Seraphine exploits Skarner’s people for her performances

• Let me explain.

For those who haven’t read Skarner and Seraphine’s lore, Skarner is a Brackern. They’re crystalline scorpions that are hibernating because of the human Rune Wars, and hope to wait out human extinction.

When Brackern die, they bury their crystal cores in hopes that the next generation will inherit them. The reason why this is so important is because each core contains the memories, hopes, and dreams of each Brackern that fused with it in the past.

Skarner would eventually wake up to the screams of his species cores as humans mined them (This is what hextech cores are made from). After murdering thieves trying to take cores near him, he no longer believes himself worthy of peaceful hibernation. Now he tries to protect the Brackern from genocide.

So… how does Seraphine play into this? Well, she first got a hextech core to dampen her extremely sensitive hearing, which prevented her from even leaving their home. However, after talking to the core and it said that “We are all forged through other’s voices,” she learns to try to bring people together through her music. More specifically, she tries to unify Piltover and Zaun through her songs and concerts.

• She sure sounds like a good person. At least she’s trying to help people, right?

WRONG. There is a huge problem with how she approaches the use of Brackern cores in technology.

Seraphine completely understates the genocide of Skarner’s people. When she meets him on the rift, her voice line is “I miss your kind too, Skarner. Would you like to hear their song?”

Skarner has been in pain and DOES hear their songs – except they’re usually songs of distress. Instead of recognizing how she’s contributing to the erasure of his culture, she “cares” as long as she can stay comfortable.

Another voice line is “The Brackern fuel our city. Our future. All I can do is sing their elegy.” Like…. whAT????????? They’re still alive. It’s like a rich white girl using stolen Indigenous burial lands to power her SoundCloud, and instead of trying to help natives, she writes them off as people better off dead to help her society.

Her lore claims that “everyone matters – especially those who are struggling.” But what about the Brackern? She’s the definition of performative activism – she will only care within the comfort of her Brackern suffering stage.

TL;DR

Her stage is made with the consciousness of Skarner’s species, and instead of trying to help his cause, she sings songs while pretending to care. #JusticeForSkarner

Sources: Skarner’s biography, Dreamsong (Skarner short story), Seraphine’s Biography, and Seraphine’s voicelines (0:48, 2:47), and T B Skyen’s video also goes into depth about this. The analogy with indigenous burial grounds also came from Animated ASMR’s comment on this video.