Why Seraphine is Everything Wrong with Modern League of Legends 

Fun reminder for all the simple minded idiots out there who attack game designers: We can still be upset and criticize something harshly WITHOUT wishing ill will on the people who made it. :)

seraphine's lore of "she can hear dead people" makes me think she'd fit much more an aesthetic of a wailing banshee ghost from shadow isles. but no, it's pop star barbie apparently

She talks about helping people find their voice, while literally stepping on an oppressed race to amplify her own voice. How do you screw up lore that badly?

And the fact that Riot didn’t include her in “Arcane”, not even one word about her existence in Piltover, explained just everything XD

Imagine if she suddenly apeared on Arkane season 2, solving every single problem with her singing and *good vibes* and the series ends with a musical theme and a new Seraphine skin

I don't know guys, her story seems like a fanfic made on wattpad is so cringe it's so shameful that even fanfics are better than that

Seraphines KDA lore isn’t even good. “Hi I’m a sad relatable depressed girl on Twitter. One day I released a cover of a super popular song and now that super popular band is like “BRO WE WANT YOU TO SING FOR US.” And now I’m rich and famous. Also I’m still depressed please love me”

A better way to write Seraphine would be to *make* her a sociopath, make her someone that forces others to enjoy her music through brainwashing or something. Use the good girl look as a cover for her truly dark personality. If she was it would make sense why she'd continue to use the crystal, and why a generally gothic city has grown to enjoy pop music, Hell, it would even make for good lore writing characters that know of Seraphine's horrid personality.

can't believe they did the concept artist THIS DIRTY.

If Seraphine is actually a sociopath like Jhin that gathers fan through music before killing them and fueling her music with their souls, then I might consider enjoying this character

Thing I hate about Seraphine more than anything : She can hear the Brackern in her crystal, and it apparently doesn't mind its situation too much Ok cool, but what about the others ? If she can hear Brackerns so clearly and you really want her to be the good guy, make her an activist for brackern's rights or something like that Make her do anything more than sing the world's problems away please I beg you

I’ve never played league of legends in my entire life and I’ve never seen this character outside of just cosplays and yet I was still so invested in this video. Good job.

The problem with seraphine and KDA is that the band contests of a ninja, a succubus, a fox succubus and a girl from the void, and now they added a new member who is just a pop star. There's no point in making a KDA skin if she's already a popstar. It's like making a ninja skin for akali or an angel skin for Kayle.

As a non-LoL player, I can actually understand why my boyfriend feels so disgusted every time he sees Seraphine being used by someone.

I remember when Illaoi and Rek'Sai came out, and I was celebrating the fact that the homogeny of female champions was being addressed, and that we would get a golden age of diverse female designs, monsters of every gender, and reworks of the more unsightly designs. What an optimistic child I was.

I feel like they could've actually done something cool with Seriphine's lore. Like it would've been so cool if she was like, this rock star from Zaun who uses voices of the dead against her enemies or something. Not only would they get to use the lore and add another music character, but it would expand their audience to those that are into rock/alt music. But no we need to pander to even more K-pop fans and China. 😐 (Edit: not shitting on kpop fans btw. I'm a kpop fan. I'm just sitting on the pandering.)

I just realized that Riot hasn't released any monster champions in a long time. No, Fiddlesticks, you're a rework.

What are you talking about "no monster characters"? Seraphine is the biggest monster I've seen in runeterra's lore

No way in hell does seraphine belong to piltover . Arcanes piltover shows a damaged society where advancements in hextech lead to more disaster up top and an underground society full of criminals who have had just about enough of piltovers topside. Piltover would literally be like a Gotham city. Piltover is shown to be classy and prestigious I don't see a pop star strutting around

Honestly, if she was actively an inventor, a technomancer specialized in sound and she herself wasn't a pop-singer but actually a scientist like the rest of Piltover who just happens to use soundwaves as her weapon, it would be so much better. Make her normal look be her KD/A skin, and give her a steampunk design, make her only sing because she needs to, you can still make her hear the brackern, but make her act on it, make her character arc be a war against the Ferros and the rest of the Hextech users by having her be assisted by the crystals themselves and be an insanely powerful technomage who's willing to go against the system. Make her be SOMETHING. In this state, she's just a cute e-girl who's funny to play but who's still Riot's biggest failure.

For me she is perfect material for evil character, like a twist villain. If she would be a psychopath posing in fake photos to manipulate people and harvesting souls to make her voice more powerful, that would be kinda interesting.

"Wild rift is definitely going to fail" Dont underestimate the numbers of people who cant afford a working pc

Seraphine's Twitter would be so much cooler if it actually tied into the lore and teased anything about the actual character, like some proper foreshadowing and world building.

As someone who mained Sona for years, Seraphine's existence is an insult, especially when Sona's last rework years ago was so halfassed and Seraphine was the kind of champion people wanted. The kind that could actually be played in the midlane again. "More wave clear please" - People "Okay, so get this, instead of Q hitting one target.... its hits 2 targets!" - Riot; Years later Sona knockoff gets 2 double AOEs and her E which usually gets cast immediately after W anyways is mashed together freeing up a skill slot for something actually useful. Seraphine's ult is a literal copy paste of Sona's but a bigger and better, more current lol standard version. Also PS, Sett is a stolen Vi rework. It's so f'in obvious. Vi's been in need of a rework for a while now and Sett's kit is basically Vi's but polished to current LoL standards. Maybe if Arcane had come out sooner Vi might have got it with her more Asian appeal look she has in Arcane. I strongly suspect Yone was a shelved Yasuo rework cause they didn't want to mess with his iconic fart moves. Viego gives me Aatrox vibes.

"what is my purpose" You sell KDA skins "My god"

I feel so incredibly bad for the Lore team at Riot. These people who you can tell genuinely love writing bios and stories and even entire comics about their characters, diving deep into the world and making cool colorful tales about what happens to them in the world. And then the marketing team, champion team, and Tencent create shit like this. This that no one cares about. Shit that doesn't fit on Runeterra and basically have nonexistent lore. If i were a story writer, I would hate having to work with something this poorly implemented and obviously created just to be a pretty face that makes money. The entirety of Seraphine is just so very sad.

"I miss your kind too, Skarner. Would you like to hear their song?" is the most fucking insulting line in the game. It makes my skin crawl.

I think the problem with Seraphines design vs Sona is that her design is to close minded. A pop star that’s it and there’s nothing you can do to change that pop start musical aspect of her. Sona has a lyre and you can do so much with that like giver her a valentines one or a arcade and maybe a coven next year. Sona’s design works because you can expand on her idea. Seraphine however can’t be expanded because she was made on a simple on dimensional idea and nothing more and you can’t change Seraphine without the pop star aspect of her making anything she has like skins all just be a pop star with a different coat of paint.

If you listen closely, you can hear Nick's soul dying over the lack of new monster champions.

in my humble opinion, Seraphine should have been a siren (or a banshee), it fits the music concept also the more dark and badass side of the world of league but then it also has potential for a rlly hot and cool champion.

Took this 9 months to be reccomended to me. Preach fellow lore lover. You had a very mature take on this... I didn't treat them with the same kindness 😂

I'll say it, I don't care, it's been over a year and I still feel the same about seraphine, she's that one girl who makes me roll my eyes in cringe Everytime she posts because everything she says is centered around how many uwu points she can farm from her army of simps

"true damage was done so dirty" Pentakill cries in the corner EDIT:this aged like milk

I like playing Sona and seeing her being shadowed by belle delphine it pains me

The marketing honestly makes me so uncomfortable

I have never in my life played LoL. I know basically nothing about the game, but a relative who does play got me into K/DA and the story animations. As someone who only knows LoL on a surface level, Seraphine came out of nowhere for me. I wasn't really a fan of her. Maybe she'll grown on me with enough exposure, but my initial gut reaction upon seeing MORE was that she felt out of place

Riot: "It's our 2nd music champ" Bard: "Am I a joke to you?"

This was by far the most hyped Champion release and the community's reaction ranged from "meh" to "my disappointment is immesurable and my day is ruined". Hope that gives riot a message

Saraphine should be an air head who doesn't understand hardship, that will make her seem condescending, but really it's just her naivety and innocence, though her conclusions for why hardship exists come across as someone who never worked a day in her life - and that would be right. Her appearance: She was a blonde but privileged girl before she was blessed, (blessed by who you wonder?) she listened to no one, cared not for anyone, only herself in maintaining her comfort in life (pampered by her dotting parents who constantly called her their "angle". Until the day finally came, where she would taste the hardship of empathy, during the war (the war between Piltover and Zaun), though her parents did well to keep her sheltered from such things, eventually though, the war came to her door step, she heard people screaming in the streets before, but seeing it was something else entirely. Her parents could not protect her anymore from the cruelty of the world, and given her rebellious and spoiled nature, instead of hiding from it, she ventured out to see if she could help. When she saw the destruction of war, and the blood being spilled on the streets, young and old laying dead in the streets, her heart sank even though she didn't understand, understand why all the pain and suffering. She only knew that she wanted it to stop. So while she was traveling through the bloody streets, taking in the ruins of a battle (while not trying to get herself dirty), she found a little boy laying in the street who was still alive, but bleeding badly. Saraphine ran to the boy, not knowing what she would do. She found herself driven by some unknown force which she had never experienced before; it was empathy. Her heart though sanking, was soring deeply with pain, she held the little boy's head on her lap, and for once did not mind the blood even as it was staining her cloths, the little boy unaware of his surroundings asked "Mommy?", this question struck Saraphine's heart cords, because she knew that no matter how she would answer, it would not be satisfying to one who was dying. All Saraphine could do was cry. And when she did cry, her heart began to sing, a song of mourning and anguish, and without fully understanding, she found herself singing to this tone in her heart. It was soothing to the little boy, for it was the song of caring, and the little boy thought he was hearing an angel. And in that moment as Saraphine continued singing, with her tears dropping on the boy, they began to heal the boy, for Saraphine was going through a transformation, with her hair turned long and pink, and her dress stained with blood now glittered with blue and white, for her heart was pure and clean, her voice even became more powerful. And onlookers who had escaped from the previous night's massacre (people who were in hiding during the slaughter) came out when they heard the song. Saraphine's voice was gentle enough to not harm the boy, but was actually strong enough to heal him, and yet her voice was powerful enough to penetrate through the walls of the surrounding houses. Her voice was an elegant mix of gentleness and strength, so that all who heard her voice, would not be deafened by it. So when those who were hidden came to see who was singing, no one recognized Saraphine, but her song kept their attention, even the little boy who was now healed, remained with his head on her lap, just enjoying her song. One little girl grasping her mom's skirt asked "Mommy, is that an angel?", this was Saraphine nearing the end of her song, so when Saraphine finally came to realizing her surroundings, was able to hear the mother's reply "That is a saraphine, dear, they are one of the most powerful angels." And though Saraphine knew she was not really an angel, she decided to let that title be her name, especially if it brought people comfort. So when she sat the boy up and he found his mom who had previously lost her son, Saraphine stood and came to realize her transformation, both accepting that and the people's attention on her. She realized her voice was powerful, and figured she must have been born with magic that only awakened just now. And that is where I would end Saraphine's story bio for now.

She looks like those weird Disney princess edits made in 2011-2014

"New champions are variations of sexy men or female" That aged well

"2 music champions" It ok Bard main, I feel your pain too

They changed the lore to much. The League of Legends used to be an actual thing in the lore. It was an organization if I remember right. You were meant to be a summoner (within the LOL) controlling if not the actual character but a copy of the character. The fights were meant to be used as proxy's to solve political distress in lieu of open warfare. I liked that idea but for some reason they got rid of it. It used to make sense why these characters were even fighting each other. Now, other then it being a game. What is the reason any of these people are fighting? Some of these guys are meant to be mortal enemies or actual gods (they changed some people to be gods by the way, they were never meant to be gods originally) They also made everything grey, specifically talking about Demacia and Noxus. Demacia were the good guys (think He-man and his team) and Noxus were the bad guys (Skelator and his crew). Now, I would argue that while Noxus is brutal it isn't out right prejudicial like Demacia is. Demacia didn't use to be like that. Take Shyvana. In the old lore, while she was feared because, yea, she can turn into a dragon. They didn't have to have J4 do some weird logic to have her on his team. And they didn't lock anyone up.

Seraphine could have been like an angel theme champ based on the name “seraph”

Lore update : Cho'Gath eats seraphine and takes her place

I picked up league right after Seraphine was released, and when I say “right after” I mean that she still cost 7800 essence in the store. My friend introduced me to KDA after I played for about a week and then I looked at Seraphine and the first thing I said to him in response was “so KDA was just made for seraphine?” He told me that KDA existed for a while before sera was teased to which I responded “so sera was just made for KDA?” To someone who had less than 15 hours in the game, it was obvious to see that she just didn’t fit in with the rest of league

Pentakill > KDA

Ngl I like Seraphines design, but she doesn’t look like a league character to me and I’m not sure why some of her outfits do though

And the fact that she speaks Chinese too. Clearly shows what's on Riot's mind.

I haven't played league for a while so when I came back I deadass thought Seraphine was a new Sona skin lol.

They're only two of our music champions. Bard: *glares*

I love how the video is broken up, not by the topics of discussion, but by the song that's playing in the background.

Honestly, Seraphine should have just been literally KDA Seraphine and have been a special outside character that only exists in the KDA universe. And her Runeterra version should have been a skin. That would have been super cool and much more acceptable.

"Helps people find their voice." By stealing the role of the original mute champion. I see what you did there, Riot. Low blow.

11:46 this part kill me every time

her lor redesign is amazing and gives her character so much depth (and makes her appear like a zaunite/originated from zaun)

In Senna's defense, she can turn into a screaming cloud.

I wish Seraphine was just Sona KDA skin.

Isn't seraphim the carbon copy of bell delphine.

This video got me interested in LoL worldbuilding. I mean, that techcity art looks awesome.

Her stage is literally powered by the souls of the innocent...

She could be interesting if they would recognize how she’s already pretty evil, and is stepping on the voices and lives of others while pulling in the vulnerable for the sake of her own benefit, but that would be making a statement that comes uncomfortably close to how they’re doing things, soooo...

opinion about more kda idc what anyone says but for kda's more, the feature with lexie liu should have been someone like irelia with a new skin. the bridge, the graceful integrity, and the chinese instruments that describes a peacefulness, persevering character who was powerful but determined with constant memory of the past and where they started from, it all would fit irelia - the blade dancer who leads despite all her personal losses. i know about the whole nerf irelia thing but still, i feel like bringing her in with a new skin while maintaining her grace as well as her power/leadership, as the feature on the song, wouldve been perfect. lexie liu's voice compliments that grace and power perfectly. irelia should've been featured. another character i can think of is probably ashe, but i can't really imagine an ashe skin with this. on top of that, ashe grew up an archer, but personally i feel irelia would've been perfect as her blades have a story that reflects her entire lore and power. so, for me, irelia would've been the perfect feature. but seraphine as a feature on kda - a group of strong female characters with strong lores - was a huge question mark. especially when her part - chinese and the instrumentation and the flow of the vocals (i.e. grace and power etc) - was in no way really related to her character and past. but anyway yes im lowkey salty coz i think irelia wouldve been perfect for the bridge and feature instead. sorry seraphine fans but it just didnt work.

So aren't we basically getting only Ionian champions, because the region is themed after asian culture and that exactly that sells well in China?

Remember the era of Riot, when "silent" champions came out after each other? (Gnar, Bard, Rek'Sai) Honestly, I want that back.

when I first saw sera in game my first thought was "Why does her hair have a better render than poppy's hammer" and ya know. I understand that now.

I know I'm kinda late, but I've been through that whole process of the Seraphine launch and I agree with all of your opinions. I just want to point out that I don't think Seraphine's gameplay is a entire copy of Sona's, because playing with her feels more like a Neeko gameplay. The right term in my opinion is steal Sona's place, because she does everything Sona does but better, so she could easily be a rework of Sona (like what you said in the video). Riot just missed very hard the opportunity to remake the outdated Sona's gameplay to do a K/DA champion in Runeterra. Actually I think they were wanting a singer, so it would've been even better if they just putted some efort into her creation. She had so much potential to be an activist of Piltover, fighting for the rights of the people of Zaun against the big nobles, like Camille for example. In short, Seraphine is a huge disappointment and a missed opportunity for something that really could have been cool.

Seraphine could actually fit the behind the curtains world domination. Pretending to be a good cute girl while singing songs that slowly corrupts the youth to think like her, adopt her ideology, full of propaganda and yet not explicit enough for the parents to realise the brainwash their sons and daughters are going through until it is too late. "You don't realise the influence I have over this people, they are like paper in which I wrote my ideas. They will fight for my ideals, they will die for it, but most important they will KILL for it. And soon will all, once I have enough "rebels" I will unleash my campaign against the already weak Pilltover's government. For now, I will leave you in the capable hands of my loyal subordinate mr. Warwick, while I choose where to bury you, I bid you 'bonsoir' ms. Caitlyn"

Imagine if Seraphine was a Piltover citizen who was cursed with her hearing powers and, after being cast out for protesting about Bracken crystals, turned into a Zaunite Banshee

Sona is a valued member of Pentakill. For that, she will always have my love.

You caught me off guard when comparing Jinx and Twitch, I did a literal spit take. Love your sense of humor, subbed!

I watched your seraphine story on scootches channel earlier and couldnt stop laughing. great editing man.

Dota 2 new hero: Grandma with a shotgun riding a dragon. LoL new hero: edge lord or waifu.

and then about 3 months later they turned the ruined king, who could've had a really cool threatening scary design that truly shows how powerful he is into a damn highschool emo anime protagonist

"Riot knew they couldn't top KDA" Aged like milk. But for the better I guess.

Excellent points, however, one of the reasons that wildrift is a big thing here because you can play on your AC anywhere you are as long as you have your mobile with you. In the lastest update the monsters of summoner rift are being added in wildrift as little at a time. I really hate seraphine especially in 5v5😆

I came back to league after a 2 year break, and when i found out about this character, i was convinced it was something like, idk, make-a-wish foundation thing and some terminaly ill kid asked riot to put his OC in the game.

Creativity is heavily absent inside the corporate overlords brains behind Tencent's design principles.

I have my theory. They wanted to somehow include Belle Delphine and this is what happened

after unbound thresh this video aged so well :u could replace the name seraphine with thresh... works exactly identical

Funny how the bands that league invented are as successful as their real world counterparts. K/DA - appeals to the masses just like pop, k-pop etc. True Damage - has a big and dedicated fan base but not as successful as pop Pentakill - has been around for the longest time and has a lot less fans just like all the metal genres.

I like how they threw Pentakill in the garbage by this point lol

holy crap did not expect the professor layton music at the start

the muffled screams adds so much funny lmao

Wow, her other concept art looks really great with the steampunk elements. Such a shame they went with her current look.

Are you sure Seraphine isn't a monster champion? Seems like an abomination to me

dude, your voice reminds me so much of itsagrundam! anyhow, great video

Great video. It needed to be said. 100% facts!

They had the opportunity to make her like a "Cruella de Vil" type of character, shes basically slaving Skaner's specie to sound pretty!

Btw, the company that made this... Thing, MADE THE MASTERPIECE THAT WAS JHIN AND REWORKED FIDDLESTICKs, like, when did it all go downhill?

God, that Bilgewater event was 6 years ago... I miss those days.

Coming back to this vid after Annie came out in the card game is hilarious, she really fits in now

The only good thing about Seraphine is that when she came out, I saw a lot more ppl playing Skarner... Like no joke, I had one every 4 or 5 games lmao

I heard people say that it would be better if she was like an opera singer in the base game and I really agree and think if fits better than a pop star. Still a singer but a different kind. Keep the pop star in kda but make her opera in Runeterra.

League is graphically simple and the controls aren’t to complicated, it honestly feel more at home on mobile

excellent video you covered all needed points

They could’ve put Seraphine in Targon. They could’ve made it so that she ascended the mountain and became the aspect of art and music or something. She feels out of place in Piltover if not Runeterra in general. And I was genuinely excited for her release until I found out that she’s low key trash in her own lore.

Seraphine should've just been Sona's KDA skin tbf

I feel like making her a tavern performer, maybe from Noxus, would have been a much more interesting design. Classic fantasy bard class.

I love how you speak your mind