One of the stand-out qualities of this animation from a lore perspective to me is that is seems the overtaking of the packs' consciousness is actually difficult and grueling for her. Its bloody, scary, all of the RED, it reminds me much of old-day werewolves that are human by day and the transformation of claws and bone and hair growing and shifting is absolutely horrific and painful when night falls. Its a radical animation and its amazing.

For the makeup on Naafiri, I excuse it for one reason. Darkins are supposed to build their bodies from their victims flesh with hemomancy however Naafiri has been "eaten" by the pack so she is bound to her hound form, the only thing that remained "human" on her is her eyes trait, symbolising what she was trapped in and what traumatised her the most. The only thing left of "her" is that fear of every darkin has, being trapped again, and a way to show it is with the peculiar eye linked to the dagger's eye.

This video kinda answered the question of "why dogs" for me. Naafiri didn't CHOOSE to be dogs, the dogs were the first beings that actually touched her, and she possessed all of them at the same time through no fault of her own

It really speaks volumes about the torture of the Darkin imprisonment that they would immediately and reflexively plunge themselves into the consciousness of the first thing that touches them. Even if it means sacrificing themselves to a collective consciousness.

I some how knew that this animation would summon another hour long animation break down. Time to grab a snack and a drink and enjoy.

The whole main sequence really feels to me like Naafiri attempting to force her consciousness into a new body, only to be immediately lost amongst the dozens of other consciousnesses that make up The Pack. It is a congealed mass of teeth and claws and hunger, impossible to tell where one being’s mind starts and the next being’s mind ends. In that temple part, she has a choice, just like the dialogue in the animation tells us: be drowned out as an individual, or take up a place as one of the many. Run from the Pack, or with it. Sink, or swim. And she makes her choice. The Pack changes and stabilizes her, and she-like the drop that overfills the bucket- changes the Pack.

The simple scene of the empty dagger on the floor, with a shaking hand reaching towards it really cements how traumatized Naafiri is. She's so massively traumatized and in disbelief that, to see her cage from the outside for the first time in millennia, is absolutely HORRIFYING for her. Being a victim of continued trauma can make it difficult for that person to actually get out, when confronted with the opportunity and we see that in just the few frames the shadow of her hand passes over the dagger. Its almost like she wants to pick it back up, because as horrible as it was, its what she knows. And she's afraid. Just having a darkin break free from their prison in general is massive for lore reasons as well, perhaps the aspect's seal is growing weaker?

The segment where one of the dogs stalk through the temple is gorgeous in an understated way. It really feels like they let an animal loose in Hathor's Temple in Dendera, and you're just walking through this loooong line of ancient columns.

While the design isn't as monstrous as I expected from a monster champ, a freaking blade dog with a mantle of swords with the sword being fused to the skull is really interesting design. Also a lot of Hellsing influence in this one.

I felt this was an absolute perfect way to represent Famine, a pack of wild hounds in the desert. Good on Riot to not make a non- four horseman Darkin.

I've just noticed watching your analysis that the man is more concerned about the knife than his own life while being attacked by that pack of wolves (?), pointing out he is well aware of what the dagger is

I'm so ready for the hour long video about a 2 minute animation

"Best of all she reads memos Varus, She remembered the double A thing Varus!"

One thing I really liked about the transition when the hounds bite into Naafiri is how the whole universe shatters and _expands,_ literally going from the more cinematic, panoramic view into one with more vertical scope (the black bars on top and bottom are being pushed away). Really neat stuff, been quite a while since I've seen it being utilised!

I appreciate the restraint shown in her design a lot. I worried she’d be this huge hulking animal, but the point is that she’s not one single creature, but an entire pack. Love it.

I know the stereotypical "She girl, give make-up" is a little odd but honestly it helps in a very fun way I think. Naafiri is an animal, that makes her a hard to relate to on a design level, but with in game her facial animations are impressively expressive and I do think the smaller details on that face help

I yelled about it in the cinematic trailer's comment section... But I need to say it here, I LOVE the references in this trailer. The way the hounds behave like African Wild Dogs, how it looks like Doggo!Naafiri is eating the sun/moon the way Sköll and Hati do at Ragnarok... This is such a wild cinematic, I really lost my mind while watching it and replayed it again and again because of how amazing it is at establishing Naafiri's character. The music in it also slaps so much.

38:30 i think this was done to signify that 'this thing belongs to higher powers'. In ancient Egypt murals the gods who transformed into the beasts and their servants were signified by the big line around eyes,and as shurima is kinda egypt-esque already this could'vs been used to say :'hey,that dog serves to someone who is cooler than her". Sourse-ancient murals and myths,and also my thoughts

One thing I kind of like with these lower framerates is that theyre 100% a stylistic choice, but in a way not all people might realize. Because where with 2D animation, you were always limited in your framerate by the amount of drawing you could make, 3D software will automatically interpolate between keyframes, so its actually more work to achieve that lower framerate, not less. And in that way, it is actually similar to pixel art, in a sense; It intentionally tries to evoke the feel of an artistic decision originally born out of the limitations of a medium, be that the amount of images per second youre able to create for (2D) animation or the size of those images youre able to display on the screen for pixel art, even now that we no longer need to adhere to those limits because technology has advanced past the need to do so. But rather than making those choices simply because the technology demands it, it does so because their inclusion can be used to add to the art in some way; its no longer a necessity, but a stylistic choice. And cool stylistic choices are what makes art.

Something that I think I picked up, is that when she is running on the corridor she already has many "dog like" sensitivities. Her vision is desaturated, the likes seem to work as if by sound (better hearing) . So it's as if she is already part of the pack , but she hasn't fully grasped that yet.

Something I noticed that you don't seem to have mentioned- Naafiri in blade form has the same flow as the heads of the dogs. A subtle thing, but it seems relevant. As for the eyeliner, it *might* be a reference to the Egyptian themes of Shurima? If you look at the ancient Egyptian murals, everyone has that eyeliner pattern. Not saying that is the case, just what it brings to mind to me.

Something I didn't think about until this review is the scene where naafiri is falling and there's tons of grasping hands and body parts and limbs reaching out from the walls mirrors what we saw in the varus's cinematic when we see varus bonding to valmar and kai. I wonder if that fall into a pit of limbs and tortured looking bodies is not just universal to the experience of bonding with a darkin, but also maybe somehow represents darkin trauma or fallen comrades or just all the general death and despair they've seen and experienced.

38:26 I think the lashes are fine. If you look at the few moments where the eye in the dagger is visible (39:07), you'll notice that it is quite beautiful, almost egyptian, with a sharp, black outline. Yet it not only seems like a part of the weapon, but also a part of something peaking out from behind a very narrow hole. Now, when Naafiri finally does break out of her prision she notes on how she isn't starving anymore, and that vitality is now shown through the eyes. I know it was just a nitpick, but I am just as excited as you are for this chanpion!

I just want to hear the reaction voice lines from the other Darkin to what Naafiri has become.

Naafiri was always an interesting concept but HOLY FUCK this trailler makes her SO AMAZING

At around 23:40, the first instance of Naafiri replacing the eye of one of the shape language of the blade gets muddled to look more like the top half of a canine head/skull (like the is it a duck or a rabbit illusions). The base of the hilt becomes a snout, the bauble becomes a wicked fang, the spurrs of the back half of the blade become molars, and the tip of the blade becomes an ear all centered around the same eye. We saw this blade for months, and it did not register until now. (However I think they missed an opportunity and made the blade show up reversed on the left side of her face)

Really happy with her. I expected Naafiri to be an amalgamation of hounds instead of a kinda alpha hound with blades, yet, good to see some new champs design.

This trailer is art I swear the studio behind them are really talented

I needed this, as an epileptic it was incredible that I could actually see the cinematic this way. Thank you TB! ❤

you get it so right.. is not only she becoming this " thing" it's is also Naafiri seeing the pack memories , the feeling of the hunger and instinct , the urge for feast , the anger ... all of it at once.. and that what makes this one of the best champion trailers ... it's shows you so much about the origin of Naafiri in a matter of seconds

It makes me happy to see other people are happy with her, I've talked to a lot of people in public places like youtube and discord and most of them say they don't care for her because she is "just a dog" which is weird to me. I've also said she is a cool monster character imo but others have said if she is a monster than Yuumi is an I feel like that is just ignoring the fact that a murder dog is a lot scarier than a cute cat.

god i am literally so excited for naafiri. after the disappointment that came with bel’veth being mostly in her human form, having a full monster who looks this badass and interesting is just amazing. if milio’s incredible design and wonderful gameplay is any hint to how naafiri will be, i’m even more hype. with the darkin being some of the most tragic and interesting groups in runeterra im even more excited to the lore expansion. naafiri so far seems like a very loved and cared for design which is so refreshing.

19:17 Little biological detail, when there is an adrenaline surge (like when someone is on cocaine or having a fight or flight response), the pupils tend to dilate instead of constrict, although you were initially correct that the pupils do constrict when exposed to light and dilate in darkness to adjust the amount of light going into the eyes. I think the tunnelling you mentioned refers to the "accommodation reflex", during which there is pupillary constriction, convergence of the eye globes towards one another , and increased convexity of the lens to allow you to focus on a near object. Thank you for the fantastic video! Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I also love the moment during the ‘dogs combine with naafiri as she rises up to eat the Sun’ scene because the way they shoot it it almost makes it look like the sun is pulling AWAY from Naafiri. Like it’s trying to climb away from her and escape. Naafiri isn’t actually seen for a few brief frames as it focuses on the sun and then WHOOM- Naafiri is there and CHOMP, sun is gone. An awesome little bit of storytelling :) Love your animation breakdowns!

30:42 this statue can also be a missing part of the broken face of xolaani (zelani)statue since xolaani is the one who did this to her … remembering her past .. remembering the traitor

One really interesting thing I noticed about the very short part of Naafiri's memory that depicts the Void is that in the trailer audio, there's a very quick audio glitch/static and I think it serves to help enforce the idea that the Void is this awful corrupting presence that has deeply scarred Naafiri, even in her memories, which is a very neat little detail Also just to play devil's advocate with the eyeliner, it could possibly be a nod to the fact that Naafiri is from Shurima and Shurima is definitely insipred by Egypt where rulers and nobility had this kind of eyeliner, which would make sense as she was an Ascended warrior who probably held a great deal of respect

i absolutely love how the black border shatters along with everything else when the 3 dogs bite the dagger and they only return at the very end when we see her in her new form, but they are still gone in those last few chaotic flashes as the zoom in slowly stops. that kind of change is just a great simple way to subtly show real world vs symbolic mental stuff, and it also just makes that glass breaking shot SUPER effective cause it literally expands the screen.

I think the eyeliner thing you're referring to was just a weird way to draw the dog's eyes outline. If you check the normal uncorrupted dogs, they have this dark outline on their eyes, i think this wants to be that, it just comes through weirdly.

The part of the spit in the mouth is probably a 3D model attached to the model’s animation skeleton that stretches with the bones that move the mouth. Its texture has different levels of opacity and may even have a shader/parameter that makes it increase or decrease based on movement or polygon density or something like that. This is just a theory, so I’m not sure if its actually 2D; but I think that could be it.

Honestly watching this trailer just made me REALLY want Riot to make a horror movie like, the Fidle, Warwick and now Naafiri trailer's are all soo good, just imagine how a whole, full fledged horror movie would look like!

One detail u might miss is that when she woke up after the transformation, the blade and the image became grey cause dogs are colorblind, and she was a dog.

Your comment on how being in a group being the key for a more mentally healthy Darkin works for Rhaast as well. Sure his relationship with Kayn is *far* more adversarial than Naafiri's relationship with the pack or even Varus's relationship with Valmar and Kai, but Rhaast is in far better spirits than Aatrox is in-game. Actually that'd be a pretty cool way to progress Kayn and Rhaast's storyline, have them stop fighting and start working together. Possibly even achieving something similar to what Naafiri seemed to and actually free himself from his weapon.

The new Varus voicelines are so strong as well. Im Hyped for naafiris release

I hope she's happy now, or at least more at peace now that she has a whole pack with her, I mean, what's better than a dog? A bunch of dogs! Hopefully in game her emotes allow her to pet the dogs/play with them somehow

28:48 the shot of human Naafiri has her reaching both hands towards her chest, which with the knife in the room gives me the impression of a sacrifice. It's sandwiched between the two shots of her hand struggling to escape the blade and becoming more canine, like this is the moment where she begins to give up that aspect of her humanity.

I love the idea of a pack, but the only concern I have is how they are gonna fit a pack on a single "character area" if that makes sense.

I think the liner and lash look works because of its ties to Egyptian hieroglyphs. Also, i love the camera movement during the running changing to a dog's And the fact that the jaws that bite down on her are made from the shards of her broken self, so gooooo Another edit: she actually moves a couple frames before the pack does, before they're completely in sync, which is lovely storytelling

The eyeliner thing is actually based on desert animals as the eye shadow is used two help with seeing during the day so her having eyeliner at the end makes sense because she's a pack of desert dogs who probably have to both hunt at day and night and deserts get bright during the day and during a full moon.

Something that’s really cool about that brief image of Naafiri’s statue, as well, is that the eyes of the statue are destroyed and ruined. Just as the eye represents her consciousness throughout the cinematic, I believe that this statue represents the loss of that human sanity.

2:23 that one rioter already said this that Sun Disc is like an injection to celestial realm to grant celestial powers to become an avatar of their respective aspect/concept/idea. The thing with the animalistic features is because of their tradition/culture like Azir to what their view of Emperor is falcon/hawk. The Targonian Aspect believes in cosmic thingy so they embody whatever in space but also some is limited of celestial powers because of authority unlike the Sunborns that can gather whenevr they want

Never been so hyped for a champion because of the trailer. I cant wait to read her bio. Riot should do a book of the darkin wars, like the ruination book

Of the four Darkin Trailers this is by far my favourite, I feel this way of story telling really suits itself to the darkin, and I wish this kind of thing could be used to explore the minds of the other three as they all have such different perspectives, outlooks, personalities,and I feel it would really flesh out the darkin beyond just their demony appearance, to more deep hurting individuals. Also being that shurima takes so much inspiration from ancient Egypt, why didn't they think to use a similar symbol to the eye of hours instead of just lash makeup. Seriously riot it's right there.

Also the frame where the huge name NAAFIRI is written symbolizes the fact that she's being broken in pieces. The first A is the point of the dagger The F is the handle The second I is the earpiece

My thing with the eyeliner bit that you mentioned is that maybe its another thing that connects her to Shurima, since with a region and lore inspired by Ancient Egypt, little things like how they used eyeshadow and liner to highlight and accentuate their eyes might just be another element to her design connecting her to the region rather than just making her look more feminine, as well as to highlight that part of her design more since eye symbology is her big thing. The eyelash part could primarily be a feminine thing that the designers added in, but dogs and wolves do have lashes that look kinda similar and even in the blade, her eye does have a sort of lash at points, so that might just be more of her coming out in the design of that lead wolf. That's just how I interpreted it though, knowing League it could have just been to make her more feminine and have that Disney Lion King vibe that you mentioned and I could just be giving them too much credit lol

28:10 You can see we're looking from Naafiri's POV mid transformation from humanoid to dog. She's howling at the moon with the other dogs

Honestly, I was extremely happy to see riot has taken a whole new direction for the design of Naafiri. It's not the standard attractive hero which we've been seeing for the last couple of years. We're finally getting a whole different vibe for this champion and I'm all for it. I'm just hoping they keep up with this and keep pushing though more horror-adjacent champion designs. Because when they try, they have a real knack for it

Small correction: -We don't know where Aatrox was sealed, but following the bios of Pantheon and Trynamere it was likely in the Freljord -Rhaast was sealed in Ionia but stolen by Noxians!

Through your channel, I have become fascinated with highlighting subtle storytelling elements. For example, the eye is the symbol of Naafiri's consciousness, depicting her emotion and even a glimpse of her feeling as she goes through all that transition.

I honestly want to thank you for this analysis. Not just from artistic perspective, but bcs you managed to capture the storytelling quite well, while I could not undertsand it. Thank you.

It looks like the dogs had that eyeliner lash look before biting naafiri

something i like about the feeling of "breaking free" is how the screen ratio shifts between the first scenes (desert chase) and once the wolves bite the dagger, it goes from casual cinema ratio (with the black stripes top and bottom) to a full 16:9 ratio. It's the moment naafiri is released from her constrained world

Sincerely, I love more a trailer like this, even I don't know nothing about the game, than a more not-so-complicated storytelling like other champions trailers. It feels like it's more complicated, more rounded and deep story even if you summarise it it's like "I was human, now I'm a dagger and the only way I can escape this is to become a pack of wolves" it's basic but it follows the "don't tell, show" kinda thing I really love and that makes me engaged in something. This trailer made me curious about this champions, and it's kinda rare

The only thing I don’t like about Naafiri’s design from the quick peak we got is, apart from the eyelashes, the fact that she kind of looks like the boss of a wolf pack in a MMORPG. You could tell me you saw her and her pack as the boss of the “Hunt down the Alpha Wolf of the pack in the desert of Shurima. Reward : 100 gold pieces” and I would believe it. I don’t know how to explain it but the red dog with spike coming out of it and his army of “clones” where every one of them except the boss looks the exact same is really recalling of MMORPG mobs. I saw someone explaining that the eyelashes were common on animals like camels in the desert to protect of sandstorms but none of the other normal dogs or darkin dogs have it sooo…

I LOVE your breakdowns. Felt the exact same about the eyeline once that final scene popped up. Made her look like the one female hyena from Disney's Lion King (e.g. silly).

38:48 that may have been a reference to Ancient Egypt which very much inspired Shurima (cough cough Nasus) where eyeliner was more of a universal feature of their society. That could also be my optimism talking.

One single line in this about the ascended going INTO the void to fight the void for shurima just made me want a game/rpg about that lol

50 MIN VIDEO FOR 2 MIN TRAILER GODDAMN I MISSED THIS :3

Riot seems to have a rather large leak issue

This is a very detailed and absolutely beautiful interpretation and breakdown of a masterful work that I didn't even catch in so many split frames with rich detail. So much pain these ascended had to endure made manifest in their new path that they and most probably many out there would resort to when being trapped in eternal imprisonment by the world you once defended against the void. As a fan of the Darkin I applaud this.

Thanks to kai-sa we also know the void has really nice beauty salons and a thing for spandex.

Please wait for the splash and game model(s) for the character design video, I'm sure the multipleness will play a big role in her design.

Naafiri kind of reminds me of a pack of hyenas as well as hounds. With both hyenas and Naafiri being lead by an alpha female.

I'm getting big Lovecraft's Hounds of Tindalos vibes out of it and i'm loving it!

I love the frame where Naafiri has the sun between her jaws. It reminds me of the norse myth of the two wolves skol and hati who chase the sun and moon.

I love these breakdowns. Watching you nail and explain the thoughts behind a piece is one of my favorite parts of a champ release.

The wizard is back at it again, transmuting videos into 10 times longer videos!

42:05 It also literally shatters the scene, the cinematic black bars disappear, being shattered with the rest of the scene. I think that is one of the parts that impressed me the most, breaking the 4th wall in such a subtle way. Kind of creating a meta narrative of us getting drawn in together with Naafiri.

I miss these videos, glad you found a video you like to break down.

Why do i get the feeling that Naafiri is going to be a champion that will be released on LOL and LOR simultaneously? She has a ton of parallels with Nidalee (who's also getting added to LOR soon). With all the pack mother huntress thing and all that, and their trailers got released back to back (even though they got leaked first but whatever), not to mention we'recoming out of the DARKIN saga in LOR, so she could be little darkin cherry on top. I really feel like Naafiri is gonna be added in the new LOR expansion

Love your video ! I discovered so much... I particularly love the sun turning into the sun disc when the big wolf eats it ! And the vibes remind so much of the As We Fall music video as well !

As someone who's pursuing Animation and wanting to learn more about cinematigraphy and storytelling in this medium, your content gives me a lot of insight and joy to know that someone can put effort and present the miniscule details and intentions where majority would fail to capture or even bother to notice. Thank you Skyen for this amazing breakdown! Love your content! :)

I think it's interesting how you said it was alienating to the general viewer, since I've never played league of legends and this is the first of their gameplay trailers I've seen. I subscribed to you for your Pokémon reviews, I generally skim through your other shorts from time to time, but this one absolutely made me sit up and take notice. I went to watch the trailer a few times, had tons of unanswered questions, and came promptly back to this video. You did an excellent job of explaining what's going on without forcing your own interpretation too much, and going frame by frame helped me to see imagery I've previously missed. All in all, great video, thank you for making it!

This is a terrific video; I’m a newcomer to this channel and to league but coming from the perspective of someone familiar with animation terms, visual language, and visual storytelling as a whole, it makes the concepts discussed approachable while keeping things going at a steady pace. Fantastic.

Loved this video! I'm actually in school learning how to animate right now and I hope to one day end up on one of your videos :) Thank you for sharing your love of art and video games with us.

i love that the dagger itself looks like the top of a dogs jaw, it's best seen at 23:47

I love the transition from the multiple eyes that get sucked into the blade to the unique eye surrounded by mirror shard reflecting him. Quite a beautiful way to indicate that the several individualities of the wolves and of Naafirie kinda are now kinda like melted together, what was many becomes one and the reflections are now no more than differents aspects, perpectives of the very same thing

Kinda feel like she's not gonna have mana but a "pack" bar and abilities send out dogs from her body or retrieve them, kinda like energy but more based around "the fuller the bar, the stronger the abilities/combo"

Riot just dropped the most amazing transformation animation ever

I knew you would be all over this.🤣 Also, is it just me or does the blade look a lot like Souledge from Soulcalibur?

Thanks for the video and your hard work, Much love, stay safe and take care x

I wasn't expecting a monster champ for another 5 years.

The only thing I thought was a shame was that everything in the trailer (especially the part about Naafiri eating the sun) pointed to death of self and birth of the pack, but in the end, Naafiri was clearly at the main center so it felt like she was controlling the pack instead of becoming one with it. I think it definitely makes more sense in terms of game design and maybe the fact that all wolf packs need to have a leader and all that, but the design contrast between Naafiri and the rest of the pack was so strong I was just put off by it.

Interesting detail, the eye opens twice, at the beginning and the second one implies the first eye opening doesn't happen in physical space. I think it might be her waking up from a long slumber, her conscious realising that there might be a chance to escape the prision of the weapon and finally posess a body. Maybe a spider sense kinda thing...

Another hour long TB Skyen! Come my brothers. Together, WE FEAST!

Kafka's Metamorphosis is basically a darkin trying to process the fact that they are, indeed being trapped in the body of a cockroach and there is nothing anyone can do to delete that from my headcanon.

Great video! Really kept my attention haha

This video actually gonna be my fuel for the last final exame week, ty skyen

i feel like the image of the glass shattering is also important to the split mind concept, like the fact that shattering a mirror doesn't break it but only creates more mirrors.

I love how “impressionistic mind-fuck” has become the cinematic shorthand for Darkin (this and Varus)

For the algorithm and also thanks so much i realy enjoy these Videos