@Riot: when you go to update Wukong's lore
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Wukong will be receiving a lore update at some point in the future. I don't know when it will be, but I am looking forward to it when it happens. Although I have full confidence in the Lore team updating Wukong, I do have some concerns about what will happen with his lore since he doesn't have much in it to begin with. Will he feel more like he's part of the world? Will it answer the unanswered questions in his lore? Will his character grow past "a fighter who lives fight"? So I wanted to write this to highlight some key things to keep in mind when updating his lore from my perspective as a one of his mains:
-
Wukong should be more than "Sun Wukong in LoL" - Most (if not all) players know that Wukong is based off of Sun Wukong from the story Journey to the West. But he's not exactly the same character, nor should he be. One of the biggest complaints I've heard about Wukong being in LoL is that he doesn't really fit in the lore (like putting Yoda in Soul Calibur 4). The best thing I can think of to remedy this is to keep in mind that he needs to be his own character. Not just a champ who is based off a famous character from a story, but a character in the game with his own personality. He needs to feel like he belongs in the world just as much as
or 
, not just be apart of it. Someone with an agenda that deveates from Sun Wukong -
More personality than"I like to fight" - Wukongs main focus as a character is the fact that he lives to fight, but aside from that he's pretty bland character wise. He doesn't really have that defining attribute like
or 
that makes them unique to the rest of the champs in this game aside from the fact he's a monkey and is master Yi's apprentice.
and 
both have the same mentality of wanting to be the best fighter and although Jax is in need of a lore update himself, Fiora on the other hand has a whole story of how she denied an arranged marriage, with events leading up to having to fight her own father to the death to restore their family's honor and becoming the new head of her household. Wukong only has the Plague Jungles and the part where he meets Master Yi and from what we know right now, that encounter helped build Yi as a character more than it did for Wukong. -
** Doran's Staff**- For those who don't know, Wukong's staff was actually made by Doran, the same guy who brought you your favorite starting items,
and 
. The difference is that those were made when Doran lost his mind, while Wukongs staff is considered his greatest achievement while he was still considered the best weaponsmith in the world. Not much more can be said about it really. It would be nice to know why 
had it (is Doran his friend or did he obtain it somehow?), but really the only other gripe I have is that it should have an official name. Doran's Staff would be fine, unless Doran got removed from the lore, in which case all bets are off. -
Friendship through Fighting- One thing that the Radiant Wukong skin added was a line of dialogue to which he says "If you don't fight, you can't make friends". This is a strong point that could use a bit of focus in his lore in the future. The idea of him being able to judge a person's personality by fighting them and that being his way of making friends is pretty unique compared to the rest of the champs in this game. It also gets you thinking of what kind of people Wukong would consider his friend if he met them. Someone like
would be a fast friend with how strong he is and his warm personality, while he might consider someone like 
a coward for using poison. -
** Wukong needs out of Master Yi's shadow** - One of the biggest parts of
current lore is when he meets and becomes his pupil, But this is also where he falls short. Wukongs current lore feels like it summarizes his past, right up to where he meets Master Yi, while Meeting Wukong is only a turning point in Master Yi's lore (the main focus on how he lost his village, wanted revenge and now tries to honor its memory by keeping Wuju style alive). Wukong currently feels like a hype man made for the sole purpose of making Master Yi look more impressive. If he is ever going to feel more integral to the lore as a whole, he needs to be more than Just Master Yi's apprentice, just like how 
is more than 
apprentice. -
Wukong's origins - With
's recent rework, he is now one of the few champs that was around during the Rune Wars and in turn, would have been the best champ to know about the runestone that made Wukong. But then he was released and there was nothing about it. Now, this could have easily just been something that no one considered, maybe it was decided the runestone that made Wukong wasn't that interesting to him (Since his main concern is World Runes) or maybe it's been decided to change Wukongs origin so he wasn't born from a runestone lost during the Rune wars. I don't know and I don't exactly have an easy way to find out for sure.
No matter the reason, this does open up some possibilities for a new origin for Wukong. I don't believe a lot of people would mind if he wasn't made from a runestone like in his current lore. So long as it's a magic rock/stone/crystal (or "gem"? ) of some description, I think people will be fine with the change. The important thing to keep in mind is that he shouldn't just be made from some random runestone of unknown origin. His origin should be clear, not like 
with 3-4 different stories for who he is, or 
who just sort of appeared and people started idolizing him cause of a long string of possible misunderstandings (which I still enjoy the idea of immensely :p). -
** "He's not Ionian, he's from the Plague Jungles"** - Now, I don't know if it's been confirmed or not, but with
being moved to Shurima when he was the only other champ from the Plague Jungles, it would at least be safe to assume that the Plague Jungles don't exist in the lore anymore. This would be nice for Wukongs lore, as it gives him the chance to originate in the Jungles of Ionia and would make the rest of his lore make much more sense.
One of the things that bothers me about his current (old) lore is that somehow he manages to travel from the Plague Jungles (at the other end of the map), travels across the continent, crosses the ocean, make it to Ionia and not once run into a single human till he meets . If he was from the Ionian Jungles, suddenly it becomes much more likely that his first human encounter could be Yi and even his friendship with 
would make more sense, seeing as that would make them from the same jungle. I'm not saying that he needs the Plague Jungles to be gone and must be from the Jungles of Ionia, but it would probably save some time explaining some things, leaving more breathing room for his fluff text. There is also the option to rename the Ionian Jungle as the Plague Jungles and go from there (thank you xScarfy for that idea :p)
Link to his post with that idea here -
"Monkey King"- He is called the Monkey King and even
acknowledges this when she hit's him by saying "I'm sorry your majesty", which is the same thing she says to 
when she hit's him. Yet nowhere in his lore does it mention that he is the king of the monkeys (not even the king of the monkeys who created him). This is sort of going back to the whole "Wukong is not just Sun Wukong in LoL" thing, but this really needed to be pointed out. As far as the game goes, he has no real reason to be called the Monkey King right now, but at the same time a different title would kinda be like removing Justice from . All that's needed is some sort of acknowledgement that he in fact rules over the monkeys. Possibly something like the monkeys having a legend of a monkey made of stone who would become their king would work. -
Wuju please explain what Wuju is?- This might be better left to
's lore, but 's lore should be able to shed some light to what Wuju style is. As an apprentice of Wuju style, Wukong has the capability to show us what the art of Wuju is like for someone just starting, unlike , who has been a practitioner of the style for years prior to meeting Wukong. together, They can show us the duties of a Wuju master and the learning phase of a Wuju trainee. -
His friendship with Ahri - I believe their friendship is healthy for both of their lores/characters. In the case of
, she has a solid character with how she is desperately wanting to be human, but the only way for her to obtain humanity is to steal life essence, making her feel less like the Human she wants to become. What she's lacking though is any form of interaction with other champs. This wouldn't be as big of an issue if she was from somewhere small or from an area that no other characters are from, but she lives Ionia. Ionia has the largest pool of champs in the game. You would think she would have at least met ONE other champ and they would have become her friend/enemy.
Most other champs from Ionia have 2-3 relationships between their friends and enemies lists while she's just sort of... there. That's where comes in. He has an ally through , but Wukong really lacks in the character department. He's all fighting, all the time, with nothing more to give him depth aside from being a student of Wuju style. Their friendship gives Ahri that extra involvement with the world she is lacking, while giving Wukong a slightly broader character by having a friend who isn't so much of a fighter. The major issue is that their friendship feels a bit out of nowhere with no real reasoning behind it as they aren't even originally from the same forest. Somehow this needs to be explained. Personally, I would love to see become friends with as well, making them a trio like 
, 
and 
. would be the mentor figure for both of them, teaching Wuju style and about society, Teaching about morality and how to act more human. While the two of them would fill the void left by the destruction of Yi's village, sort of becoming his new family.
In conclusion Wukong makes for a great character in most of the stories he finds himself in and has the potential to be a great character in League as well. With the right amount of love applied to his lore, not only can he feel more like he belongs in league, but can be a real asset to the lore while setting him apart from his Dota, Smite, Journey to the West, etc. counterparts. As my main, I really hope that his lore will one day do him justice.
