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Something that bothers me about the Targon lore...

EbonyBladeJ88·3/22/2019, 1:27:25 AM·2 votes·4,766 views

Here's something I've never really understood ever since the Targon lore update that happened around the time of Taric's VGU.

OK, so there are "Aspects" or basically, the Greek Gods of Runeterra living in some Olympus-style celestial city at the top of Mount Targon, I can get that. These "Aspects" choose wielders or "vessels" or whatever you want to call them to "embody" their power. I can understand that too. That's basically like any other fantasy story or world where some God or god-like being chooses a "champion" to perform some act for them in the mortal realm, act in their name, or what-have-you.

Here's the thing I DON'T understand. From what I understand when I read Leona, Diana and Taric's stories, they are chosen to be the Aspects of the Sun, Moon and Protector "Gods" or Targon beings, whatever you want to call them. They get to keep their individuality and for the most part, remain in control of their own bodies, minds and actions.

But then you have Pantheon, the "Aspect" of War, who chooses this Atreus guy as his newest "vessel" or "champion", whatever you want to call him. Instead of him being simply given the power of the "Aspect" of War, like the other 3 above are, he fully possesses and takes over the guy's body.

So I guess the question I'm struggling with here is, Why?

Why do Leona, Diana and Taric (At least based on what I understand) get to keep their individuality, yet Atreus/Pantheon doesn't? It seems kind of unfair and cheap, almost like a cop-out, like Riot didn't WANT to come up with a new original story for Pantheon the man (Or at least the man he was before the Lore update).

2 Comments

KestrelGirl3/22/2019, 2:18:57 AM5 votes

Different aspects have different approaches to their hosts. The aspects of the Protector, Sun, and Moon seem to take very little control aside from giving their hosts extra abilities. The Aspect of Twilight speaks through Zoe sometimes, and I would expect this level of possession with Mihira and the Aspect of Justice. The hostile Aspect of War is the only one we know of that takes complete control - but it's possibly for good reason, because it likes to keep its hosts from resisting its will.

However, Pantheon is BADLY in need of a VGU, so we may see Atreus resisting Pantheon's control in a future update.

Warlord Dienekes3/22/2019, 2:45:14 AM3 votes

Here’s the thing, Rioter Waarghobo has said it’s not just Pantheon. Basically when one of the space parasites choose a host there is some mix of both personalities. Leona is not just Leona the girl making her decisions. Her entire mind has been altered at least somewhat by the parasite.

Now how much mixing their is and how much it effects the parasite varies. Apparently Taric is about 99% original home grown Demacian decision making. Pantheon is 100% the parasite. Everyone else is somewhere in between.

Things start to get even weirder with what was said about Zoe. Since apparently Zoe was chosen specifically so her personality can in turn alter the personality of Twilight.

How this makes sense when Leona basically suppresses her parasite at some point? I don’t know.

One could also ask why the parasites would need to change their personality at all since apparently they can see the future enough to know that Leona and Morgana would embody the two sides of justice. But then in the lore they get blindsided by information with some frequency, so maybe this ability to see the future was a one and done deal.

Really though, the aspects are one of the most poorly explained things in the lore. They seem to work based on rules that are being made up on the fly. And perfectly honest, if you go read the first released Targon updated lore there really isn’t anything about them actually being the embodiment of various aspects of the human condition. On the contrary, Sol describes them as basically just upstart aliens.

This gives me the feeling that a lot of what Targon has developed into wasn’t really finalized until much later than the original Targon update. I wouldn’t expect to find consistency with the information until we actually get a reveal story that really goes into the parasites as themselves, not just when they’re in their hosts.

Which will probably come with the Pantheon rework.