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I do not hate the new Aatrox as an OC

CytheGuy·6/14/2018, 2:14:39 AM·3 votes·1,939 views

His VO is perfect for the new him, no one is disagreeing with this, stop fabricating arguments for us. His kit is definitely a turn-away for me, but this isn't the gameplay board.

My problem with the new Aatrox and who he is as a character is that he is INSANELY shallow. I know a lot of you are going to want to put on your big boy pants and start ranting away at me for calling your new favorite pimp shallow, but hear me out before you start judging me.

Imagine a body of water. Any. It can be a river, a puddle, a lake, an ocean, or whatever. This puddle is Aatrox. Right now he has no voice lines, no story, nothing. Now I want you to start creating him. Give him his story, his interactions, his voice, his quotes, or anything that defines him as a character. Every time you grant him a connection to something, the body of water gets bigger. Not deeper, bigger. It covers more territory. This is where Riot Games stopped. They released him unto the world. In my mind, he is just a very wide puddle. He lacks intricacies that would require a very specific person to imagine. This isn't to say they are completely nonexistent, just look at his interactions with Zoe. In his eyes she's a god that managed to escape him.

What I mean when I say that he lacks depth is that there aren't "special cases." Everything is just a pile of bones and dust to him, it all annoys him, angers him, saddens him momentarily, or gives him a good chuckle before he crushes them beneath his sword. Nothing makes him truly stop. He never commends anyone (except maybe Jax), he never honors them, never considers them a true ally. He just has one thing on his mind and it never leaves him.

For example, in old Aatrox he just wanted people to fight. He wanted war. War comes with death and despair, which is what everyone immediately thinks of. In his original lore though, he was remembered as a savior. He took an army "outnumbered, exhausted, and poorly equipped" and gave them victory. He inspired people to take on a fighting spirit that only knows victory. Everyone met him at some point, and they all won when he arrived. With the constant amount of conflict between the nations in Valoran and Runeterra, this character we had before would be a perfect fit.

This isn't just an Aatrox problem, it is a problem that I see in many LoL champions. The new Irelia, for example, never shuts up about defending Ionia, destroying invaders to her homeland, and dancing (this one is more of a personal distaste, but it annoys me greatly).

To me, this is not Aatrox. To me, Riot just removed Aatrox from the game an added in a new Darkin who happens to resemble Aatrox.

2 Comments

GreenLore6/14/2018, 10:21:31 AM2 votes

I'd argue that new Aatrox is more deep than the old one.

Yes the old one also saved others,but his motiviation was always the same "escalate the war as much as possible". He only joined the loosing side,because that way he can even out the battlefield,resulting in more death and destruction.The only really interesting thing about this was more how people interpreted him,not how he actually was.

Meanwhile new Aatrox is a death seeker,he is cocky,he is angry,he hates the gods,he loves fighting and killing as they are the only things that bring him joy,he feels betrayed,he has thrown away his past ideals,he is frustrated with his current form,etc. In general he displays more emotions than most other champs.

Leverette6/14/2018, 9:26:35 AM1 votes

I agree. As an original character I don't hate him. I just hate that this new character for some reason comes at the price of one of my most beloved characters vanishing forever in every possible way, even though this new guy has nothing in common with him. Not voice, not quotes, not personality, not motive, not his kit, nothing. There's no reason he replaced specifically Aatrox but he did anyway, and now we'll never have our poetic manifestation of war again.