Graves, the Outlaw

Full Name: Malcolm Graves

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/graves_originalloading_2.jpg

"Dead man walkin'."

Voiced by:
Kyle Hebert (English/Original)
Fred Tatasciore (English/Current, Tales of Runeterra-)
José Escobosa (European Spanish)
Humberto Solorzano (Mexican Spanish)
Hiroshi Shirokuma (Japanese)
Élcio Romar (Brazilian Portuguese)
Gwang-Su Lee (Korean)
Alexander Golovchansky (Russian)
Appears In: Tales of Runeterra

"We’re here for your gold, not your heads, so don’t nobody decide to be a hero."

Malcolm Graves is a renowned mercenary, gambler, and thief—a wanted man in every city and empire he has visited. Even though he has an explosive temper, he possesses a strict sense of criminal honor, often enforced at the business end of his double-barreled shotgun Destiny. In recent years, he has reconciled a troubled partnership with Twisted Fate, and together they have prospered once more in the turmoil of Bilgewater’s criminal underbelly.

Graves is a Specialist champion who is encouraged to fight up close and personal despite being ranged, unleashing powerful short range burst damage with his shotgun.

His passive, New Destiny, changes how his basic attacks work: instead of a targeted projectile, his shotgun fires a spray of pellets in a cone in front of Graves with each attack, each pellet damaging the first enemy it hits. Graves can fire a maximum of two shots before he has to reload his shotgun.
With his first ability, End of the Line, Graves fires a shell in a target direction that damages enemies in its path and leaves behind a powder trail as it travels. After a short delay, or upon hitting terrain, the shell will explode, igniting the dropped powder to create a T-shaped explosion that deals further damage to enemies inside it.
His second ability, Smoke Screen, fires a smoke canister at a target location, damaging and slowing nearby enemies and creating a smokescreen that briefly prevents enemies inside from seeing outside the smoke.
With his third ability, Quickdraw, Graves dashes in a target direction, reloading one shot while gaining one stack of True Grit, or two if he dashes towards an enemy, that increases his armor. Damaging an enemy champion with his basic attacks reduces the ability's cooldown and refreshes the duration of True Grit stacks.
His ultimate ability, Collateral Damage, fires an explosive shell in a target direction while pushing Graves back from the recoil. The shell deals heavy damage to the first enemy it hits and explodes upon hitting a target or reaching the end of its path, sending out shrapnel that damages enemies in a cone-shaped area.

Graves' alternate skins include Hired Gun Graves, Jailbreak Graves, Crime City Graves, Riot Graves, Pool Party Graves, Cutthroat Graves, Snow Day Graves, Victorious Graves, Praetorian Graves, Battle Professor Graves, Sentinel Graves, Edward Gaming Graves, and Porcelain Graves. Wild Rift exclusively includes Marauder Graves and Supervillain Graves.

In season 1 of Teamfight Tactics, Graves is a Tier 1 Pirate Gunslinger. His Buckshot is a passive ability that causes his basic attacks to deal bonus damage and hit all enemies in a cone-shaped area. He was removed in season 2. He returns in season 3 using his Jailbreak Graves skin as a 1 cost Space Pirate Blaster sporting his Smoke Grenade ability, firing a smoke grenade that deals magic damage to all enemies around the enemy with the highest attack speed, and causes their basic attacks to miss for a few seconds. He was removed in season 4, returning in season 6 using his Battle Professor Graves skin as a Tier 1 Academy Twinshot. He retains Smoke Grenade as his ability, albeit changed to fire at his current attack target, as well as briefly creating a lingering smoke cloud that disarms enemies that enter its radius instead of making their attacks miss. He was removed along with the Academy origin in the Neon Nights mid-set update, returning in season 7's Uncharted Realms mid-set update using his Edward Gaming Graves skin as a Tier 4 Tempest Cannoneer. His Quickdraw ability passively causes his basic attacks to fire four bullets in a cone that each strikes the first enemy hit for a percentage of his attack damage, and on activation makes Graves dash toward his target and fire two basic attacks, granting him bonus armor and magic resistance for a few seconds. He was removed in season 8, returning to his base skin in season 9's Horizonbound mid-set update as a Tier 1 Bilgewater Gunner Rogue. In this iteration, his Smoke Grenade ability deals physical damage and slows the attack speed of enemies that enter the smoke instead.

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A-H

Abhorrent Admirer: Albeit non-romantic. In his Sentinel skin, and during the Sentinel of Light event, he tries to become Vayne's buddy. The latter only finds him annoying and brushes him off at every given opportunity (though she admits in private to enjoying his company).
Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: In his Sentinel skin voiceover, Graves recurringly opts to pronounce "cigars" as "SEE-gars". Even Vayne makes fun of him for it.
Vayne: Think it's time to break out the cee-gars, don't you, Graves?
Accidental Hero: Invoked by one of his Sentinel voicelines:
"Not here to save anyone. But I might do it on accident!"
Acquired Situational Narcissism: It's clear that Graves' moment of glory as a Sentinel has left him a bit overinflated.
"I'm so handsome and stunning, but in a down-to-earth accessible way."
"They better build a statue of me after this. A real discreet one. Y'know, with the face all messed up."
Adaptational Species Change: Praetorian Graves is a drone from an army of Killer Robots.
Unleashed upon the multiverse by imperfect Pulsefire technology, Graves is but one of a numberless horde of Praetorian marauders now plaguing spacetime. Its programming is unlike anything from any known past, present, or future—each of its thoughts is so complex, it would take ten lifetimes for a human to comprehend.
All for Nothing: Played for Laughs; between his bullheadedness and TF's over-ambitiousness, most of their heists end with the pair losing more money than they gain, at which point they just kinda roll with it, since it's more about the thrills than the rewards.
Bombolini was assumed dead, the client was furious, and nobody got paid. All in all, it was one of the duo’s more successful heists.
The Boys And Bombolini
Amazon Chaser: A non-romantic example. During his time in the Sentinels, he quickly becomes fond of Vayne specifically because she came the closest to killing him during their initial encounter, and tries to strike up a Bash Brothers dynamic with her. She just finds him annoying.
"We're buddies now, Vayne! You're never gettin' rid of me!"
"I wouldn't piss on any of y'all if you was on fire! 'Cept for you, Vayne. You tried to kill me, so... I respect ya."
American Accents: A gravelly Southern drawl.
Anti-Hero: While a self-indulgent crook, Graves more often than not is on the side of the more heroic characters when something threatens his home or the world, be it Gangplank or the Ruination. Granted he's usually in it for selfish reasons like money.
"I consider myself more of a charmin' antihero."
The Artifact: Graves's original voice over, done by Kyle Hebert, is a much more dour take on the character from before franchise retcons and the Burning Tides event, yet hasn't been updated as since his original release despite the character going through a lot of development. In subsequent media since then, including a legendary skin, he's been given a much goofier Boisterous Bruiser personality, provided by Fred Tatasciore, that in lore shows a return to a better position in his life.
Attack! Attack! Attack!: Quickdraw's armor boost remains active so long as Graves is dealing damage, and its cooldown is reduced if he can hit enemies with his shotgun pellets. So being able to constantly and consistently attack will maximize the ability, as well as keep Graves light on his feet.
Badass Cape: A bit shorter than most, being more of a shawl.
Badass Normal: Which contrasts him with Twisted Fate. While TF is a magically-charged, teleporting Death Dealer, Graves is just a man with a big gun and an even bigger chip on his shoulder.
Balance Buff: When Graves was first introduced, he behaved effectively as just another botlane marksman, operating around usual high-DPS single-target autos, but with abilities that encouraged him to go deeper into close-quarters, with his only distinct use of his shotgun being his Buckshot ability that fired a simple Spread Shot. He was given a massive retooling in the season 6 marksman updates that made the autos from his shotgun actually behave like a 2-barrel shotgun (one he really needs to be in close range to make the most of), fundamentally flipping his gameplay style and making him a proper quasi-bruiser champion.
Baritone of Strength: A shotgun-toting bruiser with a deep and gravelly voice. The cigars probably didn't do any favors.
Battle Couple: Cons and fights alongside his partner Twisted Fate. After a long stint of antagonism following a botched scheme and miscommunication, they've reconciled.
Beware the Silly Ones: True mostly of his post-retcon development; he might have the common sense of a bag of flour, but he's a man with a bounty for a reason, and in-game he can be built to be a powerful duelist that decimates enemy champs face-to-face.
Birds of a Feather: Upon meeting TF for the first time through a game of cards, the two immediately recognized the their shared love for the life of an outlaw.
Each immediately saw in the other the same reckless passion for danger and adventure, and together they formed a most lucrative partnership. Between Graves’ raw brawn and Twisted Fate’s brains, they were an unusually effective team from the outset. Their mutual sense of roguish honor grew into genuine trust, and together they stole from the rich, swindled the foolish, handpicked skilled crews for specific jobs, and sold out their rivals whenever they could.
Boisterous Bruiser: Post "Burning Tides", he has a hell of a time throwing down on the rift and in Bilgewater. Sentinel Graves is nothing but a loud goof in combat.
Bottomless Magazines:
- The first champion in the game to subvert this — instead of being able to fire continuous ranged auto-attacks, he only gets two shots before he needs to take a moment to reload (though his actual ammo reserve is infinite as with every champion). The tradeoff is that his auto-attacks fire huge shotgun blasts.
- Ironically toyed with in Rise of the Sentinels. As the Sentinels get into a firefight with him in a Zaunite chemtech factory, Senna considers just waiting out his relentless barrage until he runs dry. That quickly turns out to not be an option.
  Graves: Great thing about hex-shot — it's easy to steal! I just robbed a whole warehouse of this stuff, I can shoot for days!
BFG: That shotgun of his is unnecessarily large, but boy, does it get results, capable of tearing enormous chunks out of any unfortunate object or even-more unfortunate living victim in its path.
Call-Back: While A New Dawn was a non-canon short, Sentinel Graves makes an allusion to it during his taunt against Ruined Draven:
Graves: I had a dream we fought once, Draven. You got murdered by my buddy, Rango!
Card-Carrying Jerkass: Graves loves being a criminal, enjoying all the heists he gets to pull off and partaking in any chance to let his violent tendencies run loose. Sentinel Graves just has a blast talking about his various felonies.
"When a man loves crime, there ain't nobody who can stop him. 'Cept the police. That's their whole thing."
"Crime actually pays really well. Everyone should do it!"
"What the hell was that?! Was I dead? I didn't even go to crime heaven!"
"I haven't stolen one damn thing since this Ruined King started Harrowin' everybody. I hate it!"
Card Sharp: In his past. He met Twisted Fate when both drew a hand of four aces at a high-stakes card-game's end.
Casual Danger Dialogue: Graves and TF will often draw out a gunfight just to banter like bickering spouses. They do this once while trying to pull one over Miss Fortune, and again when dueling their old acquaintance Bombalini.
Character Development: Through the course of the franchise, Graves has graduated from the gravel voiced, vengeful cowboy he was introduced as, to the more humorous and wee bit dumb hillbilly he is in the current lore. The contrast is best exemplified when you compare his base skin and Sentinel Graves.
Cigar Chomper: He was introduced as such in A New Dawn. It was added to his current splash art, but due to foreign policies on depictions of smoking, the cigar is only visible in certain regions. According to Twisted Fate, he's given up the habit as of Legends Of Runeterra, though he still carries it with him, and during his time in the Sentinels, he's pretty miffed that among their relic stone weaponry, they couldn't get him a relic stone cigar.
Close-Range Combatant: He's this compared to the vast majority of ranged carries, having a short autoattack and ability range (with the exception of Collateral Damage) but getting nice bonuses for constantly staying up close to his opponents. His dash ability is even intended to be used offensively, giving him a defensive bonus and having its cooldown lowered by attacking, though it can certainly be used to get out of bad situations too.
Comically Missing the Point: Very prone to this due to his short-sightedness.
"Death really puts things in perspective. I gotta rob more people!"
Cool Shades: Hired Gun Graves wears a pair. Downplayed with Pool Party which is a more light-hearted skinline.
Crutch Character: His short autoattack range and burst will definitely fall flat late game since teamfights mostly prioritize on attack damage carries. Winning the game as quickly as possible is very essential for Graves to be useful. This is less true after his rework, now that his damage scales way better thanks to his new passive.
Cutscene Power to the Max:
- A little in "A New Dawn". While Graves was very obviously using Buckshot (You can see three bullets flying out of his shotgun), each of his shots against Nautilius looked like his ultimate, Collateral Damage. Also his range on Katarina, when he forced her to flee. He has one of the lowest ranges in the game but his bullets chased her into the trees with deadly accuracy. His Smokescreen was also made out to be larger than it actually is.
- Similar in "Bilgewater: Burning Tides", where his shotgun is almost always a One-Hit Kill (which, granted, is how they usually work in real life). Twisted Fate is extra careful to not get caught by it, and in one scene it blows a merchant's leg off.
Death Seeker: During 'Burning Tides" he was more than accepting that he would likely die trying to take revenge on Twisted Fate. Since that event and making amends with TF he's mellowed out.
Determinator: He refused to let the torturous prison he was stuck in break him, surviving day-by-day until he could break his way out.
- This even plays into Quickdraw's effects, granting Graves more and more armor for as long as he can reset the ability, making him harder to kill on his last legs.
Didn't Think This Through: He tries to capture Teemo and sell him off for a bounty due to Yordles fetching a high price. Then Teemo's friends from Bandle City come to his rescue, and Graves finds himself getting utterly stomped and humiliated by Lulu.
Difficult, but Awesome: His kit involves dealing a lot of burst damage that scales well in attack damage, having a skill that blocks vision on enemy champions, and a nice dash that boosts his defensive stats. However, all of this involves dealing damage at relatively close range, which is relatively dangerous for an attack damage carry. Thankfully, thanks to his rework, getting close to Graves is highly inadvisable, considering his close-range damage rivals or even surpasses that of assassins.
Doorstop Baby: An older version of his bio describes him being abandoned as a baby in a tavern.
Malcolm Graves was born in the back of a Bilgewater tavern and left there with a bottle of spiked milk.
Dumb Muscle: Not a particularly strategic individual to say the least, preferring to face danger head-on even when it's the worst possible option. He charges in to save a captured Fate from Fortune when it's obvious her whole compound is booby-trapped (not that they seem to affect him much at first).
Dumbass Has a Point: He's surprisingly quick to notice the parallels between Lucian and Viego.
"Hey, Lucian. You ever look at Viego and think, 'What a terrifyin' parallel to me?'"
Enemy Mine: Graves returned to Bilgewater after years in prison to exact revenge on Twisted Fate, only for their feud to blow up a warehouse owned by Gangplank who comes to personally teach them both a lesson. The two are only able to survive by putting aside their differences and working to escape the pirate king.
Everyone Has Standards: He may be a wanted career criminal, but he's got lines he won't cross.
- He resented Fate for what he thought was a betrayal that landed him in prison for years. Though the two were able to reconcile from this.
- His interaction to learning about Riven's past says it all.
  "Doing a crime ain't that bad, Riven. Oh, war crimes? Yeah, that's bad."
- He didn't enjoy his fling with an unnamed Noxian because apparently he was too racist.
Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Sentinel Graves has this bit of dialogue as he's thinking about his situation:
"The Sentinels are alright. A little desperate, and confused, and sad... oh god, what did I agree to?"
Extreme Omnisexual: He's been involved with Noxians, Ionians, Freljordians, Buhru cultists, an octopus, an orca man, a vastaya, and many more.
First-Name Basis: He likes to call Twisted Fate by his first name, Tobias.
"My partner's around here somewhere, I think. Tobias?! Ah, who cares."
Foil: To his partner Twisted Fate — TF is an ability-power scaling mage whose kit makes him poor for head-on fights against most other champions, encouraging you to stay away from enemies almost all of the time save for when you can place yourself in a position where you have a significant numbers/health advantage, likely with his ultimate. Graves is an attack-damage scaling marksman whose kit encourages getting into your enemies' face as much as possible and his passive makes him naturally hardier than other carries to facilitate aggression.
Forced Transformation: He's turned into a frog in Don't Mess With Yordles, courtesy of Lulu after he tried to sell off her friends.
Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Graves does come around to apologizing for landing himself in the Locker and trying to kill TF out of misplaced resentment, but it's clear it will take a while for the two to sort through those complicated feelings.
Gameplay and Story Integration:
- At the end of Burning Tides, Graves loses his weapon, Destiny, and remarks that he'll have to pick up a new weapon in Piltover. Then came his rework, which changed how his basic attacks and abilities function, and fittingly his changed passive's name to New Destiny.
- His cigars had to be removed from promotional material like his splash art in certain regions. So this is justified in-universe has him quitting smoking.
Gallows Humour: His taunts and jokes in a nutshell. Sentinel Graves tends to joke about all the questionable crimes he's committed like murder and assault.
"They might even pardon my lighter aggravated murders for this!"
Glass Cannon: Subverted Trope — amongst the marksman category, due to the fact that his base stats are closer to a melee champion's than a long-ranged one's. Graves trades in range and sustained damage for innate survivability and burst, making him unique for a ranged carry. Due to the nature of his basic attacks, Graves functions more like a melee champion than a marksman, and he can make assassins regret jumping on him.
Great Escape: He somehow managed to escape the Locker, the infamous prison he was confined to, and got himself a brand new shotgun for his troubles.
The Gunslinger: He's heavily designed with wild west motifs in mind, though his choice of gun is an enormous hextech shotgun.
Has a Type: As Bombolini puts it, "Graves has the worst taste in men", though the latter eventually (but not really) refutes this.
"I do not have terrible taste in men. I have good taste in terrible men, and there is absolutely a difference.”
Hates Baths: Doesn't seem to bathe regularly.
"I bathe at semi-regular intervals. You can't prove otherwise! Nobody smell me!"
Graves interacting with Senna: "I already took a bath. What more do you want!?"
Neeko transforming into Graves: "Yuck! Take a bath! Gross!"
Heartbroken Badass: Twisted Fate's supposed betrayal emotionally tore Graves apart, turning him into an angry, bitter shell of his former self that hounded for revenge. Even after the two reunite (and Graves tries to kill TF), Graves is still working through the complicated emotions caused by everything that happened between the two .
Once again, Graves found himself escaping his hometown… only this time, he had his old friend in tow. While both of them might have liked to pick up their partnership where they left off all those years ago, such resentment couldn't simply be forgotten overnight, and it would be a while before Graves could bring himself to trust Twisted Fate again.
Still, he feels Bilgewater calling to him once more. Maybe this time around, the pair of them will find their stride and be able to pull off the ultimate heist
Hero with an F in Good: The gist of Sentinel Graves is "what if a dirty, gun-toting crook had to step up and save the world". His voice lines milk the premise for as much hilarity as possible.
"Senitnel Graves here doing hero stuff, and...aw screw it, I'm robbin' everybody!"
"The best part of being a hero is holding someone up at gunpoint in a dark alley. Or-no, wait, let me try that again."
Killing a champion: "This is me savin' the world! What a non-criminal act I have just committed!"
Scoring a pentakill: "That's right, I'm a big damn hero! And I took all yer money, So I'm a rich one too!"
Heroic Sacrifice: In "A New Dawn", he blows himself up after his gun is shattered by Nautilus's anchor and he lies dying against a monolith , destabilizing the pillar enough for it to start tipping and eventually flatten the lumbering behemoth.
Homing Boulders: Subverted with regards to his basic attacks. Unlike nearly every other ranged basic attack in the game, Graves' shotgun fires projectiles which move on a set path and stop at the first unit hit, which may not necessarily be the one the player originally targeted. While he benefits from the Spread Shot nature of his attacks, this consequently means that anything that can intercept your shots (including minions and turrets) can completely bungle his engages.
Homoerotic Subtext: He and TF have a close partnership and are prone to couple-like bickering. One of their original writers stated that they were first conceived as a gay couple before that detail was scrapped, but there are still hints of dialogue that suggest otherwise. This was eventually made into proper text during Pride Month 2022, with the duo headlining Pride-themed artwork and cosmetics, along with the story "The Boys and Bombolini" explicitly confirming that they are romantically attracted to one another.

I-Z

I Call It "Vera": His original shotgun was named "Destiny", and its replacement shares a similar name of "New Destiny", likely because "destiny" contrasts with Twisted Fate's luck theme.
Interface Screw: It's uncomfortable to realize in hindsight your team just lost a teamfight because Graves used his Smokescreen ability on your backline to turn the fight into a 3-4v5 in his team's favor for a few seconds.
Irony: He has lines in-game for noting the irony of using his Smokescreen ability on Nocturne (which blocks off vision for enemies inside it to just within the smoke, while Nocturne has an ultimate that globally cuts off the vision of all enemy champions to only what they personally can see [and Nocturne is especially known for his disturbing laughter or taunts upon using his ultimate])
Jerkass Realization: He's shaken when TF tells him that he and the rest of their former gang had tried to bust Graves out of jail after he was imprisoned- and not only did they fail, everyone except TF died in the attempt. Graves goes on to realize that TF was right- it was his own fault he'd been captured during their last job together (Graves refused to cut and run with TF, preferring to do everything his own way and then blaming TF for not backing him up) and he only had himself to blame for his ten years in the slammer.
Laser-Guided Karma: After he tries to sell Teemo, and later Tristana, for bounty money, Lulu shows up in her giant form and proceeds to knock him away with her staff, drop a boulder on his toes, and then finaly turns him into a frog. TF humorously points out that Graves kinda had it coming.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In the Absolution cinematic he complains about no one wearing a shirt, a complaint the fandom has also voiced about male champion design.
Leeroy Jenkins: He was apparently like this back in his partnership with TF, which only grew more pronounced after TF's betrayal. In "Double-Double Cross", shows that even years later, he hasn't particularly changed in this aspect.
Twisted Fate: Graves is too smart to walk into a trap! If you think that he would be stupid enough to bash down—
(Graves kicks the doors wide open)
Lighter and Softer: Originally Graves was a very grim, dour, humorless champion, entirely defined by his hatred of Twisted Fate and his years in the slammer. After a combination of Retcons (Twisted Fate didn't ruthlessly sell him out for power any more) and character development (the events of Burning Tides), he's been a much lighter, goofier character, back to hustling his way through Bilgewater as usual with Twisted Fate as partner at his side once again. In "Tales From Runeterra" and his legendary Sentinel skin, he's an outright action-comedy character.
Lightning Bruiser: He's built like a fighter and can dash around with ''Quickdraw'' to close distance and vault terrain. You've also got his ultimate that kicks him back with the inertia of the projectile, allowing for stylish hit-and-run when he's close to finishing you off.
Like an Old Married Couple: With TF; they're intimately aware of each other's shortcomings and they know where to stick the knife. But they're also inseparable, with hints that they're taking a more-than-friendly interest in each other.,
- In "Double Double Cross", the two start arguing about their share of a bounty while holding Miss Fortune at gunpoint (which she takes advantage of to send them down a trap door).
- In "Don't Mess With Yordles", Fate likewise gets on Graves's case when the latter tries to collect bounties on some yordles.
TF: Well, by arrangement we always split fifty-fifty.
Graves: Now hold up, seventy-thirty!
TF: What are you talking about!?
Graves: Not the time, but I'm pretty I just saved you again!
Love Epiphany: At the end of "The Boys and Bombolini", Graves realizes that he is attracted to Twisted Fate and sees him as more than a friend. He awkwardly agrees with an equally attracted and flustered Twisted Fate that they are just partners.
Ludicrous Gibs: The effects of his shotgun on normal humans in Burning Tides are pretty close to this, literally dismembering people or tearing them to bloody scraps with a single shot.
The Mafia: Crime City Graves is styled as one, complete with a Thompson machine gun shotgun.
Manly Facial Hair: Part of his gruff cowboy image is conveyed by his thick beard and chops.
Manly Gay: A gruff, hairy, gun-toting badass who happens to have an interest in men, including his partner.
Marked Bullet: Or shell, rather. The explosive shell that he uses to take down Nautilus in A New Dawn has the words "End of the Line" written on it.
Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Graves' basic attacks do not fire a single projectile that homes in on enemies, but rather an entire shotgun blast that deals ramping damage on enemies the closer he is to them, needing to reload after two shots^note. While he ostensibly functions like a marksman, in practice this actually makes him more akin to a bruiser who wants to dive in and blow his enemies apart in short bursts, putting him in a very funky, yet effective mid-to-close-range niche.
Never My Fault: He spent ten years blaming Twisted Fate for getting caught by the law and thrown in prison, only for Twisted Fate to remind him he hadn't wanted to do such a risky job in the first place and left because he saw no way they'd win the fight. Even worse, he went back later and tried to save Graves, only for their entire crew besides TF to die trying to break Graves out. However, when they're facing the end of their lives, Graves finally admits things were his fault.
Nominal Hero: Sentinel Graves teams up with heroes like Lucian and Senna to combat Viego's ruination. But it's pretty blatant that he expects a hefty reward at the end of it all.
Noodle Incident: He's apparently had multiple instances of being duped by Serpent Isles magic.
Vs. Illaoi: "Oh no, I ain't fallin' for yer sea priestess tentacle magic. Not a fourth time!"
Not in This for Your Revolution: Sure, he'll help the Sentinels fight Viego, but only because if the latter wins, there'll be no more world to commit crimes in.
Graves could give a damn about saving the world, but the Ruined King is getting in the way of his criminal undertakings, and that he cannot abide. When the Sentinels come calling, Graves reckons he can play the hero for once—long enough to make sure there's a world left to rob, anyway.
Not the Intended Use: His nature as a close-range marksman often took him between bottom and top lane, but with his season 6 rework, many of his newfound features were discovered to be exceptionally useful in the jungle (short-ranged, but great AOE burst with his auto-attacks that has CC for minions, additional burst with his Q that works faster if it hits a wall, an incredibly useful blind/slow with his W, mobility and tankiness with his E, and a decently low-cooldown burst ultimate). Eventually, Riot decided to just roll with it and he's now primarily a jungle champion though who can occasionally be played in lane as a counterpick.
Older and Wiser: By his own admission even; after living life as an outlaw, followed by everything that occured in "Burning Tides" and the Ruined King Saga, Graves realizes he enjoys getting to see the world and befriend new people like all his pals in the Sentinels. That said, he's never gonna give up crime, no siree!
“Point is, I’m meeting new people. I’m seeing the world. Piltover. The Shadow Isles. I saw Camavor, Tobias. I’m expanding my horizons. I might even want to expand ‘em more. Hear Ixtal’s opening up. Could be good money out there... you know... if you wanted to come along for the ride.”
The Boys And Bombolini
Only in It for the Money: His rationale for sticking around with the Sentinels of Light.
"Infinite riches to the man who can save the world!"
"Better get rich from this. Or at least upwardly mobile."
Outlaw: He is "The Outlaw", after all. Crime is just regular business for Graves.
Outlaw Couple: He and Twisted Fate have been conning and thieving across Runeterra for years, all with a deep mutual trust and kinship keeping them going.
Poor Communication Kills: Hotheadedness seems to be a recurring problem with him:
- His relationship with Twisted Fate fell through for years after they engaged in a botched heist that Graves was captured in, with Twisted Fate seemingly leaving him for dead. In reality, TF just realized they were doomed and had no time to explain before enforcers took them in, and it took Graves busting out of prison and serious tribulations during Burning Tides for the miscommunication to be cleared up.
- In Rise of the Sentinels, this is how he gets roped into the Sentinels' search for Isolde's fetters (the one in Piltover taking the form of an antique parasol). He quickly catches on that it's an extremely desirable item of great value, but doesn't give time for the explanation that it's needed to stop the world from ending and makes off with it, forcing the Sentinels to have to chase him down into Zaun for it.
Prison Changes People: Being locked in confinement for years and subjugated to torture, Graves grew bitter and resentful towards TF who he thought had betrayed him to save his own skin. Though after the two are able to resolve their issues, Graves largely returns to being the same as before he went to prison.
Queer Establishing Moment: After years of Homoerotic Subtext and internal conflicts among Riot management, TF and Graves received full-on confirmation of being a male-loving-male couple during Pride Month 2022. On top of being featured on several Pride cosmetics (one of them baring a direct reference to Brokeback Mountain), as well as this artwork of the two hanging out on a literal gay ship, the short story "The Boys and the Bombolini" was also released, explicitly confirming them be into each other.
Bombolini: I knew they’d end up with each other. Graves always had the worst taste in men, and Fate is the worst man I’ve ever met. It all makes sense!
(later)
Graves: I do not have terrible taste in men. I have good taste in terrible men, and there is absolutely a difference.
Really Gets Around: Graves has apparently dated and/or slept with a lot of dudes. He and TF can't even keep count in a few paragraphs.
Recoil Boost: Collateral Damage pushes Graves back when he uses the ability.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The straightforward and boisterous red oni to TF's snarky and laidback blue oni.
Shirtless Scene: Pool Party Graves walks around with nothing but a towel covering his chest. The creation of the skin was most likely influenced by the many threads asking for a shirtless Graves skin meant to give the female players some fanservice.
Short-Range Shotgun: Graves's weapon, New Destiny, has a number of unique attributes that make it function similarly to a double-barrel shotgun, including a spread shot and reloading after two shots. It also means he wants to get in his opponent's face before blasting them, something unusual for marksman.
Shotguns Are Just Better: He carries a shotgun of the Magitek variety. And true to the trope, he's got way more front-loaded damage than most ranged champs, with the caveat that he has to play at a closer distance.
The Smart Guy: On Ahri's team in A New Dawn. He's more street smart than tech smart, of course, able to easily predict when Katarina would appear behind him. Also seems to be Rengar's buddy in the cinematic. Nowadays though? He's got the brain of a rock.
Smoke Out: His Smokescreen ability stops enemies within it from seeing anything outside unless they are being attacked by them. It doesn't tend to work all that well for an escape, but as an offensive tool it can shut down opposing ranged champion hard.
Splash Damage Abuse: His ultimate is a skill shot, so as a squishy you'd probably think that standing behind the tank and letting him soak it or just getting out of range would be a good idea, right? Try it; it's just what Graves wants you to do. You'll realize it once a third of your HP gets hacked off by the ensuing explosion.
Spread Shot: Grave's shots don't deal singular hits on enemies, but rather fan out in a cone as several pellets, each with their own damage values.
Stuff Blowing Up: His shotgun is equipped with explosive rounds, as seen with End of the Line and Colatteral Damage.
"Explode, ya idjit!!"
Taking You with Me:
- In A New Dawn, he gets mortally wounded by Nautilus' anchor but detonates his special Collateral Damage shotgun shell to bring down a nearby monolith on top of him and the Titan of the Depths.
- He initially doesn't care about being captured by Gangplank's forces as long as he gets his revenge on Twisted Fate in Burning Tides. However, this changes once he realizes he's to blame for getting captured by the law.
Unreliable Narrator: As shown in "The Boys And Bombolini", Graves apparently likes to tell the story of defeating Viego like he did most of the work. TF is quick to cut with the truth of how it was Gwen and Akshan who really stopped him, while he basically waited outside.
Video Game Dashing: Quickdraw is for getting Graves up in his opponent's face to blast them with a shotgun. He also gets a stack of armor for each cast of the ability, which refreshes every time he dashes (Remember that he shortens Quickdraw's cooldown for every shotgun pellet that hits something. Have fun tanking hits with this).
Violation of Common Sense: If you're experienced with ranged carries, you'll probably find it very counter-intuitive to constantly dash closer to enemies instead of maintaining as much distance as possible in most cases. On the other hand, if Graves is the first ADC you get good at, this tactic does not carry over well to other ADC's who lack damage incentives to get close and built-in toughness mechanics.
Walking the Earth: Was forced to travel from and between the city-states in his past when things got too hairy for him, being an outlaw making an unsavory living from the underground.
Weaksauce Weakness: The fact that Graves's auto-attacks can be blocked by units in between him and his intended target has been exploited to win fights that any other champion should have easily taken.
We Used to Be Friends: Twisted Fate and he swindled people and scrapped against the inevitable discontentment together until Twisted Fate bailed on a job he saw was going south, while Graves charged in expecting backup. They're partners again after Miss Fortune nearly blows Bilgewater to bits and they manage to escape together.

Characters / League of Legends: Graves

Graves, the Outlaw

Full Name: Malcolm Graves

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Characters / League of Legends: Graves

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Graves, the Outlaw

Full Name: Malcolm Graves

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