Comics & League of Legends lore

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I recently published a video... essay? Rant? A video on the recent 4 comics Riot put out for League as a way to expand the lore. As anyone who's followed me for a while would know, I have MANY THOUGHTS on LoL lore and how comics can help it flourish. Since 20 minutes might be a little long to ask anyone to spend on watching a video like that, I thought perhaps it'd be worth putting my thoughts into a more summarized, generalized format. For the full context of my opinions, see the video embedded below.

  • League of Legends lore is a mess, under reconstruction. Most champions have little to no activity in the lore, and the number of champions who have had any lore activity in the last month or two can be counted on one hand.
  • Riot Games has demonstrated a tendency to "lore dump" - putting out a huge volume of content all in one go - and then be extremely slow to follow up on plot threads and character drama, often preferring to move on to completely different things.
  • Comics, by being a visual, incredibly accessible medium, can help shore up and bridge the gaps in LoL lore. Comics can be produced by small teams of people with limited resources on a relatively snappy schedule and quick turnaround.
  • Comics can keep stories alive, keeping the audience in touch with otherwise overlooked characters and explore the status quo while major events and big progressions are being prepared in the background.
  • League of Legends lacks ongoing, consistent, reliable lore output to build communities around. Comics - especially published as continuous webcomics - can provide this solid core, around which bigger experiments can be performed.
  • Other companies managing huge stables of characters (Marvel, DC, Star Wars EU, etc) have used models of flexible canon successfully for a long time. These should be copied to the extent they make sense for LoL. Do not fear the retcon, do not fear putting out content that will be rendered non-canon or moot by a big release six months down the line.
  • ANYTHING IS BETTER THAN SILENCE. NOTHING IS WORSE THAN STORIES LEFT DANGLING.
  • Community collaborations like the Academy comic, or Punches and Plants comics based on skin lines are a fantastic idea and should be made a bigger priority.
  • rito plz hire me i draw a star guardians webcomic already you can have it if you want