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My problems with Aphelios (Early look discussion)

dakirist·11/22/2019, 11:37:37 PM·5 votes·5,418 views

DISCLAIMER: these are very early thoughts that are subject to change.

I've been stewing on this for a few days now. I've looked over Aphelios's lore, I've talked with several people about my issues around this release and lore update already, and I've stared at the splash arts and made a bunch of different dumb theories around it. I figured I'm gonna break this up into a few different lists to make this easier. We'll do the simplest ones first: things I like, and things I dislike.

Let's start with the nice stuff:

  1. I think the character's clothes and makeup are beautifully crafted in the form of the Lunari.
  2. I think the weapons are really good looking, I'm curious about the spiritual looking one across his back to the left of his sister.
  3. I love seeing the spiritualness in the design of the character: that is a mainstay of Targon and I love this take on it's link to the spirit realm.

Now for the stuff I'm not too much a fan of:

  1. He doesn't look Targonian. Maybe it's the lighting in the picture, but I look at his face and I don't see a Targonian. I see an Ionian. I was talking to my friends, I thought I was looking at Irelia's long lost brother. It's way too similar in that regard.
  2. The story while providing good context to the land and it's a connection to the spirit realm, feel absolutely out of place. It feels like a story that takes place before the current events of mount Targon. Would Pantheon, who hates the aspects, really allow the Solari to slaughter their people? Would Leona, who after becoming the aspect of the son and need to find Leona to (assumingly) help her allow this to happen? This whole story seems really oddly out of place in the grand scheme of Targon, and fairly an edgy backstory for the character(s) we are being introduced to in this case.

Now to get into more specific issues. There have been a few leaks going forward about the upcoming events: after Aphelios releases, we are getting a "versus" event, more than likely featuring Soraka as the main focus. The leaks have shown it is Lightbringer aphelion, Vladimir, and Lee Sin (don't know why), and Dawnbringer Karma and Nidalee. Soraka will possibly get a double skin (like Leona's eclipse skins) for the event. Beyond this were rumors that Aphelios might be getting a "k-pop" skin because Riot is working on a male pop group apparently (speculation, not my opinion).

The character so far has felt very much in the vein of someone like Yasuo: They have a very eastern vibe in the appearances, a very edgy backstory, they have a lot of suffering and problems in their story. This feels almost like a ploy in business terms to the eastern market, as one of my friends pointed out, though I won't back that opinion up yet. However, I will say. It is a tad annoying, as a fan of Targon who only got 8 pages in the lore book, that Ionian characters got a couple of story updates ALONGSIDE Aphelios, when I was hoping to see genuine story updated for the Targonians.

Why is Leona seeking Diana now? What is Nami doing to find Diana? Where is Diana in Shurima? What is Pantheon up to killing a shit ton of Ascended? What flower is Taric protecting now? What evil scheme is the Targon princess Zoe plotting with her space Corgi dragon Jesus Aurelion Sol? why isn't Soraka pinching her nose in annoyance at all this?

All in all, I'm just annoyed with how this character is being shown off so far, and a little concerned with what it might mean going forward. I will see how things proceed forward, and I will make a follow up post eventually as things progress.

5 Comments

Jeddy01711/23/2019, 4:52:26 PM3 votes
  1. He doesn't look Targonian. Maybe it's the lighting in the picture, but I look at his face and I don't see a Targonian. I see an Ionian.

Well, what does "Targonian" look like to you? And what ever "Targonian" looks like to you, are you taking into account what the Lunari should look like?

GreenLore11/23/2019, 10:38:24 AM2 votes

The story while providing good context to the land and it's a connection to the spirit realm, feel absolutely out of place. It feels like a story that takes place before the current events of mount Targon. Would Pantheon, who hates the aspects, really allow the Solari to slaughter their people? Would Leona, who after becoming the aspect of the son and need to find Leona to (assumingly) help her allow this to happen? This whole story seems really oddly out of place in the grand scheme of Targon, and fairly an edgy backstory for the character(s) we are being introduced to in this case.

Diana had never any contact to the actual lunari, she only found an abandoned temple of them, so she herself doesn't even know the other lunari exist unless her aspect told her so. With that being said, Namis lore mentions that Diana actually went to ionia, not shurima, meaning she is currently far away from Targon and would have no way to defend her people.

With that being said, we don't know when Aphelios lore plays, league lore isn't necessarily linear, so just because the lore of Aphelios was released after Leonas lore, doesn't mean that it actually took place after Leonas lore. Personally I'd say it is likely that this lore actually plays during Leonas lore, after the elders were killed(since this marks the moment when the solari discovered that the lunari are still a thing), but before Leona took over the solari(since she discovered that sun and moon don't need to be enemies). It could also play after Leonas lore, because even if Leona is against killing the lunari, doesn't mean that everyone in the solari will follow this direction, the solari might have attacked the lunari on their own.

Also the leak claims that Aphelios gets a Nightbringer skin, not a Lightbringer. Which makes sense because the moon shines during the night.(though this leak is still unconfirmed, so we don't even know if its real)

And overall we might receive more Targon lore when Aphelios releases(he still lacks his color story), its actually pretty common for them to release the bio of the new champ first and then wait until his/her release until the other lore updates get released. So wait until his release before you complain about no targon lore.

rollz311/23/2019, 8:36:57 PM1 votes

He has the same issue that I had with Senna, where they feel hamfisted into the lore without really any care to the collateral damage it could do while also playing wild and loose with the timeline but overall he just feels.....generic. Story wise is fairly similar to Kayn it terms of overall edginess and having similar story beats (minus the ghost(?) sister which how the hell that makes sense is beyond me).

If anything it tells me Diana and Leona are probably getting a lore rewrite which given riot's recent efforts doesn't give me much hope.