Sejuani reignites the sexy-female-champion debate
I can’t remember exactly when it started with League of Legends, but some time ago the classic “Why is every girl a barbie-proportioned stripper?” question started to pop up. Despite arguments on the other side of the fence (“What about Poppy?”), I think the argument holds a lot of weight. The diversity of female champion design in League of Legends could be described as falling anywhere on the scale between “tragic” and “nonexistent.” I’m going to try to avoid getting into the argument much because, frankly, it’s overdiscussed by a group of people who aren’t serious about it and underdiscussed by the people who really care. What interests me is the range of responses Riot employees give as reasons for continued stream of bimbos.
A good place to start is at this thread, which is where I got the image above. The interesting thing here isn’t that the champions tend toward slutty archetypes, but more that the body type is exactly the same, regardless of tier. This was a much more interesting analysis to see than the typical “OMG LOOK HOW BIG HER BEWBS ARE.” I would love to see a witch/hag champion that has some crusty old woman flavor. I also love the silhouette of a large, ogre-ish woman in the top right.
The really weird parts of this discussion come courtesy of Riot employees, like Ricklessabandon, who says, “while i’m totally okay with seeing variety in form, i don’t really like the idea of having diversity just for the sake of having diversity. that is to say, i wouldn’t want an old chick just because there are too many 20-somethings in the roster–that’s not a good reason in my opinion. i’d want an old man/woman only if we had a good story concept and the best fit happens to be an older person. the main problem i’d want to avoid is aesthetics replacing part/all of a champion’s character, and i think that’s harder to do when you set out to create a character for the sake of adding diversity to a roster.”
What he neglects to address is that the roster is almost exclusively 20-somethings, and that for the most part there is no character design that backs this trend. Why wouldn’t a woman capable of wearing full plate mail be a little thicker in stature? Would trained warriors really be such waifs? Annie, one of the few characters that bucks the trend, is also one of the few characters for which there is actually a character-driven reason behind her aesthetics. That’s to say nothing of the fact that story doesn’t really have a place in League of Legends. I’m not saying character design/flavor isn’t important – it is – rather that Riot shouldn’t be waiting for a cool “story” to design some different champions.
I’m going to leave a link to another thread through CLGaming’s redtracker because it will allow you to see the original post and IronStylus’ red response. This also contains links to two Kotaku articles that are worth a read if you’re interested in this stuff. I’ll end my discussion here, though. Let me know what you think in the comments.
Image Credit: Lunakuneko on the official forums
On one hand it’s a bit odd that there are a bunch of supermodels running around in bikinis. There is some Logic behind this. On the other hand the consistent body shape makes perfect sense.
Our armies are full of physically fit 20something year olds because that is when a person is in peak physical condition. These women are the same age because just about EVERY character in league of legends is about this age. Zilean and Annie are pretty much the only odd balls when it comes to age.
The fields of justice are suppose to be a replacement for full scale wars between city states, I’d imaging their champions would be in fighting form. Gragas is an exception since he’s got a massive beer belly from his source of power the magic booze. Even ryze is a hulking beast of a man.
People talk about sejuani in skimpy cloths I’d like to think a feljord warrior would dress down abit when fighting on the summer of summoners rift, (Ashe and trynd fit the bill as well)
At the same time they could try to keep it classy, ahri wasn’t half bad a bit much in the cleavage department but her dess isn’t TOO revealing and it’s reminiscent of her backstory and the real world folklore associated with it. Perhaps that’s all we really need is tasteful clothing selection.
why is annie in the “I’d tap that” category?
Um, I’m not sure “cool tier” means “I’d tap that.” Maybe I’m misreading things? Could also just be a spoof on the whole teen annie thing…
Could someone explain the base problem/argument to me?
Personally, when I play a game, I don’t spend much time looking at the game pieces. Initially, I might pick up a general theme or something, but after about 20 minutes they might as well all be colored pieces from a Sorry game. Put another way, whether a chess board has pieces shaped traditionally or some weird star trek theme, a bishop is still a bishop to me.
That being said, I don’t understand what all the ruckus is about. Is it that the game isn’t “real” enough? Or that people are offended that the characters are the super-model idealized versions? Or is this a pro-feminist movement?
And yet no one complains about every male champion being jacked.
Only thing we lack are monstrous females, got too many male monsters 😛
Really,soraka and sona mid tier.This is what bothers the community instead of important problems.”hurrr gief fat old lady champ durrr gief bear champ maek assassin’s creed skin for talon no we dunt care about shitty matchmaking troll infested forums/matches and dumb report system”
I know you’re probably trolling a bit, glu, but off the top of my head I can think of a few less-than-jacked male heroes.
Ezreal
Shaco
Malzahar (monster?)
Karthus (monster?)
Corki
Gangplank
Graves
Yi
Malzahar,Gangplank and Graves are still buff,and Corki is in the midget tier.
I was a little, but the females also have champions like this. See leona karma annie for example
honestly I think after Lux’s original edition, they were like “o.m.g. never releasing another non-tappable female champ, ever again.”
and yeah, Annie in “Cool” category would be appropriate
Jeff does have a point: a crone, a fat woman (Mrs. Gragas), teen genius, anything where the toon doesn’t look like a JC PEnny model in armor/leather/lace, would be greatt