Orianna's visuals and lore
Some while ago Orianna's lore has been updated. She's no longer a robot built to resemble the human Orianna, but rather the human Orianna slowly being replaced with robotic components to save her life. Her lore is a good read, so I recommend reading it if you haven't already. (Spoilers ahead)
However, her visuals weren't updated alongside the lore. To be precise, there are four problems I have with her current animations and model.
- Her movements look robotic and unnatural. Animations are mostly abrupt and janky, and rarely fluid.
- Some animations resemble dance movements, specifically ballet.
- She has a gap between torso and hips, held together by some mechanism.
- She has a giant key in her back, which she occasionally winds up.
None of these things match with her current lore.
Her animations should look natural.
Patrons swore his work had an uncannily lifelike quality, as if he wove magic into his creations amongst the cogs and gears.
She isn't interested in theater/ballet anymore.
Orianna insisted on leaving halfway through, saying she had already learned everything she could from the show.
The gap doesn't make sense, as such a drastic alteration doesn't fit with the gradual replacement of organs.
Orianna and her father worked feverishly to develop clockwork replicas of various organs, and as each body part failed, it was replaced.
And most importantly, the key. Not only is she unable to wind it herself,
Corin installed a mechanism to power her lungs with a key only he could wind.
removing the key is also a central part in her story.
If she could create a mechanical heart for herself powered by hextech, her lungs would no longer need a winding key. Maybe then, time could move forward.
With help from the ball, she removed the key from her back and installed the new device, knowing her hextech-powered heartbeat would never again depend on someone else.
So I think Orianna is in need of a visual redesign. However, even if we pretend Riot had the resources for a visual update spare, what would new Orianna look like? As much as I love it, her new lore took away almost everything what made Orianna's visuals unique. She's a much more interesting character, but an identity crisis is kinda hard to display by graphic means.
What do you think? Is a robot-look with human-like animations enough to set her apart visually? Do you have any ideas what could be new defining features? Or does a disconnect between lore and visuals not bother you as much to require a redesign?
