It's wild that the design team looked at EVERY OTHER DRAGON IN THE SETTING and said "Nope, not gonna reference any of that shit, lets make him human looking!" We can't even get a monster champ without them being humanfied.

Riot tried so hard to make it cute, it ended up in the complete opposite way of uncanny valley level of creepiness

The worst part about Smolder is the fact that he doesn’t even look cute, he looks creepy and uncanny in the worst way possible.

Let's wait until they release the concept arts and we see the 7 other potential amazing designs they could have rolled with before picking this one

on the bright side, we will have the first ever Paw Patrol character in League

I will honestly say that this is the worst design they've ever made. People will go on all day about sexualisation or anime husbando or big sexy man designs but this takes the cake. This is so uncanny and I really struggle to see how this got through to an accepted final design. They already have Gnar, Zoe and Teemo which do really well for the big eyes and cute style they wanted, but this is just so uncanny and vividly off putting. Its like they took the face off a little boy and stapled it onto a gecko. Edit: The corrections they made are absolutely perfect!

Remember the people who redesigned fiddlesticks? Someone please give them a call

Id rather have they kept the design similar to his doodles of himself: simple dragon outline, proportional body to head ratio and even wings (take that shyvana), actual cute designs (big fangs, tries to be intimidating yet clearly is too small to be scary, very confident aka prideful ambitious as expected of a dragon). You literally get so much from a simple doodle. Literally all they had to do was stick to a doodle and they still fucked up.

I'm going to ask the REAL question here: If dragons are that important in Camavor, why the hell don't we have really cool official art of Viego in his armor riding the Camavoran Dragon!? WHY RIOT!!!??

There's a word for a four-legged creature with wings and a human face...it's a sphinx.

Hes a fucking skylander. He moves, talks, and looks like a skylander. With a teaspoon of balan wonderworld thrown in there I guess.

Smolder is giving me ugly sonic vibes, and i really hope they will change him despite that being a lot of work for them

His face looks like Sonic's first model from the live action movie

My biggest issue with this champ is..... WHY DOES IT HAVE A HUMAN-ESQUE FACE!??

I think a very simple fix would be to remove the human mouth and give him a snout. We can keep the rest of the "human face". Just that simple touch will make him more dragon-like while still making riot take their cake with a cute human like monster champ

Bro the entire lead up to Smolder’s reveal was super sick, THEY KNOW HOW TO MAKE DRAGONS. HOW DID THEY MAKE THAT THING??? GIVE ME THAT DRAGON NOT WHATEVER SMOLDER IS

Shyvana the "half dragon": gains a full on dragon form when ulting, normally looks somewhat human with dragon motifs Smolder, the "fullblood actual dragon": always looks like an uncanny half human, half dragon science experiment

That things is genuinely creepy. I know league is all about subversion of classic fantasy tropes with their character design and worldbuilding but damn, we really can’t get a cool-looking monstrous dragon. Will say I love A-Sol, but his fantasy strikes me primarily more as celestial deity than dragon. Shyvanna don’t count

The design team definitively went into vacation when smolder was created.

When Kog'Maw is a cuter pet-like ADC than you, that says A LOT about your design

When I asked for a full dragon character I didn't mean Spyro as a mommy's boy

In Smolder's gameplay teaser he was specifically killing Noxian champs, which usually means something

THE FUN PART IS HOW HE HAS MAX HEALTH TRUE DAMAGE BECAUSE YEAH THE GAME REALLY NEEDED MORE OF THAT DIDNT IT

A rito employee played a bit too much Spyro and forgot what their own dragons look like.

Smolder looks like sonic💀

Smolder is Zoe cosplaying as a flying Lizard.

The blade visible in the trailer might actually be Sanctity, but only its upper part, possibly hinting that it was modified over the years, perhaps to suit its wielder's fighting style. Possibly the person we see in the trailer preferred one handed style combat and Viego could just attatch the second hilt to give it more of a zweihander-ish feel.

It is funny that The Dragon Prince already had a perfect iteration of how a baby dragon could look cute and like a dragon at the same time. I like Smolder's design, but when I think about Zym in comparisson it feels way weaker than what it could have been

So.....would a reason Shyvana got corrupted so easily by Viego be that she is a half dragon? And maybe because of Their Relationship (Camavora and Dragons) his magic was more potent? Honestly I just want any explanation to the disservice that was the ruination event.

New Arcane 2 first look dropped, waiting on your video on it patiently lol

Honestly, I really like Dragon Trainer Tristana's dragon weapon/cannon as a model for smolder. It has a better dragon look like qualities and it looks cute than this Disney dragon

I think it's even worse when you see them use ACTUAL dragon anatomy in the teaser right before showing whatever the hell Smolder's face is

The curse half human half dragon face.

Smolder took the crown for me of the worst visually designed champion. He surpassed Seraphine

Me and a friend of mine are both big into dragons, but even we both agree ... fix Smolder's "snout".

Damn I was so excited to finally get a new monster champion, should have known they'll just make something that will sell merch and plushies.

So to explain what dragons "do" with treasure, it depends on the setting but most often than not treasure is just a symbol of status, the more gold you have the fiercer the dragon is and the more influence they have (this is how most dragons would be depicted in media because it's the quintessential Red Dragon from DND) so it could be that camavorian dragons just like to have gold or it does have a similar meaning to status for them, spending money is not why dragons have mountains of gold, they just hoard it for the sake of hoarding or status. I am disgusted by Smolder's appearence btw, I can't bear to look at him with that weird and uncanny face, he's supposed to be a true dragon right? Why tf does he have a human's face? I need some explaining or a new design but his kit is pretty cool though.

Love that he releases this video and there’s so much MORE info released at the time of upload it’s insane

I'm honestly impressed with the fact that riot can keep disappointing us so consistently

Smolder looks like Spyro the dragon if he was adaptated into an animation movie by Disney, then had a Netflix adaptation of that, got re-drawn by an AI, and now somehow ended up in League of Legends with a new layer of paint after all that. That thing is nightmarishly creepy. Like for real it would look less creepy with Skarner's face, how did they manage that ?

Smolder looks like riot mixed MLP characters style with the elemental dragons.

I think overall Smolder is fine but the face is too human like. Barely has a snout like an actual dragon and the head shape is too square to fit the body. Sadly missed the mark in the most important part and hopefully Riot will redo the face. Shouldn’t be that hard

If you zoom all the way out and pretend the face isnt happening...... sure! Why not

I like how Riot shows us all the species of dragon and then gives us this thing which looks like none of them. Why give him a human face, like you could still make a dragon hatching cute. Like how lizards can be cute

Im actually okay with it being a fledgling and the lore was cool but then the last scene, it's like the nightmare monster that tried to be friendly but not

Generally dragons hoard gold for two reasons: one being they are greedy and the second one being that the scales on their bellies aren't as strong so they sleep on the gold to harden them.

I would have preferred a cool adult dragon champ

They actually listened and started on his redesign, it's as if it's Sonic all over again

It's what people expected, it's not what people wanted. Everyone expects Riot to make every new character cute and humanoid regardless of the race, concept, theme and goal of the champion.

I think he does look a little cute, but it is very frustrating that people have been asking for a monster champ for years now and Riot anwers with the most un-monster-looking creature they could have made. And that comes right after they added like a dozen actually monster-looking dragon designs to LoR.

When I first saw him was like "aight" but then somebody mentioned his eyes being human-like and pasted an image with dragon eyes under it and now I can't unsee it and the champ has been ruined forever.

It's like they made the little dragon that dragon slayer tristana carries in place of her cannon as a champion, but at least the baby dragon she carries looks more believalbe.

Was hoping for something like Skaarf from vainglory. I used to main him back in the day in like 2015 before I played league. Him and almost all his skins look amazing. Cute, definitely an animal, definitely a dragon.

My theory is that Smolder's design is generated or assisted by AI. It has been shown before that Riot is practising with AI and his design looks like a fusion of recent animated dragon/monster designs (e.g. Dragon Disney movie Raya - The last Dragon) and older known dragons in media (Spyro from the Spyro franchise). Most AI designs get into uncanny valley, that something feels off and/or unbalanced, just not right - because a human designer will try to follow design rules and an AI doesn't know what those are.

Old poppy face: you couldn’t live with ur own failures, Where did that bring you? Back to me.

i love the end of your videos, they always make me laugh.

I don't know much about Nilah's story, but it sounds like her killing the ancient Camavoren dragon makes sense. If you look at it from the perspective of Camavor, they have been allies from the beginning of time. However, from the point of view of all the other nations on the continent, they are a weapon of war wielded by a warmongering nation. (Also I hate the desing, expected more monster like, massive, adult dragon. Instead got uncanny attemt at cute baby dragon. Personally like the more gritty and dark parts of league, not the "cartoony" side.)

I hope Smolder has special interactions with Nilah

I like his design even less than zoes and i didnt know that was possible

Looks like the low budget kids movies from the bargain bin at walmart

This makes Spyro's design looks like a masterpiece. Good job Riot!

He definitely looks alot better in game compared to the cinematic

Riot cleaning their lore up so much recently has me excited for the mmo

He looks like a early Playstation character like Jack and Dexter or early Ratchet and Clanck. This could've been a Shyvana Rework...

Just another decade for a chance to get a dragon champion

What if Smolder doesn't really speak and we can just understand him because we're the summoner, but in Runeterra he only does baby dragon squeaks, just like how we can understand Sona despite her being mute?

Love your videos, I always learn something new about League lore :)

I think its funny how it's pretty much one thing holding him back, everything else is actually super cool but his face looks like paw patrol had to design a skylander

it's the white in his eyes... and his mouth being so short. We see his mom and her snout is long, why is his face like that? I love that LoR has shown us how diverse dragons can be, so I wouldn't mind him looking unique or him talking. I just wish that they 'd referenced the dragons we've seen so far more. The design team probably talked about all of this and in the end came to the conclusion that that's what they are going for, which is wild. League early concept art is so good, but often times they default to one of the more boring designs in the end.

Character design of Spyro and I strongly suspect he's gonna have the backstory of Dragon Prince. Also, Arcane season 2 first look just dropped

It reminds me a bit of images of cats with human faces in medieval paintings

This thing looks like the og version of the sonic in the movie.

I thought I was disappointed when we saw Briar but this is a whole 'nother level of disappointment. I'm really hoping this is just a very bad first impression because I've been waiting for this champion for months. Oh well, at least we're getting the Shyvana rework in....2025.

Pull up Lollipoppy and put them side by side. He looks almost entirely like it.

the "crown" on the dragon is literally just the fire on smolders head but bigger

Smolder has the face of a character from A bugs life, why can't they just make monsters LOOK like monsters

I can kinda see why people are mad about its design...but personally i dont mind it.... 😊 its so cute

the look of the dragon Oh... I mean Another hUMANNoid thing that's not even well designed... Feel bad about the design of Smolder

There is an adorable irony in this champion not being a crossbreed between Jarvan and Shyvanna, despite how that very thing might have actually given the uncanny valley criticism an out to excuse back on.

Can’t wait to see the better concept art

I feel like this is a downgrade from last year's and some of 2022's champs. Naafiri, Hwei and Renata are some of the best designs for a release champ. All the hype behind having a draconic champ just evaporated with this champ's design. Thankfully (maybe even on purpose), Riot is giving Shyvana some love.

That sword looks nothing like Sanctity! -The balde shape does not match. -The gem shape does not match. -There are missing gems. Oh and also, some people may have missed it, (it’s not important or anything) but THAT’S NOT A ZWEIHANDER NOW IS IT!?

The thing is, Smolder's design is salvageable. The body and overall colour scheme look great. But his face is just a flesh coloured human baby face pasted on a dragon. No scales, no reptile or even cartoon reptile style snout. Just a human baby. It's terrifying.

Dude your pants are really showing off your package, impressive

Love the camavor lore, hate the smolder design, its cutesie in a way thats been done a bit too much in league already and also like people said the human like face is just wrong

i dont like the character to be honest, feels like a cheap disney reject kids tv show

The blade looks like a steel sword from skyrim

Theory: The Blade is sanctity but the lower half was added later on after the war.

Aahh Yes the classic Riot treatment, make a pixar style champ.

"You changed sonic, you can do it again" why yes, yes we can. They've already changed his splash 😂

There can never be enough hate for this champion's design.

Smolder conversing with its mom reminds me of chomper being told not to play with his food

2:34 Let Jarvan crush some draconic uhhhh... let Jarvan crush some dragons, please!

Can’t wait for the Subway edit

A lot of dragons eat the treasure, but some dragons are just like cat/birds and enjoy random shiny objects. However, some dragons infuse gold and gems with power: this binds their immortality and allows them hotter fire. It depends on the universe in question and sometimes on the specific species within a universe. In some universes dragons are just drakes, basically dragon-like dogs without wings, that managed to pull enough gold or jewels together to empower themselves; they grow bigger and smarter as they collect more or eat more gold. If they need to eat it, they may be sitting on thousands and thousands of pounds of future meals like some kind of squirrel hiding nuts in a tree hollow. For the champion itself, I hope the dragon starts young but grows older as you level and becomes this big scaly monster even larger than the rift dragons.

Settle down, everyone's clamoring for a monstrous dragon. Hold your horses, fellas. His mother might potentially be developed into a champion.

At least they rolled out a pretty quick texture change. Doesn't fix him, but it helps

Dragon lore says dragons like gold because it makes a softer bedding thst is more heatproof.

The new Dragon designs explain the Shyvanna rework

Dragons need to stop giving humans that sloppy toppy, soon there will only be halfbreeds.