Creative Response to my Essay: League of Legends

Whilst I was writing my essay, I found that Disney had created a variety of different characters which on the whole had considered to be sexist, as the females stereotypically relied on the male to save them. There are also mixed views on how representative the characters are of females, as most characters are given natural beauty and narrow waists. Generally the only exception to this are the evil antagonists, who were stereotypically portrayed as being ugly.

I wanted to take this opportunity to pick out further examples of characters that deviate from the "disney norm", and take from these examples to design a couple of my own characters that are more representative of females as a whole. This will include looking at different body forms, as well as race and physical appearance. If I go into more depth about the character's background and personality, I will consider their hobbies, interests, careers, etc, so that there is a wide range of characteristics and values that will hopefully be more representative of women now-a-days.

I'm going to stray away from Disney slightly, and look at more female characters alongside the ones I have already explored in my essay so I have a wider range of characters to draw from. I'm going to look briefly at League of Legends. I love the game and I think the character design is beautiful, but it has been criticised for being sexist. A lot of the female characters have been highly sexualised, most of which have been created with a skinny waist and being practically 90% breast, Sona being a great example of this.

Ahri (Top Left), Miss Fortune (Top Right) and Sona (Bottom)

Having said this, I personally think that there are a good variety of characters. Granted, a good percentage of the female champions in League are very breasty, but Riot Games have also explored a range of different sizes and body shapes and colours, resulting in a wide range of characters and personalities. To back this point up, Riot have recently released a new champion called Jinx who is very slim and flat chested. A lot of skin is on show, but she hasn't been sexualised, instead she is a fun, crazy and outgoing character. 

Jinx the Loose Cannon - Released Oct. 2013

Annie, Karma and Kayle are further examples that show diversity across the female characters in League, all of which I think are great designs. I can't quite put my finger on what I particularly like about the characters, but as a whole I like that no two champions are the same, and each have their own background story and "lore". I also like the attention the detail that there is in the splash art, and how the environment is also taken into consideration. 

Annie (Top Left), Karma (Top Right) and Kayle (Bottom)