My Thoughts on the New Ionian Lore (Discussion Welcome)
I'm just going to get right into it. Feel free to discuss anything I mention or maybe something I left out. Thanks for reading.
General Feelings I think the quality of writing ranges from "meh" to "good" so not too many complaints. Someone on another post mentioned something about Karma's in particular, how instead of showing us she destroyed a boat, it just says "she destroyed a boat". That's pretty weak and details could have given a lot more insight into the character(s?). Other than that, the general culture details they added, the art, and pretty much everything about purely Ionia itself really fleshed out the world and is really cool. It still feels like Ionia, but now we have a better understanding of their wide and varied cultures. A definite plus with this lore update. And kudos to them for keeping the "balance" motif AND the fact that Ionia has no standing army.
Irelia This was the big one that everyone was expecting. And honestly...a lot has changed, but at the same time not really. I guess the changes feel right for the character: she still "takes up arms" she still "frees major important Ionian place" and she's still one of the harder-nosed Ionian Champions. She's the rigidity to Karma's flexibility. I like the change to her start as a "traditional dancer" (shows the big change from tradition to violent uprising), I like that her blades are her broken family crest and I like the internal conflict they've added to her.
I was disappointed that her father and her brother (now multiple brothers) were reduced to little more than tragic backstory; that was something I really liked about old Irelia was the importance of her family. Its not that her family is unimportant now, just that before they had names and felt real, whereas now they just feel like a way to add tragedy/motivation to Irelia's character. Wouldn't it have made more sense to just change her family's "blade style" into the "dance style" she goes off to study? Like, her father and brothers could have also studied it? I don't know, feels like they went from important driving characters to generic important driving force. Still important, just in a nameless, generic way. Here's hoping that Zelos returns someday in some form.
Lee Sin I don't really like the direction they've taken with Lee Sin. Its a fine direction, I don't think its an insult to his character or anything, but I just don't agree with it. Formerly, Lee Sin peacefully protested the Noxian occupation, setting himself on fire and staying that way until the League of Legends allowed Ionia a rematch, gaining the win and freeing the provinces that were occupied. That's how he became blind, peacefully, and by complete choice. Now, he becomes blind by using a power that is way too strong. Its still somewhat by choice, but I think its fundamentally different than before. Lee Sin always struck me as this character that believed in finding the peaceful solution at all costs, but having the skills to fight when it came down to it. The sort of Mr. Miyagi-type character, "don't fight for the sake of fighting, only to protect others and better yourself" type of deal.
Now, in his short story, Lee gives these bandits ONE warning, they think he's a freaking blind man so of course think they can take him, and then he brutally murders them. In my mind, Lee would have discussed with the bandits, try and help guide them to the right path, and when that didn't work, beat them up and send them packing. Not MURDER them. At one point, the main bandit is like "Take it back! I give up!" and Lee is like "Too late DEAD" and uses Dragon Kick on him. Over a bunch of treasure and material goods. Just feels wrong.
They kept his history as an arrogant, very naturally talented guy who learns humility through a horrible, irreversible mistake, and eventually this is what makes him powerful and puts him on the path to wisdom. Its what allowed him to help Udyr, who's now placed in an odd spot in the bio by the way. Lee Sin hasn't even worked through his own crap by the time he meets Udyr and realizes he needed his help. He's not even blind yet. Anyways, I digress, the bio is fine and feels like a Lee Sin story, the short story just threw me off though.
Karma Ugh, where do I even begin? Karma has been changed into this Dalai Lama/Avatar type entity that is a title that is continually reborn and utilizes all past experience/identities...why? This type of character can work just fine--Aang is great, Avatar the Last Airbender is one of my favorite shows of all time--but I felt it missed the mark for several reasons. For one, the girl who turns out to be Karma, Darha, has the Pantheon problem: not as bad as ole Atreus, but basically you sympathize with Darha and she, at least in part, loses control of the "body" and Karma takes over.
And that brings me to another point. Riot has this newfound obsession with multiple people in a body. This is a cornerstone for Kalista's character, we also have elements of this in the Targonian Aspects, there's the Varus catastrophe and now Karma. Its an interesting story element, but we really don't need it multiple times like this.
I would have much preferred they stick closer to Karma's original (well, her last lore) bio. Karma was a character all about compromise, about being willing to use both war and peace, traditions and new ideas, for the good of Ionia. "I have seen two paths and made another between". She doesn't accept that there are only a certain number of options. By all means, give her some internal conflict for using the "war" path. But I she doesn't need a thousand voices in her head in order to have that conflict. Internal conflict comes from within an individual, that's the whole point.
If we're going to have a character represent Ionia's religious side of things, Riot already has a perfectly good one with Soraka. A demi-god that got punished for using her powers for violent means. We don't need Karma/Darha going through the same arc.
Yasuo & Riven I combined these two mostly because I really don't have much to say about them. They both didn't change much, received some added details to flesh them out, that's about it. I like the bios we got.
Yasuo's story is pretty much identical, again with plenty of added details. They also added mention of Taliyah, though its pretty brief.
Riven's story, again, is similar to her old. I was hoping they'd include more of Riven's patriotism, how, while she's disenchanted with Noxus, she still believes it can be a great nation. Even as she exiles herself, I always figured she longed to go back to Noxus; she's something of idealist, having a specific idea of the Noxian way and the whole "chemical warfare" thing was not a part of that plan. Noxus grew by offering other nations a place in their Empire of the Strong, and Ionians had obviously proven themselves strong. But this is mostly just me nitpicking, I do hope to see something of this in future Riven stories though.
Conclusion That's the long of it. Overall, nothing outright awful, on the whole very few fundamental changes. There were a few things I outright dislike (the Lee Sin brutality and most of Karma's bio) but the others are well-written and serve the characters needs perfectly.
Thanks for reading, again, please comment with your own thoughts. I know there's a big Karma thread going, but feel free to mention those concerns/lack of concerns here. I'd like to hear more thoughts on the other Champs as well. Keep it friendly :) [sg-ahri-2]
