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Why make ZAC a Mood Ring?

Zaunite Koopa·1/15/2017, 6:45:58 PM·1 votes·1,364 views

Why make ZAC have the natural ability to imitate emotional stimulus? I mean.. I like ZAC having increased sensitivity to others emotions as a trait but not as the main ability of the blob. Having this as an ability makes him a rather obnoxious coin flip of is he hero or monster which does goes against his identity as "the protector of the innocent" in Zaun.

Additionally, I feel like this could stifle the development of his character if Riot wishes to do so since his character is heavily reliant on the people around him. While he does still maintain a good-hearted personality, I find it annoying that he could either go insane are helping in a span of a few days which makes it hard to pinpoint who he really is. Is he a hero with morals? Well.. not if he kills people because the enviornment is so negative. Then is he a savage monster with no control? Well.. that's also wrong because he has shown to feel guilty of a lot of things in his lore such as destroying houses and rescued a lot of people.

Furthermore, this can massively hinder the motivation of his choices. You can easily say that he's only doing this certain choice because of the people around him, not because ZAC actually chose to do it. Yeah you can say that the fact that he did it is a choice and that he should learn restraint, but I feel like that argument can only be stretched so far and having every problem he created is just from a lack of self-restraint seems rather one-note for a character since people in real life tend to have multiple flaws within them.

Honestly, I just feel like this makes no sense in a character development standpoint nor does it make sense in a story standpoint. If it's only there for symbolism of corruption and influence, then riot has made it so painfully unsubtle that it kinda makes me want to cringe. I'm fine with sensitivity and being reactive as one of his flaws that he could improve upon. I'm not fine with it being a literal ability that he has little to no control over.

7 Comments

TyrekGoldenspear1/15/2017, 6:51:05 PM1 votes

I mean, at least he doesn't also change color.

Berserknurple1/15/2017, 7:04:31 PM1 votes

Without that ability how can he possibly relate to or understand humans? He's a sentient goo monster, his way of thinking about and understanding the world around him is wildly different than humanity's. It also makes his creation slightly more plausible, bunch of goo develops the ability to "absorb" emotions, eventually develops sentience due to human influence.

For him to be a "protector of the innocent" he needs to care about mankind. Empathy is a very strong way to show that, and it doubles by allowing him to be pretty representative of Zaun itself.

And I don't think Zac is a monster or a terror. He gets angry sometimes, but doesn't everyone? He has a very strong moral framework, and bad emotions don't force him to kill the innocent or do evil any more than your bad emotions do.

GreenLore1/16/2017, 12:48:43 AM1 votes

I think this was done to justify the fact that Zac took human shape at all. After all,its not like he originally had the ability to hear&see,so he likely also got some basic information about humans thanks to this ability,causing him to develop eyes and a mouth.