As I've said, the Amumu thing is innocuous. It's not why I'm mad. It's just what I see like the final straw. And I am angry. I've said so myself, so I'll perhaps (in fact, most likely) be much more emotional and irrational than I'd normally be.
I won't be around blinding myself while saying that the old lore is perfect. It had some glaring issues (especially the original 40's lore, when Riot was still figuring out what they wanted) and some parts where bad or so average, it's meh. Amumu was one of them, this I have no doubt.
I have no particular love for Amumu's lore. He's a sad mummy. He's still a sad mummy. Whatever.
But do not dare, for a single second, tell me Skarner's lore is the same as it is before. That would just be a pitiful attempt at fooling me and yourself.
You know who Skarner was? He was the Crystal Vanguard, the front guard of his kind, buried closer to the surface to be the first to emmerge, to scout ahead so the Bracker (I believe that was the name for his species, as I've said, again, I grew detached to the lore) would know where it's safe to leave. Why did the Bracker go underground in the first place, to hibernate? Because humans fucked up the land so badly with the Rune Wars, the above surface was actively toxic to them. Only the toughest, like Skarner, could survive. The younglings, lacking defenses, would most likely be dead before they were even born.
Now, what happens to Skarner, what made him awake from his hibernation? A grade-A ecological disaster which could easily compare itself with Chernobyl (The lore was created as a reason to justify some of the mechanics of Dominion. The enhanced mana regen and reduced healing? That's the magical equivalent to radiation poisoning. The only reason champions are able to survive is because of the Summoner's protection), caused yet again by the humans and their wars.
Now he has every right to be pissed at the humans. Most of us would no doubt lash out at the first humans we'd find, in Skarner's case the innocent workers which were investigating the disturbance. But after a period of exaltation, did he do that? No, he understood that they had nothing to do with the events which brought him to the surface, so he calmed down, proving that he was the Vanguard of his kind not just by his brute force but also because of his clear mind and spirit, and accompanied them to the Summoners, who explained who they were and their purpose: to stop any further Rune Wars and to reverse the ecological devastation they caused (as you might recall, the Institute was originally created because the Rune Wars rightfully fucked almost every part of Valoran. The Plague Jungles? Rune Wars. The Great Barrier? Rune Wars. Kumundu Jungle critters developing sentience/sapience? Again, Rune Wars. Hell, most of the now ancient geological structures were a direct result of the first and most destructive Rune War, where it is rumored men stole magic from the Gods themselves!).
Skarner understood these Summoners, this Institute, would be the only hope to create a world his species could live. Do you understand what that feels like? Of course you don't, and neither do I. Imagine what it would be like, to be the last human on Earth, surronded by creatures you never saw before, in a world which has chanced countless times since you last saw it, knowing that your actions could directly contribute or doom all of your kind, that million of unborn children could die before even seeing this new strange, yet beautiful world, because you didn't do enough, because you COULDN'T do enough. That's what Old Skarner had to live with. Every single day of his (presumably) long live.
You could feel the pain and loneliness in his voice, his quotes ("This world is so strange..."; "I miss my kind."), the wise, contained being hidden between the scary, deadly monster he appeared to be, the barely contained rage in his voice when he got the chance to enact his buried feelings at those who almost destroyed his kind ("FEEL MY STING!"; "NOW, I'VE GOT YOU.").
In his hands rested the future of the Bracker. In his claws, the spirit of a long forgotten species. In his actions, a better future for his kind.
If Riot is going to take this beautifully crafted story and turn it into something else, they better BACK THEIR FUCKING TRASH and give us proof it was all worth it. Now look around! Look at the Narrative's creations! Is anything, besides the Sion's background, one of the only in recent memory to actually use and merely expand the old story, even at knee-level of Skarner's plight? Are you seriously going to tell me Xerath's new story is better than the old? That being turned from a self-made, deserving man, thirsty for knowledge and power simply because others feared to thread the paths ahead, risking at every turn being consumed by his own desire, sacrificing his humanity, his relationships, and in the end himself, for his dream of crossing paths never crossed before, to a backstabbing Jafar-wannabe who did not even deserve the power he was granted, and merely stole it?
Yes, Amumu was always a sad mummy. BUT THAT IS EXACTLY THE POINT. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. So far, everything this once-wonderful story full of potential had is being stuffed in the grinder for we to get slightly retouched and improved versions of what we already had, at best, or at worst taking beloved characters and either destroying them completely or embarrassing them beyond belief by giving them some of the most cringiest, stupid-sounding lines I've ever seen from a team of professional writers (My example: Just about everything Nasus says during those horrible Shurima short videos), with stories based on pure Rule of Cool (There is no way in hell Valoran would have been able to survive this long being tag-teamed by the Void, the Shadow Isles and massive city-wide annihalations which seemed to be in style in Ancient Shurima) and with some of the worst Deus Ex Machinas and luck-based plots I've read in recent years (Again, Azir's story. So, let me get this straight. You have a guardian snake who's idea of defending your temple is giving gigantic amounts of power to anyone who trespasses - seriously, Cassiopeia, the noble woman who can only kill from behind, was transformed into a snake-poison mage who has no trouble defeating various men at once, as shown in her portrait, whose powers grow over time - Azir just happened to have a Lazarus Pit around to ressurect/heal Sivir, which apparently never needed to be tended to in the, what, millenia it was in disrepair, and for some reason saving his descendant somehow granted him the right to Ascend, proving that the Sun is an actual, God-like entity, and can directly give untold power to a dude at will, but can't stop a fucking slave from turning his chosen people into sand-colored ash).
You want to know why the "Friendship curse" got me so damned mad? Because it reminded me of where this all started. With Katarina and her bloody passion. Passion, passion, passion, being thrown around like it's the day of the week, with seemingly no understanding of how ridiculous it sounds.
Seriously, Amumu's curse is that he causes everything too close to him to become depressed, and everything he touches to rapidly decay into dry flesh and ash, and you go around saying his curse his, paraphrasing, "to have no friends until the end"? And to top it all off, he's apparently still friends with Annie, because either the narrative team is too lazy to update their damned site, or because reasons that we'll no doubt see "soon(tm)", which is a good way to say it'll maybe be tweeted by a Rioter or answered in a Q&A on Reddit, essentially denying that info to anyone who didn't browse those sites at the right time, or who doesn't use SurrAt20 or LoLKing.
But sure. Let's act as if being left in the dark for about four months about characters we actually gave a fuck about, leaving us only with an insultingly short summary which manages to at the same time sound nothing like old Skarner, while still telling diddly-doddly-shit about the new one, not to mention the other victims of the Grand Retcon, is totally ok. They were planning this for at least a year. A FUCKING YEAR! AND YOU ARE TELLING ME WE SHOULD EXCUSE THEM WHEN THEY DON'T EVEN MANAGE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING HALF MANAGABLE TO FILL THE GAP UNTIL THE "REAL" CHANGES START HITTING? FUCK NO.
Sorry, got carried away again. Point being, no, I should not, and will not excuse this behaviour from a team of people who are being payed to come up with this crap. Most fanfictioners I had the pleasure to work with wrote better than the new lore team. CupcakeTrap and his team write better straight up lore than the bloody official Lore Team!
Perhaps my response comes off as pathetic. I shall accept that. But I shall also take confort that it is nowhere near as pathetic as the Narrative Team's recent behaviour.
