Reworked Aether Wing Kayle Design
First, I apologize in advance if this is the wrong board to post this to; I wasn't sure. Also, this post mainly is referring to the final 2 forms for Aether Wing Kayle, which I feel deviate strongly from the style of the old skin.
With that out of the way, I want to talk about Kayle's visually updated skins, specifically Aether Wing Kayle. Of course, with the rework, all of her skins are getting a visual update. Every skin is getting a significant improvement from what it was (especially Inquisitor Kayle, Riot did a fantastic job on that one), except for Aether Wing Kayle. The updated skin does not keep the character of the old skin. The original skin was sleek and smooth. It was metallic but somehow still organic in style. It kind of reminds me of Archangel from X-Men or Skarmory, in that the wings are metallic, but still graceful and, well, sleek. Essentially, old Aether Wing Kayle was not a confused, blocky mess.
Unfortunately, in my opinion at least, the visually updated skin looks like a confused, blocky mess, especially in the last 2 forms. I don't want to knock Riot's efforts because the skin is clearly well made, but it loses the character of Aether Wing. As someone once sagely put it in a YouTube comment, it has become a generic mecha/hextech skin, and does not even keep the color palette of the original skin for the final forms. It is chunky and graceless when compared to the old skin. In short, it feels like a skin for a different skin line than Aether Wing, one that I 100% would not have paid 1820 RP for. Honestly, with the amazing visual updates to the rest of her skins, Aether Wing has become, in my opinion, the worst one. I would gladly trade it for Inquisitor Kayle if I could. Not only is Inquisitor Kayle a great skin now, it still feels like Inquisitor Kayle; it took the ideas, color palettes, and themes from the pre-update version and simply enhanced them. New Aether Wing Kayle discards what I loved about the old version and made a cheap, Mecha knockoff of it.
While I know this is quite unlikely to happen, I think that Aether Wing Kayle deserves a faithful adaptation. The skin they created could still be released as a new skin with a few changes and be placed in the Mecha skin line, where it would fit with its mechanical, blocky style. I hope that Riot can change the skin to match the character of the original skin and make it more angelic like the rest of the new skins so it's worth the 1820 RP it cost when I got it.
I'd like to hear what others thing about the new Aether Wing Kayle (mostly the final 2 forms). Do you like it or do people prefer the older style?