On Kai'Sa and Female Character Design

There are a lot of posts chastising Riot's decision to apologize for the deep neckline on Kai'Sa. People seem to feel that Riot's design was fine and that their apology was an unnecessary concession to concerned players. I'm going to argue that Kai'Sa's design is not representative of her lore or backstory and in many ways actually detracts from these elements of her character.

The story Riot has created for Kai'Sa portrays her as a sort of dark knight style guardian, along the lines of Drizzt or some iterations of Batman. A cornerstone of this characterization is the idea that the people who she protects hate her and are afraid of her. This is backed up in her lore, during The Girl Who Came Back story line in which the villagers tell Illi, a little girl, to run away from Kai'Sa and also call her a thing (implying they don't see her as human). This is further backed up in the Kai'Sa Breach comic, in which she saves a lone traveler who is so startled by her that he runs to his death. This characterization also means that Kai'sa has very little contact with human communities. Again in The Girl Who Came Back she claims that very few people have seen her "in the flesh" and then clarifies to say in her second skin. All of this implies a sort of monstrous design, and a design which may end up being sort of hermit-like or which would at least lack many presentational elements imposed as necessary by society.

However, the Kai'Sa design we get is not reflective of either of those things. Without her mask Kai'Sa resembles a more human version of Starcraft's Kerrigan (another purportedly monstrous character who is, but for a few elements, an attractive human woman). Without her helmet any idea of Kai'Sa as a monstrous character is downright laughable. She is, for all intents and purposes, a human with purple skin and wings. This is certainly weird, but probably not so monstrous that society would outright reject her, especially considering that, from her torso up, she looks like a rather attractive human. The deep V neckline exacerbates this problem by taking up design space which could be used to show something actually terrifying or monstrous. There are a lot of cool visual elements which a designer can place directly above the heart which would lend credence to her monstrous persona.

Unfortunately the problems don't stop there. The deep V, as well as other design decisions like makeup and exceptional hair, call into question Kai'Sa's hermit status. If she's only been seen by a few people why would she go to the effort of maintaining her hair and doing makeup every morning? Where is she getting makeup? Why does her suit cut all the way down to below her breasts? That doesn't make sense as an armor, it just leaves the most important part of her body exposed. It's a decision that one would only make for social reasons, but if she doesn't socialize there is not reason for Kai'Sa to have this impractical armor.

Even if you can find some corner-case justification, this design still fails to perform the main function of character design. Most players don't read character lore, their only understanding on the character is through their voice lines and visual presentation. Kai'Sa's current design fails to reflect any meaningful characterization, let alone the one she is actually given in the lore. She just fades into a line-up full of beautiful female characters, with very little to differentiate her. At best her visual design makes her "the one with weird wings" or if the player is stretching, "the bug lady". It's honestly disappointing because Kai'Sa's lore does actually set up an interesting character, one which we may not currently see represented in the League pantheon.