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Was there really a good reason to retcon varus' family?

xelaker··36 votes·1,168 views

I don't care if a champ is quadrabipedalneutralatically sexual, but can we at least have a good reason for changing the easiest thing to keep in his lore besides revenge?

Ok 15 second brainstorm and think-tank session for a new lore concept that changes little, but still follows the general feel of the new lore.

Varus has wife and kiddo. Noxians come. kiddo is deado. wife has ouchies. varus takes wife to fancy pond to heal her with the power of pond scum. darkin says: "hey bro she can live on inside of you". varus says: "okey dokey". darkin lies and hops in his sweet new bod and wifey is dead. Varus is all like, "wtf mang" and uses his love for his family to retain control and seeks his revenge on both the noxians and the darkin. darkin is all corrupty and is a constant pressure on varus to hold on to the love he has for his family instead of embracing revenge ho-heartedly

now my writing skills are on par with a potato, but it wasn't hard to keep the family in the picture.

the next champ can have this lore: Lil Tim-Tim enjoys the company of men and probably has a darkin living in his socks or Lil Kim-Kim enjoys the company of women and most definitely has a darkin living in her hair clip.

now to wait and see how many times I get called homophobic, told I didn't understand the complex themes, or for literally nobody to get the sarcasm I sprinkled on my point.

15 Comments

sumerska11 votes

There was an interview over at the Rolling stone ( http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/varus-league-of-legends-hero-remade-with-gay-storyline-w512929 ) and the reason they changed it was because some of the people working on the project asked whether the gender of Varus's lover mattered, to which most of the rioters agreed that there was never any big lore aspect surrounding the wife herself. Since there was never any emphasis or elaboration around her, I guess they decided they could incorporate their ideas and paint a new picture and backstory. After all family is family and to each their own I suppose.

Rebonack14 votes

{quoted}

There was an interview over at the Rolling stone ( http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/varus-league-of-legends-hero-remade-with-gay-storyline-w512929 ) and the reason they changed it was because some of the people working in the narrative department asked whether the gender of Varus's lover mattered, to which most of the rioters agreed that there was never any big lore aspect surrounding the wife herself. Since there was never any emphasis or elaboration around her, I guess they decided they could incorporate their ideas and paint a new picture and backstory. After all family is family and to each their own I suppose.

The fact that they had a child was pretty critical I would say.

Have you ever had to bury your own son before? That'll break someone and drive them to do things they never would have considered before.

sumerska6 votes

Love is love, doesn't matter the form. I think it's arguable whether its more sad and painful to lose your child vs losing your soulmate. Different people will see it differently. One who has never had a child before may experience losing their significant other to be excruciatingly painful, just as painful even as if someone with a child were to lose their child. I don't know if I'm explaining my thoughts correctly, but I hope that sort of make sense?

Rebonack14 votes

{quoted}

Love is love, doesn't matter the form. I think it's arguable whether its more sad and painful to lose your child vs losing your soulmate. Different people will see it differently. One who has never had a child before may experience losing their significant other to be excruciatingly painful, just as painful even as if someone with a child were to lose their child. I don't know if I'm explaining my thoughts correctly, but I hope that sort of make sense?

The form of love matters a great deal. Romantic love and familial love are quite different. Old Varus suffered from the loss of both due to his own choices. He chose his duty over his love and the consequence of that choice broke him.

Our star-struck lovers in the new story were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's tragic, but it lacks the emotional impetus that the old story had.

sumerska1 votes

You do make a good point. In terms of the rest of the community though, I guess not everyone considers the difference in how tragic one was compared to the other. It's the little details that shape a character, so I understand what you mean.

Rebonack8 votes

{quoted}

You do make a good point. In terms of the rest of the community though, I guess not everyone considers the difference in how tragic on was compared to the other. It's the little details that shape a character, so I understand what you mean.

It's not just that it was tragic, but the nature of the tragedy.

In the new lore, this tragedy was imposed on them. Neither of them had any agency in what happened. They didn't even know what would happen by diving into the pool.

In the old lore, the tragedy was because of the choices Varus made. He made the CHOICE to defend the temple instead of his family. And after that, he made the CHOICE to join with the being sealed there in order to exact revenge on the Noxian soldiers for killing his family and fellow villagers.

ZedUsanGovos6 votes

"Beware a man with nothing to lose".

"I am forsaken".

"I'm on borrowed time".

"There is no salvation".

"Bloodshed carries a price".

This is reflected in his quotes as well.

Darrosh Jewfist10 votes

It's tokenism, inclusion for the sake of inclusion.

They might have gotten much less blowback if they had just made a new character altogether without having to retcon Varus' family which, as the OP showed, can be easily worked into Varus' current lore.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO2 votes

Yikes

Zombie Slayer5 votes

I like your lore brainstorm better [slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOO4 votes

Because Varus' family existed to die

Warlord Dienekes2 votes

It’s a story written by a competent author. Every character exists to fulfill a purpose.

Captainn Ginyu4 votes

to be honest it dosent matter his kid an wife were just as irrelevant as the new lore is i felt literally no connection to them once so ever reading his old lore

xelaker1 votes

fair enough man

Nick Da Chip4 votes

The fact that their is a rolling Stone article about this shows that this was just done for propaganda purposes. That's unbelievable to me.

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