Boards›Story, Art, & Sound

I... don’t understand the champion choices for the new Star Guardian skins?

Zeanix·8/26/2019, 8:05:59 PM·23 votes·12,016 views

Xayah and Rakan being the legendaries, the fact that they’re all Vastayan like champs for Ahri’s old team and the fact that Zoe is the evil character, a character who is more chaotic neutral.

They had plenty of ‘villain’ choices, Morgana, Leblanc, Evelynn or even Lissandra. But you know, Zoe had to be the one.

Ahri’s old team also feels just odd. They’re supposed to be corrupted except for Neeko who escaped, I get that, story wise it’s great. Skin wise, something just feels off, the execution isn’t there. The fact that Miss Fortune was also the only human on their team also feels odd, there isn’t much diversity of character selections.

I loved Star Guardians and the whole lore, but this seasons execution just isn’t right. I main 3 out of 4 of the selected Star Guardians, and even I’m contemplating not buying these (maybe Neeko is the only expectation but we’ll see) . I’ve seen a lot of people already complaining about it which is understandable. I don’t exactly hate the new skins, but it just feels off.

21 Comments

Terozu8/26/2019, 8:20:13 PM14 votes

The fact they're all Vastayan suggests they're all from her home planet.

Zoe fits since she's delusional and obsessed with being sisters.

Yeah I feel like the execution is off too, mainly the over reliance on purple here for the corruption. Causes them to look bland. Their VOs are going to REALLY have to sell it for them to work.

I think that Morgana and Kayle should've replaced Rakan and Xayah tbh, They would've fit equally well if not better with the same story base of one sacrificing them self for another.

Kelg8/26/2019, 8:16:30 PM13 votes

where my urgot at

u had one job riot

Ebonmaw Dragon8/26/2019, 9:26:36 PM9 votes

{quoted}

... and the fact that Zoe is the evil character, a character who is more chaotic neutral.

They had plenty of ‘villain’ choices, Morgana, Leblanc, Evelynn or even Lissandra. But you know, Zoe had to be the one.

I never understand this point. If a champion already has skins that make them look like a villain... Why people ask for more? All those champions already have a "dark looking skin", why give it even more instead of trying something different?

Same goes to Zoe, she has skins where is the "happy good girl", so, a skin where she is evil is a good change.

I mean, look at Taric for an example, he had tons of "good" skins but people wanted to see a more "dark" version of the character, and due that, Bloodstone Taric was created.

Terozu8/26/2019, 8:32:17 PM6 votes

Something else I just noticed.

I assumed Neeko was yellow because of her abilities, but she's green.

All 3 of Ahri's old team are green in color scheme. Instead of Blue Green and Yellow.

Wtf.

AbiwonKenabi8/27/2019, 6:00:51 AM4 votes

Zoe isn't really evil. From what I've heard (second-hand, so not completely accurate) she herself is also a corrupted Star Guardian that lost her old team and is now obsessed with gaining "sisters"...which she unfortunately does by corrupting them. Sure, she is the antagonist, but she's much more chaotic neutral like she is in her original Runeterran form; it just so happens her chaotic, self-serving behavior is directly antagonistic to heroes, in this case. It was an unexpected choice, but I think it works ok.

GayrensTari8/26/2019, 9:16:08 PM3 votes

I don't see there is any problem with the champion selected.

GreenLore8/28/2019, 12:07:48 AM2 votes

I think the idea for it was that the antagonists are corrupted star guardians. Zoe being the aspect of change, is actually really fitting for an antagonist who corrupts others(changing them from light to dark, just like the twilight) and with her insane morality and lack of understanding, she can easily fill the role of a villain, just as well as a hero.

Rakan and Xayah are a bit more odd, I haven't heard their voice overs, but they do fit in a way, since they are rebels in their original lore, that try to change the system and thats pretty much what they are doing here too. They rebel against the great star and want to kill the star guardians, so that they can be reborn just like them(I at least know that they have some lines talking about how they "died"). So essentially they are agents of "change" both in their regular lore, as well as the star guardian lore. Also I kinda get team rocket vibes from them, Riot likely wanted a villainous duo, so using the duo-champs for that is kinda fitting.

Heck even Neeko kinda fits. In her regular lore she lost her home and is now trying to fit in/create her own tribe for those who don't fit into the society, this actually translates fairly well to the star guardians, where she lost her original team and got tainted by the darkness, thus not fitting with the other star guardians, but also not fitting with the evil guardians. Her touch of corrution can also explain why she is so weird compared to the others.

So while I'm not a big fan of these skins, I do think they were pretty much perfect for what riot was going for. Also keep in mind that just because Zoe is the one corrupting others, doesn't mean that she is the big bad for the entire series, after all there had to be something that corrupted her first.

EDIT: Also I feel like the corrupted guardians should get their own name, like Night guardians, to differentiate them from the regular ones.

Glamorous Rammus8/27/2019, 6:03:02 AM1 votes

What about Jinx? She's human

I Yabu I8/27/2019, 11:28:41 AM1 votes

Agreed.

Star guardian Neeko is the only one that works for me there, in my opinion. Zoe, Xayah and Rakan could have worked as well, but with an "uncorrupted" version.

But honestly, I was disappointed when I saw the selected star guardian champs. I wanted so much a star guardian Zyra, who didn't have a skin since a long time.

Some artists made extremely great concept art with her, like :

https://i.redd.it/qeti1ttu22c11.jpg

Otherwise, Star guardian Yuumi, Morgana, Kayle or Sona would have been a better choice for this theme.

But it's just my humble opinion. At least, some people would be happy with the new skins so nice for them.

Tobykachu8/27/2019, 12:18:11 PM1 votes

I genuinely don't understand this logic, even from Rito standards. Morgana, though not necessarily an evil character either, fits the skin line more and has a body shape that doesn't stand out compared to other star guardian skins, already has a darker aesthetic to her theme and is also played a f*ck ton more than Zoe (16th highest overall pick rate compared to Zoe's 103rd).

Meep Man8/28/2019, 12:08:56 AM1 votes

I know that they had plenty of more upfront and obvious villain choices. But Zoe can be pretty evil. Zoe also matches very well with the theme of Star Guardians.