#taliyah

taliyah drawing page :333

I MISS HER SM, I MISS HER, I MISS HER, WAHHH, I MISS HER SM WAHHHH

So I wanted to do a post about Ekko after the Ezreal one was pretty well received...

Want to preface / disclaimer that I'm a gigantic Lightcannon shipper if you somehow missed that, so I am absolutely biased here.

But I'm also right, so. Moving on. 😁

You might think me not fw Timebomb means I don't like Ekko or want him to end up alone. Couldn't be further from the truth, Ekko is amazing, one of the best characters in League. I love everything about this guy.

When about the worst thing you could possibly say about a character is that they're so cool and nice and smart and likeable that they're a little boring compared to the messy disaster train wrecks loosely shaped like people they cohabit a story with, that's not really much of a down side.

That's actually most of why I don't want him trapped in a relationship with Jinx. I don't think she's good for him. I love her, she is my blorbo, my baby, my skrunkly boo, but god damn, she is bad for this boy, and bad to this boy, that's kind of the whole tragic point of their Arcane ending and parting of ways. But there's a lot more to Ekko and his story that has nothing to do with her, and I want to see him heal and his story move on. I just think he can do a lot better, and I want that for him.

So what would I see for Ekko instead?

I think the core of it is that it's super easy to forget after Arcane that Ekko has tons of lore, none of it revolving around Jinx, almost all of it really good lore, and while Arcane renders some of it moot or non-canon, it'd be an absolute tragedy to lose the rest of it because it made him one of the coolest and most active heroes in League.

League Ekko is really fun. People compare him to Miles Morales or Peter Parker for a reason. He's got that easygoing teen genius nerd superhero with a heart of gold vibe. There's a bit of a Peter Pan angle too, with Ekko as the leader, protector and heart of a little group of misfit Zaunite orphans and street kids who used to be called the "Lost Children of Zaun" but are probably now merged with the cooler and better-named Firelights.

(2xko featuring some of the LoR kids hanging out in one of the backgrounds alongside the Firelight masks from Arcane suggests we are, indeed, merging the lore instead of deleting or replacing it and I am HAPPY because YAY hi Kay! Hi Shomi! Missed you guys!)

And with him being a community leader, Ekko has a lot of friends, a lot of connections and conflicts with other characters, a whole lot of stories. His spinoff comics are great; the "Chronobreak" one with Arjuna Lem is absolutely heartbreaking and there's the one where he accidentally makes a temporal clone of himself, and the Convergence tie in one that veers a bit in quality and has a kinda bizarro depiction of Viktor, but is still quite fun.

His short stories are amazing. "Lullaby" is to me probably the best short story in League and the reason I'll never forgive Arcane for erasing HIS PARENTS from his lore. (Unless they're actually not, I have some theories and headcanons, most of which made it into the Ill-Omen's Series)

And Convergence was a really cool game that really let you feel Ekko's world, it did interesting things with examining his character and - without spoilers - the flaws and dangers always inherent in giving a character a power as easily abused as time travel - and showing why Ekko is who he is despite the temptations and risks of the power in his hands.

He's a fantastic character with a great core theme, neat powers, a music motif that never fails to make me smile.

So, uh, about the shipping...if I'm so keen on Jinx with Lux, what about Ekko? Is he going to end up FOREVER ALONE?

PFFAHAHAHHAA LMAO no?

...oh boy, do you guys even know how many League characters are canonically crushing hard on Ekko? 😆

Let's start with Taliyah:

And if you thought ONE smitten earth bending mage going to stammering pieces on meeting Ekko wasn't enough, what about our metal-bending bi disaster queen Rell:

Hop over to Legends of Runeterra, and even Starry-Eyed Songstress Seraphine can't stop gushing on meeting the Boy Savior:

Me too, Sera, me too.

And then there's Zeri, who was clearly being set up to be a close ally of Ekko and potentially a love interest on her release. They're both plucky defenders of downtrodden communities in Zaun, Zeri accidentally saved Ekko's parents from a Chembaron factory in her short story, and she's keeping in contact and hanging out with him in her letters to him in Convergence.

That's yet another gorgeous young mage cozying up to him. Wow, he's getting quite a collection of those.

My bias is showing here because I think Zeri is pretty much the perfect ship for Ekko with one possible exception I'll bring up later...

Speaking of Convergence, there's also Red, another childhood friend and maybe love interest of Ekko's, who sure, is introduced dating m'fcking Chadd of the Inx gang, but we can tell Ekko's not super happy about that.

But he's Ekko, League's poster boy for healthy masculinity, so he respects her choices and her relationship, at least until it becomes apparent the Inx are about to do a bit of light terrorism inspired by their idol Jinx and almost certainly going to put Red in danger AND piss off said Jinx enough to put them all in her crosshairs...

And there's one more love interest on his radar: someone he is canonically dating in another AU, and League characters' sexualities DO cross skinlines, so...

It's our boy Ezreal!

And their on-off again, bickering enemies to lovers to enemies to lovers time-tossed dynamic in Pulsefire is spicy and charming and perfectly them.

Honestly, Ezko is a GREAT ship, in this AU and in the main timeline, and it does mean our boys are both canonically bisexual.

One great way to bring that into the Main Canon in a way that is meaningful would be for Ekko to kiss a smarmy Piltie explorer, is what I'm saying.

Yes, this is my favorite MLM ship in League or otherwise, deal with it. 💛💚

It's a REALLY hard pick between Zeri and Ezreal or some complicated messy love triangle between them for me, lol.

But his other options are all great too. Zeri? Ezreal? Taliyah? Seraphine? RELL?

Have I mentioned that Star Guardian Ekko appears to be dating Sona?

... What I'm saying is that if Ezreal is the Annoying Shonen Anime Protagonist of League, then Ekko is the Oblivious Harem Anime Protagonist of League.

He's apparently absolutely swimming in hot mages out to get their hands on his, uh, clock hands, and he's just too cool and nice and busy being a time twisting hero saving Zaun and protecting his community to notice.

Boy who Shattered Time? More like Boy who Shattered HEARTS.

Taliyah & Ekko commission for @/Spirit_Bones (on twitter)

also are there any rarepairs you like or do you mostly vibe with the popular ships

I maintain that Lillia/Yone is actually kind of great, Kai'sa/Taliyah is a compelling dynamic especially for hurt/comfort vibes and healing, and... look, I just think Olaf/Soraka is a compelling dynamic if you assume Olaf has an actual personality and isn't just a "RAARR VIKING BERSERKER BLARGH" 2010s internet comedy trope.

Olaf's whole thing is he's obsessed with this very specific Destiny™ that he imagines for himself, and the world keeps dangling it just out of his reach. Odeipus-like, everything he does to reach the fate he desires pushes him further onto a path he hates and fears: survival.

And Soraka is the Star-child, seer and guide of mortal fates, the gentle hand who nudges a thread into the weave of fate when it's gone astray, or who quietly crosses it into a different weave when the fates are too cruel. Olaf badly needs someone to help him come to terms with his fate, or perhaps change it. And of course there's a natural dynamic in that Soraka's power is to heal with a gentle touch and Olaf's whole thing is charging headlong into as much pain and suffering as he can possibly find, in the hopes that some of it will finally kill him.

Soraka's healing is the single most fearful and terrifying weapon Olaf can imagine, a kind of cosmic horror almost, the very embodiment of the forces that keep denying him the glorious suicide he seeks. She has the power to force him to survive. Which, y'know, beyond the poetic resonance, there's a powerful kinky dom/sub dynamic there too, if you're of a mind to go look for it.