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"Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water" - Kurt Vonnegut

Darrosh Jewfist·7/15/2015, 7:30:41 AM·52 votes·9,642 views

I noticed that ever since the retcon, the League of Legends has been focused very heavily on the 'legends' - as in beings of immense power and mythological aspects that some are regarded as actual gods/demons/and LEGENDS themselves.

That's cool.

But it also makes it very difficult to ascertain character motivations, whether they're achievable or not, and whether we - as the players and audience - care enough to even relate or support/denounce.

Let's look at a few of the recent examples of character motivation:

Bard - When you go on record saying that you cannot possible understand this guy's thought process because his thinking is so far beyond that of humans then it's pointless to try to understand him - much less relate to him. Braum - Seems like a nice guy... but uh... he wants to protect Poros? Kalista - SHE WANTS VENGEANCE. I can dig that. But -uh- vengeance for what? Oh, she's an aglamation of countless spirits with their own personal vendettas? Guess she's just mad all the time... Gnar - cute little Freljord yordle who wakes up. What the hell does he want? Food? Okay sure... that's it? Boring. RekSai - maybe Rek'Sai gets a pass because she's a beast but I don't really feel any sympathy for a animal who's territorial - is she protecting her young? Her young who, far from being defenseless, are being hunted to participate in gladiatorial duels? I'm not saying that non-speaking beasts can't convey a lot of sympathy and emotion (POKEMON DOES IT!) but the way it was approached here makes it hard to feel any sort of relation to Rek'Sai other than 'wuuuagh! I'm big and bad!' Ekko - His friend dies and somehow he has a lot of Zaun pride? I'm not really WHAT his motivation is other than to protect his friend's grave - which is a relatively weak motivation. Does he want to rid the world of bad people? Spread Zaun ideological to the four corners of Runeterra? Hell if I know. I don't know the guy and he seems he could be pretty relatable. TahmKench - Tahm is actually the most clear in his motivation: he wants to eat. I can get behind that. Apparently he's getting more lore incoming with the Bilgewater update so we'll see if this motivation evolves into something more than making the best out of a buffet ticket.

You know, when the Narrative's former lead says this:

"Plot is highly overrated. Users don't remember plot; what they do remember is they remember characters. Focus on the things that they will retain, that are going to be most important to them in the long-run. Focus on character." - Tom Abernathy.

There's an expectations that even if the story you might want to tell is bland/or hell, in this case UTTERLY NONEXISTENT - then at the very least the character motivations should be fleshed out right? That these characters aren't defined by their appearances or gimmicks or tropes but rather the struggles they carry, the emotion that can be easily related to the viewer in a compelling fashion?

53 Comments

RiotBioluminescence7/15/2015, 4:19:09 PM35 votes

I actually found Tahm Kench to be an interesting window into the motivations of many of the other champions - he is, after all, looking to trade for their deepest desires. So we got a little more information in some of his taunts etc. I do think that Kalista is one of the worst sufferers of the lack of long form lore. It's a cool cinematic and all, but until we can root around a bit more in her history, she's coming across rather one note. Maybe there's not much more there - and she's supposed to be a force of nature rather than a character, but I hope we find out more.

Also, I'm not sure why quoting the former lead will help much, moving forward. We've got Jaredan now, and they're different people with different opinions and guiding philosophies. I'd not like to be held accountable for every word of my predecessor - even if, in a business setting, that seems a reasonable bar to be held to. I'd personally we go for the more humanized approach, rather than monolithic, lock-step, corporate script-following.

(Also, Tom's quote is probably well intention-ed but really badly put. I suspect it was to point out that characters like Sherlock Holmes or Iron Man can be in a multitude of stories and plots - but it is the characters that we come back to read about, time and time again. In my opinion - plot IS important, as long as it is there to serve character. Plot comes from characters, and how they react to the situation they are in.)

HowPlayGAEM7/15/2015, 8:45:05 AM16 votes

[deleted]

Narasimha7/15/2015, 12:48:11 PM9 votes

I think you missed the entire point of Tom Abernathy's quote. The point isn't about motive or purpose. It's a lot simple. It's simply how easy is a character to recognize and identify, how unique they are compared to other champions. If you think of a character, it should be pretty easy to see what makes them... well, them. In this respect, they've done a pretty good job.

Bard - Magical dude who travels through time and space to POSSIBLY help others.

Braum - Super nice guy that just wants to help everyone. But mostly poros.

Kalista - Vengeance and retribution. It's not ideal, but its her way of helping.

Gnar - Hyperactive yordle child with a temper. Plus a really adorable way of speaking.

RekSai - A beast who does beasty things for beasty reasons. Because she's a beast.

Ekko - The (human) protector of Zaun. He just wants to keep his patch of the world safe.

TahmKench - He just wants to help people out. And then eat everything and everyone they hold dear.

Doctor Dyment7/15/2015, 9:31:02 AM8 votes

Well, I believe Gnar wants only to go back home to his family, Braum wants to protect the Freljord as much as he can, Bard exists to protect humanity (and many other realms) from objects of ultimate power that could tilt the balance of the universe(s), and Rek'Sai is a mindless beast who only wishes to do what animals do. Eat, drink, kill, and survive. The others? I couldn't tell you a damn thing about.

GreenLore7/15/2015, 10:11:51 AM5 votes

Overall they said that since they have now so many champions,it is ok to explore some different approaches than "Champ X wants Y",which in itself can be rather problematic since that means the champs story basically ends once they get Y.

Bard Gnar Kalista RekSai all don't think on a human level(ok we can't be sure in Gnars case since he is only a child and doesn't speak our language),which makes it interesting in itself to try to understand them,at least for some people.If thats not interesting for you,then thats ok,there are over 100 other characters who are more human like and easier to understand in their thought process.

Braum & Ekko on the other hand aren't champs who try to get something specific,they both want to protect others(in braums he seems to wander the earth to help others,ekko wants to protect zaun and his friends,its not like ajuna was his only friend).

TahmKench doesn't have a specific goal,but he generally wants others to strike a deal with him,so that he can make them suffer and eat everything thats dear to them. He is very similar to Thresh &Aatrox in that regard,who both don't have a specific goal,but we know what motivates them and what they generally want.

Legacy of Xion7/15/2015, 6:32:54 PM4 votes

Correction.

Bard - IoW 2.0 with omnipotence and super powerful abilities to change rhe course of history to avoid calamity, instead of being a fallible human/yordle agency that avoided rune wars and major wars, as well as avoiding anything to spark another war through grandstanding and treaties.

Embertine7/15/2015, 1:31:46 PM3 votes

I want to know why you only focused on the new champions and not any of the older ones? What's with that?

What about Shyvana ? Why would she dedicate her entire life to serve in a military in a land she knows hardly anything about, simply because the prince helped her get revenge for her father? Why wouldn't she simply thank him and part ways? Why risk living a life where everyone around her fears her and thinks her a monster?

Or how about the many other champions in league? What about them? It seems like you only care about the recent additions to league.

Krizalid7/15/2015, 11:51:49 PM3 votes

Later Kalista bio additions on PBE: ...And most importantly, Kalista really wants a glass of water.

SchaakaKon7/15/2015, 3:03:19 PM3 votes

I agree, these characters dont seem to exist in Runeterra :/

Rito Staff7/15/2015, 9:38:34 AM2 votes

You don't understand Bard basically. They said "(...)you cannot possible understand this guy's thought process because his thinking is so far beyond that of humans(...)" because it gives him the outworldly feel he needs. A mytical being, who's motivation goes beyond human drive. He doesn't fight for any particular side.

He sees an object of mass destruction and removes it.

Relatable to my life? No. But completely alien to human experience? LOL no. You've got plenty of real world personas who relate to Bard in their doings.

warpenguin5557/15/2015, 1:47:14 PM2 votes

Bram is in because hes like a folk hero. purpose... well you got me there

Lowvyr7/15/2015, 5:23:40 PM2 votes

Wasn't Kalista a leader of some tribe in the Shadow Isles and she got betrayed? So her body is Kalista but her conscience is an agglomeration of spirits that have been betrayed and are in need of vengeance? I thought she was actually really well thought out and was a really cool idea until her kit came into play, and then she just became this whore jumping around the battlefield dodging every skill shot and all cc you throw at her infinitely kiting melees that need to get to her to lock her down.

ModCaptainMårvelous7/15/2015, 8:10:11 PM2 votes

I'll disagree and/or agree with some of these!

Bard - Pretty clear motivation. He is in charge of cosmic balance...but what does cosmic balance entail? See, I think that's where things fell apart. We saw Bard grab an orb and put it on the mountain but nothing else. The best thing one could do with bard's character is place him in morally ambiguous situations and show that what he's doing is for the good of all, NOT the good or perhaps even morally right thing.

Braum - Totally agree. Although he always struck me as a larger-than-life hero in fairy tales who's motivation is "Hey I'm the hero so I gotta do the right thing"

Kalista - "We are legion. We are vengeance". To be honest I feel Kalista works better as a concept/god-level force than an actual character. She's vengeance incarnate. You can't really put a face to it. (All the more reason to delete this bitch.)

Gnar - Also agree! He's a fish out of water but he has no clear motivation. Find a way home? Adapt to modern times? Needs emphasis.

RekSai - Think you kinda nailed the concept. She's a monster. Her goals are eat/hunt/mate/kill. I find her more like a shark: You don't usually feel sympathy for sharks, you see them as awe-inspiring and terror.

Ekko - Here is where I'ma go 100% against you, because I feel Ekko has a total motive and the one you transcribed to him doesn't do justice. Simply put, Ekko wants to be proud of Zaun. He wants his city to be a shining beacon of technology and progress like Piltover is. The problem is that Piltover looks down on him so much (Giving him ire) while Zaun itself is corrupt and a mess. The culmination on why Ekko has no clear goal on what to do is that he's young. He's 14-18 and has no clue how to make Zaun better. He lashes out at others because he doesn't know what to do.

Furthermore, Ekko's unclear path where to go frustrates him. He sees his friend die...what now? All he can do is enact revenge. Nothing gets done and Ekko feels helpless because he's forced to go back, fix his invention and try to find a place to go from there. At his core, Ekko is the man who wants to do good but does not know where to go. Whether he'll fall to the wayside and side with the wrong crowd (Jinx) or if he'll find a rightous path where he can make Zaun the shining utopia he KNOWS it can be is where the character can evolve. The groundwork is there, we just need to see where it'll go.

Narog7/15/2015, 9:09:59 PM2 votes

MAny of the resent champions are one dimensional have one emotion and some dont have any personality , they look like NPCs that you shoot or like a Seller .

NorthernDruid7/16/2015, 2:22:35 AM2 votes

I feel like the biggest problem with the new upcoming game-unrelated stories, is that there's nothing to be motivated for in the setting.

If there even is a setting.

Not even for the characters but for the players. There's no setting to be motivated for, no continous story, nothing to drive a narrative forward on the continental scale that they need to replace (should've replaced ASAP back when they were announcing the upcoming replacement which is still nowhere to be seen).

So Ekko lost his friend, boo hoo, that story seemed interesting while all we had to go on was the video but then all the interesting bits got disproven and Ekko was revealed to be a really cool character with no plot, and so no motivation to follow him.

Bard... is... cool. A really great character wasted on a seting which isn't centered around him and with no ongoing narrative to interact with.

Kalista at least has hints as to her backstory and deep setting ties. It would be great if there was anything more than that but at least she's got ties to something and it's clear that even though she's this multisouled creature thing spirit, she has a moral of some kind, she has sentience, identity and some form of agenda, even if that agenda is on hold until something relevant happens.

Rek'Sai is uninteresting in much the same way Bard is because she's just... not someone you can get any amount of insight into. She's a land shark, and that's it. And I hope they drag their feet a loooong time before morphing Skarner into the same kind of creature. She's a non-character, as far as I can tell, and non-characters don't make for good stories.

As for Tahm... I like Tahm, he's got a story, even if it's just the one. You can tell what he's about and how he goes about it. He's got a personality, an agenda (even if we have no clear indication to what), and he has a story. Not just the one story they told about him. He's got a story because he's a predator, and not just a random land shark who eats desert people, he's a hunter, a social hunter, and you don't really see that kind of character a lot. You can really see him offer up a bargain to another Champion and try and trick them into it. Just think about Ezreal for instance, Ezreal is fine with using what is essentially a cursed item as long as the power is worth the tradeoff of being randomly enlisted to fight on the Fields of Justice, imagine what Two-coats can bargain out of him.

There's plenty of those hidden depths Tahm can dig out of other champions, because desires, greed and gluttony is something very basic that you rarely find anyone without.

And I think that's really what makes a great character. It's not just about being an awesome concept, it's not about being so good you can survive without a strong plot, it's about not needing a plot because what you bring out in contact with other characters is bound to be a decent plot in itself. And when two characters meet who both bring out a decent plot in each other, you've got a good plot. And then, when those characters synch up well in what they bring out of each other, you've got a great plot. And when you also have that backed up a by a compelling story around it all, a setting if you will, then you've got a great story.

But no matter how cool the setting, no matter how cool the characters, it's not a worthwhile story if the characters never meet and interact, if the world doesn't move the characters and the characters doesn't move the world, then it's not a story, it's a pretty picture. And pictures can be pretty, and they can even be used to tell stories, but they aren't stories in and of themselves.

If Riot wants to really tell stories, they need to show us what happens when all these charcters interact. And they need to make room for that interaction, 'cause they removed the driving factor in making interactions happen in their setting, and then left it there.

Teemoto7/16/2015, 4:58:24 AM1 votes

rammus: ok

Centuros7/15/2015, 11:33:01 PM1 votes

Ekko wants to reform Zaun, get rid of the Bad Things that happen there. He... just isn't quite sure how yet, since he's only a kid. He probably thinks that beating in the faces of the Bad Guys might help.