Just to clear the air, this is gonna be a VgU, not a VGU. Janna's kit has aged quite well, and after what was essentially a mini rework in season 8, followed by subsequent fixes in season 9, her gameplay is perfectly fine in my opinion.
As a Janna main of 3 years, I've spent many, many hours exploring the depths of her character, pondering what an updated version of her might be like. Well, I'm tired of waiting on any word of it from Riot, so now I'm just gonna spell out exactly what I want and expect from a Janna VgU, while also including aspects I know many other Janna mains also hope for.
CLOTHING AND HAIR
Janna is a wind elemental, to put it bluntly, yet is worshipped as a goddess. What I'd like most from Riot is to draw inspiration from classical renaissance art, and take notice of how the women are portrayed. They're beautiful, but not glamourized or gaudy, graceful, and constantly seen in flowing, draped garments. Combining this with the concept of a wind spirit, we'd get a semi-nude figure. I'm not much of an artist myself, so to describe it as best I can, Janna for the most part would be naked, with gossamer cloths hanging from her body to cover her private areas, similar to ones she currently has that hang from her waist. I know this makes it sound like I'm some sort of pervert but there is a thought process behind it. Again, Janna is a wind elemental, she's supposed to embody and represent air, she shouldn't be weighed down, she should appear as free and weightless as possible.
That being said, there are a few things from her original design that can be taken away. The gloves for starters, along with her shin guards or whatever you want to call them, and as much as I like her little tiara, it humanizes her to much, and restricts her hair. Regardless of the length, I vote for long, her hair should be free, and in a constant breeze, erratic almost, not perfectly swept back with neat bangs.
When it comes to jewelry, less is more, so to speak. Given that I'm going for a sleeker design, any jewelry at all will stand out, and while yes, I'm trying to get across the point that she is this ethereal entity, we have to remember that part of what Janna does is helping people. She has to maintain her humanity just enough to get across the point that she helps and exists alongside people, and jewelery helps with that. While usually used to display wealth or nobility, it's also great for displaying humanity, as it reminds us of material wants. I'd go with something fairly simple, such as a thin gold anklet or bracelet. The choice of gold has significance, as it hints at her Shuriman roots.
The overall color scheme is simple, bright whites with lighter paler blues as a secondary highlight color, and though very little metal, it at all, should be used, the choice should be brighter golds.
BODY
While this is going to probably be a somewhat controversial part of this post, body type is important when trying to get a message or theme across. If you want a motherly character, you'd describe her as having wider hips with plumper features, if you want a more athletic female, you could take away some of her curves in place of a more muscular physique, describing her as having broader shoulders. With Janna, she's worshipped as a goddess, and thus, her body type should be idealistic.
Now, when I mean ideal, I specifically mean the ideal of natural beauty. Janna, while a spiritual being, represents part of the natural word, it would just be wrong to see her all dolled up with lipstick or mascara. She's not meant to be this Victoria Secret model seductress, the way Ahri and Evelynn are, that doesn't match with her theme. The ideal of natural beauty, for women, is simple, clean. Clean skin, clean hair, clean nails, fresh, youthful, simple, yet also graceful.
The way she's drawn in her current splash art is actually fine, from a body type perspective. Just take away her make up. Now if only her in game model wasn't showing her as having double d's lol.
SPIRIT-NESS
With Janna, there's three things you have to balance her character around, goddess, spirit, and air. You can't have her appearing to godly, or she'd come across as to celestial and opposite of natural. You can't make her to spirit-y, or it just wouldn't be believable that she cares for or works to help humans, or has anything to do with them. You can't make her to air-y, or she'd just a breeze in the shape of a person. Where in the first two parts of this post I was balancing her around air and godliness, in this part of the post I will focus on things that can be added to her to help show off her ethereal otherworldliness.
For starters, the tapered pointed ears already help with that. In modern fantasy settings, while mostly attributed to Elves, pointed ears have long meant a character is some sort of fey, spirit entity. Where gods are above us, and demons are below us, spirits are next to us, if you understand what I mean. They're like us, but different, close enough for us to see ourselves in, but with enough changes to let us know they clearly aren't us. Small little visible ques such as pointed ears greatly help with displaying that.
Something that's inherently human, and so often used to display the human soul or at very least used to express humanity and is related to the soul, is the pupil. What if Janna were to have none? She'd still have her eyes, and her blue irises, but just without the black dot. Just a small change like that will instantly drive to the point that she's not human.
However, I do fear that taking her pupils away might be to much for her, but it would also instantly give her one of the most unique character designs in League. We want her to be otherworldly, but with enough humanity in her to keep her grounded.
Another, smaller change, I was thinking of was adding patches of translucence to her. Similar to the way that Aurelion Sol's tail is displayed in game, there would just be spots along her body that are see through, as though she were constantly fading between worlds.
STAFF, BIRD, MOVEMENT
The original staff design is great, in my opinion. For lack of a better description, it looks like she captured and then crystalized the wind. Just get rid of the awful orange gemstones in it, and honestly, it should appear closer to how it does in the splash art, glowing, radiating out soft light. Staves have long been used to as weapons by magical characters, most common of all being wizards and sorcerers. I love the idea of Janna using her staff to help direct the winds, as it says she does in her bio.
Secondly, the bird is great, and now that in her lore she's so intrinsically tied to it, it seems pointless to get rid out of it now. My only wish is that instead of just hovering around her, it'd be more interactive, Janna actually touching or petting it as she floats about Summoner's Rift.
Finally, onto her movements, there's not much to say, or really, I can say. She'll be flying across the Rift, so I can't say something like "she walks with a confident stride". Her movements should be graceful, but natural, with open body language.
VOICE LINES
I actually wrote out some concept lines for her in a post I made recently, here's the link. https://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/c5wfg4/new_janna_vo_written_by_me/
GAMEPLAY
I'm not a gameplay expert in any shape or form, I just know there are some Janna mains who'd like for her to get something new or unique in the event she actually does receive update. As I stated in the very beginning, I'm quite content with her current gameplay. All I could suggest is making her W a projectile AoE, similar to Karma's Q, instead of just a point and click, that would then leave behind an area that increases ally movement speed.
Well, unless I forgot something, that's everything I needed to say. I really wish I was an artist so I could have actually drawn out how she'd look.
Submitted June 27, 2019 at 09:49AM by Ir_Abelas https://ift.tt/31Tkhwk
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