League of Legends

[Deathhappens]

Ezreal is still a morally gray Indy clone only now he's far younger and dumber instead of actually capable, Pantheon went from elite warrior to Ghost of Sparta, Taric is... honestly I forgot what he's supposed to be so pass, Urgot's backstory went from "undead former headsman" to "alive former headsman that got Zaun'd". If those are supposed to be your examples of good writing... well, they really aren't. In 99% of the cases the "added depth" they supposedly invented is "generic tragic backstory". You could have pointed out champions like Neeko, Zoe or AuSol, who are neither good nor bad guys and are actually just doing their thing, but the truth is they're caricatures rather than actual fleshed out individuals. The new lore isn't even entertainingly bad, it's just woefully unoriginal MMO-tier "fantasy'". Warmother came close to having some interesting story beats early on, but unfortunately the game's story demanded we focus on Ashe rather than her mother or her tribe, so off they went.

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lux is still best but neeko is cool too
also the lore seems neat, they really should make an actual story-driven game set in the universe

I can easily see them making an MMO out of this. That would not be A Good Thing.

[AAM1232]

Ezreal is still a morally gray Indy clone only now he's far younger and dumber instead of actually capable, Pantheon went from elite warrior to Ghost of Sparta, Taric is... honestly I forgot what he's supposed to be so pass, Urgot's backstory went from "undead former headsman" to "alive former headsman that got Zaun'd". If those are supposed to be your examples of good writing... well, they really aren't. In 99% of the cases the "added depth" they supposedly invented is "generic tragic backstory". You could have pointed out champions like Neeko, Zoe or AuSol, who are neither good nor bad guys and are actually just doing their thing, but the truth is they're caricatures rather than actual fleshed out individuals. The new lore isn't even entertainingly bad, it's just woefully unoriginal MMO-tier "fantasy'". Warmother came close to having some interesting story beats early on, but unfortunately the game's story demanded we focus on Ashe rather than her mother or her tribe, so off they went.

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I can easily see them making an MMO out of this. That would not be A Good Thing.

Morally gray? Dumber and younger? I mean if you're going to spout one-liners and nothings as an argument for claiming that there aren't any fleshed out characters then why bother? It's not like JoJ had fleshed out anything in a way that actually mattered other than memes.

Warmother and Lux were also limited 5 issue series as part of the then new collaboration with Marvel, so the length had an impact on the focus of the story, which ultimately was going to be about Ashe anyway. There are stories featuring NPCs on Universe if you actually care about that.

The game doesn't have a story though, the lore now is just background material for the champions, which is YMMV since some like it while others don't.

[Deathhappens]

Morally grey: His tomb raiding escapades are not portrayed as either a good thing or a bad thing, he's basically only in it for himself.

Dumber and younger: I don't know why I need to explain this, but where old Ezreal was a capable scholar-adventurer who was a bit too cocky for his own good (i.e Indiana Jones clone) new Ezreal is an incompetent hotshot with no grasp of reality who gets by on pure luck (i.e. more like Inspector Clouseau).
Incidentally this is the same thing that happened to Lux, from precocious genius mage who graduated ahead of her age and came to the League to help her brother to... teenage insecure dumbass who hangs out with a condemned prisoner and gives him BOOKS ON HOW THE VERY BINDINGS HE IS WEARING WORK (no I will never let this go). It's a wonder she still has her "double rainbow" joke, not like it has any connection to her character anymore.

The Journal of Justice didn't do much fleshing out because it was never meant to do that, it was primarily an outlet for humor with the occasional "lore event" being foreshadowed there (the Ionia/Noxus match, Lee's entry to the League, the lead-up to Dominion). We also had the Champion Judgements for more serious looks into specific champions' minds, though that one died even faster.
In the end, memes are fine. League was a meme game to begin with. I'd rather keep the old memes compared to the mishmash of genericness we're getting now.


EDIT: I had paragraphs when I wrote this, fuck you BB.

[AAM1232]

I would call it recklessness and overconfidence rather than incomptency like Clouseau. So less Indy/Clouseau and more unfortunate younger Drake. As is considering Lux's other stories + Demacia background irrelevant to the judgment of her actions simply because it's not what you like. And considering that her VO update only happened recently, it's not too hard to see why the line was kept rather than removed, when it never really fit in anyway.


So basically complaining about the new directions because it isn't a memefest to take your mind off the game? Again, memes aren't stories and what little the JoJ provided was essentially pointless to both Riot and players when not much actually happened or could have happened as Riot writers might have wanted, and hence the split in 2014 with the occasional game event when new skins/stories come out. The game itself has evolved over time from a shoddy WoW/Dota lookalike to what it is now as a MOBA standard, and the lore with it after 2014. There's actual stories, characters and plots nowadays compared to one-off jokes that are barely remembered anymore, but I guess dumb jokes are somehow better than character development you don't like or want to understand.

[Deathhappens]

Dumb jokes are indeed better than generic fantasy setting #1274722, I don't know why you need a dissertation on the subject to understand that. If you like what's on offer, bully for you, that doesn't make it good or worth reading. And I understand it just fine, thank you very much.

[AAM1232]

Dumb jokes are indeed better than generic fantasy setting #1274722, I don't know why you need a dissertation on the subject to understand that. If you like what's on offer, bully for you, that doesn't make it good or worth reading. And I understand it just fine, thank you very much.

Same goes for dumb jokes though, why are they supposedly worth reading compared to actual backgrounds and stories? I mean if you're complaining while praising memes then I'm not sure you really do or care to at all.

[SeiKeo]

why is it a dichotomy, nobody cared about the dumb jokes or the generic fantasy setting imagine being like the 2 people at riot solely employed to write mediocre lns and comics

[AAM1232]

why is it a dichotomy, nobody cared about the dumb jokes or the generic fantasy setting imagine being like the 2 people at riot solely employed to write mediocre lns and comics

Not really the case when they have a team for the lore along with the general reception to the products. Sure, most players are all about the gameplay, but that doesn't necessarily mean the lore can just be written off.

[Deathhappens]

Same goes for dumb jokes though, why are they supposedly worth reading compared to actual backgrounds and stories? I mean if you're complaining while praising memes then I'm not sure you really do or care to at all.

I'm not complaining that we got boring lore instead of le XD epic references, I'm complaining that we got bad generic lore instead of something worth reading because they decided to make their world a SFW theme park even though the only part anyone ever visits is the gladiatorial arena.

[Sesto]

nice

[Wandering Swordwoman]

Looks far better than ML and the old PC LoL. Probably gonna play it

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Hmmm doubt how will it turn out

[Petrikow]

Arcane

[AAM1232]

Pretty good

[Petrikow]

Spoiler:

The scene with Ekko and Jinx on the bridge is the best thing I've seen all year

[AAM1232]

Spoiler:

The scene with Ekko and Jinx on the bridge is the best thing I've seen all year

Spoiler:

One of the best uses of their soundtracks with the animation. Also can't believe they got Sting to make a song for LoL with Ray Chen (Awaken's violin player).

[Deathhappens]

Heard s2 is in the works too. Interesting.

[pinetree]

I'm still trying to understand how the animation is so fucking good. It's honestly absurd that they improved on what they were already doing in the cinematics but over 9 full-length episodes instead. Insane.

Those 6 years were worth it.

[ResidentSeagull]

Binged all of Arcane today myself. This is some of the best animation I've ever seen, but what REALLY impressed me was how the show actually made me give a shit about Vi and Jayce.

And Viktor for that matter, and he didn't even say the words 'Glorious' or 'Evolution' at all!

[AAM1232]

I'm still trying to understand how the animation is so fucking good. It's honestly absurd that they improved on what they were already doing in the cinematics but over 9 full-length episodes instead. Insane.

Those 6 years were worth it.

Riot and Fortiche spent 6 years and lots of money to get this, expanding Fortiche who were only doing 2-3 minute cinematics at first, and then had to make 360+ minutes of them. With the current structure now hopefully S2 won't take that long to release (2023 fingers crossed).

[pinetree]

Fortiche did say it wouldn't take as long but also that it isn't coming out in 2022, so yeah, I'm hoping for 2023 too.