K'Sante needs to "fit into the local culture," says Riot.
Riot Games has admitted to censoring certain League of Legends characters in different countries, including the straightwashing of the newly released K’Sante, a black, gay hero.
Speaking with Sky News, Riot’s Jeremy Lee said he was “very proud” of K’Sante but admitted that “each region [that League of Legends is available in] can localise and publish that story in what they feel is best for the players.”
“Each region may publish certain aspects of the game a little bit differently to fit into the local culture.”
That means in countries with little queer rights, characters like K’Sante have words like “lover” and “partner” replaced to remove that aspect of their identity.
Of late, K’Sante has appeared in League of Legends marketing alongside “new president” Lil Nas X, himself an out gay male.
Speaking with The Washington Post (via Eurogamer), lead narrative writer Michael Luo spoke to how important K’Sante’s romantic interest was.
“I always felt like romantic relationships are where both your best self and your worst self come out because it’s such an intimate relationship between two people and all your vulnerabilities show,” Luo said.
“I wanted to make sure that Tope [K’Sante’s partner] didn’t just exist as an idea, that we could depict him in a story, visually and although he’s not a playable character, I wanted us to be able to do as much as we could to show that these two people existed in time and had a meaningful relationship.”
League of Legends is available now on PC.
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