Riot Needs to Rethink: Sexy Characters Have a Place in Our Future

Now this is going to be long but hopefully you get a more clearer message as to what players identify "sexy" as. I will preface this post with this quote.

**“Boys think girls are like books, If the cover doesn't catch their eye they won't bother to read what's inside.” ** ― Marilyn Monroe

Now you might be thinking, quoting such a figure may not be appropriate to the current situation. Surely beauty now is different from how it was defined when Monroe was prominent not nearly as superficial; and definitely sexual appeal in a video game is much less necessary, important or even relevant. But I beg to differ heavily, whether it be about Video game vixens versus androgynous female creatures or the true impact of a womans beauty to dictate the rise and fall of an empire in ancient times; it remains true that the physical appearance plays a heavy role in how we as HUMAN BEINGS interpret the figures we see. Whether it triggers our sexual appetite, inspires us to take on complex issues in society or allows us think outside of our own realms of reality, a persons beauty can indeed shape the way we perceive the world around us, the person in question, and even predetermine our behavior to a great degree.

I say this because not long after the trailer for the new champion comes out our League of Legends community sparks an interesting debate thats been going on for quite sometime. Whether or not League is more diverse than just it's sexually toned female characters in our game or if we are in fact quite overdue for another? Moreover is the depiction of highly objectified female too prevalent in gaming and has it negatively impacted the makeup of the champion pool in League of Legends, perhaps restricting diversity, creativity, immersion or self expression? To some that would seem to be the case, to others quite the opposite. Apparently the creator of Taliyah, Daniel Z. Klein had some strong opinions about the design of female champions with the public after receiving some strong comments about the looks of Taliyah. One quote from his twitter https://twitter.com/danielzklein , reads:

"League has a less than perfect record objectifying lady champions."

Somewhat suggesting League has had a bad pattern of creating one type of female character. He later refines his initial thoughts with the following quotes:

**"There's nothing wrong with a champion putting her sexuality front and center if that's what they're about. MF and Ahri? Makes total sense." "The problem isn't that there were some objectified women, but that there was NOTHING ELSE (if not a child/yordle)." ** Saying quite simply that he's ok with sexualized female characters but thinks characters outside the realm of children or yordels that aren't sexy could be introduced as well. Which is fine however I feel some other later quotes solidify his stance and perhaps this silly fear of having "too many" sexy characters.

"Our more recent ladies have been much more interesting. From Kalista's monstrous looks to Reksai being an actual monster..." "Restricting body types is limiting to us as creators. We can only make the one type? Screw this." "Those takes not your cup of tea? Cool! We already have 33 sexualized women in the game"

I am in no way trying to shame or bad mouth Mr.Klien, those who work on the designs of characters at Riot games or put in a negative light the new champ or any philosophies the creators may have in wanting to diversify their types of females in League. I write this to ultimately express (and possibly educate to those unaware) that sexualization of characters is not something we should negatively brand, damn, or have this "us verses them" type mentality. Most people will probably associate, embrace more openly and be excited for a badass or sexy looking character. Why? Because we are attracted to beauty naturally. It signifies not only beauty but positive things such as good health, compatibility and youth. Sure we may not be wanting to mold every champion we create into some 15 year old boy or girls soulmate/idolized future significant other; however it is important to realize and understand that every one of us on a base level makes these assumptions naturally to determine what is pleasing and what is not. Therefore you can quite easily through sheer appearance give a stellar first impression of a new champion or weird out the populace and disinterest them heavily altogether.

Some of my most favorite champions embody these same traits shown in the video or that I have just listed, , , . Two of which are covered in Armor/clothing in most depictions not showing much skin at all, the other being a child like really pale looking psycho. Despite there not being MANY features to just swoon your average tween, they have some features in splashes/skin animations such as a smile, good looking hair, a symmetrical face, decent proportions, a high pitched voice, jokes/dialogue that are humorous and playful. Of course not much of this character has been revealed and I am not judging it based on a simple trailer but the knee jerk reaction isnt really unwarranted when in fact many of the characters released so far dont have many if any of these traits. Sexy isnt just about big boobs, it can be spontaneous, interactive, joyful and fun. All of that can be gathered from a splash believe it or not. The most popular champions are often physical in right standing (generally attractive) and have cool looking splashes/personalities that make them seem mysterious, fun, and similar to our fantasies of an idol person (good or bad); not serious, gloom and doom, intellectually suggestive, fighting for righteous cause characters. A lot of them are just generic "this is a cool girl or guy I wanna be/want" type champions. (badass samurai whos ripped), (badass ninja), (gothic, petite spontaneous fun, lack of ethics, lots of energy, very popular type in anime currently), (Sexy, mysterious mischievous), (Vindictive, vengeful;, Judgmental, powerful).

Even if we look at some characters similar to Taliyah as in wandering adventurous young females who can manipulate earth such as Toph , or Terra these were little girls not really sexual at all, especially not Toph who was literately the embodiment of a tomboy who didnt like to bath or hygiene at all and played in dirt. Yet they were pretty popular, well received characters that were found to be attractive, in the new Avatar series with Korra everyone wanted to know who got in bed with Toph to have babies. There were discussions with all types of people wanting to know who had reproduced with their adorable little tomboy, we're talking about sex people if you didnt already get it and yet she originally she had just been a dirty little girl. These were attractive young females. Not in the sense for most in physical appearance but moreso in their identity. Free independent spirits that were powerful, malleable with no real code, full of personality,potential and perhaps most obvious and relate-able of all they were cute little girls.... Yes I am one of those people who at first sight of Taliyah had a knee jerk mental reaction that went somewhat along the lines of "WHAT ARE THOSE?!" distinctly noticing that her eyebrows and nose were pretty profound to say the least, perhaps too out of place, especially for a little girl. I dont mean profound as in a flared or defined nose as you would associate with people of my personal ethnicity or the very popular . I mean like... This guy. I dont know what Race or ethnicity Taliyah would most closely be associated to nor do I care the point is her nose shouldn't most closely resemble in my immediate memory a fictitious squid. Her eyebrows shouldn't be so odd that I start to focus on that oddity so much as to wonder where Riot went wrong on the drawing board. It's visually displeasing, whether you want to claim to be different or not, there are better ways to depict diverse people in more appropriate and creative means. To be blunt those features alone come off as clownish, dull, severely odd and really take away what could be a really interesting character.

With all that being said, I know this was quite long for a really minor aspect of the game but I do think this topic does shape our community somewhat and the direction League goes in as it regards the inception and creation of new characters and how we as the fans receive them. New, inventive and more intricate features which can make up a character are certainty more noble general characteristic guidelines that can come together to form some really unique stuff. However I do feel it is wise to take into consideration what may be perceived to be too odd or out of place for the idea in mind. Even though this is a game, a little girl who doesnt really look the part for the general audience in some basic ways (most primarily the face) perhaps may not be the best way to go about introducing new ideas, or pushing a trend. While I do respect the thought process and craft of those who created such a character, I also feel that you dont really need to try so hard to deviate from what many naturally find visually pleasing, to prove a point on what can be considered unique and meaningful and what cannot. A symmetrical face for example is in no way shape or form restricting you to a set "body type" and we've had quite a few of oddly shaped and creature like champions to represent that ( , , , , , , ). My feelings are not a condemnation to the character but moreso a rational explanation behind the knee jerk reaction made by the community. I do not speak for all of us however I myself had a similar first impression to many who were displeased, perhaps for similar reasons but surely not due to her cleavage or butt.

TL: DR- Those crying out for "sexy" aren't necessarily demanding more cleavage, but certainty less oddity/unfamiliarity visually in a champion. Taliyah is sort of unnecessarily fugly in the face (it's not the freckles, moreso the nose and eyebrows) which creates this massive disconnect within the first impressions of many. First impressions for champions when it comes to appearance is very important and Talyah's face doesnt really make you interested, it puts you off. Instead of making connections to elements in the video, such as powers, voice, terrain,clothing,etc and what being a little girl with cool powers going to what seems to Azir could all mean; im more interested in why Rito decided to put those eyebrows and nose on a little girl. To be blunt those features alone come off as clownish, dull, severely odd and really take away what could be a really interesting character.