Development
- Main article: Zed (Development)
- Zed is voiced by Donny Lucas, who also voices , , , and 3Zed in Legends of Runeterra.
- Zed's Japanese voice actor is Kenjiro Tsuda.[1]
Universe
- Main article: Zed (Character)
- Zed and Kinkou Order, led by the latter's father Kusho. Both students saw each other as rivals, but also respected the other, seeing him as a brother and best friend. was even a bit jealous of him (Kusho was less strict towards Zed as he saw Zed having far better potentials than his son). Master Kusho raised Zed as his own son and chose him to be the successor of his title, while Zed also looked up to him and his son as his own family. After Zed obeyed Kusho to betray the order, his relationship with Shen soured and became ambivalent.
- Zed, , and Kusho worked to discover and capture for his brutal murders. All three of them were severely traumatized during the investigation and, when they finally caught the 'Golden Demon', Kusho spared his life. Zed couldn't believe such a monster was offered mercy, finding himself questioning his master's teachings to the point of heavily resenting him.
- Zed's resentment towards Kusho led him to delve into the shadow arts, founding the Order of Shadow. However, he later convinced Kusho to defend Ionia from Noxus and helped the later fake his death. While he believes in the necessity of the Kinkou Order and their rule of scales, he seeks to abolish the old ways of balance while spreading his 'no restraint' philosophy.
- He tried to minimize casualties when killing Kinkou members (though he needed enough people dead so the Kinkou would hate him and his new order.) Unfortunately, violence quickly got out of hand into an ugly and brutal feud.[2]
- Zed leaving the Kinkou and "murdering" Kusho led to Shen being forced to take up the title The Eye of Twilight which he never wanted.
- In spite of their animosity, Zed sought out Shen and to inform him about Jhin's release, in order to stop him together. They later captured him the second time in Zaun.
- After learning that Kusho was behind Jhin's release, Zed returned to Zhyun and killed his former mentor.
- Zed could have revealed the truth about Kusho to Shen but then decided it was better for Shen to be disillusioned with Zed than to be disillusioned with his own father. That's probably not fair, and maybe Shen has a right to know. But Zed is flawed... and blinded by his need to feel he's worthy and honorable.[3]
trained together in the - Zed kissed
- At one point they secretly harbored feelings for each other even though Kusho forbade
- Yevnai once begged Zed to run away with her, but he refused.
from it.
- The engagement of and Yevnai was called off after Zed "murdered" Kusho.
fiancé, Yevnai, before leaving the Kinkou Order and later "killing" Master Kusho.
- At one point they secretly harbored feelings for each other even though Kusho forbade
- Zed wants dead after he ransacked the Temple of the Jagged Knife.
- Zed, his order, and the Navori Brotherhood are extremists. They believe the magic of Ionia is for the Ionians... meaning they should be able to use it however they like. So limits on using that magic don't sit well with them. The fact that some of the Vastaya tribes fought for Noxus, and many tribes stayed neutral during the war (at least until Noxus started burning down their lands) doesn't sit well. In Zed's view those tribes are traitors and should be killed.[4]
- The Brotherhood was originally an ally of the Order before Zed killed Kusho. Now they are enemies.
- Both and have encountered and his ninja clan in an attempt to save a grove from losing all its natural magic.
- When she was captured by , Zed and Shen saved her from him.
wants Zed dead for what he did to the Kinkou Order in the past, including the supposed death of her father Tahno.
- Zed favorite pupil is
- Long ago Zed chose to be the sort of mentor and master he was to Kayn. And that choice is ultimately what separates him from Kusho. Zed realizing he wasn't a malicious or manipulative master that only sought to achieve his own ends regardless of the consequences and actually sincere in his actions as a father figure would be significant moment in his life. Especially because Zed has a lot of guilt. He knows he's damaged mentally. Zed knows what he's doing isn't exactly heroic most of the time... but it had to feel good to really, really know he trained Kayn well and earned his loyalty.[5]
, whom he treats as his own son and chooses to be his successor.
- Zed most likely means "Holy Justice" or "0".[6]
- Zed's original name was Govos, but was changed to Usan "strength of compassion" by Master Kusho. Zed is the name he chose himself.
- By coincidence, the name Zed also resembles:
- A dialectal English name of Letter Z.
- Zed was born from a peasant family in Kéthé, Ionia. His father left his family when he was about 4 years old and never returned. He later rejected his own mother to stay with the Kinkou.
- Zed worked as a servant in Kinkou Order's Thanjuul monastery for over 2 years until Master Kusho decided to take him as his student after purposefully let Zed hit him when Kusho wanted to test Zed's potential.
- Zed is using a Forbidden Technique called shadow magic. He is also using shadow's tears which are a magical ichor which gives Zed and his followers the ability to use shadow magic— (when tattooed or ingested). His tattoo can be seen here.[7]
- According to , Zed's shadow clones are shaped by his guilt and hatred and are controlling him instead of vice versa.
- Zed is around 34 to 35 years old.[8]
- Zed is four years younger than .
- Zed appears to be ambidextrous.
- Zed was originally considered for the position of the Eye of Twilight before.
- The armor Zed wears in-game is considered his war armor and not what he wears during stealth missions or in his day-to-day life.[9]
- Zed has a rudimentary understanding of healing from performing surgeries and healing magic.[10]
- It was believed for a long time that Zed killed Master Kusho to obtain the Tear of the Shadow for the power the Shadow Order members needed to fight back the Noxian army. This was later revealed to not really be the case, as Zed convinced Kusho to take part in the war and helped him fake his death.
- Some of the known draft scenes and cut scenes in his comic series include:
- Zed killing a Vastaya elder that knew Kusho to take his magic in Zed: Issue 1. This was later relented as Marvel editors thought it made him too unlikeable.[11]
- A flashback scene where we see [12] being dragged away while her father tries to buy time for her and some other Kinkou members to escape. Zed doesn't think much of Akali's father, and wants others to escape so he sends his weakest student against him. But Akali's father dies anyway.
- [13] and Zed had a talk during the war. Shen was worried about Zed (thinking he was taking too many risks), angry at his father's inaction, but also suspected Yevnai had feelings for Zed and that had something to do with the marriage being called off.
- Some scenes including a fight between Akali and and some investigating scenes.
- Some scenes which would have been too hard to do with rating's restrictions.
- Three different scenes where Zed/Kayn were doing horrible stuff to monks and/or Vastaya.
- A couple flashbacks with Kusho... specifically one when Zed got banished from the temple for using the ichor while Yvenai and watched helplessly.
- Two scenes which combined with other clues in the various issues created a little map based mystery where people to use the map to figure out where Jhin was going next—if they put together all the clues.
- Three scenes across two issues where Zed was scanning the crowd looking for Jhin. And if you put the clues together you could figure out which face was [14] .
- There was no "Kusho is alive" in that draft. The original finale had [15] taking the temple was prisoner in. The comic VO was their convo. arrives—revealing same trap they'd used to catch years before.
League of Legends
Gameplay
- Main article: Zed (League of Legends)
- Zed is one of 21 champions without a single ability power ratio on any ability: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and .
- Zed's dance was inspired[16] by various martial arts (the animator is a black belt).
- Zed is the first champion to not actually 'die' in his death animation, instead he drops into a shadow portal (Shockblade Zed disappears after struck by a lightning bolt). The second is , who rewinds time. does die, but does not.
- Zed,
- After Zed was shot, his champion icon on his League of Legends page and the champion list was updated to a gif with petals blowing past him.
, and were targeted by in his teaser.
- Zed is the fifth champion to use energy as a resource for abilities (the others being , , and ).
- Before the release of and , neither him nor reveal their faces in any of their skins, unlike (, , ) and (,).
- Zed and 'airplane arms' run when having very high movement speed. perform the
- conceived with spawning two and was animated accordingly on release. was
- Clicking one of the during animation used to display portrait. This could only be done while spectating in slow motion as his shadows in an actual game were just simply too fast to be clicked on. It was removed after the new HUD came in 2015 and replaced the old one.
- Zed and his enemy counterpart could theoretically increase their AD infinitely with V9.4. by alternating killing each other, before it was removed from the game in
, , and respectively mirroring , , and , as well as , , and marking their targets reference Zed having been a Kinkou Order member.
- Zed used to gain the Easter egg debuff ("This unit is a flippin' ninja!" - "Ninjas are more effective when they work alone. For every Ninja on your team beyond yourself, you lose 1 health.") when he, , , and/or found themselves on the same team. It was removed in V3.14 for unknown reasons. cosmetic
- At 23 August 2018 players who selected "Assassin" as their favorite class rated Zed 27% higher than the other assassins as "One of my favorite champions". This difference is the largest for a champion by class.[17]
Quotes
- Main article: Zed (League of Legends Audio)
- ▶️ "Forbidden shadow wins" references Mortal Kombat.
- ▶️ "What I have done... cannot be undone" references Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
- Zed shares quotes with:
- ▶️ "Before us, there was nothing. Before nothing, there were monsters." quotes The Lich from Adventure Time.[18]
- ▶️ "You're already dead." references Kenshirō from Fist of the North Star.
- ▶️ "No cure for ." references ▶️ "No cure for fools."
- ▶️ "Look at the skills, look at the moves. Zed, what was that?" quotes the casting of the famous duel between Faker and Ryu, who were both playing Zed, at the HOT6iX 2013 Summer Finals.
- Some of Debonair Zed's quotes resemble his base voicelines. For example:
- ▶️ "Truth hidden is truth wasted." resembles ▶️ "Secrets kept are weapons wasted."
- ▶️ "The vitae has... enlightened me." resembles ▶️ "The shadows have enlightened me."
- ▶️ "What I have done is just the beginning." resembles ▶️ "What I have done... cannot be undone."
- ▶️ "Brave the beyond and it will reward you." resembles ▶️ "Brave the shadows, find the truth."
- ▶️ "Instead of running away, you're coming closer?" references a now meme-status line from the anime and manga series JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ("Oh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you're coming right to me?")
Skins
- Main article: Zed (Collection)
- He resembles and might be referencing Shredder from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Noob Saibot from Mortal Kombat, and/or Lord Zedd from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
- His can be seen in the background.
- This skin shares the Shockblade theme with:
- He used to be called 'Bladestorm Zed'.
- The color of his clothes for each Chroma may have been inspired by the Power Rangers.
- He resembles Storm Shadow from G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero.
- This skin shares the World Champions: 2013 theme with:
- can be seen in the background.
- He was released in celebration of SKT T1 winning the Season 3 World Championship along with:
- He represents Faker and is the first World Championship victory skin for him.
- It is later succeeded by .
- It is later succeeded again by .
- It is later succeeded by .
- This skin shares the PROJECT theme with:
- ...and others
- bullets can be seen hitting his .
- The skin was initially thought to be that of a Cyber Zed, but then turned into Project.
- He is from an alternate future in which he was cybernetically augmented as part of the PROJECT Initiative, being the only known 'hostile' Initiate (going rogue and fighting the others)
- describes him as:
- If one tells they fight for 'power', she'll say the following:
- "A shadow of a man."
- His gear includes:
- This skin shares the World Championship theme with:
- ...and others
- He was released in celebration of the Season 6 World Championship.
- This skin shares the Death Sworn theme with:
- He was released in celebration of Harrowing 2017 along with:
- His wrist blades resemble that of the Wolverine from Marvel Comics.
- This skin shares the Odyssey theme with:
- ...and others
- This is his first skin to reveal his complete facial features, however it is not the same as his canonical face in the main universe.
- In his joke animation, Zed pierces a butterfly arcrapter on blue volcanos.
- The blue volcanoes are a reference to the , one of the oldest summoner icon.
- This skin shares the Black Rose Group theme with:
- The mysterious oil-like substance mentioned in refers to the shadow ink that Shadow Order uses to get shadow magic in the main canon.
- The design of the trifocal goggles are a reference to the Splinter Cell Franchise. Moreover, the suit design and breathing apparatus may reference the Predator class spies in Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Spies vs Mercs.
- This skin shares the Debonair theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin shares the Empyrean theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin shares the Immortal Journey theme with:
- ...and others
- This skin shares the Blood Moon theme with:
- ...and others
References
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/425n3s/almost_all_japanese_seiyuu_that_voice_in_games/
- ↑ Zed's order killing the Kinkou
- ↑ Why Zed didn't tell Shen the truth about his father
- ↑ Zed and the Vastaya
- ↑ WAAAARGHbobo on Kayn and Zed
- ↑ Zed's potential meaning
- ↑ [1]
- ↑ WAAAARGHbobo on Zed's Age
- ↑ WAAAARGHbobo on Zed's Armor
- ↑ WAAAARGHbobo on Zed's Surgery
- ↑ Zed: Issue 1's original draft
- ↑ Draft scene with Akali's flash back
- ↑ Zed comic series' cut scene
- ↑ Zed comic series' cut scenes 2
- ↑ Original ending draft
- ↑ Zed's dance is officially my favorite... here's why
- ↑ Riot Blaustoise Assassin data tweet
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgCcMv4xnwA&t=55s