a little doubt in her mind, keeping in mind she was a Solari (at least before she was) and she was brought up with the ideologies that now work against her, and they want Leona to be willing to fight for her cause and give her more of the Knightly theme as opposed to just being a defender of the innocent, considering Braum does that job far better than she did. She's the sun's champion, she should be ready to fight when necessary, y'know?

AproximaFeb 13, 20165 votes

The problem is that both their lores are extremely outdated and the worst part is that Leona is actually stuck more in the past, since she doesn't react in any way to what Diana has done. We've got no idea where she was, what she was doing, or why Diana didn't run to Leona with it if they were so close, etc.

For all we know, we've got no idea how Leona reacted to Diana killing the elders or what Leona's own view of the Solari is for that matter. Only Diana's lore mentions the Elders as the baddies.

This is honestly my headcanon in short: In my opinion the killing of the Elders was a wake-up call for Leona to open her eyes to how they treated her and the rest. I think she'd remember more of her Rakkor origin and mainly stuck to her own beliefs, not someone else's indoctrination. That'd probably cause a lot of struggles between her and the rest of the Solari. I think she'd seek reconciliation, but that doesn't mean she wouldn't want Diana to face the consequences of her actions. All in all in my view, yes, Leona is the defender of the Solari but definitely not someone who'd impose her beliefs onto someone and would be heavily against it if the Solari were doing that. That being said she values live and will protect those who can't protect themselves, but at the same time has no qualms about killing people in defence or other warriors if she were to go into war.

So if they turned her into some stupid crusader then I'm gonna flip the table. Also if they remove her Rakkor origin then I'm gonna die on the inside.

TL;DR: I'm not happy with the sound of where Rito's taking Targon's story, but we're yet to see just how bad it turns out.

#ノ┬─┬ノ︵ ( \o°o)\

PyrodiniumFeb 13, 20161 votes

Not to mention that Leona and Diana, along with Pantheon, lacked a strong thematic cohesion between them. Despite representing the same faction, each of them used to do their own thing.

Remaking the three of them into Olympic-like deific figures goes a long way into unifying the Mt. Targon lore, and fits remarkably well to a faction that started as a Sparta rip-off.

Given that, it would be natural for Leona to become a more aggressive character, since in Greek mythology the gods associated with the Sun and the sky (Apollo, Zeus, Ouranos) tend to be warlike and arrogant rather than nurturing and protective.

GreenLoreFeb 13, 20164 votes

Yeah its kinda bad how the Leona/Diana conflict is extremely similar to the kayle/morgana one.

I hope they do distance the 2 a bit.

Serika ZeroFeb 13, 20162 votes

Kayle and Morgana are sisters Leona and Diana will probably end up ~~having sex~~ alone, just the 2 of them on a tropical island

GreenLoreFeb 13, 20161 votes

I meant similar in the style of: Woman in gold with light powers who supports the system against a hateful rebel associated with darkness(or night in dianas case).

KrizalidFeb 13, 20161 votes

[{quoted}](name=Malicious Metal,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=HzXVoIL3,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-02-13T09:58:10.425+0000)

We already have this kind of character though. Her name's Kayle.

This is true.

InHaruhiWeTrustFeb 14, 20161 votes

they are kinda similar but kayle is more like a propaganda poster. she follows demacia like a blind patriot thinking that everything demacai does is right. leona is like the somewhat naive person who only see's the best in everyone and thinks she can fix everything if she just works hard enough. leona will not comprises her own moral compass for the sake of following orders. kayle will murder a baby if demacia told her to.

KadavikFeb 14, 20161 votes

We have a new protector too. And a better one at that, with a mustache and a giant shield. I think a mix of braum and kayle would be best. Exactly what her new lore emphasizes.

RozzetaFeb 13, 20166 votes

The problem is that this is the exact same personality Garen has. And to a lesser extent Darius as well.

SKT T1 Maddog98Feb 15, 20163 votes

That moment when you get downvotes for having an opinion.

Von RevanchistFeb 15, 20161 votes

people love downvoting me. Regardless attention is attention negative or positive.

A Bad MysticFeb 13, 20163 votes

Kind and caring? To be completely honest shes always come off as a dominatrix to me.

RalanrFeb 13, 20162 votes

...how?

Slamurai JackFeb 13, 20162 votes

Leona's gameplay and supposed aethestic have never matched anyway. "I will protect you." as she bashes the enemy adcs face in with a giant shield.

RalanrFeb 13, 201611 votes

The best defense is a good offense.

I mean she is from the rakkor tribe. They're all about attacking people.

Slamurai JackFeb 13, 20165 votes

{quoted}

The best defense is a good offense.

I mean she is from the rakkor tribe. They're all about attacking people.

Yes, she is. But the majority of her lines are all about defending people and being a protector but she's easily the most blatantly aggressive support in the game from a gameplay standpoint. She literally refuses to kill a guy in her lore but her gameplay is all about killing people non-stop, especially vulnerable squishies. There's nothing wrong with her kit from a gameplay standpoint but it doesn't match her lore or dialogue at all. Compare that to someone like Sejuani who has a similarly aggressive kit and has the lore and quotes to go along with it, constantly talking about running down fleeing enemies and chastising those who refuse to fight.

RalanrFeb 13, 20161 votes

You're not wrong.

Serika ZeroFeb 13, 20162 votes

Because relevant:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7b/7c/3e/7b7c3e164294d4c241a726f0e270cf46.jpg

KrigjerFeb 13, 20162 votes

I imagine they're going for a righteous defender now.

I'll admit the wording is very strange though. It does make her sound murderous.

RalanrFeb 14, 20162 votes

You know...I've been giving this some thought and I think I understand the kind of approach they might be going with.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotSoft

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."

Not sure if Franklin really said this.

Blue Moon WolfFeb 14, 20162 votes

To be fair, that is the short lore which doesn't give a lot of info. The Targon update should Iron out some of the kinks in the lore of our Solari. I wouldn't be surprised if they are looking at the reaction to the short lore to get a better feel for what players want out of her lore.

ModAcademy KaynFeb 13, 20161 votes

I still think you can be defending and caring, by killing the enemy who is attacking those she is protecting. Besides, my hope is that they intertwine Diana and Leona's lore. Diana being the one Leona is forced to execute, but she refuses and then etc etc etc.