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Something's still bugging me about Swain's VGU

Malicious Metal·9/16/2018, 5:09:25 PM·23 votes·14,639 views

Disclaimer; I love the new Swain, he's my fourth highest mastery champion and I think his Vo is THE best in the game. The VGU gave him a place within league's updated lore and he does fit better into Noxus.

That being said!

I'm still kinda sad that Swain lost his monstrous aspects as well as him being crippled. Back when the VGU was teased the phrase "The price of Ambition" really intrigued me and I expected Swain's VGU to actually deliver on that theme.

But lo and behold, Swain's demonic pact doesn't really seem to have any drawbacks, at least not outwardly. His Demonic limb is functionally better than a regular one and he seems to be stronger then before.

But maybe I just went in expecting more. I loved old Swain and something about his thematic, outwardly being regarded as a feeble cripple, but having this tremendous sorcerous power just hiding underneath his skin, was something I adored.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/9b70a68dea825c270f158baee66d5482/tumblr_pahqh3OSFi1vpm6who1_1280.png (Courtesy of the lovely ahem Uncletouchylich, do NOT check that tumblr, it's not for the faint of heart)

It's just something I wanted to talk about, especially seeing that I bloody adore monstrous champions and Swain's raven form made up a lot of his appeal. If you thought "Swain" you thought Birdmode and it having been lost through the VGU still pains me.

While the reasoning behind that decision might be sound I still feel that there's a limit to how many things you can strip away from a champion during a VGU before they become completely unrecognizable from their prior self.

In the end I just feel it's a case of lost potential, seeing that the Ravenform would've looked bloody amazing, and my friends and I always talked about how Northern front could be an Owl and Bilgewater a parrot. I like this new Swain a lot, but it's little things like that that still make me remember the old one fondly, because he was very unique in his own rights and some of that has now been lost forever, never to return to League of Legends.

37 Comments

OurLestrade9/16/2018, 5:54:38 PM6 votes

Loss of monster form is by far the main issue with an otherwise great rework. I expected the mask going from a mile away (Although Pyke then coming out undermined my logic a bit), the cane while missed is understandable and he still has the injured leg so it's acceptable, and while the long hair is strange I expected it to get neatened up a bit.

But monster bird turning into something from Final Fantasy? Pfft. I play Tyrant Swain to at least keep some of the birdy goodness but it isnt right. It really was core to the Swain fantasy, you could imagine some bulky bruiser trying to run down a mage only for him to turn into a beast and get into a close ranged brawl.

ModKnightsKemplar9/16/2018, 6:23:22 PM5 votes

I can agree with that.

I think the caveat here is that there may be a price that hasn't yet been revealed... I am still in agreement with you, because I think that's a cheap trick for Riot to pull instead of working it into his character. He could've at least lost some friends or a lover on account of his bargain, so he's a bit bitter about the trade-off. That could've worked well in his VO and lore even without significant visual changes.

RyzeTheSmurfMage9/16/2018, 5:25:07 PM4 votes

There aren't any prices to pay cause Swain dominated the Demon.

Vlada Cut9/16/2018, 5:53:01 PM4 votes

He is still crippled tho. Irelia cleaved it and is keeping it in her Woode Division adventures museum while Swain is (ab)using the demon's power to have a replacement for his arm and other sort of demonic dank stuff.

Warlord Dienekes9/17/2018, 2:05:59 AM3 votes

Personally, I think the idea of just some general making a deal with a demon and then actually getting the better of it through genius and trickery is freaking awesome. Way more interesting than all the other monsters with human meat suits that are running around the lore.

The problem is, we didn't get to see it. Swain walks in talking about his personal sacrifice, and his genius, and just how big his titanium balls have to be. But it's basically all just wind. And so a lot of his, admittedly amazing, dialogue rings kind of hollow.

SEKAI9/16/2018, 8:20:46 PM2 votes

Maybe Swain can't use his left arm for more than destroying things, so he's still functionally crippled to an extent just probably not so during combat. But then again, Swain isn't even in combat apart from dealing with assassins or something.

If I was Swain's writer, I'll write in something like this. I mean, can you imagine that? That Swain is using his demon left arm to wipe his ass or something like that?

But really though, if it is actually written like this, I'd say there is another reason why it's better to leave it like that. It will capture the often false-promise of demon pact/deals, where the unwise would think they get something good out of it, but in reality the demon always wins his deals; just like Swain thinking he just got an arm back and extra, but in actuality he's still basically disabled with a power he really never use most of the time, and the demon is undoubtedly waiting for their due. Swain also thinks he has subjugated a demon.... oh he's going to see about that. I'd very much like to see that the new Swain is designed this way to foreshadow his highly ironic realisation, downfall, and demise from playing games with demons some time in the future.

That's my take anyway. It could be just that Swain's writer just wanted him to be "crippled but not really", or maybe it's some 200 IQ foreshadowing and allusion at play here. Who knows.

Drago3269/17/2018, 12:59:48 AM2 votes

The one thing i didnt want them to tamper with too much was the R transformation. If you were on r/SwainMains for the last few months before the rework, we really wanted Swain to keep that monstrous form because honestly.. R is Swain and Swain is R.

Yes, there was beatrice and nevermove(which for some reason they thought was THE MOST ICONIC ABILITY in his kit lol, its only the name that makes it a play on words but i still love it) however the ultimate is what makes Swain, Swain. Which is why it hurt to see that they wanted to make him a hybrid man/raven thing.

Myren Quiddle9/17/2018, 9:14:37 AM2 votes

I also love the new Swain, but I recently looked at some older videos and I have to say though, that I miss the old Swain, especially his ult... He will be missed

KestrelGirl9/16/2018, 6:03:40 PM2 votes

I'm pretty sure Swain actually did sustain a leg injury as well as losing his arm to Irelia. There's a reason he has a cane, just in case he needs it.

ChunLii9/16/2018, 6:21:20 PM2 votes

Yeah, this is what I said about the crippled trait. Here is relevant part of a post I made about Swain few days ago.

The demon arm is nice and cool but I hoped Riot wouldn’t have seen that as a replacement for continuing the crippled characteristic of Swain. Imagine if a character loses their eye and gets a bionic eye as a replacement which is actually ten times better than a regular human eye... It’s not really crippled.

Destroy then Improve Viktor

Sorry I had to put that in there, it reminded me so much of Viktor.

Continuing on, one clever way I’ve seen the writers circumvent this problem is to add an emotional trauma attached to losing their biological features. So then the focus would be more on the psychology than the physical But Swain doesn’t have that problem, in fact he thanks Irelia for cutting off his arm.

Arakadia9/16/2018, 5:52:25 PM2 votes

Their excuse was because it wouldn't make sense with his lore. Which would be fine, but they are the ones writing the lore and could accommodate any artist change they wanted.

I still can't believe they were willing to entirely rid Swain of ravens as a whole.

VelvetCrotch9/20/2018, 2:50:12 PM1 votes

I personally am very HAPPY that his ult looks much cooler now and not like a plague infected monster bird right from the chaos of warhammer universe.

The biggest part I am happy about is that he is no longer crippled. It looked sooooo dumb IMO and my friend an me years ago made jokes about him calling him ugly grandpa.

BUT NOT ANYMORE! ^^ really happy about these changes.

Dead Anime Dad9/16/2018, 7:44:06 PM1 votes

Swain much like Galio didn't really retain anything from their old design. Swain lost beatrice, his cane, his bird form and started using just for men. And Galio outright states he's not a gargoyle now. It's still sad to me much as I like their current forms too.

Chromatic Eagle9/16/2018, 8:52:35 PM1 votes

Doesn't he have a limp?

Tegash9/17/2018, 5:51:47 PM1 votes

To be fair, Swain is still wearing a leg brace. And even though he has a demon prosthetic, that doesn't mean he's not disabled. He still walks with a limp and he has a hand that's not his own.