Reaction - Gwen

Ever since I decided to do a reaction piece to Space Groove, I mulled over whether or not I'd cover Champion reveals too, since reviewing League of Legends characters is another major review series idea I had. I've obviously decided "sure", since that probably won't become reality for a good while, and that's more than enough time for my opinion to change on something.

As it turns out, Riot done threw us a curveball by hyping up the next Champion after Viego to be his long-lost wife Isolde. But in reality...

It's... a little doll Isolde made?! Oooh, NOW my interest is REALLY piqued! It'd be a nice change of pace to finally have a female Champion in this game that's literally anything other than the petite, slim body type. And by god if it has to be a little plush doll to be a unique body type I'd take it at this point. Not to mention how much potential there is in a doll Champion that--

...Oh, nevermind. I guess she's gonna be super waif and slim anyway. Sigh. Well at least they can keep some of her doll-like aspects like being made of fabric and having a creepy face with button-eyes and everything, right?

Okay, now you've just lost me. I know female Champions in this game tend to have a lot of wasted potential but come ON. I TOTALLY would've mained a creepy ragdoll that can barely walk and chases people with a giant pair of scissors, totally oblivious to why people would be afraid of a giant pair of scissors. Now THAT'S a power fantasy! But instead, we got Hatsune Miku but a little bit cross-eyed. I like pretty girls as much as any other lesbian, but jeez.

And sure, I can grant that you can see it as "Well, of course a humanized version of a doll would look a little too perfect and super pretty" and yeah, that's a valid read as any. But I don't think it outweighs the potential there was in a creepy doll design, and the "little too perfect" Barbie look doesn't make quite the same impact when all but three of the girls in this game are already cosmetically flawless to the eyes of conventional beauty standards.

She doesn't really take advantage of being a doll with her design in any meaningful way. She has stitches on her arms and neck but as far as I can tell, she doesn't detach from those points in the game. She moves a LITTLE off-kilter a bit like a doll but not in any way that's all that noticeable. She reads to me as a person acting like a doll more than anything.

And it's a shame cause from what I can tell they're trying to give her that "off" feeling mainly in her expression, but it just needs that little extra oomph to really sell it. Even if we were to grant that making her humanoid was the only way to make her work in a game, she still needs that little extra tinge of horror to make her feel more the off-horror but still well-meaning character she's evidently supposed to be, and I think sewn-on button eyes and a perpetual wide grin could've really worked.

Either way, I guess I'll like her enough in a shallow "she's nice and pretty" sort of way but that lost potential is definitely gonna bother me. She's not outright bad or anything, I just wish she was an awful flopping doll that accidentally does a violence.