My Very Humble And Personal Opinion On Locke
As a long-time League of Legends player, Lillia has been the only champion whose identity truly clicked with me on a deeper level. But with Locke, I feel like I’m starting to experience that same kind of connection.
That is exactly why his current version worries me. I can see the potential in him, but I don’t feel like his lore, physical design, and overall presence fully live up to what he could become. He feels like a character with the foundation for something meaningful, but not yet the depth needed to make that meaning land.
This matters to me because I’m a jungle main, and Locke is exactly the kind of champion I would consider playing when I get mid as my secondary role. But in his current state, I’m not sure he would be my first choice. I really hope Riot takes a step back and gives this character more time before finalizing him.
Right now, his visual design feels a bit too surface-level. It almost gives the impression that the main direction was simply “make him a handsome guy,” and that the rest of the character was built around that. I understand why that kind of design can be appealing, but for players who want to emotionally connect with a champion, attractiveness alone is not enough. Locke needs a stronger sense of identity behind the face.
I do really like his weapon. It looks cool, unique, and memorable. But at the same time, it feels like something that would be extremely unstable when thrown. Even though the design is stylish, part of me feels like it goes against how people naturally expect a weapon like that to move. If the weapon is meant to feel strange, almost impossible, then I think the story should explain why it exists and why only Locke would use it.
That weapon also makes me think Locke could be more than just a fighter. He feels like someone who might be a craftsman, or someone shaped by craftsmanship. The weapon is too specific and unusual to feel ordinary. I don’t think it would make much sense for him to learn that craft from Ornn in the same way Aurora did, because I doubt Ornn would be that fond of a human like Locke. Instead, Locke could have discovered forgotten secrets somewhere in the deserts of Shurima, and inherited knowledge from someone close to him.
His story could be rooted in loss, injustice, and family. Perhaps his mentor and his older brother, was also a underdog craftsman. Perhaps that person was tortured by Demacia, barbarically, thrown into a prison, and slowly lost his self nature there, starting become like one of them, cold blooded and barbaric. And perhaps Locke’s beloved younger brother who share cloth,food any anything with him, now kidnapped forcefully serving as a Demacian soldier, was repeatedly forced to raise his sword against him under Demacia’s orders. He must have experienced this kind of inner/personal conflict for many years — maybe 10 or 15? How long is a humans life in Demacia?? — and it must have continued to get worse over time and that kind of conflict would immediately give Locke a personal reason to reject the systems around him.
Vibe-wise, he feels more like a wanderer than someone tied to a single region. I can imagine him crossing paths with Skarner in Shurima, or being around(or reading stories about that idk, maybe he exchanging stories and its meanings with people?) when Wukong challenged Master Yi and taking inspiration from what he witnessed. But even if he is a traveler, that does not mean he should feel rootless. Maybe all he ever wanted was to live a simple life with his friends and family, but life dragged him into something much bigger.
I don’t think Locke needs to be another shallow character with a generic villain laugh. He could be someone who genuinely feels every injustice he witnesses. Someone who cries for the pain of others, and believes that the price of one’s active actions on others must already have been paid with true tears. That kind of emotional weight would make him far more memorable than simply making him charming, edgy, or violent.
To me, Locke should be a simple person who does not hesitate to look down on powerful, renowned figures like azir, garen or god itself, already. Not because he is arrogant, but because he understands that the true meaning of what people preach lies in how they live, not in their words. He could be someone who built his entire worldview from the stories told by his downtrodden grandmother, mother, his childhood friend from noxus ghetto and his older brother which is in prison, and who now travels the world searching for the knowledge, stories and people. To act; the thing. named Love? idk.
That is also why his weapon should not feel like just another cool fantasy object. It should feel like something he created with a very specific purpose: to end suffering with absolute precision, or to remove pain and its source as instantly as unplugging a TV. He looks like someone who would reject ordinary weapons(he dont give a muck abt but family, frienship and social justice) entirely, pushed them away already with the back of his hand. Otherwise, why would he go through so much trouble?
Locke has the potential to be more than just another attractive champion with a stylish weapon. He could be tragic, principled, strange, compassionate, and frightening all at once.
I could imagine him screaming:
“Everyone should have the right to reach for everything at once — not because they deserve to own it all, but because no life should be forced to choose between hunger, love, freedom, and dignity.”
“No one should have the right to act against another person’s true will(differs from free will). Not their surface desires, not the choices forced onto them by fear or pain — but the deepest will that belongs to their soul.”
“Every consciousness has meaning. Every living thing has the right to exist beyond suffering, whether it is a human, a fly, or a snake.”
He should be wearing slippers, and he needs a real story.
Posted Jun 11, 2026, 10:29 PM UTC