Faithful reworks are the best reworks

And I can't, for the life of me, understand why Riot does anything else.

* stand, IMO, head and shoulder above every VGU specifically because I can still recognize the original champion. There is a very clear regard and respect to the preceding concept and most people will look at these 3 reworks and say "Yeah, I know who that is." These champions already give a solid foundation to work off of, there's no stupid, terrible retcon where "oh, actually, this character has a super sad past/is secretly feeling sad." The old base gives you a simple concept and delivers it; the new creation takes that same fantasy and upgrades its delivery. And because there's that foundation to work off of, knowing how you're going to balance them is much easier, and, voila, Warwick and Eve have hardly been troublesome to anybody, and nobody minds either of them being strong.

On the other hand, the most controversial and/or problematic reworks in terms of balance have always been the ones with the least faith. (Poppy being the least so.) These reworks, on top of throwing out almost everything that made the original characters likable and slapping a new story, new personality over it, have turned up into some of the biggest balance issues we've ever seen, outdone only by Ryze and Azir. Riot has no idea what they want to do with Galio, so he sits in this awkward crossroad between a mage, a tank, a bruiser and a peel support, genuinely one of the biggest jack-of-all-trades in the game, battered down into garbage tier because it's the only way to keep him out of pros. Aatrox has maintained almost 100% pick/ban status in pro despite, again, being nerfed into the dumpster for soloQ up until you get to diamond and up. You can go on the Aatrox sub reddit right now and 2 months later there's still an endless supply of angry players, even though they know full well it's futile at this point. Poppy isn't quite as extreme because she at least manages to be good in pro and solo at the same time, but I can recall more than a few unhappy times where she was basically a full tank doing better bruiser damage thanks to her insane base and % damage. She's kind of overbearing whenever she starts actually getting good, albeit a lot more manageable in soloQ when strong unlike the other 2, but it's worth mentioning.

I'm bringing this up partially because of worry for the future, given that a lot of champions I enjoy are unfortunately on the VGU chopping block, and partially because of the upcoming VGUs. So, we know that Ezreal is getting something very in the near future. It's not going to be huge other than visuals/etc and small kit changes, which is why I 100% expect it to go over either well, or amazingly well. We already know that it's going to still be Ezreal; it fits the criteria of what I said above in a faithful rework, because the goal of it is to be Ezreal.. but better. These are the reworks I get excited for, even if I hate the champion or don't actually plan on playing them. We don't know much about Kayle/Morgana yet, but based on how it sounds, I expect something of a similar treatment, with Kayle getting more kit-work done. I hate Kayle with a burning passion, and I still really, really hope I can be able to say "Yup, that's Kayle" when she's finally shown off.

Given the general community reactions to either type of rework, I hope Riot gets the hint, because I know I'm not alone in hating it when a champion I've played for years is suddenly nothing like what I'm used to, and is no longer my champion. Please, stick to good faith reworks, because those are the ones that genuinely make this game better.

* Irelia is sort-of excluded because I think the Irelia is, at its core, really good, and Riot is just doing a horrible disservice to her because they insist on keeping dumb stuff like triple Q burst and her E's absurd width. The fundamental is actually amazing, but it's done wrong by the finer details.