A common complaint I see is that it’s “wrong” for the Zaunites to help Piltover in the final battle and ESPECIALLY for them to put on Enforcer uniforms to do it!
I’m gonna get the enforcer bullshit out of the way first because… it’s fucking ARMOR. If you’re going to stay and fight with the Piltover people IN A WAR… you’re going to want to put on ARMOR. They don’t have time to make custom uniforms, the army is literally less than a day away. They’ve got like ONE NIGHT to get everything together. So yeah, if you’re from Zaun and you decide to stay and fight IN A WAR, you better believe you’re gonna be putting on that ARMOR. Pride be DAMNED.
Now about the staying and fighting part.. after everything Piltover has done to them it would be understandable to NOT stay and fight. Let them deal with the consequences of their own actions, right?
So let me tell you about this country called America.
Built upon the BRUTAL colonization of the Native Americans, and made wealthy through the BRUTAL slave trade industry, you might be inclined to think that Native Americans and black people should probably not want to defend our country. Why should they? After everything we’ve done to them? Erased their culture? Destroyed their sacred lands and monuments? Forcefully separated families across thousands miles of ocean? Enslaved them? Burned them? Brutalized and rapes them? Why the FUCK would anyone whose family or ancestors who’ve been harmed by the USA fight for the USA?
But you know what army groups have been the most decorated and loyal and brave? Groups that contained native Americans and black people. Black people fought for the north during the civil war despite the fact that one of the most profitable locations for the slave trade was in BOSTON. A northern city. Native Americans famously used their native language (which was unknown to the Germans) as a form of encryption for passing secret messages during World War 2. Black and native American soldiers are some of the bravest defenders of our country. Despite everything we’ve done to their history and culture.
And that’s how I look at the battle with Piltover. Zaunites fought with them, even though they had NO REASON to, because at the end of the day it was the right thing to do, and because they love their city and their culture. They defended their homes, not for Piltover, but for themselves. Because if Piltover goes down, so does Zaun.
And yeah, that’s SUPER NOT FAIR. They should not be put in that position. But to me that just shows the STRENGTH and COURAGE and INTEGRITY of the Zaunite people.
It won’t solve all their problems. Fighting for Piltover won’t magically solve decades upon decades of inequality and racism and tensions between the two cities any more than fighting in WW2 did for the Native American and Black soldiers.
It also doesn’t feel to me like they’ve forgiven Piltover either or that somehow fighting in this battle means they endorse Piltover and makes this a pro-cop story. Instead this just feels very realistic, because I’ve studied history and done my best to learn about the marginalized people we’ve hurt in our past. And history has taught me that when the enemy grows too large and threatens all of us, we stand together.
However temporary that bond may be.
tangentwithtanner
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
izzy806
