Smolder Is Not What People Expected

Join in to get unique emotes, badge and spoilers for future videos:
/ @necrit
MERCH:
► www.designbyhumans.com/shop/N...
Links:
► / necrit94
► / necrit94
► / necrit94
► / discord
► / necrit94

[@MechanicMikan]

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

[@thomasroycraig4679]

It’s more like a My Little Pony Dragon.

[@ShovelMarshy]

​@@thomasroycraig4679 What's worse is that I'm okay with it since I grew up with that show

[@thomasroycraig4679]

@@ShovelMarshy I don’t mind that either. I loved G4.

[@morelstrike]

@@ShovelMarshy What's even worse is that both MLP and Paw Patrol have better designs when it comes to their faces.

[@ShovelMarshy]

@@morelstrike yeah, I love his design, but will say the face at least needs a snout of some kind to make it less human

[@TheJamieellis]

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.

[@marquisepixley684]

You are wrong

[@felipecouto1102]

@@marquisepixley684 no

[@eduardothomazl]

@@marquisepixley684 And you are wrong to say he is wrong.

[@felpudini]

​​​@@marquisepixley684 Of course , furry profile pic

[@SynDeus]

You don't understand. It's not what people want, It's what China want.

[@stan2139]

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

[@BoneWalker]

I'm still disappointed we missed out on the aspect of might or brawlerzilla.

[@TheRelicOfOwls]

I@@BoneWalker I'm constantly reminded of the several better directions they had for a more grungy bad-ass kai'sa design

[@BoneWalker]

@@TheRelicOfOwls There's an alternate timeline where all the cooler champ concepts and designs made it to the game, and we somehow got this thing.

[@Jangz_]

@@TheRelicOfOwlsnah kaisa design was perfect in my opinion

[@dangng7079]

@@Jangz_ i agree , but it's perfect for R34 ,not LOL

[@tadihotado3518]

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.

[@fireguardianx]

100% agree, also what you described remind me of younger simba.

[@akaliislifeakaliislove5968]

not that only that we literally have cute dragons in game already... look at dragon trainer Tristana and Heimer, they could just make a new one of those and it would work better

[@TheSinfulGamer]

To be fair, Shyvana is more of a Wyvern

[@tadihotado3518]

@@TheSinfulGamer a wyvern with wings the size of twigs and legs and arms bones are literal branches, shyvana is so skinny in her dragon form that it makes Vi looks like she's buffed af Shyvana is a terrible dragon design, in every sense of the word "dragon", i look at her and i see "snake with attached limps"

[@B-l-a-z-z-e-R]

All they had to do was make Spyro 2.0 since they like to steal ideas left and right and nobody would bat an eye.

[@legreatest]

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

[@kudaty1808]

Sonic v1.0

[@karanea]

@@kudaty1808 When I saw the cinematic for the first time I thought it was a fan edit (not just because of the sonic face but also the shorts format)

[@shade4835]

Not at all no

[@veerayut4815]

yes that face nahhhhh

[@maximkusanagi]

It's lizard Zoe.

[@MrLolguy93]

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

[@Blu_Moon_Owl]

Hopefully Smolder will get the same treatment like Sonic and possibly get a better look.

[@jedna25]

Dragon trainer tristana's baby dragon is more cooler for me than this one.

[@fiddx8905]

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

[@eraimattei]

ASAP...

[@fiddx8905]

@@HeckenschutzeMoH agree, they had put interesting designs fitting the theme and the world, funny that riot already had made quite good designs for dragons in LoR especially with the elder dragon, unless if they wanted smolder to be a yordle halfbreed

[@FabschOblivion669]

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.

[@marquisepixley684]

You are wrong

[@deluzuzia]

@@marquisepixley684 they are absolutely correct smolder just looks weird

[@AngryShark105]

i agree

[@53thephenix]

@@marquisepixley684 literaly 80% of the community think smolder sucks, the only place where poeple where okay with was twitter lmao. How much riot is paying you to have the worst possible tastes ?

[@biotoxic0008]

​@@marquisepixley684 He is correct tho , i find Smolder really weird instead of cute

[@godzilagiroflex]

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!!!??

[@andreabosio6452]

Probably is a situation similar to Game of Thrones: the royal family conquered a lot with aid of dragons but at the present time they are mostly history as the dragons disappeared in some way

[@DrakenRox]

it looks more like an alliance between camavor and dragons (as intelligent beings) and not a "we tame dragons to use them as weapons/rides" thing maybe

[@huntersuper98]

Because Camavor is an incredibly new place by comparison to the rest of the world and it's not fully fleshed out. Not to mention the fact that it's completely ruined and we don't know the full story of Camavor yet. And lastly we know that Viego was a shut in prince who was thrusted into being the king rather than growing into being one which would explain why he doesn't have a dragon of his own.

[@alanreplicant8615]

because Viego is insane and no Dragon would respect him.

[@nailinthefashion]

Let them cook oh my god

[@Howtopaintstuff]

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!

[@thewaysh]

Hahaha, I think Riot completely lost it.

[@--A3--]

Its sad to acknowledge that even Yuumi's design was better than this shit, which proves just how bad it really is.

[@nanashialfarr]

Riot's Ugly sonic.

[@Mediados]

@@--A3--Yuumis design is literally impossible to mess up, she's just a cat.

[@MythicalCat]

​@@nanashialfarrFr, I would prefer Sanic over this monstrosity.

[@buboniccraig896]

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

[@raulbrenes778]

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

[@cryochick9044]

Thats how furries make good faces Focus on the snout

[@xabierarana2645]

Changin the skin tone colour a bit wouldnt harm to

[@cryochick9044]

@@xabierarana2645 just get riot to hire a furry

[@raulbrenes778]

@@xabierarana2645 yeah making his face more "purply" would also make him better( or maybe not purple, but the tone of the rest of his body)

[@zat1245]

He has a snout. It’s just smol. His face is not human, it’s just cute.

[@CptApplestrudl]

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

[@Darkprosper]

Honestly, if they teased him as a sphinx instead of a dragon, I would actually like him so much more...

[@CptApplestrudl]

@@Darkprosper The bright side is, if he ever gets a Guardian of the Sands skin or something like that, it would fix all his problems.

[@Darkprosper]

@@CptApplestrudl Guardians of the Sand is an awesome skin line, but it's been abandoned for years now. With 2024 being year of the dragon, I think we can already tell what his release skin will be...

[@Hamlettte]

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

[@Lappland_is_mitsu]

If it was shivanna and jarvan son it would make sense but no, it has a camavor origin.

[@adashshmulc463]

thats not an issue, face is invisible ingame

[@estranhodesconhecido8046]

its like sonic's first design in the movie.

[@raptorxrise5386]

@@adashshmulc463 You still have the loading screen, champion portrait, potentially any other lol games like loR in the future and such.

[@MrIljuha2000]

​@@raptorxrise5386also only a blind person will not see an ingame model Otherwise riot wouldn't bother with animating all the faces talking

[@AmaneLily]

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

[@Coconattsuu]

I THOUGHT THE exact same thing

[@christopherwilliamsA]

Riot accidentally made bad Sonic x Spyro fanfiction

[@cryochick9044]

​@@christopherwilliamsAI THOUGHT IT LOOKED LIKE A LOW BUDGET SPYRO

[@user-hf6go4se6m]

​@@cryochick9044if they put spyro in the game,its going to blow up, ill be a spyro main XD Rank 1 Spyro main sounds awesome XD

[@Chuluun700]

yea sure you only say this because you hear it in the video othervise you would never realised that sonic was changed

[@obsessivelychaoticdimwit9764]

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

[@shafiurrahaman3396]

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

[@doommaker4000]

Shyv is a wyvern

[@bman296]

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

[@leoleo1035]

Lmao yeah. Worst Spyro iteration I've seen. Gotta hand it to Riot. They manage to grab cool designs and turn into shit.

[@bman296]

@leoleo1035 don't get me wrong outside of the human ish face his design ain't half bad just...wish we had gotten an actual at least decent sized dragon not a hatchling.

[@leetri]

@@bman296 He was originally announced as being a baby dragon, so if you expected a full sized dragon that's entirely on you.

[@bman296]

@@leetriI never even heard of him till now. Ive been asking for a pure dragon since I got into league back in 2015

[@FeiFongWang]

This isn't Spyro, this is a secondary Skylanders reject that riot found the designs for in a dumpster behind Mattel.

[@DillonMeyer]

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

[@Chesesino6111]

Shyvana looks more like a wyvern to be honest

[@walkingburgers95]

​@@Chesesino6111 Okay nerd

[@Gamer9o]

yeaah ... im 95% sure that kid dragon didint come from dragon x dragon relationship xD

[@painfuloreo2089]

Singed had a lot of fun on this one💀

[@egbert5871]

​@@Chesesino6111 ya a kind of dragon

[@ivangg378]

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

[@zenni_iii]

Smolder looks like sonic💀

[@romuluslupa1649]

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

[@xDaedron]

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.

[@casualmanticore2758]

Now I imagine that there was once a king who used Sanctity like a fucking gun 😂

[@megalowie1324]

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

[@dorians2138]

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

[@zepredalux2159]

and he was teaming up with urgot, no way riot

[@noobalishious.]

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

[@stephen7587]

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

[@DomseArts]

oh no not again, vayne W / passive ability was already a mistake to begin with

[@BoneWalker]

@@DomseArts Vayne W, Fiora P/R, Camille Q by proxy, Gwen Q, K'sante R Feel like I'm missing multiple other instances of this garbage.

[@shocksy9540]

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.

[@xabierarana2645]

Naafiri was two champions ago

[@Ashen_Viper]

The funny thing is, it wont sell plushies because almost every person agrees it's uncanny and ugly

[@opportunity3278]

@@xabierarana2645 naafiri isnt really a monster tho shes a dog with some knives flex taped onto her

[@jackvancekirkland]

Based comment. Smolder is probably canonically gay/trans/nonbinary.@@janah6473

[@micahlehrke9]

@@janah6473 Belveth has clearly visible thighs and the pretty face. Barely qualifies as a monster champ.

[@albertkaplan1673]

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.

[@TheClandestineFox]

What stood out to you about Shyvana's lore that made here seem uncorruptable? Honestly, I was more surprised about Karma being overtaken by the ruination. Karma and Irelia always had that meditative peace-of-mind aesthetic going, I figured they'd both be recruited to the Sentinels.

[@eduardothomazl]

Please, don't bring up that nightmare again. Let's all just pretend Ruination never existed until Riot make a retcon about it, like they did with Seraphine's lore...

[@bcoyne12345]

I also assumed that Galio, being a LITERAL Sentinel, would be in there, but alas @@TheClandestineFox

[@huntersuper98]

Are we just forgetting that the Ruination event that League got wasn't the entire Ruination lore? It's already been said that what happened in the event that took place in the client isn't cannon, that's what the book was for.

[@ganymede6766]

The Ruination is not canon it was made as a cop-out to sell skins and not reference any lore, hence why yorick and maokai didnt exist

[@Vincentpanh]

The curse half human half dragon face.

[@codebracker]

It's more like 70% human, which clashes with the 90% dragon rest of the body

[@Zahlari]

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.

[@bahajirutmspt436]

@@moonchock4390 well in most settings humans are the dominant species of the world. Probably not the strongest but always the ones with countries and cities everywhere. So hoarding whatever the dominant species value is the easiest way to show their authority and power. For example if they were in a elf dominated world (in tune with nature, love and peace kind of elves) dragons would probably have most beautiful botanic gardens in the world.

[@lothara.schmal5092]

@@moonchock4390 Status and power are reasons, it’s actually the reason most rich people even bother to accumulate more money

[@lothara.schmal5092]

@@moonchock4390 It’s not abt what humans value, dragons value gold, they value gems and rare things.

[@jesperskov4614]

"(this is how most dragons would be depicted in media because it's the quintessential Red Dragon from DND)" Are you trying to say the stereotypical dragon originates from DnD? I'm pretty sure DnD got it from Tolkien and Tolkien got it from Norse mythology.

[@Kyle-nm1kh]

Dragons like gold because it helps them sleep

[@strongerthanever2039]

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

[@wingedflyingforce5139]

Nah, true Spyro, not Activision's Spyro (toys for bob in remakes, legends, and Skylanders), in the classic looked like a dragon. What you are thinking is a garbage gremlin who took his name and called itself Spyro.

[@maximkusanagi]

Smolder is Zoe cosplaying as a flying Lizard.

[@laryon5472]

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

[@theuone8828]

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

[@swordbrotherulbrecht3286]

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

[@archthrone5815]

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

[@DIRTkat_ofc]

Seraphine doesn't even look that bad my problem with her is the reason she exists, to sell skins

[@Your_Boi_Eden]

@@DIRTkat_ofc exactly.

[@zat1245]

Literally every aspect of her design is pleasing but sure go off on whatever insane shit this is.

[@undyne1]

You're exaggerating.

[@Your_Boi_Eden]

@@undyne1 I mean- not really. Seraphne's outfit doesn't make sense for a Piltovian but at least, it still remotely holds up. Smolder is just... no.

[@Blu_Moon_Owl]

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

[@jedna25]

I like more the baby dragon of tristana on her dragon trainer skin than smolder.

[@Blu_Moon_Owl]

@@jedna25 exactly it’s a cute little dragon which is what Smolder is but the face kills it

[@flakyfan1496]

Exactly man! Well said I really hope they don’t ignore us on this one cuz the snout is so important to lizards

[@mechanicalsilence1]

I agree, it looks like he stole someone face.

[@cupidok2768]

this is just like zoe. ppl hate cute disney stuff

[@PanvelTyrell]

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

[@cactus7198]

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.

[@viklifts-zk8bl]

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

[@user-hf6go4se6m]

Vel meth, milio, renata, hweii, nilah, illaoi, camille, briar, naafiri, all the inclusive skins, nidalee's voice change etc. Feels like there is a mafia at Riot, because im pretty sure all these failures should've cleaned the house XD

[@DoctorStrange01]

@@user-hf6go4se6m I like the Vel Meth champion, it's kind of a crackhead though.

[@masonchristian2311]

it’s because the league community is miserable

[@user-hf6go4se6m]

@@DoctorStrange01 she kinda came out when the bald feminist final boss archetype was being pushed in every game. Right now I remember the same design in Mortal combat and Magic the gathering. Sad times.

[@Hardsky5123]

@@user-hf6go4se6mwhat do you mean? Nidalee’s voice is awesome

[@ObsidianAmeth]

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

[@glhf2u]

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

[@Xygard]

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

[@CarinaKeKz]

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.

[@MEMES0ON]

I wouldn't say that the "uncanny valley" is proof of being AI, but considering how hard is to find something human made recently you might as well assume everything past 2023 is AI generated and get it right

[@infectio88]

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 ?

[@sebastit7d]

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

[@squishyazalea9970]

I would have preferred a cool adult dragon champ

[@Relhio]

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.

[@user-fn2mx6dd5k]

Dragons hoard gold cause of Fafnir and cause Tolkien's books are 70% nordic mythology

[@mateusyaeger3292]

@@user-fn2mx6dd5k and even so, fafnir is the only one who does this and exactly because he was cursed... and he's not even a dragon originally

[@blturn]

“Dragons sleep on gold to harden their scales.” Dragons failed basic chemistry it seems.

[@Dragansidhe]

another common reason is that they actually gather gold and gems to eat them to help grow harder scales

[@buhoahogado2993]

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.

[@shurlkr3594]

​@@janah6473 Naafiri is just a basic dog with some knife, and Belveth is a mess of lore, gameplay and visual design.

[@shurlkr3594]

@@janah6473 ​ do you know when was Cho'Gath released? 2009. You compare a champ from the original roster with a champ released 13 years later? And even that, his lore is still not clash with his gamplay, meanwhile what is Belveth? A stabby stingray according to her gameplay, or a psychic empress according her lore, or a wannabe monster wear a human head to sell skins according to a design?

[@shurlkr3594]

@@janah6473 I'm baffled at how dense you are. Yes, everything back then was goofy af, but they all agree on what a champion is. The problem with Bel'Veth is not that she's bad, her lore is exceptional, her gameplay is pretty good and fresh, the worst part is her design which is fairly disappointed for a monster. As I 've said above, her problem is that she is a mess, while each individual aspect of her is awesome (except for design), they are all over the place. Cho'Gath lore and gameplay may be outdated but they all describe the same Cho'Gath, while Bel'Veth lore and gameplay are 2 different champions

[@shurlkr3594]

@@janah6473 Let me say it again in the language of a child so your little brain can understand. Based on the lore, Bel is a psychic empress. Based on her gameplay, Bel is a stabby stingray. Based on her design, she is yet another sexy character with pretty face and visible thigh pretend to be a monster. Is this enough for you?

[@shurlkr3594]

@@janah6473 no, it is just the frustration to someone who refuse to understand a basic concept of which I've talked again and again three times. And the useless thing here is that you haven't bought any meaningful opinions to the discussion and just try to weasel your way around

[@TheVideoSpaz]

Ther is a very cool dragon point of view fantasy book series that explains dragon hords as a mix of pride but also nutrients. The lore was that the dragons would eat different metals that would be (through magic of fantasy) digested and absorbed to form their dragon scales. The more pure the metal (like gold or silver) the stronger and shiny the scales. Dragons would hord like a bear does food to attract a mate but also have metal on hand for their hatchlings to eat and grow stong scales (especially through he winter when the wars of men slowed). A dragon who didn't eat enough metal would have like ingrown and weak scales leaving their soft skin vulnerable. I always liked this bit of feral-ness characterization of the dragons and why they get overly protective of hords like animals would of food sources.

[@ArJayDM]

Reminds me of the dragon character from Vainglory, a mobile MOBA i played when my PC was broken a few years ago

[@raynightshade8317]

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

[@lamalariseviom]

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.

[@skinnybuggo]

That's what they said ​@@HeckenschutzeMoH

[@Lightforeverandever]

Im finally excited about this champion (havent been interested about new champs in a while)

[@jetbean9157]

Can’t wait to see the better concept art

[@rosediomond4661]

I hope Smolder has special interactions with Nilah

[@AzureFides]

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

[@cryochick9044]

Hey spyro is well designed. This looks like og sonic movie mixed with spyro though

[@Ziggaton]

If you mean the weird pug-like look he had in Skylanders I'd agree

[@skylarc8859]

that sword u talk about has same silluete as the dragon flying from top view at 7.24min mark

[@solemnshadow3075]

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.

[@lowgahn69]

He definitely looks alot better in game compared to the cinematic

[@gexianhen]

yeah in the top down game view is face is not uncanny it look nice-

[@lordheadass8310]

His gameplay trailer is out on twitter. It's very much not the case imo

[@alexalex-gs9sp]

he is disgusting both ingame and cinematic

[@OpheliaTerat]

Nah he still looks ugly. In the splash art he looks slightly better tho

[@royalgundamist4416]

No he doesnt

[@chrishaven1489]

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

[@BEETSSOLO]

whoop whoop for arcane

[@cryochick9044]

Character design of spyro with sonic movie energy

[@cryochick9044]

Character design of spyro with sonic movie energy

[@Chickensea10]

Literally 2 hours after talking about arcane necrit! WE GOT A SEASON 2 TEASER TRAILER AND NEW ROADMAP!

[@NumerEoN]

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

[@foxythepirate9761]

Just another decade for a chance to get a dragon champion

[@trooperscientists2000]

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.

[@deluzuzia]

THIS I think changing the eyes alone would be a good enough fix

[@SlygothaTheBroodmother]

Its probably a "saftey" art design.... cute sells, risky edgy designs don't always. You would have thought they learned from fiddle!

[@anasmohamed2481]

Imagine The Enraged Firespitter in league WOW

[@silvershadowwolf7088]

best part is the same day they reveal smolder one of the desingers at riot posted about the complaints people had about his look and they updated it giving him more face scales, sharper cat like eyes, and moving all his facial features to closer making him more dragon like. they also slightly made his snout longer.

[@fosterbennington6405]

Can’t wait for the Subway edit

[@takubear88]

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

[@Roaddawg1705]

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.

[@Diggerente]

Dude your pants are really showing off your package, impressive

[@marianopatino939]

if yall ever played vainglory years ago, there was a baby champion called Skarff, I think they were trying to do something like that.

[@llDdorill]

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?

[@xabierarana2645]

what about the other champion we cant understand like Gnar or Kogmaw?

[@nightmarextreme4371]

kog can speak, but he does noises most of the time, gnar speaks in an older primitive language@@xabierarana2645

[@rollcaskett1812]

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.

[@Dragansidhe]

you say that like skarner's rework is actually going to get done this year

[@fabbae215]

briar was interesting to me, and i love her memes coz of the feet

[@VexJinks]

I prefer cute little emo girl, tbh. Also, toes.

[@UmbralScythe]

I love this dragon! Not an adc main sadly but he is cute af and ability names are cute as well

[@KillerSamuri]

I feel the need to reference dragon trainer Heimerdinger splash art that kind looks a bit like Smolder before he got older and the face there is similar to what Smolder looks like

[@talactackerashley3016]

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

[@swiftwithoutnumbers]

except its not a baby dragon its preteen dragon

[@AngryShark105]

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

[@user-li7xb7he5w]

I'm sad to look at smolder too

[@Philspective.]

So Basically Camavor/Shadow isles is just like Old Valyria in the Game of thrones universe and the Targaryens are the family line of Viego. They're basically the same, getting destroyed by The Doom, and Shadow isles corrupted by the mist and undead power of viego.

[@KenseiShiro]

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

[@umutcantacer7271]

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!?

[@jeffhunter12]

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

[@saelfaddoul9252]

It’s crazy to think they published that and thought it would look good

[@ZackeroniAndCheese]

I just want a badass dragon like at the beginning of the teaser

[@misthi9982]

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

[@jaroldscottwilliams.3rd832]

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.

[@missayrie3480]

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

[@martanek1082]

Riot accepted feedback and working on redesign of face and head. I m fine with cute looking dragon shyvana is monster aurelion badass i want cute dragon too.

[@rod99ttett90]

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

[@raizoslots]

Reminding me the first version of the Sonic movie

[@Joi2212]

I kinda hoped Smolder would look more like Dragontrainer Tristana's Dragon, which looks like the kid from the old old drake from Summor's Rift, which we have now as a more red fire drake.

[@sortacoolmaybe]

Smolder looks like Mr Krabs outside of his shell

[@CatteYokai]

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.

[@thekbot1155]

I like being compeltely out of the loop and just seeing shit as it comes

[@jaquanepatterson2537]

Short snout and human eyes is a no go for a dragon, like is there any dragon with that type of face that looks good?

[@thariousfenrir4430]

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

[@dragomaster2422]

I LIVE Smolder and was expecting exactly what we got imo

[@jasonadams7617]

Ngl, it would be pretty hilarious if the first 10-15 seconds of the next cinematic was a tech demo just to mess with people.

[@siduxjxhdgzhdjxhxuuxxyhgg1079]

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

[@icravefriedchicken]

I don't know why but when I saw his face my brain went instantly to the mage hunter game where shyvana left. I don't know, maybe he is jarvan and shyvana's kid, I mean you can't see the mom so.