Moral Relativism and Resonance

Chromatic Eagle·3/24/2019, 1:48:25 AM·12 votes·10,610 views

With the new lore Riot has released, some of us have criticized their decisions. Champions that we believe to be heroic or ambiguous, are written in a way we see as evil. Sometimes it's the opposite, where villains are now seen or written as ambiguous or even heroic. This appears to be a result of Riot believing in moral relativism for their setting, a view that has created some backlash.

But it got me thinking, are there any champions that you can relate to morally? Where if you had their lives, you'd make the same decisions they have made? Are there characters whose morals are so alien or repulsive, you can't see yourself connecting to them?

13 Comments

SEKAI3/24/2019, 6:11:32 AM7 votes

For the pitfalls of moral relativism, the problem in these writings is NOT moral relativism.

It is moral confusion.

In a lot of writing we see characters often have contradictory morals and flip flop wildly (and I do mean, WILDLY) depending on circumstance, and the writer's clearly confused endeavour that almost exclusively only portray evil characters in a good light and good characters in a bad light in a F-grade attempt at presenting nuance.

As I was saying, it is not moral relativism that is killing the writing, but a blatant morally confused and incompetent characterisation, narrative, and writers.

Sulghunter3/24/2019, 1:11:07 PM4 votes

Moral relevance is just a lazy cop-out in order to avoid the appearance of favoring one side or the other.

Ir Abelas3/24/2019, 3:37:42 PM4 votes

I feel that part of the reason a lot of character's motivations can appear confusing or flip flop, which some genuinely do, is partly because every champion is only allowed so much characterization. If I recall correctly, a Rioter said that a Champion's bio is always around a 1000 words or so, which doesn't leave much room for true character depth and to completely flush them out. That, and they can't simply give a new VO to every champion the moment they get a lore update. Sure, there are short stories, but they all, or at least most of them, take the perspective of some rando, to help us see how "normal" people view the champions in world.

I'm positive that if champion's were allowed even 5% longer bio's, than a lot of champions would feel less contradictory and all over the place.

Warlord Dienekes3/24/2019, 5:17:18 PM4 votes

It's pretty hard for me to connect with Thresh's morality. Of course, I believe he is one of the characters that most rejects Riot's stance on moral relativism. Nothing he's done really makes up for the whole getting off on killing things and taking their soul shtick.

On a more complex level, Illaoi is insane to me. She follows a path that would see her kill innocents who happen to be living in the plain rut of life, while saving a mass-murdering lunatic while essentially giving him a pep talk to go out and be an even more efficient mass-murdering lunatic. It's interesting, I actually quite like Illaoi, but that is repulsive.

On the positive side, I can really understand Morgana's desire to provide redemption and forgiveness. Despite Javert being one of my favorite characters in fiction, Kayle has gone too far down that path for me to see her as anything but destructive.

mrmeddyman3/24/2019, 5:41:49 AM3 votes

Most people don't really have the agency in the world to do real good or real evil. They mostly just use morals as a way to gauge their own character, but it's very internal or sadly when it's external it's to virtue signal and gain the approval of others. Who do you know though that actually can change lives, rather than just do their part? Lifes least interesting, but most impactful Bioware style moral dillemma is do you recycle or litter. I'm of course barring random, senseless acts of violence that ordinary people are capable of enacting in the world today as that's just sadism rooted in mental illness and can't really stand up to an objective assessment of whether they are good or evil.

"People are only as good as the world allows them to be"

I'm actually kind of with Riot on their choice. Real world morality is boring, lacks drama, and is very functional because we live in a society that encourages middle-of-the-road, nice, inoffensive behavior and shames other views entirely.

Stars Shaper3/27/2019, 9:15:44 PM1 votes

To have ived through the same events is indeed a must to consider if we want to say that we relate to the champion.

I say that, considering the fantasy enviroment, the closest to me would be AurelionSol .

As for the repulsive they would be Evelynn Gangplank Xayah Teemo .

USAstar3/24/2019, 10:37:41 AM1 votes

Why care about background story? I stopped caring a long time ago. Even rito did not care otherwise they won't repeatedly change it.