Characters that are lore-wise problematic master list

Hello boards! Recently I've been mulling over champions and their places in the world of Runeterra, what kind of roles they fill, etc. So, I've decided to make up a list of champs that I believe to be outstandingly problematic in their implementation considering the retcon. Riot likely has a board of these champs up on a wall, this post is just for the sake of throwing out the opinion of an outside community member. Disclaimer: I can't possibly voice the opinions of every single community member, no one person could, so if I've grazed over champions that you guys think are weakly represented then do feel free to make additions.

**Demacia, as a whole: **

This one might seem weird at first glance, but after the big updates to several of the other major locations on the Valoran map (Bilgewater, Freljord, what Ekko's lore taught us about Zaun) I feel like Demacia is the weakest represented city state. Of course we know that Demacia is big on patriotism and fighting for their subjective peace and freedom, but how far does that go? and are both upper class in terms of Demacia, but don't seem to be particularly patriotic. Does this mean that they aren't necessarily close to the king despite their status? Do these characters have political influence over Demacia at all? Are they called upon to fight for their country because of their status? What seperates Demacian upper and lower class? Military allegiance? Straight money? What about and the purifiers? Are they funded by Demacia to fight against the shadow isles? Have the shadow isles threatened Demacia directly, or is it a case of Demacian philosophy that the purifiers exist? Are they recognised as Demacian military? These outliers make forming a consistent image of Demacia a difficult task, especially compared to the vivid ways that other champions represent their home cities. On an individual level, let's talk about . He's a guy that participated in Noxus' infinite fight and was saved by Jarvan II because somehow he heard about the dude's sick win streak. Now, one, the king of Demacia broke into the heart of Noxus to get this one guy after only hearing a story about him. Was Xin Zhao a warrior that was known of prior to his capture by Noxus? Clearly he's very strong, it wouldn't be shocking if the name of such a warrior was known far across the land, but from where did such a warrior spawn? Since Ionia is the asian-inspired place one would assume from there, did his capture happen during the Noxus-Ionia invasion? What drove him to become strong enough to fight 300 guys, and the willpower to risk his life for the king of a foreign city state that may very well just want to use him? Why is his entire personality Garen but somehow even more generic, does he have any memory of where he came from? On a lesser level is another Demacian problem, just for the sheer shallowness of his lore. He was made to be patriotic to Demacia, he is, and he's sad that his creator died. There isn't much there, it's honestly a less interesting version of 's lore, and the latter is likely to get a lore improvement with her re-release. This will leave Galio in the dust if nothing is done, and then he'll be even more sad. ;( Then we have listed as a Demacia-allied champ, hopefully after his relaunch he'll be able to add something interesting to the city state with his pure fabulousness.

To bounce off of Taric (these sick transitions dude), let's move on to other-world champs: Still a few of these left, let's talk about first. Big offender in the personality apartment (it's hilarious, rock with rocks for brains, but it adds nothing to the world). It's difficult to talk about these champions since they -could- go anywhere, but for Malphite I think Mt. Targon is a place where he'd feel at home. Mt. Targon also so happens to be a place that needs some expanding on, so we've got excuses. and . Currently they have a really solid dynamic. The blurred lines between good and evil, truth and ideals, they have the makings of a very strong and engrossing plot. I'm sure the rest of the community will agree that this should stay when they're brought to ally with Demacia and Noxus. Perhaps they could even just be shared guardian figures of the city states, sworn protectors that the two cities believe will come to fight for their respective ideals at a time of need, but no one knows if they truly will come. . It's not ok. It is not ok. What is he doing. What IS he. Rammus why ;-;. He has the most shallow lore, his personality is that he has no personality, somebody save this poor armordillo. Make him like, Azir's cat or something, anything! Every day in Shurima 1000 Rammuses are not ok and if you donate...

Institute-reliant champs: Pretty self-explanatory, champs that are still riding on the coat-tails of the institute of war. Again, most of these champs are difficult to lock down on where exactly they could go since they could go anywhere after being unlocked from this non-existent place. Also, there are plenty of champs that still have the 'and so they joined the league of legends' quote stitched on to the end that need a little alteration, some of 'em won't show up on this list. . So uh... Probably not Reginald Ashram any more huh? Probably darkin related, that's all we know about him right now. . Honestly all around he's a pretty weakly implemented presence, a powerful fire spirit that takes over a dude and makes them kinda firey? Visually and lore-wise not extraordinarily exciting I must say. He could be a pretty intimidating end boss type character like what Lissandra is cracked up to be, even a foil to her far better represented power possibly, but the changes need to happen. . ALL THESE LORES AND NOW HE IS LOST. Again, pretty shallow in terms of character, a scarecrow who likes to scare. No motivation, no hints on origin (I'd take a guess at Shadow Isles, perhaps a gatekeeper to the secrets of the Ruined King. That key's gotta go somewhere right?). . The fear friends aren't in the best place right now, without the institute Nocturne doesn't actually exist right now. Which could be a good thing! Nocturne could become a champion in the same vein as Kindred, a spirit that appears in an individual's darkest nightmares and torments them until their minds are utterly broken. If they don't wake up, they can't say anything right? Then who is there to say Nocturne exists? That, or he's an old user of the forbidden shadow arts before it was locked away by the Kinkou. Completely taken by those shadows, to linger in the shadows of others, and perform perfect assassinations that no other ninja ever could. In the world of dreams. . All of the void creatures are great and individuals with interesting alterations between their ways of and purposes for consumption. Cho'gath's is the most simple, to consume and grow so that he may consume more. The perfect glutton, it's simple but there's no real problem here, he just needs a place in the world that isn't stepping on the toes of Kha'zix's endless evolution or Vel'koz' limitless learning. Then again, maybe if we see them challenge each other that'd be a nice insight into life inside the void wouldn't it? . I know that it's been stated that summoners still exist in the world, but since we've yet to see them I feel like it's worth bringing up Lee Sin. As he is now his resolve to pay for a great sin that he committed makes for a good sympathy character and those elements should definitely be retained.

Individual cases of weak lore: This one's a little subjective, the part with the most potential for discussion, so forgive me if I become a bit opinionated here. . A strange one to start with, but hear me out. Janna does not, visually, look like she's from anywhere. We know that she wants to change Zaun, to 'purify' it, I suppose of all the mad-men going around. This leads to the obvious assumption that she isn't standard in terms of Zaun as we gained from Ekko's lore than Zaun is a very proud city, especially due to its progressions. Yet, this doesn't excuse the huge visual disconnect. She should at least dress to imply her former status as a Zaunite, or even as a Piltovian if that's where she's gone. Right now she looks like an otherworldly wind spirit that should be kicking it with Bard and pre-fall Soraka. Personally I feel like either a visual or a lore retcon is necessary for this character, we've plenty of 'otherwordly' in the game now so we should bring this one in line. . Another case of the disconnect. His lore is honestly fine, we can derive that mix of sickening madness and undeniable intelligence from Mundo, but he's a meme in the game. The Dr. Mundo in the game is not the Dr. Mundo in the lore, which is problematic in of itself, but going slightly off the rails of what's meant to be discussed here. I just wanted to talk about Zaunite champs, that place is cool ;-;. . Again, what is he. Ok, he's a yordle, another visual disconnect that needs fixed, but the problems are a little deeper here. He's irrelevant in the current lore since the league of legends doesn't exist, which leaves Corki with nothing to do in the world. We can assume that his plane is pretty old tech at the current point in the timeline, so what does he offer? Experience to younger fliers? Will he still take on a dangerous mission in his age? Where did his old missions take him? What kind of situations did he find himself in? Why'd he shoot down a blimp? Corki isn't horrendous, but he does need that push to keep him relevant. . What is she case #3. Is she some kind of succubus? Wouldn't that impede on Ahri's lore? Does she do it for the Shadow Isles? Isn't that just Elise? My biggest concern here is Evelynn becoming Elise 2.0, a succubus that draws foolish followers into the Shadow Isles and feasts off of their life essence or something similar. She wouldn't be filling her own space in the world, which I'm sure would just be a disappointment all around. I would suggest removing any 'seductress' elements to the character, after all, who's gonna see 'em when she's invis? She could be a similar case to Nocturne, a being who follows the steps of people's shadows, following those that would challenge the rise of the shadow isles until a moment they let their guard down. An assassin of the Ruined King of sorts, that is the element I believe should be focused on. . He's a cool robot someone made, great. What purposes does he serve? Is he... Actually a love robot? What does he bring to Zaun society and how do people react to him? Does he have any secret programming of Viktor's that could come up at any time to cause chaos in the masses? What are his wants and needs as a seemingly sentient steam golem? . His motivations are good, I just want to put to question what he's actually doing. Gaining followers, to feed to the void? To help him open gates? We know from the game that Malzahar is capable of summoning small void creatures, with enough people could he bring about a bigger creature? One unlike any of the others we've seen on Runeterra? Personally, I believe that Malzahar should have been directly responsible for bringing into Runeterra. Also, I play Malzahar and please rework his ult ;-;-;-;-;-; . It's just the goggles. Where'd those goggles come from. Those don't look like ionian goggles of lucidity. . His backstory is reasonable, his motivation to fight Noxus is justified, but there are some weak points that should be touched on. His method of escaping the Fleshing (with the help of a slave girl????) is a story that should be told at the very least, just because it seems a little unreasonable. Then, his escape of Noxus (if he even did, how's a goddamn minotaur gonna keep a low profile?) and where he goes from there. As of right now Alistar isn't really anywhere and has no way of achieving anything, something he should be given. . His motivation is there but his character is not. Since the girl that taught him thorn magic is no longer mentioned we have no idea how exactly Ryze attained the thorn magic, why that magic is so hard for others to attain (there're plenty of mages in Runeterra that could handle the process should they know it I imagine, considering Ryze's initially weak motivation of wanting to become a strong guy). Then, he just kinda came across the scroll and that scroll is now his entire character. We got some blocks here, riot, ya need to build. . He's straight up a worse version of Sion. A powerful noxian soldier that was so good they decided to bring him back for round two. Except, instead of having the interesting inner conflict that Sion has or a grand ritual towards his resurrection, they stuck some machines on him and now he is a crab. Just replace Jarvan with Garen and you've got a weaker version of Sion's motivation. Urgot's full relaunch can't happen soon enough is what I'm sayin'. . Fear buddy number 3 here he is. He sure is scary and he kills people. Can he appear anywhere? Are Shaco sightings more common in some places than others? Are the sightings so inconsistent that to believe in Shaco at all is questionable? Does he have any kind of calling cards that make it clear that it's his work? Then, of course, motivations and even just the tiniest hint of background is kinda necessary when making an engaging character. . People always complain that female champs in league lack variety in body type, something that I don't really see in a lot of champs, but Zyra in particular I think is the biggest offender of a design that could be much more visually intriguing. In her lore she takes the form of what she perceives to be a human, which may not necessarily match up with what actually is a human. Past that, why did the eco-system around her collapse? Was it always inevitable that the feasting of her kind would leave the land around her barren? Will the same happen everywhere she goes? Would she befriend a champion like, say, because her purpose is to protect the nature around her? Is Zyra necessarily evil when her case is purely one of survival? These roots have the capacity to extend, and I wish to see them do so.

Alright, I think... That's all I have! Again, this is a list purely of personal interest and could not hope to represent the interests of the community as a whole, but I hope I've touched on some points that others can back me up on! If you've braved through this entire post I extend my thanks to you for you are a true warrior.

EDIT: NO YEAH I FORGOT ONE. . This guy is a literal brick. He has less personality than the voidlings that Malzahar summons. Just a spartan, as riot has already stated they're aware of. I need the see the adventures of Pantheon and his bakery, right now.