I'm disappointed in the treatment of Volibear

SkyblazeHydraX3··3 votes·1,243 views

When I first started in League, Volibear was a simple Ursine shaman, who was chosen by the storm to lead and save his people. When the Freljord update hit, Volibear was changed from a straight up heroic figure into a more ambiguous "the ends justify the means" individual. He received a vision of dark ice spreading and his people the Ursine, softened from years of peace, mercilessly slaughtered. And so he sought to rally his people to arms, to raise up their foregone warrior traditions so that when the time came, they would be ready. To that end he sided with Sejuani, convinced that strength would be needed in order to avert disaster.

But now? Now Volibear is apparently a bloodthirsty warmongering demigod, who provoked Ornn into a fight that killed Ornn's followers just for the sake of spiting Ornn, whom Volibear was jealous of. He's a spooky story told to children, who twists his followers into monstrous aberrations to serve him. And I don't like it.

Volibear was always this wise, majestic, powerful leader who channeled the storm and his ursine fury to fight for what he believed in, and now he's being turned into this big malicious entity. It feels like a very heavy warping of his character for the sake of having an antagonistic force on Ornn's level.

My one solace is the fact that Riot is very rarely ever so black and white with its characters, and that because the stories being told have been passed from mouth to ear over innumerable generations they're obviously not going to be well-aligned with the facts. Volibear might have such a reputation amongst the common folk, but that doesn't mean he's as vicious and malicious as the stories say. But unless Riot really manages to pull something that can maintain the core of Volibear's character, a juxtaposition of great wisdom and bestial fury that fights for the protection of his people and home, then I am going to be sorely disappointed.

Riot doesn't need to pull a Marvel, where they put an entirely new character under the same name for the sake of doing something different and new. And before anyone asks yes I know to some they did exactly that with Sion, Poppy, and Taric. Difference is they didn't have actual in-depth personalities to begin with, so when they actually got expanded on and reinvented, it came off as pretty different. Just... please Riot, don't warp Volibear into a villain for the sake of having a villain.

23 Comments

6FlagsFunnelCake5 votes

Personally, I appreciate Volibear's new lore a bit more but I see your points, it's hard if you get connected to his old lore.

But if it's any help, I highly doubt that Volibear is being made up to be a big bad Villain, just a more brutal war-like character, which I can admit is a bit of a drastic change. Firstly, the stories we've seen of new Volibear are just that, stories. Riot has officially stated that the myths are just myths carried down by Freljordians, and that, much like many cultures, the stories can be miscommunicated and changed over generations. Secondly, we still haven't seen Volibear's perspective of it all. Riot has also stated that we'll be seeing Anivia and Volibear's perspective, so maybe it'll be like how Viktor was thought to be evil until we saw his side of the story as well.

SkyblazeHydraX32 votes

Yeah, that's my one solace, that Riot is never clean-cut black and white with their characters, with the occasional exception like Mordekaiser who benefits from it. Even Warwick, who was made into a relatively heroic figure, is still bloodthirsty and savage, taking thrill from the hunt and barely able to control the beast within him.

I'm happy Riot has emphasized that these stories are not only meant to be sympathetic to Ornn's perspective, but that the very human perspective they're being told from means it's easy for facts to be lost or switched around. I just really hope they do Volibear justice when they come around to telling his story.

To be honest, it would be quite interesting to have a character actually in an "everybody hates Hades" situation. Just playing their role and doing their job, even well-meaning about it, but because of the role they play (such as Hades being the god of death) they're often cast in a negative light by the masses. If that's the angle they go with Volibear, then by all means I will eat that up.

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

Yep, it's a pet peeve of mine when Riot turns a character into something completely different than the one people originally liked. Pantheon

Sorry your champion got deleted.

SkyblazeHydraX33 votes

No offense but Pantheon was literally a 300 homage/parody with a joke about baking. At least now Riot gave him something original they can work off of as a foundation.

VGU can't come soon enough in my opinion

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

I'd rather take an homage to a spartan as opposed to the space parasite he's become.

SkyblazeHydraX33 votes

Except Riot can't really do anything with a walking talking spartan parody. Space parasite is definitely being rather harsh about it, but I'm not going to say you're wrong until we actually see what they do with Pantheon's story, role, and lore.

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

I disagree. You could actually look into how the Spartans function realize the various cultural and personal complications that could bring about, and make a character extending from what had come before.

Instead, we got an alien that possessed a boy while apparently murdering him. Space parasite.

SkyblazeHydraX32 votes

Except Spartans aren't part of Runeterra. Riot is making a whole entire new world, with new cultures and new settings. There is no Sparta, so a walking talking Sparta ripoff has no place in the world.

As for Pantheon's host and what happened to him, I don't know. We know what the Targonians believe to happen to Pantheon's hosts, and we have the implications, but we don't have the direct facts. And even then we don't have Pantheon's character fleshed out and explored quite yet.

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

But there are ronin, Vikings, 4 ninja, literally Son Wukong (they didn't even bother to rename him), kitsune, a Han dynasty Chinese soldier, a Wild West outlaw, the Joker, Harley Quinn, Huntress, a Renaissance fencer. But an expy of a Spartan. That's where we draw the line.

As to new Panth. That is literally the problem. They already release his lore and still he's a vapid character with no real personality or traits. But they took the character defined as being a soldier and turned him into a body hoping space parasite. That's horrible.

SkyblazeHydraX32 votes

Yasuo is in essence a ronin yes, but he's never called as such in lore. He's the equivalent of what we know as a ronin, but the word in itself has not been used. Ahri is not a kitsune, but a Vastayan, which Riot has covered in depth. Fiora is not a Renaissance fencer but a Demacian noblewoman. Graves is a criminal yes, but not an outlaw from the nonexistent wild west. Shaco, Olaf, Akali, Kennen, and Xin Zhao are all very old champions who are to varying degrees relatively high up on Riot's update/VGU list, so they're more examples of what Riot still needs to update.

Even then, they all have at least some bit of characterization to them as individuals. Pantheon was literally just a Spartan under a slightly different name, and all of his voice lines are homages or references. There was hardly even a character to replace with regards to the old Pantheon; "being a soldier" just isn't enough, and could easily be applied to Garen and Darius, both of whom have very different characterizations and personalities while still "being a soldier". The new Pantheon at least has a clear place and role amongst the Targonian setup with regards to Aurelion Sol, Taric, Leona, and Diana. Something Riot can explore and build upon with ease once Pantheon gets the attention he needs.

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

Calling something a Vastayan instead of a kitsune is the exact same difference as calling someone a Rakkoran instead of a Spartan. We've also directly seen Olaf and the ninja's lores either in new stories or in brief cameos in others. They are referred to directly as vikings and ninjas respectively.

But here's the sticking point. If he was just a Spartan, what does that actually mean? They were a complex people with a long history. Not every Spartan was the same any more than any other person growing up. They had certain core aspects that could be played with: the agoge training, the pressures of fulfilling arete, even the knowledge that at birth your entire life is laid out for you. All of which can be used to create a compelling character in this world.

Instead, he gets tacked on as a space alien that possesses people and still doesn't actually have a personality. We can agree that the old Pantheon wasn't actually a fleshed out 3 dimensional character. But he still isn't after being replaced.

They've replaced a concept that wasn't explored but could have been. With another concept that hasn't actually been explored. And that concept is far less interesting than a man struggling through human problems. It instead costs on the vague mystery of the space parasites in place of actually creating an interesting character.

SkyblazeHydraX32 votes

Except Vastayans aren't copy-pasted with a different name. Vastayans are born from an ancient magical race intermingling with humans, birthing humanoid creatures with animal traits that require high amounts of ambient magic in order to survive, thrive, and even just exist. Kitsune are fox spirits from Japanese folklore, known for disguise and trickery. Not exactly the same thing.

As for Spartans, Riot doesn't want to wholesale copy-paste a culture into the world of Runeterra. They want to craft their own world, with unique cultures and characterization. With Pantheon they couldn't do that while still maintaining his character as it is.

As for not doing anything with him since then, it's probably just due to priorities. During the Targonian event the lore team just could not leave Pantheon out of it. Despite his age and lack of character- or rather because of it meaning he has so few unique points- he's probably the one character everyone remembers as being "from Targon". So they had to involve him, and were compelled to update him and give him a new angle.

But since then, Riot's VGU teams have had bigger and more pressing matters to work on, knocking one VGU out of the park after another. They just haven't gotten to Pantheon yet and haven't jumped on the angle worked out for him. A mistake that hasn't exactly been repeated, you'll notice.

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

They didn't try to create a developed character and culture while keeping a some similarities with the original. That doesn't mean they couldn't.

Hell, I bet right here, I could come up with a unique culture that bares influence with Sparta without actually being Sparta. Hell, they even kind of do that with the Rakkor. Admittedly, they do it kind of poorly and the details don't actually make sense. But they do it. I could probably also come up with a developed character to make a champion coming out of that society. It's actually not all that hard to do, if you actually want to.

They did give him a new angle, and that angle was largely ignoring everything that came before. The same thing you're complaining they're doing with Volibear by the way. Warping the pre-existing character to fit into some antagonistic mold that he was never originally designed for. Truth be told, even old Volibear wasn't that unique a character. He was a bear and a "wise shaman" archetype. What was unique about him was he was given a hint of a story to play in and develop. Pantheon was the disciplined career soldier archetype (as opposed to the more usual warrior archetype we see in characters like Garen or Darius) only he wasn't really given his story yet. We hadn't yet got to see what you could do with the character.

I don't really care what they do or will do with Pantheon since then. I care what they released with the lore update. What they released was a bland boring character, with no clear motivation or personality. Instead of that important stuff, we have the vague mystery of the space parasites and what they want. That's not a character, that's a plot point. And it's not even a unique plot point.

Killaburn1 votes

well as you can see. real world occurrences just influences riots creation to make champs and not a totally copy and paste cliche because riot likes to make their very own original character. I doubt they will make generic champions and the purpose of VGU's too is to retcon olds champs to fit in the new runeterra and has a distinct identity. like pantheon, they will rework him not a as typical sparta figure but with a twist like that

Warlord Dienekes1 votes

But reading the new lore they didn't actually take anything from Sparta with a twist. He's some weird space parasite that possesses people. Where once there was a proud warrior that fought through his own skill and training, now he has magic super powers.

That's the real problem, really. Even after rewriting it. They replaced something interesting if unexplored, with something just as cliched and less interesting to explore.

LostFr0st1 votes

Oh no... it's happening again, just like Viktor 's lore. Lets hope they find a sweet way to tell the other side of this coin too. Gonna be good. [slayer-pantheon-popcorn] Will probs take a while though...

SkyblazeHydraX32 votes

Volibear's come up a lot recently in VGU talks, and he's now getting new lore implications and story involvement with a much more modern champion. I get the feeling that Volibear is next up on the list for one of the VGU teams, after Evelynn finishes or Swain.

LostFr0st1 votes

I really hope so. He needs it pretty badly. I know there's other champs too (like Mordekaiser or Pantheon ) but I'll even be happy if he's the one after the one after Swain. We need a real badass Voli in League.

SkyblazeHydraX31 votes

He'll probably be soon, and Morde or Pantheon will more than likely not be too far behind. But Riot tries to keep the champions that get updates diversified, so I suspect there will be at least one champion between Volibear and Mordekaiser, two powerful and intimidating juggernauts.

Killaburn1 votes

i bet nunu is next though then morde

SkyblazeHydraX31 votes

Nunu I'm not sure, as there's really not a lot of demand for him.

Morde? About three people are loud and passionate enough to make him a real possibility. They know who they are.

LordHippoman1 votes

It surprised me at first that they would retcon Volibear, given his most recent depiction was in the Freljord event, generally considered part of the "new canon".

Then again, that event never really had, like, a conclusion, so I suppose it's fair game, and it was also 4 years ago.

SkyblazeHydraX31 votes

All true. I just really, really hope they do him justice. Gonna be a real disappointment if they turn him into an outright villain.

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