Tbh, I had hoped Yasuo would turn out to be more of a methodological and tactical fighter

First of all, let's look into the context of this thread, because nothing can start without a context:

Yasuo's attack pattern is to combat (or at least initiating it) via blade-draws itself rather than the common pattern of drawing-then-attack. Easy, we all know that, and we also know it's based on one of the sword-drawing schools originated in Japan (as far as I know, pretty sure that's the case, if not, at least it's the most well known one hence the inspiration on Yasuo).

Now I'm not even going to bother entering the "sub-categorisation debate" between Iaido, Iaijutsu and Battojutsu etc, because they are literally referring to the same thing, where only former-most is actually referring to the martial art itself, while the latter 2 refer to either a very general term of the art or the application of the art.

Iaido, while a term that's more recently conceived and compiled, it is the natural progression of the sword-drawing techniques that was used in the even older years, and focuses on the efficiency of attack/defence, keeping the sword clean, and training focus/concentration/precision (the last part is why Iaido is also considered by many as a spiritual training, which is also how the discipline is generally taught today in the world where swords have been outdated).

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Considering his preference of fighting using Iaido, a fighting style that is often associated with "1 shot 1 kill" type of philosophy, which is why every "kata" or "drill" or "set-move" ends with the sword being put back into sheath, Yasuo is very different to his source of inspiration, almost an 180 degrees in difference. Yasuo, unlike the art he was based on which not only prefer but promote shorter fights, instead he's an AA carry who pushes and shines in extended fights. Hell, his Q and E alone already breaks the mold. There is a very big thematic dissonance, and it's not there comically or to challenge the stereotype as it's pretty obvious that Riot is serious about the dude, which makes the case very curious and jarring to say the least.

Now even in say, anime media and other works in Japan, where katana and etc get the most exposure and glorification which also naturally comes about many portrayals that may slightly distort the expectation and perception of the real-world counterpart of the same item in a certain way, understands that Iaido users would generally like to keep the fight short and ideally in 1 hit or 2. But somehow Yasuo missed the memo with quite a margin.

As mentioned earlier, Iaido is often associated with an air of precision, concentration, peacefulness, and spiritual enlightenment in some way, which well, is written all over Yasuo's face, thematically. There is no mistaking that he is meant to be a pretty dead-set Iaido user at this stage, but the gameplay doesn't match up, not when his kit is literally about spamming when Iaido has always been about fast planning and executing it decisively. Sure, Yasuo also put his sword back into sheath every time he goes out of combat too, and he also charges into a fight before pulling his bad boy out, we get it, it's supposed to mimic how Iaido is generally understood as. But the context has change drastically. Because Yasuo is far more similar to that of a free-form fighter who has learned some fundamentals of Iaido than being a disciplined sequence-defendant/form-reliance blade-drawer which is what he is actually based on.

This round back to the title quote, "Tbh, I had hoped Yasuo would turn out to be more of a methodological and tactical fighter"

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I'd hoped he would be more or of a slower-moving/slightly-immobile AD caster, or something along those lines.

Someone whose normal AA is actually just punching and kicking (though I prefer kicking because that flows better with sword-drawing based character, but imo), while each of the abilities detail some kind of set movement, ie "kata", for different purposes.

• There could be a kata that is entirely offensive (such as performing a uppercut and a downward chop, and allowed to end prematurely for less damage but the target is sent into air via a knockup),
• One that's entirely defensive (such as performing a circular horizontal sweep),
• One that's mobility based (such as a short ranged hop, not a dash, a hop. And it could be used for dodging, sidestepping, but not over walls),
• And the ulti being a kill condition similar to current Yasuo's to some degree (go well with the first portion of the "offensive" kata spell mentioned just above).

Or something like that, this is just a basic model to give an idea on what I was talking about, and is by no means the sole design I'm pushing. And sure, enhance everything with wind and fancy just as you do with current Yasuo.

But what I wanted to say is that, the current Yasuo lacks a certain amount of grace, fluidity and discipline of his own personal source material. And that is very troubling indeed.

I guess that's why he's called "The Unforgiven", because his mentors and fellow colleagues are all now pissed for having raised such a badly learned swordsman who gets none of the fundamentals of his own choice of martial art, they even say the deceased elder has been throwing a tantrum in the heavens after seeing Yasuo's forms, or the complete lack thereof.

(this is more or a rant)