Confusion on Shyvana's design?

Hello,

I've had this long standing confusion with what's going on with Shyvana's design a bit. Way back in time, if we stretch to her original splash art, there's this odd inconsistency with her hip/thigh armor. Basically, we gather from her chest armor she's 'wearing' a piece of armor. Yet, if we go lower, the thigh plates start to ... meld into her skin? The armor acts as if they're huge scales, essentially.

Fast forward to her new splash art and we see the same theme continuing again. It's a lot more pronounced and defined here, too, so we can see it's basically apart of her body. Yet, at the same time, it's also wearable armor?

It's the only part of her that's super inconsistent in the message its sending. Her upper torso and shoulders are very clearly removable pieces of equipment, but her lower half's armor is seemingly fused straight to her. Its bugged me for a long time now, doubly so since her in-game model actually seems to treat as if it's being strapped down, so thus a full piece of removable armor.

Soo, what's the deal, then?