Although the new Udyr has had many good impressions with the League of Legends gaming community, it has also encountered many controversies because of its “playing champion” shape.
The Udyr remake project is probably one of the most labor-intensive and time-consuming campaigns of the League of Legends development team. And fortunately, the initial experience of this champion’s new shape and theme has somewhat satisfied the community’s expectations. However, there is still a little “ripple” in the image of the new Udyr that makes the community wonder. That is: Why did the old Udyr’s “mlem mlem” 6-pack abs turn into “beer belly”? Why does the new Udyr look so “promising”?
In fact, as we all know, except for balancing the game, Riot does anything with deep thought and implications, and of course, once it has turned Udyr from 6 packs to 1 line , then the father of League of Legends also had a good intention, but did not do it indiscriminately. And now, let’s analyze a little bit about this visual detail of Udyr! You will be surprised, because it also contains practical scientific elements in it.
The first reason: “Swing the trend”
After the initial design leak of the new Udyr and was exposed by the community as… like Kaido in One Piece, the horns in the original concept art of this general were removed, and as a result we have Udyr like present. However, the complete version of the new Udyr makes many people think of the “fat Thor” version in Avengers: Endgame.
Needless to say, the image of Thor “beer belly” in Endgame has left a deep impression in the hearts of movie audiences around the world, and of course, if Riot is inspired by the God of Thunder to create Udyr. new (which also has the power of thunder) is not strange.
The second cause: Udyr’s origin – Scientific explanation
For this reason, two things should be emphasized: Udyr is a martial artist, and he is from the Freljord.
In the first part, Udyr’s “fighter” background is not a gladiator type, specializing in talent competition in the ring like Sett, but to be precise, Udyr is a martial artist – a fighter who always opposes. faced mortal battles on the battlefield (namely the battles at the Freljord and Ionia). Talking about the warrior image of Udyr, science has proven that in reality, the warriors in the cold weapons period (ancient – medieval) did not possess a “curvy 6-pack body like in the movies. , but in fact, the ideal body shape of an ancient warrior must be a big, fat person, and… as much fat as possible.
The reason is because possessing a thick layer of fat will affect their survival on the battlefield. Along with the outer armor layer, the fat layer in the body will reduce the damage from the weapon, preventing the internal organs from being fatally damaged. In other words, the warrior’s fat layer is almost a natural biological armor, helping them to increase their survivability on the battlefield.
Besides, the second issue, related to climate. For warriors living in areas with cold weather, snow and ice all year round, the fat layer is also a means of keeping them warm on the march, and also a reserve of energy in case of long starvation. day. In other words, a fat warrior is a good fighter, not a six pack, like a bear.
The Freljord is a very cold land, and it is quite easy to see that most of the male generals from this land have extremely large, muscular bodies. Udyr is no exception.
Statue of Guan Gong reciting the Spring and Autumn Sutra – Displayed at the tomb of Guan Gong, Luoyang City, China
The most typical and understandable example for the story of the “fat warriors” above is the case of Guan Yu – the most famous general of the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, and also a familiar name. with the Vietnamese. Guan Yu is from Shanxi – Northern China, although it is not a land of ice and snow, it also has a cold and dry climate. In the ancient documents and artifacts, Quan Vu is also depicted as a martial general with a big fat body and a “beer belly” … exceedingly large. That is the ideal model of the warriors who fought on the battlefield in the old days.
In addition, the most “realistic” case of shaping the “beer belly” characters in the game world, is the case of the god Thor in the upcoming blockbuster game: God of War Ragnarök . The image of the character Thor in this game was also leaked not long ago, and like the case of Udyr, it also encountered a lot of mixed opinions, when God of War’s Thor was also big and fat. and look like a drunkard.
Thor’s image in God of War Ragnarok is also controversial
However, as mentioned above, both Riot Games and Santa Monica Studio (producer of God of War Ragnarök) have very good reasons, based on practical research and scientific – historical explanation, to creating models of “fat” characters like Udyr and Thor.
Cause 3: Design thinking changed
After reading the above scientific explanations of Udyr’s bodybuilding, many gamers will surely wonder: Tryndamere or Braum are also warriors, also from the Freljord, why still have a 6-pack body? The answer lies in Riot’s character design thinking.
Both Tryndamere and the old Braum and Udyr, were born many years ago. Specifically, Braum is the latest character born out of the three names mentioned above, in 2014. 8 years have passed, and obviously, Riot Games’ character development orientation has changed. Previously, Riot used to pursue a typical “beautiful boy and girl” design style in contemporary entertainment culture. That is, if that general has a human identity, then the male character must be tall, 6-pack, masculine face, angular, female character must have 3 standard supermodel rounds and have a “golden ratio” face. .
Typical characters for this style are Jarvan IV, Garen, Tryndamere, Darius, Yasuo, Sona, Miss Fortune, etc. (Of course, there are exceptions like Jinx, but only a minority.
However, in recent years, Riot seems to have begun to shift to a more realistic character design direction, breaking the standard limit of their own so-called design “patterns”. . The Illaoi, Kalista, Jhin, Camille … even though they are only a few cases, they are the clearest evidence for Riot’s breakthrough in expanding the character design orientation, all of them carry more or less coins. the direction of “realistic art” in which, that is, the character creation must not only be beautiful and impressive, but also logical and realistic.
And it won’t be surprising, when a “blockbuster” project like the Udyr remake, will become the next good example for the path to reality of the League of Legends universe that Riot is aiming for.
See also: League of Legends: After the rework, the ‘full AP’ Udyr can be ‘immortal’ and possesses a huge amount of damage
