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How Qiyana's Lore (sort of) Saved Her Design And Steps in Perfecting It

Steel Lady·6/10/2019, 4:00:47 AM·31 votes·12,685 views

Alright so I made a boards post a few days ago complaining about Qiyana's design but I'll have to admit, her lore makes it work tenfold, IMO. I just sort of wish that they introduced her as the neglected, ignored, under-appreciated princess out to claim the Ixacoan throne as presented in her lore, instead of as an elemental empress, it would make her design more understandable, again, IMO.

When you actually read her lore, the design just makes sense. Where I previously complained about her looking like some spoiled rich kid, I've found that it's practically what she is, she's a spoiled princess. A spoiled princess who's probably gotten everything she's asked for in terms of materialism except for the one thing she's probably longed for her entire life: the throne. Being the youngest of, what, 10(?) sisters, she's likely lived most of her younger years in the shadow of her family's legacy, stuck as a princess never to inherit her family's kingdom. So what does she do? She hones her talents and abilities, becomes the best amongst her siblings, the best amongst her kingdom, picks up a weapon not suited for a young princess in order to prove herself worthy of her kingdom's respect.

Regarding how this is transferred to her design, I'd have to say, it's pretty well executed: the jewels, the dress, she's dressed as a prim and proper princess looking like a poster-child of obedience, save for the large, intricate, unique weapon of (probably) mass destruction on the tip of her petit manicured fingers. What makes Qiyana's design somewhat successful is the juxtaposition of Qiyana herself with the way she's dressed and the huge big hoola-hoop of elemental death, a juxtaposition between who she IS, the role she's forced to play (how she's dressed, etc.) and who she WANTS to be: a warrior-empress looking to rule the world as she sees fit.

I have to say, I'm a big fan of the concept, the only issue I had was the presentation and introduction of her character. When she was first teased and introduced, we didn't think 'disregarded princess who's actually pretty badass', the vibes we got leaned more towards 'elemental goddess looking to save the world', this most probably was the cause of the confusion with her reveal, the harsh reaction to how she was dressed, her title, et cetera. We were marketed a somewhat different character archetype than what was likely intended.

I think labelling her as the 'elemental champion' of League of Legends isn't very fitting. When you see Qiyana and her design you don't really see much of her elemental prowess, you just see Qiyana herself, her tiara and her weapon. Not to say that the design team failed in executing the 'elemental champion' archetype, I just don't think that it's smart to market her as that seeing how confused the player-base has been since her reveal. I mean, the way she manipulates the elements is very, and I mean very niche so instead of putting her elemental powers at the forefront of her character, make it something that's supplementary to her character in terms of how you present her. Sort of like saying "This is Qiyana, she's a spoilt princess who's also a badass. Oh, and she has elemental powers"

Think about Braum, his design, and how he's marketed, Braum is a champion with the 'uses big ass shield' character archetype but his title is "Braum: The Heart of the Freljord", when he was introduced, his shield wasn't at the forefront of his character because his shield didn't really look like that much of a shield (its door?), so his title focuses on another aspect of his design as to avoid confusion when distinguishing him, it's like saying: "he's not necessarily the champion with a shield, he's this and that, but he's also the champion with a shield. So this being said, maybe instead of labeling Qiyana as 'The Empress of Elements', you should label her as something else that appeals more towards an aspect of her design that's more evident. Maybe instead of "Qiyana: The Empress of Elements", a more fitting title would be "Qiyana: The Scorned Princess" (or something like that tbh I'm not praised for my creativity), that way you'd appeal to Qiyana as a scorned princess than elemental goddess, not to say that she isn't the elemental champion of the game, it's just not at the forefront of her character. "She's not necessarily the champion with elemental powers, she's actually this and that, but she's also the champion with elemental powers."

(I'm sorry if I'm barely making any sense and if my points are all over the place, please bear with me, English isn't my first language uwu)

23 Comments

ModAcademy Kayn6/10/2019, 5:51:21 AM15 votes

I get what you're saying, and you're hitting the point on the head. Design is not just what a character looks like, or if they're interesting or not. A boring looking character can be the best design in the world, if it gets across the fact that this character is a boring character. Design doesn't stop at the visual level, it transfers into their character, personality, the world they live in, everything.

In the end, 'Boring design' is subjective. Bad and good design, is objective however, because you can easily make a character look opposite to who they are. A stick figure in a cowboy hat isn't descriptive, groundbreaking or anything special, but place them in a world of stick figures, and that cowboy hat tells you just who they are; A cowboy. They've gotten the point across to you who this character is, and what his place in the world is. I said when Qiyana came out, and people were talking about her hair, that I was going to wait on what her lore was, and I was right.

Design isn't just what people see when they look at the character. It's all the things they can pick apart and inference from the character, how much they can tell you from what they are, just by looking at them.

In fairness though, teasers are vague, and always leave things to the imagination for the audience. While I think it's okay to be disapointed it's not what someone thought it'd be, I think we need to be wary of shouting out bad design when it's not what we want.

Chromatic Eagle6/10/2019, 1:40:09 PM7 votes

It’s almost like people shouldn’t be knee jerking about designs until they get all of the info.

AbiwonKenabi6/10/2019, 3:03:49 PM6 votes

For me personally, I expected her to be some kind of spoiled, haughty princess based on her design alone. I totally get what you're saying and you have good points, but I took the "Empress of the Elements" title to be something she calls HERSELF. A title given to herself since she's a bit of an arrogant character with lofty goals. She's good with the elements and she knows it. No one else in her family is really portrayed as ambitious, heck we don't even know if the royal title is "Emperor or Empress", she could be giving herself a title even higher than that of her parents. So in that way, I think her title is fitting.

The Trent6/10/2019, 8:28:20 AM5 votes

People just want to hate on good looking female champs. Kai'sa's lore wasn't even that bad, but she didn't look or sound crazy despite the lore explaining everything so rawr we hate it!!! She could've been more!!! Why wasn't the champion I invisioned put into League??!!!

Some people really gotta learn how to write a fanfic if they don't like the real lore. It isn't your story, it's riot's. Make your own god damn story. No one is stopping you.

Zyranium6/10/2019, 8:02:37 AM3 votes

We want boring ass miserable characters with bland personalities and whose touch transforms people into pure balls of sadness and despair.

GelsominoKiller6/10/2019, 8:26:16 AM3 votes

Understandable points, fair opinion.

But I still see her as a very uninspired character in all regards: lore, appearance and personality.

ZaFishbone6/10/2019, 8:33:21 AM2 votes

I wish that the Lore team didn't constantly have to do damage control for the atrocious way champions are being characterized in-game these days. Seriously, there are SO MANY new characters and reworks these days who are so edgy and hard to listen to. I honestly can't stand the new Ezreal lines, makes him sound like such an a-hole. Do Riot games really think this is what people liked Ezreal's lore wanted?

AnotherPurple3796/11/2019, 4:18:32 PM1 votes

While I still maintain the opinion that Qiyana's design is still kind of boring and unoriginal (you could stick her in any other kind of environment or another game and she wouldn't look that out of place, and besides the weapon I don't think she looks too different from the other characters), in a vacuum it does actually work quite well. It suits her lore and personality pretty well, and some of her region too.