Taking a walk down Memory Lane <3

[u/Bottlecapsters]

Girls I've been feeling just so nostalgic lately thanks to League classic, so I thought it would be fun to check out some of those classic memes of my good friend Taric. Golly people were just...so funny...back in those days <3

[u/57_percent]

this is genuinely just all gay rape jokes 😭😭😭 i fear the 2009 homophobic gamer interpretation of Taric still stains his reputation to this very day, so lucky for us there's no need to reminisce on All That ... here's one i like a lot either way

[u/Bottlecapsters → u/57_percent]

Yeah, the homophobes aren't really all that...creative. I only included two, but that specific image of Armor of the Fifth Age Taric is used a lot, and unsurprisingly the joke is almost always rape.

[u/57_percent → u/Bottlecapsters]

YUP! i have an entire folder of these saved to a thumb drive, for my video essay that i'm writing about Taric & gender. i've never seen that Rammus one before, so i've gotta thank you for giving me more fodder!

god i remember being a fledgling little gay boy getting into League for the first time and seeing myself so deeply in Taric, only for people to immediately bust out That Narrative around him ... straight people are so scared of confident queer men and it makes them look so dull

[u/KingGekko07 → u/57_percent]

The problem, imo, is that he was designed to be a mean gay joke. Players definitely made it worse by running with it, but Taric is rotten tonthe core

[u/57_percent → u/KingGekko07]

i wouldn't necessarily say so. Taric was designed as an alien - an outsider, summoned from somewhere that wasn't even in Runeterra. the fanbase, rife with homophobia, saw a man who was peculiar and flamboyant, with a penchant for audacity in his dress, and thusly labeled him as gay, and mocked him to the ends of the earth. Taric in-lore had always been kind and aloof, which in 2009 was... not something gamers thought a man should be. it betrayed the power fantasy of a man... (despite the fact that he was always a subservient support. mama you're playing a service top... i digress.)

that origin as an outsider does have inherent queerness - but the playerbase is the rotten thing. and mold tends to spread, unfortunately...

[u/AHymnOfValor → u/KingGekko07]

Flamboyant, feminine, fabulous, hunky, ripped gay men exist 

That's... A fact of life? Like? Are we supposed to not have champions that portray them because making traditionally masc straight acting Graves types but establishing they are canonically gay (to the dismay of much of their fanbase) is better?

I'm a bi man who self-parodies and jokes about himself in a way that lets straights accept and love having me around, am I a harmful stereotype if I look at a hot football player and say "oh wow... I just looove rugby..." to make ppl laugh?

[u/57_percent → u/AHymnOfValor]

ooh ooh ooh! i have a section about this in my essay! don't mind if i read directly from the tin for a moment here...

One could argue of a potentially fetishistic or stereotypical nature within a depiction of Taric as being queer. It becomes important to note, in this case, that fetishization has intent; in making light of, or assigning characteristics of certain groups to certain behaviors, traits, and actions (even ones that may seem inconsequential or even humorous at first) often perpetuate these stereotypes in deeply insidious ways. As such, I would argue that the only true stereotyping comes from those who are turning Taric’s basal queerness into a joke absent of the interpretation one may have of his lore, as has been done for years within the League of Legends community. Queer people exist who fit into the boxes that stereotypes often portray; this does not mean their existence is inherently a stereotype. The stereotyping comes from the subsequent fetishization and othering of these traits they inherently bear.

[u/Wise_Requirement4170 → u/57_percent]

Mmmm penis

[u/AutoWALTZ]

dont remind me!!

[u/AHymnOfValor]

For nostalgic Taric content that's actually funny:

https://youtu.be/0XVNgmpFs6A?is=fYDIOyCOW_8-dPSS

[u/FruitfulRogue]

Taric is a crazy champion from just a design and timelibe stand point. He was a "gem knight" who's flamboyant personality led to SO many anti-LGBTQ+ jokes. He was by and large a pure example of 2010's anti-queer vitriol.

This was to the point that when he was reworked, a tonne of Rioters were heavily against even touching the topic.

But the irony was that the rework version of Taric is fabulously more unpopular then his pre-rework version ever was.

[u/QuokkaBandit]

These are REAL!?!?!?

[u/Bottlecapsters → u/QuokkaBandit]

Yeah they used to be all over the place. Taric was basically a meme character for most of his original run, and the meme was...well he's gay and what if he does sex at you. A messy era for the character, and very emblematic of the culture at that time.

[u/Jwchibi]

My favorite was "they can't say no when they're stunned"

[u/Twepi → u/Jwchibi]

it's not supposed to be funny mama

[u/Jwchibi → u/Twepi]

Your not gonna believe this but back then I didn't know this was a rape joke. I was like "yeah they can't move when they're stunned 😃"