Targon Themes: Old and New
I honestly expected that post that I linked to be my last ever. Honestly, I tried to keep it out of my head, started to get into Battleborn, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm, and tried to start writing my book. Around the same time however, I figured out why I have such a big problem with the Targon lore; the new lore goes against both the old lore in story, but also the themes that the original lore represents.
Now, Let's start Pantheon. You can track down my other post on the Targon thing on the forms for my option of his story, but let's compare and contrast. I admit that the character has always needed fleshing out. However, I always thought of him as the average human of targon. He was a normal Targonian, a member of a warrior tribe of Spartans. He viewed war and fighting as an art unto itself. (and presumably his culture as well) This actually made me curious about his relationship with Leona, because while they were friends they had a different philosophy and had taken very different paths in life.
New!Panth is... a strange one. I want to save my thoughts on the aspects as a whole for later, but I will say that they have made him an Eldar Phoenix Lord, not to mention that he also comes across as a horrible person. He took over Atreus's body and "killed" him (yes, yes I know his tale isn't over yet, but it seems like an asspull for him to come back. the third person, all-knowing narrator says that he's in the afterlife). He saved people, but at the same time he "Killed" Atreus and it's stated that he did this before with multiple people. He also is the one put in charge of Sol when he was sent to destroy a void portal. And he was incinerated. I much preferred him as a badass normal, and In fact Atreus was a pretty good Panth, if panth was just a title that he earned by going up the mountain and climbing down, It would be better received by me (and some old fans, i'd imagine)
Diana was once one of the deepest and most intriguing characters of old targon. I think it's because her origin is very relatable. She was a scholar, and felt isolated by her peers due to her enjoying the moonlight better. While studying some old tomes, she discovers the Lunari cult. She personally goes out and finds a suit of armor and a khoseph ( Which, as an Egyptian sword, so perhaps the Solari and Lunari once had connectsions to shurima.) However, when showing the evidence to the Solari elders, they capture her for heresy. She was about to be executed, but she cried out for help. The moon answered. Diana felt betrayed, she hated the Solari, but at the same time she seems to just want people to understand that the moon has power as well, and that the sun burns and hurts it's followers. She was a scholar, a thinker who did the work herself. She had been betrayed by people who may or may not have raised her, and she is complete responsible for her actions that she took to get vengeance. In a way, she became just as bad as the elders.
New!Diana, however, feels like a dialed down version of her old self. In fact I think she just a hipster. She grew up with Solari faith (because her parents died in the mountains... I swear, what do writers have against parents?) but then started to question it. She got a clue from an old book, (which she only found out because she was punished for having an argument) and that started her climb. The Moon aspect guided held her hand through finding the rest of the old Lunari stuff, and goes back to the Solari Temple. It goes down similarly with the Solari in the old lore, but the moon aspect takes her over and murdered everyone in the room... except for the Sun Aspects future host. This new Diana comes across, as I've said, as a hipster, who only rejected the sun because it was cooler. She only found one clue, and it was by dumb luck. She isn't completely out of character, but it's weird that her old lore created a deeper character with themes of betrayal, sadness and tragity than the new lore, which was significantly longer and yet felt like I was reading about a self-insert fan character.
Linda (I am not calling her Leona) Is by far my most hated character, Leona was once a very realistic person. She wants to do good, but she has her doubts if it's truly the best for Targon. She wants to show the people of Targon a new way, but was unsure of how they would accept it. She was compassionate, but not spineless, she was courageous, but she had her doubts and fears for the future, she would be willing to lay down her life for her friends if it should ever come to it, and was one of my favorite characters because she was someone relatable, but also very inspiring.
Linda however, was a monster until she met her parasite. She was willing to kill Diana, someone who she hardly knew, for presenting facts to the Solari elders. She is cold, the warmth of the old Leona completely gone and replaced with someone who would kill me if I so much as dared to share my ideas, because it would be heresy. She is implied to be a lapdog to the elders. My major problem with this is because Jaredan says that she was indoctrinated (and no, not the Reaper kind... although that would make way too much sense.) but here's the problem; she was raised in a warrior culture, and even then Linda displayed compassion to something that she considered a monster. It's easier to indoctrinate a child than someone who was vaguely a teenager. Not to mention that if you want someone who pulls off the whole "Indoctrinated all her life but through her actions for the group found they aren't as good as they say they are" kind of story, I think Symmetra does it a lot better. When she does meet her new parasite, she changes her tune. It's a Deus ex Machine to get her in the place the lore team wanted her, and nothing more. As a fan of Leona, it is the worst thing the lore team has ever done to a character.
Sol's gonna be brief, because he has nothing to contrast to. Instead, I will say that the only thing that connects it to him is the sun and.... that's pretty much it. He's a spirit like Bard and Kindred, he shouldn't be connect to one place any more then they should. In fact, with a bit of tweaking they could probably just make him back into a storm dragon like his original concept. Other than that, he's pretty good concept wise. Honestly, I think the lore team should have left well enough alone and just focus of new characters, they are better at that then anything else.
Speaking of new Characters let's talk about Taric. Again, I wouldn't compare him to the original (because old!taric shared Panth's problem of needing fleshing out.) But I will say that I rather liked him at the beginning of the story. I think he suffered problems in the fact that he comes across as a bit smug. Really though, I wish he was the only aspect and that the concept was completely unrelated to targon.
And now on to the aspects. They do not fit in league. That's all I have to say. However, I will say they are perhaps the most horrifying thing in the lore. Pantheon demonstrates that he can remove the soul from the body, and has done so multiple times. The Lunari Aspect seems to be trying to control Diana, and the Sun aspect managed to change Linda's mind from killing Diana (and I would like to remind you that Linda that her hatred was so strong IT ENABLED HER TO CLIMB TARGON WITHOUT REST.). They come across as parasites, slowly killing the host's freewill and personality until it fits there needs. The only one who escapes this is the protector, but even he is suspect to me.
The Old Targon lore had a beautiful story just waiting for the lore team to tell it. But now it will never come to be. This is why I had to leave, because the lore team doesn't seem to care about the old. I don't mean that they are horrible to this, I know they ultimately just want to write a good story for us to enjoy, but if it comes at the sacrifice of the old stories, then i'm sorry, but this is not League.
I've been thinking of writing another post on league lore, just to share my thoughts on other characters. I wanted to disscuss things like the conflicts in league, other reworks, and things like that. I'll try to post it sometime later this week. Until then, thank you for reading, please share your thoughts below.
