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Here's a theory on why Fiora's bangs/blocked eye is important.

ModCaptainMårvelous·7/27/2015, 4:43:34 AM·39 votes·3,628 views
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n9WkmbxbHUM/VbLYt60NcII/AAAAAAAAuTo/P4C3ILt53V8/s1600/Fiora_Splash_0.jpg

#Please keep in mind that this is basically head canon and merely theory.

So one of the things that happened with the Fiora VU is people were upset with her hairstyle change. Her hair was iconic, her bangs were key, the one hidden eye was core to her character. I found that odd, as I kept seeing people say that a blocked eye for a fencer is a death sentence and poorly planned. That you need both eyes to effectively fence. Why did people respond so strongly to it?

It hit me then: Fiora has her bangs like that as a handicap to you.

Fiora, as a character, is both powerful and arrogant. She relishes facing a worthy opponent and is more than happy to demonstrate how she is the grand duelist. In much a way that a martial artist would tie one hand behind his back or only fight with his legs to make it a fair fight for a weaker opponent, Fiora does the same thing. Except in fencing, she's generally using one hand now that her parrying dagger is gone. So how does Fiora handicap herself in a way that makes sense?

Simple. She reduces her field of vision and fights you with what is essentially one eye closed. THAT is why her bangs are important. She's not afraid to face you with her vision obscured, she's not scared of having her hair blocking her eyesight. She's going to fight you with an impractical hairstyle because she can STILL kick your ass and look damn fine doing it.

35 Comments

ItsGflow7/27/2015, 9:50:37 AM10 votes

Or it's because it's sexy af I mean idk ¯_(ツ)_/¯

Rinky Dinky7/27/2015, 12:10:38 PM6 votes

I thought that was pretty obvious.

Glad you realized tho

The Anagram King7/27/2015, 10:13:11 AM4 votes

I have long hair. It often covers both my eyes. You don't lose vision. :P

Certainly not to the point that it would impact your ability to stab things at close range. You'd have to be pretty determined to completely blind yourself in one eye just using hair strands. You'd need glue or something.

PeachsProperty7/27/2015, 5:17:06 AM3 votes

so..basically doing a Jax self imposed handicap?

it may seem blocked, but hair is not a solid object, when moving im sure the hair is able to be seen through enough to know where to attack or dodge/parry.

Wathehellsupdog7/28/2015, 3:59:34 AM3 votes

Or, it's because she has a... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... SHARINGAN!

(hmm... now that I think about it, some people might not even know what I'm talking about) T-T

Archeanthus7/27/2015, 9:46:36 AM3 votes

I like dis. Also having her hair covered wouldn't just reduce her field of vision, but losing an eye essentially removes your ability to see in 3D, so you have no depth perception. VERY important for a duelist, one who lunges for the heart with her long slender blade! Makes that a little tiny bit more difficult.

GreenLore7/27/2015, 1:46:56 PM2 votes

Though there isn't much point in such a handicap if you can't brag about it(saying "ha i beat you even though my hair is in my face" is a bit weird) Of course there is the possibility that Fiora has it to make the fight more challenging for herself,but I doubt that she would risk loosing for something like that,not when the honor of her house is on the line and that would actually imply that she'd make sure her hair isn't in her face,when she fights someone who is on her level(and I doubt this'll be the case)

I'd say it is simply an acceptable break from reality,I mean many champs have unrealistic armor,weapons,clothes,etc.so why would an unrealistic haircut be a problem?

TheFameAnimal7/27/2015, 3:54:22 PM2 votes

To me, (apart from being sexy as fuck) her bangs over her eye sort of highlights her cockiness. Her lore implies that she is an exceedingly cocky person, because she knows that she is a great duelist in Demacia, if not all of Valoran. Her bangs over her eye highlight that she is making it harder for herself to win (due to the prohibited vision) and that she is being very cocky towoards her opponents because she knows she can win, even with debillitated vision.

Balgoth7/28/2015, 12:51:00 AM1 votes

People were mad because the feminists have been crying that women in LoL are too sexy and unrealistic, so Riot has stopped making pretty characters. The new Fiora model is just ugly. People didn't pay money for ugly skins so they are outraged.

Annapii7/28/2015, 4:27:41 AM1 votes

The bangs are important because they flatter her angular face, rather than framing it and making her look like she has a triangle for a head. If they had just rounded her chin and kept the bangs off, I would have considered that an acceptable solution too.

RottedApples7/28/2015, 5:13:46 AM1 votes

example:

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/12/123441/2973299-rl8.jpg

gaara fight

FoxyKitten7/28/2015, 6:28:29 AM1 votes

They keep telling you guys that they have different teams for different features. Champ conception/design team, client team, game modes team, event team, skin team, rework team, splash art team, gameplay team, HUD/visuals team (font changes, new Health Bars, wthatever) etc etc and you people still keep thinking that they're prioritizing the wrong stuff.

They're working on everything simultaneously. Conception and design isn't exactly an easy process. Once you finally come up with the design (champ model and gameplay for example), then you have to make sure it makes sense as a whole and with the rest of the game and finalize it. Once it's finalized, then you have to actually develop it and make sure it doesn't break the game or is so out of balance it's not fun to interact with. Repeat if it's a worst case scenario.

Just because the skin team comes up with their ideas faster than the client team can code the new client (assuming they've already designed it), doesn't mean they're not prioritizing the client. Bigger projects obviously take more time.

And it's not the first time they explain this, but people think that you just think of an idea overnight, you code it and it's done as if it's one line of code: Gangplank.updateModelAndGameplay() or LeagueOfLegends.createNewSkin().publishToLiveBuild = yes please. You have any ideas how long it takes to come up with the perfect idea and code it bug-free? There's a lot of architecture that goes into this stuff and trial and error (unfortunately).

Shénzhì7/28/2015, 11:00:29 AM1 votes

Nope. Only goes to trying to justify a hasty decision from Riot Games in giving her that 'emo' fringe. I wish they didn't. The community is not always right.

Fiora VU1 and VU2 will always be better.

gaby1best7/27/2015, 12:23:27 PM1 votes
  • a pretty face.
Zeal Seeker7/27/2015, 4:08:56 PM1 votes

I guess in a way that make sense.

Beerstein7/27/2015, 4:22:44 PM1 votes

The reason she needed her hair put back is that she doesn't want to speak to the manager.

50000000000000007/27/2015, 8:41:18 PM1 votes

What if she actually is blind? The lore says she challenged her father who was dueling dishonorably, so maybe she was blinded in one eye before she dueled him.

BlkStar1007/27/2015, 9:17:37 PM1 votes

Agreed , also going to state her skills are now of a Duelist , rather that of an Assasin . You will actually have a chance to win in a 1 v 1 . You can also consider that a handicap .

gubigubi7/27/2015, 10:27:59 PM1 votes

That's also why her slight grin was awesome on the old splash art as well. She is better than you, and she knows it.

Loken Stoneheart7/27/2015, 10:38:27 PM1 votes

This is better than the "theory" Riot agreed with on the fly to justify giving her a random as all heck heal on her ult.