I'm not here to talk about the controversy over homosexuality being added to the character. My concern has nothing to do with that, and franky I couldn't care less whether the character is attracted to guys or girls.

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I'm here to talk about the change to the motivations and the methods by which the Runeterran who wields Varus became corrupted.

Before, he was a person who - when faced with an impossible decision - chose duty over personal desires and stayed to defend the temple that he was tasked with guarding. He was subsequently destroyed emotionally and morally by the sight of his entire village (with his family in it) being razed. He lost/gave up so much of himself in that despair that he literally forsook his duty and consciously chose to do evil (to free and wield the dark power he was supposed to guard and safekeep) in order to take revenge on the Noxians who destroyed his family.

Now he is identified as Val, who in his desperation to save a loved one, fell victim to a power (The Darkin Vaarus) that he did not understand. This changes the character of Val. His story is not tragic in the same way anymore. He is no longer embodies vengeance as we mere humans experience it, he now embodies somebody who foolishly fell victim to the power.

I get that Varus himself is the Darkin, and that the Darkin itself is supposed to still embody vengeance as we see it... but the change in the Runeterran's motivations takes away from the story and weakens the character in my opinion. The thirst for vengeance no longer comes from the Runeterran, it comes from the Darkin. This is shown in the comic when Vaarus torments Val with the images of the battle at Pallas and of the Noxians violently attacking the inhabitants there, all the while trying to convince him that all Noxians should be punished for this.

I don't really mind that Riot chose to write it so that Val and his loved one were both male. And I don't even mind that the character now holds 3 souls in one body.

What really gets me is that he no longer willingly freed Vaarus in a thirst for revenge. I can't really explain how this change bothers me, I just know that it is the precise change that did bother me.