Cassiopeia from a design standpoint: today and back then. Still forgotten?
It's been half a year now since Cassiopeia received her first skin after 4.5 years of waiting: Eternum Cassiopeia. Sadly it didn't manage to live up to the hype - for one, it wasn't a legendary skin. Secondly, the chosen theme seemed too random and out of place for her.
However the biggest issue for this skin was the splashart which simply missed the mark when it came to the delivery. I'd like to refer to the concept sketches by the original artist for comparison: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/wQdxV
As you can see, some of these concepts portray Cass in a seductive way while the other half shows her in more predatory way. And yet the final splashart ( https://i.imgur.com/pnvckj4.jpg ) threw all of that way and gave us a Cass in a stationary pose devoid of any dynamic or appeal. She isn't even looking at the viewer, the angle itself already makes her appear terribly thin while half of the picture isn't even being filled by the champ itself.
It's clear that the original artist had the skill to really do her justice, and yet Riot decided to go with a version of the splash that betrayed all of that - it's a flatout disappointment.
Speaking of splasharts, I'm also disappointed about the lack of updates for her other skins which haven't aged well at all. There's one more thing in specific I wanted to talk about: her lack of lore. I've been talking to some of the fellas in that department at least 2 years ago when the last Shurima event happened which Cassiopeia for some reason wasn't even a part of, so I asked them. Their response: she'd most likely get some attention during the Noxus event.
Now fast forward in time and we're already past that, yet Cassio's biography still consists of merely SIX LINES of text. Meanwhile Rammus (!) has a biography that is 75 lines long. In regards to overall lore, Cass also lacks interactions with modern champions or high tier skin releases while newer champions like Braum, Azir, Aurelion Sol or Ivern constantly get attention via taunts or other remarks. Not even Katarina, her own sister, seems to care about her.
I was sincerely hoping things would be getting better for the snakelady after all these years, and yet all she received was a random skin with a disappointing splashart and zero attention beyond that point. Heck, even the summoner icon for that skin didn't come out until 2 months later after they listened to the complaints. I'm still waiting for her to get a single ingame emote, meanwhile some champs already have up to 3 (!) of their own.
It really seems as if Riot only released that Eternum skin to merely kill off the "meme" while neglecting every other aspect about her. She still lacks lore, she still remains entirely irrelevant during events, she still has no updates for her other skins, and she still doesn't have any emotes or other forms of fanservice going on. I also don't get why she was left out from the recent lunar revel event while every other champ received a golden chroma of their own.
's icon. Every other SG skin got an icon, but all Elise got was an icon of the mecha spider (one that, when you look carefully, you question how the legs even go in that position.). We never got one for her human form despite shyvana getting one for both, hers and dragon, as well as lamb+wolf, fizz + SHARK.. and this recent SG line all only got one of their forms.