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PROJECT: Jhin, "You Are Mediocrity ..."

Harlequin Grim·11/8/2017, 2:22:10 AM·19 votes·2,207 views

If you look up the Skin Spotlight video on YouTube that showcases Project: Jhin, you find that the majority of comments not just from Jhin mains but pretty much everyone is reflecting these sentiments:

The particles are gorgeous, especially the animation for his auto attacks, and I couldn't agree more. His spell animations, too, are superb. But the skin itself ... eeeeeeh. It's lacking. What's going on with that fur coat collar?

I don't necessarily believe that the Project theme suits Jhin, but that's not important because I also believe it's more than possible to create one for him that really makes sense and showcases his personality. I can't help but be disappointed looking at this representation which waters down his personality, especially when you have Vayne and Vi's project skin, which manages to manifest their human origin as well as lend them the precision of a calculating machine. That's what is missing here. His humanity, or rather, his lack of it. (His lacking morales doesn't make him akin to a calculating robot, either, it just makes his human side more dynamic.)

Of all the champions to be melded with sheet metal and motherboards, Jhin deserves that obvious clash between flesh and hardware. His obsession with art would leave him feeling very human as well, not so robotic, dead, and lackluster. While Vayne and Vi and others look as if they were hand-designed and engineered by a meticulous individual, Project: Jhin appears to have been spat out of a factory amongst thousands of others exactly like him. In fact, he's one of the only Project skins that feels so lacking, if not the only one.

He should be portrayed not as a robot being overrun by a virus, but the virus itself overrunning a robot. His personality is WAY too strong! His copied personality should be breaking through the software! If that is what was intended, it really didn't translate.

Instead, he looks like one of those disposable droids from Star Wars. Yet, he's all about being the center of attention, stealing the spotlight, being his own perfect individual.

The symbol of the virus on his head and his psychopathic nature is a beautiful metaphor! But the rest of the outfit truly is an injustice to his character. I am not someone who complains often, especially not about products that aren't a life-necessity. I adored Jhin's Bloodmoon and SKT skin, but I really struggled to be excited about this, even as I spammed the 'refresh' button on Surrenderat20 on the day that he was posting about the new Project releases.

As a Jhin main, the only thing exciting about this release is the novelty of its newness, but if I'm looking honestly at the design itself (especially alongside other Project skins) it appears to fall flat, so I won't be looking to add it to my collection. That's hard to see for the melodramatic artist, who probably would be sporting a design much flashier than what we see here, which comes off as bland, monotone, grey, able to be overlooked.

In the end, despite having over 350k points on this champ and one-tricking with him to Platinum this season, I am going to be purchasing Vayne's and turning a blind eye to this release, unless it is updated.

Because by the Holy Light, PROJECT: Vayne is genius. That tumble ...

Please Riot, from one artist to another. Please, try another route with him.

Jhin is too precious.

Don't make me cry.

16 Comments

Shirvallah11/9/2017, 7:41:00 AM4 votes

Logged in just to upvote this. I 110% agree with every single word you said.

The current skin feels so lackluster. Jhin's always stood out as this beautifully maniacal being to me. I, too, can't help but envision a factory mass-producing Jhin bots with some simple design that's dull in color. Sure, the bot might be functional, but where is the 'zazz' in the design? This is JHIN we're talking about, okay. The look MUST be his own. It cannot look like anything out there (or appear that it's not one-of-a-kind). Everything is GRAND with this man. If champions could give opinions on the skins in which they are given, Jhin would say, "I cannot be good. I must be perfection," and likely brush it off to be perfected.

Also, logged in to say that your grammar is refreshingly impeccable and vocabulary as colorful as Jhin's personality. My jaw actually dropped because of how impressed I was, LOL.

HonestJohnTheCon11/8/2017, 11:31:56 AM3 votes

I agree with what you said. But how would they implement that in-game? It's not a legendary skin, so they won't record more voice lines.

Are you suggesting that they should change the voice filter to make it more fitting?

What you said makes sense, but I'm not exactly sure what you want Riot to do.

The Deadly Lotus11/9/2017, 7:34:28 PM2 votes

You are absolutely right! It feels like too rushed out. His color scheme is really boring (Which doesn't add up with the character, because Jhin is artistic person, which means more colours) And his fur gives me arctic ops vibe, not the project one. As a Jhin main, i really hope that they take another look at this skin. Otherwise it's pretty badass skin. The R's music and mask is a 10/10!

NekoniClaws11/8/2017, 1:33:26 PM2 votes

I wish I wasn't upvoting this, but I do find Jhin is a little dull. I find his monstrous nature is more apparent, but his artistic beat is absent from the design.

I still like the skin, and will probably get it, but feel it has room for improvement.

OmegaHunter0811/29/2017, 1:04:51 PM1 votes

Rest in peace Jhin item 3070

ModAcademy Kayn11/9/2017, 12:22:37 AM1 votes

I enjoy it, but Cyborg Assassin is my jam, so maybe biased.

some degenerate11/10/2017, 9:45:26 AM1 votes

He should be portrayed not as a robot being overrun by a virus, but the virus itself overrunning a robot.

After seeing the recall, I had the impression that Jhin IS the virus overunning the robot, and that the body is just an empty shell that he hacked himself into. Like some kind of parasite. Hence why the body shuts down as soon as the virus detaches from the head, or why it completely shuts down as soon as the virus 'dies' in his death animation.

Which is very fitting when you really think about it. Organic bodies have their limitations - they're fragile, prone to injury, tire quickly and are easy to identify and track down via DNA. Jhin is known for being a criminal who's constantly on the run and extremely difficult to catch - so what better way to avoid the law in a cyberpunk future, than to fully augment oneself into a transferable AI that can hack into countless robotic bodies? That way he's constantly changing his identity and it would explain why the robotic body we see for his skin looks like some kind manufactured drone - because that's probably what it is. It would also explain why his right arm and his gun look like they belong to a completely different robotic model - because they probably do. This implies that he's constantly modifying the bodies he overruns with various parts and limbs from other robots and drones in an effort to fit his combat tactics and fighting style.

As for the coat, I'm surprised so many people dislike it. I think it's a great touch and a reminder that lets us know that despite his complete augmentation into a virus, there's still some humanity left in him, which he expresses through his wacky fashion to make himself stand out. Same with the face symbol - which parallels his canon lore where nobody knows his true identity and the name Khada Jhin is just an alias to go along with stage character persona - which is publicly recognized through his mask. Basically it lets us know that he sacrificed his organic body for his "art," but his mind is still very much the same. Not to mention, it reminds me of Officer K from Blade Runner 2049, who also wore a distinct green-ish coat with a heavy fur collar. So maybe it's a nod to that.

GreenLore11/8/2017, 9:44:11 AM1 votes

Overall I feel like Project jhin does actually look pretty well. Not only is it a neat reference to Zer0 from Borderlands,but I also think the idea of his facemask being his actual body is a really cool idea(as you can see during his recall,where his mask detaches and the body collapses).

And he has slightly different music for each bullet of his ult,which is also pretty cool.

Though I agree the fur collar looks somewhat weird.