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Retconning never should have occured

Iceborn Pippin·10/23/2015, 7:59:34 AM·8 votes·769 views

Its a shame that the League was retconned. Not a big surprise in the slightest. However its facepalm worthy even more when you think about the fact that the League didn't need to be retconned away.

Storywise just have the League slowly fall out of favor with Runeterra. Politically slandering their reputation through the mud, sabotaging the League via external factions, putting champions like Ahri in danger when outside Summoner's Rift. It would never be a single explosion that took out the League or an army. Its the fact that the League was a necessary and neutral faction to the peace of Runeterra amongst the goverments of Noxious, Zaun, Demacia, Bandlecity, etc.

RIOT stated countless times how "The league is so constraining to future characters" that this would have been the perfect opprotunity to also kill another bird with a single stone. Which bird? The fact that for a long time the lore was removed and nothing except a footnote took its place.

BOOM! Suddenly you got all these characters who were with the League who now suddenly don't have a League to go to. This allows for character growth amongst SO MANY different champions as they now must live within a world where the League does not exist. How does this affect the rest of runeterra? What do the champions do in this new and strange world, one without a league? Have certain nations like Noxious went back to their old ways? What new beings have reared their head because the threat of the League no longer is as potent.

I can tell you easily how Summoners maintain their place within Runeterra and its very simple and still allows for places like Summoner's Rift and other places to exist. The answer is: What was once a large neutral faction becomes an underground cult/faction. For they believe it is the best thing to try and maintain this power over these characters for the better of Runeterra. BOOM! You still maintain all the Summoner stuff in the game like how there are "Summoner Spells" and your "Summoner Level" and how the champions talk to you and refer to you as "Summoner" and how there is "Summoner Icons".

See what I am talking about? No retconning needed to occur when regarding the League itself. The fact that they retconned one of the BIGGEST PLOT POINTS is why I question what their Lore team is honestly thinking at times. As they had a win/win sitting in their laps and didn't notice it at all is to me what it seems.

How is it a win/win? Easy. RIOT gets to free themselves of the League and no longer feel "constrained" by it. The fanbase wins because the lore isn't retconned and instead it would have been expanded upon based on "The Fall of the League".

I know its late for this opinion but I honestly thought it had to be said as I am a person who enjoys writing stories and analyzes the stories from a variety of franchises that are often on a variety of mediums.

12 Comments

Impetual10/23/2015, 9:06:31 AM6 votes

I'm with ya dude.

Contrary to popular belief, Riot never actually provided a satisfying coherent reason for the lore retcon that could hold up under minor scrutiny.

The half-assed non-explanation post that introduced us to the retcon was highly downvoted, and it was pretty obvious that the players at the time hated the idea of a retcon.

Despite player's hating the idea, RIot went ahead with the retcon anyways. Years later, lore doesn't make sense, and us longtime players think back fondly on the days where it did. I miss season 2 of LoL.

Trylobyte10/23/2015, 12:59:40 PM5 votes

The problem was that the League was too powerful. They had no credible threats. Remember, this is a faction that stopped a hot war between Demacia and Noxus in the course of a couple minutes and 'accidentally' blew up a city in the process. They had a stable full of eldritch abominations, each capable of destroying the world. They had full and complete access to a champion's mind and memory, as Judgments showed us. They had almost all of the most powerful beings in Runeterra - ones like Nasus, Kayle, Morgana, Cho'gath - on leashes and could easily slap them on independent figures like Syndra or Xerath.

The League's 'image' and 'reputation' doesn't matter when they can just outright take over the world because they have so much magic, so much power, and so many important figures under their control. What are Noxus and Demacia going to do, for instance, when Demacia's Prince, their best general, their best spy, scout, bodyguard, and their most powerful individual member are all subject to the League's whim? And on Noxus's end, their leader is subject to the League, as is their best general, all their good assassins, and the head of their Illuminati. The two biggest powers on Runeterra would have been completely neutered going against the Institute.

The events we've had since would have never happened with Summoners still in the picture. Burning Tides? Forget it. The last time two champions took shots at each other (Kassadin and Malzahar) it was treated as an interesting little side blurb about how they began to fight, the Summoners showed up, told them to go sit in the corner, and revived someone who died interfering in the fight (Karthus) like it was no big deal (though to be fair it was Karthus).

TL;DR - The League had become too much of a Deus Ex Machina and, organizationally, too much of a God Mode Sue for Riot to phase out easily and believably. They timed the retcon badly because they had nothing to replace it with and delivering any new content took a lot longer than they thought it would, but that doesn't mean the retcon itself was a bad thing. It was just handled poorly.

Star Guardían10/23/2015, 12:42:09 PM2 votes

I think that a lot of the discontent towards the retcon, and rightfully so, is due to the fact that Riot didn't replace the old lore with something new in a sufficient time frame. They still haven't reached the rate of consistency that we, the fans, want. Having said this, from what they've shown us so far, I believe their new direction is much more interesting that what they could've done with the old lore.

Disclaimer: my opinion

Pyrodinium10/23/2015, 3:58:58 PM1 votes

There are various things that prevent your idea to be a "clear win/win situation".

  • It would take time, resources and effort to pull of: Basically, they would employ time they would rather be using to develop Runeterra to build upon the IoW (an element they know well will no longer be using). Ultimately a waste of resources.

  • It would please only a very small percentage of the fanbase: Dissolving the League in universe would in no way be received positively by most of the people that actually liked the IoW, while the less hardcore lore fans (which is the vast majority of the players, by the way) would not really care about it, just like happened with the JoJ.

  • It would create troublesome expectations: Suppose Narrative goes with your idea and brings down the League. Then what? They can't just go doing their business like after the retcon, since the downfall of the League is a huge developing, and the community will expect them to follow that storyline.

  • It muddles the world lore: Related with the above. Ok, the IoW has fallen, and we want to explore the post-League Runeterra. But guess what? There is not even a pre-League Runeterra, since the existence of the IoW encouraged superficial lore for the rest of the world.

  • It would not achieve Narrative's actual goal: Destroying the League in universe creates more questions than solutions. It doesn't separate gameplay from narrative, and doesn't change the setting enough for Riot to pull off the character-focused narratives they intend to. The retcon is just way cleaner in this regard.