She looks like a void themed skin for a non void champion.

"My appearence may frighten you but make no mistake, I am on your side and we fight to the bitter end" is literally one of her voice lines.... What's so frightening about her appearence Riot? They could have made her to look more like a human version of Kha'Zix, but I guess Riot isn't there yet experimental female character designs. Pretty much all of them look the same. There are a FEW exceptions such as Anivia or Rek'sai, but come on... Give us something interesting instead of some female character made after a cookie cutting way.

I wouldn't have minded if she still had a sexy hourglass figure, but honestly her face design is the laziest thing Riot has done in a while. I get her theme is supposed to be a combination of Samus Aran and Vayne, some kind of relentless space monster hunter, but she's supposed to be physically effected by the void- like what happened with Kassadin. Did she just miraculously survive as a helpless child and learn to kill these creatures out of nowhere? Why not at least give her glowing purple eyes, scaley skin, messy hair, something else that makes her look less ...unscathed by her environment? Even in the concept art for Kai'sa, all the other sketches for her would have been a better fit than the final design. Again, I love the theme of this character and she looks fun to play, but just like a lot of others I'm a little disappointed.

She literally looks like every hot female "badass" fantasy character ever. Like, look at Kassadin's design compared to her's. You can tell that guy got chewed up by a lovecraftian dimension. She just looks like ScaJo in a bodysuit. The problem is that when you actually look at her concept, you can see she was designed as a slender but strong lady with a strong face and dreadlocks. And then a marketing team probably looked at that and went "no, just make her HOT THOUGH!"

This tells me that void creatures make for great beauty products and hair conditioner~ :3

Kinda wish she had some pulsing purple veins in her suit and around her face to show the biological connection she has with her suit, and more armor plating much like how most void creatures have, ex.Chogath, Rek’sai, or Kha Zix.After all most of her body is covered by the void creature.Also the chance for the first heavy armored ADC.

I think you have to be careful with the "sexy for no reason" thing. I think the correct saying for Kai'Sa is "sexy against reason". A lot of characters are sexy for no reason (sivir, kat, akali, ashe, nidalee, ect) and for the most part that sexiness is agnostic to their actual theme, so it isn't harmful, but Kai'Sa's sexiness is directly antagonistic to her theme of surviving the most grueling environment known to man. Her sexiness completely undermines the danger of League of Legends' biggest antagonist, the void. The void looks like a joke and she doesn't seem that impressive of a person because of her sexiness, despite the exact opposite of those things being true.

If they want to keep with this design at least they could make it so the void has claimed some of her limbs and this symboit is the only reason she can really function.

whenever someone designs a monster woman that's just an alien bodysuit and naturally grown high heels I die a little more inside

Bless you for explaining WHY her design is disappointing.

If she looks hot because of Kassadin's genes... HOW HOT IS KASSADIN?

I think a good alternative (even If they wanted to keep her looking sexy) Would have been a missing limb or two, noticeably replaced by the void symbiote and hell, maybe have her talking about them in her quotes.

Also her expression looks relatively care free given her situation. In addition to a few scars like you were saying, maybe having her look a little me frustrated or distressed would have help her image a little bit more

My issue with Kai'sa is that... well, actually, there's multiple. Yes, she can be sexy, but I think people need to realize that women can be attractive and sexy without being hypersexualized and objectified 24/7, as a lesbian, this is a huge issue I have. Characters like Illaoi, Taliyah, Rek'sai, Kalista (tho I do still take issues with her design), Jinx, and while not humanoid, like Rek'sai, Anivia does have a bit of a charm. All of these are wonderful designs, some just rather simplistic and incredibly well-done. Taliyah is pretty as hell and doesn't meet so many conventional Western standards of beauty, and I LOVE her, have since she first came out, but seeing Riot take 2 steps forward then 3 steps back with this, especially with the uneven treatment they give Yordles, makes me a bit annoyed. Because hell, they even made Illaoi more buff than most of the damn men in the game. I've been trying to drive home to 'attractive without being sexualized' point home a lot with discussions with friends due to Soul Calibur 6 and I hate that I have to apply it to here again. Another issue is that even with in-lore justification, I don't think that makes it a good CHOICE. So many designs in WoW have this lore justification but it still makes for a choppy, unbelievable design that makes it look as if these humanoid designs have the sexual dimorphism of a fucking angler fish. And the case would just be the same here. If Kai'Sa was thrown in as a child and needed to do everything she could to reflect this, I feel it should be reflected, and I think it'd make a WONDERFUL parallel to Kassadin, creating some internal struggle. This man who built a suit to protect himself against the various harmful environments of the void, whereas his daughter EMBRACED the void, became one with it, and as a result she'd covered in symbiotes, her skin color has changed, her hair, give her multiple arms, chitin, a fucked up mouth, multiple eyes, something that makes her look actually Void-like. Because we even have Rek'sai, as mentioned before. I have this issue with Kalista as well, as unconventional as she is currently, she's still largely bland and obviously "hey guys we still gotta make it a girl" compared to Hecarim. This is why I have an issue with Evelynn. I really love a-typical, more demonic influences for characters that're obviously meant to be themed around that, like Evelynn being a succubus-type character who is heavily into sadomasochism, but they just... played it safe. Like they normally do. Going to her face, you mentioned that she looks like Scarlet Johansson, however I think a more apt comparison would just be an alternate universe, vaguely Void-like Ahri. But the thing is, is that this is limited TO her splash art. They've got the opposite issue this time around in where the model looks better than the splash art. The in game model has a more defined jaw line, darker skin, less defined lips, a larger nose from what I can tell, less makeup. Like they didn't even bother giving the artist the same references as they did their modeler. And honestly, as much as I hate boob-plates or obviously boob-heavy designs, I feel this alone would've helped me come closer to liking her. But you mentioned the real estate she had open on her design currently and I agree, as mentioned before with a more monstrous design, I think she should have some spines coming out of her back to match the other Void creatures, given she's /wearing/ one, and not just giant Zone of the Enders-esque shoulders that look like she's going to take off into space at any moment. The anatomy looks way off as well, like they drew her with her torso positioned just a bit more down, but then selected the torso, yanked it up, and then redrew the waist without thinking for anatomical issues, since most artists hardly do when sexualizing women and designing it for A Particular Audience. It's like she was pulled right off of one of those scam hentai ads that's just a browser RTS. All in all, it's a massively missed opportunity. An inbetween of some human woman who has fought and survived in this hostile, murderous environment, obviously battle-hardened and her physique and appearance reflecting that accurately, with the adaptation and mutation needed to be a woman who survives in the Void, akin to Rek'sai, would've been great. Not 'hey I'm a knock-off samus'.

It's basically what happens when there's too many anime fans in Riot's design team

Her design could be a way of showing that she isn't desperate and that's she is able to survive in the void but I agree that it isn't very interesting just another pretty lady.

If I had down the survivalist style void character I would have went monster hunter. That symbiote is way too.....i guess, sleek, advanced, and nonmonstrous looking, you could have said advanced tech and I wouldn't even blink. KAI'SA could be beautiful while still looking horrifying. Imagine if you will: 1. The Symbiote was asymmetrical, covering say maybe an arm, and part of her back and it itself was more monstrous and evil looking. Maybe oily looking, eyeballs, mouths, dripping acid, etc. 2. On her other arm, for the long range void shot, is a massive fat slug she has grafted on with tubes running from her arm, it feeds off of her blood to launch the void bolts, like a larval kogmaw. 3. Wrapped around most of her body are ugly ass monster skins with bone armor plates and pins holding it together, you can see glimpses of normal human underneath and in her face. I actually posted this before finishing the video, didn't notice the third eye theme. What I would do with that is she would have a large glowing purple scar in the center of her forehead. At some point she started falling to the void, the eye forming to mark her corruption. She gouged it out rather than succumb, an act of pure instinct and another non hideous mark of a survivor.

Have you heard the Voice lines T B? It doesn't even sound like she knows who she is, the delivery is less than apathy, an almost complete lack of direction it feels like... I wasn't salty because yeah the whole design was at least 'okay' but after watching the special interactions I'm almost mad. Like why the hell does she keep mentioning peaches? THERE AREN"T ANY PEACHES IN THE VOID!!!!

Looking at her 3d model if you changed the purple color into light blue and said me Kai'Sa were Camille's daughter I would've bought it. She looks way more Piltover than Void to me.

Another thing I would like to add, is her name. EVERY void creature, has a specific structure to their names with the apostrophe. Kha'Zix, Kog'Maw, Cho'Gath, Rek'Sai etc. all are very much void creatures with distinct non-human silhouettes. Meanwhile other void-associated humans retain their human names, Kassadin despite spending a long time and being heavily affected by the void, still has his name. Malzahar, on the other hand, has cast aside his humanity and fully embraced the void going so far as to becoming a seer, and yet he still has his human name. Kai'Sa is the opposite, and I understand that people can make the argument that she adopted a name from the void, it still isn't expressed in her design at all. If there's anything I'd like to interpret from her design as it is, it's that's she's somewhat of a beacon of purity in the void; like, despite all she's been through she hasn't let the void corrupt her most important feature (her face). Unfortunately, I feel like that narrative gets demolished when her breasts are included in that, and it seems like a stretch more than anything. If she's managed to retain her humanity by not letting her body become corrupted by the void, it should be reflected in her name, naming her after the very same creatures she swears to defeat, seems like an even bigger missed opportunity than her design.

Honestly I don't mind the "hot" part, it's just she looks so generically "badass hot" at least go a bit "overboard" with something, whenever it be her eyes or hairstyle, worked great with Jinx.

Found you some time ago, and hell glad I did. I love hearing this kind of very interesting informative videos. Good job, good sir.

If they just kept the helmet on her head 100% of the time, I honestly wouldn't mind. More animations where she starts moving unnaturally would also be great :)

The worst part about this character design is that out of all of the Void characters in league, to this day I think Kai’sa actually has a character design aesthetic the most similar to the actual Void monsters in lore. None of the other creatures have the spiraling metallic, dark greys that swerve and then end with a point, all made of dark alien metal or sand like material that while emulating something alive, looks much more like some form of strange environment you would walk through in a video game, rather than something that actually breathes. All of the other void creatures are often spikey purple versions of 90’s monsters, the only 2 exceptions being Kasadin and Malzahar. Kasadin doesn’t look void in the slightest, and while Malzahar has the purple glow, he is otherwise just kind of an ordinary masked wizard or maybe a ninja. Kai’sa’s design is the only one to incorporate the same dark hues with shining purple light beneath the surface, the same alien swirls are present on the side of her body, with black, zebra like stripes with pinkish highlights coming down from her arms to form a pattern. The shoulder pods and other parts of her armor also feature these natural looking, yet clearly alien armor that is only present in the Voidborn. If you ask me, I think the design is actually ok, great even, if you just GAVE HER THE F**KING HELMET.

I wish you'd work at Riot and inform them of these pathetic design flaws. Just common sense. Good video man, you earned a subscriber.

god i watched all of her interactions and my only response was that this is the worst characters Riot has made in a long time. She is boring AF and i feel like she has no real personality. Great to see that first impression translates to even the character design.

They could have fixed her in 2 ways in the least re designing way possible: either make her have a scar ranging from her eye to her neck with the eye being purple void-y like, or make her have 2 forms, a monstrous form and a human form. Sort of like kayn, more or less. In game she wears her space mask helmet by typing /toggle in chat, maybe make her switch to monstrous form instead. That is my idea at the least.

It's just extremely lazy design, weird because I rather liked the new swain rework thematically (it's shit gameplay wise but thematically fine imo), she looks like a supermodel that took her expensive op pristine suit to kill some monsters for fun

I think it could be interesting if Kai'sa embraced the void more fully, forcing Kassidan to choose between letting the Void live and killing the reason he hates the Void in the first place. Of course, you'd need a more monstrous character design if you wanted it to reflect that idea. So they could go with a weary, battered Kai'sa, a monstrous Kai'sa, or a sexy Kai'sa, depending on if they wanted her to be a victim of the Void, an embodiment of the Void, or a sex symbol in the Void. (All of which could probably have been done with a scrawny, fragile-looking character model; you could make her look gaunt or stretched instead of svelte.)

a thing that i got from kaisa is that she dosent have a proper simbiote, just a void being that essesnsialy she defeated but in its deathsdoor adapted itself to feed and live with her flesh, but in the end she became capable of controling it and taking adventage of its biology, healing, defences etc, and as she grew , she came to find other void beasts that she found usefull, and stated to assimilate them on her flesh, i personaly think even withouth making kai iether ugly , or a monster type unit she just with some flair, become more of the badass voideater, homeless crazy woman she is, make her design more messy an slitly dirty, she dont give a ship for something untill it becomes dangerous or displeasing, make her armor less uniform, as looking even if only in texture ,color, and slitly details and jettings out , as she assimilated multiple beasts, instead of a uniform mold, make her more ligth dialogue, disturbing, like ... yes we are ready for this...wait did we just said i?...no .. ok all rigth then,. taunt ;. imma kil ya and wear you as a boots!!. dont belive me ? as my boots"boots grow"

Agree with everything you said, it didn't came up in my mind right away but as soon as I saw her I thought "Hum... I'm not surprised at all". Maybe she managed to manipulate the void and take control over it? Kinda? Because she really looks like she received it as a gift, without any drawbacks as we see with other people who contact the void. I dunno...

Her design is such a let down for me... She reminds me more of nova or zerosuit samus than anything else. And in her art and voiceacting she always seems so... bored? Her splash does not seem at all like she was in the middle of a fight against the "hated voidcreatures". I have not been hooked by riot for a long time with the design of champions. Every other champ seems either generic or boring to me.

Then they said that the new Champion was going to be a Void Champion I was like "YES!" since I love how scary Void Champions look. Then Riot just dropped a sexy, beautiful and healthy human that was suppost to look scary and corrupted... hell. Of course, all because of Marketing.

One thing i am most disappointed about, is that they don't tease champions anymore with cool cinematic trailers like they used to. Also riot has stopped putting less effort designing champs after (Jhin, aurelion, kled). Now some of these new champions don't give that excitement like they used to.

It's a whole month later and I'm only just now finding out people share my opinion about Kai'Sa's underwhelming design. I wrote in the Boards about her when she was just released. I didn't go super in-depth and couldn't touch upon as many things as you did regarding her character design (since I'm still only in first year university and have nearly no background in character design), but I'm glad I was still somewhat on track with my thinking. Anyway, this video was wonderful. Super interesting, can't wait to watch more. Subscribed.

I love your insight on these character designs, makes me think about how I'd go about character design as an aspiring game developer

Ehh... sorry for the wall of text. I intended to answer to the points you make, then compress the text and give it some formatting, but I ran out of time, and some parts may or may not be answered by you at a later point hen you get to talk about it. So... here it is: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It may have been wise to wait until at least her special interactions video is out at least because it answers several of your questions about her character. On her reveal they tell that during her time in the Void she grew into an apex hunter. So basically she is long beyond the stage of desperately fighting for survival, that story ended off-screen. Now she is hunting the Voidspawn and prepares for the Void's attack in the future. Her suit can also envelop her whole body which is most likely the form she has inside the Void. When her face is out like that she is in Runeterra, which means the splash art is not inside the Void, but close to a Void Rift and she is taking out anything that comes through. The good hair and the healthy body can be explained with the symbiote. It NEEDS to kep her human for some metabiological and metaphysical reason, and I guess the Symbiote cleans her hair because Voidspawn can evolve and mutate on a whim so why not. ;P The makeup is purely aesthetics... but even that may have a result of interacting with humans and the symbiote assuming that it's a necessity for human females. She mentions interacting with humans. Considering that the suit is a Venom-like symbiote, scars and permanent damage wouldn't make much sense, and would straight up be a cheap tool to make her "look" suffering and add non-sensical weak spots like "oh look this symbiote give her super-healing, but ALAS it's super-voidspawn powers are (in?)conveniently limited so the symbiote can't heal properly and can't EVOLVE to heal properly because reeeeasons"(what I mean to say is there is a point when it's just ridiculous on both ends). The suit is a voidspawn evolved to keep the host alive and well after all and not all voidspawn looks all armored and tanky to begin with. Her concept is she is a swift hunter that needs as much free movement as possible, and hence she is keeping distance and always on the move. Plates and spikes would be a hindrance, and a too small amount of spikes would be pointless. Her interactions also show that she is not a jaded, broken, stoic character to begin with. She basically not meant to be one, and it makes sense for a person to simply become more appreciating for the good parts of life instead of becoming all broken and edgy. Kerrigan is different on the important part of the Zerg infested her into the Swarm. She went through a mutation, meanwhile the Symbiote's very purpose is to keep Kai'Sa from mutating. For what purpose is simply how Voidspawn seeks things from Runeterra for specific reasons. Cho'Gath wanna eat everything, Kha'Zix wants to kill stronger and stronger predators so he can evolve into a better predator, and the Symbiote needs a host that is from Runeterra and isn't mutated into voidspawn, hence it havent's bonded with a voidspawn already to begin with. If Kai'Sa had corruption, then it would eliminate the reason why a void SYMBIOTE would bond with her to begin with. If it would be trying to corrupt and consume her, than it wouldn't be a symbiote, but a parasite instead. Her retaining her human form and showing no sign of corruption is also a power demonstration for the symbiote itself. Through it's evolution it attained abilities that even the people who built Kassadin't armor could never even dream of being possible. The big difference between the Void and Lovecraft is the monsters in Lovecraft are all "creations" and life on Earth too have been "built" and the eldritch horrors are unstoppable because plot armor and God said so, meanwhile the Void is all about evolution and adapting, and the monsters are so dangerous because they EVOLVED to be killers, and they can swiftly evolve to adapt to a new situation.

When I looked at her I was like. "Oh hey a mage or ADC that I'm not going to care about." When I saw JInx was "She looks fun" Having a skill that flat out says. "Super mega death rocket." Sorta explains the type of fun that is. Her voice acting and kit sorta works into her own hype that she is selling. Vi's look, looks vary powerful and intimidating with out having her look all that sexual even if her base figure is not bad base if they wanted to spin it more that way. The main thing is they are interesting to look at. Kai'sa? I was sorta done with how she looked moments after first seeing her and because of that I felt like she would not be interesting to play because she just seems to look like filler rather then any real detailed thought was put into her compared to Vi and Jinx.

Common misconception about the spikes on the siute/on armor: You do not in any cenario want spikes they are far more likely to slow you down, get in the way or hurt yourself tha actually helping you. Like imagine beeing in a fight and something sticks on your backspikes (lets say like a wolf sized creature) yay now you got that making you slower if you got spikes on your shoulder and raise your arm you hit your head. YOU DO NOT WANT SPIKES ON ARMOR IN ANY GIVEN SITUATION!!!!!

OMG THANKS. I have been discussing with people about it for two days, and people refuse to listen because she is very cute. I can't see any badass surviving features in her, while the early concepts where pretty more better about this, they still fail to show a woman who has been fighting for such a long time, in early concepts she had a more strong armor, and were less showing, her hair was braided, and she was all the way much more strong and serious looking, not this posh cutie face she has. I even can't see at all any attitude in her splash, like maybe if she was Star Guardian style like "look at me I am so pretty and awesome" I would understand how posh and softie she is, but she hasn't had human contact for so many time, while she has been fighting for her survival, how does this design reflect anything of this life? Not a single scar, not a single change, not even a face wich shows determination for survival, she is just a little bit serious.

btw.. she has ahri's face.. like really.... cut out her face and insert it into an ari splash and you wont see the difference if you can blend the edges well enough.-

+T B Skyen I'd like to draw your attention to this earlier iteration I found of Kai'Sa. She's still 'sexy' which I don't have a problem with since surviving and fighting must be good for agility and fitness. But her face, is much more story-telling and impactful. I wish they kept the first one. Something about that sorrowful yet angry look with dirtier skin and messy dreadlocks just gives me chills and makes me fall in love with the concept. vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/leagueoflegends/images/a/a1/Kai'Sa_concept_06.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20180220192351

I wanted to see her suit crawling like she says in game, being the organic matter that's combined with her own. Now it's just a bio suit she can slip out of any time. I wanted her suit to be her new body, make her look harsher, like with those leg plates opening and revealing her flesh. A different eye color and her face starting to be covered by that living matter. She doesn't look like she survived 10 years in the void, instead she's a cosplayer ready for a photoshoot. Also lore wise I think I would have other things to occupy my mind than "I want to protect humanity" she's more void than human for all I care and was left behind by humans, If anything I would feel resentment, not the obligation to protect. It's a shame really, doesn't help that my buddy's like "she's gf and thicc" all the time. I don't really care about that.

I agree that they missed a lot of interesting ideas. when I first heard kassadins daughter was becoming a champion I though she was either going to be a twisted being warped by the void or she would be like the type of person who has just left the jungle after years of being hunted by wild animals, so very twitchy and suspicious of any place where something could ambush her. I think that would have worked well for her voice lines as well if they had her constantly assessing her surrounding looking for places she could be ambushed, which is how an adc most likely thinks with all those bushes for the enemy jungler to hide in :)

When I first looked at her release skin, I figured that was supposed to be the original design and that it was later adapted to the Void theme, it just makes so much more sense to me.

As soon as I saw her design, I craved for this video of yours

I agree with the points you made in this video. Personally i would have liked to see her lost something in the void like an arm and/or a leg for example so you can see the void creature she bond with replace it so you can see it manifesting on her. Also a hatred to her father like : "You left me!" Those types of lines or "You failed to save me, but the void did !" You know like the void corrupted her made her stronger but she lost her humanity within it.(You get power you pay the price.)

Recently I came across some original concept arts of Kai'Sa on reddit and oh, my gosh, dude...it was freaking awesome! I wish they kept her original look. The braids, her eyes, and void armor....perfect in every way. She looked like a badass survivor. She looked more likely to kill you than save you, like fuck! But her character design made sense.

If they made her blue, she would look even more like Widowmaker from Overwatch. The suit is already really similar. But the sexyness is more fitting to Widowmaker's because it is part of her character.

I discovered your channel recently and I'm loving it! Agree with you... Kai'Sa design just don't talk with her character ( a sadly missed oportunity ). What do you think in terms of Design about Camille and Jhin ? I would love to see a video about them. Sorry about the rusty english.

great informative video! i was really hoping for the comparison with jinx :)

I wish they took her character in a direction relative to her reveal video where near the end she wipes a team at baron. Upon finishing the final kill she bends over in a primal scream before retracting her helmet carapace as if reigning herself in. Her whole story could be “sure she survived mostly due to the second skin, but at great cost.” The skin could influence her to fight and kill and survive and it would be pretty solid as everything that comes out of the void is incredibly ferocious regardless of its aspect (e.g Chogath’s eating, khazix’s adapting, velkoz’s learning). Having a VO that reflects her efforts to stay in control of her psych despite of the skins influence would be amazing.

Thank you! This was my entire view on Kai'Sa when i watched her reveal

after the 3 years i m back here just to say , i get your point i still have to say i prefer knowing shes human becasue thats her entire thig that she is human even so she is part of the void champs

What is she lost an entire part of her abdomen as is taken a bite out of her and the suit surrounds that(since its a symbyote makes sense that it doesn't have claw marks sustained it just heals) the suit surrounds her wounds and keeps her alive along with some small scars on face with hair that looks like its been lazily cut(as if a claw cut it mid air)

great analysis!

Heavy armor with battle scars scraped from the carapace of Void monsters could be super interesting. Considering how the void creatures move, their bodies seem more plastic-like rather than a hard shell or thick skin. Maybe harvesting void creatures would make for great armor. But that kind of a character would shape her closer to a skirmisher. Kai’sa is a marksmen and marksmen are squishy :Y If Kai’sa took significant battle damage, she’s probably dead. Not to mention, anything she would have is still made from Void creatures. The symbiotic-skin is a god send for her, ‘cause she wouldn’t be able to do much else with what she can salvage from their corpses besides going back on to the skirmisher path. If she couldn’t manage to rise to the level of an Apex predator quickly, she wouldn’t even exist as a character either. (I don’t know how she can manage to sleep though...) Kai’sa’s (?) character fantasy, “the hunter-marksmen”, probably wasn’t a good fit for the Void. I mean, the video seems to be about Kai’sa‘s design being misaligned with the other Void-humans. I’m more so thinking the issue isn’t that she’s a poor representation of a Void character, but that the Void was a bad fit for her. Or rather they didn’t develop the Void enough for her to really have a space to fit into.

I really am quite glad you brought up the "practical" game-design reasons that Kai'sa might look the way she does as a visual cue to her gameplay. I've seen Rioter's say multiple times that readability and clarity take priority over almost anything else in their visual design, especially in a game with over 100 unique character that new players won't have memorized. Visual affordance is a necessity. I do agree that Kai'sa feels lackluster and disappointing from a design standpoint. Her CHARACTER isn't conveyed well at all. That much is pretty apparent. But her GAMEPLAY, I'd argue, is.

I agree! This makes sense but looking to a visual gameplay they may not be able to do that but in a art form! Yeah they probably could have used more of a survival in the void concept.

well the thing about symbiots is that they are really protectif over their human vessel if you look at venom and the way he keeps is owner from being phisically damaged. that might explain why she looks good if the story implied that she didnt have to fear and hide for too long and fell right beside her symbiot friend then it might just explain why she looks soo healty there wasnt any survivability issue since she is the top dog coming from the void...

I 100% agree that there should be scars. the symbiote being scarred would also be interesting. and I love the idea of a 3rd eye, like maybe she keeps it closed or covered out of shame. though honestly the biggest mis in my opinion is the attitude. attitude says a lot about a character and hers just doesn't say *fighting for my life*. just a grimace or anything other than blank face, and a little more tension in her body would have gone a long way

Hi just saw this and a bit of thoughts: Kai'Sa gameplay was somehow based on killer bee sort of thing, which means she uses her E ability to maneuver and dodge skill shots and do continuous damage. Therefore making compound eyes on her portrayed as something from the void creature bio suit on her sounds like a plan.

You deserve more subscribers. Love your shit ❤️

Hello T B Skyen, first off awesome video! I'm really glad i found your channel but now i cant stop binge watching everything you've uploaded lol On another video you said to viewers drops some topics that we'd like to see so here are my 5 cents: -Video about villains, what makes a good villain motivation ---maybe talk about iconic, more sophisticated villains like Kefka (final fantasy 6) or some rather barbaric, not as widely known ones like Luca Blight (Suikoden 2) -You have some really awesome videos about animations and dedicate a lot of thought behind those, so what about one video with a theme like "good cartoons / animation movies you should watch / know" -Your series of splash design and lore review are on point man! Those rock!! And after a few i got a question that i can't seem to find the answer: What makes an unconvetional hero? Is there even a hero that is so far, so apart from the whole "thousand faces hero" archetype that can only be catheorized as an unconventional hero? Well, thats it. Thanks again for the videos and keep up the great work!!!

Greetings from 2019: I love your vids and I'm kind of only getting into them now. But I have to admit, Kai'sa is still one of my favorite designs as a guilty pleasure even if I agree with pretty much everything you said.

agreed on everything you said in the video, just found out about you and I really like your stuff, I´m aspiring to be a character designer myself lol

Another great video, just curious, where is the background music come from? Specifically what's playing at 4:00. Sounds similar to the Divinity Original Sin 2 soundtrack but I'm not sure.

Maybe the reason why Kai'sa is still fine and dashing despite being corrupted by the void,is because some powerful void creature uses her as some sort of Avatar or advertising scheme, like "come to the void and you can be as cool as kai'sa".

I hope that, in a bilgewater-like event, Riot rip off her legs or such to transform the relationship with the "suit" into a much more "It's a parasite that needs a vessel and i don't have legs so haha lul" one. Idk, but as soon as i saw her design i thought "another skin for vayne?"

Her second skin splash art has something that her base splash art does not but that is in game play defaulted to cntrl 5 which is a void mask that is the suit's face and base the void eye thing like the make-up triangles on her face.

Thank you I love you for this video.

I’am a stupid 15 year boy and i truly think that kai’sa is an awful character design. :/

Kassadin goes into the void for a little while and he turns into a corrupted voidman who has to wear a special suit... Kai'sa lives in the void and doesn't even smudge her makeup. 🤔

To your point with the marks of fighting: Maybe the symbiote on her body basicly takes all the damage but is able to repair itself. Since it was able to bond with her and get around her body and can actually create a mask if needed (the mask could be a reason why her face looks like it looks) I just assume that it is capable of generating more of itself what would then explain why she looks so unharmed, because she has some sort of self healing. But if thats the case I have to say then it would probably be good to show it better in some way, like maybe some parts where the suit is gone and shows a bit skin but is obviously regenerating.

I love your videos

Hmm i mean you can see that the voidling/symbiot kinda replaces her skin. If she is damaged the symbiot tales the damage for her (you can actually put on a Void Helmet in game) and very likely is able to heal it up. We can see that a part of her thigh is missing which shows that she sacrificed something (and probably more than that) to get symbiot work for her, he is devourong her body. I think you have noticed that but ok

I think this video is really interesting and has a lot of good points. Coming to the last point maybe her base character design could show her being changed by the void through the suite and with the help of it keeping everything else of the void away from her? So she does not change the rest of what's still visible of her body? Weak point but since you talked about the small body shape she really communicates she is vulnerable. So with the powers she has, she really needs to be on guard 24/7 to defend herself and safe what she has left of herself? Because honestly she looks like she would not survive one blow from one of those creatures. And maybe the bigger you are in the void, the easier they see you? Nonetheless I totally see where you are coming from and some of the things you said, could have actually been awesome. Like the spikes or things like that. c:

who, in your opinion, is the best designed league champion?

Wow i fully agree with you!! Such a good point.

One thing that's a bit more fitting for Kai'Sa is the option in game to cover her head with the symbiotic helmet. I feel that's something that should've been added upon or been the main focus. Like show that helmet and full-body symbiotic suit over her and make it more monstrous in design but also make it's personality more like a human who's lived in total isolation among predators hunting to avoid being hunted every day for many years. Maybe release a "Human-dominant" Skin later down the line also.

Found your channel several days ago and instantly became a fan. Love your videos, especially league related. My favorite one is about changes to jinx's lore. When I read the story myself I felt that there was something wrong with it but couldn't quite put a finger on it. Your "rant" helped me understand why I felt that way and I am very grateful. Is there a chance you will do the analysis of older lore updates? I would especially like if you did the analysis of Xerath and Renekton. I personally feel like that updates changed their personalities and not in a good way but would love to hear your thoughts about their bios and short stories.

Every time I look at her I'm reminded of Guyver Gigantic Dark because of those giant shoulder pieces and can't help but think about how there's no reason for someone in such a hostile place to have an open face and chest when the rest of her is covered in symbiote armor.

To expand off what you said, Voidbringer Illaoi, Baron Nashor, and the Rift Herald also have the "extra eyes" phenomenon. I think the closest we get to that with Kai'sa is her "jetpacks" which resemble the smaller eyes + crests of Vel'koz. Whether this was a not to it or not is unclear, but like Vel'koz, Kai'sa's "eye" do shoot out her E. A similar aesthetic can also be seen with the Dark Star skins, featuring heavy use of purple, spikes, and forehead eyes/pieces resembling eyes... interesting food for thought. Jax has also been retconned to have been corrupted by the void, hence the odd fingers, purple skin, and mask to cover his odd eye situation. Jax is a few hundred years odd now, while Kai'sa is likely in her 20s, but odd that she didn't continue the trend. One thing I don't recall you mentioning is the marks around Kai'sa's face. While it isn't much, and they could merely be tattoos, I think the marks on her face are supposed to be "scars" or a sign that the suit is "spreading", such as the dark lines around her torso and chest. That being said, the fact that the only exposed parts of her body are the chest and head MAY have minor significance. Perhaps the lore may in time reveal that the suit is gaining control, but mentally and "at heart" she is still human. This would be a lame excuse, but better than nothing. We have seen that Kai'sa can pull up a chest cover and helmet, giving her a more void sounding voice; and automatically uses the helmet and cover in her taunt, where she feral growls. Whether or not she's giving the 'suit' more leeway is currently unknown, but aesthetically does support the symbiotic relationship.

having her this way reflects what abilities she have in game, changing any of that will change the way they will build her in-game and her mechanics and all related matters, they could've done more and I believe in what you're saying and I would've loved to see more things reflected in her character design, but since they built her this way, this is how is she gonna look in favor of in-game thinking.

One counterpoint I would present is that in her teaser you see that it envelops her head as well. Maybe that’s why her face isn’t uncorrupted. perhaps it bonded with her early on and it gave her regenerative powers? Idk but that’s what makes sense to me

i think that the suit would look really cool if it did something where it went all the way up to her jawline and there was a bit of it on her face

Thankyou, been thinking all this since i saw her design. You've completely hit the nail on the head. She looks like shes never had a scratch on her since entering the void. I would have loved to see her have lost some of her limbs to be completely replaced by the void suit and to look less human. Its a great shame they had such a good concept to work with and produced thew most generic looking female character possible.

What if the time in the void is delayed to the point she has only been there for a few minutes but days or years passed on the other side

*"a very handsome looking woman"* 😏

I think she could be mir compelling by just looking more ferocious. She could even use it in a cosmetic sense, having some sort of rough war paint going on, having her suit damaged etc. It could still be sexy, but more apt to her character.

please do a video on the desighn of illaoi and i love your videos im very happy that i found your chanel

I want to see some backstory to the void suit where it was tossed into runeterra (against its will) to take over a human but it was scared to go on its own or something. Which is why it instantly bonded with Kaisa and identified with her and wants them both to survive. I also want to see the suit and her are one, little veins digging into her where the suit touches her skin. If her suit was just human head + void suit, you might think its just her head is left, but it looks like shes wearing the suit and not the other way around if we can see her neck. That gives an opportunity to see the intimacy of the suit and her, but it just looks she’s got a costume on. Finally, a sympathetic void creature would give us insight into void society and the world itself. I think the leak forced riots hand - the design wasn’t ready.

i don't know if that change anything but when she fights she has her chest and head covered by some sort of biomask you can only see her face in the splash art or when she recall or dace or taunt etc

I kind a agreed with what you say about her being scarred and wounded. In fact to me the reason she look human like you say was so that people look at her as an ally who has survived as well as conquered the void and not as another void invader. The idea of the void is consumed and grow so maybe she is more than meets the eyes. I believe that her (helmet form) is actually was she really look like meaning that she has been consumed and corrupted beyond recognition to the point her own father kassadin cant recognized his own daughter(which would explain why he has no interaction in game with her) because what we are seeing is her projection of the ideal vision of herself you could say her undying will after all these year to be human to be accepted and love (which the reason she look pretty and in control). Also side note not sure if its true (haven't play her yet) whenever she uses her ultimate we might see her as was she has truly become even for a split second (a void monster in a human figure). This also goes when she uses her other abilities they can make it so when ever she uses her abilities in a desperate attempt to survive or to change the tide of battle we see that her projection was cancelled (like mystique in x men) and we see that her hand is scarred corrupted even. Only after the ability ended she was able to concentrate and reestablished the projection of her humanoid hand. even with all of that nothing could explain her cleavage window.

Kai'Sa login screen features her masked combat mode look. Check it out. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/kLuEhpWcvdCqeIE.html Told you they would eventually explain her design. Now I'm waiting for the full lore release from her side and the Void Region side as well.

She reminds me of kill la kill character designs with the suit she has. Since I am watching this late, her comic came out and it looks like she can travel between the void and runetera. That could explain the make up, though everything else I do not know.

You have to think that she's been there for a long time, in the begining, yeah she probably was a mess, but with time after getting the suit and getting acquainted to all the situation that she is in, I think that she could preserve a decent look, but I agree that the makeup that she appears to be using is a bit too much, she should have scars too. And about the whole corruption thing, she has a helmet and I don't think that it is for protection, so maybe she uses it most of the time and the suit kept her body safe from the corruption of the void, so that's why she appears to not be affected by the void, or maybe the void just affect things that are not a part of it, so simply by fusing her body with the symbiont she stopped the corruption process.

Maybe you could take a look at the monsterhunter monsters. Although I dont play the game, I think their designs seem to be very well thought out

Imagine if she was something closer to painwheel from Skull Girls. A deformed girl, experimented on and tortured for days until her mind snapped. You could still keep her "attractive" while making her character believable. Her speech could be a mixture of simple words and Rek'Sai-esk guttural sounds while her appearance could be still tight fitting suit with a mask covering her face, or no mask but her eyes had a crazed look to them. Anything would have been better than what we have now, a generic instagram girl in a venom suit.

I feel you are looking at the suit wrong. I agree with the telling of her history, but if the suit is a symbiote it's a living being and would heal, it wouldn't really make sense to have it damaged and stuff. I also view everything from the void as predatory, i don't think defense is something the void thinks about. I did prefer her before her mask came off. I do think she could have had more evidence in her face maybe of what the symbiote is getting out of the relationship.