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"What If" Stories: A Solution the No-Death Rule?

Gold Light·5/28/2018, 3:33:55 PM·10 votes·7,029 views

So recently I've been thinking a bit about Riot's current lore state. We know that they retconned the League and the Institute of War so that they'd have more freedom to write what they want without Summoners intervening, and to an extent, that worked. However, Riot is still somewhat limited in what they can write, given that every Champion in the story has a degree of necessary plot armor. They can't canonically kill off any character because it would upset fans of that character and it would just be weird playing a champion in-game that technically no longer exists. The closest we've ever gotten to a Champion in League truly dying was Gangplank back during the Burning Tides event, but even that turned out to just lead into another visual update. It's completely understandable why Riot doesn't want to kill off their characters, however it does mean that we'll likely never get a conclusion to several of their story arcs; we'll never seen Lucian free Senna from Thresh's grasp, we'll never see Rengar and Kha'Zix determine who's the superior hunter, and we'll never Miss Fortune TRULY kill of Gangplank or vice-versa.

HOWEVER, it occurred to me only recently that Riot has already solved this issue, at least to extent. There's a Champion in the game already who perfectly shows how to kill off a character without really killing them off: Kayn Kayn. Kayn's entire gameplay gimmick is a "what-if" scenario, with the player choosing whether the human can overpower the Darkin or vice-versa. Canonically, it's unlikely we'll ever see a story in which one truly triumphs over the other, but thanks to Kayn's dual-form gimmick, we know what the possible outcomes of their struggle looks like and where it can lead them.

This, I think, can serve as a possible solution for Riot's story-tellers who are unable to properly conclude any rivalries in the game. Instead of canonically killing off anyone, what if we were to get stories that showed possible outcomes of struggles between Champions? Imagine a story revolving around the struggle between Xerath and Azir that had two alternate endings: one where Xerath wins, and one where Azir wins. Neither is necessarily canon to the current lore state, but shows how one Ascendant can triumph over the other, and what the after-math is.

I know that this would be a lot of effort for Riot's lore team, but I think this is a possible solution to one of the biggest issues in League's narrative. These "what-if" scenarios can let Riot show us where a Champion can be headed or what their resolution would be without necessarily having to kill off anyone's favorite character. And of course, if someone doesn't like the outcome that's presented, they're technically free to ignore it as it hasn't happened yet in the lore.

I don't know if we'll ever be able to get something like this, but I think it would be a really cool way to finally conclude certain story lines that otherwise will never be able to receive closure.

25 Comments

GreenLore5/28/2018, 4:40:39 PM11 votes

I don't think thats a good idea for several reasons:

1.It would quickly get confusing,which lore piece is set in which alternate canon.I mean for example the outcome of Kayns struggle would greatly affect the lores around the darkin and the order of the shadow,they'd need to release several lore pieces for each outcome,at which point it'd become difficult to keep track of all the different canons.

2.These lore pieces would ultimately feel rather pointless,as they wouldn't affect the main canon.

3.I don't even think that Riot has a "no-death rule",because right now almost all champs are still in the early stages of their lores,so of course none of them get killed off.That wouldn't make sense,it'd be like having Harry Potter die after the first 3 chapters.

RiotBioluminescence5/29/2018, 12:29:04 AM8 votes

Hey, Gold Light, hope you don't mind me taking a little aside to your main topic, but you spurred a thought. How would you (and the rest of the Story, Art & Sound Board) feel if, say, there were little interactive versions of a champ's story. Now, before anyone gets too excited, this is just a hypothetical, but it's something I've been thinking about with stories being presented in various mediums in other IPs.

As an example - there was a game released a while ago, that had a famous IP, and both players and the developers had strong opinions on what was, and was not, appropriate to see in that game. Some players found the inclusion of characters in a level/time/setting, but who would never have been able to attend that level were in in the movies, jarring and broke their immersion. Developers (I believe, and I may be misremembering this so I apologize - it works for this hypothetical anyway) found this to be acceptable within the IP, due to the type of game it was - but claimed that suggestions of extreme costume changes (that would be out of character) as too far. Some players (probably not the same players who cried anachronism or immersion) didn't see why it would be a big deal. And beyond all this - the very nature of the game was to play out the actions of certain IP events - almost certainly having it play out in an alternative way to what was seen in other media (the 'canon' version).

So to apply this to a champ's story - imagine that there is a canon version of the events that transpired. Let's take Nami's bio as an example. There is a canon version of Nami's bio - both in written and comic form. If there were an interactive version where you could choose, as Nami, whether to dodge left or right when threatened by a underwater monster - which of those actions is canon? Does it bother you that some players took the other option? Now obviously dodging left or right (if there were no differing outcome) is pretty much the definition of a trivial difference - but at what point does a difference become too big?

If, in an interactive version, Nami could, though your actions, fail in her mission and not get the abyssal pearl - my personal opinion is that most players would understand that that was not the canon outcome. What if you, the player, chose to kill or spare Rasho? Would you want some indication of what the canon events are/were, and if so - would that diminish the purpose of the whole endeavor?

I guess it's related to your OP - an interactive story involving a champ would be a What If by its very definition because having a choice means the opportunity to take the choice that isn't 'canon'.

What do you all think?

TL;DR - If you're playing a Spiderman game, and you fail a web-swing and slam into the windscreen of a bus, do you consider that canon? How do you know in an interactive experience what is, and isn't canon?

Ebonmaw Dragon5/28/2018, 11:11:54 PM3 votes

There is no "no death rule", Champions CAN die.

Whyte Lyon5/29/2018, 7:42:09 AM1 votes

Whats with some from this community who obsess over whether a game character dies? Well, the fascination steems more on the idea that a champion probably wont or shouldnt permanently die. But some all most imply in their arguments like without such a possibility the lore cannot have impact or that somehow it would make things satisfying...

But why the hell should a champion die? Why does the fan base hold "Plot Armor" up like some kind of taboo?

Enjoying the base stories and what they're trying to achieve, even with the confines it has within a MOBA based IP is perfectly fine.

ChunLii5/29/2018, 1:03:38 PM1 votes

The solution to this is simple: comic book death. If you don’t what that is character’s dying the coming back maybe half year to 2 years later. But what can be stopped from being pointless is character development or newfound purpose.

I truly believe League Lore can take a lot of inspiration from Marvel and DC to how to build the universe and make so many different characters interactive with each other when otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. Cape comics for example makes someone like Hawkeye who uses a bow of all things make sense with characters who are technologically advanced beyond our imaginations. Because I see that as a common criticism how can Piltover and Demacia co-exist as an example. Another thing I want to see is established multiversity but that’s not needed more of a nice bonus.