Her Lore:
Quote:
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To Vi, every problem is just another brick wall to punch through with her gigantic hextech gauntlets. Though she grew up on the wrong side of the law, Vi now uses her criminal know-how to serve Piltover's police force. Vi's brash attitude, abrasive humor, and blatant refusal to follow orders can often infuriate her by-the-books partner, Caitlyn. But even the sheriff of Piltover cannot deny that Vi is an invaluable asset in the fight against crime. As a child growing up in the lawless outskirts of Piltover, Vi learned to rob and cheat to get by. Stealing and stripping hextech hardware gave her the skills of a master mechanic, while life on the streets taught her self-reliance. When she was six, a ragtag group of criminals took a shine to the young delinquent and brought her into their fold. By the time Vi was eleven, she had become a seasoned accomplice, and she relished the thrill of every heist. Vi's attitude changed when a raid on a mining facility went bad. She was forced to decide between fleeing with her crew and trying to save the innocent mine workers from a collapsed tunnel. Vi chose to play the hero. While searching for a way to free the mine workers from the rubble, she discovered a damaged robotic mining rig. Improvising, she wrenched off its huge fists and modified them into makeshift hextech gauntlets. Fitting the heavy weapons to her tiny hands, the young girl flexed her arm and threw a powered punch at the rubble. The force of the blow blasted away the rock. With the workers free to escape, Vi fled the scene. After that job gone wrong, Vi severed her connection to the crew. She returned to a life of solitary crime, but stole only from other criminals. As the years went by, Vi modified and improved her hextech fists, allowing her to bust up heists and snatch loot with ease. Eventually, word of her notoriety reached Caitlyn, the famed Sheriff of Piltover. Rather than seek Vi's arrest, Caitlyn offered the criminal a way to pay her debt to society: work for the law in Piltover. Vi laughed. To her, a job that let her beat up crooks without forcing her to run from the cops sounded perfect. She immediately accepted. Caitlyn now struggles to keep Vi in line, and Vi treats Caitlyn's orders as mere suggestions, but when they work together, they are feared by all lawbreakers in Piltover. It's a shame. I've got two fists, but you've only got one face. |
What I like about her
I love tomboy characters, probably because I’m a bit of a tomboy myself. Vi has a pretty sweet design(even though I realized that her pink hair and goggles remind me of Mira Han from SC2 *shiver*): an outfit that looks like it might offer some protection in a fight and some huge awesome hextech gloves to beat down criminals with. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a sucker for the oversized mechanical gloves, they’re pretty awesome.
Just from a quick glance over her bio we get that Vi is brash, rude, impulsive, and more than a little pig-headed but with her heart ultimately in the right place. I have no objection to the poor orphan genius angle they’re using for her----the intelligence you’re born with is not dictated by how rich your parents are, and she increased her skill out of necessity in order to survive. No problem with that. The fact that she chose to risk herself to save the trapped miners confirms that she really does care about others, snarky and abrasive as she might be. Personally I find her quotes to be pretty hilarious, she’s definitely a character I’d find entertaining to read about, though there is ONE issue I have with her that I’ll get to in the next section.
What I don’t like about her
Ah, here we go. While there is a lot I like about Vi’s lore, there is one bit that I really don’t like. The fact that she is supposed to be Caitlyn’s partner. Not only does it seem out of character for Caitlyn to have a partner at all, let alone someone like Vi, I think it also stunts Vi’s potential as a main character to be attached to an already-established protagonist in this way. This is pretty much the only thing I would change, the rest I’m quite content with.
It’s absolutely fine for Vi to be working for Caitlyn, it’s fine for them to work together on specific jobs when Caitlyn actually needs Vi’s skillset, but she’s just way too reckless to be of any use on a subtle or delicate job unless she’s being used as a big noisy distraction. And that’s only if she actually goes in when Caitlyn tells her to, instead of rushing in early and possibly putting innocent lives or the lives of her fellow officers in danger. The whole refusal to listen to orders makes Vi more of a liability than an asset in a lot of situations.
Just listen to her special taunts toward Caitlyn. To me that doesn’t sound like a partner. That sounds like an employee who doesn’t really respect her boss and snickers at her when she’s not looking. By her personality she sounds like a very unpleasant working partner. Regardless of how skilled Vi is in certain areas, I don’t think Caitlyn would subject herself to that kind of abuse on a regular basis. She’s already got enough on her plate, she doesn’t need Vi to constantly wear her down on top of that.
It’s stated that Vi doesn’t listen to orders. Does that sound like someone Caitlyn can trust to get the job done? And not just done, but done right. The fact that you caught the crooks is a bit of a minor note if you leveled a building or caused casualties on your own side in the process of nabbing them. Vi has one area where she excels, let her focus on that and leave Caitlyn to the delicate work.
We could even have Vi as the head of her own division within the police force if she shows Caitlyn that she can be responsible enough. A sort of heavy-duty SWAT team division that is used to break up the tough jobs where a massive show of force is sorely needed. You could call it the Enforcers Division or something like that. It gives Vi that much more freedom to move her own story and walk her own beat, so to speak. She would still ultimately answer to Caitlyn as her employee, and they would still work together on certain jobs, but she would also have her own responsibilities to attend to on a day-to-day basis, her own people to personally lead, and her very own sidekick-partner to bounce off. The point is, Vi deserves to be more than a sidekick. Sure they’re “partners”, but Caitlyn is still Vi’s boss and she’s still the Sheriff, they’re not exactly equals as it is now.
In short: Vi does not need to be Caitlyn’s partner to be important. Let her be a high-ranking officer in the police force, let them interact, but give Vi room to breathe. Give her a special handler as a partner who has the time and energy to deal with her antics rather than constantly giving Caitlyn even more issues to deal with. This way Caitlyn stays in-character from what we’ve seen of her in past lore and we also get to enjoy Vi without constantly having Caitlyn trying to be the super-controlling Debbie Downer. I’m not saying this just because it’s out of character for Caitlyn, I’m also saying it because Vi deserves her own space as a protagonist.
What can be done with her
One of the things that gets me super excited about Vi is what can be done with her character. Vi may not be partner material for Caitlyn, but there is certainly a lot of story to be told that specifically involves the two. The first meeting and the following deal can be written out, we can even have Caitlyn consider Vi as a partner due to urgings by concerned friends and discover the hard way that this was a bad idea. We can address respect in the workplace and how Vi is able to legitimately earn the respect of her fellows in the police force and of the citizens; yes, they can respect her abilities, they can respect that she’s really good at punching criminals in the face, but we need them to respect her as a person, too. Right now Vi doesn’t act like someone who deserves that kind of respect. Yet another good story to tell is what happens the day she rushes in on the wrong job and gets someone injured or killed. She gets the chance to realize that reckless actions do not come without consequence, and it would be an excellent chance to explore her character in greater depth.
There’s an impressive selection in the way of stories you can tell with Vi. You can go comedic or downright serious in the way of stories, she’ll excel for both because of her background and her personality. Even romance might be a really interesting option with her as long as you mix in comedy as well. Vi is a comedic character because of her attitude and mannerisms, and promises to be highly entertaining if written well as a result. There is a fine line between funny snark and downright mean-spirited-wow-this-person-is-just-totally-unpleasant snark. Giving Vi her very own nemesis is an option as well, and she’ll be free to pursue him/her with more freedom if she isn’t Caitlyn’s partner.
But why did she join the League?
Honestly I have no idea, with Vi it could be as simple and silly as Piltover running out of punchable criminals because the police are so good at their job. Where else in the world would you get to punch anything from freaky bug monsters to leaders of other city-states? Silliness aside, I think this could really use some development too. Yes you can sort of handwave it away saying “oh she just likes punching things”, but there are definitely other reasons to join the League that could be explored, and I think Vi deserves to have the writers explore that. You’ve got our attention, now take her somewhere.
That’s all I can think of for now. Your turn!
So yeah, that’s Vi to me. Fun character, fun design, but one thing I’d change in the interest of in-character-ness and giving her proper room to grow. So what do you guys think of her? Where do you think she could go from here? Why do you think she joined the League? Please share your thoughts so we can get some discussion going.
Let’s talk about Vi!
