About Annie's design between Origins/In Game
So like many people, I was wondering if Annie was going to get a basic VO and VU update tied to her appearance and behavior in the Origins video. After all, it seemed like the current splash art seemed quite different from the character design depicted in what was probably the most ambitious character lore rework Riot has ever undertaken. However, I was surprised to see that this wasn't to be the case, as revealed by DyQuil in the main Annie thread:
There's a new bio on Universe, but no color story (we figure this animation works as that).
Not planning any in-game updates because we feel her splash is high quality and well-liked, her gameplay is pretty solid, and she is still a very popular champion (especially for new players) so we didn't see a lot of value in changing any of that.
Her current VO was actually a contributing factor to this origin story: the team asked what Annie would have had to go through to find burning other people fun and playful, and decided there was probably some real trauma there. Which means that ANNIE: Origins really is just that - the first spark that leads Annie to develop the personality we see and know in-game.
I was pretty confused and a little disappointed. After all, her Origins art looks nothing like her base skin splash art or in game model, and it felt like a bit of an oversight to essentially leave the details of how she went from a simple dress and brown hair to the red haired, cat ear wearing character we see on the Rift. But upon reading through her updated biography page on the Universe site, I noticed this little detail in the second to last paragraph:
"Believing most city adults to be like her stepmother, Annie has kept to the wilder parts of her frontier homeland. On occasion, she will use her disarmingly adorable exterior to be taken in by some pioneer family long enough to be offered new clothes and a hot meal. However, fire and death awaits anyone foolish enough to try parting Annie from the stuffed bear at her side."
And it hit me. The discrepancy wasn't an oversight, it was completely intentional.
[zombie-brand-mindblown]
MIND. BLOWN.
Major props to your Lore team, Riot. That was a well done hand wave. It makes logical sense for the character, and allows you to have her Origins version and her In Game version both exist in the world you've created.
