So...is Volibear evil now?

Im just reading the new story now. Aww man! I am gushing over how amazing and how utterly vivid and just how immersive that new story was written. God, I like the Wendigo vibes from the Ursine, friggin sick!

These stories where the writers have something important to tell, something they're all too passionate to share with the reader. The stories like this one are what keeps me coming back to League and I'm sure Odin has been holding onto this content for a while now, waiting to release it.

Funny how the writer for most of Freljord's lore happens to be named after the Allfather, seems appropriate.

I mean, you should define "evil" first. As I recall, Volibear is an avatar of war (kind of?), he's all about war and stuff. Is he cruel? Probably. Does he look like shit? Obviously (From what I gathered he's trying to regain his old form after his fight with Ornn). Does he fuck up people's mind and turn them into monsters? Seems so. Does that make him evil? It certainly doesn't make him a funny, nice guy... But I don't know if I'd qualify him of evil to be honest.

not evil, just a force of destruction. Anivia is the gentle side of winter, Volibear is the dangerous side, Ornn is the warm hearth all seek to return to.

I have somewhat similar thoughts to Caithresh, particularly that it may not exactly be right to define Volibear as "evil". He's a demigod of war, violence, and bloodshed, and is an animal spirit, something central to the magic and nature of the Freljord.

I'm gonna yank a few snippets from Extra Credits' video Force-of-Nature Villains - Giving a Face to Pure Evil

The "Force of Nature" is akin to the Narrative Villain in the fact that its primary purpose is to enhance the narrative, but how the Force of Nature goes about it is radically different. Where the Narrative Villain is a person, a character with their own needs and desires and motivations, the Force of Nature is the embodiment of some primal aspect of reality.

They're more a representation than a character. They allow us as creators to confront the hero with some aspect of themselves, or of society, and through doing so, either learn more about the hero themselves, or explore concepts through the lens of that hero...

...Force of Nature Villains can be a literal force of nature. Or not! Either way, you'll notice that many of these types of villains actually end up being beasts, or gods, which removes the necessity for us as players to understand them on any human level.

Volibear (alongside the other animal demigods in the Freljord) seem to fit the role of "Force of Nature", twicefold, even going so far to personify these demigods with reverent titles and an uncanny simplicity in the narrow depiction of what aspect of nature they represent. Volibear, for example, is "the Unrelenting Bear", and his aspect has been described as follows:

Some had rended their souls into the raw, singular emotion of the unrelenting bear’s spirit, an unchecked confidence bordering on rage.

As a war-god, Volibear would naturally have only one goal - ceaseless slaughter. Should life still beat in the hearts of anything living, Volibear has not yet come upon it. Even despite his demands for a sacrifice, Volibear obliged Udyr's terms.

“She makes no pledge to you, bear spirit...We offer only the war and its dead.”

War in its own right is not holistically evil or good - war is war. It's death, conflict, and strife, sometimes with purpose, and sometimes for the sake of killing. And that is a simple fact that Volibear abides by.

There is probably as much noble about Volibear as there is ignoble. He did not suffer the Winter's Claw to sacrifice to him, and led his Ursine to battle with them, but he did not make clean or easy work of the killing, either. At the end of the day, he is a demigod - an embodiment of an animal spirit, and a force of nature. It would be perfectly fair to say Volibear is destructive and dangerous, but I'm not sure "evil" would be as easy a term to apply to him.

I would say evil in that kind of primordial force of nature way, think the forces of Chaos from Moorcocks stuff. Most humans would consider him evil, but he also represents things that are necessary, and certainly doesn't understand the 'malice' that people would try to place on him and what he does.

hes super evil

Inb4 Moody P gets triggered

Volibear is the closest thing we have to a malevolent Egyptian or Norse God like the God of War interpretation of Thor or Egyptian Set.

Given the description of Volis head in this lore it wouldn't surprise me if it turned out that he was corrupted by the void.

I mean half of his face was missing which sounded a lot like what happened when one of the ascended was affected by it.

It seems to me that the Freljordian demigods are more neutral than anything. Volibear isn't really evil. Violent and chaotic yes, but not truly evil. He has bloodlust, yes, but I don't think he wants the world destroyed by the Watchers. I feel like if push came to shove, he might have a very uneasy alliance with Ornn and Anivia, to destroy the enemies of the Freljord.

I really don't like what they did with Volibear. Evil or not, he's so far removed from the Volibear I once knew (and not in a good way like with Warwick) that it makes my head spin.

The fuck is wrong with everyone, the volibear in the lore is the voli bear we used love and adore.. His presence of wise, warrior bear saving his tribe is wht voli bear is.. How and why are they making him evil.. It just make me sad...