Champions are about fulfilling a particular fantasy regardless of their region. I guess it's a big part of why I got frustrated with the game, but for folks that have no issue with that, the game is probably totally reasonable.
I agree with you here, I think they care more about champion identity than region identity, which is a philosophy that, while not inherently bad, I disagree with. I made a video all about it, the research for that video being what led me to this thread. The Shurima and Bandle City sets prove your post from 2 years ago 100% correct.
Predict is a Shurima identity technically, but because of the champion pairing system, it is only 1/8 of Shurima's identity. The problem is that "identity" becomes so wide and muddled and there's so much crossover between region identity that regions don't really feel different anymore. Like OP said, region pairings have more identity than the regions themselves. The Shurima+PnZ pairing has more identity than Shurima on its own. Zilean feels more like a PnZ champion than a Shurima champion, and Nasus feels more like a Shadow Isles champion than a Shurima champion.
And yes, Bandle's main identity is card generation, but so is that of Targon and PnZ. The extreme overlap is pretty clear.
Commenting nearly 2 years after you posted this: I think you're a prophet. If you look at what has happened with the expansions, the new regions basically have 9 parts of their identity, one for every other region.
Bandle City, the newest region, is the most egrigious example of it. It's identity is so incoherent because it's trying to appeal to every region in drastically different ways. You have the Bandle+Shadow Isles pairing which is "do a lot of damage to enemy units" and there's no shared identity between that and the Bandle+Ionia pairing which is recalling stuff.
I don't know where the source of this quote is from, but I remember that a rioter has said that champions are allowed to break the color pie. I think it's gotten to the point where they're taking this to the extreme, where a champion will break outside the identity of their region, and as a result all their followers will as well. Good examples of this are Zilean, Nasus, Veigar, Kennen, and Ziggs.
I agree with you here, I think they care more about champion identity than region identity, which is a philosophy that, while not inherently bad, I disagree with. I made a video all about it, the research for that video being what led me to this thread. The Shurima and Bandle City sets prove your post from 2 years ago 100% correct.
Predict is a Shurima identity technically, but because of the champion pairing system, it is only 1/8 of Shurima's identity. The problem is that "identity" becomes so wide and muddled and there's so much crossover between region identity that regions don't really feel different anymore. Like OP said, region pairings have more identity than the regions themselves. The Shurima+PnZ pairing has more identity than Shurima on its own. Zilean feels more like a PnZ champion than a Shurima champion, and Nasus feels more like a Shadow Isles champion than a Shurima champion.
And yes, Bandle's main identity is card generation, but so is that of Targon and PnZ. The extreme overlap is pretty clear.
Commenting nearly 2 years after you posted this: I think you're a prophet. If you look at what has happened with the expansions, the new regions basically have 9 parts of their identity, one for every other region.
Bandle City, the newest region, is the most egrigious example of it. It's identity is so incoherent because it's trying to appeal to every region in drastically different ways. You have the Bandle+Shadow Isles pairing which is "do a lot of damage to enemy units" and there's no shared identity between that and the Bandle+Ionia pairing which is recalling stuff.
I don't know where the source of this quote is from, but I remember that a rioter has said that champions are allowed to break the color pie. I think it's gotten to the point where they're taking this to the extreme, where a champion will break outside the identity of their region, and as a result all their followers will as well. Good examples of this are Zilean, Nasus, Veigar, Kennen, and Ziggs.