The Potential of Main Universe Skins
Skins are great.
They let us explore known characters in different universes; some are serious, some are comical and some are something different entirely. I love the futuristic visuals of the Project line, the D&D feel of the Rift Quest line, the chill atmosphere of the Winter Wonder skins... you get the point. However, for me the most interesting universe will always be the normal League of Legends universe with all the factions we already know and love. Riot has done a great job building this universe and developed a lot of interesting characters.
In some ways they've done too well.
A lot of times I find myself using a skin just because it's a skin, but not because I prefer that version of the champion. I often feel like skins are downgrades, pulling the character out of this universe and placing them in a less fleshed out one, often removing defining traits to the point that they can feel like completely different characters.
Let's use Elementalist Lux as an example, as it is a quite popular skin. Visuals, animations, sfx, etc are really well done. The skin looks amazing. But what about the narrative? For me, Lux in the normal universe is defined by her struggle to do good in an environment that would consider her evil. By growing up being taught that she is wrong and embracing that she isn't. By trying to change a country that refuses to change. Meanwhile, Elementalist Lux is the last defender of humanity, channeling elements through her emotions. It's an epic story, but lacks almost everything that defined Lux for me. She doesn't even have a coherent personality, which makes sense for the skin, but distances her even further from original Lux. If it weren't for the "Embrace what you are" thematic she might as well be a different character. Additionally, we don't know anything about the world she lives in. Does she serve a country? What is that country like? What are those creatures threatening the world? All we have is a little flavor text about the skin and some visuals provided by a teaser.
And this issue persists through almost every skin. Even if the character stays close to it's original, it would require too much work to make every skin universe as interesting and fleshed out as the main one. And this is where in-universe skins come into play.
They don't provide any more information than other skins, but they don't need to. We know the characters, we know the universe, we can fill in the blanks. All we know about Crimson Elite Riven is that at some point some Rioter confirmed that she is a "what if Riven stayed with Noxus" scenario, even if the skin wasn't originally intended that way. (I'm not 100% sure about that, but let's suppose someone did). Yet we know about the suppressed moral struggle that is going on inside her, we know that her vision of Noxus is different than what it is, we know she's either trying to change it from the inside or is broken in a different way than she is now. We know all that without a single piece of information, other than that the character and universe are the same we know, or at least very similar.
I hope you can see the potential. Think of all the interesting "what if" scenarios in this universe. What if Piltover supported Victor's research? What if Nasus became a Darkin? What if Xin Zhao stayed in the gladiator pit? (Edit: I forgot that one already exists)
Additionally, there are interesting opportunities to show characters at different stages in their life, similar to the Captain Gangplank skin. Human Orianna, Vi in her gang days, Shadow Isles champions before the Ruination, etc
Obviously, there are some downsides. Skins are supposed to provide something new and fresh. The same characters in different costumes are not that exciting. Additionally, a lot of League players aren't involved in the lore. For them the skins would lose most of their meaning and appeal. But even if the target audience would be smaller than usual, I would appreciate more skins set in the main universe.
What do you think?
