Riot’s music video for Jinx

I’m totally fascinated by Riot’s strategies for hyping new content. This is an actual song, with a custom-animated music video, and the vocals are done by Agnete Kjølsrud, who is from a Norwegian rock band ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Djerv_(band) , and what?

She has wikipedia pages in other languages, but not on the english wikipedia. Her link on the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_heavy_metal_singers goes to her older band, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Alpha

I’m fascinated because the LoL community still feels sort of small enough to touch. I kind of love the intersection between different forms of mass media now. Riot is brilliant: they wrote interesting stories, inspired fans to do crazy things, then harnessed the massive creative energy from fans with the Summoner Showcase, and now I feel like it’s gone even further–rather than simply relying on fans to make awesome homages, they’ve incorporated this style as part of their entire marketing strategy. I think they are brilliant.

It TOTALLY WORKED, here, for me. I haven’t played LoL for ages, but I’m looking at http://oce.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/champions-skins/champion-reveal/jinx-loose-cannon-revealed now. Plus… I mean come on, she’s a female anarchist marksman. Why does that work? It seems so easy to rope me in. I guess we’re all products of our culture, so our psychology is predictable. Here we are, now; entertain us.

Seriously, though, why does this ‘lightning-blasting anarchist femme unpredictable’ trope on a female character work for me? I didn’t sigh and turn away, because: because what? Because even though she’s in a bikini top, at least she doesn’t have enormous boobs, and that’s actually really noteworthy? Because I’m fascinated by stories about women who are feminine but not? “Do you ever wanna catch me? Can you try a little harder?” she asks, and I guess I’m trying really hard to find something in there about gender/power, though LoL has male characters that have a “catch me if you can” attitude, too. I’m fascinated about what this says about us, and where we’re at in terms of video game culture, and being delighted that kill bill-type female chaos-bringers are in vogue.