Talon's Nonsense Design and Why he can be Considered to be Reworked After Current Tier 1 gets VGU'd
Edit: Reposting because people misunderstood my intention and wishes. I'm saying it again, no. I am not wanting a Talon rework above anyone else in the current tier 1 VGU list. I am pointing out Talon's bad design and how he's a failure in terms of it. This also is not a gameplay talk. Also sorry, can't add a [Repost] at the start of the title because of the word limit, sorry again...
First off, no. I do not think Talon has priority against most of the tier 1 candidates we have right now. This is not a post about how Talon needs more rework than the champion you are proposing. I'm just putting it out.
Talon is, as you know, a copy character. It is clear that League being a fastly growing game, Riot wanted to attract all kind of players to the game, to get even more players. Talon was one of these champs that made not because of passion or a new idea, but to attract the players and likers of a popular game series that was rising quickly, Assassin's Creed. But they had to make it so that he looked unique and not a straight up copy. They gave him stuff that didn't really make sense, just made him unique somewhat. They tried to copy, but they didn't really looked at the reasoning of what they've copied. They made a lazy design. I hope you take time to read a bit, and agree with me in the end. I'm only talking about design-wise here, this is no place for gameplay talk but I am perfectly aware of how Riot seems to be happy with Talon's kit. But remember, I am not talking about a Talon VGU for this or next year. I am talking about 4-5 years from now.
#1- The Knife Cape
I will repeat this in my second point too, while we are in a fantasy setting we still follow some basic rules of the reality and history. And the history says,
https://giphy.com/gifs/the-incredibles-edna-mode-dePaPOPNSLDsk
Capes are a huge disadvantage because your opponent can use it to disturb your balance and deal a fatal blow to you. It also effects your movements as the cape will slow you down while trying to move quickly. Capes have been used in fights, but they were used in the off-hand. They were used as a distrupter, empty hands are stupid in the fights. Because of these reasons, the cape you wear on your back to look cool and royal, is a huge downside in the fights.
Talon has a cape, divided into 5 parts with each of them having huge chunks of metal at their end. The funny part is, they got smaller as the time gone by. Stuff changed in small portions. Does it make sense even? Still no. They are just not totally absurd anymore. Once they were the selling point of him, are now in totally background everywhere except ingame. Notice how they are in the main focus in the old splash art? They first removed the cloth that connected each part of the cape to the other, then they made the parts of the cape thinner. Why does he have it? No idea.
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1y_-08pMhSM/maxresdefault.jpg https://i.imgur.com/c6cJmaU.jpg[] https://i.ytimg.com/vi/a4HpS49qaZI/maxresdefault.jpg
As an assassin he tries to be unseen, goes in and out unnoticed. Why does he have something on his back that slows him down, doesn't do or provide anything useful, alert his enemies of his absence and even hurt him? His short bio does state he does get in and out without alarming anyone. Why does he have have a deadweight behind his back most of the time? Let's say Talon uses it in fights, not taking the fact that he likes to work stealthy and this huge burden behind his back would only slow him down and tire him most of the time. We can compare them to flails pretty much. A big metal chunk at the end of a long chain/cloth. How does he control it even? Even while used in hand flails are dangerous weapons to the wielder and they are hard to predict. Talon has 5 flails in his back. Completely free. Can basically deal a fatal blow to him any second.
I get it, there are a lot of things that do not make sense with characters designs in League. But none of those make up the characters uniqueness like Talon. Wanna know what's even worse? Talon never uses the knife cape of his, the thing that makes him unique, neither in lore nor in the game. It's just... there. The thing that gives Talon half of his character is never used, never mentioned. But still, the moment you take out the cape, he becomes the long wanted helmet bro of ours. Or you know, a glorified minion...
He needs the cape of his, but first, needs a total rethinking of how it can work, why does he have it and why he uses it. This cape makes Talon unique, but it doesnt make sense, not at all. It needs a reimagination. I thought it can be made either out of full metal, can be folded into something hideable or it can be made out of knives, literally, as Kled says. But I wouldn't be against it's total removal if they somehow managed to make him look unique in the cast of league.
#2- The Armblade
Back to the historical point. Armblade makes absolutely no sense. There is not a single plus of the armblade that Talon uses compared to a normal sword/blade. It only has downsides.
You can't climb with it, you can't safely put it to somewhere, you can't fight actually fight with it because you only control it with the movement of your arm. It is kinda funny how this parallels his gameplay. It is absolutely inferior to a sword in every possible way. I get it, we're in a fantasy world but while everyone has realistic weapons,using a sword sticked to your arm is not acceptable, at least by its current form. We do have wristblades, Zed has them. The ones Zed uses are a bit more acceptable because they can work like push daggers, and Zed has dark magics on his side. Something that his shadows should be able to use.
What I propose for Talon is, make it a mechanical weapon. Much like the knives Talon uses. I'm using Talon's knives as a basis because they are fairly new. While they could've left them as they were in Talon's old design, they made them foldable and unfoldable. Those blades have two forms. They gave thought on them, it is clear. Those blades don't open up into their second form because of mAgIc. It has a certain engineering. Talon didn't find those knives randomly somewhere! It would be acceptable if it was just a weapon, but Talon has tons of those knives. So, from what I assume, someone made them for Talon. And if someone, especially a person that seeks upgrades to perfect his work, had the chance to improve his gear... would they just upgrade one thing and use their primitive unupgraded gears and tools? If the answer was yes, he'd still be using a rusty dagger.
Make the new armblade in such a way, so it has the abilities of a dagger, so it doesn't function as a downgrade sword. Make the armblade openable and closeable, twistable, like the hidden knife of Connor Kenway from AC III. While hidden blades as their own doesn't make sense too, as told by Skallagrim, this version of the hidden blades makes the most sense because you can control it with your hand, like a dagger. And just for inspiration, making of Corvo Attano's folding blade also a gif of it.
https://i.imgur.com/INzYQaQ.png[]
https://media.giphy.com/media/NSmamXpw8SeGeqOtlR/giphy.gif
So what does this accomplish for Talon?
1- You can close and open it so it doesn't become a burden in moments where you have to immediately get rid of the armblade. You can bend it and use it as a climbing tool in walls without places to hold on to.
2- It is disposable more than a blade that is long as his arm and thick as his head also glued to his arm while he holds it with his hand. He is an assassin. Not a frontline fighter. it doesnt even make sense for a frontline fighter
3- It would be a stealth weapon actually, compared to the one we have right now. It can even be hidden by a shoulder cape like the Ezio uses, if they took a similar approach(These capes are not bad because they are too small for enemy to take adventage and it doesn't slow you down because you can dismiss it pretty easily.).It is probably less lethal in hand to hand combat because it will be more like a dagger and not a sword, but still more useful because armblades do not make sense and they were never used in history. Hell, even you don't see them much in all these crazy fantasy universes.
4- He would be consistent with his design and not have an engineering beauty in his pockets while he has a caveman club on sticked to his arm.
Also you can do something wit his empty hand too. Currently Talon pulls his knives out of his ass. A mechanism that gives him a knife to throw would prove sufficient.
Another small note, all these changes can be done with small nods to birdlike features because of his name. You can think of his arms as his talons. Talon's talons.
#3-The Uniform
While in many assassin games and books, they almost always have a mask or something that covers their face to not be identified or known. But Assassin's Creed doesn't do that. They rely to get lost in the crowd, not look so extreme. While all AC games somewhat tried to follow this some failed. The game that did it the best, did it first. The design of the suit in the original Assassin's Creed looked pretty much identical to the scholars'. You hid using them. Your suit was meant to be used that way. But that's the problem exactly. Assassins' clothings were made to conceal them in the crowd. To make them look like one of the crowd. This is one of the tenets of the Assassin Creed. And also the reason for Altair's quote: "They won't find me. I'm but a blade in the crowd." Riot copied Talon's basic design from assassins of the Creed, yes. But they didn't consider, or just didn't care, about what it represents. Imagine trying to blend in the crowd. With a huge armblade. With a cape made out of knives. With a very clear tone of blue. Doesn't really work, does it? If you want Talon to blend in, you have to make him look like a Noxian citizen. If not, the copycat AC design should be forsaken. And here are the tenets of the Creed and a picture of how Altair used to hide in the crowd.
1- Stay your blade from the flesh of an innocent. 2- Hide in plain sight. 3- Never compromise the Brotherhood.
Talon also takes the iconic hood of the assassins. But there is a crystal shaped metal(?)too for some reason. I think this can be to prevent it from falling behind his head while climbing and running, extreme. Talon has those crystal design on his weapon too, no idea why. Just further proof of how Talon is a ripoff.
https://i.imgur.com/hGfwp2C.png[]
And weird design choices that can change with his rework like the weird thing at his buckle and his empty chest while he can definitely store some knives there.
Those are my reasons and my effort to make you consider a Talon update. As I said in the start, this is only design-wise, there is also a narrative and a gameplay side of it. Narrative-wise it is clear, Talon didn't get updated for 8 years for a reason. Anyways, I hope you had a good read and enjoyed it, take care!
