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Shadow and Fortune Opinions So Far

TheBaconSmuggler·10/29/2015, 7:27:03 PM·1 votes·806 views

To begin, I was ecstatic to learn more about the Shadow Isles, The Harrowing and The Black Mist ever since last years tease that the harrowing was slowly but surely overcoming all of the coast defenses. I became even more excited during the excellently done Bilgewater event in the summer, which not only looked into the adventures of certain champions, but also dug deeper into the wonderful(ly dark and grim and piratey) culture of Bilgewater. When MF wiped out Gangplank from the leadership position, I immediately became excited for the Next Harrowing. Afterall, Gangplank's and MF's forces barely held back the Black Mist last year, what was going to happen this year?

When Shadow and Fortune Part 1 came out I was thoroughly thrilled by the level of detail and the unique personalities of the champions portrayed in the story. I was disappointed that there were less illustrations and no eerie music but other than that, the story was fucking fantastic, it built the suspense up greatly, it made me feel sorrow for Piet, who I barely knew for more than 5 paragraphs, it even teased the new champ Illaoi (which I suspect Riot is planning to reveal very soon, possible near the end of the story). But then part 2 and part 3 came and I don't know, I'm sorry but in my opinion they didn't come close to the level of writing as part 1 did.

Honestly it felt really rushed as if they author was seriously excited to be writing about the Harrowing and wrote a great intro but had to quickly rush the rest to meet deadlines in order to get the final few parts out in time for Saturday. Perhaps I'm just being a dick or a dumbass but I don't understand why Miss Fortune, a captivating leader, and expert strategist would decide to not come up with a good plan to combat the harrowing other than to face it head on alone (she didn't even plan to have her soldiers with her). I don't get why a city like Bilgewater wouldn't have more people evacuating instead of just hiding indoors since the Harrowing comes around the same time every year (although according to a blog post earlier last week the Harrowing now comes whenever, I'm still confused by that).

Also the writing when MF encounters Thresh is a little iffy. Sure she feels fear but I kinda expected her to react a little differently than to tell Lucian 'he's all yours' in a casual tone of voice and look away. Sure the explanation could be that Hecarim and his army distracted her but they arrived After she turned away from Lucian.

Anyway I liked the new character lores and part 1 of the event lore but the other bits, not so much.

What do you guys think? and sorry if I offended anyone.

2 Comments

LordHippoman10/29/2015, 7:35:33 PM2 votes

Well, the reason it's so bad this year is that Bilgewater is still in chaos from the events of Burning Tides. Their de facto leader is dead, as far as they know, so the whole city is already in turmoil, the Harrowing was probably sort of on the backburner. And like was mentioned in the Harrowing Timeline released last year, Gangplank and Miss Fortune used to ride out together with a fleet to meet the Mist head on and fight them there. Without Gangplank, there's way less firepower, and the undead kinda caught them off guard this year.

I kinda took MF going out to fight the Harrowing (Alone, originally, before Rafen and her crew stopped her) as basically just her trying to make a statement. She's trying to prove they don't need Gangplank, she can protect Bilgewater without him. She knows it's stupid (The Chapter is called "Something Stupid), but she still thinks she's got a lot to prove. It also sounds like she'd never had the misfortune (heh) to run into Thresh or Hecarim before, so she's probably just used to the lesser undead, not these champions.

Part 1 was my favorite as well, though. I have really enjoyed 2 and 3, but the character building in 1 was just great. I still think Olaf's parts continue to be the highlights of every part of the story.