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OKAY so i have all the pieces im gonna go full lunatic ramblings and talk about the new talon skin.

The skin in question:

(spotlight video)

and his bio:

“Talon doesn’t remember much of his past anymore; all he knows is the sorrow and regret etched deeply within his soul. These emotions have transformed into hues, dying him and making him what he is today. Others revere the power he wields, but to Talon, it’s no different from shackles binding him. Refusing to be a pawn in destiny’s game, he fights desperately, determined to rewrite his unfinished tale even if it means only darkness awaits his blade at the end, where all the colors shall eventually converge.”

Additionally he has vo in br portuguese as well as spanish. i've taken the liberty of translating the spanish vo as i know some, even if my english is better >_> you can find the english translated lines here. and if you're a fluent speaker feel free to throw ur two cents in the ring.

i am going to also ramble a liiiiil bit about the other skins in the line in connection with talon, and also go into sett a bit more and at the end i'll talk about a talsett lens. ofc this is all just my opinion blah blah im yapping. this will be a very long post.

OKAY SO FIRST OFF LET'S TALK ABOUT THE DESIGN.

I think splendor opus talon's design is... probably his weakest aspect of him... like imo his design falls into a line of 'there's too many things going on.' too many bells and whistles. i know there was some contention about his colors but i personally like them, tho i dont really like the swirly stuff he's got going on by his shoulders. and idk if i dig his anglerfish lure like hmm. his outfit is kinda a mess but that's okay i forgive him. i wish he had visible eyes always and its interesting that you can see them sometimes they're just super fucking yellow.

like wow hello!

imo his splash art is also great!! compared to his last skins, primal ambush on pc and stargazer/prestige on wr (we dont talk about the prestige) this one just gives off a better vibe to me?? the pose is better than stargazer imo.

and his EXPRESSION is so good here. it's cool neutral, and if you squint then yeah maybe he COULD be smiling just a tiny bit, or maybe he could be frowning. its so GOOD.

(once again not a fan of the wispy shit but blah blah)

in terms of model animation, like the wild rift entrance visible in the spotlight intro,, i don't like it as much? just in the starting animation, when he's on the boat all the way up to looking at the camera, i think he gives off yone energy there, not talon energy. i think its because he looks too put together. i think talon should be noticeable for his less than stellar posture lol. he's got some grime i think they should let him keep it.

wild rift offers several poses and there are several that i think do a better job. i dont think his default screams much talon, tho i understand that he would keep good posture sometimes. (i reference it while writing too.)

he breathes fire in his animated performing pose, which is fun. i think poised and the end of performing are his best poses. idk i just think dignified is a strange word to associate with talon, personally. i wouldn't even associate that with enduring blade.

extra side note about his model i love the lil thing that ties his fuckass hair back.

as a side note (but generally more unimportant compared to other apsects of his skins) the animations and in game of him is also very good, but that's a given bc of the better wr models. i love his e, and sometimes ingame he pulls out his fan for a sec? the way his cape moves almost reminds me of rakan.

EDIT: FORGOR to mention that sett is LITERALLY IN HIS RECALL??? AUGHHH

anyway, model aside, let's talk LORE/THEMATIC:

now full disclaimer there's gonna be an event ingame so if there's more lore revealed i'll have to make a summary post or smth, but we'll find out later.

lore/thematic is what i was most wary about, especially because wild rift was handling it, and their last entry (stargazer talon) was so brutally boring in terms of thematic. ive said this before but it gave him no real texture, just someone who was 'secretly working for the enemy.' when i refer to narrative texture i'm more talking about complexity. talon is such a complex character, so if there isn't a layer of complexity in his bio then its shrimply not as good. i always consider skins to be a 'translation' of the character. so painting talon as a flat villain is a poor translation of the character. there are a couple champs that suffer with this tbh, getting reduced or translated to other skinlines poorly. (yone. for example. sett too. maybe some other day i'll make a post about it going into my thought process.) all this to say that i dont really trust wild rift's quality when it comes to character interpretation? like i trust lol pc much more. i think wr gets away with things that wouldnt get through on pc. stuff like putting heels on all their women models, etc.

anyway.

i was VERY PLEASANTLY SURPRISED THEN BC the lore isn't actually one note or flat or leaving little room (primal ambush for example, was a filler line that didnt really give lots to chew on). but this line not only interprets talon but also gives a fair amount of texture!!!

but basically it boils down on first glance to 'sett and the others have to defeat talon (and mundo technically who is like, following behind talon) i'd assumed talon would be a villain from the teasers and i was scared of him being just a flat villain. but that's actually so opposite to the case, because once you look at talon's bio and voice lines he's a tragic and textured villain fighting to choose his own future.

there is admittedly a lot of haziness in regards to the actual world context. even the cinematic they released (here) is set very non-specifically. we know that teemo is Literally Destiny and 'is [trying to] ensure that the chosen ones walk their destined paths.' in sett's bio it mentions being chosen by the 'Paints of Providence, being chosen to take on the mantle of The Gallant Hero' and defeat talon. are the paints different from teemo? uhhhhhh... dont really know.

there are some instances in riot lore where im like 'they totally didnt mean to do that' but i think they very much intended talon to be seen as 'correct' in his motive (though prolly not his actions.) trying to achieve his goals in the wrong way.

i think from all the lore (as in the bios and voice lines) its implied that fate gives you a role to play and erases your past memories? im really not sure about that last part because sett references his ma in his legendary lines... but at the very LEAST fate gives you a part to play. and in talon's case he doesn't want to play it. he's got lines about deciding his own destiny and its fucking sick and on brand. there's even an animated emote (which i'll post separately) explicitly called 'i define who i am.' and YET he's portrayed as someone who 'needs to be defeated.'

ITS TRAGIC. in a talsett lens it really is peak enemies to likers, and FINALLY we're back to themes of control/loss of control that we have with talon's best skins (thematicwise.) and its more tragic if you push it further and think maybe teemo (destiny) knows that him 'fighting his destiny at any cost' is just him cementing himself in his predetermined role of antagonist.

HE IS FIGHTING FOR HIS OWN AGENCY LIKE. HELP.

like high noon also has the same reoccurrance, of things happening to talon outside of his control and him struggling to deal with it. enduring blade: loses his POWERS? (irelia, chill) and suddenly being cast down to mortality. i thiiiiiiiink i've said this before but thematically across (most of) his skinlines talon has two major vibes:

struggles with control

themes of being pushed too far to the point that he doesn't care if the whole place burns down/anarchy. (withered rose and blood moon are two notable examples.)

if you pair this with the idea of him loving perfection and also the idea of 'the edge' you get a tragic portrayal of someone who is just pushed too far (edge) to the point where they snap. feast or famine, all or nothing. and i think that's SUPER interesting because when you look at like, his base/lore that stuff is very much under the surface/not as evident. (imo this is because he's just not at that breaking point yet in story.)

splendor opus is thematically very good because it covers both of his major vibes. it's kinda what i was missing from the stargazer skin. (my criticism was that it's a missed opportunity to put talon in a story about fates and futures without adding his struggle with them.) it also portrays him as a foe but sympathetically, which imo is 90% of the time how it should be. high noon was: yeah he's a devil but he's going through it. enduring blade was: yeah he's a prick but he's going through it. KATARINA COMIC was: yeah he tried to kill her but he's being manipulated. she even let him live like she knows this!!! AGH

as an added note, because this is peking opera themed, i havent ruled out the idea that this is all a stage play and that irl this isn't actually happening. but idk if that can be determined yet. unless i've missed smth, we'll have to see if anything else is revealed.

in summary: i personally rate this thematic VERY high tbh, though still under like, high noon at the very least. i wish the setting was more established but the lore/theming surrounding talon is quite excellent imo, even if his design leaves stuff to be desired.

ALSO, a note on splendor opus sett:

i like his skin a lot tbh! (mythic chroma not as much) and the model/animations are great ofc, but as a legendary skin released alongside another legendary skin this is definitely the lesser of the two. the voice lines are very nondescript and add little thematically compared to talon, and he only has 1 alternate pose? (and a different alt pose on his mythic chroma) so it seems like unequal quality? strange. i think they could've added a tiny bit of doubt to his bio, personally, because a lot of sett's theming is around fighting for those who need it, and talon kinda... needs it? (well, he doesn't need it, but he could USE it.) but this is once again dipping into my opinions on how sett's character is often reduced. though talon actually DOES have a voiceline with him where he calls him stupid, so maybe its something that clicks later for him.

that being said i still like his skin. i'll take what i can get.

if you read this whole stupid thing then thanks for humoring me lol. this is all just my personal opinions, if you wanna discuss feel free!!! yayyy talon

now i must draw them together....

also im not even rereading this so if there's mistakes ill uhhhhhhh fix them later.

#splendor opus sett

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