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In honor of ARCANE wrapping up this year with its second and final season (and also in honor of Riot Games confirming more shows being developed), here are the Top 5 champion story arcs I’m dying to see featured in future League of Legends shows!

ARCANE season 2 did a fine job wrapping up the story in Piltover and Zaun but, more importantly, it set the stage for Noxus to enter the scene. There’s a lot that can be said about the execution of ARCANE’s last season, but I loved it all the same. The show was meant to be a love letter to League fans and at the end of the day, I do feel loved. Despite my many grievances with Riot Games as a company, I am hopeful for what will come next.

Note:

It has been confirmed that the next show(s) will explore Demacia, Noxus, and Ionia. And Bilgewater. Therefore, all of my top 5 are going to be champions from these three regions. Am I upset that we aren’t getting Targon (hello Diana/Leona and Aphelios, my beloved) or the Void War anytime soon? Yes. Of course. But we work with the cards that we’ve been dealt.

Also. Spoilers ahead… for League universe lore that can be found online.

Another note:

The order that the champions come in does not really reflect the order of my preferences. These are my top 5. Period. They’re the same as each other. I would die getting to see any of these 5, any combination of them. The order I put them in is…honestly…just the order in which I thought of them…

With that being said:

My top 5 most anticipated League stories

Official art of Ionia, the Placidium of Navori.

NUMBER 1: Shen & Zed

A classic friends-to-enemies storyline. Two young Ionian acolytes of the Kinkou Order grow close in their training days. One is the son of the renowned Great Master Kusho, the head of the Order. One is a stray that the Order found on their steps and took in. They grow strong together, go on missions together. They’re like brothers.

And then, Noxus invades.

Zed wants to fight, but Shen, following the tenets of their Order, chooses to stay behind.

Zed kills Shen’s father, starts his own order. Things are never the same again.

Brotherhood! Betrayal! Training montages? I think Shen and Zed’s story have the potential to drive a well-rounded and emotional animated series — more potential than what Jinx and Vi had (their lore was pretty boring before ARCANE). Not only that, but Shen and Zed touch on many other notable Ionian champions (e.g. Jhin and Akali) and they are also heavily involved in the Noxus/Ionian war.

The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that they’re the perfect pair to carry a show based on Ionia.

NUMBER 2: Jhin & Hwei

Jhin is a psychopathic serial killer who creates art out of violence. His gun is his paintbrush and the world is his gruesome canvas.

Hwei is the heir to the Temple of Koyehn. Through painting, he channels magic in the form of emotions, but the depths of his feelings might be too great for the temple to hold.

When they meet, it appears that they might be kindred spirits. But Jhin senses that Hwei is holding back and challenges him to express himself fully. That night, Hwei unleashes his true art: years of repressed emotions and imaginings. The next day, Hwei finds a series of tragedies left behind by his new friend — historic paintings destroyed, his masters dead, the temple in flames. It is undoubtedly the work of Jhin and it awakens something inside of Hwei… a horror, and a fascination.

This is the story of two haunted artists and how one unleashes something dark and troubling within the other. After bonding with Jhin and witnessing the destructive capabilities of art, Hwei goes on a journey of self-discovery and redemption. He doesn’t want to become Jhin, who is consumed by madness. But do they ever meet again? If they do, would Hwei succumb to Jhin’s corruption? Or would he be strong enough to stand against him?

Jhin also happens to be the serial killer that Shen and Zed pursued on one of their missions, so there’s a story to be explored there, as well.

NUMBER 3: Lux & Sylas

Magic is forbidden in Demacia. Mages are hunted down and captured, they have no place here. As the princess, Lux should be every bit as against mages as the rest of her family (and her perfect brother, Garen) is. And that wouldn’t be so hard, if Lux herself wasn’t a mage.

One fateful day, she meets Sylas, a mage who was sentenced to life imprisonment after a magical accident that resulted in three deaths. The two form an unlikely friendship — in exchange for teaching her about the magic in her veins, Lux told Sylas about the outside world and brought him books to read. After Sylas convinces Lux to bring him a forbidden tome detailing Demacia’s defenses, he manages to break free.

To Lux, this seems a great betrayal by a friend. But Sylas knows that it is his duty to gather strength and allies so that one day, he might return to Demacia and topple the oppressive forces that have caused so many mages to suffer.

With this pairing, I’m just really interested in seeing what happens when Sylas finally returns. Yes, we got a glimpse of this in the Warriors cinematic, but how cool would it be to see that expanded? To see what happens after Lux uses her magic to fight back, to save Garen… what would her family think if they knew that the princess was a mage?

Also, that cinematic is just so epic. I really need more. So much more.

NUMBER 4: Kayn & Rhaast

A Noxian child soldier sent by his empire to die on the shores of Ionia, Kayn was taken in by Zed, leader of the Order of Shadow. Kayn’s tenacity and raw ability could not be overstated — where other acolytes spent years mastering a single weapon, Kayn mastered them all.

As his power grew, so did Kayn’s arrogance, and this arrogance led him to his final task: to retrieve a darkin weapon, a scythe, in Noxus so that it may never be used against Ionia. Where others might have destroyed Rhaast, the darkin living within the scythe, Kayn took the weapon for himself.

Rhaast had long been awaiting the perfect host, but Kayn would not be easily overpowered, leading to an indefinite struggle between the two for control of their shared body.

This is me pushing my darkin agenda. If we aren’t going to see the Great Darkin War play out on screen, then let us see what remains of Rhaast.

Out of all of the darkin that we know of today, I also think that Rhaast is one of the more interesting ones. He’s the only darkin we know who doesn’t have full control of his host (even Varus, who shares his body with two mortals, has more control than Rhaast does). I also think it would be interesting to explore the dynamic between Kayn and Zed — yes, Zed took him in and trained him, but Zed’s motivation was to turn Kayn, a Noxian weapon, into a weapon for Ionia.

In the current lore bits, we don’t really know what their dynamic is like. Does Kayn look up to Zed, think of him as a parental figure as much as a teacher? Or does he see Zed as someone to be surpassed? Moreover, how does Zed view Kayn? Sure, he takes Kayn in with the intention of using him, but over time, do those feelings change?

NUMBER 5: Darius & Draven

Once poor orphans in the streets of Basilich, brothers Darius and Draven had their lives forever changed when Noxus conquered their city. Drawn in by the Noxian promise of a meritocracy where the strong can succeed no matter the circumstances of their birth, Darius joined the military ranks and Draven followed suit.

While Darius took to the life of a soldier easily and eventually became one of the Trifarix, Noxus’ governing council, Draven grew bored. He dreamed of a life of glory. He dreamed of being showered by riches and thunderous applause. He could not be content, as Darius was, by a life of duty and obligation. For a time, Draven was a gladiator. Then, an executioner. Then, simple a drunkard. But nothing is ever enough for long.

Thus, while the brothers began in the same city, with the same thirst for opportunity, their paths diverged.

I know people are going to wonder why Yone and Yasuo aren’t on this list and it’s Darius and Draven instead, and my answer is extremely simple.

Riot loves Yone and Yasuo. Yone’s release was accompanied by a 10 minute cinematic. They don’t need me to talk about them, I’m 95% sure they will be included in whatever Riot ends up creating after ARCANE. If Ionia gets featured, so will Yone and Yasuo.

But Darius and Draven get kind of forgotten, left in the dust. I want to know more about what happens after Darius joins the Trifarix, embodying the principle of Might. Does he still think about Draven? Still care about him? When they were younger, Darius put his life on the line day after day to protect his little brother. But now, Draven is lost in the world without purpose. I like their juxtaposition. I like what they could be. I want to see more of it.

Final Comments

I didn’t leave any space in this post for honorable mentions, but if I had, I would’ve included Aphelios (and Alune), Diana and Leona (of course), and the Void War that we all desperately want to see explored. Maybe we’ll get these stories on Netflix in fifteen years.

Moving forward, I’m excited to make more posts doing deeper dives of champion lore (one at a time), so stay tuned for those types of posts coming in the next year (2025).

And shameless plug in case any further books get developed for League of Legends… I’ve been playing this game for ~6 years, I love the lore of Runeterra deeply, and I’m a fantasy and horror author. 🥰