Singed accidentally becomes LoL’s most important character as Arcane becomes canon
Riot GamesWith Riot’s recent announcement that they’re putting serious effort into aligning all League of Legends content into a consistent canon, Arcane being inducted into that canon has accidentally made Singed arguably the most important character in the LoL universe.
League of Legends has been around for a long time, longer than most modern multiplayer games. With that time has come a great deal of lore, lore that’s been repeatedly retconned and redone to bring older champions and irrelevant storylines to a modern age.
While there are some champions whose lore relevance has been phased out over the years (looking at you Amumu, Shaco, and Cho’Gath), there are some older champions whose lore significance has only become more significant as time has passed.
With Singed already having a huge amount sway in League of Legends’ lore before Arcane and him having a major role in the show’s first season, the show being made official canon has made one of LoL’s most outdated and goofy champions into one of its most influential characters.
Arcane being LoL canon creates the perfect lore storm for Singed
Singed is an incredibly old champion, with his kit being among the very first designed within League of Legends. He got a small passive rework in Season 7 and a visual update in Season 4, but he’s otherwise untouched.
And, in a game where gods fight amongst each other and send the wrath of the stars hurling toward Summoner’s Rift, Singed gameplay still see him as the goofy dude with a shield cropdusting everyone to death. It’s a bit jarring considering how dark Singed’s lore is.
However, his existing lore within LoL combined with his influence in Arcane has made him one of Runeterra’s most important characters despite his unassuming in-game appearance.
Many League fans took notice of how important this change makes Singed within the lore, and, outside of his role in Arcane, many of the short stories on his universe page tell the tale of his atrocities. Singed’s stories rank amongst League’s darkest.
Here’s a small sample from one of the short stories on his universe page:
“My hands are bloodied and there’s something wrong with my wrists and I can’t get the thing off me. It’s all barbs and claws and it’s like it’s burrowed into my—my chest. The teeth in my chest.
I remember now. There isn’t an arachnid on me. He did this to me. He carved me up and turned me into something else, something with sucking fangs grafted onto each wrist, and two columns of hungry, flexing pincers from neck to waist. And he wants me to use them to bite the thing in here with me.”
Riot GamesFrom human experimentation used to create horrors beyond comprehension to starting wars, razing villages, permanently scarring Riven through her seeing the alchemical flames he created being used on others, creating Warwick & much more, he’s done a lot in the lore.
This, combined with his actions in Arcane (saving Jinx’s life, mentoring Viktor, etc.), has made Singed arguably League’s most important character, and someone who reaches into more regions of Runeterra than almost any other character throughout history in the LoL universe.
While it could be argued that the impending threat from the Void, some of the Freljord’s old gods, and many other lore-centric characters had a bigger hand to play in creating Runeterra itself, few living characters are more important to Runeterra’s ongoing story than Singed.
That said, Riot plans to rein in their stray lore and create a more consistent canon, so it’s hard to say if Singed will come out of that process as important a character as he is now.