Should Riot expand upon Jhin's backstory?

AhHa toaster·2/15/2020, 5:50:25 AM·3 votes·8,965 views

This post is just me wanting to see everyone's opinion on how Riot deciding how Jhin's story will progress, seeing as we get to look at him more within the lore thanks to the Zed comics. Personally, I could go either way. Jhin is a very intriguing character who raises several questions, such as "What made Jhin the way he is?", "Who was he before he was 'Jhin'?", and "What the fuck is up with his shoulder?". I am sure Riot made him a very mysterious and ambiguous character to bring in that intrigue, and is the basis of his entire character as the theatrical psycho. But on the other hand, if Riot does end up revealing his identity, then the whole mysterious vibe he has is just erased entirely, and basically just makes him almost like every other champion. His anonymity is his identity as a character to us, and that's what makes him so interesting, because you always ask yourself, "Who is he?". It's almost like we're characters within the lore as well, as no one else knows Jhin's true identity either. I'd probably lean more towards keeping his background ambiguous but I'm open for more lore anytime, so what do you guys think?

5 Comments

some degenerate2/16/2020, 5:56:12 AM4 votes

Honestly, I think it's inevitable that they'll have to do some expanding on his character either way, whether mains and fans like it or not. Because the "masked serial killer with a dark and mysterious past" trope can only work for so long before becoming incredibly formulaic and stale over an extensive period of time. They work well as one-time characters in standalone movies, games, TV show seasons and novels - but when it comes to large, "legacy-franchise" IPs that are all about the corporate exploitation of familiar mascot-characters for more & more movie sequels, future TV seasons, game spinoffs, merchandising and etc? No. They lose their luster rather quickly and devolve into forgettable, redundant flanderizations of themselves.

And this is what Riot is aiming to do with their League IP. Go with a mixed MCU/Nintendo/Blizzard route and slap League's characters and lore into various new games & entertainment mediums, and see what works from there. That's the reason why we're getting an upcoming animated TV series about Jinx's childhood, and currently, a Marvel comic focused entirely around Zed. Both of these very popular champions were once in similar, murky narrative state like Jhin is right now. Both were unpredictable, sociopathic, chaotic-evil, villainous characters with vague motives and literal "fill in the blanks yourself" excuses for backstories. Hell, there were even people debating whether or not Zed was human before he received his recent lore expansion/retcon. That's how little we knew about them... But - that's no longer the case for either of them anymore. So it's very likely that a very popular champion like Jhin will receive similar treatment in due time.

However, I don't think they'll ever reveal his ENTIRE backstory because - as you and others have said - completely fleshing out his past, his characterization and his motivations would also ruin that weird sense of mystery that generally comes with serial killer archetypes who waver between between humanity and inhumanity. So removing ALL sense of mystery would completely destroy one of the most appealing aspects of his character.

So long story short - yeah, I think we'll definitely learn more about him. It's inevitable, and I wouldn't even be surprised if we manage to learn a few new key details about past in the last 2 issues of the Zed comic. But I _don't _ think we'll ever learn learn EVERYTHING about him (at least not for a loooong while.) We'll probably get occasional glimpses into abstract fragments or bits of his past that we'll be encouraged to "piece together" for ourselves or something like that, if Riot Odin's hints and comments are anything to go by. But who knows, maybe my assumptions are completely fucking wrong.

s1ut for jhin2/15/2020, 7:38:01 AM3 votes

I think they can expand it without fucking up his mysterious hot hitman vibe

Kashtara2/15/2020, 12:57:57 PM3 votes

Well, we already know some things about him thanks to the Rioters and The Man with the Steel Cane. Jhin's quotes have a couple clues on how he feels about acting the way he does as well. Also, apparently there are some clues in the Zed comics, so we will probably find out more about him. Sure, I want more lore, but I don't think they should reveal his face. It's up to them though.

P.S: Nothing happened to his shoulder. That 'bump' is part of his weapon.

https://lol.gamepedia.com/index.php?title=File:Jhin_concept_11.jpg&filetimestamp=20170802020259

Camille Ferrøs2/15/2020, 12:13:09 PM2 votes

I think the more they go into the past the worse it will get. The big reason why Jhin is so loved by everyone not just lore fans its because he is so mysterious. He will completely lose what made him loved if they decide to do an entire origin story. It kills the purpose of his design. He isn't supposed to be some result of circumstances or a victim of society etc. I even think the bit they showed in the Zed comic was a bit much...