Just wondering. Nothing in the lore touches on the fact that Maokai has a goofy-laughing face on his left tree-bark arm, and he acts as somewhat of a 'caretaker' for his saplings, yet he straight up eats and steps on them in his animations? I like Maokai's character, but these aspects confuse me as they were never touched on.
I think they're just relics of his original creation. Nothing with his current role as a caretaker and vanguard of the Shadow Isles has anything to do with his old personality and model.
Maokai was originally introduced in a forum RP (This was really cool) where during a match on Twisted Treeline, Summoner magic went awry and animated one of the trees. He didn't want to be "alive", though, so he held a pretty huge grudge against mages. None of that is canon anymore, but some of his more mean-spirited emotes might come from that.
i cannot explain the Arm Face but it probably comes from the same place Hecarim's Five Other Faces come from
When Maokai steps on the sapling, it then comes out from the face on his left arm then go back to his right hand across his shoulders (implying there might be a hole under his foot somewhere, and hollow passage inside his body), and same goes for when Maokai "eats" the sapling where the sapling will also emerge from the face on the left arm iirc. It may seem strange, but it seems to just be how Maokai has fun with his kids I suppose.
As for the face on his left arm, it's implied to be sentient to at least some extent on its own given it laughs along with Maokai and the sapling when he laughs, though Maokai seems to dislike the face on his left arm doing things on its own and would hush it after it laughs. Yeah it's weird.
Let's just say Maokai's body works differently and thus holds a different outlook about it than humans would about their body.
