I can't really say much because I wasn't here for the old lore; I only got invested around the time of Nami's release so I'm inherently biased in that. I lack the perspective to truly compare both, the former lore just seems inherently flawed to me as what is effectively an outsider looking in. I'll try and continue this discussion though, see where it leads.
Yes she could. There was already much worse. I mean Cho'Gath alone is 10 times worse in the old lore. Rek'Sai is just a land shark, nothing actually that powerful as far as most other creatures in the lore before or after.
Cho'Gath's power isn't described in very much detail at all in the old lore. It basically says he's a terrifying terror or terrorness. That's not exactly quantifiable in my eyes and Rek'Sai isn't just a land shark, she's a monstrous creature that effectively shaped Shuriman culture by just existing. Maybe I've missed something but I don't know of any lore that truly shows how Cho'Gath is orders of magnitude more deadly and threatening to Runeterra as a whole than Rek'Sai.
Not sure what the point here is. Also Renekton was released. the only champion that was "imprisoned" officially when the retcon happened was Fiddlesticks.
He wasn't ever released though, he like Cho'Gath, Brand, Nocturne and Fiddlesticks was imprisoned by the Institute and never got out. He was stuck there as they were. Did I miss a memo or something?
So in other words, the lore is actually worse off now, because there is nothing at all watching him and he could just randomly kill everything if he wanted since there is no one keeping him in check. Not a strong argument.
Not what I said so I'll try and explain better so as not to make an ass of this. Basically in the old lore Xerath was wary enough of Summoner's to essentially strike a deal with them so he could get free later if I'm remembering correctly. Without Summoner's he's now free to do what he wants in his own time and at his own pace. The old lore for Xerath effectively made it seem like he was purposefully trying to get around the big issue of the League so he could get his freedom, because of how all encompassing they were as an entity. He's not like that anymore, and if the League was still around he wouldn't have the freedom to do whatever he currently does. That's as far as I understand things.
Vel'Koz is honestly not all that strong in comparison to half the League roster, he is just a creepy void alien thing. You are also assuming that the millions of games played every day in RL is the same equivalent in the lore, which isn't the case. It would be more like 1 every other day, maybe.
How do you define strength though? He's way stronger than most champions considering his ability to vaporize people. Vel'Koz: First Contact stands testament to how easy it is for him to melt humans, and a large number of League's roster aren't exactly immune to that even if they can fight him off. He's also huge let's not forget.
And going on the League point, yes of course he won't be in a game all the time I know that, but The League still only provided a set number of arenas in the same places with a relatively small number of beings present to analyse. Vel'Koz is calculating and intelligent and he'll know that the League just wouldn't be nearly as efficient for his purpose of "consume and learn" as going out and just vaporizing whatever intrigued him most. Even if he did decide to join the League eventually he'd gain all the knowledge he could or would need and say sod it, I'm going to find proper knowledge. I mean even if he'd want to stick to the League solely to get a shot at learning about Zilean he'd probably eventually realize there's other ways of gaining the knowledge there and try something else. Vel'Koz could use the League effectively in the lore but it would've been sub-optimal for him for the sake of his own goals to take part in it as far as I can see.
They ignored it just fine, seeing as the Shadow Isles were already a thing pre-retcon, and the League did nothing about it before. The lore was solidified when Elise came out, so that was there for a while with the old lore.
The Shadow Isles didn't do anything back then. It posed little threat to the world because it was effectively a zombie infested ruin that did sod all. In the new lore it's an active threat to the world of Runeterra itself, and would at least be contended with by the League surely. I mean if Bilgewater gets over run then Mordekaiser decides it's high time to get his old throne back, war starts with Noxus and then the League will have to intervene to stop a catastrophic magical war. There's no getting around that as far as I can see; Mordekaiser would've eventually forced the League's hand if he continued making Harrowings happen. I feel like it'd make absolute zero sense for the League to ignore that. It would defeat their whole purpose for existing; protecting the world from immense magical global conflict, which Mordekaiser would bring with the armies of the Shadow Isles. I honestly don't see two ways around that.
As a note too, the Shadow Isles stuff from 2012 never mentioned anything to do with the League as far as I remember. Not a thing. This was many months after the discontinuation of the Journal and many months after the last time the League was ever referenced in any lore, that being Varus's judgement from...I wanna say six-eight months prior. This is me trying to clarify stuff so take it for what you will.
He was in there just fine before, and his lore was tied to Jax' lore, as he was teasers of Aatrox in Jax's splash art when Aatrox was new, but the lore never really happened because of the lore changes. Jax was basically the LoL champ more or less, so strong he had to fight with a lamp post because he felt he was too strong. There was obviously a reason Aatrox had his attention on someone that strong. His lore has since been changed to an extent, so this isn't really a relevant argument to be honest.
Aatrox has never had lore tied in with Jax, that much I at least know. There's never been any lore anywhere between those two, and the figure in Jax's splash is not Aatrox, I mean the horns don't even face the right way. Also neither Aatrox nor Jax have received lore changes. They're the same as they've always been.
I disagree here pretty greatly, as someone who was around since 2010 and deep into the lore. A lot of your reasoning wasn't even directly lore based and seemed to be a bit of assumption. I mean you used a lot of reasoning that was the equivalent of them coming and putting x y and z person in jail, and that wasn't how it worked in the lore, at least not the the extent of you trying to explain away people with "they'd be locked up" or as if they'd march out and take out the Shadow Isles. That isn't how it worked in the lore.
If it doesn't work that way in that the League doesn't protect Runeterra from sizeable threats then please do tell me. Because if it is just to stop Rune Wars then they were just a huge contrivance. Either things had to bend to the Institutes ways or work around then to function. Now they don't. It feels like there's always a lot of dancing around subjects to make the excuse as to why the League did or didn't do something, and it always reminds me as if we are talking about some kind of deity and why they didn't enact their divine intervention at some point or another. Please explain this to me, because honestly I feel like based on what people have said, I must just not get it, or people are misleading me, and I dunno what's up really.
It isn't a matter of comparing, it is a matter of, at this point another case of changing for the sake of changing, like with certain changes in game. I just find the excuses and reasons Riot gave flimsy at best, and the lore now just feels disjointed and more like about 20 worlds and stories, and no longer like one big one of both.
Honestly I prefer it. I prefer the world not having a center stage and these things existing separately because that's more realistic to me. The League always seemed like a thing above everyone's head, being the watchful eye that forced the world and all its denizens to only be able to take certain routes and paths else they draw its gaze. In the new Runeterra the world moves in accordance to itself, without some mediary between all the places in the world. I suppose being a fan of World of Warcraft helps because nothing is truly united by one singular thing unless it's the Burning Legion or something of that power, but even then people aren't united. The world is varied and vibrant and seems more organic without a center stage for all affairs, at least for me.
