The New Blackthorn Morgana is a Huge Downgrade and it NEEDS to be Fixed

XSilentSinX·Feb 26, 2019·69 votes·20,338 views

While this has been mentioned before, I feel that this issue is not garnering nearly as much exposure as the changes to Aether Wing Kayle and MUST be looked at by Riot. This doesn't just affect those that already have the skin, but all those that might wanna purchase it in the future.

While the new Aether Wing Kayle is a stylistic change from the old, the quality of the skin is still high, on par with skins like GGMF and PFE.

The new Blackthorn Morgana is just straight up WORSE in every way from her old in game skin, and at this rate I rather she not get any VU. There are 3 HUGE things missing from the new Blackthorn Morgana that just hurt its overall aesthetic immensely.

1 - The Standing + Walking Animation no Longer has Leaves Falling Behind Morgana

In the old Morgana skin, when you moved, you would leave behind a trail of falling leaves from your wings (we'll mention the wings later). When you stand you constantly have these leaves falling around you. This works with her aesthetic of being part Blackthorn herself, as though she is part tree for lack of a better term, with the leave falling from her wilting branch wings. Just look at this old skin spotlight of her and pay attention to her walking and standing animation. Now compare it to the new Morgana and you notice that the falling leaves are gone, both while standing and walking.

2 - Her Wings No Longer Look Like Branches With Leaves and as a Whole Look Worse

Her new wings look like hot garbage, lets be real here. Old Morgana's wings legitimately looked like branches with leaves on them. If you look at this screenshot of her you can see how detailed and intricate the wings are. You can see individual leaves on her and again it does well to accent her "part tree" aesthetic.

Look at this screenshot of new Morgana. Not only do her wings no longer look like branches at all, the actual skin portion of the wings don't even look like leaves anymore, it just looks like some shitty gradient they added to make it look like autumn leaves, but as a whole it looks almost like one whole piece.

3 - Her Dress Went From Being Part of Her and Alive to a Piece of Cloth with Branches Glued on

Last, but certainly not least is her dress. If you look at the previous screenshot of old Blackthorn Morgana, the roots on her dress were clearly the main focal point of the whole thing. They gave her this image of being rooted to the ground as though they were sprouting straight from Morgana, once again tying it all to the whole aesthetic she had. Not only that, but in game the roots move independently, as though they are alive and are more than just decoration.

Looking at new Morgana's screenshot, the roots take up maybe 1/3 of her whole dress and making it look like Morgana is just wearing a dress of some high fashion designer with some roots glued on as accents instead of having it look like the roots are part of her themselves.

Also, the new roots have no thorns on them. How could you have no thorns on a skin called BlackTHORN Morgana?

I love Morgana, and I love this skin and with how well Riot has done with VGU's recently I was super excited for the Morgana rework, but this NEEDS to be changed. I am DREADING the changes because you are turning Blackthorn Morgana from something unique to her just wearing a dress that is tree inspired with nothing interesting or intricate at all.

Make Blackthorn Morgana great again!

54 Comments

Nik096Feb 26, 201915 votes

I completely agree! I already post this somewhere,but i see you mentioned some things i said there,so i will justpast it here because i have few more things to add. Anyway...

I was very excited about whole Morgana and Kayle updates because i love them both and Morgana is one of my main champs.But after i saw VU for Blackthorn Morgana I am sad and angry. I bought that skin mostly because of the effect of the leaves. It was her best skin and now its almost chroma for default. They took away that falling leaves animation and thats what made this skin special. Her Q is kind of ok, but everything else looked better before. W - looked better before with roots, thorns and great disappearance animation with leaves E- now you cant see thorns like before + shield is too small (but thats problem with every skin) Ult- animation is better , but i prefer her roots looking links Wings- i wont be talking about the fact that she has butt wings, my problem is that they used too be so pretty like branches with leaves + that effect od falling leaves ... it was beautiful ... now just basic fairy wings Dance- i prefered her old one because it was great combination with falling leaves effect...but dance is not that important Death- this is what makes me rly angry ... it was so special, poetic and rly suited this costume...and now, its same as default!!! Recall- i expected so much more, so many options (i would like to see her on some kind of roots pedestal, evil laugh, and then "puff" she turns into leaves and flies away)

I feel bad for myself and all the others who spent money on this skin,because they took everything that made it special,and now its not worth 1350 rp.

lkatkolMar 7, 20192 votes

Agree, definitely not worth 1350rp. Everything you listed is on point (especially on W and falling leaves). Looks like a cheap skin now.

Emo TwinkFeb 26, 20197 votes

YES, i really want a proper dress again. Also the splash colours dont match the skin colours too... Recall was disappointing but og didnt even have one so thats okay.

OleandervineFeb 26, 20191 votes

[{quoted}](name=YoRHa 9S,realm=OCE,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=mArlNc6Y,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2019-02-26T01:58:35.302+0000)

YES, i really want a proper dress again. Also the splash colours dont match the skin colours too... Recall was disappointing but og didnt even have one so thats okay.

And

{quoted} 3 - Her Dress Went From Being Part of Her and Alive to a Piece of Cloth with Branches Glued on

Last, but certainly not least is her dress. If you look at the previous screenshot of old Blackthorn Morgana, the roots on her dress were clearly the main focal point of the whole thing. They gave her this image of being rooted to the ground as though they were sprouting straight from Morgana, once again tying it all to the whole aesthetic she had. Not only that, but in game the roots move independently, as though they are alive and are more than just decoration.

Looking at new Morgana's screenshot, the roots take up maybe 1/3 of her whole dress and making it look like Morgana is just wearing a dress of some high fashion designer with some roots glued on as accents instead of having it look like the roots are part of her themselves.

Also, the new roots have no thorns on them. How could you have no thorns on a skin called BlackTHORN Morgana?

Addressing a few things at once here. The dress is proper. The dress is also now fairly limited in how it can be designed because of her new animations. Her old dress only twisted a slight bit as she walked, nothing more. Her new dress spins, fans out, shifts and moves with her spell casts and other animations. Her dress is much more involved in her model now, and for that very reason it can't be this super poofy dress or have extra parts added all over it to the extent the roots were in the old version, because anything that's added to it has to now be animation to move fluidly with all of her other animations, and they also have to be able to bend and stretch - this however, can cause some awkward moments with the model if things like roots are bending and clipping at odd places because of how her dress is moving. This is why the dress is simpler now, across all of her skins, and why the complaint that the dress isn't up to par is not really something that can be helped unless you want to go back to her shitty circus tent dress design.

For Silent, the roots CANNOT go into the ground and be independently moving for the reasons above, and plus her dress now moves too much for ground rooting to make sense. And just so you're aware, roots don't have thorns. The plant itself has thorns, since they are defense mechanisms to protect their fruits and flowers, but the roots are always underground and thus cannot use and do not need thorns.

XSilentSinXFeb 27, 20193 votes

{quoted}

And

Addressing a few things at once here. The dress is proper. The dress is also now fairly limited in how it can be designed because of her new animations. Her old dress only twisted a slight bit as she walked, nothing more. Her new dress spins, fans out, shifts and moves with her spell casts and other animations. Her dress is much more involved in her model now, and for that very reason it can't be this super poofy dress or have extra parts added all over it to the extent the roots were in the old version, because anything that's added to it has to now be animation to move fluidly with all of her other animations, and they also have to be able to bend and stretch - this however, can cause some awkward moments with the model if things like roots are bending and clipping at odd places because of how her dress is moving. This is why the dress is simpler now, across all of her skins, and why the complaint that the dress isn't up to par is not really something that can be helped unless you want to go back to her shitty circus tent dress design.

For Silent, the roots CANNOT go into the ground and be independently moving for the reasons above, and plus her dress now moves too much for ground rooting to make sense. And just so you're aware, roots don't have thorns. The plant itself has thorns, since they are defense mechanisms to protect their fruits and flowers, but the roots are always underground and thus cannot use and do not need thorns.

In this case though, you are completely gutting the theme of one of Morgana's best and also most expensive skins just to fit it into your model. Yes, the model is better, but the skin is not, and in this case I am talking about the skin. It has lost all that made it Blackthorn Morgana and honestly looks on par with Exiled Morgana (a 975rp skin).

To put it plainly, it may look "pretty" now, but it lost its soul.

OleandervineFeb 27, 20192 votes

{quoted}

In this case though, you are completely gutting the theme of one of Morgana's best and also most expensive skins just to fit it into your model. Yes, the model is better, but the skin is not, and in this case I am talking about the skin. It has lost all that made it Blackthorn Morgana and honestly looks on par with Exiled Morgana (a 975rp skin).

To put it plainly, it may look "pretty" now, but it lost its soul.

Everything you said is subjective, so what you may have considered good about the current Blackthorn many people may consider bad, and the same applies to the new version of it.

And also, it's incredibly naïve of you to claim that they're gutting a theme to fit a model. That's what skins do. They redesign the champion, but still fit to core animation and design points of the base skeleton. Only 1820 RP skins and above actually redesign the base skeleton they're being built on.

Lastly, 975 RP skins were the highest standard of non-legendary+ skins for a while, and several years back, Riot basically moved that price point into near extinction and replaced it with 1350. Given that 1350 gives you everything that 975 used to give, it's not out of bounds that they're comparable.

Hell, Ghost Bride is on the same price level as Blackthorn (1350), and Lunar Wraith is on the same price level as Bewtiching (975), and I would argue that these 975 skins looked far superior to her 1350 skins by a long margin. But this, like your opinion, is subjective.

lkatkolMar 7, 20191 votes

Grostbride is 975 while Blackthorn is 1350. Get your facts straight. Blackthorn now looks like a cheap ass skin.

OleandervineMar 7, 20191 votes

{quoted}

Grostbride is 975 while Blackthorn is 1350. Get your facts straight. Blackthorn now looks like a cheap ass skin.

Fine, it's a further point that Morgana's Sinful and Exiled are under the standard for their cost.

roflSongFeb 27, 20192 votes

I'm with you on the roots, it would be pretty awkward now unless it got incorporated into the recall somehow.

Riot could play around with adding cut-outs to the Blackthorn dress, like the old Blade Mistress Morgana skin. That could, if done with good texture on the dress itself, give it a canopy feeling. The dress might need belled out very slightly, but I honestly feel all the models could use a bit more body in the dress, see especially Bewitching. There's an image on another thread that's a great example, it adjusts the dress towards an A-line instead of a sheath. It really doesn't need to go back to a ballroom dress, that would be excessive and the full look is there when she spins, which is actually quite frequently.

The biggest thing I'm happy with on this skin is that the wing colors (if not totally the shape) compliment the dress. The over all size of the wings here are good too, no super bulky parts.

Pyrop33Feb 27, 20191 votes

I'm with you on most of this. Is there a link to the bewitching skin edit? I agree though, the 3rd set of wings does look nice on this skin. I hope they can add a bit more detailing on Blackthorn though, I recently got it and I love it.

roflSongFeb 28, 20191 votes

There is but I never saved a link, so it's lost on the boards somewhere. I remember someone else suggesting that the colors could be brightened to help Bewitching in particular. That's... also another thread on the boards here [sg-lulu]

BavalFeb 26, 20196 votes

was just saying that to my friends yesterday

Daddy ReTaricFeb 26, 20196 votes

Arcade Sona got downgraded when she received a small rework back then. It was her best skin by far but she lost a lot of particles and effect when she got reworked so the skin dropped in popularity and lost a lot of it's users because of it. Not to be rude but if Sona got ignored back then, I doubt they will do anything for Morgana.

The23rdGamerFeb 27, 20191 votes

This is sad but true. We can hope though :)

Daddy ReTaricFeb 27, 20191 votes

{quoted}

This is sad but true. We can hope though :)

Not saying you shouldn't ! But I got crushed when my favorite Sona skin got downgraded so hard :(

AbiwonKenabiFeb 27, 20192 votes

I disagree that Arcade Sona got down graded, but even if she had, she has also since received an Ultimate skin, which might better explain Arcade's decrease in popularity. Many of the people who liked and used Arcade Sona might have switched to DJ Sona instead, which is a super high quality skin.

I still think Arcade Sona is her best skin aside from DJ. Even Odyssey doesn't pass it up for me personally.

Pyrop33Feb 26, 20195 votes

I'm hoping they can adjust the skin and her ghost bride to showcase her former glory.

roflSongFeb 27, 20191 votes

I can't even with her ghost bride right now. The stone wings are nice, if a bit dark... But then she has those black feather boas on her neck and down here back and it's super disjointed looking (Yes I know they're her wings but they look completely out of place.) I can only hope those are placing holding, because they look like they're just from her base skin. They could at least pull over the grey wings from her Pale chroma.

Her Lunar Wraith wings weird me out. Why does she suddenly have giant jade dog heads looking over her? When every other skin has downsized wings those ones swelled.

Pyrop33Feb 27, 20192 votes

Yeah.. if they dumb down the dark on the bottom set of wings i could make peace with ghost bride. Im disappointed in how it clashes with the dress. Im actually fine with Lunar wraith but it's more.. it looks more polished in comparison to the others if that makes sense.

roflSongFeb 28, 20191 votes

No yeah, it really does. I think it's the wings being such a different shape that's throwing me off. It's definitely the most complete looking skin so far.

Pyrop33Feb 28, 20192 votes

Same. if they just.. werent so dark itd be fine. I was planning on getting ghost bride too but like.. The dark wings on the bottom REALLY clash and i know im not alone in that sentiment. And I agree. though even then Lunar is missing details.

Wild GeeseFeb 26, 20195 votes

It needs some particle effects, it's an epic tier skin and it looks like a normal...

I think Riot forgot its epic tier, that or they think chroma make up for it? LUL...

Don LupusFeb 26, 20195 votes

I completely agree. The Model itself is fine but it does not do the original skin and concept justice, it's just lacking too many details and is basically " random forest witch Morgana" instead of looking like an impressive tree-spirit-sorceress.

I would like to add that I think the VFX is pretty lacking aswell. It's ... red. Nothing too blackthorn-ish about it. Exiled Morgana's recolored particles are actually more impressing than Blackthorne's.

XSilentSinXFeb 26, 20193 votes

[{quoted}](name=Don Lupus,realm=EUW,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=mArlNc6Y,comment-id=0005,timestamp=2019-02-26T07:03:28.466+0000)

I completely agree. The Model itself is fine but it does not do the original skin and concept justice, it's just lacking too many details and is basically " random forest witch Morgana" instead of looking like an impressive tree-spirit-sorceress.

I would like to add that I think the VFX is pretty lacking aswell. It's ... red. Nothing too blackthorn-ish about it. Exiled Morgana's recolored particles are actually more impressing than Blackthorne's.

I literally thought the exact same thing when they showcased the new Exiled Morgana, and that is a 975 skin, not a 1350 like Blackthorn is.

roflSongFeb 27, 20191 votes

The thing I loved about Blackthorn Morgana were the leaves and the spell animation. I've never been super excited about the model partly because the forced weird big gloves Morg always seemed to have were, well forced (except Sinful Succulence of course.)

So now I feel like I have an unpolished model with none of the spell effects that I love, and the more I see it, the more monochrome it looks.

Pyrop33Feb 27, 20192 votes

Totally agree, the W on the current looks great. The model itself yeah.. stiff and such and I agree with the gloves. but i feel the leaves/moving branches were a staple of this skin. Not sure why they couldn't, much like Lunar wraith, make it train behind her with branches. Even if they didn't move, so it would emulate her prior skin. The leaf shower would be so much better honestly even if they just did that.

GreenKnightFeb 26, 20194 votes

I don't think Riot will do further adjustments to her skins. I'm saddened by that, but we saw it happen time and time again.

BrothaFeb 28, 20194 votes

Upvoted. They pulled this shit with Feral Warwicks chains and I never got over it.

We must not let them take our leaves! [sg-shisa]

Pyrop33Feb 28, 20191 votes

Amen.

Pyrop33Feb 26, 20193 votes

I got her with the sale this week and I can say I agree. The falling leaves behind her added to the new model I feel would fix most of the problems with it. The old W animation is superb and amazing. Even if they don't listen to our qualms, I will treasure the time I have with the old Blackthorn Morgana, she's gorgeous.

The TrentFeb 26, 20193 votes

Ok to be fair... when I saw blackthron Morgana (2015) I literally said in my head "wtf is that thing." The new one looks a lot better in my opinion. Will say this tho... looks like a dragon morgana skin (like the dragon Zyra)... doesn't look like a tree as she's supposed to. I think it looks better, but it doesn't fit the theme as well as it used to.

Pyrop33Feb 26, 20194 votes

Honestly that's a great way to put it. It's modeled nicer, but i feel they could have made this one a different skin entirely and reworked Blackthorn to stick closer to the original concept. if that makes sense.

DinkDinkleFeb 26, 20193 votes

Lately I think every VGU has been a downgrade. I say this meaning that it looks like Riot has just been using the same ability effect for each VGU. Look at the new Kennen and Riven VGU, Ye the abilities look smoother but thats because they look like they use the same ability effects but in a different colour. These VGU updates are taking away what made a champions abilities look unique and interesting by just replacing them with multicoloured blurs.

I also whole heartedly agree with you the new blackthorn is the best example of a VGU downgrade yet.

BlåsigtFeb 26, 20192 votes

Eh, I like the new skin better. I think the wings do not translate that they are supposed to be made of leaves. That being said, the old model is not great at all.

The Gray WindMar 3, 20191 votes

Despite the bikini top I still like this skin better. Not disputing but saying, I think that anything leafy at a distance when arranged into a context other than the season of autumn shedding of leaves.

Nik096Feb 27, 20192 votes

I see a lot of people here talk about her dress. I agree it was cool part of her skin,but i understand it would be hard to have that now with all those movements. But thats not the part that bothers me.As i said already, I just want back her old spells animations ,her death animation and falling leaves effect. I think her new model is good,besides wings,I would prefers branches with leaves, and then her lower wings could look like roots. I dont understant whats with riot and new spells visual "upgrade", they just make everything blurry. (Not just morgana, have you seen new blue blurry spells for kennen?? It doesnt even look like eletricity) So i dont think we are subjective here with Blackthorn Morgana because with old skin, you could clearly see roots,vines when you use W or R and thorns on E, now everything is so blurry and no details. Also I cant even think for any good reason for removing death animation and falling leaves effect, besides laziness.

Pyrop33Feb 27, 20191 votes

100% here on the spells. The old W alone is more detailed. I'm not sure why. You can barely see the branches on the W on her updated model. Im with you on branches, maybe they could come from the wings and whatnot? I brought this up already, it's odd how she ditched the dress in favor of the same bra she wore in her original model. Not sure if it's valid point or not. (falling leaves missing hurts though on the wings)

MssFortuneMar 4, 20192 votes

Agree! From really amazing skin went to complete shit.

The Gray WindMar 5, 20191 votes

But... the skin looks like three different skins spun together.

SukishooFeb 27, 20191 votes

1 - The Standing + Walking Animation no Longer has Leaves Falling Behind Morgana

Those kind of things were also removed from Bewitching (bats) and Ghostbride (black orbs). So it's not the only one that lost that special little aura effect :(

Personally I think the visual of the skin is much better, I never liked it beforehand. Though it does feel to lack the vine looking effect on her W (they made them much less present now)

The Gray WindFeb 27, 20191 votes

They do need to put those back, walking particles were part of the package deal.

The Gray WindFeb 27, 20191 votes

I kind of disagree, she still has branch like wings, it's just smoothed out and more whimsical looking, the thorns on them serve that purpose extremely well, her wings' insides Suggest leaves, she is very much still one with her forest. To me this seems very knee jerk reaction since you like old Morg and you have no frame of reference so you assumed subconsciously it would just be old Morg again, I advise you look closer at the splash since she is farther away in game. I think saying that they must look exactly as they had pre rework isn't really fair as old Morgana's wings and design looked like something someone would make trying to creep/scare people.

Pyrop33Feb 27, 20191 votes

Since I have the old and the new on the PBE i've been comparing them. While I feel in the new there are some aspects that are true, the leaf wings, which I feel they executed rather well and even the new with her leaf crown. I feel It's not really an issue of "oh this isn't the old Morgana". The new one is wearing the very bra/skirt that the old one sought to get rid of. The original blackthorn was in a red dress and gloves. I feel condone artistic licence but I feel some key details were lost in translation, as well as effects. That being said, I enjoy both, just for different reasons and mean no insult to those who made the new or old. (Plus as a rule I feel Morgana moves stiff in her old model so I can't condone it there)

The Gray WindFeb 27, 20191 votes

I edited my comment upon looking back at the splash again, and I condone the fixing of her model's movements as that was old rigging and wouldn't suit the gracious look of her new model.

Edit: Graceful/smooth appearance.

The Gray WindFeb 27, 20191 votes

Also to add on, I stand by saying she was subconciously expecting old Morgana due to her language, she bashes on everything and denies the new Morgana's strong points in favor of what she is familiar with/attached to.

Nik096Feb 28, 20191 votes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9XKZCEqzNE)

Just found this video, looks like,at least her death animation is back! Now if only we could get her old w back and falling leaves effect... Would prefer branches for wings,but sadly i dont think its possible at this point :( For her W and R i would like less that red effect and more vines,roots and thorns.

Pyrop33Feb 28, 20193 votes

No i fully agree, if we could have a more detailed w again and the falling leaves id be happy.

The Gray WindMar 3, 20191 votes

Those would be gorgeous and would help reinforce her theme.

Nik096Mar 6, 20191 votes

i hoped until the last moment for leaves and better W.... Today i played her and it was so painfully dull.(I am even sad i didnt buy her white default chorma with blue essence when i could) Sure, I was reconciled with her dragon wings, but come on at least give us leaves and old W. I know her shield has some leaves,but its like few leaves thats you cant even see if you dont rly focus on that. I would change this skin for bewitching morg right now (I know people preferred her old dress,but at least you can clearly see bats on all of her spells). I would even take Exiled Morgana now, because i like new look and i would take those recolored default spells. At this point i rly hate and cant stand that new W for blackthorn skin + no leaves effect... I just cant, i rly tried to enjoy this new look,but i just cant. Sure her model is good looking,but its not Blackthorn Morgana i bought and liked. Just name it dragon master or elderwood fairy morgana...

NecrothisMar 7, 20191 votes

Its not just that skin. The compleat make over from looks to voice is shit. I could have done a better job with a cat, chalkbord, and a paintball gun.