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Briar is the latest champion to join the ever-expanding roster of League of Legends champions. She is a jungler and she was created from hemomancy or blood magic by the Black Rose in Noxus to be a living weapon. After two failed missions, Briar was confined to the prison and the Black Rose controlled her by using a pillory on her. Briar needs to consume blood to fuel herself and she loves blood.
However, on a quest to uncover more about herself, Briar is trying to distinguish between friends and foe and she uses breaks away from her pillory when her killer mode is activated.
Riot Games said, "Companionship and the occasional warm pint of blood are the motivations that keep Briar going, and they’re also what bring her back from her frenzy."
Riot also added that Briar was a balancing act to create since the team wanted to build Briar around a loss of control, but they still needed to preserve a sense of autonomy. The publisher noted that the voice actor perfectly encapsulated Briar's true spirit and personality.
In this article, we will dive deeper into Briar's personality and her voice actor Julie Nathanson.
Julie Nathanson is Briar's Voice in League of Legends
Briar is one of the most interesting champions to be released by Riot Games in the last few years. After receiving the pillory, Briar not only enjoyed the mental clarity that the restraint brought her but also found the time to reflect and learn within the confines of the prison.
She listened to the conversations of the guards, spoke to the other captives, and also studied all the insects inside her cell. After this, she understand that there was so much more to be discovered. Riot Games said, "She didn’t want to be a mindless killing machine any longer. And she definitely didn’t want to follow orders."
One of the problems with portraying Briar to the world was that Riot knew she should be a champion with flaws. It wanted her to be naive, "but not childish; a woman, but not sexualized; enthusiastic about life, but not annoying."
Portraying all this perfectly is Julie Nathanson, Briar's voice actor in League of Legends.
Talking about Julie Nathanson, Senior Narrative Writer Max "TwoWeevils" Folkman said, “We felt so much better when we found Julie as our actor. She was so great for giving us different kinds of reads for every line. It was actually hard to choose sometimes which ones we should pick for the game. She helped us find the perfect balance with Briar’s newfound personality and her frenzied state.”
Riot Games noted that Nathanson's performance would serve as an influence on how other regions finalize the character and her lines in other languages. The publisher was also thrilled to be able to clearly distinguish between blood-crazed Briar and her restrained personality through Julie’s performance.
Notably, Julie Nathanson is an American actress who has been a part of the industry since 1996. She has worked in films, television shows, and also games as a voice actor. You can find Nathanson's work in iconic franchises including the Final Fantasy series, Call of Duty, StarCraft, and The Sims.
