Riot Games, creators of
the resoundingly successful League of Legends, have recently begun a series of
visual upgrades to some of their older characters. In most cases these upgrades
are simply a much needed bit of artistic maintenance, and people have generally
been ok with them, if not down-right excited. However, the last two champions
to receive an upgrade have had more than their textures and particles tweaked;
they have had either massive changes to the way they play, their personal
story, or both. Unsurprisingly, this has sparked quite a bit of controversy,
which prompted me to take a closer look at the issue. I’ve looked into the
controversy surrounding the champions Karma and Trundle, and have decided to
focus primarily on the Trundle issue, as I believe I can speak more on that
topic.
The major criticism directed
at Riot claims that by changing Trundle’s lore and visual theme Riot destroyed
the core aspects of the original character, essentially creating a brand new
entity that just happens to have the same name. Riot disagrees that the
character is completely gone, and argues that this new iteration of the
character has more options for future story telling. I plan on comparing and
contrasting both sets of lore in terms of how they function and the new stories
that they facilitate.
First off, let’s
examine Trundle’s original lore. In his original lore, Trundle’s people are
denizens of a great swamp, and while still barbaric and gross by human
standards, they really aren’t half bad from a troll point of view. They end up
getting themselves cursed by a spiteful necromancer, and have this terrible
rotting curse placed on their whole tribe. They would have died if it were not
for the troll’s innate regenerative ability, which kept them in a state of
perpetual half – rot. The tribe sought a cure, and realized that they could
take all of the tribe’s curses and put them into one troll, provided he could
survive. There was no such troll, until Trundle.
Trundle was born small
and ugly, even by troll standards, and was the butt of all of the other troll’s
jokes and bullying. He was on the bottom rung of the troll social ladder, and
when the shamans of the tribe offered him a chance for glory he gladly
accepted. He took the curse of the whole tribe onto himself, thinking that his
sacrifice would win him the love and respect that was so long denied him. He
was wrong, and after a time he left the tribe, searching for a cure.
Eventually Trundle was
invited to the league, and upon arrival it was revealed to him that when he
took his tribe’s curse he also took his tribe’s collective ability to regenerate.
He was then given a choice – either give the curse back to his tribe to save
them, or keep the curse for himself, dooming them to slow death. Trundle
remembered how they treated him, before and after his noble sacrifice, and
damned them all to death, keeping the curse for himself. He abandoned his
search for a cure, joined the league and turned his back on the people that
turned their back on him.
Now that we have
Trundle’s original backstory in its entirety, let’s take a look at what kind of
character Trundle is trying to be.
Original Trundle is:
·
Runty
·
Weak
·
Naïve
·
Self – sacrificing
·
Lonely
·
Abused
·
An outcast
And he becomes:
·
Strong
·
Disillusioned
·
Vindictive
·
Independent
·
Weary
·
A Wanderer
Trundle is a Martyr and
an Underdog who becomes an Antihero by the time he reaches the League. His long
suffering, both physical and psychological, is a large part of what makes him
so compelling. His decision to doom his tribe to a slow death also proves that
he has a good degree of depth, since he has grown out of his initial naivety
and into a more tired, cynical character. The players feel for Trundle, and
even though his decision to doom his tribe may not be the most moral one, we
can sympathize with it. It feels like a real person making a tough decision,
and though it may leave a bad taste in our mouths, it also makes a lot of
sense.
That said, Riot claims
that this story was complete at the time that Trundle reached the League, which
throttled their ability to tell more stories with Trundle and to involve him in
the Valoran political scene. In my opinion, they are both right and wrong. Yes,
this story has come to a close. Trundle has settled his past, and come more to
terms with his condition. However, that doesn’t mean that he is suddenly
incapable of making meaningful decisions and taking important actions. For
example, Trundle could decide to try and track down the necromancer that cursed
his people in the first place, either to kill him or to ally himself with him
in a quest for a greater understanding of his curse. Or, Trundle could search
out other tribes of trolls, in a quest for acceptance. Or, he could start his
own tribe, gathering a band of outcasts and miscreants from around Runeterra.
There are so many options available, and to say that his current story is too
constrictive seems false to me.
Now let’s take a look
at Trundle’s new lore. In his new lore, Trundle is an ambitious young frost
troll, living on the great Tundra of the Fjord. His tribe’s current chief is a
fool, and Trundle challenges him for supremacy, loosing spectacularly.
Undaunted, Trundle concocts a tale about a great weapon wielded by Troll lords
of old that symbolized their right to rule. His tribe is skeptical of this
tale, but agree to let him look for such a weapon, believing him incapable of
actually obtaining one.
Trundle takes off for
the Ice Queen’s lair, figuring that she of all people must have a weapon worthy
of his tale. He fights and cheats his way through her defenses, but has
difficulty finding a weapon worthy of his boast. Eventually he comes across a
great frozen club of true ice, and as he claims his prize, the ice queen
herself appears, intent on killing the intruder in her castle. Thinking fast,
Trundle persuades her to spare him, promising her the allegiance of his tribe
in exchange for his life and the weapon, though he plans on betraying her later.
She agrees, and Trundle leaves the castle, weapon in hand. He returns to his
tribe, kills the chief, and beings his campaign to unite all frost trolls under
his claim of Troll king.
Now that we have
Trundle’s new backstory, let’s take a look at what kind of character Trundle is
trying to be.
New Trundle is:
·
Strong
·
Cunning
·
Ambitious
·
Creative
·
Resourceful
·
A king
New Trundle is a Strong
man and a Warrior – a ruthless and cunning fighter, capable of great feats of
strength and wit, both on and off the battlefield. Basically he’s a total
bad-ass who unites the trolls and outwits the Ice Queen. He is a dangerous and
powerful individual who is capable bending others to his will through strength
of arms or duplicity. He is not concerned with what others think of him,
acceptance or love. He lusts for power, and will do anything to obtain it. New
Trundle’s League judgment is not out yet, so this may be an unfair assessment,
but as it stands now I can’t say that new Trundle is a very deep character. All
of his actions are predictable and unsurprising, and you can expect him to take
any path that will lead him to his goal of power.
In regards to this new
lore allowing Riot to tell more stories about Trundle, they are absolutely
correct; this is a route that will
allow new stories to be told about a troll named Trundle. However, this troll
named Trundle who lives in the fjord and is a king is not the same Trundle as
the small runt who lived in a swamp.
Let’s take a look at
their visual aesthetic. Original Trundle was small, runty, walked with a lope,
and used disease and contagion. New Trundle is large, barrel chested, upright,
and uses ice magic. Both aesthetics make sense for the characters that they are
attached to, which is good and bad at the same time. It’s good the visuals
associated with each respective Trundle match the story that riot has created
for them, but it is bad that they are so
far removed from each other. If this had been just a visual upgrade like Riot
claimed, there would have been no reason for the two aesthetics to be so
different. The fact that the gap between the two is so wide lends credibility
to the claim that Riot has created a completely new character, and not in fact
upgraded an old one.
After all is said and
done, I cannot agree that the new Trundle is in fact Trundle at all. He is in
fact a completely different character that fills different archetypes, has a
different aesthetic, and appeals to a different audience. I think it was a
mistake to change the existing Trundle as much as they have, and I believe that
the remade Trundle should have been a new character altogether. The new Trundle
is Trundle, quite literally, in name only.
Thanks for reading!
