posted ago by LeoLittlebook ago by LeoLittlebook +4 / -1

Awaken | Season 2019 Cinematic - League of Legends (ft. Valerie Broussard) | YT

This cinematic is unremarkable except for the confrontation between Camille and Jhin. In their search for mythic resonance, the animators have stumbled upon truth.

According to League of Legends the game, Camille is bipedal. However, one cannot balance on two blades, so the animators gave her four legs, for a total of six limbs. What animal has six limbs? Insects.

Camille imperiously leads a squad of male cyborg soldiers, her honor guard. Her regal stride and extended abdomen make her an anthropoid ant queen.

She storms the theater, where Jhin plays piano onstage. The soldiers don't open fire. Why? This is courtship, not war. She is testing the male drone for worthiness. Her soldiers are sterile, not potential mates.

Jhin proves crafty, eliminating her guards, the spawn of her previous mate. The queen Camille is too powerful to be harmed, the traps designed only to catch feet, not her blades. She leaps, deigning to display her abilities, closing to challenge the male directly.

Jhin bows as she descends on him, a suicidal move if this were not courtship. The gesture reveals that his limbs are also seamed, like her face. The seamed limbs of Jhin and Camille are an ambiguous combination of chitin and chrome.

The animators make one error that detracts from the courtship theme, having Jhin fire twice at Camille, forcing her to dodge with her grapnels. This is included only because Camille has the ability in-game. In the logic of cyber-insectoid courtship, the drone would not attack her directly. He has already achieved his goal of isolating her for mating, which is why he bows. He has given the performance of his life, and will lose his autonomy when she closes to within arm's reach.

The plotlines of other heroes in the cinematic are uninteresting because they generally lack male-female polarity and mythic resonance. The Camille-Jhin scene works because in ant society, female queens are dominant, which fits today's feminist zeitgeist.

I always wondered how the queens of Earth's Ant People might have looked, before they finally converged on the gray form. (See Skinny Bob.) Camille is close in spirit, conveying visually what the Ant People might feel telepathically, beholding their queen.

I noticed because this video juxtaposes Camille with other monster queens:

【GMV】Villain | YT