Well now that the new lore is out? I guess I should about it, so I’ll be leaving all personal sentiments out of it.
//Basically in short, it actually exists because he was basically just a concept back then, but now he actually has a place in Runeterra so that’s automatically a better start. He’s not the alien I wanted him to be, which is perfectly fine, but I’m not gonna waste too much time on this as the flaws of it aren’t terrible but they aren’t superior to the old one in some matters.
//Starting with the biggest one and longest one, his personality is? Awkward as such a drastic transition and he feels like a lot of other champions as well for his ‘unique place’ in the League with minor alterations for personality. Like, I don’t even care if he has an accent now compared to the old one so long as they retained his personality. It’s really what set him apart and made a statement of: ‘you don’t need to be a raging arrogant dickwad to be an embodiment of war’. And he’s not dumb in his new iteration and has usable lines, but it’s like if your dad tried to awkwardly make jokes after trying to be intimidating in a lot of his lines to people, granted some of the jokes are okay but it just kills the mood. It would be like... if I just constantly wrote those long ass drabbles I once did and then just cracked a joke in the middle of all of them and completely ruin the flow of things.
//He just tries too hard now it feels like when the old was just... he didn’t need to try to prove a point, he didn’t need to do much of anything but lift a finger with some encouragement with the kind of sway and power he had over people. Like, they didn’t have to keep a lot of things to the old Aatrox in him of being a tactician, or anything like that, but they could have made him even more unique and missed what I thought was a good opportunity as the actor doesn’t lack motivation or emotion, just the direction is so awkwardly off considering he’s an actual ‘god’ apparently now like other peeps? What they could’ve followed up on that iteration for the anger they obviously want now with the new one? Is Aatrox actually having, a chilling and forboding anger that boils to a breaking point that could... I dunno ‘end a world’ when he actually tries like his new thing makes him out to be albeit now he is trying to return to his old form, as he did grunt and yell when swinging his blade pre-rework. Like of course he’d be bitter over such a thing being taken away from and angered beyond belief, but there is such a thing as calm hatred, anger, overflowing and controlled rage and so on. He just isn’t intimidating anymore as much as he used to be, it’s like a MUCH, MUCH lesser version of: ‘if we took post rework Sion and gave him his old personality back’. As I don’t want to give the wrong impression on the new Aatrox, it is usable but it’s so god damn awkward in a lot of lines.
//Overall: I expect a rework to make a champion superior to their old form’s personality and in lore, and while they did succeed with that in lore, as he actually has one now and a story... his personality falls short and he even resembles very closely of what I imagined a younger Aatrox to be or not what one would expect from a champion like this.
His lore though? I think it makes sense, it’s as I said: not what I wanted it to be but hey, the Darkin were the first ones to beat back the void like I said. So I think Aatrox’s personality is worth taking a slight hit I guess if we actually want to get a more enrichment of Darkin lore as a whole... but I also feel like Aatrox himself did take a hit personality wise. As this rework isn’t without pros and not without cons and I will not blindly praise anything they do as not all new canon is good but neither is it inherently bad either, but I also acknowledge a lot of effort was put into this and that there was actual merit to it.
So I rate this as a hit for lore and a partial miss on retaining personality and identity for not in-game wise, but the element that he had to him. That made him stand out among other champions. As a rework is not the creation of a new champion unless the old personality and element they had is far too lacking in merit to be used, but to improve upon on what was already there and taking liberties to make changes but also I know that’s not easy to do always. It’s just when you look back on a lot of reworks, champion updates on voices and stuff for identity? They did just a better job on those overall.