Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

IS Ekko Badly Written?

Dreamspitter·5/27/2015, 8:22:18 AM·11 votes·1,607 views

I never looked at it this way, as others have pointed it out in the coments here

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Ekko/Background

Is Ekko too young, or underfunded for his achievements? Does he make the other established genius characters look poor by comparison?

I mean if he were twice his age, and maybe a guy with a renegade attitude that was recognized at a young age but later thrown out of some academy and then spent say 10+ years working....would his character seem more believable?

In some ways, it might have worked better if he was a time mage rather than using Hextech. Hextech is magical, but has the "magitech" elements of using magic "as science". If it were more...."mystical" it might be acceptable that he just had natural powers or affinity for time magic -but I feel Rune Terra approaches magic in the more D&D kind of way in which it's an art that can be pursued more like science than mysticism.

Also a thought...WHO were Ekko's parents, and what did THEY do for a living anyway?

Could they, and their lives given him a foundation to start from somehow? Although as some others have noted, this kind of time magic is beyond anything that has been done with Hex tech.

But none the less he fits a niche/archetype, like Jax, or Jinx for example.

17 Comments

GreenLore5/27/2015, 10:06:35 AM3 votes

Well Ekko is the typical street genius-kind of character,but I also think that it is possible that he had some kind of "inspiration" for his Z-drive. I mean Lore pieces don't cover everything about the champion anymore,so it is possible for example that he got his hands on one of Zileans inventions somehow and then based his Z-Drive on that.

Also Ekkos parents are actually still alive,they are just working a lot.

Xulsigae6/2/2015, 2:06:09 AM3 votes

Hmm. He's kinda in the same trope as Hiro Hamada from Big Hero 6 I think. The prodigy trope can be fun but also over used. A young genius with very limited resources somehow is able to make better things than people with years of experiences and vastly more resources? It does have the potential to be a bit...detrimental to the other characters. In Big Hero 6 I felt Hiro was 'OP' in how smart and industrious he was compared to his team mates. Depending on how Riot shows (hopefully) his interactions with characters outside of the Fields of Justice, Ekko could be equally OP and make other characters obsolete, or a smart character with a long way to go before he's as good as the other inventors.

To me a character that is so smart and skilled they can undermine another character with years of experience, training and resources with 'Street smarts' is often badly written. I'm hoping Ekko will be a character with much to learn from his elders and not just walk up to their most advanced inventions and improve them with a screwdriver.

A Superb Villain5/27/2015, 4:06:15 PM2 votes

Perhaps. The "incredibly gifted prodigy that grew up in the slums" is a fairly common character, so I am uncertain whether I should regard it as poor writing or merely a poorly executed archetype.

That being said, it is never stated Ekko invented the concepts behind the Z-Drive, such as time manipulation or memory preservation, only that he built the mechanism which enables it. It is quite possible he acquired the plans or schematics that facilitated the Z-Drive's construction.

Ramix The Red6/2/2015, 12:53:21 AM2 votes

The problem isn't that he's unrealistic.

The reason he's badly written is because all of the questions you just made were not put forward by the lore, but by us out of confusion due to knowing absolutely nothing about him.

Pheonixwish5/30/2015, 2:30:29 AM1 votes

When your parents are away for a long time, things start to get interesting. I suppose Ekko had a fascination with time, given how much he's been hurt in the past (e.g. Vi, Jinx), and with all the tech in Zaun, a street kid like him wouldn't have much trouble finding some supplies.

Ebonmaw Dragon5/27/2015, 11:39:15 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Also a thought...WHO were Ekko's parents, and what did THEY do for a living anyway?

Are*

They are alive.

Dreamspitter5/27/2015, 10:09:41 AM1 votes

"Someone told me once, time is a flat circle. Everything we have ever done or will do, we are going to do over and over and over again."

What if.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop

Ekko did have an inspiration, and groundwork to build up from. But the source of this is a mysterious stranger who dies in front of him. Except....after Ekko grows up, and advances his Z drive and gains the ability to travel decades into the past....he either becomes his own father or encounters himself and thus becomes his own foundation. In essence, time is an illusion. People see time as if they are traveling in a rail car with only 1 tiny window to view a landscape that seems to change as they "travel" along. But in reality, as it was in Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughter House Five", as Aliens reveal to the main character -the landscape of all "time" exists at once and they can experience all of it simultaneously. The so called, "past", "present", and "future" coexist simultaneously. Thus from the alien's perspective they are both alive and dead, being born, and dying all at once. This is why they are not concerned with the destruction of the universe....which they KNOW they will cause, and exactly when, and exactly how. There is nothing for them to stop or change, in fact...they've ALWAYS been destroying it.

What if....Ekko's time ribbon, or time "thread" in the "weave" of reality simply intersects with itself, and zig zags strangely...being a kind of anomaly?

AyRe CoNteMpT5/27/2015, 8:53:03 AM1 votes

his kit is badly designed too

Darrosh Jewfist5/28/2015, 12:58:05 AM1 votes

I think, given the context of the world they live in with a dark child who can summon demonic teddy bears and a boy who runs around blushing with a magic amulet strapped to his wrist and Azir, a kid genius who manages to invent a time machine doesn't seem too implausible. I mean, Tony Stark built the arc reactor from a bunch of scrap and a bunch of Stark Industry researchers couldn't replicate it with all of their combined genius and resources yet it's acceptable suspension of disbelief.

But then again, the Iron Man film establishes pretty clearly Tony Stark is a genius with a background to match - Ekko's just some random street kid who just suddenly built a device that defied the laws of nature. We don't really know what his background is (aside from neglected kid with overworked parents) and he's part of a gang.

So the idea that Ekko is special is really a product of chance, rather than nature or nurture. Anyone could be an Ekko, there's nothing that makes him different or any reason that he's supposedly better at what he does other than he is.

Which I think is what you're experiencing?