Talk:Elise/Background/@comment-89.78.90.184-20121018223538

Let's talk character design here.

Elisa is your typical monster girl in black pseudo-latex. That's not "vicious and elegant". That's "lazy". Nothing about her says "regal", as the lore would have you believe. In fact, her design is so generic there is next to nothing which is memorable about her.

And before someone jumps on me how it makes sense when you think about it, or she's going to be totally different in-game, or whatever, let me say this - funny animations and fridge logic are perfectly fine, but one shouldn't depend on them. One look at the character ought to tell you most, or ideally everything, you need to know about her. You're supposed to convey the ruthlessness, the cunning, and majestic demeanor with clothing, body shape, posture, and colour. And here we have a semi-nude chick with a crown, which may or may not make it into the final model.

Though I don't really like what I see of Priscilla, at least you can't deny she had a well-defined, quirky presence. The same can not be said of Elise, whom you could swap with a random dryad or whatever and not see much of a difference. The Spider Queen archetype is well-trodden, but it's hardly impossible to put one's own spin on it. But here we have just wasted opportunities, where the design doesn't show her face, denying her an expression; foregoes clothes; doesn't use colour; the pose is generic, and the shape is of a curvy female with nondescript bits tacked on. Nothing that makes her distinct. Especially since she's supposed to be all like an aristocrat, who are known to have strong personalities. Character design could've added to her admittedly lacking characterisation, but instead it leaves her plain and forgettable.

Take Jayce for contrast. His chin alone speaks volumes about him. That and his expression paint an image of a brave adventurer ready to brave the tommorow. All Elise is telling you is she's dark. Oooh scary scary bad. Hopefully I don't have to explain how that is not sufficient.

I don't really have a point to make here, except maybe, there was more potential in that character. Shame, I say.