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On the "Progress Day" Short Story...

LordHippoman·12/2/2016, 7:00:55 AM·10 votes·2,048 views

So I know we're all REALLY INTO THE MAP but I want to talk about the story real quick.

This was good! I especially like a lot of the descriptions of the ways Piltovian inventors apply to join houses and such, but it certainly adds a much darker side to Piltover than before. My biggest complaint for Piltover prior to this was that it seems like nothing bad happens there. Everyone's just working on progress and technology, but with a little change in the introduction of the Clans and Camille, that shifts pretty hard. It goes from "tech utopia" to a very divided city with clans jockeying for power and slaughtering eachother, damn the consequences. It's very easy to see how things could go terribly, horribly wrong.

That's sort of a shift I've noticed in the newer lore in general. There's a lot of focus on the darker sides of each region. Bilgewater went from sort of goofy pirate land to this very violent, bloody island of thieves and killers. Zaun is now more of a slum. Piltover has a veneer of civility, but the nobility is pretty damn murderous. I think it's a well implemented shift, though I always did enjoy the lighter stuff, but I think champions like Ivern or Kled still provide that.

I also want to praise this as the first time Caitlyn has done a thing since her RELEASE. Aside from being mentioned in Vi's bio, of course. But we actually get to see her in action, and it's good. She's smart, she's able to track down a master spy, and it really adds more to her character by taking these traits that were implied and making them flat out canon.

If I have any complaints, I guess it would be that there's a lot of "jargon", words that don't really exist but are implied slang terms in the setting, and I had some trouble understanding a few of them, although most are easy enough with context clues. It's a bit denser a read than the old JoJ stuff, but that's not necessarily bad.

Good stuff, basically. Excited to see what else the Piltover stories have for us.

10 Comments

Whyte Lyon12/2/2016, 8:00:47 AM2 votes

It's a bit denser a read than the old JoJ stuff, but that's not necessarily bad.

I was gonna say, what's so short about the "Progress Day" story?

Also lighter tone stories are great for animation (movies/ TV) because then the audience are of the ages 8+, unless you're 26 and still watching Pokemon. But when the content is of a video game variety the intended audience goes up to 13+ generally. If your smart, you cater to that audience because "mature-er" content is the best way to gain their attention. I mean no one says LOTR needed to be lighter in tone.

HalfTangible12/3/2016, 1:14:08 AM2 votes

Something I loved about this story was the manner in which it was revealed to us that Tamara was a spy for Noxus.

The way the story is framed, we know that she caused a near-fatal accident on purpose. And it's implied that she did so to stay with her friend and keep him safe in Zaun, which turns out to be a red herring. Then Tamara goes through a tearful act that's obviously fake to us, but only because we can see into her head. Caitlyn doesn't buy it any more than we do, which is a good way to communicate how smart she is; she's as disbelieving of Tamara's act as someone who is reading the spy's mind.

Her capture and removal from Piltover is shown in such a way as to make both Caitlyn and Tamara look clever, which isn't easy to do when one of your characters is supposed to be outsmarting the other at every turn.

Then at the end, one more curveball that shows Caitlyn (possibly) missed another spy, setting up future tales in Piltover. It's brilliant.

I think League's lore is really hitting its stride now. Can't wait to see more.

Tattersall12/2/2016, 12:10:32 PM1 votes

There's a lot of focus on the darker sides of each region.

The great thing is that they're also moving Noxus away from the stereotype of "bad guy place," and making it more realistic.

Chromatic Eagle12/2/2016, 5:29:46 PM1 votes

If I have any complaints, I guess it would be that there's a lot of "jargon", words that don't really exist but are implied slang terms in the setting, and I had some trouble understanding a few of them, although most are easy enough with context clues.

Oh thank god, I thought I was the only one who thought that. Made me feel dumb.