"A character who only suffers and has no control over their future"? You just called out quite a number of uni students lol

I say it's a healthy dose of paranoia considering the shit load of eldritch horrors and world-ending threats on runeterra.

So seraphine is just crazy now: "the voices in the crystals tell me to sing"

"i miss my kind" a simple quote that its more connecting with the champ i gonna mis you old friend

I don't mind Skarner's new lore. But I did think his hex crystal origins had interesting ethical questions surrounding Piltover's use of those crystals

I get mad whe she said " i want to work on a horror based champ " i was like CMON YOU HAVE SHACO THERE NON EXISTING AT ALL IN THE LORE FOR LIKE 15 YEARS😂

Wasn't Yorick's retcon supposed to be important and integral to the Shadow Isles, but was no where to be found during the whole Ruination event? I can imagine an important event happening and Riot doing the same thing and shoving him aside should the story progress.

I think the only real sad part for me is losing the noble monster aspect of him. Being someone who looks like a big scary monster but is actually a good guy. He’s not exactly evil now but he’s definitely framed as an antagonist

They also indirectly viped out Camille as a character, which was built upon her family's horrible secret

The saddest part to me is that Skarners whole crystal aesthetic just got copletely erased. Our pink, colorful crysraline scorpion that was living a secret hextech tragedy turned into yet another colorless stone kaiju with paranoia, as if there werent enough insane characters already. sadness is not the same as fear and his melancholy got turned into aggression. The crystal scar is weeping but Ixtal is rebelling.

damn they turned a genocide survivor into richard nixon

Nah this sucks. Skarner can have a different role in the story, that's fine. What I cared about was his personality. He was sad, but he was compassionate and considerate. Still a dangerous entity, but one with a spiritual and communal motive. He really felt like a bastion of his culture. Making him this paranoid authoritarian feels like a complete abandonment of that, and it was entirely avoidable. Also making Arcane canon is flat out a mistake

"we take our lore serious" they fking throw that sentence out the second they can.

"The Crystal Scar is weeping."

I miss the depressed scorpion

For the "where are the other Brackern" question; some of new Skarner's voicelines heavily imply that he's still the last Brackern, which also ties into why he's so overly protective of Ixtal.

I feel like his new lore could’ve just been in addition to his old lore instead of completely axed like it was. Unless Arcane is about to go insane with its lore explanations and exposition drops which could invalidate pretty much everything Skarner being an ancient Brakkern, his kind went to sleep, him being one of the oldest and dedicated to Ixtal didn’t, he locked himself inside Ixtal, he’s still getting paranoid and the Brakkern are still getting harvested but Skarner doesn’t know about it or could’ve been whispered to about it which would still torture him emotionally and now we have pretty much the same place with little deletion and an explanation for why the hex core was so susceptible to void corruption as void corruption has spread to Shurima and can even affect someone like Skarner

My only fear with the "one universe" approach is that they are gonna go the easy route and take away more lore than they will add even before the decision riot played really safe with its lore, lots of stories and threads but no conclusion, and the only time they tried to move things forward backfired spectacularly, making it all more likely

There is 0 reason they needed to remove all aspects of his old lore without working it into this new lore. Piltover is already exploring Ixtal, them looking for crystals here makes just as much sense as when they were getting them from Shurima. I guess creating "horror" for League isn't creating a story about exploitation, ends justifying means, extinction, existentialism, and moral gray areas - it's about having a leader you don't always agree with. The real horror is how little respect they have for the few truly unique characters they have, instead opting to make, as they said "the Ixtali equivalent of King Kong".

One thing I kind of dislike about the new skarner is that they made him a giant. I like him being a big boi, quite large even. But they legit made him a titan. And in my brain It kind of hard for me to imagine such a big being caring do much about a land and the beings in it that he can just accidentally kill by walking around. Also where does he even stay? Just underground? This all feels a bit odd to me. I feel like he would work better if he was sized like a two or three story house. Maybe even bigger, but the way they made him seems too much for me. With size like that, does he even need to be worried about noxians or piltover when he could just easily trample their entire army in 10 seconds?

Also, with how little riot progresses the story of its champions, especially monster ones. I highly doubt Skarner will be prominently featured anywhere. Old lore WOULD work with him as the protagonist, even if the story would be tragic, they could make it work, and make him and Seraphine become secret allies or idk, him leading the revolution of environmentalists. It is weird to me how they pretend they cannot write (Altho after so many writer lay offs, i guess fair)

Old Skarner was quite preserved in his legendary skin. We can see that deep inside he has troubles with his humanity and voice in his head.

So... They Trundle'd him... I see.

I don’t think the problem is the stories that you can tell with the character. Both the old Skarner and the new have potential for great storytelling. My problem is that they traded a melancholy character, lost and alone, looking for the voice of his people, for a an patronizing xenophobe that wishes to subjugate his people in order to maintain the status quo. The first one I could sympathize with, the second I perceive as a villain. They are very much not the same, and yet riot expects people to appreciate the new one as they did old Skarner.

I don't mind the existance of scorpion kaijus roaming through runaterra. Thats perefectly fine, remember the size of the demigods and the giants from Ionia. Maybe runeterra was just ruled by giants before. My biggest issue is that Skarner was present through the majority of Ixtal's history so... Why do they even bothered about making a a fortress to fight anaginst the void when you have a mountain size earthbender? Thats why I think that current Skarner and Malphite cannot coexist

mmmyea i still like the old lore better the morals and ethics being questioned like how much the 'gray' area actually is regarding piltover's use of 'souls' of ancient creatures man, stuff that makes u stop and think is way better than the 'sympathizing w/ the sad' sometimes

Canon ending for old skarner could be him dying somewhere, in bittersweet on thinking of failing to continue the legacy of his people.

In a meta-narrative sense, the idea that an iconic character, even as low radar as Skarner was, getting their entire backstory changed to me sorta ruins the believability of the world. Refining the story or fitting aspects in, such as having the original story be his origin but having his presence in Ixtal be his present, would've worked great. A character isn't just their backstory, and backstory in League really isn't super important for the characters expression in game, but if you want for lore to hold any weight then using the genuine veteran storylines of some of these old characters to full effect is much more powerful in evoking a story you can delve into.

I hate that the entire hex tech story arc is just gone, as long as they actually give us good stories from such a long silence, just please, please don't go Disney Riot, I'm begging on my knees.

All this change is probably because everyone hated Seraphine lore and instead of changing Seraphine's lore about Skarner, they changed Skarner so they can change Seraphine's 🫥 without acting like they are not forcing Seraphine lore change, Arcane didn't even say where these people get hex crystal and I don't think they retconned that

All they needed to do was polish up his crystalline model, and remove his over reliance on his crystal pylons. Instead they completely ruined him. He’s not even a crystal giant scorpion, just… a giant scorpion.

"I miss my kind"

Just a pop culture character that I thought of, but Skarner reminds me a lot of General Zod from Superman. I don't think tragedy/horror/sympathy need to be mutually exclusive. I think he has a lot of tragic background to his lore of great loss and suffering which is easy to sympathize with, but at the same time that very loss and suffering makes him a force to fear as he'll do anything he can to protect what's left of his people and do anything he can to bring them back. Even Zod was paranoid that his world was reaching an end and that his leaders were blind to it.

Riot: "He's a very important character who made every important decision when it comes to Ixtal" Me: Okay, so what are those decisions, aside the isolation, which we knew already without you even telling us Riot: "Isolation! Paranoia!"

That's an normal sized skarner who rushed heartsteel

In general is a win since he wasn't that popular and now new ppl can meet Scarner, but... To me personally he was the heart of piltover, that underlying edge that rlly made Camille, Seraphine and anyone who used hextech interesting ya know? Feels like a waste backing down from the "indigenous ppl being brutalized for fuel" storyline to the "mr all mighty god dictator has a good heart actually u.u" yknow?

I hope they dont get rid of the fact that hex crystals are alive. I hope they bring that back as another character or a new race. It was an insanely good concept as it adds a sense of moral tension on the usage of the crystals.

I miss my kind.

Skarner's old lore was an opportunity, with the help of Arcane, to create more nuance when it comes to resources. Could have been an interesting topic of debate of is this ethical? Does the net positives out weigh the bad? It could have given the scorpion some love with the help of Arcane, that other's may not have known that connection, and it very well could have been the introduction of Seraphine to a main stream audience. In fact, you could make the argument they could have kept the old story in unison with the new ones. Skarner, the last of his kind uncertain of how to save his fallen brethren ventured out for answers to find this new land; he found a new since of belonging and worth when the void showed up, using his body as a shield and his own efforts to protect these individuals he came closer to. Both of these things can be true, both could have coexisted; the remnants of his people being utilized could have sparked Skarner's former reluctance to open up to the outside world, feeling his people's cries from afar as they're being harvested. This creating an angry Skarner who seeks retribution on said people and creating that same "horror" element, but giving nuance or motif that is understandable to the character and the audience who can sympathize with the reason but maybe not the actions. I feel like they completely missed the mark and felt like it was best to destroy, replace, an existing story cause it was easier than trying to mesh the two ideas together. This isn't the first time they've destroyed lore on a character, everyone forgets Galio's lore was much different than the Demacian statue we have today. However, this instance I feel is worse because they've completely changed the character's identity. Especially when I've described above it wasn't even needed.

Voice in head: Go left Skarner: Go Right Voice in head: Wait that no-.. Skarner: F you

You see Necrit, clearly all of Skarners Kin are performing a largely similar role to their previously battery like state. Instead of powering modern magic, they are instead.... holding up the tectonic plates holding up Ixtal!!!111 Therefore Skarner remains depressed because no one, not even the lore writers care about the plight of his people.

dont they have to rewrite all of seraphines lore with that change? what voice does she hear now in the hextech crystals? or is that just gonna be irrelevant now?

It would have been better if they kept the hextech origins, and also had a backstory as to how he ended up the protector of Ixtal.

You either die an allegory for people sacrificed for the sake of innovation and capitalism or Live long enough to Make Ixtal Great Again! I think people are mad because it feels pointless to get invested in a character's story when they will be thrown out at in a heart beat to make things more palatable for the company.

Shaco is the voice.

My anger stems from the fact that the og lore wasn't mutually exclusive to the Yun Tal: Ixtal is already being mined by Piltover, and Skarner could have lost the other Brackern bc he left his brood to go do Yun Tal stuff, anda he could still have a cristal namestone even if his body isn't fully cristal. This change wasn't necessary, both things could haver coexisted. This only happened bc Riot wanted to make the Arcane characters Uncomplicated Good Guys™, even when they are living un Industrial Revolution Exploitation City

"A character who only suffers and has no control of his future" He's literally me

I guess the Brakerns hide under the earth because it seems like Skarner is emerging from the earth in the splash art and he said something like he could hear humans talk when he was under

They took away Skarner's crystal native heritage to prevent Seraphine from becoming an unintentional coloniser psychopath. Writers not knowing what their lore is, as usual, so they change other minority characters instead.

I just don't like Ixtal and the fact so many characters were retconed one more time than necessary just to fit in another region that didn't need to exist

remember when seraphine had ripped one the scarners race gems

keep new lore, keep the old brakern connection to hextec, add something like as he protected ixtal he could here the cries of his kin from outside the ixtal forest, and as the piltovans began to go into ixtal in current lore the ixtal people came to aid skarner be it for a new generation of braken brood or lesser of his species etc. as he aided them with the voids incursion furthering the connection between the two and his devotion/ belief to keeping ixtal closed off from the outside world.

All I am hearing is "We the people in charge of the canon and lore were fired/left and now we need to retroactively make Arcane cannon and erase the lore we just created because Seraphine needs to sell more twinkly Kpop skins without looking complicit in the Genocide she is benefiting from." Let's not forget Seraphine's actual quote: "I miss your kind too Skarner. Would you like to hear their song?"

I just absolutely despise how all League lore has been officially thrown out the window for Arcane. Nothing is canon anymore from the past decade+ (stories, events, lore, comics, etc) if it happened before aRcAnE. Now don't get me wrong, I liked Arcane, but Piltover is one tiny af place in a massive universe and you're letting the rule-of-cool infect Riot due to a bunch of people who don't play League, don't care about League's universe as a whole, and haven't spent thousands of dollars on League to make you the company you are right now, happened to like Arcane. It feels INCREDIBLY SH-TTY to have a bunch of non-legague fans be the primary cause of 10 years worth of amazing lore being thrown out the freaking window. So frustrating.

Commenting this only cuz ive noticed this in the past few videos Skarner is apart of Ixtal's ruling caste, not castle. Caste refering to the different classes in a social hierarchy. You probably already know this, but just figured I'd leave the comment just in case cuz English as a second language can be confusing sometimes (it's mine as well).

"we dont like how he only suffers :(... he cant do anything about it and that sucks :,(" man its almost like his story is a tragedy, you know a story where the main character is doomed by fate to suffer and can do nothing but struggle on in a futile fight against it? you know the type of story that has existed for thousands of years and has constantly caught the attention of readers for said thousand of years. almost like it is a very relatable type of story than many people find themselves caught in. but no he has to have a happier story... sorry forgot everything has to be sunshine and rainbows.

You are sick? what's up?

With how old Skarner is and his implied traumatic memories surrounding the fall of Icathia and the Void, what if the rest of his kind died fighting Voidborn? And maybe they’re a species that reproduces rarely, like how Whales only have one baby every mating season

I mean a story/plot line about a city of rich nobles all about progress and technological advancement built upon and fueled by the literal corpses of indigenous species of sentient creatures is a very bold one to tell, in a MOBA of all things too. That's my problem with the lore change, that we had a story/plot that actually had a deeper message and wanted to talk about something, but Riot chickened out because it might make the new rich guys in power be the bad guys and well, that's not fair. Maybe the rich nobles could be the good guys for a change? And if they're going to change this about Skarner and hextech, it probably means we're going to get a Viktor retcon like we got one for Jayce, because there's no way the soft uwu boy from Arcane becomes the GLORIOUS EVOLUTION Viktor from LoL.

I never cared about hte Skarners connection to Hextech and Camille. I liked him because he was trying to protect his own and bring them back. He said it in his voicelines. The writer/s cannot even comprehend what horror means. If they think new Skarners lore is a horror one, ups..

I just feel that riot has been making some really questionable decisions involving lore to the point we have MULTIPLE character without lore of ANY kind but are making new stories that contradict preexisting lore that had to already be reworked over the whole “summoner” debacle. It just feels so disingenuous……

I have a theory that doubles down on republican skarner: The rest of his kind, being giant rock dudes, willingly laid down and slept/died to form barriers around the isolationist region attack-on-titan-style. It’s been long enough that it seems like natural mountain ranges, but there’s scorpions in them hills Can’t wait for the league rumbling!

In my head both stories will be saved up as canon. Even Arcane somehow connected Hextech to the Brackern by playing a specific melody every time they got used/shown. It made sense. Those were Brackern. Why ignore that part? It fit really good into Skarners already existing lore. Now Hextech or the raw crystals just happen to exist without an explanation to why they are so powerful.

I'll say the same thing here as I said on their video, Skarner is not scary he is now just a mentally ill freedom fighter and that's based.

I can see their plan Since arcane hextech origin are unknown then they are planning a plot reveal with it in season 2, a plot reveal even better that scarner original lore(kinda hard to do) And since ixtal need more lore and moving part then it makes sense,but why not just make a new champion instead of making a retcone rework, i wish all rework going forward were like akali udyr or pantheon

Necrit doing his best to be some 3rd party damage control for Riot on the Skarner drama. Which is fine, I think the main good thing in this video was your little blurb about how they could have adapted Hextech lore in Arcane together with game lore, or at the very least make it more closely related. But you know as well as I do that after that project's huge success, they shifted gears to build the game around Arcane and not the other way around, simply because its a lot easier not having to consult 50 gorillion things and explain why there's a giant scorpian on screen as opposed to just writing out his lore page with something new. Though it does paint this cool scene in my head where they're going into the mines where the hex crystals are, and recruited Ezreal along the way as some kind of 'guide' when really he's just there to pocket some loot and planning to ditch Jayce and Caitlyn when it gets dangerous, or gets pressured into it by Cait who has him on criminal charges offering to let him go if he guides them since he's been here before. Then somewhere along the way they awaken Skarner who bursts through a crystal guarding and protecting the souls of his people. At some point they have a conversation with him so he can lore dump a little, while Ezreal is hidden out of sight, loots something and Skarner recognizes him from before which prompts a murder chase for all 3 of them. Would that be good writing? I dunno, maybe too tonally different for what Arcane has in mind, but we'll see what season 2 entails.

Necrit: "Where are they hiding?" Players after the rework: "They are coming out of the goddamn walls!"

I don't understand why those magic stones jayce found and jinx let explode in arcane couldn't have been brackern crystals

So they removed everything That Made hextech interesting, great. But hey, maybe if we are lucky, riot finally lets the story progress and we might get a new story based on the new lore for skarner in five years. Destroing the old lore was so worth it. And we got to turn a character that was trying to defended his people from being exploited, in to a violent crazy person as a bonus to.

cooking up any more long videos? the gang really loves em you know

14:04 They are hills on which the Forrest grows. Grass instead of coffin, trees for thumbstones.

they could have made seraphine an actual villain while looking like a cute innocent popstar, which is way more interesting lore wise. But no lets retcon the scorpion cause we cant afford to put seraphine in a bad light...

Ah yes, fuck all the people who read and care about the lore, we gotta dumb it down and change shit for the worse for all the people who DON'T read or care about the lore

I like how the barista put the drink as far away from her as possible 1:42

Really unfortunate that it went down like this. Like you said, they could have easily incorporated Skarners old lore and the Brackern into Arcane. It would matter less if Skarner's lore was meaningless to other champions, but there's so many directions you could take the idea of hextech being morally dubious. There's lots of things in the real world we enjoy that come at a price. That's worth exploring. How would Skarner feel meeting someone using his kind for fuel? How would the good guys we think we know react to this information? How might the bad guys use it to their advantage? There's genuine reason for the audience to connect to Skarner's sadness. But they made him a politician, which I guess is better than nothing. Monster champs need more love.

OK I am really confused as to where this disconnect is... as far as I see it his old lore could have been completely additive to this new version. Being the last brakern his people sacrificed themselves to build up the Ixtal city and reigon "hence why he is so protective over it and feels possessive of it" then piltover, specificly camile a character Arcane has not even touched yet, finds the corpses of brakern in what are basicly cerimonial burial grounds on the outskirts of the region. this leads Qiqi to know about htem and be curious and whatnot and could send skarner up the wall for these outsiders to defile his people's resting places ect ect. None of the Arcane characters know amything about this and it would only become more and more relevent over time as Piltover and Ixtal have increasing conflict and it would still keep Seraphim's character basicly intact (tho hopefully better done...) Im really struggling to see why this change was "nessicary" or even how keeping the old lore would have caused any real complications... In my opinion its more likely that the themes related to Skarner's old lore where too political and colored Piltover as a more moraly grey region and as colonizers who activly destroyed sacried sites of indigenous peoples... it would mean that Riot would have to write stories with real weight behind them and that would require care and tact to pull off. I think this decision is cowardly and lazy, but maybe I am missing some key part of his old lore that just makes it really incompatible ??? correct me if Im way off base here please.

I agree with most of your points, but... Instead of making the universe fit arcane, they SHOULDVE made arcane fit the universe... now so much is gonna be retconned, but at the same time it wont because they stopped making regular lore additions. I also like the new position for skarner, but its not skarner. it shouldve been a new monster champ imo.

14:02 thats my main problem with this rework, that hes so massively big. it creates lots of plotholes but to your point, where are all the other brackern? i imagine that most brackern are no bigger than a dog, but they grow in size as they age. most brackern dont live long enough to get as big as skarner, but hes lived for thousands of years, and he was growing the whole time, so of course he would be big. but the other brackern who live "normal" life spans, they die before they get to anywhere near this size my problem is, how does he walk around without destroying stuff? what does he eat? how much does he eat? what happens with his waste? having a creature this big, even as an ally, causes so many problems that need to be addressed. And from the looks of the splash art, they dont address any of it.

I thought a good way to do this was to have Skarner have spawnlings or golems that work for them. the people of Piltover and Camile will now get these crystals from the Brackern which are those Skarner created, it would make it a lot more personal, and still connected, and adds to the reason Skarner is paranoid. I even thought of a sample passive feature similar to his old representation of having control of an area. on Skarner team's side of the rift, the Krugs would be Brackern whom Skarner can collect similar to Iveren giving gold and maybe even 1 or 2 to follow Skarnar, and if you leave them they would be a vision in that area, if anyone is counter jungling. Then if the enemy gets it they get bonus gold or mana or maybe a 1 time useable item. I think this is still fixable.

Old Skarner: A sad gentle monster New Skarner: HE IS A HORROR, HE IS A TYRANT AND WILL MURDER ALL THAT OPPOSE HIM, EVEN THOSE HE PROTECTS Seriously where is this "horror monster" they keep talking about

He got degraded into guard dog of some forest village. Surprise surprise.

i cannot believe they're doing ANOTHER lore retcon when they haven't even finished the last one. what's more, they're literally pulling a crisis on infinite earths. we know how this goes. it's gonna be a complete mess nobody likes that stifles creativity. then 10-15 years later they finally admit they fucked up and split the timelines again. i know riot is known for making the exact same mistakes over and over and over again without ever learning a thing but... i don't really have anything else to add to that.

What i really really think riot should do again is lore tied reworks. One example would be gankplank, so many champions have potential for that and it can completely change some champions. One idea that i always thought was cool were for darkin champs to lose their current host and get a new one. Varus could be the first to experience this. Aatrox could ve had this. Skarner story could ve changed so that all the hextech part is still the same but he moved to where ixtal is now and witnessed and participated in it s forming and he brought crystals from his race there but still searches for others he might’ve missed. There were so many options to keep his old lore intact but riot didn’t do it because it would’ve made arcane really dark at one moment or another where they eventually had to show skarner and his massacre and the truth about hextech

Honestly, what DOESN'T anger this goddamn community nowadays?

This is why stopped caring for the league of legends lore. They will rework and retcon it in 5 years, so why bother investing on it. I still remember discussing lore on the forums.

For the joking ending bit, I like to think their size is determined by how old they are with skarner being the oldest

They could've just moved his old lore into his new one. They could've said that his entire kind is gone and he is the only survivor after the void attacked them etc. and when the era of humans came along in Ixtal he helped founded the nation and made sure that the people are safe by not permitting them outside. Of course that would remove the part about Icathia and stuff but imo that's a good compromise for people who loved his old lore.

Bro the premises is just garbage. There is no horror in it. How is a giant scorpion that is a bit paranoid be scary. The only way for them to do that is to make him have rampages so that people would eventually fear him. I dont think they know what horror means.

Caste not Castle Necrit. LOL Cast with a slightly more lengthened t sound.

They have to save Seraphine's ass that's why they forced to recreate Skarner's lore

The biggest surprise here was finding out Riot employs a Senior Narrative Writer.

I'm dying at "Republican Galio" xD

This is just a random theory that i have but what if New Skarner is Voidborn but separated himself from the Void. His facial features look pretty similiar to Cho'gath and Rek'sai. That would explain the voice he hears that tells him to open up Ixtal, it would fill the plothole where the rest of his species is and Ixtal directly borders Shurima where the majority of the void lore takes place.

Ironic how this takes the only interesting thing seraphine had in her lore away. I'm curious about what they will do with her Edit: totally agree. Is arcane 2 is Bad or doesnt explore hextech fine, Troya Will burn

I liked both skarner's old and new lore, but I think that this new change to skarner may help his popularity among the player base of league and make him more important of a character which I like for skarner.

You are always the villian in someone's story.

"Republican galio" lmaoo

Was the same thing for me with Trundle, old lore Trundle being the champion of their people protecting them from the plague was so sweat and contrasted so heavily with his appearence: I loved that! New Trundle is different, more serious, didn't have that layer in his character. It took me a bit to accept the current one since there was a big discrepancy in both renditions. But I think it's fine, I like the idea of Ixtal Skarner and him not being related to Piltover. Yeah, we lost something in the process, but I think this opens up just more possibilities for the future (as did all of the freljord rework many years ago).

With the tangent at the end Necrit, I cant help but wonder if the brakern possibly became some of the void creatures in some way or another? Cho' and Baron come to mind. They match the size and beast like shape in a sense.

He had good lore Now he's just schizophrenic scorpion malphite