Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

When everyone is rebellious than no one stands out

Towboat421·7/30/2018, 9:12:33 PM·12 votes·6,880 views

It was pointed out that a lot of riots recently released characters are typically incredibly loud, aggressive, snarky, or edgy or some mixture of the four. With the exceptions of who seems calm and collected or who is fairly bubbly we keep seeing the same brash "too cool for school attitude from champions" specifically female ones in this instance.

Now im all for a interesting rouge character but it's gotten to the point where i would have trouble distinguishing quotes in a vacuum between ,, ,, , i just think riot's creative team is doing their best work when they really delve deep into making each character sound and act unique.

Take for instance just for the sake of comparison i kept these examples as female champs. Without even reading their lore you can get what these champions are about just from a few simple quotes being thrown about.

"Precision is the difference between a butcher and a surgeon" "Problems should be broken up into little pieces" "Gotcha" "Naughty naughty that gets you a lashing"

Now you can probably tell who said each of these, Camille is posh so it comes as no surprise that the first is hers, Taliyah is the inexperienced rookie with a lot of natural talent who is works to better herself through practice and approaching things diligently. Kai'sa is pretty soft spoken using very few words even her combat lines, she gets the job done plain and simple. Evelyn is well she's Evelyn.

A lot of the champs i listed before seem to have an issue of having really similar lines and ways of delivering them, irelia akali xayah and sejuhani all seem disgruntled all the time kat is old so i guess maybe she gets a pass but but the rest are some of riots more recent characters. Listening to akali during the champion spotlight made her out to be incredibly uninteresting as a character in my opinion since for all intents and purposes we all ready have her personality in the roster, it would be nice if lines didnt feel like you could interchange the region where the champion is from.

11 Comments

Umbral Regent7/30/2018, 10:55:48 PM9 votes

I feel like the way you grouped those characters up is all in the way they appear at first blush. Sejuani, Katarina, and Sivir should generally get a pass, since they're older and lack the length or depth of VO other Champions have, but Irelia, Akali, and Xayah do have a fair bit of difference to them.

Irelia (if you listen to her lines) is an unwilling leader, a symbol of resistance against the Noxian invasion. She may relish in standing against any who would oppress her and her people, but the war and the aftermath clearly wear on her. She's inspirational, and she carries herself well, but she longs for a time when there can finally be some semblance of peace.

"Remember what's been lost. Fight for what hasn't been." "I never meant to lead. I fought, and they followed." "When no one's around, I dance for myself." "I remember when I danced for fun."

She has an air of confidence about her, but she also has moments where fondness and reminiscing ground her.

Akali is, in some simple terms, a youthful rebel. Feeling held back by the traditions of the Kinkou Order, she decided to strike out on her own and make a difference for Ionia. She's neither weighed down by the expectations of a leader (like Irelia) or the rules or restrictions of her monastic background, and, while she is still rebellious, she does seem to show a ruthless cunning that makes her unique.

"It's not the killing I'm about. It's the cause." "The only rule that matters is that your enemies don't walk away." "I am my own master. Just the way I like it." "You prune the tree. I'm gonna pull some weeds."

Even with her little jabs and taunts in her attack quotes, Akali always talks in short, concise bursts, getting out what she needs to say and nothing more.

As for Xayah, she's the spearhead of her own rebellion, who has to deal not only with an air-headed loverboy as a sidekick, but also loving him, while also being a violent, angsty raven girl. She's constantly trying to play tactician, leader, and agent, to dole out payback on the world's misuse of magic that inadvertently harms the Vastaya.

"The world owes the Vastaya a great debt. I'm here to collect." "I'll rest when our homelands are restored." "I wasn't joking when I said nothing stands in my way." "I'll do whatever needs to be done. Twice. Just to be sure."

She talks quite a lot - about her cause, how much she hates people/sunlight/happy things, and about the Vastaya, amongst other things.

And I'd say if you really got into it, you'd find a lot of differences between rebellious Champions.

Camille Ferrøs7/30/2018, 9:42:00 PM5 votes

"Evelyn is well she's Evelyn" I love that

Vlada Cut7/30/2018, 10:26:43 PM1 votes

Smells like Tea. Camille

Ifneth7/31/2018, 1:48:16 AM1 votes

Xayah and Akali have similar lore and therefore similar characters: they are both rebelling against authorities. Xayah is trying to overthrow the human government of Ionia, and Akali has left the Kinkou order.

Hexs Fortune8/3/2018, 4:30:38 AM1 votes

Xayah moody

Sejuani powerful and charasmatic

Sivir Cutthroat and self centered

Katarina outdated

Akali , Irelia - I haven't heard enough to judge

JoeAnarchy8/4/2018, 3:00:43 AM1 votes

Look at the market. most young current gamers, are edgy 2008 kids, that are into emo, punk, goth, and scene culture. all of which are incredibly angsty (yes i am incredibly guilty of this myself and fall into all of the steryotypes mentioned, which is why i know where its coming from), so these archetypes work for marketing. but the world of runeterra is also at war, so from an in lore perspective, characters who have alot of angst, and motivation and energy and lust for something greater, are gonna be the ones at the foreground of that war. the controlled confident characters don't really have much to follow. Camille - more machine now than human, has some revenge plot, political upheaval is interesting but slow. and this is a combat based game, soooo.... Taliyah - kinda boring "gotta protect my people" generic good character story. (like nami) Kaisa - the queen of survival, she doesnt care about fighting a war, just surviving, the void would take runeterra, and she'd go on living in it.. more animal than human, and not in the vastayan cool way, just the primitive way.. Evelynn - is a succubus.. no real character there.. obvious fan-service.. kinda has a story with Vayne i guess? idk.. fap material sure, but not an intriguing story to follow

... now for the edgy ones Xayah - literally leading a rebellion, has so much to gain, the angst and drive is what allows her to see her vision. Sejuani - is a barbarian (for lack of a better word) she's gonna have edge and angst.. she literally has a chill on her shoulder (pun) Sivir - mercenary.. by nature gonna be edgy to some extent.. Katarina - edgy camille.. i actually don't care for her story or character any more than camille's.. its more political intrigue stuff.. Akali & Irelia - are literally at war with the noxians.. you HAVE to have angst to be that young and fight in that kind of war..

im surpised you didn't bring up Jinx, or any other piltover/zaun champion.. they actually don't have much reason for their edginess, besides marketing... i mean Jinx - is just crazy and love destruction, but we've yet to be given an actual solid reason for it.. only some theories..