5 months later and I'm still upset with Shyvana's lore update (Analysis of her new lore)
Nothing about this updated I would say was good. It took away things that were nearly necessary to her story, it dumb down many interactions between characters and was just rushed. Bare in mind that this was supposed to be a shortening of a story. During the Sylas release, some stories were shorten down in length, such as Lux.
But in the case of Shyvana, not only was her story shortened but also changed while no one else seemingly to be given the same treatment. And if I remember correctly this was suppose to be the original version that was posted. Really? This new lore was suppose to be the "original" and you didn't change it and say it was a mistake until recently? Honestly, this is far lack luster than what we got with the "misprint" version!
And I'm going to be breaking down why Riot missed the mark on this story.
#Dragon Dad
In every single iteration of her stories until her recent one, Shyvana has always had a dragon father. Her first lore mentions him as a celestial dragon. Yes, almost the same as Aurelion Sol (who I almost want to believe would have been her dad come back if she kept this lore). At the very least, he was present with her through her life until a disaster. The second lore she had mentions him again, this time though with the notion that he can shapeshift and was interested in meddling with humans. Once again, he dies but this time to another dragon and thus introduces that plot point in Shyvana's lore now (which we'll get to in a second). Third lore, she and her father are on the run and he eventually falls to another dragon pursuing them. And the 4th and previous lore heavily expanded this further with possibly the best iteration so far. Her father now is defending her against her own mother and inevitably dies doing so.
So, through every single rendition of past lore, her father has always been a dragon. The only real difference is that over time his power is being tone down, from all the way up to a celestial dragon now down to an average dragon in Runeterra. If that is the case, then why did they make the change to have her father-figure now be human? This change makes no sense. Why after so many iterations of Shyvana's lore do you cut him out of the picture? Why have this mage become her father figure now? He stole her as an egg and planned to sell her but as soon as she hatches, he develops feelings of fatherhood for her? How does that make sense? This leads to one of my next points...
#Nature vs. Nurture/What she is vs. How she is
The story of Shyvana from the previous installment I thought really brought up this idea and it was a good one to take. Her lore always talks about her losing control or viewing the people fearing her for what she is. It was a story about her now questioning if she was greater than what she was born as through the nurturing of society or if she'll someday revert to her true nature as a dragon. It's what made her interesting as a character.
But, this worked better with the mentioned above: her dragon dad. See, while it doesn't go into detail, it can be theorized/summarized that Shyvana learned her heritage, control of her powers, etc. This is the nature side of things as she was originally meant to be a dragon and has to be raised as one, while also trying to hide her nature to other. It also makes it more heartbreaking to her and torn when her dragon mother tries to kill her and kills her father, as she almost knows that she's not fully a dragon nor will ever be one (possibly). This leads to her finding Demacia, Jarvan and for once people that come to accept her in and make her one of them. This is the nurturing side of her story as she's now being taught to live in a functioning society and builds trust with others. This still leads to conflict though as not everyone views her normally and in some sense still fear her, thus she feels she can't truly fit into society, based on what she is. That's the beauty of the dynamic: is she sure that she's more of her true nature, what her father tried to raise and what her origins are, or more of nurture where she's gotten some use of living with others accepting her and trusting them? This is why I loved the line "I am of two worlds, yet I belong to neither.", it perfectly describes what her story is suppose to be about.
This is all ruined, however, when you change the dad/father figure to a human. She's now not spending time with her draconic heritage and understanding what she was suppose to be like, what is essentially her nature. She's spending too much time being nurtured by a man who essentially kidnapped her and wants her to control her powers to be more normal like everyone else in society already, when that's suppose to be reserved for Demacia. When I view this I don't go "she's caught between two worlds", I go "this feels very one sided of her wanting to be more human and fearing her dragon side more". It comes off more as a cursed child story more than anything. Not to mention that the line of living among the people was just "difficult". There's no details as to how they acted, whether fear, hatred, etc. She's just living among others still in a society than trying to be raised by what her nature is suppose to be.
#Yvva has jack shit motivation!
As mentioned before, the concept of a rival drake hunting Shyvana was introduced later in her lore. It was not until the previous lore update when instead of a random dragon, it was Shyvana's mother. This was a fantastic change as it got rid of the floating question of "what happened to Shyvana's mother" in previous renditions of her lore. It also makes Shyvana more tragic as one parent wanted to kill her while one wanted to keep her alive and paid the price for that.
But the biggest change here is Yvva's motivation. Before, Yvva saw Shyvana at birth as an abomination, something that would taint her bloodline and wished to destroy her. In doing so, she also taunted her when they would meet to get an upperhand. She had no remorse to what Shyvana was, all that she had to die. And only being able to find her through Shyvana's growing power. She would eventually find her again, but underestimated her and because of that was killed in the end.
In this rendition, she doesn't even see Shyvana born. The egg is taken from Yvva before it can hatch and she had to look over the rest of her children (which I actual will admit is kind of cool to know Shyvana has dragon siblings now). But here's the thing: she has absolutely no motivation to kill Shyvana. All that it tells is that Yvva senses her like before, goes looking for her after all the kids are moved out, and then immediately jumps to burning the mage dad and then later pops up again to fight her. Why? What is her motivation in this story now? All she does is sense her and goes looking for her. That's it. There's no prior mention of a meeting where she looks at her and sees a monster, or questions if she is who she is tracking. There is zero interaction between these two characters to have Yvva start burning everything since this story really only describes Yvva and Shyvana really meeting for the first time at the final battle.
Before it was clear cut: she saw her born, saw a taint in her legacy and wanted to remove it. Here, she has never seen her before, only senses her and wants to go on a killer rampage because of that. There isn't even a moment where she maybe considers taking her in but realizes the mage that stole her is with her so then she kills him and Shyvana tries to escape, wound Yvva or something to then cause her to go after Shyvana. She's merely going after her, because the plot of her story demands a dragon going after her. It's boring and awful.
The various details missing in/poorly transitioned to a shorter format
In the wake of shortening the story, many things are just left floating in the air. There is no detail as to why Shyvana now is born the way she is. There's no detail on mages messing with magic on her egg that caused her to become that. It's hinted that just removing the egg or change of seasons caused it but that's not interesting. It can indicate that there would be more half-dragons throughout history, but the way she's being portrayed Shyvana is suppose to be the first half-dragon in history. Having her be the way she is because of mages meddling with her egg is a better outlet since we already know magic is powerful and does crazy things, so it makes sense that it could alter her to be half-human.
There's no discussion on how the people questioned her. It's just she shows up with Jarvan, they thank her and start to get along. This was also a bit of a problem with the previous lore but at the very least, it did mention that some questioned her look. Here, it doesn't even mention that. As well, the time that she spent is non-existant. There's no sense of time before Shyvana reaches Demacia and when Yvva shows up again.
The fight between Shyvana and Yvva is also just poor. All it gets down to is the two dragons clash and then Shyvana breaks her neck. There's no description of how Yvva was having the upper hand but Shyvana makes a comeback and RIPS HER HEART OUT! Yeah, because breaking a dragon's neck sounds so much more awesome than ripping a still beating heart out of one of the deadliest beasts in fantasy.
There's no connection between the mage dad and Shyvana, his death is too quickly summed up, the ending just feels weirdly worded with the people's distrust of magic against the noble ideals Demacia was founded on, which I thought was the mistrust in magic in the first place, there's just a lot that is missing or worded weird.
#Conclusion
This update of what was suppose to be the "original" story is poor. It changes crucial things like dragon dad just being left out for some mage schmuck, no motivation to how Yvva acts the way she does other than for the sack of plot. Details on how Demacia and Jarvan view her are simply skimmed over. There just is nothing about this lore that makes me interested in Shyvana.
Really I just wanted to bring this up because of one big reason: after Volibear and Fiddlesticks were the winners of the VGU vote, Shyvana was mentioned to be very high up in 3rd and would be considered closely for when they started their next VGU. With their development blog not too long ago stating that Fiddle is now getting worked on and Voli is close behind, it does make me wonder if Shyvana may be next up.
And if so, I really want her lore to be handled better. I don't want to see this route of her being raised by a mage that stole her, I want to see the dymanic of her and her draconic father bonding and trying to make the best with what their situation is. Motivations with Yvva need to be brought back so she doesn't feel stale and actually makes sense. There needs to be a better battle description between the daughter and mother to feel more epic and concluding, and I dare say more interactions with Demacians to show us better who welcome or fear her and re-enforce the 'two worlds, don't belong to either" state of the story.
I do hope that someone at Riot takes a look at this and considers what I'm saying because Shyvana is one of my favorite champs in League. I just want to see the best that can be handled with her.
