The Hollowness of the Retribution Arc: The plotholes & dead-ends.

Figured I'd throw in my thoughts about this as well. I haven't spoken much about the Varus lore update, and I think I've finally managed to put it into words on how I feel on the matter. As a Varus main myself I've been quite silent on the new lore. I've been letting it wash over me as I go through it, building it in my head and taking it apart over and over. In relation, and as a follow up to the post made by CaptainMarvelous, I also feel that the new lore of Varus was propped up, only to fail and blunder, completely missing it's mark.

On the outside perspective, the new lore looks solid, polished even. That's fine. You've got conflict & resolution, character development, the works. A continuous struggle of people trying to fight off an evil and return to a happy and good life to make up for their mistakes. It appeals to everyone and has a solid beginning, middle & end. Hell we even have something Riot has never done before; introducing characters that are homosexual. It feels like the ultimate improvement and addition to the lore.

However once you take a closer work, the flaws and plot holes kinda reveal themselves.

Let's start with Valmar. As a native to Pallas, wouldn't he, above all people be aware of what was sealed inside the temple? His mother is well aware, considering their confrontation in the second comic. Hell, considering he's familiar with the traditions of the offering to the temple of Pallas, there is no denying that the ancient magic that was sealing Varus could ever be considered as something benevolent. He even had a nightmare where Varus spoke to him in his dreams. Wouldn't he have recognized the pit of Pallas, or even the architecture of the temple? On what grounds would he think that the magic of Pallas would save Kai? I've even tried to put myself in his shoes, desperate to save Kai. Of all people, why would a Pallas native ignore the teachings about the foul monstrosity that was sealed in the temple? Surely the people of Pallas would pass down writings and teachings about the monster that lay in the very heart of their home. This is infact enhanced by a paragraph within Varus' new biography.

>At the end of the Darkin War, the queen carried Varus’s bow to a land that would become known as Ionia. Her last act was to imprison the bow deep within a lightless cell sunk deep beneath a mountain temple overlooking the village of Pallas. There it remained, imprisoned by the natural magic of Ionia and the ritual ministrations of its guardians.

While the next paragraph iterates tthat Varus was forgotten about over the centuries, there's no way that the people of Pallas would have forgotten. Valmar's own mother seems to have been selected as such a guardian to oversee the imprisonment of Varus, considering she is aware of the Darkin Beast. There is no plausible way that her own son wouldn't be aware of his mother's duty, and thus he SHOULD be well aware of the threat that lurks in the bottom of the pit of Pallas.

It makes absolutely zero sense. A better change would be for Kai to have died, and Valmar in his fury releasing Varus instead, only to be overwhelmed and consumed by him, and watching through Varus' eyes as he slaughtered everything that he loved; his home, his family. Valmar would be powerless to do anything about it as Varus slowly squashes out his will until there's nothing left, and the Darkin would be the last one left standing. That alone would have made it far more engaging, and even more tragic story. While it does resemble the old Varus lore a little bit in it's nature, it feels to me that it would have been far more tragic. We know Valmar would fail, and we know that he can't do anything about it, only to watch in despair as he loses absolutely EVERYTHING because of his foolish mistake. His one takeaway is that he would join Kai, and his mother and the rest of his loved ones in death, and that would be the only solace he receives; a terrible, tragic end.

Now let's say that what I stated above didn't happen. Let's continue with Kai & Val still being trapped with Varus. At what point will they ever be free of the Darkin? Varus already knows how to gain total domination over them. He's just biding his time until his own will power is capable of overcoming their combined will. He already has dominance over their shared body. He knows how to break them down even further. Kai is demoralized through Varus relentlessly slaughtering the innocent. Valmar can be manipulated into serving Varus' goal if Noxians are involved again. One way or another, they will eventually falter and disappear. They are barely hanging on enough as it is, since it requires the TWO of them together to combat Varus' will to dominate the body, and even then it's only for a short amount of time. There will come an eventuality where their wills shall falter, and only Varus will remain. They will whittle out and cease to exist, and then Varus would be free to enact his retribution wildly and without care.

Now, if we compare both the old and new lore of Varus side-by-side, how does it sound to you?

A) Varus loses everything due to his duty, knowingly makes a pact with the very thing that cost him his life & family, something that will corrode him to nothingness over time as long as he's allowed to reign destruction over those he deems as guilty.

B) Valmar tries to save the the biggest thing that is dear to him only to be trapped in a cycle of dominance with Kai, the man he loves and the Darkin Varus that he released. He is ostracized from everything else in the world including his mother & family, only to eventually falter and fail with Kai one as Varus consumes both him & his loved one.

While they are both tragic, in the same sense they are also linear in nature. One of the biggest reason Riot changed Varus' original lore was because his original storyline WAS linear! However, in changing the lore, they failed to remove the linear movement of the story. Kai & Valmar will eventually fail. Varus will walk free.

I was looking forward to the new lore, even if I was angry at the drastic change of it initially. I truly believed Riot could do Varus well. However this new lore feels more hollow and tone-deaf than the original. It is a tragedy only at the surface level, with it's flaws showing up when you start looking below that surface level and REALLY looking at it.

Riot managed to turn one perceived dead-end into another. They are both left at a linear end. The only upside is that Varus, as a Darkin, has a new path and goal; searching for and reuniting the remaining four Darkin. That is the only open-ended trail that exists after everything else. And the story is in favor of Varus, not Kai & Valmar.