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Yasuo And The Disonence Of Lore

FlashNeko·4/26/2018, 2:14:41 PM·2 votes·2,328 views

So the newest lore for Yasuo and Riven has completed and I could rant about how it makes Riven way way WAY too passive, taking away a lot of her agency as a character, and the resolution of the murder plot is... underwhelming, there's another problem. That problem, which exists in both this and the Taliah lore, is how Yasuo seems a completely different character than how he is portrayed in both his backstory and his in-game dialogue.

Said backstory is that "he was accused of murder and then to prove he didn't murder that person he then proceeded to murder several of his former brothers and sisters in-arms before murdering his literal brother." Hell, in Taliah's story we see he's STILL doing that (with Taliah not apparently minding assisting in killing agents of the law). That alone makes his behavior where he's trying to be all peaceful and wise seem off. Given what we know of his character, it seems more believable that he'd be the first one leaping to stab Riven, not caring if some old farmer threw himself in the way of his vengeance.

I mean, this is not a person who seems to care about others or even life in general given a lot of his in-game dialogue is rather nihilistic.

(And as a related aside, I HIGHLY doubt the inherent goodness of anyone who sneeringly says stuff like, "Justice. That's a pretty word" or "Killing people is a bad habit... but I can't seem to quit.")

Yet in the lore we get a guy who talks about peacefulness and bearing guilt and who's "too cool" so we shouldn't question his lack of righteousness.

It just doesn't feel like the character being presented in these stories is the same one we see and hear in-game or the one presented in his bio.

Just my two cents on why this doesn't sit well with me.

4 Comments

Zero Shingetsu4/26/2018, 2:32:57 PM3 votes

Well, Yasuo never struck me as a murderous type. More... The type who's good at killing and kills for his land, who then ended up killing his former comrades because they came with intent to end his life over a crime he didn't commit. I always saw it as more of a... "I don't have a quarrel with you. But if you draw that sword, your life ends today."

That said, I agree that he feels a little disjointed with this current lore. And Riven... Riven is just being dragged along by events, oblivious to her own desires. I'd have loved to see them touch on an unwillingness to let go of the life she knew. Talk of clarity and redemption is wonderful, but if she'd clung to her old ways a little more, if it had taken more time and effort to change, I think it would've made her feel more like a person than a name. Because even if she's upset at Noxus, the methodology of Noxus is what she was raised on.

Neamean4/26/2018, 3:26:05 PM2 votes

Most of his kills were in self defense and when he was at Riven sentencing he wasn't there to kill anyone he was there to find the truth.

Strawberry Bird4/27/2018, 4:36:10 AM1 votes

My take on Yasuo is this:

He's in emergency mode and has been for some time. He has kinder, gentler, nobler qualities, but he can't let them show because he's constantly under attack. His only goal for years has been to survive long enough to find the person who killed Elder Souma. He's not thinking beyond that, because for him there is nothing beyond that. He's going to be executed for one reason or another, and all he wants is to make sure he doesn't die a murderer. So all the lives he's taken, all the property he's damaged; heck, what's more for the tab?

As for lore dissonance with the voiceover, I have to agree. Yas's voiced lines sound.... tired. He sounds like he's just trying to hold himself together long enough to get the job done, and after that it doesn't matter. He's running on nothing but resolve, and the main problem this new story introduces is that he's just lost his reason to keep moving. He tracked down the assassin -- but there was no assassination, just a tragic accident. The Ionian official has all but pardoned him for the rest of it, so.... what's he supposed to do? He's been waiting and working for a big resolution, and there's not going to be one.

There needs to be a third part of the story to give Yasuo a new reason to go on. Otherwise the story doesn't work as his backstory, because the Yasuo in game is still on his way to something, and the Yasuo in the story is a broken, guilt-burdened mess.

Valaran Nara4/27/2018, 6:03:28 AM1 votes

I feel like that they had two roads to go with Riven: do they up her poster girl side, or do they play on the victim of war?

While Poster girl would be more fun in a way of showing how glorious she is, victim of war for Noxus is something different. Irelia may be a victim of war, but she's on a side who is actively fighting. Riven, on the other hand shows someone mentally crippled by it. She is strong. She can still fight, but she doesn't want to remember it because it's pain. It is trauma. Riven is not mentally sound. The original war had her making a clear choice like "Oh, I left cause that guy was a total douche-nozzle. Fuck'em."

While that seems cool, it lessens the damage and severity of it by not letting her seem...changed. Before, it was just a disagreement, but now it's an event. An event that completely shifted who she is as a human being. While she may have seemed to be pulled along, she chose it. The conflict she was facing was less "Her vs Ionian village/judge/hatred," but more of "Her vs trauma/PTSD". She was only passive in the story because if she acted out too much, there would be no resolution. That would be her acting too overly stubborn to commit to doing the one thing she chose to do, "live with the Ionians."