I don’t think we talk about Akali’s traumatic upbringing enough. It’s laid out plainly in Runeterra, given passing mentions in Star Guardian, and likely occurred similarly in K/DA-verse. Her mother really did not love her, and that’ll affect someone in different ways forever.
I understand why people like to headcanon a happier family of hers with Shen and/or Kennen or even Kayn, but I’ve seen maybe one fanart of Mayym ever, and that’s like such an interesting dynamic to explore, I wish it was talked about it more for the alternate universes.
Star Guardian Akali will always be famous to me and I’ll never forgive those who hated her for… not wanting to die and to be with her best friend who is growing distant because of this newfound doomed destiny?? When that best friend has been the one person she has been able to rely on???
The passing mentions to her less-than-ideal home life haunt me to this day:
“‘She barely lets me in the house!’”
“…her mother’s admonishments of ‘useless’ and ‘delinquent’ failed to hit their mark for once…”
“When things at home had gotten really bad...”
“‘We didn’t do this, kid!’ ‘Akali,’ she corrected out of pure habit.”
[from Twin Stars, the prologue story to SG22, which is NOT mobile friendly anymore, if it ever was, luckily the wiki has it too]
Like hello!!! Mayym Jhomen Tethi you are not seeing heaven!
And then I’m sure no one thought that deeply of it, but K/DA Akali being “born into a martial arts dojo,” and then leaving to rap on the street cannot have earned her any approval from her mother. I definitely believe that Mayym detests her career even when she finds massive success.
I think she does a good job of masking the pain from her past, but she clearly always wants to be the best, always wants to prove her worth with her talents.
“More than I like to admit, I do get pretty angry sometimes,” from the Genius interview. Hmm I wonder who caused that to develop?
In conclusion, I think her difficult childhood is an extremely underutilized aspect of Akali’s character that absolutely shapes her personality as she grows older, and more of us (including canon writers) should consider that more often.
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