I've been playing the new tft set quite a lot lately. Tocker Trials to be specific, because I wanted to try many comps before I go head on to ranked games. Thing is, as I was playing, I decided to try the Darkins (are you surprised?).
Case in point: Zaahen and Aatrox.
I recently read on a reddit QnA that both of them, power scale wise, are absolutely matched. If they fought it would take days, and after one of them was felled by the hand of the other, the survivor would soon fall too thanks to his wounds and exhaustion.
What does this have to do with TFT? Thanks for asking, dear reader. You see, they are matched power wise, and on their three stars finishers both interact quite differently with the enemy units on the board. While Aatrox takes his time with each unit killing them one by one, Zaahen kills them all instantly and I want to think that these TFT interactions says a lot about their personalities as characters.
Based on his interactions (in game) we can guess that Aatrox loves to fight. He is THE ENEMY after all, and even though his ultimate desire is to destroy everything so everything stops existing (including himself and other Darkins to stop their suffering) he is, indeed, a war general and as a warrior he takes his time with his enemies. Literal "I'll 1v1 you, try me" attitude, making them think they have a chance to defend themselves when he is aware they are doomed the second they went against him on his full power. But they tried. They are warriors also. They'll get to see what happens to their comrades and then themselves. He is, indeed, ruthless.
As we saw on the End of Twilight cinematic, even though he did not want to fight, he had to accept Xin Zhao's sacrifice to unleash his power. He could not let him die in vain. By the way he looked at him, and the way he ended up accepting him, we learn that he is kind. Very kind. And that kindness gets reflected on the way he eliminates the enemy board when he is three starred on TFT. He wipes them out. There is no fight, there is no second for the enemy to attack. The only thing they can do is look at Zaahen before they just stop existing. That is Zaahen's kindness. That is his mercy. They don't suffer, and everything just stops for them.
Both have the same amount of power, but they decide to use it differently. One is ruthless, the other merciful, and considering that Aatrox is the product of full void corruption while Zaahen has not been corrupted completely yet... Does that mean that, maybe, Aatrox was kind like him too? Maybe way back then ruthlessness was not just ruthlessness, but maybe ruthlessness was mercy for him instead of just entertainment? Zaahen offers a very interesting window to what the Darkin used to be: Ascended trying to protect their people. Zaahen is what they could have been back then and Aatrox is what Zaahen could be on the future.
And the fact that Lore and Legends is here and put detail to their three stars like that? Maybe it's just me reading too much into it, but I really want to think this is very related to them. At least like this.
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