My Rebuttal to the hate on zoe

I've read a lot of boards on Zoe lately and I've picked up a few of the community's issues with her.

First they feel like there is no valid explanation for why a child should have such power. They also feel like the combination of such power and her inherent want to antagonize those around make her a villain. They see this in what is perceived to be the destruction of the town, and one fairly upvoted board stated she exploded a peaceful animal. One post referenced a post that inspired them to critique the story. The following is my rebuttal to the original posts critique by Echoing.

> This is the second-worst paragraph in the story for casually revealing the existence of a World Rune - a magical WMD - and then abandoning it for no reason. It might show how detached Zoe is from reality, but we've already gleaned that from the rest of the interactions here, so adding the World Rune does nothing to the story. If anything, it makes Ryze out to be very inept by extension - there was a World Rune just more or less out there in plain sight instead of being hidden away or safeguarded or actively wielded. > > It also confirms that Zoe isn't heroic in the slightest. That's fine, except the overall tone here is trying really, really hard to get us to sympathize and connect with Zoe. This isn't possible - she just meteored a tower, left a WMD lying around, and thinks it'd be funny if one of the teens picked it up.

I have a lot of problems with this critique, but I think these two statements exemplify it the best. The purpose of this story is not to say that Zoe is a hero or villain. She is ridiculously naive having only interacted with Lunari, let alone real members of society. The purpose of the World Rune was to accentuate that she does not have any sense of how serious things of this magnitude are. The very fact that you criticized ryze for being inept proves how inept you are at reading a story. It literally states that a new crater revealed the rune. Thus, the runes existence in a seemingly open spot is not due to Ryze's disability but to a recent unearthing of it. Another clarification, she did not destroy the town. This was cleared up in a Rioter post. link here- https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/story-art/Ljw9wJKT-the-hate-for-zoe-makes-me-sad?show=flat While this story most closely resembles third person limited, I question your knowledge of literary terms because you determined the story was third person limited after the story states Zoe's thoughts. The reason this leads me to question your beliefs is that Third person omniscient wouldn't be excluded by the reading of Zoe's thoughts. In fact, both third person limited and omniscient can reference the characters thoughts. The difference is that limited, generally speaking, only references one specific characters thoughts. Thus, while the story is third person limited, you cited evidence one paragraph in. That is not a sufficient point in the story to argue the point of view the narrator is speaking from.

I love how often you complain about there being a lack of context behind the setting and her understanding of the game. You reference how ASol gave excellent description of his settings. The difference: ASol is an arrogant space dragon who sees himself above everyone else. He describes things in great detail in order to show how beneath him they are. Zoe is a child who as evidenced by her speech style, is very schizophrenic in thought and action. The only important fact in the starting setting is that she is near the town. It would not have been relevant to the story's overall purpose if she was in a desert or forest. Additionally, anyone with a decent skill in drawing connections would recognize from the trees and fuzzy animal that she is in a forest.

If we go along with the story, following Zoe's perspective, it makes sense that she would have no idea as to what the game was due to her lack of presence on Runeterra for the past millennia. Not only that, but there is absolutely no need for the author to give any sort of details as the game is not an integral part of the story. Its existence is to exemplify Zoe's lack of social knowledge and time away from Runeterra.

Additionally, a lot of your critique is based around how the vocabulary of the story does not fit Zoe's language. Need I remind you of your statement once again that this is third person limited. While it follows the point of view of the protagonist, it does not cite her direct thoughts. You lament the lacking description of the "message" throughout your critique. The purpose of the story is not to show what Zoe's message is, but to show that the only limiting effect and subsequent drive for actions of consequence are her need to deliver the "message." The message is shrouded in mystery not only because it appears to set the stage for a future event or story in Runeterra, but also because, once again, this story is in third person limited. Zoe does not know what her message is as evidenced by the beginning of the story.

Most of your critiques stem from pre-conceived notions about the character. Before starting the story, you appear to have already decided that she is a trickster style character keen of pulling tricks, her level of maturity, and that she should be the hero of the story. Thus you speak out against her un trickster-like, childish, and un-heroic actions. In reality, the story does not set a precedent for any of these actions. The only remotely revealing factors are that she is now a teenager after a year of aging and she mocked her teachers disciplining. My rebuttal to the trickster belief based upon her disrespectful attitude toward teachers is based upon a character I'm certain most of you will know. Naruto. THE RIVER KING states- > Zoe's biography describes her in no uncertain terms as a lazy student who mocks her teachers and treats her studies like a joke. With no other context, such as the actual nature of the studies or how her teachers treat her, this is an immediate red flag. Anyone in any profession ever has immediate cause to just dislike Zoe from the start. My father used to work as a drama teacher and my mother is a clinical psychology professor; they didn't suffer students like this and would often complain about them at home and how they only make their jobs harder. Anyone who has ever been a student ever can also totally appreciate this - you may dislike school, or be uninterested in your studies, but that doesn't mean you should go out of your way to antagonize your teachers, so long as they aren't doing the same to you. If you behave like this, then you're a spoiled brat. Even worse, you're a lazy brat. Everything in Zoe's biography and color piece point to her having no socialization skills whatsoever and the tact of something decidedly more sinister than she should be. Do we have villainous champions who are a thousand times more despicable than Zoe? Of course. She pales in comparison to Swain, Mordekaiser, Vel'Koz, and Tahm Kench. The difference is that Zoe is prortrayed as a cutesy kid who doesn't know any better, when in reality her total incompetence and refusal to hold herself to any form of self-agency is being passed over as XD so random sparkles! preteen idiosyncracies. This is a total break from the internal standards I thought Riot held their characters to.

Certainly no one would argue that Naruto was a spoiled, lazy brat. The show gives context to his humble beginnings and noble attempts to better himself. Given that we have no context to Zoe's upbringing, it is irresponsible to assign labels given the variety of reasons for her actions. Zoe's level of maturity is not held to the same standard as a human. Her bio shows little interaction with human beings as well as stating that she regularly journeys to realms beyond human comprehension. Riot has stated that characters like Zoe and Taric are still humans but fused with aspects. The degrees vary with characters such as Diana being possessed by the aspect at times to character like Zoe who are rarely influenced by their aspects. This means Zoe still has a human mind and its limitations unless she is tapping into the mental power of the Aspect which she never appears to do. We cannot tell the stress these dimensions have put on Zoe's mind as well as the strains of 1000 years of isolation. As seen in the squirrel interaction, she does not see life as something of importance, but rather a cycle that will continue eternally. To summarize, Zoe is not portrayed to be hero nor trickster, but a child who has missed many important stages in development. Your only defense for your argument that she is a hero is that "the overall tone here is trying really, really hard to get us to sympathize and connect with Zoe." (4th paragraph from the bottom).

The best way I can explain Riot WAARGHbobo's explanation of aspects is by referencing a novel series I read a few years ago: Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles. Think of the aspects as the egyptian gods and the humans as humans. Level of power from these beings results in unity of thought and purpose. The aspects often have external motives. Horus, often wanted to use his human forms in the Kane Chronicles to take down Set, but that is not always what his human forms goals were. The twilight aspect is a trickster however Zoe is not. In fact, the twilight aspect is using her to cause mischief in society. We do not know what her message is, but given that it comes from the mischievous twilight aspect, it wouldn't be a far-fetched theory to suppose that the aspect wants her to disrupt common life.

TL;DR Zoe's story is actually written quite well. The author uses a choppy, schizophrenic style to match Zoe's disconnected style of thought. She is not hero villain, or trickster. The only way to describe Zoe is dangerous. Her story should not be hated on just because she isn't the sweet little kid she acts like.