Gangplank Visual Changes: A Cartoon Pirate

MythicTwister·Jul 8, 2015·3 votes·3,912 views

Don't get me wrong, I love updates, but this model looks like a step backward...

The current Gangplank looks athletic, younger, and more vibrant. I don't mind making him older, changing his facial features, but the physical proportions for the new gangplank model make him look more like a joke. The huge gap between his legs... Does he waddle? This idea where his beard makes a 90 degree turn where it hits his chest to stick straight out... It's pretty comical.

And the wardrobe I don't really mind... but remember this guy?

This looks visually like a step back, towards the super bland "blackbeard" ripoff gangplank used to be. I really hope his story hasn't been trashed. It had potential, and the idea of "Vincent the Shadow" held promise for story development!!! The day he met Miss Fortune!!!!!! Don't remove that, expound on it!

6 Comments

DreamspitterJul 9, 20153 votes

{quoted}

Don't get me wrong, I love updates, but this model looks like a step backward...

The current Gangplank looks athletic, younger, and more vibrant. I don't mind making him older, changing his facial features, but the physical proportions for the new gangplank model make him look more like a joke. The huge gap between his legs... Does he waddle? This idea where his beard makes a 90 degree turn where it hits his chest to stick straight out... It's pretty comical.

Except it doesnt . It's a freaking T-pose!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4qYMEJjTe6g/VZ2yQHHqJ1I/AAAAAAAAFPU/YSK-oabdfjI/s1600/gpcompare.jpg

The beard can move.

SolideusJul 8, 20152 votes

Eh, The newest one is much less generic than the last one. His face and beard are more distinct and his clothes are more in line with the world he's from. He's a bit cartoonier (big hands) but he is in line with the game's visual style; the previous model wasn't fitting in as well style-wise.

MythicTwisterJul 9, 20151 votes

I completely disagree. He's in "line" with the game's visual style because it's newer content. Of course they would align the color palette and increase the definition. The point is not that it isn't well made, the point is that it goes in the wrong direction style wise. If they wanted to be less generic, they could have decided not to iron him down into the flattest pirate trope they could possibly find.

Yes, he has more depth to his voice over, because the ancient VO it replaced was ancient. He's stripped of his story as the son of a Pirate captain, and likely his former interacting with Miss Fortune will be watered down as well.

He needed an update, a fleshing out of his character, not a new identity that they stole from blackbeard.

SolideusJul 9, 20152 votes

By visual style I didn't just mean colour. Live-gangplank is way more generic and non-distinct; standing in his own he could've come from any number of games with a pirate in it; the new GP is recognizably a LoL character. I think Gangplank fits really well as an older man, and his characterization doesn't at all seem flat; if anything he was more flat before. Lastly, his story being vastly different and "watered down" is very much jumping the gun based on nothing.

MythicTwisterJul 12, 20152 votes

Style preferences aside (I'll grant you that you honestly like the new visuals, sure, that's ok), there isn't any "jumping the gun". This is a long established trend with no end in sight. Riot reworks, leaves a paltry smidge of lore in their wake, and promises to add more lore in the future, somewhere else, on the website, soon, it'll be great. Fast forward 8 months and they provide nothing. Its the same silence when we asked about the institute of war, and it makes people expect that one day they will announce that they're oh so sorry but lore is too hard so they decided not to make it anymore.

SolideusJul 12, 20151 votes

They haven't actually said they changed him though; they added a summary. Considering they just announced they're doing stuff before the month is out, it is premature to throw around hyperbolic conclusions before we've seen how things shake out.