Are you just looking to make Targon as unsympathetically hated as possible? The True Antagonists...

I don't agree that Targon is evil... but I think you're getting at an important point here nonetheless.

A common theme that is beginning to crop up in League's lore is that defeating evil has a cost. We see this in "Twilight of the Gods," we see it in Swain's lore, Nami's lore, Varus's lore...

Piltover seems like a decent place to live... but then there's Zaun. Demacia doesn't seem so bad... until you get an up-close look at the zealotry of their society and their blind hatred for magic that some people can't even control. Noxus looks okay... oh, except that your leader openly believes that sacrificing the weak is a necessary evil to preserve the strong. And there's a giant snake lady stalking the streets at night waiting to kill you.

There's not a lot of gumdrops and happiness in League's lore. Coincidentally, this is why I kind of like my boy , who happens to be a Targonian Aspect himself. To me, Taric is proof that there is goodness in Targon; I'm not sure how Riot's lore team feels about him, but he's an important piece of the puzzle because his motives are so pure.

The lesson, then, isn't that Targon is evil. It's just that power comes with a price tag. The aspects understand this (and may be a little twisted by it themselves). And when the Ascended failed to grasp their position and use their power for good, they had to go. I think it makes sense for the trickster god to be the one to be a little too happy about it... but I think, as a group, the aspects are probably just disappointed that the Ascended failed in their purpose to protect the world.

Not really. If anyone is to blame are the Ascended themselves. Targon gave humans the ritual of Ascension in order to make them able to fight the Void, a mess happens and the leader of the empire dies ---> The Ascended fight against themselves for power. Targonians then decide to give the Ascended one final choice and since even that went south then the best thing to do (in their opinion) is to erase the warmongering Darkins and give another kind of power and wepaons to humans.

What happened to Aurelion Sol is indeed unneeded cruelty but it might also have been driven by the desperation that Targon faced against the Void and they needed his powers. I'm still on team Sol anyway.

and Myisha are not the same person. they are both people who were/are the Aspect of Twilight, but Zoe came after Myisha.. Aatrox still just hates her, because all he see's is the Twilight aspect, and not the individual..

Targon is not the true antagonist of Runeterra. First, it’s not a unified faction, implying that Diana is not guilty of Leona’s prejudice, and that Taric is innocent of Pantheon’s trickery. Albeit Zoe is a sociopath who, wanting to live, fights the Void.

Second, the Void is so obviously worse and more dangerous than anything else on the planet that, even though it’s arguably a natural disaster, nothing else compares.

Third, Targon doesn’t have the resources to directly lead humanity against the Void. All it could do was give the largest government at the time, the Shuriman empire, the Ascension ritual to create an army of god-warriors and hope it worked.

But that army was made of people who lived for blood, coin, and conquest as the soldiers of Azir’s expansionist campaigns. Even untouched by the Void, could anyone have expected them to use their powers for anything other than squabbling after their enemy were defeated?

But they were all Targon had at the time. Their mistake was not expecting that eventuality and planning accordingly.

You do realize that the darkin were ruthless slavers and tyrants even before they were imprisoned right and their conflicts among themselves would have likely destroyed the whole continent?

Like seriously,the guards of the turtle guy were ready to commit suicide when their master died,that means they went through hellish training(likely from birth) and brainwashing just to be the cannon fodder of an oversized turtle.

And while Myisha(who was likely the previous aspect of twilight or maybe even a second one,not Zoe herself) was pretty cruel,she does have a point in that Ta'anari had likely commited countless cruel sins since it is noted how in the past Ta'anari would have murdered someone if they suggest that his mind was similar to that of a mortal.

Overall the picture that I get of Targon is that they usually work for the greater good,even if they have to use cruel methods to achieve their goals.

You realize that the Ascended literally started just murdering people after Azir died right? How are they the good guys?! "No leadership" Not any random Joe can go be the king of Shurima. They respected and listened to Azir because he was that good of a leader.

If anything all the Ascended who turned Darkin are the ones who have it coming, the Aspect of Twilight and Ta'anari are the real heroes here, along with Nasus. The Darkin are literally just little kids who can't think of anything to do but run around and murder each other. Targon's Aspect of Twilight is saving the world from the Darkin and you want to call her/him/it a betrayer? Ta'arani knew he was going to die soon, and if the Darkin were going to be purged he had to go with them. At least he accepted his fate.

As soon as Sivir (because she is the only known descendant of Azir) gives in and brings Shurima back to life, we can get more Ascended and then have more people to protect Runeterra from the Void.

when betraying Ta'anari: “I heard you, but do you imagine that fact washes away your multitude of sins? Think of all the lives you ended."

Also : casually nukes a bunch of innocent guards and everyone nearby in front of their own children for doing their job.

Shame characters can't really die because they need to remain playable, otherwise I'm sure Aurelion or Aatrox giving this cancer incarnate a slow and painful death would be everyone's new favorite lore moment.

And she decided to seal the remaining Darkin in their weapons even though she had just demonstrated she had the means to kill them.

Killing them would A) have been a lot more humane then sealing them in weapons if Aatrox's flavor story is anything to go by and B) would have permanently solved the Darkin problem instead of kicking the can down the road. Now Aatrox and his 4 buddies are even bigger jerks than they used to be and doing their level best to destroy Runeterra because the Aspect of Twilight didn't just kill them when she had the chance.

Say OP did you notice the other name the ascended had for themselves? I found it quite interesting.

Sunborn.

It sounds remarkably similar to the Freljordian Iceborn, who come to think of it, are actually kinda similar to the ascended, except that in at least one aspect they are better.

Unlike the Ascended, the Iceborn do not have a finite lifespan, they dont age and grow weaker.

They also somehow kicked the daylight out of their creators, somehow, and that is actually strange too, how in the world did they only using the power they were given turn around and win?

And on another point, we do know that the Freljordian empire was up and running before Shurima exploded and yet there is nothing about them ever having any void problems, even after the Frozen watchers got......well thrown into a deeeeeeep hole.

Seems kinda weird when we compare them to Shurima who kept having its armies constantly dragged into massacres by the void invasions, even the Ascended warrior queen died off, and to make matters even stranger,

But, both of the "borns" are still so similar, humans given great power and great lifespans by some strange rituals, only we know Targon was behind Shurima in all likeliness but Freljords case the fellows doing it got smacked around by their own creations.

But for some reason Freljord remains void free despite lack of powerful and active guardian.......actually they seeminly remain free of Targon too.

When the Sunborn went haywire they got wiped out, when the iceborn went and started a equally terrible war they were just left alone to do whatever, plenty of their artifacts and descendants now exist there.

Both Targon and the void seem to be intent on ignoring Freljord, is it because of the Demigods living there? The Iceborn heritage? Lissandra?

Maybe the gods of Targon just dont like the cold at all or someone killed off all their people working in the area.....but why in the world would the void ignore it?

I can only guess that the voidlings found deep frozen food to be unappealing and they decided to just invade Shurima since the food just had to be beaten up and left out on a rock in the sun before being being tasty, convenience is bliss.

See this is why democracy is better than an absolute monarchy

"Because it's core strength is not tied to it's leadership, rather it's ideology.

You can cut off the head of the leader sure, but two more heads will take it's place.

It's weakness is bureaucracy, but it's strength, is adaptability."

• Shoddycast

You can see this theme a lot. As soon as the figure holding the society together dies, all the underlings start to go after one another especially if there is no protocol for an heir to take the throne in the event of an emergency. Happened to the Roman Empire, happened to the Empire in Star Wars...

Shurima was set up to fall.

Okay Asol isnt really noble, he's arrogant and insufferable and he looks down on all others.

Also the Targonians created the aspects in the first place. They "betrayed" them after the ascended decided to try and conquer the world and enslave the rest of the worlds sentient creatures.

I mean the Darkin were responsible for thousands of years of brutal warfare on earth that probably rivaled the rune wars for sheer destruction. brought about the end of the Darkin and while she seemed malicious you need to compare who she was talking to. The main character of that story was basically the war criminal to end all war criminals. He felt he should be forgiven because he helped end the conflict but as pointed out he had centuries of civil war in which his own godly pride wouldnt allow him to save the mortals. He also admitted that he used to kill humans because they looked at him funny and that the Darkin had trained their slaves to kill unaffiliated slaves on sight. I mean the darkin were monsters. Also I think it was in interactions or one of the Targonians where its revealed that didn't have as much to do with the creation of the cosmos as he likes everyone to think.

You actually feel sympathy for the Darkin over the Targonians who ultimately serve to defend humanity? They may not be perfect, but if you actually think Zoe is a bigger sinner then any of those absolute villains, then you just seem unreasonable.

Good and Evil are very poorly defined words that try to force a black and white viewpoint onto complex and nuanced actions and people.

Is Targon evil? Pretty much impossible to say because then we'd have to define what "evil" even IS.

You'd do better to decide who is working to what ends and why... then decide if you support that end of not. For instance, the Void wants to consume everything. Is it evil? Who cares? If you would prefer that everything NOT be eaten... then you oppose the Void. From there, we can decide how successful you have been at slowing or stopping the void AND weigh the cost it took you to achieve what you've done. Judgement should be based on all of that...

Zoe, for instance... is absurdly powerful, often oblivious of both her power AND what she is doing with it AND prone to childish fits of temper or whim that could easily cause her to misuse her power. She does not seem to understand very basic things like "did I just kill a bunch of people?", and as she has been this way for a LOOOONG time, there is no reason to assume she is ever going to grow up or mature in mindset and become anything more than an incredible powerful, self-absorbed child. She technically opposes the void, but poorly... due to her immaturity and easily distracted nature.

All of this makes it seem like Zoe = evil, right? Well no. Because Evil is just a stupid word to demonize things and make it acceptable to hate them. Keep in mind, if Zoe is killed there will just be another trickster aspect to replace her... eventually. So one way or another, the world is stuck with an incredible powerful being like her. The question is then... is it worth attempting the gamble that the NEXT aspect replacing her will be worse? Zoe isn't inherantly malicious, just stupid the way children are (although I agree with the people stating that by 14 she damned well SHOULD understand things better than she does)... so replacing her with a new aspect might be far, far worse. Or if you believe the aspects override their vessels will and are basically the ones running the show then removing Zoe would actually accomplish next to NOTHING.

This has gotten long-winded... but in short... is Targon evil? No. Evil is a stupid word that is too easy to apply to anything one doesn't like. Is Targon the villain of the story? Time will tell, but it seems more likely that Targon is just a heavily flawed group trying to do something while beset with the same problems as any group... differing opinions, biases, self-centered individuals and so on. They are protagonists, in a very loose sense... just flawed, often ineffective ones. And who knows... Riot will probably change all the lore in a few years without ever resolving the story so it REALLY doesn't matter much, truth be told.