Garen, the Might of Demacia

Full Name: Garen Crownguard

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/garen_originalloading8.jpg

"My heart and sword, always for Demacia."

Voiced by:
Jamieson Price (English)
Mick Lauer (English/God-King)
Salvador Serrano (Spanish)
Ricardo Tejedo (Mexican Spanish/Current)
Israel Magaña (Mexican Spanish/Pre-VGU)
Hiroki Tochi (Japanese)
Gutemberg Barros (Brazilian Portuguese)
Sang-Hyun Eom (Korean)
Sergey Kazakov (Russian/Original)
Andrey Sokolov (Russian/Current)
Appears In:
Legends of Runeterra, Tales of Runeterra, League of Legends: Lux, Garen: First Shield, The Mageseeker, Katarina

"This kingdom, and its people, have given me everything. What kind of man would I be if I gave any less in return?"

A proud and noble warrior, Garen fights as one of the Dauntless Vanguard. He is popular among his fellows, and respected well enough by his enemies—not least as a scion of the prestigious Crownguard family, entrusted with defending Demacia and its ideals. Clad in magic-resistant armor and bearing a mighty broadsword, Garen stands ready to confront mages and sorcerers on the field of battle, in a veritable whirlwind of righteous steel.

Garen is a Juggernaut champion with simple but effective abilities, recovering from damage and charging towards his foes to deliver punishment. He does not use mana or any other resources, with his abilities only being limited by cooldowns.

His passive, Perseverance, restores a percentage of Garen's max health every second if he hasn't taken damage from an enemy champion, tower or monster in a few seconds.
His first ability, Decisive Strike, briefly increases Garen's movement speed, frees him from any slows, and causes his next basic attack to deal bonus damage and briefly silence the target.
His second ability, Courage, passively increases Garen's armor and magic resistance for each enemy killed, up to a cap. When activated, Garen gains a shield based on his max health and reduces the duration of crowd control effects for a brief moment, and then decreases all incoming damage for a few seconds.
With his third ability, Judgement, Garen spins his sword in a whirlwind for a few seconds, repeatedly damaging surrounding enemies and reducing their armor if he hits them enough times.
With his ultimate ability, Demacian Justice, Garen brings down the might of Demacia on a nearby enemy champion, dealing true damage based on their missing health.

Garen's alternate skins include Sanguine Garen, Desert Trooper Garen, Commando Garen, Dreadknight Garen, Rugged Garen, Steel Legion Garen, Rogue Admiral Garen, Warring Kingdoms Garen, God King Garen, Demacia Vice Garen, Mecha Kingdoms Garen, Prestige Mecha Kingdoms Garen, Battle Academia Garen, and Mythmaker Garen. Wild Rift exclusively includes Iconic Garen.

In season 1 of Teamfight Tactics, Garen is a Tier 1 Noble Knight. His ability Judgement, causes him to spin for several seconds, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies and granting him temporary immunity to magic damage. He was removed in season 2. Though not a playable champ in season 3, Garen returns as the Mech-Pilot buff active, which combines three champs into a giant version of Mecha Kingdoms Garen sporting his Demacian Justice ability. Season 4 has him return as a Tier 1 Warlord Vanguard, once again using Judgment, in his Warring Kingdoms skin. In season 5, he uses his God King Garen skin as a Tier 5 Dawnbringer God-King Knight; his God-King class is a unique trait he shares with Darius that grants them bonus damage against enemies with certain traits, but only if exactly one of them is deployed on your board. In Garen's case, the class grants him bonus damage against enemies with the Forgotten, Nightbringer, Coven, Hellion, Dragonslayer, Abomination, and Revenant origins. His ability was changed to God-Lion's Justice, which calls down a massive sword to strike a large area around Garen's target. Enemies hit take magic damage based on their maximum health and have their magic resistance reduced for a few seconds, while Garen also shields himself based on his maximum health for a few seconds. In the Dawn of Heroes mid-set update, he gains a new unique origin named Victorious due to the removal of the God-King class, which empowers Garen's next basic attack to deal bonus magic damage based on the target's missing health whenever he scores a kill. In season 6, he uses his Battle Academia Garen skin and is a Tier 1 Academy Protector. His new ability, Decisive Strike, can be cast while stunned, removing all crowd control effects on Garen and empowering his next basic attack to deal bonus percentage attack damage and additional physical damage based on his target's missing health. He was removed along with the Academy and Protector traits in the Neon Nights mid-set update, returning in season 8's Glitched Out!! mid-set update using his Mecha Kingdoms Garen skin as a Tier 4 Mecha: PRIME Defender. His Mecha Justice ability brings his sword down on his target, dealing physical damage and stunning all enemies in a 2-hex radius. In season 9, he returns to using his base skin as a Tier 3 Demacia Juggernaut. Judgement returns as his ability, though in this iteration it deals physical damage and no longer grants him magic damage reduction. The number of spins per second now scales with Garen's attack speed, while the spell's total duration scales with his ability power. He was removed in the Horizonbound mid-set update, returning in season 10 using his Demacia Vice Garen skin as a Tier 2 8-bit Sentinel. His Power-Up! ability grants him a stacking max health bonus for the rest of combat and causes his next basic attack to deal bonus physical damage scaling with both his attack damage and max health. In season 11, he uses his Mythmaker Garen skin and is a Tier 1 Storyweaver Warden. His Courage ability shields him for a few seconds and and makes his next basic attack deal bonus physical damage.

In Legends of Runeterra, Garen is a 5-mana 5/5 Demacia Elite Champion with Regeneration that gives your other units +1/+1 for the round when summoned. When he strikes twice he levels up, gaining +1/+1 and giving you a Rally at the start of each round, allowing you to attack during the enemy's round. His Champion Spell is Garen's Judgement (8-mana Demacia Fast spell that causes an ally in combat to strike every enemy in combat).

Garen is the protagonist of the novel Garen: First Shield, following him and his squad as they venture out to the Demacian borders.

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A-H

Achilles' Heel:
- Garen is entirely melee-based (his longest-range ability, his ultimate, has a pitiful 400 range), has absolutely no crowd control at all to prevent the enemy from running away from him, and his only mobility comes from the short-lived speed bonus his Q gives him (and Flash). Consequently, any semicompetent team can zone him out and kite away from him until he dies without ever accomplishing anything. While he can still produce results at low levels of solo queue, where his sheer resilience and damage can let him take advantage of the chaos of teamfights, he's considered completely useless at high levels of professional play - from Season 3 to Season 8, he was the only champion in LoL that failed to win a single game in a major league!
- Garen was picked in 2019 by the top team in Europe, G2 Esports, in a match against middle-ranked team Vitality, after being pressured by a cheering crowd into doing so. G2 proceeded to provide a sterling demonstration of why Garen is not picked in professional play, as he went on to do nothing whatsoever in the entire game, unable to even get near Vitality's team and ending on a score of 0/4/0 as Vitality ran absolute roughshod over the overconfident G2. At 20 minutes into the game the champion damage numbers for each player were put on screen, and Garen hadn't even reached 1000 damage yet (even the supports on both teams had done more than 3000)!
- On the other hand, a few weeks after G2's failed attempt, another EU team, Fnatic, took up the challenge of using Garen in a competitive game, with shockingly more success; however see Not the Intended Use for details on exactly how they did it.
- Come 2023, Garen would make his debut in the LCS in the hands of Evil Geniuses, this time as a counterpick to FlyQuest's K'Sante ^note. Unlike the prior two attempts, Garen was able to rampage through FlyQuest due to their cc-focused, relatively immobile comp and make K'Sante a non-factor anytime they're both present in a teamfight, ending in a Curb-Stomp Battle during the final teamfight where Garen was able to run right through their ranks and execute Aphelios, showcasing that indeed, Garen can work if set loose against the right team comp.
Acrofatic: Well, he's probably not ''fat'', but he's extremely nimble for the amount of muscle and armor weighing him down. He even does one-handed handstands as of his visual update!
Aloof Big Brother: Garen's a decorated and high-ranking Demacian soldier that's rather estranged from his sister. That's because he doesn't want to face his suspicions that she's a mage.
Amazon Chaser: It's implied, at least in the original lore, that he's attracted to Katarina because of her prowess on the battlefield. It's also an in-joke to the fact that their respective signature skills involve spinning their own bodies at intense speeds.
Anti-Magic: His armor is said to be made from a magic-resistant steel, suited for Demacia's crushing fear of mages.
The Artifact: Zigzagged with Garen's Foe Romance Subtext with Katarina. Despite the fact that it's still constantly being referred to within the game itself (such as in special champion responses either of them) Katarina isn't even mentioned anywhere in Garen's bio or any of his flavor stories any more (the same applies for her). It's eventually subverted in Legends of Runeterra where it's revealed they have been secretly dating for quite some time and everyone suspects they've got a thing for each other. Though it's still ambiguous how and when they hooked up in the first place.
Ascended Meme:
- Garen is now teaching Demacian soldiers the ways of Battle Regiment of Ultimate Soldier Heroism.
- An in the game mode Doom Bots of Doom, there is a passive for them that regularly appears that brings to mind the Schrödinger's Garen meme. A spectral Garen is simultaneously in every brush and not in every brush until it is face-checked. And the spectral Garen's Judgment does a lot of damage.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Garen's level 2 passive in LoR encourages your comp to go for a relentless offense as it gives you an attack turn every round. His own offense is really strong thanks to his health regeneration, allowing him to sustain himself while you focus resources on maintaining other units.
Baritone of Strength: Couretesy of Jamieson Price; this man's got a voice as heavy as his armor.
Badass Boast: Legends of Runeterra gives Garen an amazing one in his flavor text.
"You think me rigid. Single-minded. Predictable. I am rigid, for nothing can sway me. I am single-minded, for I believe in Demacia. And I am predictable, for I will surely defeat you."
Badass Cape: His blue Scarf of Asskicking is long enough to be wrapped in a way to make it as work as this.
Badass Family: The Crownguards exude badass. Garen is the current leader of the elite Dauntless Vanguard, Lux is one of Demacia's most powerful mages and their aunt was the previous head of the Dauntless Vanguard.
Badass Normal: According to League standards, as his entire fighting style is defined by hard-hitting swordplay. Emphasized by the fact that he is one of very few champions to not have Mana or Energy as limitations, just cooldowns. He's also able to match, and even overpower, full-blown mages like Sylas. Though it's implied this might not be entirely true given that his sister is a mage.
Balance Buff: Garen received a light rework during the season 5 juggernaut update to give him some more relevance than being a beginner-friendly, but limited spin-to-win fighter, namely by adding a new dynamic to his ultimate that caused him to automatically mark the most dangerous enemy as "The Villain", giving him bonus damage and causing his ultimate to deal straight-up true damage onto them (rather than magic damage of before). This would end up removed in patch 9.20 as it was unpopular among opponents and Garen players alike, but he was allowed to keep the true damage of his ultimate and was given a few additional sidegrades^note to allow players better means to play as him.
Battle Cry: His Courage skill can cause him to shout "DEMACIA!" Otherwise, he can yell out one of two variations of "CHARGE!"
Best Friend: He and Prince Jarvan have been friends ever since their days training to be soldiers. After his coronation, Garen is handpicked to be the King's right hand.
BFS: His sword is practically as tall as him.
Big Brother Instinct: It doesn't always show, but he does care for Lux and looks out for her.
- The two have each other's back in their LOR interactions and Garen is very suspicious of Ezreal's advances towards her.
  Garen: "Careful, Lux."
  Lux: "I can take care of myself."
  
  Garen: "Stay safe out there."
  Lux: "I was gonna tell you that."
- Katarina is able to call off a fight between her and Garen by getting him to refocus on the safety of his sister, who at this point is being hunted by mageseekers and is in proximity to the escaped Sylas.
- He's also very fond of Cithria, acting as a mentor for her.
  Garen: "Cithria, isn't it? Keep up the good work."
Blood Knight: He does consider the possibility of fighting of a Worthy Opponent to be the reason to get up in the morning for a true warrior. Otherwise, he remains allied and under the banner of Demacia.
Bodyguard Legacy: The Crownguards are a long line of personal guards to the emperor of Demacia, the latest two being Garen and Lux. Garen plays the role straighter being a high-ranking official in the Demacian military and Emperor Jarvan IV's close friend since youth.
Boring, but Practical: His laning phase consists of jumping out of bushes using Decisive Strike, Judgement, maybe Courage, then right back to bushes to rinse and repeat. It's surprisingly effective. This even has a Lampshade Hanging from a voiceline that can play for Neeko when she mimics Garen:
"Life as Garen just simple. Just swing sword around. Very bland, yes."
Brother–Sister Team: One of his best partners in a team is his sister Lux, who can snare or slow victims into Judgement, shield the melee warrior and fire a double rainbow in case Demacian Justice isn't enough. This is not the case In-universe. Garen and Lux rarely see each other and even when they do meet Garen stays at arms length because, if his suspicion that she is a mage is true, he'd be forced to kill her. This comes to a head at the climax of Lux's comic, where Lux deliberately uses her magic in front of Garen to helps some innocent mages escape persecution and forces him to tell her what she is- Garen reluctantly declares that she is a mage... and his sister.
Charles Atlas Superpower: He can cut through stone with his sword, survive direct hits from a catapult, and do one-handed sit ups in full armor, all seemingly through just training himself a lot as a soldier.
Child Soldier: He left home to join the Dauntless Vanguard when he was twelve, and was so dedicated that his instructors had to confiscate his training sword at night to keep him from sparring with his own shadow instead of sleeping.
Close-Range Combatant: Garen's damaging abilities include requiring hitting a target while right next to them. Only his ultimate reaches a bit farther than melee range. The flipside is that ranged champs can make his life hell if he doesn't plan accordingly.
Commonality Connection: In Legends of Runeterra, a Garen and Darius forced to team together can find one thing to bond over: their fondness for oversized pauldrons.
Darius: I, uh... like your pauldrons.
Garen: Yours are... also acceptable.
Conflicting Loyalty: He has a good heart, but his abiding to the Demacia's Anti-Magic rhetoric creates a conflict of interest in his desire to defend his fellow Demacians, especially his little sister Lux. Between the Lux mini-series and The Mageseeker, he slowly but surely begins to break away from this trait and is able to stand up for mages.
Cool Sword: His regular sword is the size of a tree, and is made with Anti-Magic materials that let him power through spellcasters. Then use his ultimate and he'll summon an even bigger sword to finish off his opponent. He's pretty much Cool Sword the League of Legends champion. Any skin he has will take it up a notch with their unique VFX.
Costume Evolution: Garen's outfit received an overhaul for his visual update in 2013. He's not only a lot bulkier overall to emphasize his Juggernaut role, but his armor was heavily streamlined to have better defined shapes and the colors were realigned to more of a blue and silver palette consistent with modern Demacia. Subsequent releases like LOR and Wild Rift have made him a tad sleeker and more ornate to emphasize his role as commander of the Dauntless Vanguard.
Crutch Character: How Garen used to be - with some crowd-control assistance, he's extremely lethal during the early-game phase - or against enemy champions whose kits require them to fight Garen at a range where he's probably going to be much stronger in the beginning, sometimes to the point of securing a game-winning edge. But if enemy team plays it safe enough, Garen would not scale well enough to make him a particular threat later in the game. His abilities and numbers were later majorly tweaked so this no longer applied to him - his power curve is more even overall now.
Darker and Edgier: His Dreadknight skin reimagines him having gone in a darker direction than canon.
Once a valiant hero, Dreadknight Garen fell to the promise of power great enough to save his land. Now, twisted by the corrupting magic of his Master, he commands the frozen legions in their march upon the living. Only desolation remains in his wake.
Dating Catwoman: With Katarina. On the surface their rivalry puts them as bitter enemies, but their dialogue in Legends of Runeterra confirms it's an exaggerated ploy to hide their romantic trysts. Absolutely no one is fooled by it.
Dating What Daddy Hates: Tianna Crownguard isn't his mother, but she is less than thrilled that her nephew is romantically involved with a Noxian assassin.
Tianna: I do not approve.
Katarina: I do not care.
A Day in the Limelight: Garen: First Shield follows him and his squad as they venture out to the Demacian borders in the wake of Sylas's rebellion.
Death by Origin Story: The Crownguard's yet-to-be-named uncle was close to Garen in his youth. His death by the hands of a mage reinforced the anti-magic sentiments of the nation in the kid's mind.
Does Not Like Magic: Demacia fears magic greatly after the Rune Wars, and Garen personally swore to keep magic out of its walls after a rogue mage killed his uncle while Garen was eleven. And that's why he doesn't visit his sister much.
Dynamic Entry: His Decisive Strike is practically made for this — it speeds him up, removes slows, does extra damage in addition to silencing the target of his next hit.
Empowered Badass Normal: On top of fighting with physical prowess, Garen's Demacian Justice shows that he's able to land a finishing blow using a giant magical sword from nowhere (which is an exception to the rest of his scaling as it deals magic or true damage rather than physical). Later reveals show that this is not a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation for dramatic visual effect; the "Lux #3" comic reveals that his sword has enough magic in it for Sylas to steal, and Garen never knew about it.
Environment-Specific Action Figure: Desert Trooper Garen wouldn't look out of place as a Prince of Persia character.
Everyone Can See It: While Garen’s dialogue only references his sexual tension with Katarina with two short and comparatively subtle quotes, several other characters (Tahm Ketch, Jihn, Illaoi, Maokai, and even Garen’s sister Lux) acknowledge and tease, threaten, or attempt to blackmail them both over it. In Legends of Runeterra both him and Katarina are so bad at hiding their relationship that everyone in Demacia from Garen's aunt to Jarvan IV himself knows that they're an item.
Evil Overlord: God-King Garen. An absolute ruler who considers himself a messiah, and is willing to kill anyone who won't fall in line.
Evil Versus Evil: God-King Garen represents Lawful Evil, while God-King Darius represents Chaotic Evil.
Expecting Someone Taller: In Legends of Runeterra, playing Garen against Darius will sometimes prompt Darius to mock him with "You're shorter than I thought".
Fashionable Asymmetry: A fairly subtle example considering the game's bird's-eye view in addition to Garen's large vambraces and Shoulders of Doom, but regardless, Garen's left arm is unclothed aside from said vambraces and Shoulders of Doom. Rugged Garen has only one shoulderpad, on his right.
Finishing Move: His ultimate ability is made for this, doing more damage for health the target is missing. He's also got leeway thanks to it having more range than his other abilities, meaning he can go after fleeing opponents easier.
A God Am I: God-King Garen has a titanic ego to match his power.
"Who dares praise the sun? All must worship ME!"
Gameplay and Story Segregation: The ninth issue of the Journal of Justice's first volume states that Garen's sword striking from above when he finishes off an enemy is just what it appears to those watching, rather than his ultimate being just that in the game. Though this has been retconned as of the 2013 video, A Twist of Fate. When Katarina lands just far enough away from Garen to react if he tries to move in on her, he just ignores her while his sword lights up. Katarina gets an Oh, Crap! look on her face and immediately looks at the sky because she knows the sword is coming.
Good Is Not Nice: Much of Garen's lines are encouraging and hopeful. But some of them when he attacks are instead more grimly regarding his enemies as villains or asserting his assurance in his righteousness...
Gradual Regeneration: His Perseverance ability, if he is not damaged by monsters or enemy champions and turrets while using it.
Hero Antagonist: His role in The Mageseeker, opposing the more anti-heroic Sylas
The Hero's Idol: Cithria is completely awestruck by his presence, and he's had a great part in shaping her growth into a respected soldier. The Weight of Expectations explores their growing camaraderie.
Heroes Prefer Swords: The Demacian beacon of justice who fights exclusively with his massive blade.

I-Z

I Can Still Fight!: The idea behind his passive ability, shrugging off his injuries, backing off a little and catching his breath when he's supposed to be retreating back to base... but he can't still fight immediately. ^note
Irony: Is an adamant magic hater whom had to look the other way given he knows Lux is a mage, and yet it is heavily implied either he himself has latent magic or has been using a magically enhanced sword this whole time.
Incoming Ham: As an initiator, using Decisive Strike and Courage usually means he's charging straight into the enemy team, shouting "Demacia!" or "Charge!" along the way.
The Juggernaut: Not always literally, but was categorized as such during the "Juggernaut Rework." And true to the archetype he's a bit lumbering, but sturdy and packs a punch when up in the opponent's face
Kicked Upstairs: As his inner monologue shows in Garen: First Shield, Garen was perfectly happy as a rank and file soldier, and lightly views his promotion to Sword Captain as this.
Knight Templar: He's not just fighting for his country and homeland, he believes fully in its borderline-Knight Templar creed of justice. This ends up being a divider between him and his sister who has had to live her whole life in fear and isolation because of their country's anti-magic persecution. By the end of Lux's mini-series though, he seems to be wising up to this shortcoming of his.
"Justice, by law or by sword."
"What we do is RIGHT!"
Large Ham: His updated voice completely takes this trope and runs with it. It still seems to work for him. As expected from someone being voiced by Jamieson Price.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The ninth issue of the first volume of the Journal of Justice discussing him and outlining a training program he made to overhaul Demacian's military training is pretty much this, mentioning his in-game abilities constantly.
Light 'em Up: While Garen's abilities are canonically completely physical, the bright-golden colors of his abilities' animations give an aesthetic which would imply this, especially his Decisive Strike on-hit effect which causes his sword's hilt to glow with golden-light while active (his Steel Legion skin does this with blue lightning instead). Because of this, one can assume the glowing from his abilities is from his sword and not Garen having some kind of magic powers... which still doesn't explain the shield that Courage throws up. Also, Demacian Justice (which does magical or true damage) is clearly magical.
- According to Swain, he DOES have magic, but doesn't realize it. Sylas also discovers this, and even takes Garen's magic to use against him in "Lux #3". Considering his sister is profficeient in light magic, it makes sense for it to be a shared attribute.
Lightning Bruiser: Zig-Zagged; he's a durable and damaging melee fighter who charges to his enemies and then spins around with his sword. But his actual stats make him closer to a Mighty Glacier due to his relatively poor mobility.
Love at First Punch: In his original lore, Katarina fought him to an apparently epic standstill and he constantly sought to fight her again. The subtext in their old bios is obvious enough to make it this trope.
- In the updated lore, the fight to an epic standstill is present, but the Katarina comic adds explicit witty banter, and Katarina encouraging Garen to protect his mage sister (whom Katarina openly respects), which adds an extra couple of layers to their chemistry.
Magikarp Power: A downplayed example, but changes to Garen's skills (particularly Judgement) have tilted him from his prior status as a Crutch Character towards this. Judgement in particular is the core of Garen's kit, but while the damage per spin still scales with the number of ranks he puts into it, the number of spins is now based on his level, meaning his base damage potential isn't the best, but gets ridiculous by level 16 as he deals armor reducing and crit capable AoE damage every third of a second.
Meaningful Name: Garen is a name that means guard or guardian in Germany. Combining that with his last name for extra meaning toward guarding the crown. And he actually has acted as a guard of a royal family of Demacia, as Urgot's League Judgement has him and his forces attacking Urgot, saving the life of Jarvan IV, the Crown Prince of Demacia, by a hair.
Megaton Punch: One of Garen's auto attack animations used to be punching his target, and it worked just as great as swinging his sword instead. A parallel to Kat, since one of hers is a kick (that too was also removed when she was visually-updated as well). This was sadly removed after his visual update.
Mighty Glacier: Comparatively in gameplay - while he lacks a instant gap-closer unlike other melee fighter champions, which are not hindered by slow effects, the steel whirlwind that is his Judgement ability is something his enemies prefer to avoid.
My Sister Is Off-Limits: Legends of Runeterra shows in one interaction that he's protective of Lux in regards to Ezreal's interest:
Ezreal: I didn't think her big brother would be so... big.
Garen: Don't even think about it!
Named Weapons: His sword is called "Judgement".
Not the Intended Use: Garen having proven himself basically useless as a top laner in the modern competitive LoL meta due to his Achilles' Heel, EU team Fnatic managed to win not one but two games with him by running him in the bottom lane in place of the usual Marksman, with Yuumi as his support. While running non-Marksman champions in this position was not unheard of, even in pro-LoL, commentator predictions in the first game that the pair would play as a dominant kill-lane proved wildly off the mark as they were repeatedly beaten up during the laning phase. However, Fnatic's true strategy became clear as the game went on and Garen became an invincible mobile turret for the damage-building Yuumi to ride on, raining down Prowling Projectiles on the enemy team and engaging teamfights with Final Chapter, while being completely impossible to engage on or kill because of the combination of his own toughness and Decisive Strike speed boost and Yuumi's healing and speed boosting abilities, in a manner commentators compared to mounting a machine gun on a heavily-armoured car. The pairing were completely impossible for either of Fnatic's opponents in the two games they deployed this strategy in to deal with, despite Garen himself contributing little damage, with Yuumi arguably being the real carry of the pair. The strategy has subsequently proven to be Difficult, but Awesome, as teams other than Fnatic attempting to harness it have found almost no success. However, it worked enough to land on Riot's balance radar and they didn't like it, dismantling it completely with repeated nerfs to Yuumi that effectively knocked her out of competitive viability altogether.
Official Couple: After years of leaving it as just sub-text, Legends of Runeterra finally confirms that he and Katarina are seeing each other in secret.
One-Handed Zweihänder: His sword is almost as long as he is, yet most of his animations have him swing it with one hand (save for the animations of critical striking autoattacks or Decisive Strike). His signature Judgement ability has him do this in a , one-handed Reverse Grip, as can be seen below.
Opposites Attract: Kat's a ruthless and bloodthirsty Noxian assassin. He's a dutiful and honorable soldier of Demacia. Their top priority should be seeing the other one dead... so why are they instead seeing each other for dinner on the docks after dark?
Parental Favoritism: In both the Lux comic and Legends of Runeterra, Garen is Tianna Crownguard's favorite nephew, while Lux is the Un Favorite due to her magic and rebellious nature.
Patriotic Fervor: He was already famous for yelling out loud, and then even more mentions of Demacia arrived with his updated voice. It's even his dying quote. Service to his country is even his life's main motivation.
The Paragon: Garen is aspired to as the ideal Demacian; strong, courageous, inspiring and loyal.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: Garen commands an elite Demacian unit called the Dauntless Vanguard, and leads it from the front. He's the paragon for all Demacian military leaders for a reason.
Reimagining the Artifact: Garen's Demacian Justice ultimate (his signature Finishing Move where he plunges a giant sword of light onto an enemy) has presented a few complications for the game's canon. It's easy to presume it's just a non-literal effect for clarity and flash during gameplay (one early issue of the Journal of Justice even supported the idea), but then the "A Twist of Fate" cinematic went back to depicting it as a very literal giant sword that Katarina reacts to as it plummets from the sky. Riot finally suggested a diagetic explanation in 2019: early in the year, Kayle experienced a VGU that reimagined her as the half-Aspect of Justice with heavy ties to Demacia's founding, herself gaining a tweaked ultimate where she rains down holy swords of Divine Judgement around her. Released during the same time was the Lux comic, where Sylas sees Garen as (unknowingly) using magic in his attack, suggesting that he's unintentionally drawing Kayle's power with his strike (to make the parallel more clear, Sylas later uses magic that visibly appears to be Morgana's Dark Binding).
Reverse Grip: While it wasn't easily apparent in-game, it could be seen in still screenshots of Garen using his Judgement ability◊ that he holds his sword in this manner for the ability's duration via before his visual update removed this.
Scarf of Asskicking: A large and long blue one wrapped around him in a way that makes it look a lot like a Badass Cape.
Schmuck Bait: "Where did Garen go? Is he here in the bru-" "DEMACIA!!!"
Sculpted Physique: The breastplate of Garen's in-game model seems to be chiseled like a muscular male-torso.
Screaming Warrior: DEMACIAAAAAA! If you don't hear this every minute or so, its not Garen.
Secret-Keeper: As revealed in Lux's comic series, Garen, as well as the rest of their close family, know that Lux is a mage hiding her power, but are staying silent in order to protect her, not even telling her that they know until later on.
Ship Tease: With Katarina.
- According to a Journal of Justice article, Blitzcrank's dating service found that he and Katarina are a good match for each other. This was furthered with this visual update, giving him new /joke emotes near an enemy Katarina while he's showing off his handstands. Just... listen for yourself:
  "Demacia..."
  "Seven thousand and two... oh, I didn't see you standing there!"
- Legends of Runeterra amps up their relationship dynamic by having several two-way interactions with each other. Depending on how canon you consider the game^note, it may as well be official confirmation that the two have a thing going on.
  Katarina: I will slay you where you stand! Dinner? Tonight?
  Garen: You shall fall on your folly! Meet me at the south docks after dark.
- The two canonically meet for the first time in her mini-series. At first the two of them battle each other because Garen was given false intel that she's a mage, and then in order to talk him down, she reveals Lux's whereabouts and intentions, driving him to call off the fight to assist his sister. The look they give each other before Kat exits the scene is dripping with infatuation, with Garen giving her a very intrigued smirk.
Shoulders of Doom: They cover his shoulders and the sockets they're in. Some of his alternate skins amplify this with shoulder-pads that are large enough to go outwards off him in the air and cut a figure off from his body. With his Steel Legion skin, he has gone full blown Space Marine. Lampshaded by Sylas in Lux #3, who finishes off listing three things to describe Garen as he first meets him with "Ridiculously oversized pauldrons..." In Legends of Runeterra, a shared appreciation for oversized pauldrons is the only thing Garen and Darius can bond over when forced to team together.
Sibling Yin-Yang: To his sister Lux.
- Garen is a walking wall of muscle and steel who relies almost entirely on his strength and fighting prowess in combat. Lux is a petite and cute young lady who's an incredibly powerful light mage. This is reflected in their gameplay too, Garen holding the frontlines as a deadly bruiser while Lux bombards them with her long-ranged and explosive spells.
- Their standing among the Demacian public runs parallel to each other; Garen is one of the nation's most beloved heroes and rigorously upholds there values, while Lux is a mage who the people are conditioned to scorn, and because of that she reveals a darker side to the nation that the Royal Family doesn't want to be questioned.
- While compassionate to his fellow (not-a-mage) Demacians, Garen can be very merciless to the enemies of the state and takes his role as leader of the Vanguard very seriously. Lux is an All-Loving Heroine who detests confrontation and is willing to sympathize with those who could be called her enemies. This can be seen in how each sibling interacts with Sylas.
Skill Gate Characters: He's one of the champions introduced through the tutorials and a solid starting champion given his low IP cost. Garen has some decent innate damage and toughness as well as a lack of mana, making him beginner-friendly, and teaches players how to execute ability combos (Decisive Strike, Courage, then Judgment) then finish off weakened foes with an execution ability (Demacian Justice). To players facing Garen, he also teaches them why face-checking brushes is a bad idea, to the point where the official tutorial uses Garen ambushing Teemo from a bush using his Spin Attack to illustrate that point. He looses his effectiveness at higher skill-levels though, as experienced players are wise to his tricks and have a better idea of how to deal with him, and his lack of utility or mobility becomes crippling.
Spectacular Spinning: Decisive Strike has Garen do a downward slash after a forward somersault in the air, his main source of damage Judgement is a 3-second-long Spin Attack, he has an idle animation in which he spins his sword in a figure-eight and his taunt animation has him throw his sword up in the air spinning to catch it backwards.
Spin Attack: His Judgement ability in a nutshell. It's to the point that other champs like Darius parody or make fun of it as Garen's defining trait.
Taking the Bullet: His many heroic exploits include taking an arrow to the chest in order to save a fellow soldier.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He and his rival Darius are both uncomfortable being paired together in LoR, exchanging awkward compliments.
Darius: "I uhh... like your pauldrons."
Garen: "Yours are... also... acceptable."
Took a Level in Badass:
- A few tweaks to Garen's Judgement skill in late 2019 resulted in him gaining a huge power boost- his weaknesses are still there, but he gained a massive array of new strengths that almost make him too strong. Most notably, Judgement was changed to generate stacks of the powerful Conqueror rune, letting him build it up to maximum stacks very quickly, not only massively increasing his damage but also giving him a huge amount of extra sustain. Additionally, Judgement's number of spins was changed to scale up with his bonus attack speed (previously a Dump Stat on Garen since he can't autoattack while spinning), letting him build a Trinity Force for incredible damage. Additionally, his Villain passive was removed, and Demacian Justice was changed to simply do true damage instead of magic damage all the time.
- In Wild Rift, Garen's Demacian Justice has another layer of badass level taken. Normally Garen just summons the sword from the sky, but in that game, he actually leaps to the foe and unites his own sword with the summoned sword, so it also works as an extra gap-closer just in case it left the enemy with a few sliver of health so he can finish them off more properly.
Walk It Off:
- His passive ability, Perseverance, is designed for this; if he spends a few seconds not taking damage from champions or turrets, he starts regenerating health at a pretty fair rate. This can be rather problematic for his opponents: if they have no way of harassing him from afar, they have to either walk toward the brush he's no doubt hiding in to interrupt Perserverance or just let him regenerate as he bides his time.
- And as of the update that buffed him, Garen's Perseverance reaches a whole new level of absurd as soon as he hits level 16. And then Riot updated the Dragon so that the new Ocean Drake buffs out of combat health/mana regeneration by 4/8/12%. A level 16 Garen with level 3 Ocean Drake (rare, but possible) with Warmog's Armor and Spirit Visage can completely regenerate his health by walking away from a fight for about five seconds.
Weapon Twirling: An old pre-visual-update idle animation of Garen has him swing his sword in a figure-eight with one-hand in front of him.
The Worf Effect: Garen has a bad habit of getting his teeth kicked in (Usually by Sylas) in lore to prove how strong an enemy is.
Worthy Opponent: Firstly, he considers Katarina as one, being at least in their old lore what sparked an interest between the two. Secondly, in the Juggernaut rework patch, Garen gains a gameplay quirk that the enemy champion who has the biggest kill counts will eat up more damage from some of Garen's attacks. He marked them as 'Villain' as befitting of a patriotic Demacian knight, but the context screams more of the trope.
Younger Than They Look: Look at his splash art above. Could you guess that he's only 25?
You Are What You Hate: He fits into the "unaware that he fits in the group" variant. He and the rest of Demacia distrust magic and mages and fights as a relatively normal swordsman, but it turns out he carries magic with him into battle, a fact that flew under nearly everyone's radar.
Sylas: You... you don't know, do you? (lays Garen out) You Crownguards are full of surprises. And to think, you'll never know the whole truth.

Characters / League of Legends: Garen

Garen, the Might of Demacia

Full Name: Garen Crownguard

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Characters / League of Legends: Garen

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Garen, the Might of Demacia

Full Name: Garen Crownguard

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