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Retconning of characters.

Sneak Dog·6/23/2015, 3:39:21 PM·18 votes·1,588 views

So the people complaining about lack of content and short bios should have something to talk about within a month.

What about me, complaining about the removal/changing of characters?

Characters got changed/removed?

Trundle has been removed from the game two years ago. The new troll is a different character, you can simply compare VOs and reach this conclusion.

In the not officially released Unbound Xerath got portrayed more as a politician ascendant than a magus ascendant. It stated he was a magus, but it showed him ascending with his political skills. It also changed his main motivation from freedom and being one with magic to vengeance. The vengeance was born out of a denial of freedom, but it's vengeance nevertheless. Along with it he as a side objective also wanted to grab freedom, the empire and ascension.

There might be more, but I am confident in these two examples.

Removing characters is a bad thing?

In the game, we play as these champions. We sympathise with them and start caring about them. Having them be simply retconned and replaced for a new one is harsh. Having this done for questionable reasons moreso.

Runaan in this post supposedly stated the reason:

You guys are right: Trundle’s old story was compelling. It was a strong arc with a cathartic ending that finished the story of Trundle’s involvement with his tribe. The thing is, that story was effectively finished. Any evolution from the point at which Trundle decides to doom his tribe felt arbitrary when we discussed it internally.

This reason always sounded questionable to me. You could've given him a new story instead of removing him. Also do mind I'm not complaining about Trundle becoming a frost troll here. I'm complaining about the character getting removed. Curiously enough, even Jaredan agreed with me recently:

{quoted} The only way a character's story would finish would be if they die. A character will have numerous stories that make up their life. Just as is the case for a person.

Trundle didn't get removed for a good reason. This means that any character could get retconned. The amount of time and emotions I am willing to invest in a character given this knowledge is limited and I doubt that applies only to me.

Edit: Just a note, I don't mind characters getting a new or adjusted story to adjust for the retconned world. I mind the characters getting changed/removed.

**So Jaredan, will Riot continue removing/changing characters without giving good reasons? ** Will the content that's coming within a month remove or change more characters? Or if not, will you proof that you changed your ways, go back and bring Trundle back? Obviously without removing the new troll, a character on its own by now.

What does the rest of the community think of this? Is it fine for Riot to change/remove characters without giving reasons? Perhaps with good reasons? How'd you like to see this solved if you view it as a problem? Perhaps you disagree with my reasoning, I'd love to see your arguments then.

20 Comments

GreenLore6/23/2015, 4:48:40 PM6 votes

Overall I think character retcons themselves aren't necessarily bad,I mean some characters really don't fit into the current lore,or just don't really have much lore anyway. I think Sion is a good example of a successful retcon.His lore was really lackluster and his character was extremely bland,so the retcon really helped him a lot.

However I think that if a champion has a rather established personality/backstory,then they shouldn't be changed too much.

Xerath &Trundle both are examples where they seemingly received entirely new personalities and at least trundle a completely new background. I think the changes would have been a lot more bearable if they didn't change the personalities that much(and in trundles case if he went through something similar as old trundle)

Although I must say that in Xeraths case this might be simply a result of the lack of lore,as some rioters implied that xerath is still a mage who has a great fascination with raw magic and that this was the reason why he could pull off something like this in the first place.Its just that his only lore piece focuses on his sympathetic side,which was most likely done because everyone complained about xerath being turned into jafar without Iago.

However undoing these retcons would probably be even worse. The way it is now we can at least assume that the retconned lores are going to stay,but if the retcons suddenly get undone,then that goes away too and nothing will be considered safe anymore.

Earl Eulrich6/24/2015, 12:54:53 PM6 votes

CTs Thread also didn´t get a real answer, nor did the question what they were thinking when seperating gameplay&lore. I think they just don´t have any answers to these more fundamental questions - indicating that they didn´t really think through what a retcon at that point meant for the game and the community. And now they just refuse to either acknowledge the fact that they made a really bad decission for no real reason or know that very well and are just too stubborn and hope it will all go away if they just keep going into the wrong direction (pretty similar to the european attempt to solve the economical crysis sadly).

Dextix LT6/23/2015, 4:24:49 PM5 votes

They will no doubt retcon characters. Champions like nocturne existance without IOW make no sense anymore. Since in the old lore he was born from the nightmares of the summoners.

It is not fine to retcon or remove champs for no reason. Especially with lame excuses such as "Trundles story has ended" like seriously? This just shows what incompetent idiots work in the narrative. You can create thousands of stories about one champion. Then the icing on the cake."The only way to finish the story is for a character to die", again shows what idiots with no writing skills work there. Stories can be finished in any way imaginable. Even "They lived happily ever after" is an ending of a story.

My fix? Fire those who are incompetent and write idiotic stuff such as the above and hire some writers which know how to write.

Legacy of Xion6/23/2015, 5:22:16 PM5 votes

I'm waiting to see how they gut Kayle and Morgana. I heard they were keeping them otherworldly, but I seriously have no faith right now in that - they already destroyed everything about League we know, and haven't even given us a rough sketched map to go off of.

sp4416/27/2015, 2:40:58 AM3 votes

Honestly, I have more or less given up on the chance of League of Legends ever having good lore.

Whoever is in charge of the lore is the most incompetent non-producing asshole I have ever seem in a company in my life. It's been nearly an entire year since they removed the most compelling thing about the lore of this game and it's fucking title, and they're still sitting on their hands, blowing bubbles with their spit and just saying "Oh, it's coming!".

Except by the time it comes there won't be a single fucking soul left to give a shit, because you're already making the lore fucking boring as hell because the few bits you've released are of characters devoid of personality, or retcon bullshit that completely alters characters that we liked for no fucking reason.

Oh, and all the fucking mystery shit, which reached it's climax with Bard, who does pretty much the exact same fucking thing as the League of Legends except MYSTEEEEERIOUS. STOP GIVING ME FUCKING QUESTIONS AND GIVE ME FUCKING ANSWERS!

Fuck.

I'm sorry for being so aggressive, but I am just so fucking exhausted with this bullshit, might as well just play the fucking game and imagine a better story in my head, at least I won't take two years to write chapter 1 after writing down the prologue.