‘Arcane’ Confirmation as ‘League of Legends’ Canon Has Fans Both Excited and Afraid

Arcane was confirmed to be canon in a post made by Riot Meddler, a Reddit account handled by the Senior Vice President and Studio Head of League Studio Andrei Meddler van Roon. Prior to this confirmation, Arcane, the 2021 hit Netflix exclusive series featuring champions from Runeterra, was considered separate from the official story. League of Legends was once known for its branching narratives and was also not canon, despite the world of Runeterra and each of its champions having written lore available on the League of Legends website. Now, all games that feature Runeterra characters are going to have a streamlined and unified lore.

Players took the time to rejoice over this announcement after months of lore drought from the developers. There is a lot of excitement in the air over the changes, and many are more than willing to meme the lack of Shaco lore despite this overhaul.

But there is also fear regarding what would be considered canon given the rich lore Runeterra has. Not all the reactions were that of celebration, since the lore changes could also mean ominous things like the death of certain characters in the game. It’s also worth noting that some characters who were already rich in lore prior to Arcane are also in trouble of being rewritten as lesser versions of themselves.

Fans are now speculating what could happen in a potential Season 2 of Arcane. There are many changes in the story, and that includes leadership structures as well as character interactions. There are also characters that came out after the release of Arcane but haven’t been introduced in the series, so it’s a big mystery as to how Riot intends to integrate them into Arcane. Not to mention, some characters in Arcane that have canon roles might impede the existing lore of characters that are yet to be integrated into the series. There are inconsistencies to be resolved, relationships to clarify, and a lot more in store by Riot upon this announcement.

(featured image: Netflix/Riot Games)

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Vanessa Esguerra

Vanessa Esguerra (She/They) has been a Contributing Writer for The Mary Sue since 2023. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy, she (happily) rejected law school in 2021 and has been a full-time content writer since. Vanessa is currently taking her Master's degree in Japanese Studies in hopes of deepening her understanding of the country's media culture in relation to pop culture, women, and queer people like herself. She speaks three languages but still manages to get lost in the subways of Tokyo with her clunky Japanese. Fueled by iced coffee brewed from local cafés in Metro Manila, she also regularly covers anime and video games while queuing for her next match in League of Legends.

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