Some thoughts on Kayle's lore and personality.
So with the Angels fully revealed and their bios published, we finally have a clear look on how their characters play out and, to be completely honest, I can't say I find it perfect.
One of the very first things you'll notice on Kayle's voiceover is that she doesn't exactly have the most likeable personality ever. At first this severely annoyed me, but on second thought, I can't say that objectively a bad choice, both because Old Kayle wasn't too nice either and because, as someone striving to become a perfect being, Kayle shouldn't really care about our petty human opinions on her. I also have to admit it all sounds hella cool when you are purging wrongdoers left and right post-sixteen. That lends to another point, though: I wish her pre-6 and pre-11 lines were humbler in tone, as she's far from a perfect champion, and should be aware of that.
There's two things I do like a lot about her lines: First, she's rather direct and never goes around in circles around her point, as that fits her "no bullshit" character a lot. Second, she manages to be very prideful without ever coming accross as the smug type Akali is. Kayle should never ever act like Akali.
Lastly about her VO, I love how there's a hint of compassion and affection towards Morgana. Actually, I wish there were even more of those lines, as they serve a vital function in Kayle's character and in making her more fleshed out. Also, it's not like there's too much lines already: both their voiceovers striked me as rather short, as the add to just over 22 minutes long.
With her VO out of the way, let's talk about the bigger issue: Her lore. It saddens me a lot that the balance of positions in their old lore was lost - and yes, I'm fully aware that old lore was only really "balanced" because it was vague af. Reading their bios, it is oppressively clear how Morgana is portrayed as being undoubtedly in the right. There are, yes, some interpretations that try to make Kayle's actions more sympathetic, but they all are completely based on far-fetched deductions of small bits of text, aren't supported by the voice overs whatsoever and still fails to solve a fundamental problem in the new lore: Kayle fucked up, Morgana did not. All those problems arive from two things in my opinion:
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We never get to see Kayle's perspective on things. Even in her own bio, we are never shown her vision, what she truly fights for. Without knowing the fundamental values that legitimate her beliefs and actions, our angel will always be viewed as a power-tripped evil bitch. Kayle's bio is a cold description of events, while Morgana's dive much more into her thoughts and feelings. That's unfair.
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We very clearly get to see the dangers in Kayle ideals, but never those of Morgana. Not even once have Morgana's philosphy even remotely bring harm to a single living being. In short, Kayle's side is shown as all downside and no upside and Morgana as all upside and no downside.
Those problems are even more accentuated because of the decision to make Kayle not likeable. People horrifyingly often conflate "likeable" with "good", so Riot should've gone out of their way to make Kayle's point of view seem more legitimate, but they've done the exact opposite. That's sad.
