About MF's scrapped VO, new VO and.. Aatrox
The insight into why MF's VO was scrapped was pretty interesting. Thank you, Riot!
That's said, the main problem with scrapped new VO, in my understanding, was that the players divide in two groups: the ones that love their slutty pirate sexy, and the ones that love their ruthless Bilgewater bitch murder-y and scary. And that's really awesome for the MF's character. That makes her interesting, it gives her that vibe of a good, well-written character. I think, in her next VO we should preserve that.
Now to topics I want to ask and propose and discuss:
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If it's possible it would be cool to know what was the dominant side in that scrapped MF's VO. We sure need Rioter for that. Did they try to make her more ruthless and testing showed that she needs that sexy side of her? Did they try to have a balance between those 2 sides and just failed at it? What was the % between those two sides? It would be really interesting and showed a lot of insight into that side of gamedev, which is rarelly shown.
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Now to her **next ** VO As we establish we need two sides of her: sexy and flirtatious, and ruthless plus, in a way, real Captain. As writer for GG MF said very well:
So we went back to the drawing board and added a few more ruthless lines. The ones that worked best had a very distinct tonal shift -- she'd start at flirtatious, then shift her range into a darker, more threatening tone. The fantasy worked when she was always in control of the situation and knew it 100%, and that confidence was reflected in her dialogue -- whether she was flirting, fighting, or both.
and:
I think she works best when the two distinct sides of her personality -- flirty and murdery --- are interwoven with a degree of self-confidence bordering on necessity. MF as a character needs that mountain of confidence because if she loses it, if she wavers even a little, she'll lose the aura of fear and respect around her and be killed in under an hour - she knows this, and plays everyone accordingly. That means her sexuality, her power, her decision making, her ruthlessness, her ability to deliberately drop a dude pleading for his life and dump him into the bay -- it all needs to be tied into this aura of extreme confidence, like she could never be wrong no matter what decision she's making, and no matter what mask she's wearing at the time. Like even though she's not forcing you to fall for her, her presence is so commanding that you could never say no.
Sure, it was said about GG MF, but, I think, it captured whole essence of MF's character. Confidence is her main trait. Not even like that. CONFIDENCE is MF's main trait. It's behind, behind the curtain of her whole persona. It's confidence that make her this flurtatious: confidence that MF would pull this trick of seducing and that she can do it if she just want to. Also confidence is behind that MF's ruthless persona: she knows that she could be that ruthless, murder-y person cause she needs to. MF is not just a Captain, she confident she is the Captain, that certain actions are needed to be the real Captain. That's what her VO must express.
Also, girls and women do like to play as MF. And that confidence is, I think, why. MF is the woman that her confidence truly empowers her, even if she is flirty at the moment. Confidence is beneath her whole persona, it's like MF's foundation.
- Now to the last bit. As Rioters said many times that balance between two sides of MF (sexy and ruthless) is very fragile. It's very hard to preserve that balance, and the first attempt failed at it.
I think the solution is in Aatrox's VO 
. So yeah, yeah, we all know that Aatrox's VO was heavily.. discussed by community. But hear me out.
So the main reason why people disliked Aatrox's new VO cause they thought it was very shouty. The big reason behind it was cause SkinSpotlight's interactions video was uploaded before the whole picture. And in interactions with champions Aatrox tries to engage his enemy. Come! Fight! Then community heard the whole VO, with theese moments of existential crisis. Not only shouty bits, but also his sadness. Aatrox's VO is absolutely stunning in that field. It creates that awesome character. And theese two sides create one compelling and good character
And that is what MF need. The VO that creates charater. So, apart from the fact that her confidence should be her cornerstone, that is how, I think, her VO should be built:
Most of her normal lines should be ruthless, and most of the interactions should be flirty.
So, MF, as we know, uses that sexy, so she can empower herself; it helps her with establishing power in Bilgewater, she is cunning, she is smart; and her "sexy" is just that facade. Champion interactions symbolise how they interacts with the rest champions. Her interactions should show how she engages others, how she communicate. Not all of the interactions should be flirty, but a big number of should be. And not flirty ones should be ruthless. Like really ruthless. And then, we (as players) see more of her confident and ruthless side when she says things during long movements and etc. Don't forget about confidence! It's her main persona, trait!
So, her "with the world" communications should be more flirty and some ruthless and "I'm with myself" should be all "I'm a Captain" and some ruthless. Just like Aatrox's VO where we saw one side of character in interactions nad we saw another side of character in his long movements.
I think that approach could make a great MF's VO and would make the creation of that VO easier
Thank you for reading, sorry for my english, let's discuss :) Thank you
