Almost fixed Yasuo and Riven

I give them credit for the effort. I called them out for it, and they delivered some new lore to justify their relationship. (By my advice, I'm sure!) But something really bugs me about this new lore, and it centers around Riven's turning coat.

Based on this comic, Riven leaves Noxus purely because of one moment where Noxus used an (al)chemical weapon. In a way we don't really get explained to us. Did it backfire on her men? Was it intentional, or accidental? Was it the weapon's effects or the fact that it did whatever it did in that specific moment that turned her? Further, why did it exist at all? I know Noxus has a degree of history with this sort of thing (hi, Singed), but when you have mighty forces of arcane destruction like LeBlanc and Swain, why do you even need a volatile and uncertain alchemical weapon in your arsenal in the first place?

I guess my first point is that they're doing a bad job of making Noxus evil here. It feels like the kind of writing I did when I was nine. "They're evil because... I know! Because they did this one unambiguously evil thing!"

The second complaint I have is Riven's confusing tolerance. She serves an openly bloodthirsty empire, hellbent on war and conquest, where the strong frequently cull the weak by any means necessary. She does this long enough to rise to prominence within its ranks. Then suddenly, because of one event, she changes her outlook entirely. Suddenly "Noxus wasn't what she thought it was." What exactly did you think it was, sweetie? I mean a kingdom that allows its weaker warriors to die ingloriously so the strong can take their place? A kingdom whose thirst for blood is so rapacious that every soul in both Ionia and Demacia, two FOREIGN NATIONS, are acutely aware of it? Using alchemical weapons to get an edge in battle?! GASP and DISMAY!

Is it justification? Sure. I can see it. But it's paper-thin justification, and that's my complaint here. Riot's writers are professionals, they should have more solid stuff than this. Much shorter games have done this well. Like Fire Emblem's Jill, who joins you because you happen to be fighting Laguz when she loses her unit, but betrays you when you end up fighting her father several chapters later. She can only be made to see the truth of her kingdom's wickedness if you then have a couple very specific characters talk to her, and only if she's formed a strong bond with those characters.

Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of Noxian patriots. I don't think it has to be all or nothing morality, where Noxian soldiers are just mindless pawns. I like the notion that many warriors of Noxus truly believe in their kingdom. The thing is, I don't feel like this singular event should be enough to sway a loyal warrior from her nation. Particularly if that warrior is fairly young and has recently found herself gaining rapid gravitas within that nation. Logic would dictate that at the very least, Riven's subconscious attachment to the appreciation her superiors had been given her actions of late would make her think twice about leaving over a single event.

How do you serve a kingdom who makes no secret about doing whatever it takes to conquer, with loyalty and faith, and then suddenly lose that faith when they do something objectively immoral in the name of conquest? If Demacia did this, I could see Garen or Quinn or a theoretical Riven having second thoughts. But Noxus? Come on, you had to know about Noxus' toxicity (pun intended). This is a kingdom where Singed is a prominent general and the daughter of one of their most noteworthy fixtures of the nobility literally spits corrosive venom at her enemies.

You know how you make this happen? Show that Riven was a part of a unit who deliberately raised her and her men in isolation, lying to them about Noxus' nobility. Show that she met a foreigner with a different world view who slowly, over time, through several encounters, managed to help her see the truth about Noxus from an objective standpoint. Show her losing a loved one to Noxus' dog-eat-dog attitude. Let her beg her superior to send her army to save that loved one from a pitched battle only to fall on deaf ears, and let that be what STARTS the bitterness that opens her eyes.

With clever writing, you should be able to do this in as few as three cells of comic book writing. It's a damn shame Riot's professional writers couldn't do it, because it would've added so much more depth to both this character and Noxus as an entity.