Why I Believe Pantheon's Name Changing in His VGU is Entirely Possible
So recently, the new Champion Roadmap released and one of the biggest reveals is a new Pantheon VGU coming out in the future, alongside a teaser image and some hints regarding the gameplay and lore. Now, I am going to make a post discussing each aspect of the roadmap later, but I wanted to first talk about something that's been on my mind for a while since I saw this teaser.
In the post, they mention something entirely new about Pantheon:
We’ll also be expanding on his current lore, as we tell the story of gods and humans and how one man fought back against the gods.
Now this is really strange considering Pantheon's current lore (I.E, Space Parasite jokes), where Pantheon is actually the ASPECT, having taken over the body of a Rakkor warrior named Atreus and pushing out the mortal's consciousness to make room for the celestial. With this comment regarding his lore, I feel like it's entirely possible that Pantheon's rework can be akin to Akali's and Gangplank's, where their story is continued rather than slightly edited. However, I feel like it might be more closer to Gangplank's rework and here's why.
My Theory: Atreus will rebel against Pantheon and take control, changing the Champion's name and essentially 'killing' old Pantheon.
Now as far of a stretch this is, it's not entirely a new idea, as people had been suggesting this idea since the idea of a Pantheon rework involving his lore update with Targon. But I personally feel like this would be a great way to rework Pantheon for various reasons. For one, it solves the major issue that lots of people have with Pantheon's current lore, as it feels really unsatisfying that the Aspect of Pantheon ended up pushing out any humanity and personality in him LITERALLY, by taking over Atreus's consciousness. Along with that, Riot has recently proven that they are willing to change Champion's names to some extent as seen in the Nunu & Willump rework, and they have hinted at the idea 'killing off' Champions in the past and having an heir to the mantle in a sense. There are many ways that Riot can capitalize on this major change in Pantheon's character, as this hint for his new lore can lead to a possible story where Atreus rebels against the Targonian gods, regaining his consciousness and fighting off Pantheon, his rework could very well even be called "Atreus, the Aspect of Pantheon" or something.
Aside from that however, Riot could also do something akin to Gangplank's rework, where Atreus takes up the mantle later on and leaves us with a 'psuedo-Traditional Pantheon' skin, while classic Pantheon turns into Atreus.
