#legends of runeterra

[pro-prin-prinny]

I know arcane needed an overarching story to wrap up but it is kind of sad we had to lose Viktor's ultimately useless weekly cartoon villain status. Maybe some day I'll work out how the Herald of Machines version of Viktor could have fit into Arcane preferably with his Runeterra companions. His ideology is just kind of too soft to be someone who forces robot parts on people. I think he'd have to watch people die who wouldn't have if they had robot parts or maybe someone who keeps refusing robot parts who then dies of illness like he could have.

[smallpapers]

Why does nobody but you, know a shortcut, a sure shot? I forgot how it ought to feel I don't know what to do It's a whole lot to hold back, you know that Cupid shoots to kill

[shioaoi]

Rundown of the more interesting parts from the Necrits live stream with Christian Linke (Creative Director and Co-Creator of Arcane) :

There was a longer version of the Caitvi sex scene but they got bonked by the ratings people, and because it would have raised Leagues rating to mature, it got brought down to what we got.

The entire Caitvi sex scene was directed and animated by Fortiche with zero input by Riot. Christian says, "That was French people being French."

Riot making Arcane canon didn't change where they were taking characters or the story, it just made them more aware of how it would affect other Riot projects.

Christian refused to confirm exactly when the events of Arcane take place in the existing timeline.

The Arcane doesn't originate from Hextech. It is just one - in universe - interpretation of magic.

Christian doesn't view Viktor and Jayce's love as romantic, and that romance wasn't the intention when writing their relationship. However, by the way he talks, it doesn't seem he's against people shipping them romantically - just as a creative team, they were more interested in exploring a close, complex male friendship / brotherhood.

The 250-million dollar show budget number is not accurate as marketing is included in that fund. Fortiche's goal from the beginning was to bring the level of animation found in feature animated films to serialised content. While the show was very expensive for an animated series, it was way cheaper than an animated feature film because they try and work efficiently. As an example, Christian says how often in Hollywood, it's not uncommon for sometimes 40-50% of what is animated to end up on the cutting room floor while with Fortiche they try and keep it around 5%

Ekko's hair was changed from a mohawk to dreads because the artist who worked on him told them that black hair doesn't work like that (in reference to the mohwak), and here's how it would actually work.

Legends of Runterra affected Arcane in terms of giving the team inspiration for how the everyday street life is for people in the regions.

Caitlyn's LOR Tactical design (2021) and Warwicks VGU Voicelines (2017) were made to reflect what was going to happen in Arcane - production of Arcane just took a long amount of time.

They've said from the beginning that the only person who could ever defeat Viktor at the height of his power was Viktor himself. His story is about the glorious evolution, the pursuit of that, and what it actually means to remove these human elements until there is nothing left.

All projects Riot is working on - whether the MMO, Games, Written or Animated projects - are in talks with one another at all times.

Christian comments on how very few games have remain in service as long as League has, and because of its ever growing and evolving story, it's hard to bring everything together cohesively since everything was made at different times, in different era's, by a multitude of different people. So, while many things may be very cool creatively, it makes it impossible to successfully bring it all together more often than not. So for new projects, they are more focused on making something good and successful with the team and talent they have, even if it retcons or replaces content made in the past.

Christian pitched singing Heimerdinger.

Arcane's scripts for S2 were locked in before S1 was released, so they were not impacted by fandoms or online reactions. Christian thinks maybe some animation choices were influenced by things the animators saw online, but not the story.

When watching the premier of the final arcane episodes in LA - the entire 4000 seat theatre cheered when Maddie died.

The butterfly motif shared between Jayce and Viktor specifically was used to represent transformation.

Christian talked about how they don't think about really whether people will like something or not, but whether it's the right consequence for the story (this is in discussion to Caitlyn losing an eye). What makes a character likeable to an audience in his eyes is their decisions in the story; the choices that they make.

Continuing on from this, he comments on how the choices Caitlyn makes now are so different now compared to the beginning of the show. She is now willing to take risks and sacrifice parts of herself for people, for Piltover and for what is right.

When asked about Caitlyn's signature hat, Christian says that the team saw it as somthing that didn't really fit this version of Caitlyn they were writing and the person she becomes and that's why it was never incorporated into her designs.

Back in the beginning, when they were first working on Arcane, Christian would constantly going back to Jinx and Vi's original design artists & Riot August who was their champion designer to make sure they weren't messing anything up with these characters.

Christian goes on to tell an anecdote of when Paul 'Zeronis' Kwon was drawing the first concepts for Vi. This was back when Christian was in music. She didn't have a name at the time, but when Christian looked over Paul's shoulder at the art, he comments "she kinda looks like a Violet to me." They never spoke about it, but months later, when she became a serious character concept internally, she was gifted the name Vi. To this day, Christian doesn't know if his comment resulted in her name or if it was just a coincidence, but Violet became stuck in Christian's brain as Vi's true name. Riot August (who was in chat) then confirms that her name came from her tattoo, which came from one of her key design elements, being that she had the number 6 on her face. So, just a happy coincidence.

Talking about the tattoo. The tattoo was shrunken in size so, from a distance, it would look more like a beauty mark and the brain can more easily disregard it. One of the many things that they had to think about when translating the designs over as, is animation, you would be looking at a characters face a lot more than you do in league where the camera is situated top down.

As they were wrapping up the stream, Christian talks about how there always needs to be a bit of space between what content creators / content consumers do (pointing at Necrit) and what Riot does. He thinks it's good that there is space for criticism and a critical view of the things Riot does. In order to succeed, he believes they need to listen to their audience but also that they need to have their own vision, take risks, and be bold. It's a delicate balance in his eyes, and projects tend to fail when these two sides are too in cahoots.

He iterates that they are not trying to shove anything down anyone's throats. They are just trying to find what makes these characters cool, tell their stories, and be true to the regions they come from. With taking the characters from League to Arcane, it was important that they translate these stories and characters so they can hold up with the best storytelling in the world.

This circles back to the earlier point about retconning things and replacing past stories and content. He comments on how some characters are very outdated or too archetypal, but they still have an essence that people love about them.

Arcane was something Christian worked on for 9 years, and he was getting clearly emotional near the end. He also adds they're just getting started and he wants to make sure they do a good job with this IP and the characters we really love.

To those who are not happy with certain decisions, he's sorry they didn't hit what you personally wanted, but there is simply no way they can please everybody. While they are trying to make as many of the Riot / Arcane audience happy, they as the creators and artists need to follow their own compass, be the shepherds of this IP; that being creative is hard. They will keep doing that even if they sometimes have to ruffle some feathers.

He closes the stream by confirming that they are investing quite a bit in Noxas, Ionia, and Demacia for the next regions they explore.

[aurelion-solar]

"Wrath must be met with wrath." Warwick & Ambessa Legends of Runeterra Promo Art

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Wait Nami has a boyfriend and girlfriend?! Ehy havent I heard about this before?

Because it's from Legends of Runeterra, and Riot kind of hates publicizing that game and have left it to rot and die because it didn't take over and become the biggest TCG in the world.

Irelia also has a girlfriend, Liana, a fellow member of the anti-Noxian resistance and a blade-dancer. She calls her her "little blossom."

Miss Fortune also flirts absolutely shamelessly with every female pirate in Bilgewater (and Quinn. And Vi. And... herself?)

Oh, and Seraphine has a Zaunite rival songstress called Scratch and they have a PAINFULLY OBVIOUS mutual rival crush.

(the Acoustician is Seraphine's doting father)

Also, not a LoR exclusive, but Neeko is so adorable down bad for Nidalee, it's wonderful

... buuuut she also takes a quick pass at Nami, because frankly, I think Neeko is a poly queen if anything.

[arcanegifs]

All endings of Vi and Jinx's Stories from Legends of Runeterra's Arcane S1 Event ↳ "Heh. Sure. With family like you... who needs enemies?."

[xpyray]

Blue skies

[spacerockfloater]

I am Caitlyn’s biggest hater. This is a safe space for Caitlyn antis. Thank fuck her in-game persona looks and is nothing like Caitler from Arcane. I would have to ban her in every game out of spite.

Caitlyn Kiramman is, to me, the most disgusting and vile character in Arcane.

Actively supporting a fascist regime and enforcing martial law the moment her city suffered a terrorist attack, even if it wasn’t the people of Zaun who caused this, but one specific person?

Inflicting police brutality on the oppressed people of Zaun?

Waging chemical warfare on civilians who are already fighting for their lives and whose health is attacked on the daily?

Going after Jinx’s life when they had her cornered either way, even if it meant she might kill a child?

Hitting Vi in the gut with her rifle, police-brutality-style?

That psychotic, privileged, audacious criminal. She should have been behind those bars along with Jinx. It amazes me how people find it within themselves to defend her after she experienced a personal loss and decided to punish a whole city for it, even if the suffering its citizens were already experiencing was the very reason which led to her mother’s murder. Her defence towards the Zaunites ceased to exist the moment they stopped being perfect little victims. She switched to being a fascist and an oppressor the moment her own circle was endangered.

I screamed with excitement when Maddie fired that gun. Wish she had lost more than eye, but that will do I guess… even if she doesn’t deserve the cool eyepatch.

[alstanfordart]

Halloween Herald🎃👻

Poor Viktor, I don't think he's happy underneath that mask, but he'll do this for his son.

[riotinyellow]

[liakiramman]

Truly the hotest couple, i dont care.

(image not mine)

[primreaper]

I crawl out of the dark pit I live in to shove this in your general direction

[madcat-world]

LOR Creatures (3 of 4) - Michal Ivan

[spooky-donut-ghost-house]

[aurelion-solar]

Ambessa & Warwick - Legends of Runeterra Splash Art