Nautilus and Varus's new lores are terrible

SpecterVonBaren··16 votes·1,389 views

A while back when a comic was released for Nami that revealed (Or changed) that the dark evil that was threatening her people was the Void entering Runeterra through the ocean, I made comments that I didn't like this kind of streamlining to stories and characters where instead of lots of different people with different backstories and problems, we end up with people with very similar problems.

Here's Nautilus and Varus's new lore.

Nautilus

All know the tales; all pay the Bilgewater tithe. Since time immemorial, Nautilus has roamed the dark waters off the coast of the Blue Flame Isles, dragging impious sailors to their doom. The armored goliath strikes without warning, his inexorable footfalls churning the waters, before swinging his enormous anchor upward to shatter mast and keel alike. He then pulls the flotsam beneath the waves to appease the wrath of the Bearded Lady.

Varus

One of the ancient race of darkin, Varus was a deadly killer who loved to torment his foes, driving them almost to insanity before delivering the killing arrow. He was imprisoned at the end of the Darkin War, but escaped centuries later in the remade flesh of two Ionian hunters—they had unwittingly released him, cursed to bear the bow containing his bound essence. Varus now seeks out those who trapped him in order to enact his brutal vengeance, but the mortals' souls within him still resist every step of the way.

Instead of being a tortured soul that had been left to die by his fellow crew only to come back for revenge only to find there was no one left to enact it on, Nautilus is now just a boogeyman, no character, no backstory, he's just a force of nature.

Varus's the worst though. No longer does he have a tragic backstory of his family dying and him being out for revenge at any cost, he's now just another generic Darkin and his host (hosts?) are just two nobody hunters.

Characters are being streamlined so they can fit into a few little boxes of, this person's a demon, this is a Void, this is a Demacian. This is what happens when people try to unify everything into one nice and simple box. What's the point of changing the lore of Varus if he's now just Thresh Lite? If the new lore destroys any kind of characterization he has then what's the point?

Riot needs to stop this new trend of trying to simplify all their champions to fit into specific little niches. Everything doesn't need to connect to everything else and even if it does, it doesn't need to hit the same notes as everything else.

20 Comments

Warlord Dienekes5 votes

Yeah, Varus' particularly seems kind of odd. Since it seems to completely shift the character from the man who is going to become corrupted by the darkin to the darkin itself.

Maybe they thought it was too close to Kayn? But that's still a pretty huge jump in character there.

HonestJohnTheCon2 votes

I feel like Varus's full lore is going to have an explanation of the two hunters. Similar to Pantheon, I assume, but without the bait-and-switch. We should be able to see why the hunters resort to freeing it before it happens.

Quepha4 votes

I don't understand the point of changing the lore of old characters.

I guess it's low risk because not many people really care about the old lore, but it's also low reward because not many people care about the lore period.

You dramatically change an old character that has a lot of fan fiction created about them and there are going to be a few people that you majorly piss off, and there's not much potential pay-off for it.

I don't really understand why Riot does it.

Beyond Legends3 votes

Because alot of the old lore was quite frankly either terrible or vague beyond belief. Alot of them had zero story potential at all.

Sure this may step on the toes of some old lore fans, but the pay off is probably better down the line for them.

Quepha1 votes

That's what Riot said when they completely changed Trundle's lore.

How many Trundle stories have been told since Lissandra's release?

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO6 votes

I feel like that’s more of a problem of production than it is a problem with the new lore itself

Quepha2 votes

I feel like "Think of all the future stories!" is just a pipe dream that Riot has clearly demonstrated they aren't going to follow up on. More stories were told about old Trundle and Ice Trundle has now been around for years longer than him.

This game is about characters in the state they are presented in, it's not about character development because changing the characters for the sake of a story clashes badly with how the game is played. Characters in this game should, for lack of a better term, stagnate, as Legends who you KNOW.

Beyond Legends2 votes

They already did with shadow and fortune and MF, I don't think why they wouldn't?

I mean I remember people were crying to rito about advancing the plot when the IOW existed. Honestly I disagree with MOBA lore should stagnate at all, because having an ip that's actually alive will better serve riot when league eventually dies.

SpecterVonBaren3 votes

Here's the problem, a character like, say, the new Pantheon, has just as if not less story potential than before his lore change since his new lore destroyed his character at the end. And this is what's happening with a lot of characters, they're being turned into more forces of nature than actual characters.

Beyond Legends2 votes

Atreus is still alive and it is no doubt he would probably make a come back when he un doubtly returns in the future.

Also as only volibear has gotten push to the demigod status which is fine cobsidering a tribe of talking bears seems quite odd with how human centric alot of league is.

SpecterVonBaren3 votes

I would much rather they make their stories move forward rather than do the same thing comic books do with constantly restarting the stories over and over again. I understand why they want to change characters that had a backstory involved with the IOW since it no longer exists but why not just move on with the stories of the characters that aren't involved with that? Varus didn't need to be reset, the backstory of the power he had protected and then allowed to corrupt him was vague enough that they could put a few adjustments on it to make it a Darkin weapon and then just move his story forward from what they initially had.

As Nautilus says, "Forward, forward."

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO3 votes

It's about a paradigm shift I'd say. When the lore retcon happened they set about turning their characters into in-universe legends. WE have no idea what Varus' long lore will contain. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that most concerns are generally dealt with by the time long-form lore is released.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO3 votes

I don’t really see a problem, this is after all the short form bio, longer lore will come and maybe some of the concerns will be addressed.

Varus will no doubt elaborate on the two hunters, and Nautilus’ old lore was just weird. It seemed as if Nautilus was a normal dude, but then the New Dawn cinematic made him gigantic.

Looking at short form bios, yah, everything will be a little streamlined because that’s the point of short form bios.

iLBGAMing3 votes

Tbh they should either do any of these 3 things in my opinion..

.

  • Revert back to the original lore, but shorten it. (so that it fits better in the champion bio section better)

.

  • Change the lore to something else that actually fits his character.

.

  • Or just rework him to make his new lore match the in game character, but I don't like the new lore to be honest as you mentioned "No longer does he have a tragic backstory of his family dying and him being out for revenge at any cost, he's now just another generic Darkin and his host (hosts?) are just two nobody hunters."
some degenerate2 votes

Sona's new lore is awful as well. She's no longer a mute Ionian adopted into a Demacian family that a mysterious and strong bond to a sentient instrument. Rather her instrument is just that - a regular instrument and she now shares Lux's narrative tropes about being a mage who's trying to keep her Power secret from Demacian soceity.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO5 votes

Sona’s New lore is no different from her old one, it’s literally a distillation of her important bits.

Falun2 votes

I've written a lot on Varus, my main character and am very attached to his story.

When Kayn emerged, I had my own theory about Varus/Darkin, without destroying his whole lore. The Darkin Aatrox was the winner against his human host, which doesn't exist anymore. The victor between Kayn and Rhaast is no determinated yet. And as the name let it suppose, Varus is still the human. He's quite the "shadow assassin" version for the darkin bow. For him, the human won, and let him with the power of the darkin. This theory is easily understandable and does'nt need to change the deep and strong Varus lore. This only gives a name to this ancien corruption as a darkin, not completely erases the character tragedy.

When I read that, I feel very sorry for this poor Guardian. He will soon no longer exist or have a name (replaced by random guys). Why Serious, why ?? Rito, I hope you read that because I'm angry you decide to destroy such a beautiful character to make another Thresh in mind. I hope too you can still change and do a better choice.

Chembaron Yamada1 votes

I understand Nautilus' lore a bit differently. Keep in mind that these are really short versions.

Nowhere is it stated that Nautilus being left to die by his crew is not canon anymore.

How I imagine his backstory: Nautilus still was once a sailor himself. A tragedy caused him to drown in that suit he is wearing, he was left to die in the depths by his crew.

What's new is that the bearded lady intervent here. She gave him a new life and a new purpose. He became her servant, dragging ships down into the depths and tributing the flotsam to her.

Nautilus pretty much became the Davy Jones of league of legends now. Once a man, died, but serves now a supernatural deity (Davy Jones -> Calipso/Ocean, Nautilus -> Bearded Lady).

ModAcademy Kayn1 votes

I mean, Naut's at least could still be left to die by his coworkers, it just could've been much longer ago, which would up the factor on just what that Black stuff did to him

Hexs Fortune1 votes

Vaarus, Aatrox and Rhaast walk into a bar..

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