Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Shyvana's new Bio is not only a downgrade of a decent piece of lore, but it's LITERALLY a mistake...

6FlagsFunnelCake·3/6/2019, 9:55:57 PM·94 votes·21,977 views

https://twitter.com/LaurieGoulding/status/1103325091226562566

In this twitter thread revolving around Scathlocke AKA LJ Goulding, there were a lot of discussions with the well known Editor for Riot about Shyvana's bio and exactly WHY we really disliked it. His response were more or less along the lines of "You shouldn't be upset about this change because it's only a minor change."

Now clearly in my previous post detailing why I am in a huge disagreement with Shyvana's change, that is CERTAINLY not the case with Shyvana's new bio, in fact a lot of what the Lore Patch notes state actually completely contradict with what the bio ACTUALLY achieves.

An update to Shyvana’s bio keeps the main story intact, expanding on the circumstances of her birth and her timely encounter with Prince Jarvan, which would ultimately lead her to earn a place as one of Demacia’s most trusted guardians.

RIOT ASHEKANDI, 9.5: Lore Update

So the patch notes mention that this new bio is meant to "keep the main story intact." However, this is, with a poorer choice of words, a complete lie. It completely changes and rewrites the entire beginning chapter of Shyvana's story, with the rest of her story suffering from this drastic change as well. It also mentions that this new bio was suppose to expand on the circumstances of her birth, which also never happens as this new bio actually STRIPS any details of Shyvana's origins, leaving it a complete mystery.

Now I've already made my statements on why I dislike the plot, but what has really devastated me about Shyvana's new bio is how Riot endlessley presents it as a "minor edit," when in reality that is not the case whatsoever. This was extremely upsetting to me, but then a revelation was made this morning. Later on in the same thread, LJ Goulding states something incredibly alarming:

https://twitter.com/LaurieGoulding/status/1103337561169178624

It seems that, internally, Riot was COMPLETELY UNAWARE of the Shyvana bio that had released alongside Galio, the same bio many of us had grown so connected with. In fact, they had assumed that there was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BIOGRAPHY FOR SHYVANA published, a bio more in-line with this newer version that had recently emerged. This explains why Riot has constantly considered this as nothing more than a 'minor edit,' because it is a minor edit, just an edit for a BIOGRAPHY THAT THE PLAYERS NEVER EVEN SAW. This also shows why many Rioters have constantly scratched their heads at the concept of Shyvana being raised by a dragon father, something that many thought as an iconic piece of her story, because there was some retcon to her bio internally which had already REMOVED him from Shyvana's story, which was never stated in ANY PIECE OF LORE SHYVANA HAS EVER HAD. Though I am glad that this misty divide between the narrative team and the players who disagree with Shyvana's lore is finally cleared up, this is pretty concerning and a hurtful mistake to make.

I really hate to say it, I really do, but it's starting to feel like some of the Rioters don't have as deep a connection with those folks who actually are fans of the lore. This is mostly evident in how many Rioters seemed so certain that we were aware of a biography we had NO KNOWLEDGE OF, it's a little insulting even that this change in Shyvana's lore was, in truth, a bit of a literal mistake.

Now I'm not here to just call out Riot for a simple mistake and misunderstanding, my heart will always have a passion for the lore and many members of the narrative team, including LJ Goulding, are incredibly talented, they are the reason why I feel so strongly for these pieces of lore in the first place. However, all I wish for is some form of a compensation for this bio, or at the very least some form of official response from Riot regarding how disastrous this Shyvana lore seems to be.

77 Comments

Oleandervine3/6/2019, 10:14:54 PM64 votes

Unfortunately, there's been lots of disconnects between Riot and the game they're actually working on. For instance, in some video interview or Twitch thing, Jinxylord explained that they didn't give Sinful Succulence Morgana particles because it's a 750 RP skin - he's wrong, it's a 975 skin.

Just a few weeks ago, there was a post where Scathelocke was attempting to debate the oversaturation of gray characters in the lore and the lack of pure good or pure evil characters by pitching some claim that good and evil for the most part is completely subjective - this has some basis in philosophy, yes, but not in sociology, where society determines what is good and evil, and our society has some pretty straightforward viewpoints that we as players, are basing our understanding of things off of. If he wants to pitch the rhetorical debates about the subjectiveness of good and evil he can go teach at a college, not try to apply it to a video game narrative is extremely mediocre because of it's lack of solidly good and solidly evil characters.

Then, there was the whole Darkin debacle in 2017 and 2018, where the origin story of the Darkin was established with Varus' lore update in late 2017, then completely rewritten early 2018 with Aatrox's update, with Scathelocke claiming that someone not on the narrative team for some reason updated Varus' lore and wrote a flavor story without their acknowledgment.

There was also Scathelocke's acknowledgment last year that Pyke doesn't talk to Nautilus because the narrative team was going to cannibalize Nautilus' lore and give it to Pyke, and write something new for Nautilus (and thus didn't know how they should interact when the actor was doing Pyke), which is a MAJOR NO-NO in my eyes and shouldn't have even been considered in the first place.

There have been quite a few faux pas lately with Riot and their disconnect with their players, and it's sad because they'd rather ignore what we have to say instead of building on what we can contribute to what is already there.

HalfTangible3/6/2019, 11:27:40 PM28 votes

.....

This is actually hilarious.

I don't wanna call this "incompetence", but... I mean...

What else am I supposed to call it?! Riot changed Shyvana's lore to the wrong version BY ACCIDENT and just DID NOT NOTICE for, what, over a year now?!

This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I was legit angry AF about this about an hour ago. Now? I'm laughing.

GreenKnight3/6/2019, 10:09:55 PM26 votes

Goulding always had an interesting take on various lores. His understanding of what is canon in Warhammer 40k is annoyingly single minded. While most authors in Black Library will leave some wiggle room regarding what some characters did or when and how events unfolded, he tends to outright say "my way is the only way".

Sure, he actually contacts fans (unlike SOME BL authors do), but he tends to dismiss major complaints with "i know better" attitude.

GreatSirZachary3/6/2019, 11:34:41 PM24 votes

Alright then, new problem. If the bio we got is a slightly revised version of a bio we were always supposed to have when Galio was reworked it still means that without the mistake we would have an inferior bio 2 years ago. A bio with Shyvana's mother having no given motivation, Shyvana being a half-dragon for no reason (or a few paper thin reasons), not spending time traveling with her father as they fled from a dragon looking to kill Shyvana (a staple of her story since the start), not having her father killed while trying to save her. This last one is important because Shyvana follows in his foot steps of a self-sacrificing defender by becoming Jarvan IV's guard. By choosing compassion and empathy.

Camille Ferrøs3/6/2019, 10:13:58 PM13 votes

I really don't know what to say about this...

Cyrex Wingblade3/7/2019, 6:31:50 AM12 votes

I joined back when Summoners were an in-lore thing. The lore was actually what drew me in enough to play the game, and I wound up spending quite a bit of money because I enjoyed it.

None of the 'new' lore (because it's a few years old at this point) has ever felt right. It might be 'better written' from a technical standpoint, I suppose, but none of it hooks or grabs me.

They expressed a goal of enhancing the story, and all I've felt is the core being gutted and most of the characters made unrecognizeable.

Shyvana was one of the main reasons I clicked the download button so long ago. Her lore was a major factor in that decision.

Personally? I've opted to just ignore the lore ever since they nuked the in-universe League entirely. Might use it to fill in gaps where the old lore had NOTHING, but it's just... boring.

And turning Shyvana into a randomly humanoid dragon from a pure-dragon mother (I haven't noticed her voice lines being updated yet... did they take out her 'by the blood of my father' ingame line yet? because they better if they actually take this lore update seriously) just because a human mage stole the egg? Specifically and deliberately left vague as to what would cause that?

Sorry, nothing about that is hooking or compelling. It's just dumb to me.

Resolution3/7/2019, 6:48:03 AM10 votes

I want to say lore in League is pretty much pointless atm. Nothing is cannon and is always randomly changing.

Whats the point of following a story if its just going to reset? Idk, not a fan of the constant lore changes atm and they really need to step back and make a game plan for the future.

Lazersnaw3/6/2019, 9:59:04 PM7 votes

Isn't lore suppose to stay the same? I thought that's what makes it so real!

Automated Riven3/7/2019, 2:13:30 AM6 votes

You have my condolences. Riot murdered rivens lore and so I know how you feel, at least in part. Hope you guys get through to them.

The Archive3/7/2019, 1:43:15 AM6 votes

...the fuck? How does that even happen?

General Esdeath 3/7/2019, 5:25:27 AM5 votes

Holy shit this is hilarious

Zapzya3/6/2019, 11:10:35 PM4 votes

Honestly, I don’t hate the update, but it didn’t add anything and changing established lore weakens the trust that things will be permanent. With the fact that they weren’t changing anything that they thought had been established, I feel much better about the situation in a way.

They need to scim the universe lore when they make changes like these or if they plan to do so, just to make sure their database matches up.

AbiwonKenabi3/6/2019, 10:42:14 PM4 votes

Sometime last year, I seem to remember Scathlocke or somebody higher up in the lore department basically explaining part of why the lore is such a mess. Riot never had an internally consistent lore because they never had any sort of "database"; basically the League wiki had more info, more organized than Riot did at one point in time. So basically Riot had to find EVERYTHING they had on all their characters and locations if they wanted an internally consistent database for the writers to refer to.

If that's the case (and I'm remembering this correctly), I'm sure something had to slip through the cracks. I suspect that this is what happened here. They just didn't have the correct bio for Shyvana in their database, either because the wrong one had been released for her retcon or they had the wrong one on file, different from the "final" version.

Any way you look at it, it is definitely concerning. I hope this will clear things up and Shyv gets something even better for her as a result.

BoringLittleF3/6/2019, 10:17:17 PM4 votes

It wasn't a mistake, Riot, it was the will of Fate declaring that Dragon Dad is the best dad.

Rebonack3/7/2019, 7:09:21 PM4 votes

Wow.

This is...

Huh. I'm really not sure what to think of this.

It doesn't inspire much confidence, surely.

Deliberate Inter3/6/2019, 10:00:33 PM2 votes

Go write a fanfic. This retcon is a step up.

SSmotzer3/8/2019, 6:33:45 AM1 votes

But this was a small edit. Before the update she was kidnapped by a nameless mage. Or are you talking about the update they did over two years ago?