Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

Maybe I'm the only one bothered by this...

For Carthage·11/24/2015, 9:34:07 PM·9 votes·15,176 views

Poppy's rework is out on the PBE now with all of her splashes.

She looks pretty damn cool. I like it a lot. But...

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

I feel like something's off...

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

Something just... doesn't feel right here...

http://i.imgur.com/TX3To5Y.jpg

............................. Oh. That's what was bothering me...

Okay, so I may be the literal only person for this to just completely derail my entire enthrallment by how lovely the rework is. It seems nitpicky and just really douchy to hone in on this one little aspect of the picture.

But I'm going to. I'm going to point at this and I will, even though I'm well aware this will likely not change a thing, still say, "No, no, no no, no. Absolutely not. That is not okay."

So first of all, let's just establish where

http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/characters/9/227333.jpg

this

http://cdn.myanimelist.net/images/characters/13/126935.jpg

comes

https://avvesione.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dog_days_s2-13-jaune-happy-cat_ears-fang-tiger_stripped.jpg

From.

It's anime. The inspiration and sole circulation of this little practice in animation comes from anime. And that's not necessarily bad in and of itself - I am not myself a huge fan of anime, but this game already has so much influence from the crap that if that were the sole reason for me not liking it on Poppy, I would have quit long ago.

No, it's what the protruding-fang represents in anime and, by practice therein, everywhere else it's ever shown.

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f6/61/6d/f6616d7efd8b11398018525d4d6cb700.jpg

It comes from a very common occurrence in cats where their fangs will stick outside of their mouths noticeably - already a cat's canine teeth (they're just known as canine teeth for mammals, dogs beat everyone to it) do naturally stick outside of the mouth and are generally covered by their flaps. However, especially canine teeth can protrude a small way out, and again, not uncommon to see this at all.

So what does this have to do at all with anime and the Poppy splashes?

Well, the Japanese appropriated the single-canine to commonly characterize the common archetype of a "catgirl" - just some normal broad who happens to have cat parts in their cartoons. By and large, nothing really special about their existence other than they have cat features. Eventually, rather than simply buffer the appearance of somebody literally part feline, the fang became an easy appropriation to denote characters who generally act "catty" - characters who would be identifiable as having cat-like behavioral qualities or practices. This can range from simple playfulness and childishness to things like cleverness, carelessness, selfishness, eccentricity - name a quality off a cat, you're basically hitting the nail on the head. But generally, it quickly establishes in a scene and in a character a sense of overall aloofness, oddity, and above all... cuteness. If you've ever seen a point in an anime in which this trope shows up, well... you'll get what I'm talking about then.

Which brings this whole, long-ass post to its final point:

This trope is not fitting of Poppy. Neither before nor now. From the way the Poppy announcer sounded to the way she's portrayed in literally any of her splashes, she is not "catty" - she is not meant to be shown as cunning, carefree, eccentric, or even really cute. I mean, inherently she's a bit cute because she comes from a race of tiny beings with big eyes and fuzzy ears - really hard to look ferocious when you're basically a humanoid teddy bear. But this:

http://i.imgur.com/TX3To5Y.jpg

This does not match her style or behavior. It doesn't match her personality, it doesn't match her appearance. No matter how I look at it in any of her splashes, she doesn't look right. It's not executed well. Hell, even Tristana's got it better:

http://lol.esportspedia.com/w/images/thumb/1/19/Tristana_0.jpg/200px-Tristana_0.jpg

And hers is basically a chipped tooth. But it looks in-place - it's not jarring to the eye. I don't feel pulled to that one aspect of her like this trope tends to do in anime - you're supposed to notice it when it comes up. It's meant to quickly convey a sense of personality in order to make you identify a character as quickly as possible so that you can focus more on the story and further development. The fact that I notice it on Poppy shouldn't be considered odd - the fact that Poppy has this at all should be. It's out of place. In all of the splashes she either looks like a wannabe vampire or lazy anime chic. It's that one straw too much to try and bring personality to a character that is already at first glance packed with personality to the point you could probably pitch a show just based on the picture and call it the Breaking Bad sequel - just with fuzzy Oompa-Loompas.

So that's my lament - that I would absolutely adore the splash-arts and the rework if it weren't for... that. Really all I needed to say.

57 Comments

ViashinoWizard11/24/2015, 9:40:27 PM12 votes

Personally, I like it. To me it doesn't say "catty" so much as "cute but tough": she might be small, but she's (literally) got fangs. Well, fang.

S H A Y C 011/24/2015, 9:42:01 PM9 votes

Its not jarring to eye at all. it is just you. and the tooth is well in place with the pointy feline ears. Except for corki, all the yordles are pretty much adorable...and thats the point. They are the bunny guarding the cave in monty pythons holy grail. Adorable little fuzzy bunnies with a pile of bones strewn before them, smiling giving off that innocent charm as they rip you limb from limb. You showed tristana...she is a structure destroying face melting menace..and yet she is so adorable. I think the new poppy is the poppy that should have been in the first place.

Ebonmaw Dragon11/24/2015, 9:44:20 PM7 votes

Its not about her "style", its something about her race.

In the past, everyone cried because all the yordles where different... now they decided to put the same characteristics to all the members of their race: Fur, Short size, Fangs, Long animal like ears, 4 fingers, animal like eyes.

It wouldn't make sense, if only some yordles had fangs and others didn't... its not about personality, its about DNA.

SexySoapTurtle11/24/2015, 9:48:16 PM7 votes

People complain about the most irrelevant shit

ExHentai11/24/2015, 9:36:54 PM4 votes

2qt4u

HentRex11/24/2015, 9:57:17 PM3 votes

Well if you noticed this I have to ask. Have you noticed that if you look at Wolf's face from his snout up he looks like a TMNT?(With the actual nostrils looking like a mouth instead)

Also I don't mind the fang, they are slowly giving all of the yordles fangs it seems.

Poppy has literally never been like that. It's a forced aspect on her.

None of the yordles started off looking "furry". They all looked more like Gnomes, Pygmies, Leprechauns or what have you. That said I wouldn't mind her having more of a scowl look in the eyes. So she seemed a bit more gruff.

MasqureMan11/24/2015, 10:12:19 PM2 votes

All of her splash arts show a single fang, but I like it. It's cute and it's defining.

IcyPepper11/24/2015, 10:04:10 PM2 votes

Because LoL never takes any inspiration from anime, amiright?

Like a certain Star Guardian, eh?

DrCyanide11/24/2015, 10:12:52 PM2 votes

It's a trait that has been pushed forward for the Yordles as a race, likely as part of the Yordle Unification Project (think that's the name)

Lulu has it: http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/loading/Lulu_3.jpg http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/loading/Lulu_4.jpg

Rumble has it: http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/loading/Rumble_0.jpg

Gnar has it: http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/loading/Gnar_2.jpg

Tristana's isn't as pronounced (as you said, it can be miss-interpreted for a chipped tooth), but it's also there: http://ddragon.leagueoflegends.com/cdn/img/champion/loading/Tristana_0.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dwtTAzvX9MA/VkKiu1PH5jI/AAAAAAAAIKg/jesNWWVcUYU/s1600/Tristana_10.jpg

The point: The half-human, half-animal people draw some inspiration from other half-human, half-animal people represented other places. Cat-people have this, Vampires have this, and now Yordles join the list.

Jeddy01711/24/2015, 10:16:43 PM2 votes

Well,okay.........that's interesting...........wait,is that it?Oh,well then.You have fun with that nitpick.

Starkiller X5111/24/2015, 10:22:51 PM2 votes

well you havent played new poppy yet then i can tell cause theyve basically turned her into that kind of character so yes, it fits the character fine....

"Anybody with a decent amount of respect to character would mark it down as blasphemy to her name." [slayer-jinx-unamused]

seriously dude....anyone thats that obsessed with the tiniest detail of a character needs to get a life....and this is coming from a dude with over 1600 hours on league

its a single fang that an artist thought would add a bit more to the new personality of poppy....or just thought it be cute to have on her.

get...the fuck....over it

LordGeovanni11/25/2015, 1:40:05 AM1 votes

snaggle toothing isnt soley anime and for not likeing anime you know alot where it comes from

Meep Man11/25/2015, 1:03:46 AM1 votes

This isn't originally from anime. This was used in a lot of older cartoons to establish a pure, kind of dumb childish character. A missing tooth, larger teeth, a singular tooth sticking out. It was used to show off a pure, childish character unless they were evil.

BastionKross11/25/2015, 1:13:19 AM1 votes

OH! I'm so glad that's a tooth.

I thought it was a cold sore...

SpecterVonBaren11/24/2015, 10:18:14 PM1 votes

It's actually because of an actual condition that causes a person to have abnormally long eye-teeth. It's apparently more common in Japan so that's why we see it in anime so much. It's not, "Let's make this person look like a cat because a cat is cute" it's "This person has fangs, they kinda look like a cat, how cute".

It's not meant to signify cats specifically, its more to denote a feral or rough or crude character that is also cute at the same time. So, rough exterior but a kind person. Naturally this can differ depending on the character (like characters that are demons or animal spirits or cat girls like you said), but in the context of a person just having a fang, this is what it's usually used to signify.