...Goddangit, Riot.
But anyway, first we have one more Space Groove skin, this time as Gwen's release skin, which puzzles me as to why they didn't just release Gwen last patch. Eh, I guess whatever to make a skin event last two patch cycles. Sadly she's on the "eh" end for me. She's just another space fashion model, which yeah, makes sense for her sewing theme, but I just feel she has a little too much aesthetic overlap with Lux and Samira, personally. That and for a Gwen release skin, I would've rather they rebooted Sewn Chaos if nothing else just to give us a creepy doll alternative to canon-Gwen.
This patch also has two new Blackfrost skins, a skin line I'm not all that wild about. I'm not even sure what the conception of the skins are, other than I think it's a "what if" skin line that spins off of canon Runeterra where each champion in it is a minion of Lissandra? I think? I guess "Dark ice" is unique enough, but they still just feel like one of the more standard "Elemental" skin lines. Anyway, as you can probably tell, Blackfrost Sion here isn't moving me any. He's cool I guess, but he kinda just looks like a generic mook you'd beat up in an RPG.
I swear Riot is teasing me. Me specifically. Me, a relative nobody on the internet. Riot knows me personally and my begging for new Vel'koz skins, only to release some "kinda cool" skins right next to skin lines I would've LOVED to have a Vel'koz skin in. First it was Infernal Vel'koz last year, where he came out immediately before the Psy Ops skin line, where I would've loved to have gotten a brain-in-a-vat robot not too dissimilar to Mother Brain that has enhanced psychic abilities. And NOW, they release THIS right after introducing Space Groove, which is ANOTHER skin line that would've been PERFECT for Vel'koz, at least for me. I would've adored a Vel'koz skin where he's a funny cartoon alien eyeball thing with globby lava-lamp tentacles and what have you. And instead I just got Infernal Vel'koz but cold. MAN.
Well, that's not entirely fair. To me, Blackfrost Vel'koz here is easily the best of the Blackfrost skins, and I SWEAR that's not Vel'koz bias. There is certainly something novel in a skin that says "What if Vel'koz was one of the Watchers", and the spell effects ingame look pretty. I'm just miffed cause, like with Infernal Vel'koz, it's so predictable. It's slightly less of a big deal because, surprisingly enough, there wasn't a 4-year gap between this and Vel'koz's last skin, but still. As much as I probably will get it whenever I inevitably pick up League again, it's still a bummer cause I should be ecstatic that Vel'koz got new skin love twice so quickly, but it's coming at the cost of both of those skins just being "it's neat, I guess."
Just, damn. I love blue and purple as a color scheme, so you got me there.
Next are three more Dragonslayer skins, another skin line that's never impressed me much. It peaked with Pantheon, and even then, that's mostly because his ult animation is so badass.
As much as I suppose a dragon skin for Galio was inevitable, for whatever it's worth, he makes a cool man-dragon. His ornate wings give him a distinct silhouette as far as dragons go. I suppose I could only say he'd be nicer if he was more obviously windy, since being a wind dragon seems to be his shtick, but not a lot in his design really communicates that if it weren't for the particle effects around his fists.
Oh, and maybe even a name change. I get it's cause he's in the Dragonslayer universe, but he sure as heck isn't slaying dragons. His recall animation has him protecting a baby dragon for pete's sake!
Then there's Dragonslayer Kayle, which is easily on the better end of Dragonslayer skins. Maybe even winning out over Pantheon if nothing else simply because she gets to have her wings out all the time, and also get into the weirdness of being a dragon lady with multiple sets of wings. Which almost makes her look a bit like a Yu-Gi-Oh monster. And I'm glad this time around they have her turn less human the more leveled-up she gets, cause her base design easily has the problem where she's thematically supposed to become more and more a divine embodiment of justice, and thus sheds more of her humanity as she gets closer to said divinity, except she takes her helmet OFF and sheds more of her armor to make her look... more human???? What? Anyway, this does the opposite, which is good.
...It just sucks her monstrous final form is so damn undercut by her goddamn boob plate and cleavage window. How can I take this bestial Kayle seriously when she's wearing armor that's trying to seduce me?
Lastly, there's Dragonslayer Twitch. The skin itself looks cool and the design isn't half bad for a fuzzy, gremlin-dragon. My one problem with it is that it doesn't suit Twitch that much? It's nice someone unexpected gets a Dragonslayer skin, but I dunno. Maybe that's just a me-thing.
Though if Twitch is a dragon who is clearly a Dragonslayer, what exactly are the logistics of the Dragonslayers? Especially with Kayle? They all look like half-dragon people themselves! And Twitch is just a dragon outright! Why are all these dragon-people so mad at dragons that they wanna slay them?!
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