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Pantheon narrative and story questions

Divine Pantheon·7/31/2019, 6:02:51 AM·3 votes·4,151 views

Greetings, As an avid Pantheon one trick since he came out back in 2010 I want to start off by saying that gameplay and visual are stunningly wonderful. I tried him on the PBE for as long as I could to get a new feel for our god of war. But I come with questions concerning his lore and narrative stance within Targon. With his voice lines, lore and interactions now out for all to see and hear. I'll confess at this point that I am an avid fan of Leona and Pantheon as a pairing, although I will do my best to leave that bias out of these questions. First question: What was your specific reasoning for driving the story forward in the way you did? Why kill Pantheon to let Atreus take his mantle as Pantheon? Was it to make the character more approachable? More human?

I understand that with Pantheon possessing Atreus body and all the warrior carries heavy baggage when talking about aspects, he was taken hostage within his own skin by something/someone he used to revere. I can understand his disdain for Aspects with this new more "Human" Pantheon. But Atreus must realise that Pantheon and Aatrox were the absolute extremes. He was influenced by the god of war and the world-ender no other divine beings come close to being as lethal and blood thirsty as those two. So I take some relief in the idea that Atreus vision might be skewed by the extremes. In his interactions he has one for each aspect with Leona being the exception by having three. That should excite me, but the fact that they are death threats and him calling her a coward does not really hit home. He seems like he quite despises her (her order no question) Already in the updated lore it is said that Atreus and Pylas were angered by Leonas inaction which motivated them to secure the power of aspects for their own good.

So here my second and probably more loaded question: What are your reasons and decisions for moving Pantheon and Leona further and further apart? Is there a specific narrative reason for his resentment towards her or was it simply that she did not fight the barbarians and is now an aspect?

Pantheon and Leona started off as childhood friends way back when. Then with the Targon changes there was this narrative movement where you estranged them. Making Atreus accuse Leona of her failure which resulted in the duel where she then was taken to the Solari. (if that is still canon) now with this new story he openly resents her and has lines about killing her for bowing to the gods. I personally believe they could have had a wonderful warrior relationship, now even more than before. Atreus fights for the humans now, while Leonas lines are literally "I will protect you" and "rally to me." Logically they both fight on the same side, defending mount Targons people. But even in these very much aligning goals there seems to be this hatred (at least from Pantheons side) and I just can't help but wonder if it was necessary or if it serves a higher purpose. At the end of the day, I was just enamoured by the idea of Pantheon and Leona having back and forth lines like Xayah and Rakan, it was a good dream while it lasted, but still, I am very positive about the rework in general, its just that I can't help but notice how Pantheon and Leona keep drifting farther and farther from what they used to be. I understand that is the nature of story telling and progression I just want to understand why you have decided on this specific path.

Thank you for the time and effort you put into this rework.

Sincerely, a Pantheon main.

7 Comments

Arakadia7/31/2019, 9:36:35 AM2 votes

They probably wanted to progress his story as well as many people didn't like Atreus being completely replaced by a jackass Aspect.

mrmeddyman7/31/2019, 11:11:03 PM1 votes

I think it's a good thing for the following reason:

A.) Moves the story forward, which has been a huge sticking point for League lore. Now we know the Celestial Aspects can be killed (massive implications) and Aatrox got a little update with us knowing his current status is probably hostless. There are also implications regarding Aurelion Sol... is the killing of Pantheon the factor that leads to him regaining control of his body and coming to Runeterra?

B.) Moves the character forward, if Pantheon remained Pantheon than we are stuck with a unfeeling god whose motivations have not changed and probably won't. The best thing this character can accomplish is to "feel epic" in a sense of development. With Atreus we have someone who was born under a religious system that brainwashed him, becomes disillusioned by that system after seeing how it used him and now empowering himself as a mortal man to try to take back control. A much more dynamic character arc and that's to be expected Atreus was the real character this whole time.

C.) Obfuscates the celestial plot, Riot simply cannot let us play as a modern Pantheon with 100 voicelines and effectively givie away the entire set-up behind Mount Targon. The region works on mystery, we're supposed to see the factors at play that lead to all the religious fanaticism but knowing more will demystify entirely and make it feel flat. Conversely, having us play as Pantheon and not have spill his guts on the nature of celestial aspects and the greater picture going on in Upstairs Targon is a cheap way of obfuscating the plot. The character would have to play dumb and that would only be frustrating to players. This is why Leona and Diana only have fragments of their Aspects memories, why Kayle and Morgana are only descendants of a true Aspect wielding her power, why Taric has been granted autonomy by his Aspect to protect what he deems important and why Zoe is an unreliable narrator. To obscure thew meta story within Targon