What Varus' New Lore Keeps the Same.

So, before I start: I enjoyed the New lore and am fully biased when it comes to the enjoyment factor and my personal acceptance of it. This isn't about how LGBTQ+ now have a Canon character they can feel represented by or how great the lore is and how this lore is superior than its predecessor. This is about what is carried over and why this is a similar story with details changed. If you are upset about the new details then I am sorry in advance.

A few things to know right away:

1. Varus (the Darkin) is not LGBTQ+, only Kai and Val are. Parts of the whole.
2. Varus is no longer a human but instead, a Darkin.
3. Kai and Val had a relationship that seemed to span over a long while before these events. The way they talk you could argue they act as though they are married.

Now, the basic and primal parts of Varus' old narrative are carried over with the lose of duty over family narrative that many are demanding back. The correlations are as follows:

• Varus is widely respected and recognized = Val is known for his adventures and tales.
• Varus has family = Val has family and considers Kai a part of it.
• Varus defends the temple from Noxus and what lies inside = Val defends the Temple with Kai from Noxus and in turn whats inside.
• Loses family while doing his job = So invested in fucking Noxus that he loses Kai, his family.
• The loss leads him to drastic measure = The loss leads him to drastic measures.
• Goes to well and gets Corrupted = Goes to well and both get Corrupted.
• Pushed towards vengeance by internal regret = Darkin feeds off of and pushes Val towards vengeance by internal regret.
• Vows the kill Noxus for loss of family = Vows to kill Noxus for loss of Kai and other Ionians.
• Ends? = *Continues

Those are the correlations. Those are the basic and primal points carried over. Details changed and a lot of people didn't like the changes. The biggest thing people cry out for; Family, is still a big thing and I think a lot of people miss that. "Varus had a family before who he let down"... he still does and he still lets them down. Val doesn't pay attention to Kai and Kai dies. He releases the ancient evil and has to leave home, his mother and siblings.

A lot of people have also said that Varus is not longer the same person or character and they are only partially correct there. Val has all the parallels of old Varus and follows the same general path to get to the vengeance action. Varus is now Val (tweaked old Varus) and Kai ( level headed family that keeps Val grounded) plus this corruption (that was never really looked at before and could have been anything really). YOU COULD EVEN ARGUE THAT INTERNALLY THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME. Kai is the only thing keeping Darkin Varus from fully controlling Val, similar to the thoughts of Old Varus' family and what they allowed him to do well previously vs. the unknown corruption.

Analytically the stories are the same with tweaks only to allow future flow and exploration some to even make you care about the ones that varus cared about. No one is trying to destroy Varus or who someone thinks he was and you can see they are trying to keep it very much the same. Its Canonically the same story. That's all, I will be willing to have discussion bot and hopefully this helped.