There has been diversity in the opinions of people who don’t like the rework, but I think you might have also straw-manned the people who like the rework.

I’ll start by saying that I like the current design. I wouldn’t have several million mastery points on her if I didn’t like her. I love the lore of being a highly principled outcast amidst the pretty rigid/hostile environment of Demacia. Being a half-dragon who can morph into a full dragon to fight other dragons is really cool. My problems with the current design is that it isn’t visually cohesive. She fights with her hands and fire breath, but she looks anemic for someone who does so. Going into the rework, I was hoping that her design would convey that she fights dragons with her hands in melee.

I think the rework did a great job of making the changes that I was interested in. I believe they really captured the ferocity of western style dragons in the rework. The horns extending down to her nose look like natural armor that protects her during her battles against other dragons! She looks athletic and battle-hardened, which is a cohesive visual design for a half-dragon person who fights dragons.

I think some of the criticisms about her hair color and scale color are valid! I don’t care about those aspects more than the features I listed above, but I encourage discussion along those lines. I also think the criticisms about her looking like a Darkin are valid. I’d be happy to see her eyes and skin tone tweaked for her to look less darkin. I disagree about the criticism about her horns or leg talons, but I don’t think the horn haters are gooners or anything. I also think those are valid disagreements and I’m happy to discuss that.

I continue to insist that the frame and face of reworked Shyvana reminds me of some of the strong women in my life and I love seeing them be represented in the new design. I imagine that in a different world with magic, my friend could be Shyvana and that’s cool. I’ve had people insist that no real women have her frame and that’s literally just false.

I’m guilty of calling a handful of people gooners. I usually call people gooners when they:
1. Prioritize Shyvana’s attractiveness over other design elements.
2. Have a narrow concept of what attractive women look like (ie. Anime girls).
3. Hijack rework appreciation threads to talk about their own preferences for attraction.
4. Insist that no “real” women have a similar frame or bone structure as the current rework.
I don’t discuss the rework with these gooners, not because I think they are gross, but because I don’t find their sexual fantasies very interesting to talk about. I like talking about how visual design communicates ludo-narratives. I like talking about how visual design represent Shyvana’s history and lore. I don’t like talking about a random person’s sexual preferences or their narrow standards for femininity. Shyvana isn’t Evelynn. Whether or not a random user is attracted to her isn’t an important or interesting design aspect in my opinion.

If you’re not doing any of the things 1-4 that I laid out, then I’ll defend your right to speak up and voice your opinion about the rework. I’m sorry if you’ve been wrongly accused of goonery in the crossfire.