I’m sure we’ve all seen the update to Syndra’s splash by now, and while I know many love it… and the art is definitely quite nice, personally I’m disappointed in it, and hope that this is more just a placeholder before her eventual ASU. I’m also hoping that LoR does not use this design.There are clear themes present within Syndra’s narrative to draw from to inform her design. And not just “generic dark mage”. Her old design at least conveyed it on some level, tho of course couldve gone far further. New design instead removes those elements and kinda goes further to visually convey elements that are the opposite of her themes.
Syndra embodies a chaotic and volatile rejection of restraint, espouses themes of freedom, and is meant to speak to a hatred for Ionia’s system, all whilst being from the perspective of someone who has only been exposed to Ionia and grew up in an older era having spent a lot of that time in a temple.
Little of this is conveyed in this new design. It is largely just “modern day executive/corporate baddie meets generic evil Chinese empress”. “Sovereign”, in her epithet, is not about rulership of others. It speaks to her immense power and her goal of self actualization. That only she would control her fate.
She is not power hungry, she wishes to explore the limits of her natural power without being restrained…. Yet this design makes it out as if she’s a power hungry control freak obsessed with order and commanding others.
There are clear intuitive paths for a design embodying her themes.
Freedom and a dislike of restraint is something which tends to be conveyed by loose clothing, light flowing fabrics, and skin showing. In this regard, her old splash did a better job than this redesign. Was it the best? Certainly not, but it was something. A small tweak to make that design better wouldve been make the straps actually look like they were meant tobind her, and have some broken, frayed in the wind.
You could go a more inverted approach, similar to Sylas, and emphasize the restraint, and specifically show them being broken and frayed, something appealing to her violent rejection of said concept.
She spent a lot of her life in a temple, appeal to that with some traditional cultural garbs in asian culture. Her old design’s shoulder pieces and general embroidery of the silver accents looked like they loosely appealed to SEA traditional garments… this could’ve been emphasized.
Going further, you could appeal to elements of asymmetry to visually convey her attitude to current ionian ideals of “balance”.
But instead, we have an extremely covered design with several skintight sections, clothing that looks thick and heavy, a design that speaks more to themes of order and command over others… as well as one that holds little contrast.
It’s all purple with slight silver accents. It’s too monochromatic imo. Where is the black to add contrast? Where is the skin to balance out the colors more?
The design is somewhat generic in only conveying “dark sorceress” and does less to contribute to her themes and history than current… and current was already barely doing that.
The art def is nice, composition is also nice (apart from the complaints about the monochrome palette), but the design isn’t what I’d aim for on Syndra.
If it were me, I’d personally aim for a style similar to u/Zhonya_uwu’s concept for Syndra in the Ashen Lord line slightly blended with u/Ulchete’s:
Spirit Blossom Syndra ironically does a pretty damned good job at conveying some aspects of Syndra’s theme (freedom and the cultural temple motifs), albeit it doesn’t incorporate the dark elements.
Spirit Blossom Syndra Splash Art
That being said, I don’t think you have to wholesale trash the updated design, tweaks are enough to better convey these themes: Free up her arms and show more skin on the legs. Give her some gaps in the torso, maybe open the sides. Tweak the design of the fabric to look lighter and billow more. Do some color tweaks to incorporate the black. Appeal to some asymmetry. Make the clothing a bit tattered/frayed.
Not everything needs to be done, but some would be nice.
This isn’t all derision however, I very much like the new face. I love the distinct expression, as well as the clear nod to a distinct cultural style in reference. It definitely separates her from many of league’s other faces. The only thing I’d meaningfully want changed about the face is to make the eyebrows white, rather than purple.
If the worry was that they might blend in too much with the face, it could likely be solved by adding some flares of her magic to draw attention to them.
It looks so bad, her face should be mysterious and not covered up with make up