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Leona: Mixed emotions

ADepressedLeona·2/25/2016, 10:46:08 PM·13 votes·1,694 views
Mount Targon | League of Legends

Note: I will be focusing on Leona

Ever since Leona received her little tidbit of lore update, I have eagerly awaited her full scale writing and now that it's out... I'm hit with mixed emotions.

Just to be clear, I have over 2K games with this champion, she has been my most played champion across every season. I absolutely love her character to death.

I'm going to compare the old lore with the new, and tell my opinion of what was good and bad.

First things first: The Rakkor. The Rakkor tribe in the old lore were a tribe akin to the Spartans of ancient Greece. They lived and fought in the harshness that was Mount Targon, but, they were completely separate from the Solari (Who lived at the summit). They fought for one thing, and one thing only: Survival. Each day they trained just to survive, and they had a trial that every Rakkor at the age of 16 had to face called the Rite of Kor, a trial by combat where two Rakkor fought to the death (This was done because the supplies on Targon were very scarce, and there were simply too many mouths to feed). Of course, Leona was born to this tribe, but instead of fighting like her fellow Rakkor, Leona took pleasure in defending . She would constantly defend her fellows from "bullies" as the lore called them, but she was actually told not to do this by her instructor. She was told "A battle missed, is a lesson lost" but it was clear that she did not listen.

However, when the Rite of Kor called for her friends to fight, she saw everyone of them die. She knew the face of every teen slain that day, and it weighed heavily on her conscious because she blamed herself for protecting them. She then went to do her own Rite of Kor, and refused to kill her opponent, was sentenced to death, then struck by a ray of solar light and then claimed by the Solari and taut their ways, and that's the story of Leona.

But I'm gonna go back to the Solari and the Rakkor in for a moment. As I stated above, the Rakkor and the Solari were practically separate entities. One fought for the sake of surviving, while the other "Hung up their mantles of war in reverence to the Sun". Now in the lore, the Solari are indeed Rakkor, but not Rakkor in the traditional sense at all. As I said before, they are almost separate tribes, however in the updated lore, the Rakkor are going as far as their name meaning "Tribe of the Last Sun". It seems now that the two are practically merged into one. I think this is both a good thing and... not so good. On one hand, we get to see more details on both the Rakkor and the Solari and how the coexist with one another, but on the other, we lost that old, harsh, Rakkor tribe that bred warriors for the sake of survival. That harsh coldness that bred the most harden of warriors. Now I know the new lore also describes them being warriors that thrive in a harsh land, but they lost a bit of that... "Sparta" feeling.

And now we move on to the supposed "beasts" that plague Targon: This is actually one of the things I find pretty great about the lore update. We get a good look into what living on Targon is like, and what the Solari and Rakkor do. They have more threats than just "It's cold as shit up here bruh" and I like that a lot, not much else to say on it though.

"The beast boy with horns and bat like wings": Okay... I just have to say something here... wut? I mean this change isn't necessarily bad or good, I just feel it's kinda random. "One day Leona encounters a sun Galio and she helps him" (Side note: If this does end up being Galio in a future rework, that'd be pretty sweet) just feels... out of place. It's about as random as a solar flare striking Leona and knocking everyone else out, so I can't really say much else on this.

Leona's "zealous" nature: This right here is one that still rubs me very wrong. Both Leona of the old lore and Leona of the new lore were trained to fight, and they were trained to kill. Both were taught that you must kill... the difference is the old Leona did not want to... and the new Leona seems almost happy to. The difference is almost night and day on her character. I have always seen Leona as a stalwart defender, a warrior who saw one's worth by not how many live she had ended, but how many lives she had spared. And the new Leona just seems... the opposite of that. She's quick to anger, first harbors rage that she uses to sustain herself in her hunt for Diana (before she meets sun Galio again), and is all around quick to strike down anyone in the name of the sun.

This, all around, feels wrong. Many times in reading this, I just scrunched my face up and shook my head. It honestly doesn't feel like Leona anymore. That being said, I am willing to accept that this a different take on my lovely Solari warrior... but still I can't help but shake my head at it.

Leona meets the sun Galio and is given sun powers: Again, this is another thing that I think is really great. I've always felt like Leona was less than human and more of "something else". In my head cannon, Leona could call upon the sun to enter a so called "Avatar" form, where her powers are much more enhanced and she becomes practically a Goddess. The lore here almost makes that happen, something else has claimed residence inside of Leona, and Leona is not entirely herself (Even though she still is "The master of her own flesh") Also we get to know that she gained her armor, sword, and shield in a Sailor Moon style way, which is neat.

Leona's burden of knowledge and Diana: So we are told that Leona is filled with knowledge that "haunts her eyes" and that the only person she can share it with is Diana. This makes me feel better, because this has seemingly replaced her previous rage against our lovely moon lady, and the story that could be written here can potentially be pretty great. I'm very eager to see just what this knowledge that Leona bears is, and I'm interested in seeing just how Diana reacts to it,

So, all in all, there were some things I thought that were kinda randomly thrown in (Hello again sun Galio ) things that I really didn't like, and things that I thought were great. Thankfully the things that I thought were great outweighed the things I didn't.

Final verdict: 8/10, good job Riot. [slayer-jinx-catface]

21 Comments

TzQGRUST392/26/2016, 3:04:07 AM9 votes

She is still the same character. You just see more shades now. I mean, I think she has a right to be furious if she sees all of her brethren die right in front of her. She is still the defender of the weak, she kills only to protect/avenge the people she cares about. If you grow up on a place that is dependent on you being a proficient killer, you are going to be a proficient killer. It is unrealistic to expect that she would never kill. Look at her color text as an example, as soon as Dragon-helm kills even one of the Ra-Horak, she strikes his ass down.

And then there is this, "They were warriors, not pilgrims, and left alive they would only regroup to kill again. Leona could not allow that and thrust her sword into the earth....And sunfire rained from the sky." She is still fiercely protective of her people, but she isn't a generic shonen idiot who always lets the villain have a second chance to live. She kills them in cold blood and that is what she should do to protect her home.

This isn't a different Leona, it is just a more developed Leona.

Also on the situation with the "Bat-Winged Beast Boy", I think it was implying that her was just a manifestation of the sun being that Leona is now the avatar of, just like how the old woman was implied to be a manifestation of the Moon God in Diana's lore.

Spitemaster2/26/2016, 2:13:49 AM3 votes

I think you've much the same opinion as me - the Rakkor lore is great, as is the stuff about Mount Targon. But Leona isn't the same character at all, and I'm quite a bit less okay with that than you. I love Leona because of her personality, and that's just... gone.

GreenLore2/25/2016, 11:33:33 PM3 votes

I was also a bit torn about her lore at first,but now I'm actually starting to like it.

Leona didn't want to kill mindlessly.She was ok with killing to protect others,which honestly fits her kit a lot more(since she is a very agressive support),but not the helpless. Her more zealous nature really came off as projecting the behavior of the elders onto her,but then she saw some things of the past and now she seeks diana for answers,not to kill her. And I think this will lead to some character development for her,realizing that the "every other light is bad" aspect of her isn't the right path.

The fact that there seems to be some sort of evil inside leona is why I think the boy might be a darkin(and regardless if he is one or not I think we'll see him again) It overall reminds me a lot of Tryndamere and the boys appearance sounds rather similar to Aatrox,just smaller and in yellow(and a small imp-like darkin that deceives others sounds like a good start for a concept). Dianas moon powers don't seem that different though considering that diana basically killed the elders in a burst of rage without realizing what happened and Leona doesn't seem to get controlled by it(she would have let these barbarians escape if she didn't knew that they would only attack again)

Star Guardían2/26/2016, 6:45:08 PM2 votes

Leona's character is changed it's just has more shades of grey. Yes, she's somewhat of a religious zealot, but you have to consider that she has been raised and indoctrinated in this religion from a very young age. In addition, she was prophesied to be a very important figure in her religion so addition pressure was put on her to uphold the tenets of their belief. Also I don't think she's too aggressive. She comes from the tribe of Rakkor, a war-like people. She's still a caring person and a protector. She never wants to actively go fight someone like Pantheon, rather she wants to defend and protect her people. The only time she goes out of her way to kill is when Diana desecrated her place of worship and killed her leaders. In a world were it's kill or be killed, Leona is actually quite passive.

TL;DR: She's the same character but with more shades of grey.

Oysteroth2/26/2016, 6:14:42 AM2 votes

All of the parts of her old character are still present in her new iteration, she's just more realistic. They wanted to make Targon more than some dumb sparta ripoff. I think you need a better understanding of what they're up against. The writers from warhammer don't pull any punches, and if I recall correctly, one of their head writers is now on the lore team here. Essentially, they're up against eldritch horrors from another universe that want to destroy our world. The story about the Rakkor protecting the last sun shows that there cannot be any weakness in their ranks, or they will be wiped out, and the world will be destroyed. In this situation, there is no mercy for the enemy because there is 0 chance they will do anything but rip you and whoever you hold dear to pieces. One of the creatures in Diana's story ripped its stomach open and revealed tons of eyes and teeth and then bit her fucking arm with it. That's not the kind of place a person with a very strong moral compass emerges.

That's where Leona's strength and her kind and merciful heart come into play. She's raised in the most extreme of environments, where both the world, and otherworldly horrors are constantly attempting to slay her and her loved ones. When she finds the apparition in the form of a helpless and innocent child, she can't kill it. Even though every part of her was forged to slaughter these beings along with any who would inhibit their cause, she can't kill the weak and helpless creature.

She's willing to pay the ultimate price, but the solari believe she will bring unity to the heavens or something, so they snatch her away. The solari are not perfect. There was probably a huge disagreement in methods between the Solari and the Lunari, and they turned on eachother, with the Solari being the victors. They rewrote history afterward to expunge the Lunari from the records, and once the new rulers took over, nobody would have ever found out. Leona is taught by these people because they know she has a great destiny, but they can't forsee what it is. Again, Leona is reforged into not a killer, but as a weapon of the solari. She believes their words to be absolute. When Diana shows up, she basically tells Leona and her mentors that everything they stand for, everything they believe, is wrong and that they've all been lied to. Then she has the audacity, to suggest the sun and its sworn enemy the moon should work together as equals.

Leona's whole world is being defied, and she can't help but feel rage at Diana. The Solari are the protectors of everything Leona holds dear, so naturally Diana is the enemy. When Diana is sentenced to death, and she understandably lashes out in her own fit of rage, she instantly regrets her actions, and then flees. When Leona wakes up, her greatest mentors have been slaughtered by the one person she hates more than anything. When she reaches the summit after rage climbing, she sees her true purpose. The cosmic being she rescued, all along, was the cosmic god of the sun. He was likely testing her heart on the day they first met, and again her resolve in leading her to the top of the mountain. When Leona sees the truth, she again shows her strength.

Just as before when she turned on her past self and spared the child, she is forced again to turn on everything she has worked for her entire life. She's strong of spirit not because she always knows the right path, but because she is willing to look at the path she and her people have followed and realize they're lost. She knows she was being led astray from the truth by her old masters, and that Diana, the object of her hate, was right. She doesn't defy the ultimate truths, she accepts them, and shoulders the burden of all of the sins the Solari order has committed. Her people destroyed the Lunari, but now, with her newfound power and understanding, she's going to find Diana and set things straight. She will bring unity to the heavens, but not alone. She knows about the oncoming calamity foreshadowed in Pantheon's lore, and she is doing everything in her power to prevent bloodshed. Even when she fights, she could have easily roasted the entire attacking force at once, but she instead protected her soldiers and only once one of them was slain did she unleash her power. She did not attack the retreating force out of malice, but out of the desire to prevent as many casualties as possible. The enemy won't return, and her people will be safe, allowing them to focus all their strength on the true enemy.

Everything you liked about Leona, her mercy, her compassion, they've remained, just with a more realistic tone. On Targon, she is as merciful as they come. She spared the golden child when she was supposed to kill it. She's now forgiven Diana for her actions, and is probably going to apologize for what her order did in the past as well.

Sorry I wrote a lot, but I find this story incredibly cool, and I can't wait to see how it develops. I always found Leona to be a bland character to be perfectly honest. What she stands for resonates with me, and I love her personality, but her lore was always lacking. She grows up in supposedly the harshest environment like ever, and she somehow has a perfect conscience. Even what she views as her failing, is not really a failing, as there was nothing she could do. She spares her opponent because as the perfect person she is, she can't kill someone defenseless, and is then chosen by God for being perfectly moral despite nobody ever teaching her. It was really far fetched and shallow, but the character Leona wasn't to blame, just shallow storytelling. With this new story however, that will actually have an arc, Leona can't be perfect from the get go, or she would just have 0 development. By the end of this story I'm sure we'll have a Leona more similar to her original self, but now we actually get to see her inner conflict as opposed to some half assed backstory in "definitely not Sparta the mountain."

ShrimpKeith2/26/2016, 3:10:34 AM1 votes

Funny how Leona is seen as a defender when she plays the role of engage in the actual game.

Dominick Destine2/26/2016, 6:48:35 PM1 votes

{quoted}

They have more threats than just "It's cold as shit up here bruh" and I like that a lot, not much else to say on it though.

Lol'd hard at that.

+1