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Why are Shyvana's skins so anti-dragon?

Overlord Forte··29 votes·4,040 views
Shyvana/SkinsTrivia

That is to say, why is only her classic skin very distinctly 'dragon woman with scales, colored skin, and reptilian features'?

Boneclaw, Darkflame, Ironscale, Ice Drake, and now Super Galaxy, do not effectively convey the fact she is a bloody a dragon (half-breed, if you want to be super technical). Even her Championship skin is relatively weak on that front, though notably standing ahead of the pack with her reptilian facial features.

It's quite literally only her classic that portrays her draconic nature, while the others are content to place her into a strange, caucasian-white woman field of 'look at how generic I am'. She falls extremely hard into the 'woman who turns into a dragon' visual spectrum, often to the point of being generically indescript (Boneclaw and Ironscale are particular offenses in this regard).

There's nothing really to say 'look at me, I'm a big mean dragon' until she uses her ultimate ... aaaand then she goes back to being generic.

It feels a lot of effort goes into making her transformation ultimate look spiffy than the actual base character you spend more time in than anything else. A very distinct 'yeah the human form is there, but isn't the dragon one so much cooler? Look at how cool it is' sort of message.

22 Comments

Pyrodinium17 votes

I can see your point.

Skins tend to focus on the alternate fantasy of the champion, but maybe Shyvana skins are underselling the half-dragon part of the character and making her human model just a human, rather than a draconic hybrid.

Although, personally, I think Ice Drake Shyvana does a good job on portraying her draconic nature on her human model.

Overlord Forte5 votes

Ice Drake I'm on the fence about. It could work 'as is', but it suffers from the contextual problems her other skins impose. So, rather than being an 'acceptable outlier', it turns into another symptom of the problem. I feel it would benefit from 'more dragon' touch ups, much as Championship, over all though. A case of close but not quite there, if you will.

HeresyUntoFedex7 votes

Kayle's helmet also understands what it's like for an important part of a champion's identity to get forgotten when it comes to skins.

Helmight6 votes

For some of the skins, it's because they're conveying an alternate fantasy. SG Shyvana is a take on Shyvana if she was a mecha pilot in some anime, with her dragon form acting as her mech and her human form the pilot. Ironscale I believe was intended to be a take on what a full-human Shyvana might look like.

However, I do think that the remainder of her skins - including her in-game model - should do more with her dragon side. Right now, Shyvana's splash arts convey "sexy woman who occasionally turns into a dragon" instead of "half-dragon."

Ebonmaw Dragon3 votes

Because she is not a dragon, she is a half dragon.

The Last Ballad3 votes

Nami is half fish, but you see that part of her clearly enough. It would be like if Nami's fish tail only made an appearance for a little while after she uses her ult. You wanted to play a half-fish lady, not a lady that only sometimes becomes half fish. So same with Shivanna, you want a half-dragon, not a lady that randomly turns into a dragon when she's mad. She should have something that reflects her father's side of the family in her face/body(other than completing the transformation randomly)

Ebonmaw Dragon4 votes

[{quoted}](name=The Last Ballad,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=GdvEb7Xs,comment-id=00000000,timestamp=2016-05-03T21:52:11.032+0000)

Nami is half fish, but you see that part of her clearly enough. It would be like if Nami's fish tail only made an appearance for a little while after she uses her ult. You wanted to play a half-fish lady, not a lady that only sometimes becomes half fish. So same with Shivanna, you want a half-dragon, not a lady that randomly turns into a dragon when she's mad. She should have something that reflects her father's side of the family in her face/body(other than completing the transformation randomly)

No, she is a Merai, not a "half fish"

GreenLore3 votes

I think there are 2 reasons for this: **1.**Her ingame model is actually lacking scales(same goes for her first splash art),that was something that got only added with her new splash art,which is likely why almost none of her skins reflect that,since most of them were released before the new splash art was added(I think the only exception might be championship shyvana)

**2.**There were times where riot focused a lot more on humanoid champs(partly because of fanservice) and I think most of shyvanas skins got hit by that(the exception would be championship to some degree).

Though with all that being said,I think that there is another reason for SG-shyvana being more humanlike and thats because the SG line is heavily influenced by mecha anime.(weirdly the actual mecha skin line seems to draw more inspiration from transformers than from mecha) So human shyvana is likely supposed to represent the pilot,while dragon shyvana is the actual mecha.

Pyrodinium1 votes

If I remember correctly, Shyvana's base human model has scale-like armor plates.

Also, aren't the Transformers mecha? They are from Japan and all that.

GreenLore2 votes

Nope it doesn't have scales,just some weird lines on certain parts(the back and the legs)

http://www.lolking.net/models?champion=102&skin=0

And no Transformers are giant robots. The difference is that mechas are giant robots that get piloted by a person,while robots are either remote controlled or act on their own. And at least mecha zero sion doesn't seem to have a robot,though that might be because he was hacked.

Drehirth2 votes

grrrr really want mecha/battlecast shyv

ArcticSirius2 votes

This always bothered me. Ironscale comes off to me as "a human that turns into a dragon", but I would like to see boneclaw, darkflame, and (maybe) ice drake take more draconic aspects than human.

Stardew Valley1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Overlord Forte,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=GdvEb7Xs,comment-id=,timestamp=2016-05-03T19:28:29.088+0000) There's nothing really to say 'look at me, I'm a big mean dragon' until she uses her ultimate ... aaaand then she goes back to being generic.

Well this is technically true. She isn't really a "big mean dragon" until she uses her ultimate. But she's only a half-dragon (she can't be a dragon all the time; that's what aurelion is for) I get what you're trying to say but I wouldn't necessarily say she looks generic. But I think that's the exact point of her ultimate. To look like a "big mean dragon," she has to use her ultimate. In her dragon form, she is more feared. If she was feared all the time, her ult wouldn't have the same effect.

Embertine1 votes

Boneclaw, Darkflame, Ironscale, Ice Drake, and now Super Galaxy,

What do you mean super galaxy Shyvana? I can't find anything about it.

Please give a link so I can see it.

DrCyanide1 votes

http://www.surrenderat20.net/2016/05/53-pbe-update-taliyah.html

Embertine1 votes

Thank you!

DragonShea1 votes

Playing the devil's advocate here. But She is in her classic splash art. More human than dragon but the same is true for her dragon form. it's like 25/75% regardless of which ancestry is tapped into the most. She should be able to transform into a fully human and dragon form but i'd inexperience is keeping her from mastering her transformations along with rage issues.

Blue Moon Wolf1 votes

Hey, at least she's got a variety of themes in her skins. the themes for MonkeyKing skins are:

  1. Sun Wukong after leaving Laozi's Crucible (Volcanic)
  2. Sun Wukong when he fought the armies of heaven (General)
  3. Sun Wukong themed after the Jade Emperor (Jade)
  4. A ghost version of Wukong (Underworld arguably being his only skin that breaks from the Journey to the West theme)
  5. Classic Sun Wukong (Radiant)

At this point I'd kill for a Super galaxy Wukong to break up the "THIS IS WUKONG, ISN'T THAT AWESOME " monotony :L

CarameI Frappe1 votes

http://i.imgur.com/b8TR0F7.jpg

Shyvana The hell have you done to me, Riot?

But seriously even Shyvana's face with this model says it all ... not a big fan of the Super Galaxy skin at all.

PbJMpP4xzk1 votes

i see your point and being disapointed with her since her release

warmcorntortilla1 votes

Every time I think to buy a Shyvana skin, I have this problem. I LOVE her base skin! She looks badass! So, so badass. Like, someone I'd WANT to sleep with, but who would eat my corpse when she's finished with me.

The other Shyvana skins are boooring. Where is my dragon lady?? I want scales, dammit! Scales! If she's in human form with no scales, you have an anthropomorphic half-dragon who looks... just like a person. With scales, you have an anthropomorphic half-dragon who looks LIKE A DRAGON! It's pretty sweet.

Deus Imperator1 votes

Player with almost all shyvana skins here, Except boneclaw and championship until i get it from hextech

I mostly love all her skins, i think part of the reason that she is most of the time human is that for the dragon form to trigger she has to be extremely angry, like tryndamere tier of angry, you cant be that angry 24/7 right? also her human form lets her socialize with other champions and people

and i honestly find her ironscale skin attractive, its my favorite one, until i get championship shyvana thats it

just my 2 gold, But No, i dont like the new super galaxy skin and not planning on buying it, its just not my cup of tea

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