@Riot, once the lore team gets to Zed...

Desiderium··1 votes·1,231 views

...Please don't forget that he's not entirely a villain.

All he wanted was recognition from his master. If he led Zed back to the light and balance, then Zed would have never become so vindictive. Instead, he was ousted. He was kicked out of the school pretty much just because he wanted to impress his master.

It's not Zed's fault that the ninjas forbid all shadow magic. He could have been convinced to use it for good (I guess you can say he is using it for good, since he is trying to turn all Ninjas to the shadow path, which makes them indisputably more powerful than before.)

And why didn't Zed kill Shen when he staged the attack on the temple? Surely Shen was nearby when Zed came out of the temple with the master's head. He just told his minions to attack and watched his shadow apprentices put their powers on display. Shen was so busy saving his friends that Zed could have had MANY chances to kill Shen and he didn't. Because he doesn't want to kill Shen. All he wanted to do was to beat Shen, and by that point, he already did.

And on top of all that, according to the wiki, it was hinted that Zed had a relationship with Akali. So from all of this, we know these things:

  1. He has a heart

  2. He knows the weight of his actions "What I have done cannot be undone"

  3. He doesn't want all Ninjas in the world to be weak just because someone had forbidden shadow magic. He wants everyone to be strong with him. "Secrets kept are weapons wasted" "Brave the shadows, find the truth" "No technique is forbidden"

Zed is not strictly a bad guy. That's one of the reasons why I love him so much, because he's mostly an anti-hero rather than a complete villain. He has an emotional reason for everything that he's done, be it opening that Pandora's box, to staging the assault on the temple. He thought it was too late for the master to forgive him, and depending on your point of view, he could be right.

So remember all this once you get to Zed, lore team: He's not exactly a good person, but he's not a pure villain either. Everything he's done is driven by his emotions; his desire to strengthen people like him, and his drive to impress the people he cared about (his master and Shen and Akali)

If you want some context on how I would believe Zed would act, here's a highly upvoted piece of my own fanfiction featuring a fight between him and Shen: http://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/fancreations/g6wTk6bc-zed-vs-shen

6 Comments

Narasimha3 votes

All he wanted was recognition from his master. If he led Zed back to the light and balance, then Zed would have never become so vindictive. Instead, he was ousted. He was kicked out of the school pretty much just because he wanted to impress his master.

Recognition is one thing. Coming back, killing his master, and then rubbing it in Shen's face is holding onto the villain ball pretty tightly.

And why didn't Zed kill Shen when he staged the attack on the temple? Surely Shen was nearby when Zed came out of the temple with the master's head. He just told his minions to attack and watched his shadow apprentices put their powers on display. Shen was so busy saving his friends that Zed could have had MANY chances to kill Shen and he didn't. Because he doesn't want to kill Shen. All he wanted to do was to beat Shen, and by that point, he already did.

Almost. He wanted Shen to live so that Shen would know humiliation, that for all his talk of 'protecting the balance', he couldn't even protect his father.

Zed is not strictly a bad guy. That's one of the reasons why I love him so much, because he's mostly an anti-hero rather than a complete villain. He has an emotional reason for everything that he's done, be it opening that Pandora's box, to staging the assault on the temple. He thought it was too late for the master to forgive him, and depending on your point of view, he could be right.

That's... not anti-heroic at all. An anti hero will bitch, moan, yell at everyone, piss off everyone, but at the end of the day, they'll still act heroically.

Zed is actually one of the few people in Runeterra that IS basically a villain to the core. He isn't being altrustic at all. He wants ninjas to be strong so he can lead a strong order. He lets his emotions rule him because he doesn't care for logic, only raw power (Sith Zed where?). He may have originally wanted to simply prove himself, but the power corrupted that long since. Now he only cares for power for its own sake.

Desiderium1 votes

Then how do you explain his relationship with Akali? She left him because he was going down a dark path, not because he was dark to his core. Whether you choose to believe it or not, he does have a heart. Because if he didn't, then none of what he did would have happened. He cared about Shen. He cared about his master. And he cared about Akali.

Before you call him a villain, do remember that he opened that box to impress his master and Shen, not expecting to one day end up killing one of them because he was ousted instead of helped.

UomoAfide4 votes

It was never officially stated what kind of relationship he had with Akali, some says she could even be a former student or even his daughter. What we know is that, while Shen still believes Zed can go back to the balance Akali just thinks he deserves to die for his actions.

Jofeyy2 votes

Zed Syndra and Yasuo are my favourites because of how their stories made them who they are. Not good or bad. Just Bad Ass

KuroroLuciver1 votes

Cool one Buddy !

GreenLore1 votes

Having a tragic backstory/relateable motives doesn't make you automatically an an anti-hero(or straight up good guy),people tend to forget that all the time(coughSyndra Viktor Diana cough)

Many villains in many shows have that(after all if you want a logical explanation for the villainy,then those are the standard causes).

In the end Zed still showed the head of shens father to everyone and ordered his students to slaughter the other ninjas(shen merely escaped,he wasn't spared).

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