Disliking Varus's new lore doesn't make you homophobe

Man you are my spirit animal.

Someone finally speaks sense.

they think a gay champion will fix that low self esteem

That is how emotional arguments (virtual signaling) work. These people don’t care if you are gay or not, if you disagree with them you are homophobic.

The best example of this is Tim Scott(US Senator from South Carolina)... People say skin color doesn’t matter but he is berated for being a trator to his race.

To be fair, it is a difference if a gay character just appears as a side character in a story without having a meaningful impact and having a gay champion.

neither of which caused supported uproar or significant praise from these people

I think it's understandable, since neither of them were playable characters.

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I really loved how people bothered bring up valid points of why the story sucks and why was the change unneccesary and were called "just homophobes", while there were few gays in the comments whose entire point was "OMG Riot you made gay character OMG I love it OMG I don't even know their name but they're gay so it's all perfect now".

The paradox here is that from such people I feel as If I had to love new Varus just because he's gay when I'm gay, because I am being represented so nothing else matters. Trying to throw at me a shit, call it gay shit and pretend that's all that's needed is paradoxly more offensive than not being "represented".

And I love how these few gays are all happy there is a gay character as If Varus was the first one. There were at least two gay characters so far, a lesbian from Camille's story and a gay boy from Janna's, neither of which caused supported uproar or significant praise from these people. No, it's two people kissing in the animation that's the dealmaker for them. Top kek.

this is exactly what ive been trying to say. its like being on a sports team and everyone but you has been getting medals and trophies and recognition for years and then one day your coach gets up and says its time you got some recognition and plops a steaming turd into your lap with a ribbon on it that says "participation". idk about yall but that would not get me excited. not only that but i would be insulted in general if i were gay and riot made a character gay for the sake of having a gay character, that would honestly make me really mad because as an avid writer and reader i HATE so much when people decide to throw something in for the sake of having it in there no matter what it is but especially if its any kind of agenda or controversial statement. its bull crap, shout it on your rooftops for all i care but unless it adds to the story in at least some way and doesnt actively harm it dont put it in there

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You can be upset at the new lore and it doesn't make you hate LGBTQ people.

If people are upset for the pure sake of the lore itself, and not for the sake of Varus loving another man, yes. Even if a thread is made with just not liking the lore, and nothing else added to bias the person's opinion, 90% of the commends on that thread show microaggressive behaviors, people passively showing and touching aspects of the lore, which in the eyes of LGBT people and people educated about those issues, seems completely problematic and homophobic.

Furthermore, to say that Riot Games own this champion and can do whatever they want, completely dismantles the whole idea of this lore. Then why did Riot make Vaurs's story so problematic in the first place? I am pretty sure that they knew beforehand, that making Varus love another man would bring a lot of homophobia into the game, and regardless Riot proceeded with publishing this story because they want to be open minded and raise awareness. I doubt this was not their case!

I appreciate how you tried to calm things down for people, but PLEASE let's not ignore (as how Rioters said in the new Varus's lore video) the bold story. We should indeed appreciate and accept it for the story it is, and not try to mute a very important part of Varus's new story.

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I wanna piggyback off this thread because today has been something of a whirlwind with all the lore discussion, comments and more. Bear with me for a little bit.

It is perfectly fine to dislike the new Varus lore as OP says. There's nothing wrong with hating something Riot has put out. I also want to say that it's ok to find enjoyment in the new lore for whatever reason. It came out today though so please don't try to forsake your boards/league account and die on a hill for some thing has existed for around 12 hours.

But I want to address both sides of the criticism: What OP refers to is smashing someone down on a personal level. It's a crappy thing to do and it's really not cool. Just because someone doesn't like lore that you do doesn't mean it's right for you to take this time to insult them on ANY level, be it outright flaming or by being excessively passive-aggressive to their stance. That said, I also want to take this time to talk about the other-side of the equation and a hot-topic that myself (and other mods) have been dealing with all day.

Varus being gay does not mean we need to hear thoughts on the idea of LGBT in the real world or your personal opinions on what you think of people in the LGBT category. Bear in mind, I'm not saying you need to like it. Everyone has their own hang-ups and feelings, which we all understand. What I do need to say is that someone liking the new lore doesn't make them an SJW crusader or a bastion of whatever political ideology you think they stand for. The flipside is true too: Someone disliking the new lore does not make them some /b/ reject who wants to see everyone who isn't them exploded in a fiery cataclysm. The moment we jump to extremes is the moment this loses the point of being about the new lore and becomes a thinly veiled political bashing thread.

I and the other moderators know how strongly people can feel about this and how difficult it can be to divorce politics, personal feelings and hang-ups about these topics. Yet despite this, we have to remember that Varus is a fictional video game character owned by Riot Game(s). They're technically free to do what they wish with said character. Does that mean we always have to blindly sing their praises? Of course not. But that doesn't mean Riot putting in this type of character is a free pass to put your personal thoughts on such topics in a thread.

You can be upset at the new lore and it doesn't make you hate LGBTQ people.

You can be happy with the new lore and it doesn't make you an SJW.

Just please remember to be respectful guys. We know you guys are all capable of some amazing and insightful dicussion.

-Cap

I just don't understand why Riot has to start a "controversy" over this though. If it were 2 lovers of the opposite sex, no one would have a problem with it. However, I'm pretty sure Riot should know that with the world today, not everyone is pro-gay and lesbian. If they didn't want to have people complaining about him being gay, they should've not made him gay.

ok mom.

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That sounds like something a homophobe would say.

(we really need colored text to denote sarcasm)

I've been hit so hard when I assume people will get my sarcasm T.T

Because of this whole thing I read through Varus' old lore, and I couldn't even find anything about his family other than that he had a family and they died. In the judgement his wife is mentioned once, but only that she's dead. His son is mentioned once or twice, but only that he's learning how to use the bow and that his name is Threshan. But even then they're just illusions by the Summoners. That doesn't come off as being very developed to me, calling it bare bones would be generous. Is there some hidden lore somewhere or is this really everything?

I point out the disparaties in the story over in https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/kkKjq7Q0-the-varus-problem-a-possible-solution It's a tad disappointing that the new Varus lore came out and changed his whole character from something that was SLIGHTLY cliché but respectable in the differences to the normal way a character who chose wrong is portrayed into another Kayn+Rhaast situation.

No...

https://media.giphy.com/media/26vUCH220kcToAYPS/giphy.gif

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I agree, however there is a flip side, complaining about the lore change solely because a champion is gay is certainly homophobic. And some of the people complaining have been doing precisely this.

Most of those people would not be complaining if it were a new champion in question like it should be though, most are because they retconned Varus entirely, after all he had a wife and kids, and was one of a handful of champions who were canonically straight. After all in the better lore his family took a primary role. So having a problem with that, even if i don't, does not make someone homophobic, if we were discussing riot making someone not canonically straight into a gay champion, like say Yasuo or Vi, i'd agree that people saying that were homophobes. Not in this context though.

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unrelated question (but kinda related)...do you think any of the regions in Runettera might have a homophobic culture? where its illegal or shunned to be homosexual? i always wondered that about most fantasy enviroments... do we want a perfect world where everyone have everything they dream about or do we want a realistic story that has every dark aspect of our own world!

why do i always get sidetracked with these questions!!!

I'm pretty sure there are such regions. If I remember correctly, in Veigars (old, they already gave him some short bio update) lore he was abused by yordle racists. Pretty dark story, he got insane and turned evil as the result. I could imagine a champion being raped, for the sake of the story. Not anymore tho, I feel like Riot wants to remove those dark features in their storys because they want League to be more "friendly" in terms of violence and brutality.

And those questions are pretty legit, its the reason lore exists in the first place, to make Runeterra and their inhabitants interesting [galio-happy]

based off of what we know about noxus, I'd assume you're shunned to be homosexual there. I just get a vibe that a country that prides itself in conquering and with the soldiers being as tough and cold-hearted as possible. I can't really see homosexuality being accepted there. It's obviously accepted in Ionia. I get the feeling the people of bilgewater and zaun wouldn't care as both nation/areas are already kind of lawless and everyone kinda has their own agenda. Demacia on the other hand I am unsure about. I feel like they wouldn't care but I'm not sure about that. Piltover, from my perspective, i think it isn't accepted. The main reason I say this lies in the ziggs story. The apparent hatred for yordles in piltover kinda shows a hate for difference, plus Piltover people are largely considered to be proper, so based off of these two things, I can't see it being accepted.

What do you mean by "forced?"