I find it ironic that Seraphine goes out into the streets and sings to Pilties and Zaunites about how they can unite and prosper...while standing on a floating podium whose battery is fueled by generations upon generations of innocent souls, whose society was split into two parts, one being used as fuel and the other comatose for eternity.
literally alot of people from piltover use these souls/brackern crystal. camille's heart, caitlyn's gun, hell evem blitzcrank himself is powered by brackers souls.
But.. wasn't there also the fact that the Brackern wanted to help Seraphine in uniting pilt and zaun? Everyone uses those Brackern things but the one she had told her it wanted to help her, no?
Orianna in her lore has canonically helped more people in Zaun and sacrificed more than the character whose sole motivation is to "unite Piltover and Zaun"
Yeah, Riot just fucking forgot about Orianna. She’s the opposite of Seraphine but Orianna did more to help Zaun than her, heck her entire backstory death is because she gave her own filtration device to a little girl, fucking up her organs due to the Zaun Grey
@@rimurutempest4945 ORianna is the best noodle ;w; And honestly her story is definitely one of the best if not the best written stories in the LoL universe. UNfortunately nobody at Rito cares
@@konradklukowski1009 I don’t think she rot, but due to her inhaling a bunch of the toxic Zaun Grey, her body and organs started failing rapidly. At first it was just some prosthetic limbs, then organs had to be replaced, and the final piece was her heart starting to fail and she had to replace it too.
So just for fun, here's an imaginary rewrite of Seraphine's lore: The daughter of a middle-class family in Piltover, Seraphine grew up between two worlds, the towers of Piltover visible out of one window and the pits of Zaun visible out the other. She was always a delightful child, strangely quiet and cooperative, but always ready with a smile. As time passed, it was discovered she had a talent for magic, namely an empathic talent that let her feel the emotions of others. But as time passed, her talent grew to dangerous levels, where the emotions of other people were a constant torrent making it impossible for Seraphine to think clearly, or to understand which feelings actually belonged to her. Unable to handle the surge of emotions, her behaviour came to disturb other people, as she would suddenly become aggressive, burst into tears, or hysterically laugh for no apparent reason. Eventually, she became a near-recluse, hiding away in her house trying to block out the incessant psychic noise. Desperate for their daughter to be able to live a normal life, her parents spent a large part of their wealth on a headband powered by a powerful hextech crystal, that muted the onslaught of emotions to bearable levels. For a time, Seraphine grew up as any other girl, remarkable only for her love of singing. But then there was the whisper, first just in her dreams and then a growing presence in her waking mind. Fascinated by this voice and able to sense its curiosity and confusion, Seraphine talked to it....until one day, it answered back, wondering where it was. She told it about her home, about Piltover and Zaun, and tried to find out where the voice had come from. What she got in return--visions of the intelligent creatures sleeping in the deserts, their soul vessels stolen by those who sought their power--shocked her to her core. Horrified at having exploited another intelligent creature for her own comfort, however unwittingly, she decided to smash the headband and return the crystal, even if it meant forsaking the protection it gave her. But the voice stopped her. It told her that even if it was restored, others would still plunder its kin. Rather than sacrifice her own happiness, it wanted Seraphine to try and stop the trade altogether. But she didn't see any way how she could persuade the powerful of Piltover to turn away from their secret source of power. She didn't have anything except her empathic talent....and her voice. Over time, a plan was hatched. Seraphine dismantled her protector, and commissioned something new with the crystal at the core--a floating platform that would not dampen her magic, but rather reverse it, projecting emotions to her audience as she sang. Frightening as it was to open herself up to that flood of emotions, it was just about manageable. And with this edge enhancing her already superb singing, she set out to become a voice that could not be ignored. Many people who hear of her think of her as being cute, but flighty and irrelevant. But to those who listen to her performances find themselves deeply moved. Always hidden behind a veil of metaphor and light-hearted entertainment, Seraphine sings with an infectious passion--when she speaks of how good it is live in Piltover, "never looking down from the bridges", she sows doubt and makes the people of the upper city question the cost of their progessive paradise. And when she performs in Zaun, heart-rending ballads such as the tale of the two steamfitters challenge the sense of hoplessness and passive acceptance. The message at the heart of her songs, whether they are outwardly frivolous or tragic, is always one of hope--dare to change. Dare to look outside the way you think things have to be. You deserve better. Our home city can do better. And those she sings to find their attitudes softening, their comfort with the status quo becoming uncertain. She is attracting attention. Many in high places in Piltover find the discontent she sows to be inconvenient and to be shining a light on truths they think are better off unquestioned. And in the depths of Zaun, Urgot has taken note of her increasingly popular message of unity as a threat to his doctrine of nihilistic strength. Seraphine knows this mission will get harder as she spreads her word. But she has been quiet for long enough--and there are too many people who need her voice, because they have none of their own.
@Paul Gibbon what if add something that explains the origin of seraphine's power like: "seraphine was a brakern that got reincarnated as a human that couldn't remember her past life as a brakern at all. seraphine, being a brakern reincarnated as a human, somehow finds remarkably weird and uneasy feelings at walking like a normal people would do, sure she can stand like a normal person at all and feel nothing weird about it, could this be because she is a brakern at her past life? This uneasy feeling just by walking was not that a serious problem at all but most of the time, this is a detrimental to her perfomance as a singer, and this is where her floating platform comes to a role." im not a writer at all so pease forgive me if anything here is kinda out of place but i hope this works
I would like to see a comic about Camille storming into her backstage (or where she goes after a protest concert) and Seraphine is running for her life with her crystal constantly telling her what to do to extend the distance between them, like, gameplay aside, she could be really clumsy in hand-to-hand combat as she never was in a situation like this before, and this is the begining of her grown into a champion that can get in the battlefield
I think the most disappointing and frustrating thing about Seraphine is the fact that she has so, so much potential. She could be a protest musician, or a Jimi Hendrix-larger than life figure that burn her guitar just for show, or someone that sell her soul to a demon so she can become the best musician (crossroad devil myth). She isn't the worst character in League, I've grown to like her much more, but she is still one of the worst character in-term of missed opportunity.
@@peacepham7838 There's a long history in the West of popular musicians using their platform to protest against politics and policies of their time. My understanding is that it became prominent during the Vietnam War with songs like "Fortunate Son." For more recent examples, look at artists like Rage Against the Machine, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino.
You know how slavery, segregation, and inequality are a big deal in America? Well a lady named Nina Simone sang a song condemning acts of hate, called Mississippi Goddamn httpss://m.ruclips.net/video/LJ25-U3jNWM/видео.html
Fun fact, is lore is so fucking basic to the point of being the Sona lore but with some modifications. Because the entire "i feel the emotions of the people" comes from Sona and his instrument. Worst part, even Sona, with his fucking forget and basic lore, has more deep than Seraphine, because she face the mage persecution and the tries of Sylas to recruit her. Seraphine comes from the marketing team, not some people who want to tell some story.
I think Seraphine being an angry and disillusioned punk protest singer would fix so much about her. Might make her a very different character, but she would work so much better. Not only would it fix the skarner problem, but she would aesthetically and morally fit into the world she came from. Who could hear all of the agony in zaun and stay naive and optimistic? She would also look more interesting, be more distinct from Sona, and bring something new to kd/a. This video really put all these pieces together for me. Fantastic work. I'll make a punk Seraphine.
I think that naive optimism is kind of the point though. To hear all this agony and STILL remain hopeful and optimistic that the kindness and empathy in people’s hearts will ultimately win out takes an exceptional strength of will, which I believe is part of her fantasy.
@@cartoonishidealism582 Which is great! That can actually still be written as a protest singer - the main thing she's missing as an idol who wants to bring unity is, as this video said, a lack of a "cornerstone" that will hold everyone together in unity. It could be that she sings to Piltovans to be more aware of what Zaun is going through, and sings to Zaunites that there is hope on the horizon. She could use her platform (figurative platform not the literal one) to gather sympathetic Piltovans and organize support for Zaun. She can be idealistic, optimistic, and naive without being flat. She could honestly believe that her singing about the troubles of Zaun would bring better understanding to Piltover, but be unaware of the other forces that want to keep the status quo (e.g. Camille).
They _really_ should've just attached all this K/DA stuff to Sona and then go this direction with Seraphine. That would be a hell of a two hit combo of being, yknow, actually really cool stuff that the player base would probably like. No matter Riot's mistakes, I now have some new inspiration of a potential character concept, one that might protest with art and magical abilities, like what could've been with Seraphine.
@@phantasticgoose a good way to fix her lore without changing anything that was already done could be to continue her story, my idea is she could try a very naive way to make her plan to unite both cities (random concert when she'll talk about zaunite suffering) and after that get threatened by camille, by a simple "you continue your shit, I execute your parents" and finally have a obstacle in her story, to make her realise that what she want is not that simple
@@guillermoolivan610 unless they adjusted the story around the idea of her needing them in some way ! Taking this angle would have meant the story could have changed
Well, when your startng point is "She'll end up in KDA" and your goal is "Get everything finished by the deadline," certain routes look appealing regardless of whether they're necessary.
Riot could've atleast made a non-popstar champion that they then insert into their fictional popstar group. C'mon Rito, Evelynn is st straight up a textbook predator and she still made it into KDA
@@peteomarjebdollosa9170 Yeah, that’s what’s super weird to me. Like, the champ didn’t need to be a popstar as well. Champs don’t give a shit what their skins are, Akali is a ninja, Evelynn is a demon, but they’re still part of KDA skinline, so why did Seraphine need to be a popstar?
@@rimurutempest4945 Because KDA Seraphine the character was created first before Seraphine the League character. She was 100% thought up by a Riot corporate think tank.
@@tgr3423 Even then, she could still be a musician, just give her an aesthetic that doesn't look like a "we developed a rejected K/DA skin as her default skin by mistake" mix-up from the design team.
After watching Arcane season one and seeing the class conflict of Piltover and Zaun brought to the screen so poignantly, Seraphine’s “I’ll sing and unite the two cities in harmony” theme just feels even more toothless. I can’t imagine her working into the show as she stands in the current lore. Like my hope is that if Seraphine is involved in Arcane season two or (maybe three?) that she IS more of a protest singer bringing the plight of the undercity to the attention of Piltover. But honestly I’m not confident in that happening. I also get the feeling that the Brackern won’t be involved in the story either.
Maybe they can tune her down. Make her think she's imagining things when she hears the voice in the hexcore. Make her a bit optimistic at first, then meet Vi and turn a little sad. Then meet Ekko ad cheer up. She could also slowly grow into her gift maybe, as she learns to listen to people with different perspectives. Make her gift come from character growth.
"Seraphine’s “I’ll sing and unite the two cities in harmony” theme just feels even more toothless" That's actually not bad as a starting point. A naive young idol who genuinely thinks she can unite Piltover and Zaun if she just sings hard enough. And from this point you just need her to get slapped in the face with the reality that most Piltovian nobility could not care less about Zaunites. It's not that they're not aware of Zaun's struggles, it's that they knowingly turn a blind eye to it, and that's not something you can solve with just singing about sunshine and rainbows. Her character growth would be realizing that instead of trying to convince Piltover that "class inequality bad actually" and "maybe we shouldn't exploit the souls of trapped living beings for technological progress", she needs to unite Zaunites and make them rise up against the oppression. "I also get the feeling that the Brackern won’t be involved in the story either" It would be hard to fit them in, considering the origin of hextech has been changed entirely to be Jayce and Viktor's invention instead of them being mined by Piltovian clans. One possible way to still have Brackern-powered hextech is to reveal that after Jayce had created synthetic hextech crystals, wealthy Piltovian investors sought out even more power and eventually discovered how to harvest the power of Brackern souls. But to be honest, Arcane has already retconned a lot of things and dropped a lot of character connections (like Jinx and Ziggs agreeing to live together because of their shared love for making things go boom). I wouldn't be surprised if they just left everyone connected to the soul-powered crystals out of the story or at least retconned them to be using synthetic crystals.
What I really hate about Seraphine is how freaking all over the place she is. She doesn’t really belong anywhere, character wise, appearance wise, location wise, she feels like she was from another world, which makes sense since Riot focused more on her skin lore than her actual lore.
They could've gone the isekai route, and would've been more interesting than what was presented. Like have the twitter Seraphine fall into runeterra, that's something that would be both parts new to LoL and also "lazy" enough to only make one single character
@@JoeyScraggy no isekai is boring and does not fit the "theme" of the universe. It would be really hard to pull it off and I think it would have caused alot more divide in the community.
I feel like an obvious solution to Seraphine's lore and design problems is a total reversal: Instead of a rags-to-riches story founded on an innate empathy, make it a story of privilege, of discovering the cruelty that sustains your privilege, the horror of realizing you live upon a mountain of, in this case, *literal corpses.* Make her the child of wealthy aristocrats. She's a pop star not to unite the cities, but because she *wanted to be.* She's not evil, but she's naive, she's childish, she wants to sing her songs and have fun. And then, the first revelation: A concert in Zaun. Maybe she suggests it as an act of kindness, maybe she's dragged into it by a producer. Doesn't matter. She sees, even from the top of the undercity where she performs, the horrors of Zaun, and more importantly, the cost of her life in Piltover, that she's never had to pay. So we have Seraphine not as an intrinsically pure heart preaching harmony for harmony's sake, but a person of privilege who's bubble has been burst, but who's decided to use their power to try and unmake the systems she was born into. Go into the protest singer angle like you mentioned, but from the distinctive point of view of someone who has *everything* to lose from a change to the status quo, but demands change anyways because *it's the right thing to do.* And then, at the apex of that story, the revelation about the Hextech Crystals and the Brakern. The knowledge of how deep that mountain of corpses truly goes. *And she would share that knowledge in a heartbeat, because it's the right thing to do.*
But in truth... She can't just easily mention it. She does talk about it. But the rich are quick to silent or try to silence her. She speaks a truth so unbelieve that those who hear it can't believe it. And the one honest person that does?... Is a Bracken. She meets this creature because she found out how to resonate with one of the creature. She is freaked out until the Bracken begins to sing to the crystal. A song that she heard and can now understand a bit more and she resonates. She becomes Bracken's top supporter and protestor to the use of Hextech crystals. And as she still bumbles through the most political takes, she is absolutely willing to put her life on the line with what she loves and what she means.
@@darkroads2591 I was very recently a teenage girl, rags to riches is still a very popular fantasy. Why do you think there are still so many Cinderella inspired teen movies?
@@darkroads2591 honestly, I think it resonates in a different way. It’s a different fantasy. Many teenage girls feel like they aren’t taken seriously when they express their views and thoughts about the world. Having Seraphine stand up to the piltover elite despite being blown off, insulted, and silenced while being a pop star that everyone loves is like, peak teenage girl fantasy. Why do you think the Hunger Games and ya dystopia are so popular?
Here's my shot at the brackern issue: "After a long long time of Seraphine calling out to the voice she hears inside her dampaners(because she is an empath and would want to help a creature in need). The voice gathers itself enough to actually communicate and teach her the ways of brackern song. A lone voice wanting to speak out to the world, and now with a friend to help it. Seraphine then dismantles the device and *according to it's will* uses the crystals to power her podium and speakers. She may not be able to talk to all the brackern inside the crystals, hell it took so much to even talk to a single one. But if she can raise her voice and unite the people of Piltover and Zaun, when she finally finds a way to reveal the truth, she *will* be heard." There, now she has a good reason to be using the crystals(because that particular brackern allowed her to) she has a good reason to not be instantly able to reveal the truth(besides the rich aiming at her neck, there's no easy way to communicate with the crystals, not to mention convince others that they actually are what they are) and her goals are now multi-layered(on top of wanting to unite both cities because she legitimately cares, she wants to liberate the brackern from their abuse when the time is right). I'm not a writer though.
@@rafaelcastor2089 No, that's a big point in his video, this isn't the riot writers' fault. They are given instructions, and so many limitations. This definitely isn't the result of riot writers writing shit and acting like it's good and sending it out, it's more complicated than that, please watch the whole video.
We have to keep in mind, Piltover is the embodiment of capitalism and Riot is a corporation. They should be some of the last people with a voice that you would expect to call out capitalist systems of oppression and suppression.
@@quickredf0x143 Ehh, kind of, you know how america is in regard to their image, ads, hollywood movies, series, they make it seem like capitalism is the enemy, or put evil corporations as the enemy, and consumerism, etc. yet they do that themselves, it's like they're saying "guys we gotta beat the evil system!" and then they do nothing about it and people think there's a difference, when there isn't. Not trying to go into political discussion since i'm not avid in that sense, but it's a little ironic, how they do that, frame themselves as heroes, world savers, and whatever, and they lie to themselves saying they help small countries grow and expand, while they opress them and control them, and take their resources, etc. it's a little sad the amount of people that actually think the united states are the good guys, but whatever
What's ironic is that when you think about it, the mental health issues and the self-doubt Seraphine experiences in the KDA verse would have improved somewhat the Runeterra lore imho. Think about it: what if Seraphine told people about her telepathy and no one believed her? What if the parents gave her the dampener to help her manage what they perceived as a mental condition instead of a special ability? So by the time she starts hearing the voice in the crystal, she has already internalized the idea that the voices she hears are auditory hallucinations and so she keeps quiet about the voice. Then Seraphine starts producing music that - without her realizing - has both aspects of her repressed empathy powers and aspects of the brackern's music based communication, which creates an overwhelming, almost hypnotic sense of togetherness and comfort in her songs. Because of this unique aspect to her music, Seraphine becomes a popstar who could actually be a lot more than just that, but thanks to years of gaslighting and her own self-doubt and fear of ostracision she doesn't dare using her powers as they were meant to be used. Uhh... At least that's what I would've tried as a fix.
this would have been quite a good one tbh, and not one that would have needed a terrible rewrite, you could even eventually introduce a character that may "perceive" what Seraphine is and maybe helps bring her out of her shell and introduces her to everything in a new light including what happened to the brackern
A really good, unique analysis that actually goes into her potential rather than just 'Seraphine bad'. I play a lot of Seraphine and I do enjoy the character aesthetic that she brings to League, but man, I'm so disappointed in her lore and worldbuilding and how they handled it now. :
Right? But I would have loved a more punk/Zaun aesthetic for her original art and a completely different look for KDA skin. Give us options, high femininity still has flavors.
It makes me actually unconfortable riot is profiting off mental health and which is.... Such a big issue everywhere, but has such a loaded context in the kpop industry. It feels like banking off real people's actual suffering and I don't like it.
All of her vagueness on both of her conceptions remind me of The Adventure Zone Balance "Seraphine wants to unite Zaun and Piltover in [static noise] and harmony and to [static noise]" "Seraphine, the new member of KDA, brings the unique element of [static noise] to the group and also [static noise]"
I feel that Sera was a rushed champ , like she was made more for that KDA part and less for Runetera, her lore is very silly and kinda bland without many elements to build upon it will need a complete rework for her lore or many stories to change and build her character , right now she is mostly like: Life sucks, so lets sing together and that will solve our problems. I also find funny how Riot tried to make her a perfect angel but in the end, she sounds in some cases like a cruel person.
Very much disagree, if ur willing to read, there was a post done about where her lore could go www.reddit.com/r/loreofruneterra/comments/kciemt/seraphine_and_her_status_in_lore/
@@tyleredwards9799 Im not saying that she dosent have potential , is just the way her story was released feels very unfocused and just way too many elements that were opened but left in the wind, without a proper reflection. Thats why i said that she will need a lot of work to make her story stand, this is available for all champs but she feels that it will need very special attention since even riot noticed mistakes that should not be there for a new champ, thats why i think she was a rushed champ , at least from lore pov, her gamplay is very nice since we did not had a singer/diva in lol.
Even so, just like what TBSkyen says, her KDA lore felt like its really missing something, doesn't feel right aswell, so yeah in my opinion she is overall very rushed
My idea: let her be a true Zaunite. Have her bring punk to KDA. I agree with what you said previously about being a protest performer. Using her platform to bring attention to the class division and potentially the reality of hextech.
Omg this video was great, skyen, you really outdid yourself with this one. Taking the discussion of just a rather bland league character into all the different, difficult subjects you did was a blast to watch. The nuance is outstanding. Keep up with the good work!
@@TBSkyen do u think if Riot explained themselves about Seraphine's lore and why it's been hid under the rug and never talked about, that people might play and like Seraphine a lot more?
Janna: *god-like spirit who came out of nowhere and purifies Zaun's air* Camille: *Rich entity who takes underground matters into her own hands.* Seraphine: Also a bigger issue with Seraphine is we're assuming she has concerts, right? Who the FUCK in Zaun can afford to go?
@@eventua8474 l.doubt they would go there bcs they are easy target to other barons and warwick they would most likely kidnap her to sing for them In private
Maybe they are Free? But it would still be costly anyway, since the time spend at them would lead to less time to do key tasks, such as work or trying to provide.
Her concerts have been confirmed to be freelance work she does in both cities. (Thank you Legends of Runeterra) She’s legitimately using her abilities to fight mend the cities back together.
I would have liked if Seraphine's design was piltover clothing but in zaunite coloring. It would fit the steampunk victorian/edwardian style of piltover in general, but throw it off with the bright pink/green/purple/red of zaun. Piltover defaults mostly to brown, blue and white/off-white, so essentially giving her a partially Zaun-ified version of common Piltover fashion could look good and stand out not just because "haha pretty girl popstar" but because it's different from the other Piltover/Zaun champions. It would even be a simple way to make her more of a "child of two worlds" between Zaun and Piltover. The platform could also have been affected by this, by giving it a more zaunite feel (because her parents who are from zaun helped her make it!) or just giving her something else besides a stage but that's neither here nor there. At any rate, this is one of if not the best video you've made thus far! Really went into a lot of details regarding the champion that usually get tackled separately.
Honestly, I really wanted to be positive about Seraphine but I just can't get over how a company managed to act so manipulatively towards their audience. It seems as though the only thing that mattered was to market the ultimate skin, sell as MUCH as possible as FAST possible and move on to other things. At this point it's just how many skins you can squeeze in one patch,so quantity over quality.Seraphine could have been executed better, but they had to go for the safer route to guarantee they have some sort of profit. This is just a short summary of my thoughts so the comment might seem as though it's crowded with stuff, just my thought though, don't take them too seriously.
@@Loliston It's true that the quality of the skins hasn't decreased by any means, but the amount that is getting released every patch has started getting out of hand imo.I wasn't trying to say the skins are bad, I was trying to say we could get something more interesting with a little more time and effort.
Her personality and lore is so flat. Her model is so out of this world. (I meant runeterra) just playing her on WR, her design most likely to fit none. If she could only introduce new "race" of somesort that would fit her "aesthetic" then it's okay- I guess.
@@speedytrader5180 Riot are finally giving some love to not so popular champions, one of the most criticized thing about the company approach to skins, for me, the more skins the better! If the quality remain good, I'm totally ok with it! And it's not like the huge quantity of skins are making it lack on creativity, hell one of the best events was all related to a new skin series! Other than that, chromas are just expanding the personalization options, some skins that I don't like so much became just awesome with the right chroma... I disagree with you 100% on that one mate 😆
On the "protest singer" part - I think Seraphine works quite well (and makes a lot of sense in lore context) as the exact opposite: involountary propaganda machine. She's empath, meaning she can feel animosity between Piltover and Zaun, suffering, stress; from there the most direct (even if completely inefficient) way of trying to fix things would be to encourage everyone to live by (the "harmony" part) and have hope for better future as trying to fix issues she perceives directly, instead of pushing for something that would cause positive change as a result. Sadly, nothing like that is at any point fleshed out in the lore, but it seems like the most obvious and straightforward conclusion given what we know so far. At the same time - it fits the fact nobody of power in either Piltover or Zaun does anything with her; since a popular voice that advocates for preserving status quo is in favor of those in power, on both (Piltover and Zaun) sides. In a way - it makes Seraphine more of a reinforcement of existing dynamic between cities rather than a disruptive addition, which would be very much fine if properly expressed.
My Hot Take on K/DA Seraphine: She was the missing "sweet" stereotype. The relatable one that can push the imaginations of fans that what happened to her could happen to them. Shes the idol that makes the group more human and well rounded, because all four of the original members all had strong and badass personalities. They had all the cool/hot members people could idolize but none that people can relate to and aspire to be.
I like this idea! ... Except that in paper, it makes it sound like Ahri decided to add Seraphine to K/DA for the same reason Riot did... Because of money/as a marketing gimmick Wich is very similar to the idea I had whenever I was told about the comics, that idea being that Seraphine.was.just.Arhi's.whim. nothing else than a way for Ahri to look like she cares about other/smaller artists or as a way for her to remember old times as an indie artist Disclaimer: I don't really know anything about this character's, I haven't even read the comics, this is just what came to my mind when I heard about them
@@iaracardozo126 not to mention the comics already portray Ahri's journey as being similar to Seraphine's, so the uniqueness Seraphine brings is only the presentation of her story to the audience "as it develops", so to speak, which allows for the kind of audience engagement that RinisAnnoyed described. It's purely and exclusively for the benefit of marketing, not to actually round out K-DA as a "music project" (both the actual one and the fictional one). Then again, that is also true for many actual pop bands, so eh...
This is literally the KDA lore though. She is an everygirl who was "scouted" by the group and brought on to join, and it's a bit sad that Skyen didn't do the base research to figure out that is what she is supposed to be on her own.
From talking about Seraphine as a character in League to Seraphine as a marketing tool to the virtual influencer problem as a whole? Damn, Skyen. This is one of the best videos you made and perhaps one of the most comprehensive and constructive criticism of Seraphine yet EDIT: Almost forgot to add this, but yeah, the Rioters need to unionize.
I still have a deep disdain for the way the Seraphine was ultimately done, because Riot has the money to do the research and prevent it from taking many of the harmful directions it did, but I understand the desire to want to create something fun or inclusive and making a mistake.
Seraphine's skin was absolutely created first. Her base skin looks so awful in game like they didn't care about it at all and only cared about her kda skin
@@lordvonsteiner2452 tbh it doesnt even match the splashart and there is where you know they didnt even care about it. If they gave it more focus they wouldve talked it over more to make it look more similar than what they ended with.
Whenever i see a seraphine without the kda skin i always think to myself that she looks so weird, incomplete or out of place, for me base seraphine is kda seraphine, and its a lil bit sad.
ikr i've always thought her ability vfx looked very underwhelming and unsatisfying, the only part that actually looks good is the passive but the sfx makes most of the work for it since it feels rewarding and satisfying to hear the "tututuutt"
I think she would be able to tell the difference between synthetic and natural hex crystals. So, she always uses synthetic ones to power stuff, but collects shards of natural ones and listens to their songs. I definitely think that if she shows up in Arcane season 2, her character design and lore will probably improve.
ngl this character has the potential to set up something big, like a 'Skarner starts an economic disaster and it's all Seraphine's fault' story that moves PnZ's plot forward, and possibly integrates her lore with other champs. At the moment though this champion falls so insanely short of the bar we've been accustomed to. No point getting mad, it's just disappointing.
> a 'Skarner starts an economic disaster and it's all Seraphine's fault' story Not sure how to feel about framing this story as a disaster that's someone's fault and not a heroic action correcting a longstanding crime against humanity (well, mostly skarnerity, but still). Though come to think of it, that's 100% how Riot would frame it.
The whole section about virtual influencers and how it affects Seraphine was extremely interesting and really well thought out. Thank you Skyen for a connection that I wasn't even entirely aware of. Thank you for your work!
I belive she would have been cooler if she was like an aspect of harmony/music that lives in P&Z and she would try to unite the cities more because the aspect wants that, since the aspect saw Lunari/Solari conflicts and doesn't want it to repetat here. Zoe is an aspect that didn't climb the mountain, so why not make a similar situation with Seraphine?
Not only would that be a cooler concept, but Seraphine's design would fit better with the other aspects imo. She has all the bright magical colors and her hoverboard thing seems more otherworldly and cosmic than piltovan/zaunite.
Also her asking the people to “just get along” would make more sense coming from someone THAT powerful, she could’ve forgotten what is like to struggle...
And if this aspect of music would be one of the 'youngest' among the others, even younger than the aspect of twilight (maybe even also naive), then it would have no idea about the brackern crystal Sera has besides the fact that it likes music. So the platform would be there not just to make Sera stand out, but to also give the crystal the chance to speak, assuming the music from the platform is what the crystal sings, rather than be a battery. Imagine in the middle of a concert instead of music from the platform you would hear a bunch of voices sounding as one.
It would be so cool if her ultimate skin changed skins at 6 and 11 or 11 and 16 since she's growing in power, which could be symbolic of her rise to fame.
I mean with Ahri (Riot) being business savvy, it literally could be "hey, this is a pretty girl who speaks Chinese and English and sings well who we can get for cheap. CHINESE MARKET HERE WE COME!" And they couldn't say that was the only reason, now could they?
1:10:03 My man went from defending artists to calling out all of Riot's garbage in a blaze of passionate rage and I am *here for it* speak your piece bossman
I liked the anti-capitalist virtual influencer part was backed up by the instrumentals of money. Just excellent background music for the entire video good job man.
i will never understand why a billionaire company doesnt want to pay several thousand dollars to writers who can make their products more compelling and GOOD. this investment is nothing compared to their overall wealth ITS NOTHING and they still dont want to help themselves!
Well they obviously need more good people then! The more talented and genuine active employees they have, the harder it will get for these things to just pass by. The sexism walkout did have an impact on the company, as far as I know. So go make riot better will you? :D
No lie, I LOVE the idea of a popstar from Piltover. Thats the only place I can imagine a popstar getting big. The only town with the riches for luxury to become a pop-star as a career. Tho I would love to see her with like, split color pallets for Zaun and Piltover to show the unity of the two cities n stuff. Maybe a direct line down her middle or on the waistline that splits the colors etc etc Like, Runeterra-wise, I could see it working easily and they just fucked it up lmao
Seraphine WAS a marketing tool for sure, and her twitter been left behind after the Worlds event just shows that.... I have a bunch of problems with her, BUT if they kept with the act, maybe it could be cool, an unique thing out of all the same ol stuff she brought to the game. I just get worried that they will never try something like this again cuz it clearly backfired, and on top of that, Im pretty sure her skin didnt even sold well (compared to others ultimate skins). Rito plz, just bring Pentakill back, doesnt even need new members, and maybe True damage or a new boy-band-ish thingy, just so we please everyone lol (mainly now with a bunch of shirtless, skinny, sexy boyz)
Let's not forget this line: "Piltover and Zaun sing together in a dazzling duet" which is an... Interesting way to describe an oppressive regime and their abused underclass.
Maybe what Seraphine actually brings to the K/DA is mostly the dreamy character. The dreamy and hopeful kind of person that maybe the members needed to remember.
Yeah..but maybe she forgot because of all the insecurities she has while focusing on the actual career 🤷♀️ at least for me that might be it. It might be or it might not.
She doesnt bring anything because she isnt part of K/DA. It was merely Riot using the success of K/DA to give a push for Seraphine so that the skin wouldnt have flopped.
My criticisms of Seraphine are centered almost entirely on her as a character in the wider worldbuilding of Runeterra. While the parasocial relationship and influencer controversies are certainly interesting, I prefer to keep to what I can confidently say that I understand enough to have a point. Keeping this in mind my thoughts on Seraphine and TB's analysis are: 1. I completely agree that she doesn't look like someone who would come from, let alone try to be something of a synthesis between, Piltover and Zaun. She doesn't have the magitek-victorian-steampunk of Piltover or the crude, unpretentious chempunk of Zaun. Sure, a pop-star doesn't really create images of standard fashions, but she isn't some avant-garde, style first sort of character that would completely ignore the very concept of normal for the sake of making a point or to be eye catching. She is supposed to be a more down to earth and theoretically "authentic" kind of starlet. Wouldn't a Piltover-Zaun fusion make more sense of style for someone who wants to be a unifying force instead of something that is completely apart from the styles of both? 2. While her naivete of the complicated nature of P and Z is an interesting point of characterization, the fact that she doesn't have a real end goal beyond "let's all get along" makes her come across as aimless. The kind of aimless that Riot has been trying to phase out from older characters for years now. I think styling her as a chirpy and good natured but naïve protest singer with an actual cause would have been more engaging. Someone who could, by positive or downright wholesome means could be a threat to the delicate relationship between the oligarchy of the Clans and the crime syndicates of the Chem Barons. Perhaps she could have a following significant enough that the Clan Intelligencers, Camille specifically, could be hesitant to eliminate her in order to avoid a larger, more violent disruption. An ambitious Chem Baron or thugs who threaten the machine that is Piltover are simple enough to remove, but how would Camille handle someone is accumulating soft power through capturing the hearts of Piltovans and Zaunites alike instead of by wealth, reputation, or force? (Personally I just want more stories for Camille, but I digress.) 3. Her backstory raises some interesting questions. It says that her family wasn't especially wealthy, fine engineers perhaps, but not particularly exceptional. That being true, how did she get her hands on an authentic hexcrystal, a ridiculously valuable power source that I doubt would be far from one of the ruling merchant clans? How did she rise to fame so quickly? 4. I find it weird that Zaun now has two empaths, the first being Zac, who physically feels the emotional states of others in Zaun and works to help whoever he can because both their pain and sadness reflect onto him and because he was raised to have a strong moral compass by his parents. It's fine to have champs like this as a positive counter to characters like Urgot (who I completely disagree with TB's assertion that he is a fascist when his ideals are that of pure anarchic survival of the strongest as his lore states that he "isn't there to lead, but to survive"), the inhuman cruelty of Singed, and the cold professional elitism of Camille, but two empaths in the same region seems a tad redundant.
On point #1 they could've just made her a mix between victorian goth and punk goth, add a little Piltover and Zaun magical tech touch and voilá. No idea why they just did a starguardian looking diva
I kinda disagree on the "two empaths in one region is redundant" claim, because Zac and Seraphine make for interesting foils for one another, even if Riot will never bring it up or use it in any interesting way. They both want to help people for the sake of altruism, but their empath nature leads them to be polar opposites in their approach, problems and even appearance. Seraphine's empath ability leaves her naive to the complex nature of the problems between Zaun and Piltover, and instead frames the whole conflict as a purely emotional one. Zac's empath ability overwhelms him with the negative emotions of Zaun and causes him to lash out at everything and everyone around him when he tries to help.
I wish she was more reluctantly decorated as a Piltover star. It would make it more interesting if Piltover tried to profit off of her image while she desperately wants to help Zaun. It would reflect a lot of real-life cases where young female stars have been controlled and mistreated for monetary and political reasons. The Piltover image of her could even push an interesting conflict where it could alienate Zaunites even if its not necessarily what Seraphine means to convey. I'd like if she expressed genuine anger at her Piltover management at some point when she's had enough of being told what to sing.
Fun Fact: In the Universe section of League of Legends' main website where the character lore is stored, Seraphine's lore STILL hasn't changed, i just checked it
Let’s hope they develop her story at all. We already got 2 new characters, Rell and Viego, released. More likely they’re working on a new character then fixing/updating any other characters’ story.
Seraphine particularly upsets me because I read her lore first, no other knowledge of the rest of the lore to understand why It Bad or her actual character, I read “extremely sensitive to sound (to a magical degree) and requires an assistive device to function in her crowded city home” as magic autism. And it kills me that because of *the rest of her* I seem to be alone in that reading.
You could attribute the butterfly metaphor to her growth from indie nobody to star celebrity, but yeah it's just kinda loosely thrown in their without much grace.
Me too, like, her name makes me think of mermaids, but her desing give me fairy/butterfly aesthetic. You could at least make her go with one idea as the base Seraphine (either Butterfly Sera or Mermaid Sera) and reserve another theme as an alternate skin (which could be cool, imagine all the posibilities for an "Under the sea" stage,)
@@Pootis-Spencer I wish they had gone with the more piltovery concept they released, but they did also have a mermaid/siren looking one so you arent off, that would maybe be a cool “pool party” skin for her!
@@Jeremy-xs4gt I also wish she would have a piltovery outfit (mixed with some Zaun punk parts) as her base skin, especially since a steampunk pop-star is something that would make her stand from all the "female superstar" type of character that she's base off. Aside that, alternative skins like "Pixie Butterfly" or "Pool Party!" would be great to have little descriptions like "a concert in the spring to raise awearness to the education in Zaun" or something like that, that she is a star with different songs and presentations, showing her intentions of unity the people of PnZ (idk-)
@@Pootis-Spencer I cant believe they looked at “steampunk pop star” and said no?? Also the skins with lore could come with music videos to lean into her being an actual popstar and that would be great promo
Something I really like about Seraphine’s character is just that she’s positive and cheerful. In a really tragic place like Zaun and Piltover, it feels like she’s protesting the misery by being cheerful and kind. I think they could have explored more about her internal battle with being a singer for both Zaun and Piltover; singing enough of her genuine feelings of rebellion and suffering from being a Zaunite to appeal to the people from Zaun, and yet censoring herself enough so that the people from Piltover won’t look down on her as something of a punk from Zaun. It would be cool to see a story where she has to balance the line between genuine and commercial.
@guy dude I will say again. She has a 55% wr across 3 roles: adc, mid, and support. “Just pick engage” doesn’t placate the fact that she’s busted with moonstone and staff. She’s a team fight nightmare rn. She’s getting nerfs so we’ll see how she fairs in a week
@guy dude the problem is from a support mains perspective (me) her counters aren't good due to them being week to poke which Seraphine has amazing poke. You cant use a poke mage due to the aoe shield and the heal plus the movement speed. I'm sorry but this champion is one of my most hated so far, I just needed to let out some steam due to her kit being way too overpowered at the moment. If you main Seraphine you are maining a champion with a sivit ult + Janna W + Sonna W as your W leading to many different playstyles in one champion ability. Again am very sorry this is anger at the champion not you.
I think the best solution is to add the soul as part of the art work(like a transparent soul behind her), and in game to add dialogue between it and Seraphine. So we can hear how exactly is it guiding her. It’ll be unique to have a champion that low key talks to themself (Kled doesn’t count, since we can’t understand their companion)
In terms of her fitting in K/DA, I definitely can tell ahri saw her past self in seraphine, someone who’s ambitious and wants to share her voice to the world. This lead her to inviting her as sort of this more youthful and Innocent member who’s ambitions are reaching a climax. By taking a chance and letting a new rising artist like seraphine collaborate with the group, she wants to give seraphine the chance Ahri was potentially denied a lot in the past. In terms of Kpop, there’s the roles known as: Leader, Main Dancer, Main Rapper, Visual, Main Vocalist, and Maknae. If I’m correct I’d place the members in this way Leader: Ahri (obviously) Main Rapper: Akali Main Dancer: Kai’Sa Visual: Evelyn (seeing as she’s a bold and sexy diva) Maknae and Main Vocalist: Seraphine I gave seraphine main vocalist since in More, similar to many kpop groups main vocalists, Seraphine got her own spot to show off her vocals that end with a sort of high note or climax. And Maknae is just a title given to the youngest member of said group.
Okay my ONLY thing is: what Ahri sees in Seraphine and what she brought to the table in that small panel is that Ahri can SAVE someone from becoming that pop star stuck in a contract, unhappy, and unable to express herself. Ahri sees herself when she was trying to make it big and knows she has the ability to help someone shine HOW THEY SHINE. K/DA Seraphine in her verse brings the grounding and resolution of Ahri’s arc in the popstar/KDA universe. She is unbound and prospers more and continues to write what she feels, just like seraphine. Maybe I saw this from being an ultra KDA fan and seeing all of the posts and keeping up with the Twitter ETC. But you see this ideology in Ahri’s single on the EP “I’ll Show You”. I think Seraphine really sparked that in the group as a whole. But this is my take. LOVED your thoughts on her base lore. If only League took a sliver of that approach bc it would be so much more inspired than the plain pop star they gave her in base! Love the vids!
On the K/DA Indie splash art I just realised there is catJAM. Also, this just made me want MORE, from Seraphine. Like, "fixing" her lore like you mentioned it, being a protest singer. On the K/DA part, I think the biggest giveaway on the writers' cluelessness about how K/DA Sera would fit in the group is that SHE DIDN'T GET A SINGLE, ABOUT HERSELF, BECAUSE THERE IS NO SELF TO HER. It just makes me sad how my Favourite champ could be so much more and yet here we are. Also this is the first well educated and really, visibly polished oppinion/essay on Sera. Thank you for making this, your videos are just great!
I bought her with Blue Essence, but I refuse to play her. I bought her to be able to trade her to other people, but I don't want to play her, and I refuse to call her anything other than 'Sona'. I genuinely dislike the current issues with her, but the reason I hate her is because of the Ultimate skin.
To the point of what Seraphine brings to K/DA: The way a lot of Kpop groups work is, that there are different roles/archetypes. The one i suspect she i supposed to be is the youngest of the group, often seen as the cutest one, also known as the maknae. That is my best guess, really...
46:19 I think the "new thing" she brings to KD/A is that she's your average Joe schmoe who you can dream to be, most of kda already have some thing that makes them superstars even on their own, and seraphine is was just a "nobody" (real big air quotes there) that any one could see themselves as I think that's what that ahri panel was representing. ( at least that's what I got from it)
It would be nice to see that seraphine to be a protest singer. However I would love to see that seraphine the original soul got taken over by the soul of the bracken in her headphones which explains why she seems psychotic while being an empath.
I only recently discovered your channel through shorts (I am not immune to the serotonin of mindless scrolling on shorts). I’ve thoroughly been enjoying going through this content and it’s been very pleasant hearing a thorough analysis on certain subjects and pieces of media. I’m glad that through this hellish algorithm there remains a pleasant side of content creators who are passionate and interesting to view.
I think that the whole "Seraphine adds nothing to K/DA" chapter is the reason that I personally see her ultimate skin as actually being a "corruption", contrary to what you said here. She goes from having her own aesthetic and vibe, and is then taken over by K/DA and loses all sense of that "self". She just becomes "the 5th K/DA member"
Granted, I don’t know much about KDA outside of their music, but my opinion, it would be interesting for Seraphine’s “thing” in KDA to be the actual talent/authenticity of the group, and have it contrast with Ahri’s popstar thing. Which is something that could be easily shown in the recordings by giving her higher notes, having her belt, or harmonize with the others (which thinking about it know could show Seraphine as the musical “glue” of the group) or seriously any other vocal skill other than lightly singing the melody to the bridge before the chorus. Because nowadays any one in KDA could have done that, like what was said in the video. Any popstar (Ahri in our case) can sound good carrying the melody with brief vocal lessons, autotune and pre recorded vocal performances, it’s how groups like BTS preform complicated dances quote unquote “live” while sustaining their singing. But it takes practice and skill to learn proper breath techniques to belt or sustain high notes, which is something we could see Seraphine doing in contrast to Ahri who is more familiar with the “idol” side of things. Basically I’m saying have Seraphine do something similar to Akali, which is bring a different genre to KDA, but instead of Hip Hop have it be something similar to musical theater, for a lack of a better term because that’s where I see the majority of these techniques used. Give her more difficult songs to sing. And then equate that with the idea of being authentic, in the way live theater is usually more “authentic” than performances from pop stars, even though the concept of preforming choreographed music for an audience is similar in nature. And then use those ideas to explore like the music industry and how having musical talent doesn’t equate to being a good popstar, and how Seraphine has to balance between being authentic with herself, working in a group, and making successful music.
I don’t know much about league , but I feel like this would have been an easy fix without actually needing to do all that much to her lore. They could have had her listen to the voice and then have the crystal be put into the stage so that the crystal had a voice . That way they could sing together and spread awareness of the problem with the hex tech crystals
I would absolutely LOVE to see an animation breakdown, I personally like her animations and also really enjoy seeing you geek out about the animations so I'm hoping you can make a video on it. Don't pressure yourself though, you've got like at LEAST six other projects going on right now so this shouldnt really take priority.
Even tho i love the Ruined King Year, i sadly know that no story will come out this year to make her story deeper... and that's sad. I like the idea that she is empty and silly, with no concrete idea on how the world works... but her lore is so empty of any hints about her future that she feels like an incomplete work...
I always dig your design breakdowns because you actually explain your criticisms, and clearly care about the aesthetics in relation to the universe in general. Even ignoring all of the controversy surrounding her release, Seraphine is just so painfully uninteresting. She's just another pretty anime girl to add to the pile. There was a Polygon article that was just published when Gwen got revealed basically saying that "LoL fans are tired of sexy champions". It's frustrating that so often the complex and valid criticisms that people have towards this topic get misinterpreted as either prudence or veiled misogyny. We arent tried of sexy champions. We are tired of champions that feel like they were made from a factory production line.
This was a joy to watch, articulate as always :'D I was honestly a fan of using social media as a storytelling medium because that's an interesting and interactive way to try and tell a narrative imo but alas, the inherent cons of //vaguely gestures// all of this,,, thank you for this, love your videos and your work!
Man the answer for tying it in WAS RIGHT THERE in Riots grasp. Like they could have just went with what Skyen was saying about making her a protest singer and then KDA could have been like “Shes very outspoken on what matters and we really respect that” and invited her that way
The thing is, in real life empaths are rarely crybaby meek peace loving kind hearted softies, they are usually over-exposed to nasty intentions of people from way too young age so are likely to be hardened/jaded and or rebellious. So seraphine being a protest singer would have made so much sense
I think it would've been so much cooler if Sera either used her stage, or empathy powers to give her bug friend somewhat of a physical form. More like a holographic or astral type thing, and they both go around trying to inspire people and bring them together with their music, and shed get a animal companion that instead of being cute like most characters of her sort would get, she'd get a crazy looking monster thing, which could help pull in more of those Zaun grunge/punk aesthetics
Do you think you could do a “What’s the Deal with Camille?” video sometime in the future? I know she’s over four years old now but she’s a really interesting character with a really interesting story and design, and while she’s still got some qualities that other League females have she’s still a pretty unique concept with a great execution that I think people could really appreciate more. Also, her PC character model isn’t true to a bunch of the smaller details(especially the ones surrounding her face), if you look in official art pieces surrounding her and her login screen you’ll find her face to be more thinly and sharply structured and her nose to actually be fairly long and rectangular compared to her model’s nose.
I came expecting a in depth analysis on Seraphines design and animations and im leaving with a much more insightful view on predatory social media marketing and corporation greed. The classic Skyen brand. Though I would still love a video on her animations lol
Dang you know, Riot trying to form a partnership with an organization built atop immense human rights violations and only backing out after severe backlash makes them brushing Seraphine’s whole capitalizing on genocide for the sake of her career, fame, and fortune seem a BIT more fricked up. Like a part of me thinks that was intentional on the part of the writers to highlight Riot’s real life business practices, and then a major exec had to swoop in and rectify it since it hit a bit too close to home.
I do like K/DA Seraphine quite a bit. But I can’t excuse all the shitty business decisions Riot has made with this character. I can’t excuse the shittiness of huge corporations in general.
I got jumpscared by the transition XD Saw the video length and when it started I was like "wait, has it really been that long already?" Went to touch the phone screen to check the time remaining and TRIPLE BASS DROP! Utterly hilarious to me and was excited to know I was only halfway through! Loved the video, helped me get past a rough day. Thanks Skyen :D
I still like that thought that she should have just been the Sona update. Would have solved so many problems. Already a star in lore, skips the brackern issue entirely, has a direct purpose in KDA, etc
There is a lot in this video, and it is all good, but I still think it's worth mentioning Sona in all of thins. She is League's first music champion, she was a part of penta kill from the beginning, and she is everything Seraphine wants to be. I am fully under the impression that the reason Seraphine is based in the Piltover Zaun conflict, is because setting her in Ionia would be too close to Sona. Both are champions with a dissability, and a magical instrument that can be used as prosthetic, both use their music in the hopes to present a sense of unity and peace (even if they've both been shafted in that role, thanks mage persecution), and the list goes on. What bugs me though is that Sona's disability and music play into each other, the girl who can't speak a word, can get the entire world to listen, while Seraphine's musical career "cured" her anxiety. I'm not saying that Sona's better because physical dissabilities are somehow more important, but Sona is more interesting because she doesn't need to be fixed to be important. It's like a blind character that can see just as well as everyone else, it belittles the problem, and worse yet mystifies and exoticizes it. A mental disability is not a super power, and a pep talk from the victim of a genocide is not therapy.
This was very thoughtful and informative, I really appreciate how you used other virtual influencers as an example of how fucked up their marketing can be. I personally was really into Sera's twitter storyline up to the infamous "I can't love myself 😭, send happy messages 🥺" tweet, that one just took it a step too far.
This video illustrates why its a pleasure watching your content, Skyen. The way you present your informative prospective and highlight what makes you feel the way you do to your audience, while doing your damnest to retain your creative integrity is simply refreshing to see on this platform. Cheers, and keep it up!
I personally really like Seraphine. Part of why I really like her is that I relate to her quite a bit (with all of the magic and hextech stuff taken out). I’m an empath and I’m constantly trying to not only manage my own emotions, but also keep everyone around me happy if I can. And music is a big part of my life. It’s how I understand and relate to and communicate with the world around me. And I also relate to her in another way… I can be really f***ing annoying and obnoxious. Sometimes I’m super loud, and when I get excited about something, good luck getting me to shut up about it. So yeah I really like her because she reminds me of myself, but better. She’s definitely got a better voice than I do. I don’t play League (I don’t think I can figure it out) but if I did, I’d probably play with Seraphine quite a bit.
Ok Skyen, I've watched quite a few of your shorts, which I definitely enjoyed. But this long-form video was so good and gave me a little bit of insight into your mindset, and I'm with it. Good stuff. I'll be watching more - thanks!
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
I find it ironic that Seraphine goes out into the streets and sings to Pilties and Zaunites about how they can unite and prosper...while standing on a floating podium whose battery is fueled by generations upon generations of innocent souls, whose society was split into two parts, one being used as fuel and the other comatose for eternity.
literally alot of people from piltover use these souls/brackern crystal. camille's heart, caitlyn's gun, hell evem blitzcrank himself is powered by brackers souls.
@@junwoo6649 The point is that Seraphine was implied to have a knowledge of this. She is fundamentally flawed.
There’s a metaphor about liberal politicians here
@@seelfire4725 yes but you can't hear the cries of the souls trapped inside your phone
But.. wasn't there also the fact that the Brackern wanted to help Seraphine in uniting pilt and zaun? Everyone uses those Brackern things but the one she had told her it wanted to help her, no?
Orianna in her lore has canonically helped more people in Zaun and sacrificed more than the character whose sole motivation is to "unite Piltover and Zaun"
Yeah, Riot just fucking forgot about Orianna. She’s the opposite of Seraphine but Orianna did more to help Zaun than her, heck her entire backstory death is because she gave her own filtration device to a little girl, fucking up her organs due to the Zaun Grey
@@rimurutempest4945 ORianna is the best noodle ;w; And honestly her story is definitely one of the best if not the best written stories in the LoL universe. UNfortunately nobody at Rito cares
Didn't Oriana rot ?
@@konradklukowski1009 I don’t think she rot, but due to her inhaling a bunch of the toxic Zaun Grey, her body and organs started failing rapidly. At first it was just some prosthetic limbs, then organs had to be replaced, and the final piece was her heart starting to fail and she had to replace it too.
@@rimurutempest4945 Just like Camille but with different intentions. I'm baffled I didn't connect the dots earlier.
Video: “CONCLUSION”
Me, seeing almost an hour remaining: uhuh
I am the tricksy bamboozler man!
I wasn't watching the screen and went to go to another video when the popstars song came blasting and I jumped lol
Video, shortly thereafter: KDA
Me: Oh geez KDA Seraphine is getting more time than Zauntover Seraphine?
@@TBSkyen got to say, pretty impressive
@@timothymclean I mean... she IS the more important of the two in Riot's eyes.
So just for fun, here's an imaginary rewrite of Seraphine's lore:
The daughter of a middle-class family in Piltover, Seraphine grew up between two worlds, the towers of Piltover visible out of one window and the pits of Zaun visible out the other. She was always a delightful child, strangely quiet and cooperative, but always ready with a smile. As time passed, it was discovered she had a talent for magic, namely an empathic talent that let her feel the emotions of others.
But as time passed, her talent grew to dangerous levels, where the emotions of other people were a constant torrent making it impossible for Seraphine to think clearly, or to understand which feelings actually belonged to her. Unable to handle the surge of emotions, her behaviour came to disturb other people, as she would suddenly become aggressive, burst into tears, or hysterically laugh for no apparent reason. Eventually, she became a near-recluse, hiding away in her house trying to block out the incessant psychic noise. Desperate for their daughter to be able to live a normal life, her parents spent a large part of their wealth on a headband powered by a powerful hextech crystal, that muted the onslaught of emotions to bearable levels.
For a time, Seraphine grew up as any other girl, remarkable only for her love of singing. But then there was the whisper, first just in her dreams and then a growing presence in her waking mind. Fascinated by this voice and able to sense its curiosity and confusion, Seraphine talked to it....until one day, it answered back, wondering where it was. She told it about her home, about Piltover and Zaun, and tried to find out where the voice had come from. What she got in return--visions of the intelligent creatures sleeping in the deserts, their soul vessels stolen by those who sought their power--shocked her to her core. Horrified at having exploited another intelligent creature for her own comfort, however unwittingly, she decided to smash the headband and return the crystal, even if it meant forsaking the protection it gave her.
But the voice stopped her. It told her that even if it was restored, others would still plunder its kin. Rather than sacrifice her own happiness, it wanted Seraphine to try and stop the trade altogether. But she didn't see any way how she could persuade the powerful of Piltover to turn away from their secret source of power. She didn't have anything except her empathic talent....and her voice.
Over time, a plan was hatched. Seraphine dismantled her protector, and commissioned something new with the crystal at the core--a floating platform that would not dampen her magic, but rather reverse it, projecting emotions to her audience as she sang. Frightening as it was to open herself up to that flood of emotions, it was just about manageable. And with this edge enhancing her already superb singing, she set out to become a voice that could not be ignored.
Many people who hear of her think of her as being cute, but flighty and irrelevant. But to those who listen to her performances find themselves deeply moved. Always hidden behind a veil of metaphor and light-hearted entertainment, Seraphine sings with an infectious passion--when she speaks of how good it is live in Piltover, "never looking down from the bridges", she sows doubt and makes the people of the upper city question the cost of their progessive paradise. And when she performs in Zaun, heart-rending ballads such as the tale of the two steamfitters challenge the sense of hoplessness and passive acceptance. The message at the heart of her songs, whether they are outwardly frivolous or tragic, is always one of hope--dare to change. Dare to look outside the way you think things have to be. You deserve better. Our home city can do better. And those she sings to find their attitudes softening, their comfort with the status quo becoming uncertain.
She is attracting attention. Many in high places in Piltover find the discontent she sows to be inconvenient and to be shining a light on truths they think are better off unquestioned. And in the depths of Zaun, Urgot has taken note of her increasingly popular message of unity as a threat to his doctrine of nihilistic strength. Seraphine knows this mission will get harder as she spreads her word.
But she has been quiet for long enough--and there are too many people who need her voice, because they have none of their own.
wow thats amazing
damn, this would make her character so much better
why does this only have 47 likes,,,deserves more
what we couldve had
@Paul Gibbon what if add something that explains the origin of seraphine's power like:
"seraphine was a brakern that got reincarnated as a human that couldn't remember her past life as a brakern at all.
seraphine, being a brakern reincarnated as a human, somehow finds remarkably weird and uneasy feelings at walking like a normal people would do, sure she can stand like a normal person at all and feel nothing weird about it, could this be because she is a brakern at her past life? This uneasy feeling just by walking was not that a serious problem at all but most of the time, this is a detrimental to her perfomance as a singer, and this is where her floating platform comes to a role."
im not a writer at all so pease forgive me if anything here is kinda out of place but i hope this works
Cant believe we got a “Whats the deal with Seraphine” and “Whats the deal with Riot Games Company” in one video
and a little bit of "Whats the deal with capitalism" too
If seraphine ever becomes a Protestor for Peace for Zaun and Piltover Camille probably gonna go *All Out* on her
Which would be an interesting dynamic and connects her with the great world at large.
I would like to see a comic about Camille storming into her backstage (or where she goes after a protest concert) and Seraphine is running for her life with her crystal constantly telling her what to do to extend the distance between them, like, gameplay aside, she could be really clumsy in hand-to-hand combat as she never was in a situation like this before, and this is the begining of her grown into a champion that can get in the battlefield
@@Pootis-Spencer That’s be pretty cool actually, and she can use her abilities too in order to track and better evade Camille.
Nah... Riot can't let Camille do that otherwise Seraphine would be dead.
@@rafaelcastor2089 can’t she just press e with her passive stacked or press r in order to cancel Camille hookshot and then run away?
I think the most disappointing and frustrating thing about Seraphine is the fact that she has so, so much potential. She could be a protest musician, or a Jimi Hendrix-larger than life figure that burn her guitar just for show, or someone that sell her soul to a demon so she can become the best musician (crossroad devil myth). She isn't the worst character in League, I've grown to like her much more, but she is still one of the worst character in-term of missed opportunity.
@@peacepham7838 There's a long history in the West of popular musicians using their platform to protest against politics and policies of their time. My understanding is that it became prominent during the Vietnam War with songs like "Fortunate Son." For more recent examples, look at artists like Rage Against the Machine, Kendrick Lamar and Childish Gambino.
You know how slavery, segregation, and inequality are a big deal in America? Well a lady named Nina Simone sang a song condemning acts of hate, called
Mississippi Goddamn httpss://m.ruclips.net/video/LJ25-U3jNWM/видео.html
@@peacepham7838 Also Muse is another example
Fun fact, is lore is so fucking basic to the point of being the Sona lore but with some modifications. Because the entire "i feel the emotions of the people" comes from Sona and his instrument. Worst part, even Sona, with his fucking forget and basic lore, has more deep than Seraphine, because she face the mage persecution and the tries of Sylas to recruit her.
Seraphine comes from the marketing team, not some people who want to tell some story.
@@MolotovKiller sona is a girl
I think Seraphine being an angry and disillusioned punk protest singer would fix so much about her. Might make her a very different character, but she would work so much better. Not only would it fix the skarner problem, but she would aesthetically and morally fit into the world she came from. Who could hear all of the agony in zaun and stay naive and optimistic? She would also look more interesting, be more distinct from Sona, and bring something new to kd/a. This video really put all these pieces together for me. Fantastic work. I'll make a punk Seraphine.
I think that naive optimism is kind of the point though. To hear all this agony and STILL remain hopeful and optimistic that the kindness and empathy in people’s hearts will ultimately win out takes an exceptional strength of will, which I believe is part of her fantasy.
@@cartoonishidealism582 Which is great! That can actually still be written as a protest singer - the main thing she's missing as an idol who wants to bring unity is, as this video said, a lack of a "cornerstone" that will hold everyone together in unity. It could be that she sings to Piltovans to be more aware of what Zaun is going through, and sings to Zaunites that there is hope on the horizon. She could use her platform (figurative platform not the literal one) to gather sympathetic Piltovans and organize support for Zaun.
She can be idealistic, optimistic, and naive without being flat. She could honestly believe that her singing about the troubles of Zaun would bring better understanding to Piltover, but be unaware of the other forces that want to keep the status quo (e.g. Camille).
They _really_ should've just attached all this K/DA stuff to Sona and then go this direction with Seraphine. That would be a hell of a two hit combo of being, yknow, actually really cool stuff that the player base would probably like. No matter Riot's mistakes, I now have some new inspiration of a potential character concept, one that might protest with art and magical abilities, like what could've been with Seraphine.
@@phantasticgoose a good way to fix her lore without changing anything that was already done could be to continue her story, my idea is she could try a very naive way to make her plan to unite both cities (random concert when she'll talk about zaunite suffering) and after that get threatened by camille, by a simple "you continue your shit, I execute your parents" and finally have a obstacle in her story, to make her realise that what she want is not that simple
But the problem is the character was already released known for her sweet voice and beautiful music
Y'know, Seraphine needing noise-canceling headphones could've been a great way to mirror autistic/neurodivergent experiences. Missed opportunity :(
that would have been very problematic, because her backstory would be healing autisim, and yeah, that's not a great idea
@@guillermoolivan610 unless they adjusted the story around the idea of her needing them in some way ! Taking this angle would have meant the story could have changed
@@brogis2 yea thats a good idea
Omg!!
I would have loved that sort of representation…😭
I think that's a central issue with Sera: she is a load of opportunities passed up for in favor of blandness and marketability
They didn't even have to make her a pop star in her lore. I mean the original members aren't and every new champions get skin from existing skin line
Well, when your startng point is "She'll end up in KDA" and your goal is "Get everything finished by the deadline," certain routes look appealing regardless of whether they're necessary.
Riot could've atleast made a non-popstar champion that they then insert into their fictional popstar group. C'mon Rito, Evelynn is st straight up a textbook predator and she still made it into KDA
@@peteomarjebdollosa9170 Yeah, that’s what’s super weird to me. Like, the champ didn’t need to be a popstar as well. Champs don’t give a shit what their skins are, Akali is a ninja, Evelynn is a demon, but they’re still part of KDA skinline, so why did Seraphine need to be a popstar?
@@rimurutempest4945 Because KDA Seraphine the character was created first before Seraphine the League character. She was 100% thought up by a Riot corporate think tank.
@@tgr3423 Even then, she could still be a musician, just give her an aesthetic that doesn't look like a "we developed a rejected K/DA skin as her default skin by mistake" mix-up from the design team.
After watching Arcane season one and seeing the class conflict of Piltover and Zaun brought to the screen so poignantly, Seraphine’s “I’ll sing and unite the two cities in harmony” theme just feels even more toothless. I can’t imagine her working into the show as she stands in the current lore. Like my hope is that if Seraphine is involved in Arcane season two or (maybe three?) that she IS more of a protest singer bringing the plight of the undercity to the attention of Piltover. But honestly I’m not confident in that happening. I also get the feeling that the Brackern won’t be involved in the story either.
Maybe they can tune her down. Make her think she's imagining things when she hears the voice in the hexcore. Make her a bit optimistic at first, then meet Vi and turn a little sad. Then meet Ekko ad cheer up.
She could also slowly grow into her gift maybe, as she learns to listen to people with different perspectives. Make her gift come from character growth.
"Seraphine’s “I’ll sing and unite the two cities in harmony” theme just feels even more toothless"
That's actually not bad as a starting point. A naive young idol who genuinely thinks she can unite Piltover and Zaun if she just sings hard enough. And from this point you just need her to get slapped in the face with the reality that most Piltovian nobility could not care less about Zaunites. It's not that they're not aware of Zaun's struggles, it's that they knowingly turn a blind eye to it, and that's not something you can solve with just singing about sunshine and rainbows. Her character growth would be realizing that instead of trying to convince Piltover that "class inequality bad actually" and "maybe we shouldn't exploit the souls of trapped living beings for technological progress", she needs to unite Zaunites and make them rise up against the oppression.
"I also get the feeling that the Brackern won’t be involved in the story either"
It would be hard to fit them in, considering the origin of hextech has been changed entirely to be Jayce and Viktor's invention instead of them being mined by Piltovian clans. One possible way to still have Brackern-powered hextech is to reveal that after Jayce had created synthetic hextech crystals, wealthy Piltovian investors sought out even more power and eventually discovered how to harvest the power of Brackern souls.
But to be honest, Arcane has already retconned a lot of things and dropped a lot of character connections (like Jinx and Ziggs agreeing to live together because of their shared love for making things go boom). I wouldn't be surprised if they just left everyone connected to the soul-powered crystals out of the story or at least retconned them to be using synthetic crystals.
Arcane isn't canon... So Seraphine likely exists but is different
Seraphine feels like Caitlyn to Jinx's Vi.
*grabs popcorn* there's gotta be a twist here
What I really hate about Seraphine is how freaking all over the place she is. She doesn’t really belong anywhere, character wise, appearance wise, location wise, she feels like she was from another world, which makes sense since Riot focused more on her skin lore than her actual lore.
They could've gone the isekai route, and would've been more interesting than what was presented. Like have the twitter Seraphine fall into runeterra, that's something that would be both parts new to LoL and also "lazy" enough to only make one single character
@@JoeyScraggy Eh, isekai could at least be genuinely interesting if gone full in on and be a really nice audience pull.
@@JoeyScraggy no isekai is boring and does not fit the "theme" of the universe. It would be really hard to pull it off and I think it would have caused alot more divide in the community.
I feel like an obvious solution to Seraphine's lore and design problems is a total reversal: Instead of a rags-to-riches story founded on an innate empathy, make it a story of privilege, of discovering the cruelty that sustains your privilege, the horror of realizing you live upon a mountain of, in this case, *literal corpses.* Make her the child of wealthy aristocrats. She's a pop star not to unite the cities, but because she *wanted to be.* She's not evil, but she's naive, she's childish, she wants to sing her songs and have fun. And then, the first revelation: A concert in Zaun. Maybe she suggests it as an act of kindness, maybe she's dragged into it by a producer. Doesn't matter. She sees, even from the top of the undercity where she performs, the horrors of Zaun, and more importantly, the cost of her life in Piltover, that she's never had to pay.
So we have Seraphine not as an intrinsically pure heart preaching harmony for harmony's sake, but a person of privilege who's bubble has been burst, but who's decided to use their power to try and unmake the systems she was born into. Go into the protest singer angle like you mentioned, but from the distinctive point of view of someone who has *everything* to lose from a change to the status quo, but demands change anyways because *it's the right thing to do.*
And then, at the apex of that story, the revelation about the Hextech Crystals and the Brakern. The knowledge of how deep that mountain of corpses truly goes. *And she would share that knowledge in a heartbeat, because it's the right thing to do.*
But in truth... She can't just easily mention it. She does talk about it. But the rich are quick to silent or try to silence her. She speaks a truth so unbelieve that those who hear it can't believe it. And the one honest person that does?... Is a Bracken.
She meets this creature because she found out how to resonate with one of the creature. She is freaked out until the Bracken begins to sing to the crystal. A song that she heard and can now understand a bit more and she resonates.
She becomes Bracken's top supporter and protestor to the use of Hextech crystals. And as she still bumbles through the most political takes, she is absolutely willing to put her life on the line with what she loves and what she means.
She is supposed to a self insert for teenage girls. Riches to rags doesn't resonate with them.
@@darkroads2591 I was very recently a teenage girl, rags to riches is still a very popular fantasy. Why do you think there are still so many Cinderella inspired teen movies?
@@thelittleredhairedgirlfrom6527 hence the riches to rags not rags to riches
@@darkroads2591 honestly, I think it resonates in a different way. It’s a different fantasy. Many teenage girls feel like they aren’t taken seriously when they express their views and thoughts about the world. Having Seraphine stand up to the piltover elite despite being blown off, insulted, and silenced while being a pop star that everyone loves is like, peak teenage girl fantasy. Why do you think the Hunger Games and ya dystopia are so popular?
Here's my shot at the brackern issue:
"After a long long time of Seraphine calling out to the voice she hears inside her dampaners(because she is an empath and would want to help a creature in need). The voice gathers itself enough to actually communicate and teach her the ways of brackern song. A lone voice wanting to speak out to the world, and now with a friend to help it.
Seraphine then dismantles the device and *according to it's will* uses the crystals to power her podium and speakers. She may not be able to talk to all the brackern inside the crystals, hell it took so much to even talk to a single one. But if she can raise her voice and unite the people of Piltover and Zaun, when she finally finds a way to reveal the truth, she *will* be heard."
There, now she has a good reason to be using the crystals(because that particular brackern allowed her to) she has a good reason to not be instantly able to reveal the truth(besides the rich aiming at her neck, there's no easy way to communicate with the crystals, not to mention convince others that they actually are what they are) and her goals are now multi-layered(on top of wanting to unite both cities because she legitimately cares, she wants to liberate the brackern from their abuse when the time is right).
I'm not a writer though.
And yet, you beat a whole team of people who are paid to be good writers. God these people should be fired...
@@rafaelcastor2089 No, that's a big point in his video, this isn't the riot writers' fault. They are given instructions, and so many limitations. This definitely isn't the result of riot writers writing shit and acting like it's good and sending it out, it's more complicated than that, please watch the whole video.
We have to keep in mind, Piltover is the embodiment of capitalism and Riot is a corporation. They should be some of the last people with a voice that you would expect to call out capitalist systems of oppression and suppression.
@@quickredf0x143 Ehh, kind of, you know how america is in regard to their image, ads, hollywood movies, series, they make it seem like capitalism is the enemy, or put evil corporations as the enemy, and consumerism, etc. yet they do that themselves, it's like they're saying "guys we gotta beat the evil system!" and then they do nothing about it and people think there's a difference, when there isn't. Not trying to go into political discussion since i'm not avid in that sense, but it's a little ironic, how they do that, frame themselves as heroes, world savers, and whatever, and they lie to themselves saying they help small countries grow and expand, while they opress them and control them, and take their resources, etc. it's a little sad the amount of people that actually think the united states are the good guys, but whatever
@@RegahP Fair point
What's ironic is that when you think about it, the mental health issues and the self-doubt Seraphine experiences in the KDA verse would have improved somewhat the Runeterra lore imho.
Think about it: what if Seraphine told people about her telepathy and no one believed her? What if the parents gave her the dampener to help her manage what they perceived as a mental condition instead of a special ability? So by the time she starts hearing the voice in the crystal, she has already internalized the idea that the voices she hears are auditory hallucinations and so she keeps quiet about the voice. Then Seraphine starts producing music that - without her realizing - has both aspects of her repressed empathy powers and aspects of the brackern's music based communication, which creates an overwhelming, almost hypnotic sense of togetherness and comfort in her songs. Because of this unique aspect to her music, Seraphine becomes a popstar who could actually be a lot more than just that, but thanks to years of gaslighting and her own self-doubt and fear of ostracision she doesn't dare using her powers as they were meant to be used.
Uhh... At least that's what I would've tried as a fix.
this would have been quite a good one tbh, and not one that would have needed a terrible rewrite, you could even eventually introduce a character that may "perceive" what Seraphine is and maybe helps bring her out of her shell and introduces her to everything in a new light including what happened to the brackern
I like this a lot, especially because it avoids the problem of just becoming another Lux or whatever her name is
A really good, unique analysis that actually goes into her potential rather than just 'Seraphine bad'. I play a lot of Seraphine and I do enjoy the character aesthetic that she brings to League, but man, I'm so disappointed in her lore and worldbuilding and how they handled it now. :
Right? But I would have loved a more punk/Zaun aesthetic for her original art and a completely different look for KDA skin. Give us options, high femininity still has flavors.
It makes me actually unconfortable riot is profiting off mental health and which is.... Such a big issue everywhere, but has such a loaded context in the kpop industry. It feels like banking off real people's actual suffering and I don't like it.
But considering the soul powered platform it fits the theme, no?
She's made to be relatable
@@dot2382 that is exploitative regardless
@@dot2382, aatrox is more relatable than this abomination
@@NeverWhorgetyea it is exploitative either wayd
All of her vagueness on both of her conceptions remind me of The Adventure Zone Balance
"Seraphine wants to unite Zaun and Piltover in [static noise] and harmony and to [static noise]"
"Seraphine, the new member of KDA, brings the unique element of [static noise] to the group and also [static noise]"
Never would have thought I would see a fellow Adventure Zone fan on a league video, small world i guess lol
KDA Seraphine in a nutshell, the KDA lore before Seraphine was fine, in my opinion.
oh shit they voidfished seraphines lore
I feel that Sera was a rushed champ , like she was made more for that KDA part and less for Runetera, her lore is very silly and kinda bland without many elements to build upon it will need a complete rework for her lore or many stories to change and build her character , right now she is mostly like: Life sucks, so lets sing together and that will solve our problems. I also find funny how Riot tried to make her a perfect angel but in the end, she sounds in some cases like a cruel person.
Very much disagree, if ur willing to read, there was a post done about where her lore could go www.reddit.com/r/loreofruneterra/comments/kciemt/seraphine_and_her_status_in_lore/
@@tyleredwards9799 Im not saying that she dosent have potential , is just the way her story was released feels very unfocused and just way too many elements that were opened but left in the wind, without a proper reflection. Thats why i said that she will need a lot of work to make her story stand, this is available for all champs but she feels that it will need very special attention since even riot noticed mistakes that should not be there for a new champ, thats why i think she was a rushed champ , at least from lore pov, her gamplay is very nice since we did not had a singer/diva in lol.
Even so, just like what TBSkyen says, her KDA lore felt like its really missing something, doesn't feel right aswell, so yeah in my opinion she is overall very rushed
I like her KDA lore the Runeterra lore ehh not so much
I'm fairly new to this game, does each skin has its own lore???
My idea: let her be a true Zaunite. Have her bring punk to KDA. I agree with what you said previously about being a protest performer. Using her platform to bring attention to the class division and potentially the reality of hextech.
That would've been so fucking good if they managed to pull that off AAAAAAAAA
Omg this video was great, skyen, you really outdid yourself with this one. Taking the discussion of just a rather bland league character into all the different, difficult subjects you did was a blast to watch. The nuance is outstanding. Keep up with the good work!
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@TBSkyen do u think if Riot explained themselves about Seraphine's lore and why it's been hid under the rug and never talked about, that people might play and like Seraphine a lot more?
Janna: *god-like spirit who came out of nowhere and purifies Zaun's air*
Camille: *Rich entity who takes underground matters into her own hands.*
Seraphine:
Also a bigger issue with Seraphine is we're assuming she has concerts, right? Who the FUCK in Zaun can afford to go?
The Chem Barons, I guess?
@@eventua8474 l.doubt they would go there bcs they are easy target to other barons and warwick they would most likely kidnap her to sing for them In private
Maybe they are Free? But it would still be costly anyway, since the time spend at them would lead to less time to do key tasks, such as work or trying to provide.
Her concerts have been confirmed to be freelance work she does in both cities. (Thank you Legends of Runeterra)
She’s legitimately using her abilities to fight mend the cities back together.
Finna be the longest and most formal roast I'm ever going to see.
EDIT: Holy shit, it's 1 hour. I guess I was right about it being long lmao.
@guy dude YES
Turns out it wasn't quite her that was the target of the flames this time...
I would have liked if Seraphine's design was piltover clothing but in zaunite coloring. It would fit the steampunk victorian/edwardian style of piltover in general, but throw it off with the bright pink/green/purple/red of zaun. Piltover defaults mostly to brown, blue and white/off-white, so essentially giving her a partially Zaun-ified version of common Piltover fashion could look good and stand out not just because "haha pretty girl popstar" but because it's different from the other Piltover/Zaun champions. It would even be a simple way to make her more of a "child of two worlds" between Zaun and Piltover.
The platform could also have been affected by this, by giving it a more zaunite feel (because her parents who are from zaun helped her make it!) or just giving her something else besides a stage but that's neither here nor there.
At any rate, this is one of if not the best video you've made thus far! Really went into a lot of details regarding the champion that usually get tackled separately.
I got reminded of punk Lolita which is a mix of Punk and childish Victorian fashion
I love your idea to
@@little_moth this sounds perfect and I’d love to see it happen for seraphine
@@EtamirTheDemiDeer ah I did draw it don't know how to show it to you tho
Honestly, I really wanted to be positive about Seraphine but I just can't get over how a company managed to act so manipulatively towards their audience. It seems as though the only thing that mattered was to market the ultimate skin, sell as MUCH as possible as FAST possible and move on to other things. At this point it's just how many skins you can squeeze in one patch,so quantity over quality.Seraphine could have been executed better, but they had to go for the safer route to guarantee they have some sort of profit. This is just a short summary of my thoughts so the comment might seem as though it's crowded with stuff, just my thought though, don't take them too seriously.
I truly disagree that is quantity over quality, the quality of the skins are higher then they ever been...
@@Loliston It's true that the quality of the skins hasn't decreased by any means, but the amount that is getting released every patch has started getting out of hand imo.I wasn't trying to say the skins are bad, I was trying to say we could get something more interesting with a little more time and effort.
Her personality and lore is so flat. Her model is so out of this world. (I meant runeterra) just playing her on WR, her design most likely to fit none. If she could only introduce new "race" of somesort that would fit her "aesthetic" then it's okay- I guess.
@@speedytrader5180 Riot are finally giving some love to not so popular champions, one of the most criticized thing about the company approach to skins, for me, the more skins the better! If the quality remain good, I'm totally ok with it!
And it's not like the huge quantity of skins are making it lack on creativity, hell one of the best events was all related to a new skin series! Other than that, chromas are just expanding the personalization options, some skins that I don't like so much became just awesome with the right chroma...
I disagree with you 100% on that one mate 😆
Never forget how she was perfectly near balanced on release and then got her self-shield value doubled xd
On the "protest singer" part - I think Seraphine works quite well (and makes a lot of sense in lore context) as the exact opposite: involountary propaganda machine. She's empath, meaning she can feel animosity between Piltover and Zaun, suffering, stress; from there the most direct (even if completely inefficient) way of trying to fix things would be to encourage everyone to live by (the "harmony" part) and have hope for better future as trying to fix issues she perceives directly, instead of pushing for something that would cause positive change as a result. Sadly, nothing like that is at any point fleshed out in the lore, but it seems like the most obvious and straightforward conclusion given what we know so far. At the same time - it fits the fact nobody of power in either Piltover or Zaun does anything with her; since a popular voice that advocates for preserving status quo is in favor of those in power, on both (Piltover and Zaun) sides. In a way - it makes Seraphine more of a reinforcement of existing dynamic between cities rather than a disruptive addition, which would be very much fine if properly expressed.
My Hot Take on K/DA Seraphine: She was the missing "sweet" stereotype. The relatable one that can push the imaginations of fans that what happened to her could happen to them. Shes the idol that makes the group more human and well rounded, because all four of the original members all had strong and badass personalities. They had all the cool/hot members people could idolize but none that people can relate to and aspire to be.
I like this idea!
... Except that in paper, it makes it sound like Ahri decided to add Seraphine to K/DA for the same reason Riot did... Because of money/as a marketing gimmick
Wich is very similar to the idea I had whenever I was told about the comics, that idea being that Seraphine.was.just.Arhi's.whim. nothing else than a way for Ahri to look like she cares about other/smaller artists or as a way for her to remember old times as an indie artist
Disclaimer: I don't really know anything about this character's, I haven't even read the comics, this is just what came to my mind when I heard about them
@@iaracardozo126 not to mention the comics already portray Ahri's journey as being similar to Seraphine's, so the uniqueness Seraphine brings is only the presentation of her story to the audience "as it develops", so to speak, which allows for the kind of audience engagement that RinisAnnoyed described. It's purely and exclusively for the benefit of marketing, not to actually round out K-DA as a "music project" (both the actual one and the fictional one). Then again, that is also true for many actual pop bands, so eh...
This is literally the KDA lore though. She is an everygirl who was "scouted" by the group and brought on to join, and it's a bit sad that Skyen didn't do the base research to figure out that is what she is supposed to be on her own.
From talking about Seraphine as a character in League to Seraphine as a marketing tool to the virtual influencer problem as a whole?
Damn, Skyen. This is one of the best videos you made and perhaps one of the most comprehensive and constructive criticism of Seraphine yet
EDIT: Almost forgot to add this, but yeah, the Rioters need to unionize.
I still have a deep disdain for the way the Seraphine was ultimately done, because Riot has the money to do the research and prevent it from taking many of the harmful directions it did, but I understand the desire to want to create something fun or inclusive and making a mistake.
Seraphine's skin was absolutely created first. Her base skin looks so awful in game like they didn't care about it at all and only cared about her kda skin
I don't think her base skin is awful. It just feels really out of place being in the main runeterra universe.
@@lordvonsteiner2452 tbh it doesnt even match the splashart and there is where you know they didnt even care about it. If they gave it more focus they wouldve talked it over more to make it look more similar than what they ended with.
Whenever i see a seraphine without the kda skin i always think to myself that she looks so weird, incomplete or out of place, for me base seraphine is kda seraphine, and its a lil bit sad.
They kinda just denied themselves the opportunity to make star guardian serephine.
ikr i've always thought her ability vfx looked very underwhelming and unsatisfying, the only part that actually looks good is the passive but the sfx makes most of the work for it since it feels rewarding and satisfying to hear the "tututuutt"
I think she would be able to tell the difference between synthetic and natural hex crystals. So, she always uses synthetic ones to power stuff, but collects shards of natural ones and listens to their songs. I definitely think that if she shows up in Arcane season 2, her character design and lore will probably improve.
ngl this character has the potential to set up something big, like a 'Skarner starts an economic disaster and it's all Seraphine's fault' story that moves PnZ's plot forward, and possibly integrates her lore with other champs.
At the moment though this champion falls so insanely short of the bar we've been accustomed to.
No point getting mad, it's just disappointing.
@@victoralves3983 no one cares about belle seraphine
Seraphine's story has potential to be amazing but Riot seems to only care about her as a member of KDA.
@@thebigidea9659 she's not a member of KDA she was just a collab
> a 'Skarner starts an economic disaster and it's all Seraphine's fault' story
Not sure how to feel about framing this story as a disaster that's someone's fault and not a heroic action correcting a longstanding crime against humanity (well, mostly skarnerity, but still). Though come to think of it, that's 100% how Riot would frame it.
They want to remake skarner . They mention his plot is changed too
The whole section about virtual influencers and how it affects Seraphine was extremely interesting and really well thought out. Thank you Skyen for a connection that I wasn't even entirely aware of. Thank you for your work!
I belive she would have been cooler if she was like an aspect of harmony/music that lives in P&Z and she would try to unite the cities more because the aspect wants that, since the aspect saw Lunari/Solari conflicts and doesn't want it to repetat here. Zoe is an aspect that didn't climb the mountain, so why not make a similar situation with Seraphine?
Not only would that be a cooler concept, but Seraphine's design would fit better with the other aspects imo. She has all the bright magical colors and her hoverboard thing seems more otherworldly and cosmic than piltovan/zaunite.
Also her asking the people to “just get along” would make more sense coming from someone THAT powerful, she could’ve forgotten what is like to struggle...
that's actually such a great idea, would make her being the goody-two-shoes actually more believable and not so annoying and uninspired
@@SunsetTwist that’s actually an interesting take on it. She’s so detached from it all that she thinks simply getting along would solve everything.
And if this aspect of music would be one of the 'youngest' among the others, even younger than the aspect of twilight (maybe even also naive), then it would have no idea about the brackern crystal Sera has besides the fact that it likes music. So the platform would be there not just to make Sera stand out, but to also give the crystal the chance to speak, assuming the music from the platform is what the crystal sings, rather than be a battery.
Imagine in the middle of a concert instead of music from the platform you would hear a bunch of voices sounding as one.
It would be so cool if her ultimate skin changed skins at 6 and 11 or 11 and 16 since she's growing in power, which could be symbolic of her rise to fame.
I mean with Ahri (Riot) being business savvy, it literally could be "hey, this is a pretty girl who speaks Chinese and English and sings well who we can get for cheap. CHINESE MARKET HERE WE COME!"
And they couldn't say that was the only reason, now could they?
1:10:03 My man went from defending artists to calling out all of Riot's garbage in a blaze of passionate rage and I am *here for it* speak your piece bossman
I just wanted to listen about art and character design, instead i'm depressed because of how f****d up is the world we live in
I liked the anti-capitalist virtual influencer part was backed up by the instrumentals of money. Just excellent background music for the entire video good job man.
Me wanting to work at Riot: omg i love league and i wanna be an artist and work there!
Me after this video : okay fuck no ew Riot wtf you doing
i will never understand why a billionaire company doesnt want to pay several thousand dollars to writers who can make their products more compelling and GOOD. this investment is nothing compared to their overall wealth ITS NOTHING and they still dont want to help themselves!
Well they obviously need more good people then! The more talented and genuine active employees they have, the harder it will get for these things to just pass by. The sexism walkout did have an impact on the company, as far as I know. So go make riot better will you? :D
No lie, I LOVE the idea of a popstar from Piltover. Thats the only place I can imagine a popstar getting big. The only town with the riches for luxury to become a pop-star as a career. Tho I would love to see her with like, split color pallets for Zaun and Piltover to show the unity of the two cities n stuff. Maybe a direct line down her middle or on the waistline that splits the colors etc etc
Like, Runeterra-wise, I could see it working easily and they just fucked it up lmao
Seraphine WAS a marketing tool for sure, and her twitter been left behind after the Worlds event just shows that....
I have a bunch of problems with her, BUT if they kept with the act, maybe it could be cool, an unique thing out of all the same ol stuff she brought to the game.
I just get worried that they will never try something like this again cuz it clearly backfired, and on top of that, Im pretty sure her skin didnt even sold well (compared to others ultimate skins).
Rito plz, just bring Pentakill back, doesnt even need new members, and maybe True damage or a new boy-band-ish thingy, just so we please everyone lol (mainly now with a bunch of shirtless, skinny, sexy boyz)
Sadly, Pentakill doesn't sell well.
@@rommdan2716 it still came back!
@@airhead7379 And I'm so happy to be wrong!!
Let's not forget this line:
"Piltover and Zaun sing together in a dazzling duet" which is an... Interesting way to describe an oppressive regime and their abused underclass.
Maybe what Seraphine actually brings to the K/DA is mostly the dreamy character. The dreamy and hopeful kind of person that maybe the members needed to remember.
Eeeh... Ahri?
Yeah..but maybe she forgot because of all the insecurities she has while focusing on the actual career 🤷♀️ at least for me that might be it. It might be or it might not.
She doesnt bring anything because she isnt part of K/DA. It was merely Riot using the success of K/DA to give a push for Seraphine so that the skin wouldnt have flopped.
nah.
@@cheshirenevande4701 dk what u mean nah that is literally what she was lol
This character was definitely a design before the story…. Truly the most out of place character in league
My criticisms of Seraphine are centered almost entirely on her as a character in the wider worldbuilding of Runeterra. While the parasocial relationship and influencer controversies are certainly interesting, I prefer to keep to what I can confidently say that I understand enough to have a point. Keeping this in mind my thoughts on Seraphine and TB's analysis are:
1. I completely agree that she doesn't look like someone who would come from, let alone try to be something of a synthesis between, Piltover and Zaun. She doesn't have the magitek-victorian-steampunk of Piltover or the crude, unpretentious chempunk of Zaun. Sure, a pop-star doesn't really create images of standard fashions, but she isn't some avant-garde, style first sort of character that would completely ignore the very concept of normal for the sake of making a point or to be eye catching. She is supposed to be a more down to earth and theoretically "authentic" kind of starlet. Wouldn't a Piltover-Zaun fusion make more sense of style for someone who wants to be a unifying force instead of something that is completely apart from the styles of both?
2. While her naivete of the complicated nature of P and Z is an interesting point of characterization, the fact that she doesn't have a real end goal beyond "let's all get along" makes her come across as aimless. The kind of aimless that Riot has been trying to phase out from older characters for years now. I think styling her as a chirpy and good natured but naïve protest singer with an actual cause would have been more engaging. Someone who could, by positive or downright wholesome means could be a threat to the delicate relationship between the oligarchy of the Clans and the crime syndicates of the Chem Barons. Perhaps she could have a following significant enough that the Clan Intelligencers, Camille specifically, could be hesitant to eliminate her in order to avoid a larger, more violent disruption. An ambitious Chem Baron or thugs who threaten the machine that is Piltover are simple enough to remove, but how would Camille handle someone is accumulating soft power through capturing the hearts of Piltovans and Zaunites alike instead of by wealth, reputation, or force? (Personally I just want more stories for Camille, but I digress.)
3. Her backstory raises some interesting questions. It says that her family wasn't especially wealthy, fine engineers perhaps, but not particularly exceptional. That being true, how did she get her hands on an authentic hexcrystal, a ridiculously valuable power source that I doubt would be far from one of the ruling merchant clans? How did she rise to fame so quickly?
4. I find it weird that Zaun now has two empaths, the first being Zac, who physically feels the emotional states of others in Zaun and works to help whoever he can because both their pain and sadness reflect onto him and because he was raised to have a strong moral compass by his parents. It's fine to have champs like this as a positive counter to characters like Urgot (who I completely disagree with TB's assertion that he is a fascist when his ideals are that of pure anarchic survival of the strongest as his lore states that he "isn't there to lead, but to survive"), the inhuman cruelty of Singed, and the cold professional elitism of Camille, but two empaths in the same region seems a tad redundant.
On point #1 they could've just made her a mix between victorian goth and punk goth, add a little Piltover and Zaun magical tech touch and voilá. No idea why they just did a starguardian looking diva
I kinda disagree on the "two empaths in one region is redundant" claim, because Zac and Seraphine make for interesting foils for one another, even if Riot will never bring it up or use it in any interesting way. They both want to help people for the sake of altruism, but their empath nature leads them to be polar opposites in their approach, problems and even appearance. Seraphine's empath ability leaves her naive to the complex nature of the problems between Zaun and Piltover, and instead frames the whole conflict as a purely emotional one. Zac's empath ability overwhelms him with the negative emotions of Zaun and causes him to lash out at everything and everyone around him when he tries to help.
@@Birthday888 wait isn't Zac a wholesome heroic blob that helps people fix gas leaks and stuff? When did he become an angry monster?
UNIONIZE THE GAMES INDUSTRY!!!
Comment for the algorithm gods
I wish she was more reluctantly decorated as a Piltover star. It would make it more interesting if Piltover tried to profit off of her image while she desperately wants to help Zaun. It would reflect a lot of real-life cases where young female stars have been controlled and mistreated for monetary and political reasons. The Piltover image of her could even push an interesting conflict where it could alienate Zaunites even if its not necessarily what Seraphine means to convey. I'd like if she expressed genuine anger at her Piltover management at some point when she's had enough of being told what to sing.
Fun Fact: In the Universe section of League of Legends' main website where the character lore is stored, Seraphine's lore STILL hasn't changed, i just checked it
Let's hope they can develop her story to be a protest singer over time
Let’s hope they develop her story at all. We already got 2 new characters, Rell and Viego, released. More likely they’re working on a new character then fixing/updating any other characters’ story.
"I miss your kind too, Skarner.
Would you like to hear their song?"
Skarner: WHAT THE F-
Holy shit this was a very good video. I don't think I've ever heard TB Skyen go this hard on to something he feels strongly about.
Seraphine particularly upsets me because I read her lore first, no other knowledge of the rest of the lore to understand why It Bad or her actual character, I read “extremely sensitive to sound (to a magical degree) and requires an assistive device to function in her crowded city home” as magic autism. And it kills me that because of *the rest of her* I seem to be alone in that reading.
It honestly bothers me so much that she has a butterfly theme (Q and that gigantic hair pin) for no reason?? its so weird
You could attribute the butterfly metaphor to her growth from indie nobody to star celebrity, but yeah it's just kinda loosely thrown in their without much grace.
Me too, like, her name makes me think of mermaids, but her desing give me fairy/butterfly aesthetic. You could at least make her go with one idea as the base Seraphine (either Butterfly Sera or Mermaid Sera) and reserve another theme as an alternate skin (which could be cool, imagine all the posibilities for an "Under the sea" stage,)
@@Pootis-Spencer I wish they had gone with the more piltovery concept they released, but they did also have a mermaid/siren looking one so you arent off, that would maybe be a cool “pool party” skin for her!
@@Jeremy-xs4gt I also wish she would have a piltovery outfit (mixed with some Zaun punk parts) as her base skin, especially since a steampunk pop-star is something that would make her stand from all the "female superstar" type of character that she's base off.
Aside that, alternative skins like "Pixie Butterfly" or "Pool Party!" would be great to have little descriptions like "a concert in the spring to raise awearness to the education in Zaun" or something like that, that she is a star with different songs and presentations, showing her intentions of unity the people of PnZ (idk-)
@@Pootis-Spencer I cant believe they looked at “steampunk pop star” and said no?? Also the skins with lore could come with music videos to lean into her being an actual popstar and that would be great promo
Something I really like about Seraphine’s character is just that she’s positive and cheerful. In a really tragic place like Zaun and Piltover, it feels like she’s protesting the misery by being cheerful and kind. I think they could have explored more about her internal battle with being a singer for both Zaun and Piltover; singing enough of her genuine feelings of rebellion and suffering from being a Zaunite to appeal to the people from Zaun, and yet censoring herself enough so that the people from Piltover won’t look down on her as something of a punk from Zaun. It would be cool to see a story where she has to balance the line between genuine and commercial.
Can't wait to be banning serpahine in ranked while listening to this video.
Same here bro
@guy dude 55% wr across 3 roles lmao
@guy dude I will say again. She has a 55% wr across 3 roles: adc, mid, and support. “Just pick engage” doesn’t placate the fact that she’s busted with moonstone and staff. She’s a team fight nightmare rn. She’s getting nerfs so we’ll see how she fairs in a week
@guy dude the problem is from a support mains perspective (me) her counters aren't good due to them being week to poke which Seraphine has amazing poke. You cant use a poke mage due to the aoe shield and the heal plus the movement speed. I'm sorry but this champion is one of my most hated so far, I just needed to let out some steam due to her kit being way too overpowered at the moment. If you main Seraphine you are maining a champion with a sivit ult + Janna W + Sonna W as your W leading to many different playstyles in one champion ability. Again am very sorry this is anger at the champion not you.
@@peacepham7838 think it was from u.gg. Saw the stats a few days ago
I think the best solution is to add the soul as part of the art work(like a transparent soul behind her), and in game to add dialogue between it and Seraphine.
So we can hear how exactly is it guiding her.
It’ll be unique to have a champion that low key talks to themself (Kled doesn’t count, since we can’t understand their companion)
In terms of her fitting in K/DA, I definitely can tell ahri saw her past self in seraphine, someone who’s ambitious and wants to share her voice to the world. This lead her to inviting her as sort of this more youthful and Innocent member who’s ambitions are reaching a climax. By taking a chance and letting a new rising artist like seraphine collaborate with the group, she wants to give seraphine the chance Ahri was potentially denied a lot in the past. In terms of Kpop, there’s the roles known as: Leader, Main Dancer, Main Rapper, Visual, Main Vocalist, and Maknae. If I’m correct I’d place the members in this way
Leader: Ahri (obviously)
Main Rapper: Akali
Main Dancer: Kai’Sa
Visual: Evelyn (seeing as she’s a bold and sexy diva)
Maknae and Main Vocalist: Seraphine
I gave seraphine main vocalist since in More, similar to many kpop groups main vocalists, Seraphine got her own spot to show off her vocals that end with a sort of high note or climax. And Maknae is just a title given to the youngest member of said group.
Okay my ONLY thing is: what Ahri sees in Seraphine and what she brought to the table in that small panel is that Ahri can SAVE someone from becoming that pop star stuck in a contract, unhappy, and unable to express herself. Ahri sees herself when she was trying to make it big and knows she has the ability to help someone shine HOW THEY SHINE. K/DA Seraphine in her verse brings the grounding and resolution of Ahri’s arc in the popstar/KDA universe. She is unbound and prospers more and continues to write what she feels, just like seraphine. Maybe I saw this from being an ultra KDA fan and seeing all of the posts and keeping up with the Twitter ETC. But you see this ideology in Ahri’s single on the EP “I’ll Show You”. I think Seraphine really sparked that in the group as a whole. But this is my take. LOVED your thoughts on her base lore. If only League took a sliver of that approach bc it would be so much more inspired than the plain pop star they gave her in base! Love the vids!
Thanks for the support guys. Alright, let's go!
*SpongeBob music plays*
SERAPHINE?!
Is this a Piltie cartoon?!
On the K/DA Indie splash art I just realised there is catJAM.
Also, this just made me want MORE, from Seraphine. Like, "fixing" her lore like you mentioned it, being a protest singer. On the K/DA part, I think the biggest giveaway on the writers' cluelessness about how K/DA Sera would fit in the group is that SHE DIDN'T GET A SINGLE, ABOUT HERSELF, BECAUSE THERE IS NO SELF TO HER. It just makes me sad how my Favourite champ could be so much more and yet here we are.
Also this is the first well educated and really, visibly polished oppinion/essay on Sera. Thank you for making this, your videos are just great!
As someone who struggles putting his own needs above the needs of others, I see very little empathy in Seraph.
Seraphine is such a boring champion. I didn't even buy her lol
Try her out! she's fucking broken in teamfights
I have stopped playing ever since that champ was released, but she wasn't the main cause.
@@ssa_lty the more reason she's boring
I bought her with Blue Essence, but I refuse to play her. I bought her to be able to trade her to other people, but I don't want to play her, and I refuse to call her anything other than 'Sona'. I genuinely dislike the current issues with her, but the reason I hate her is because of the Ultimate skin.
I only bought her in PBE because I had no other use for my blue essence.
To the point of what Seraphine brings to K/DA: The way a lot of Kpop groups work is, that there are different roles/archetypes. The one i suspect she i supposed to be is the youngest of the group, often seen as the cutest one, also known as the maknae. That is my best guess, really...
46:19 I think the "new thing" she brings to KD/A is that she's your average Joe schmoe who you can dream to be, most of kda already have some thing that makes them superstars even on their own, and seraphine is was just a "nobody" (real big air quotes there) that any one could see themselves as I think that's what that ahri panel was representing. ( at least that's what I got from it)
It would be nice to see that seraphine to be a protest singer. However I would love to see that seraphine the original soul got taken over by the soul of the bracken in her headphones which explains why she seems psychotic while being an empath.
I only recently discovered your channel through shorts (I am not immune to the serotonin of mindless scrolling on shorts). I’ve thoroughly been enjoying going through this content and it’s been very pleasant hearing a thorough analysis on certain subjects and pieces of media. I’m glad that through this hellish algorithm there remains a pleasant side of content creators who are passionate and interesting to view.
Seraphine composes Internationale and joins Sylas' revolution.
I think that the whole "Seraphine adds nothing to K/DA" chapter is the reason that I personally see her ultimate skin as actually being a "corruption", contrary to what you said here. She goes from having her own aesthetic and vibe, and is then taken over by K/DA and loses all sense of that "self". She just becomes "the 5th K/DA member"
Granted, I don’t know much about KDA outside of their music, but my opinion, it would be interesting for Seraphine’s “thing” in KDA to be the actual talent/authenticity of the group, and have it contrast with Ahri’s popstar thing. Which is something that could be easily shown in the recordings by giving her higher notes, having her belt, or harmonize with the others (which thinking about it know could show Seraphine as the musical “glue” of the group) or seriously any other vocal skill other than lightly singing the melody to the bridge before the chorus. Because nowadays any one in KDA could have done that, like what was said in the video. Any popstar (Ahri in our case) can sound good carrying the melody with brief vocal lessons, autotune and pre recorded vocal performances, it’s how groups like BTS preform complicated dances quote unquote “live” while sustaining their singing. But it takes practice and skill to learn proper breath techniques to belt or sustain high notes, which is something we could see Seraphine doing in contrast to Ahri who is more familiar with the “idol” side of things.
Basically I’m saying have Seraphine do something similar to Akali, which is bring a different genre to KDA, but instead of Hip Hop have it be something similar to musical theater, for a lack of a better term because that’s where I see the majority of these techniques used. Give her more difficult songs to sing. And then equate that with the idea of being authentic, in the way live theater is usually more “authentic” than performances from pop stars, even though the concept of preforming choreographed music for an audience is similar in nature.
And then use those ideas to explore like the music industry and how having musical talent doesn’t equate to being a good popstar, and how Seraphine has to balance between being authentic with herself, working in a group, and making successful music.
"Riot has more money than god."
Seems right ngl.
I don’t know much about league , but I feel like this would have been an easy fix without actually needing to do all that much to her lore.
They could have had her listen to the voice and then have the crystal be put into the stage so that the crystal had a voice . That way they could sing together and spread awareness of the problem with the hex tech crystals
I would absolutely LOVE to see an animation breakdown, I personally like her animations and also really enjoy seeing you geek out about the animations so I'm hoping you can make a video on it. Don't pressure yourself though, you've got like at LEAST six other projects going on right now so this shouldnt really take priority.
Even tho i love the Ruined King Year, i sadly know that no story will come out this year to make her story deeper... and that's sad. I like the idea that she is empty and silly, with no concrete idea on how the world works... but her lore is so empty of any hints about her future that she feels like an incomplete work...
I always dig your design breakdowns because you actually explain your criticisms, and clearly care about the aesthetics in relation to the universe in general. Even ignoring all of the controversy surrounding her release, Seraphine is just so painfully uninteresting. She's just another pretty anime girl to add to the pile.
There was a Polygon article that was just published when Gwen got revealed basically saying that "LoL fans are tired of sexy champions". It's frustrating that so often the complex and valid criticisms that people have towards this topic get misinterpreted as either prudence or veiled misogyny. We arent tried of sexy champions. We are tired of champions that feel like they were made from a factory production line.
Ready youe snacks bois dis is going to be a long one
Okay, this critique was a masterpiece.
This was a joy to watch, articulate as always :'D I was honestly a fan of using social media as a storytelling medium because that's an interesting and interactive way to try and tell a narrative imo but alas, the inherent cons of //vaguely gestures// all of this,,, thank you for this, love your videos and your work!
Man the answer for tying it in WAS RIGHT THERE in Riots grasp. Like they could have just went with what Skyen was saying about making her a protest singer and then KDA could have been like “Shes very outspoken on what matters and we really respect that” and invited her that way
Sure i would appreciate a animation breakdown of Seraphine. Maybe even under the pretense that "In-Game" i really really dislike them.
The thing is, in real life empaths are rarely crybaby meek peace loving kind hearted softies, they are usually over-exposed to nasty intentions of people from way too young age so are likely to be hardened/jaded and or rebellious. So seraphine being a protest singer would have made so much sense
ik 6 month reply but protest singers can also be peace loving kindhearted softies, they arent mutually exclusive.
The amount of glitter she got for her clothes is more glitter than what Jhin sees when someone steps on his lotus traps, AND THAT'S ALOT OF GLITTER
I think it would've been so much cooler if Sera either used her stage, or empathy powers to give her bug friend somewhat of a physical form. More like a holographic or astral type thing, and they both go around trying to inspire people and bring them together with their music, and shed get a animal companion that instead of being cute like most characters of her sort would get, she'd get a crazy looking monster thing, which could help pull in more of those Zaun grunge/punk aesthetics
My greatest fear is that she will play a major role in future Arcane seasons…
Do you think you could do a “What’s the Deal with Camille?” video sometime in the future? I know she’s over four years old now but she’s a really interesting character with a really interesting story and design, and while she’s still got some qualities that other League females have she’s still a pretty unique concept with a great execution that I think people could really appreciate more. Also, her PC character model isn’t true to a bunch of the smaller details(especially the ones surrounding her face), if you look in official art pieces surrounding her and her login screen you’ll find her face to be more thinly and sharply structured and her nose to actually be fairly long and rectangular compared to her model’s nose.
I came expecting a in depth analysis on Seraphines design and animations and im leaving with a much more insightful view on predatory social media marketing and corporation greed. The classic Skyen brand. Though I would still love a video on her animations lol
Dang you know, Riot trying to form a partnership with an organization built atop immense human rights violations and only backing out after severe backlash makes them brushing Seraphine’s whole capitalizing on genocide for the sake of her career, fame, and fortune seem a BIT more fricked up. Like a part of me thinks that was intentional on the part of the writers to highlight Riot’s real life business practices, and then a major exec had to swoop in and rectify it since it hit a bit too close to home.
I do like K/DA Seraphine quite a bit. But I can’t excuse all the shitty business decisions Riot has made with this character. I can’t excuse the shittiness of huge corporations in general.
I got jumpscared by the transition XD Saw the video length and when it started I was like "wait, has it really been that long already?" Went to touch the phone screen to check the time remaining and TRIPLE BASS DROP! Utterly hilarious to me and was excited to know I was only halfway through! Loved the video, helped me get past a rough day. Thanks Skyen :D
That mid point threw me off so much, then i laughed at the transition. Well done! Keep up the excellent work!
I still like that thought that she should have just been the Sona update. Would have solved so many problems. Already a star in lore, skips the brackern issue entirely, has a direct purpose in KDA, etc
Skyen: She should be a singer that makes the concerts to make Piltovian's see Zaun's suffering and fight for them
Me: so---- Lucio from Overwatch?
There is a lot in this video, and it is all good, but I still think it's worth mentioning Sona in all of thins. She is League's first music champion, she was a part of penta kill from the beginning, and she is everything Seraphine wants to be. I am fully under the impression that the reason Seraphine is based in the Piltover Zaun conflict, is because setting her in Ionia would be too close to Sona. Both are champions with a dissability, and a magical instrument that can be used as prosthetic, both use their music in the hopes to present a sense of unity and peace (even if they've both been shafted in that role, thanks mage persecution), and the list goes on. What bugs me though is that Sona's disability and music play into each other, the girl who can't speak a word, can get the entire world to listen, while Seraphine's musical career "cured" her anxiety. I'm not saying that Sona's better because physical dissabilities are somehow more important, but Sona is more interesting because she doesn't need to be fixed to be important. It's like a blind character that can see just as well as everyone else, it belittles the problem, and worse yet mystifies and exoticizes it. A mental disability is not a super power, and a pep talk from the victim of a genocide is not therapy.
This was very thoughtful and informative, I really appreciate how you used other virtual influencers as an example of how fucked up their marketing can be.
I personally was really into Sera's twitter storyline up to the infamous "I can't love myself 😭, send happy messages 🥺" tweet, that one just took it a step too far.
This video illustrates why its a pleasure watching your content, Skyen. The way you present your informative prospective and highlight what makes you feel the way you do to your audience, while doing your damnest to retain your creative integrity is simply refreshing to see on this platform. Cheers, and keep it up!
I'm enjoying this like a child
I personally really like Seraphine. Part of why I really like her is that I relate to her quite a bit (with all of the magic and hextech stuff taken out). I’m an empath and I’m constantly trying to not only manage my own emotions, but also keep everyone around me happy if I can. And music is a big part of my life. It’s how I understand and relate to and communicate with the world around me. And I also relate to her in another way… I can be really f***ing annoying and obnoxious. Sometimes I’m super loud, and when I get excited about something, good luck getting me to shut up about it. So yeah I really like her because she reminds me of myself, but better. She’s definitely got a better voice than I do. I don’t play League (I don’t think I can figure it out) but if I did, I’d probably play with Seraphine quite a bit.
A bloodborne stream, a hades stream AND a wtdw about this flop... Yeeeeeee boiiiiiii LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Been a while since riot posted cringe. I'm also hyped
Ok Skyen, I've watched quite a few of your shorts, which I definitely enjoyed. But this long-form video was so good and gave me a little bit of insight into your mindset, and I'm with it. Good stuff. I'll be watching more - thanks!