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‘Arcane’ creators retcons storyline from its original game lore

Erasure of a beloved character to be reworked

Michael Pacheco, Staff Writer

December 11, 2024

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Last January the “League Of Legends” developer team announced there would be a mystery visual gameplay update for a character who appeared in the Netflix series “Arcane.”

The update went to none other than fan favorite Viktor and players were not happy with the direction they took their beloved in-game character as the VGU completely erased the Machine Herald that Viktor once was.

After the announcement in October 2023 that “Arcane” would be the main continuity for the world of Runeterra, fans speculated that characters would shift to fit into the new canon “Arcane” had created, but after the end of Season 2 players were not prepared for how drastic some of these changes would be.

When Season 2 began to stray further from the source material it became evident that the “Arcane” characters would be unrecognizable from their in-game counterparts. This effect is most notable when looking at characters like Singed and Viktor.

In the original lore, Singed is pure evil, nowhere near as complex as in the show. “Arcane” Season 1 set up Viktor to be similar in complexity to his game character without losing too much of what made him The Machine Herald. But in Season 2 it became clear that Viktor’s old origin was gone and all that is left is the The Herald of The Arcane.

Instead, Viktor’s in-game model was significantly slimmed down to fit the appearance shown in Season 2 Act 3 of “Arcane.” No longer was he the bulky cyborg that players enjoyed, he is now an exact match of his on-screen counterpart.

“League of Legends” has always been known for its huge roster of playable characters and in its 15-year history it’s obvious that changes needed to be made to modernize the game. However frustrated players believe Viktor’s change was unnecessary and other characters are in more need of visual updates.

Others believe that the team should at the very least, have given him a skin that paid homage to the old Viktor. Whatever the case it is clear that the majority of players dislike the changes to Viktor.

This is far from the first VGU controversy—one of the most infamous being the Aatrox rework in June 2018—but it is the first tied to “Arcane.”

This has set a scary precedent for players who now has a fear that other characters can be completely altered to fit the new universe that “Riot Games” and Fortiche are creating.