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How far is Riot willing to go with upating female Yordles?

JamDubs·12/25/2014, 11:06:52 PM·5 votes·4,734 views

The question: How far is Riot willing to go with their redesign of the female yordles in their Great Yordle Unification Pass? Will they risk potentially changing the characters' appearances greatly while maintaining their visual personality, a la this doohicky, or will they play it safe and essentially make them little humans with cat ears, leaving them very dissimilar to their male counterparts in all ways other than size?

I could be behind on some recent Riot post, but the latest I could find is one from Ironstylus saying that they still haven't nailed down the rules of what makes a yordle a yordle, and so the jury is still out on what female yordles will ultimately look like.

And now, my rambling- Personally, I say go all out. Furry little yordles for everyone. The females can easily retain their expressive characteristics while still having a light layer of fur to make it clear that, yep, these are little cat/rat/badger/dog things. But that's just my opinion. I understand any hesitation to do such a massive overhaul of familiar designs. It can make a character into something entirely different despite them still being "that" character.

Then again, Riot DID take Karma and make an entirely different character despite some folks' protest. Trundle too. Though to be honest, I can't imagine Riot will feel the need to totally redo their back stories other than removing mentions of the League. Tristana will probably still be "The Megling Gunner," Poppy will probably still be that persistent little yordle who sought to finish her father's job, impressing General Florin, and Lulu will probably still be attached to the Glade in some way. But the point stands, Riot has shown that they aren't above drastic redesigns.

If the new splash for Tristana is an indication of how far they're willing to go, then I'll personally be a little disappointed, not that I'll lose sleep over it. I just think it'd be a wasted opportunity. It's better to rip the bandage off rather than slowly peel it, y'know? Plus, I feel like it'd help in the creativity department. Just having small human-like females is really, REALLY boring. They may as well just be, again, little humans with cat ears at that point. But if they're all beastly in some way, then it takes a creative touch to differentiate them from the average female character, and that's a good thing. It's not like Rek'sai, where the only reason we know she's a female is that she is specifically identified as being female; with yordles, it'd be like humans. The sexual dimorphism could give way to really unique design choices. They don't have to look similar, but they do have to look like they belong to the same species as the other females, and their male counterparts.

Now, I will say this: Lulu's current personality would be REALLY hard to capture in a more animal-like appearance. Not impossible, but REALLY hard. I mean, just look at her. Could they capture that "look" in a more beastly design? She's extremely recognizable the way she is, and as cute as I think that sketch up there of her looking like some purple cat/badger is, I would definitely miss her current child-like adorableness. Maybe the Glade transformed her or something, and that could be Riot's "out" for her. Or they could impress me by capturing her essence perfectly as that cat/badger thing. Tristana and Poppy, though? They are easily recognizable in those sketches up there while also clearly being not just little humans with cat ears. I'd love to see them get that kind of treatment, if not more.

16 Comments

Ironclad Dragon12/26/2014, 12:40:49 AM5 votes

http://i.imgur.com/F43AHvZ.jpg

JamDubs12/26/2014, 9:44:31 PM4 votes

I think Rumble is evidence that males can be quite vibrant, but I've no objection to the idea that the females tend to have more colorful fur while most males are usually duller.

If Lulu is the standard, then like I said, that's a really missed opportunity. But it's also really awkward for similar reasons as the finger count. When all the males have snouts and inhuman skulls, the females all having these human-like skulls just looks downright out of place among the males. Plus they have human noses, too. I can let their more expressive eyes pass since it aids in a more feminine appearance, but otherwise, well, no reason to be a broken record about it.

It's an awkward situation all around and it stems from bad decisions early on in the game's life. As I said, I think it's better to rip the bandage off now and let the damage be done to those who would protest. Even if they changed Lulu drastically, while I'd really miss her current appearance, I'd completely understand the necessity of the change. And besides, who's to say I couldn't love the new version of her, too? I used to hate the new Karma (and I still don't like her new voice), but I've grown to like her, albeit not as the Karma I knew. The difference though, is that a fur-ification of the female yordles doesn't have to mean a Karma or Trundle level redesign to where they're so absolutely different that they're flat out unrecognizable. In fact, for the yordle girls, it might actually be an even easier pursuit.

There's one thing that the female yordles have over most of the males in their design: Very conspicuous hair. They have the benefit of having very recognizable hair styles that significantly impact their appearance. Poppy's enormous pigtails, Tristana's short, back-splaying haircut, and of course Lulu's ridiculously long locks. This is something that Heimderdinger also has, and it's partially why his relaunch went so smoothly on the visual side of things; he's still quite recognizably Heimerdinger to anyone who knew what he looked like before, due to his enormous hair. His other changes while drastic, where not as immediately startling simply because his general appearance was refined, rather than completely changed.

On the flip side, the females don't have the benefit of eyewear or facial hair, so while their head hair could smooth out a visual transition to fuzziness, if Riot were so inclined, their faces would still take getting used to for many. But so long as the silhouette and general appearance, as well as personality are unchanged, I feel it'd be for the best.

I know I'm hammering "MAKE THEM FUZZY LITTLE BASTARDS" without giving the alternative much credence, I just don't see much reason to support such a visual separation of the sexes if Riot is really serious about this whole "Unification Pass." Other than "it might piss off some players," which obviously hasn't stopped Riot in the past, it seems like it's time to change while they have a mind to do it. If they're **not **going further than Lulu's standard though, well, that'll be disappointing, but understandable.

...No clue why I'm rambling as if I'm arguing or debating.

GreenLore12/30/2014, 2:06:07 PM3 votes

What if all yordles are actually born with full body fur(with female ones having more hair on their head,similar to human hair and male ones growing more hair in the face similar to human beards) and it is simply popular among female ones to shave off their facial hair? I know it sounds kinda weird,but it would explain why there exist female ones with fur and without it,without doing something like "well some are like this and some are like that"

If that would be the case it would make sense to make poppy fuzzy,since she is rather manly(and can need some differentiation from tristana)

Gapybo12/26/2014, 6:51:53 PM2 votes

Personally I would prefer if they were all furry but I don't see that happening. I think Lulu is the closest to what Riot want's female Yordles to be like. If it was my call I would make females have maybe shorter fur, possible tails and more vibrant colors, while males have no tails or short ones with more natural shades.

GreenLore12/26/2014, 1:26:27 PM2 votes

Overall it looks like they simply chose to leave the female ones hairless,but to give them animal ears,to make them at least more similar.

I'd say that female and male yordles should have the same amount of fingers though,I mean i could understand that the amount of hair depends on the gender of the yordles(just like in real life,where men have more facial hair,than women,just a bit more extreme in the case of yordles),but that the amount of fingers differs between the 2 is kinda awkward if you ask me.

GreenLore1/13/2015, 10:55:38 PM1 votes

So yeah I guess we now got our answer

Interesting is that Tristana now has only 4 fingers,glad to see that they unified(or will unify) the yordles in that regard

JamDubs12/27/2014, 6:32:47 PM1 votes

I had totally forgotten about Granny there. She might be an indicator of either "all fuzzy" or "selectively fuzzy." But she's at least proof that there are indeed fur-covered females. The question then is, who, if any, of the female yordle champions will be redesigned as being fuzzy? Earlier this year, after Heimerdinger's new look came out or was announced (I forget which) Ironstylus said that there were two other yordles being looked at for VU; maybe that just meant the males, or maybe they're taking a hard look at the females. Poppy is certainly in dire need of an update, but Teemo's not exactly the handsomest yordle around, and Corki is the last non-fuzzy male yordle remaining. Stylus said that Lulu isn't anywhere near the top of the priority list so she's an unlikely candidate.

Gah, it's been killing me not knowing. I hope they let out some info soon.

Chromatic Eagle12/30/2014, 1:56:49 AM1 votes

We'll have to see when they update Poppy.