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[Spoilers!] Zed Issue Nr 4. Discussion

Lady Faceless·2/19/2020, 3:38:44 PM·1 votes·12,366 views
https://universe.leagueoflegends.com/en_GB/comic/zed/issue-4/0/

Hey everyone, welcome back to our monthly Zed Comic Discussion! If you are the first time here, feel free to check out my former threads 1 | 2 | 3. And this issue includes a lot of feels and story progress, so let’s discuss it!

Symmary https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/468671979269128194/679710638964342804/Zed.png?width=276&height=421

Zed is overlooking Nanthee while recalling an old lesson from Kusho - he had to sit 3 days on a spider web and meditate. Later, Kusho asked Zed how many insects he did help to escape from the web, which he answered with none because he had killed the spider on the very first day. The city is still full of bombs and Zed is aware of it, but instead of warning the people, he decides to go straight after Jhin with the intent to kill him. However, he gets spotted by Shen which prevents Zed from reaching Jhin. The set up exposition of the city throws both Zed and Shen into the water while Jhin heads with his ship to Piltover. Zed is given the option to either continue chasing Jhin or save Shen and he chooses the latter. After Zed brings Shen to the shore, Shen repays the favor with instantly attacking Zed. Conflicted with his own feelings, Zed is no match for Shen. He recalls the first time he had to fight Shen. Before Kusho took Zed under his wing, he only was a servant boy in the kitchen which trained alone after his work. Kusho said he should fight Shen, which is a defeat in an instant. However, Zed refuses to give up in the hope if he somehow manages to show his worth, he maybe will be picked up as a student. Shen, knowing his father, lets Zed win a fight and allows him to become a student of his father. In the present, Shen blames Zed for that happen with the city. Jhin demands an audience if Zed wouldn’t have walk so blindly in Jhin’s trap, all these lives could have been saved. Zed, according to Shen, never understood his father’s lessons and his impatience always have been his biggest flaw. Also, Shen spotted that Zed’s shadow clones are shaped by his anger and guilt, taking the form of Jhin and Kusho. Shen beats Zed into unconsciousness, unable to kill his former brother and best friend. After it, Shen gives the Kinkou Order the command to chain Zed and burn all his shadow magic from his body and let him rot in a cell. In a not so far distance Kayn and a few more Yánléi observe the whole event but Kayn refuses to help Zed and the comic ends with Kayn’s word “Looks like I’m the Master of Shadows now.”.

Characters

~~ Zed~~ https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/468671979269128194/679710860012552202/Zed2.png

The story about the spiderweb and Zed showed us exactly how he works and reveals also his biggest flaw. While a lot of people hate spiders and think these are predators for other insects, they are also important for their nature since they keep harmful insects like mosquitos and flies in check. Zed, however, doesn’t understand it (or chose to not care) and simply kills the spider. This little story reflects Zed perfectly - he takes action and refuses to let innocents get harmed, but refuses to see past his own beliefs which bring their own consequence with it. Zed doesn’t take the time to think about if it is the right action or not, he chose to play as judge and executioner at the same time. Also, Zed is ready to sacrifice all the people in the town for the chance to catch Jhin but the moment he has to choose between Jhin or Shen, he saves Shen. Even after all this time, he still deeply cares about Shen. Or maybe it is also his guilt that forces him to do things to repay him for all the pain he causes. Overall, Zed is a highly emotionally driven person as Shen noticed it. The fac his shadow clones in this fight are shaped by his own fear (Jhin) and guilt (Kusho) says a lot about how Zed allows his emotion to get the better of him. To be fair, his shadow only appears as these both in that specific fight and not in any given fight sequence because he’s fighting Shen which is connected with a lot of emotions for Zed. But it is not like Zed doesn’t know this, he even admits it himself “I try to open my eyes but I only see the past”. Overall, this issue actually boils down his character in a pretty clear way - a broken man, which let his own emotion rule over him and is unable to move forward from his past mistakes.

~~ Shen~~ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/468671979269128194/679711014396231686/Zed3.png

I talked about how Zed is an emotionally driven person and Shen is no different this issue. While he blames for Zed for being the audience to Jhin’s performance, he refuses to allow Zed to take his action, letting Jhin getting away and sailing to Piltover, where he will create more chaos. And while he has a point - there could have been other ways which didn’t have to sacrifice so many people for just the chance to catch Jhin - Shen did little to stop it either or save the people in the town. In their fight, Shen refuses to end it once for all and instead only imprison Zed. With this action we actually can see Shen’s flaw - where Zed is too quick to take action, Shen is too indecisive to do so. Both are polar opposites but are so similar at the same time. Both need each other to balance each other out.

~~ Jhin~~ https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/468671979269128194/679711127902355590/Zed4.png

Jhin clearly has the time of his life. He is totally doing his performance and he enjoys every single moment. Also, he clearly would have loved to watch the fight between both Shen and Zed. Right now he is heading to Piltover, where we can assume he is going to set up the events of Awaken.

~~ Kayn~~ https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/468671979269128194/679711416483053618/Zed5.png

Kayn observed how his own master almost got beaten to death and decides to do nothing. While I see a lot of people on my Twitter timeline hating him, we don’t have to forget that he seems only to be with two more Yánléi while Shen is surrounded by Kinkou Warriors. So you could argue that going for a rescue could have been really foolish and make things even worse. However, Kayn was raised with the mentally “let the weak die” and he is highly narcissistic and he finally sees a way to state his ambition by becoming the Master of Shadows himself. And it doesn’t help that his narcissism is probably also fed by Shadow Magic and Rhaast influence as well.

~~ Akali~~ https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/468671979269128194/679711553171357803/Zed6.png

She is currently highly pissed and so about to follow Jhin into Piltover to make him pay.

The Comic and Jhin’s Color Stoy “The Man with the Steel Cane

While Odin already warned us that Jhin’s color story would play completely different in the comic, it seems that the complete story not canon anymore. In the story, Jhin didn’t blow up the whole tower but only used his victims and his lotus traps before he vanished with his ship in the direction of Zaun. The comic painted us a completely different picture.

The Bow, and the Kunai

Last week, the got the excellent short story The Bow, and the Kunai by Joey Yu. The story plays shorty after Zed’s betray on the Kinkou Order and gives us more insight about Akali and a new character named Faey. While the story itself is not connected to the comic, it gives a fantastic insight into the Kinkou Order structure, the effect of the war on Ionia and how much Zed action affected everyone in the Kinkou Order.

~~That the art of comic can tell us ~~

In the last discussion thread, Odin mentioned that the comic has some visual easter eggs hidden. So, I actually wrote a thread about that topic and if someone is interested in it, you can read it here.

Piecing the timeline together

So lets us talk about the given timeline in the Zed comic. Because then I was rereading the former issues I notice that some given information shaped an actually interesting picture.

Shen was engaged for 9 years with Yevnai. I’m not lying or exaggerating it. The first flashback is set 19 years from the present, where Shen and Zed talk about Shen’s engagement to Yevnai.

Well, according to Yevnai her engagement was called off when Zed killed Master Kusho and Shen was forced to become the Eye of the Twilight. We know when this happened as well, 10 years from the current present. Which means they were engaged for 9 years. Which makes me wonder - do Ionian engagement always take that long? Because nine years is quite an eternity for a young couple in love. And we know that Kusho had the interest to find a good match for Shen before he possibly takes the title of the Eye of Twilight. So why in the hell they didn’t marry in that time frame? Is there are more going about that arrangement when we know…?

There is another interesting thought I would like to present as well. Zed picked up Kayn during the battle of Epool River, which happened after the Battle of Placidium (10 years from the current present). The Ionian War ended 7 years ago. So the war was still going on for around 3 more years. During that time, Zed didn’t only have his Order to organize and teach but also a war to win. Of course, it could be possible that Zed picked up Kayn, sent him to a temple to teach him and the boy didn’t was actually part of the war after Epool Battle. But seeing how nomadic his Order seems to be, it makes me think that Kayn was pretty much around during the war as well. Not necessary as a fighter. Children are an excellent messenger. And now I can’t get the image out of my head, Zed discussing war strategy while a half-hour later a 10-year-old Kayn annoys Zed because he wants his attention.

So why did Zed really pick Kayn up?

I wanted to discuss the reason because of the comic paints a completely different light than the bios we have.

We know how Kayn came to the Yánléi. After the lost Battle of Placidium, Noxus sent children into the war and massacred Ionians and their own children soldiers on the Epool River alike. It was about sending a message - Noxus would show no mercy. Theoretically, both Kayn’s and Zed’s lore says pretty clearly Zed saw Kayn as a weapon he could use for his own goals.

A flickering glint of steel caught his eye. A child of no more than ten lay in the mud, leveling his broken sickle at the master assassin, bloody knuckles straining white. The boy’s eyes harbored a pain that belied his age, yet still burned with all the fury of a hardened warrior. This tenacity was not something that could be taught. Zed saw in this child, this abandoned Noxian survivor, a weapon that could be turned against those who had sent him here to die. The assassin held out his hand and welcomed Kayn into the Order of Shadow.

Kayn Bio

And

Zed took advantage of the ongoing war with Noxus, and the suffering it brought to the Ionian people. In the wake of a massacre near the Epool River, he came upon Kayn, a Noxian child soldier wielding nothing but a farmer’s sickle. Zed could see the boy was a weapon waiting to be sharpened, and took him as his personal student. In this young acolyte, he saw a purity of purpose to match his own. In Kayn, Zed could see the future of the Order of Shadow.

Zed Bio

Now, of course, I could say the canon says so but the comic is ALSO canon which shows a completely different side of Zed. Zed, which cares too much about the people around him. Zed, which comforted a girl during the Siege of Thanz. Zed, which was named Usan because his compassion was his greatest strength and his biggest weakness. The canon tells me that he saw a weapon in Kayn. But I think Zed picked up Kayn because I felt pity with the boy. And now the same boy repays that mercy with letting his master fall into the hands of enemies because his ambition got over his head.

The upcoming Issue

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/468671979269128194/679731791451783288/Zed7.png?width=275&height=421

(Will be released on the 18th March)

Questions

Shadow Magic World-Building

  1. Is Yánléi a finite resource? I mean, they use to digest and inject it into their body, if it is finite it has to run out one day.
  2. What would happen if cut off someone’s arm, where are their Shadow Tattoos are located? Would the person lose his power?
  3. How common are tattoos? Because right now we only know that Kayn has some on his right forearm and his suppose to be the second-best shadow magic user.
  4. Does the use of Yánléi bring any side effects? I could either imagine these would be either mental (good-bye normal sleep, hello nightmares) and/or physical (pain, maybe overall heavy uncomfortable feeling, maybe feeling of disconnection of the said part of the body).
  5. You can burn out Shadow Magic. How? I want every single detail.

Timeline related / Kinkou questions

  1. Why are Shen and Yevnai were engaged for 9 years? Is there more than we can assume?
  2. When did Zed leave the Kinkou Order? Because they caught Jhin 16 years ago and I need want to know how long Zed stayed with Kinkou before he decided he has to take matters in his own hand.
  3. Speaking off Zed after he left his Order - how was his relationship with Shen after it and before he killed Kusho? Did they stop talking with each other from one day to another? Did they write letters to each other?
  4. How did Kennen and Mayym feel about Zed’s act? Since Mayym comment “One should not rely on kinship when it comes to succession.” in TBatK, which makes me think she knew about Kusho’s plan for Zed as Eye of Twilight and approved it.
  5. Are the positions of the Eye of Twilight and Fist of Shadow are restricted to a certain gender? Because I noticed that Kusho only had Shen and Zed as his student (both male), and Mayym took Faey under her wing (female). Or it just coincidence?

36 Comments

RiotWAAARGHbobo2/23/2020, 9:27:37 PM8 votes

The Comic and Jhin’s Color Stoy “The Man with the Steel Cane

While Odin already warned us that Jhin’s color story would play completely different in the comic, it seems that the complete story not canon anymore. In the story, Jhin didn’t blow up the whole tower but only used his victims and his lotus traps before he vanished with his ship in the direction of Zaun. The comic painted us a completely different picture.

Ummm... Lol, No. Not If you look at where that story ends. Issue 4 takes place after "The Man With the Steel Cane."
Funnily enough, the original draft of that story had Zed in the town-- upset that Shen wouldn't work with him.cBut that little scene was cut out even before I gave it to the editors because I was already at twice the word-count of what I was supposed to turn in. (And we were on a tight deadline because the previous version of the color text couldn't pass our rating's limits)

Issue 3 contains the events "The Man with the Steel Cane" but is a different telling of that story but both are still canon. Comics favor action and overt exaggerated emotions rather than restraint and tension... but the core "story beats" of both are the same-- and it's those beats that define canon-- not the individual execution.

Executions have to change, based on different authors styles and medium. So for instance if Anthony was to write novelcabout Akali coming to terms with her father's death, and it contained this scene it would have to be somewhat differentcbecause he is a different writer, and his story would have a different perspective and theme. (And every scene should serve that story's themes).

Similarly If I was to write an animation script for this exact same scene I would have to change it yet again. If we were to force the scene to always be the exact same execution, we would:cseverely limit the artists, limiting the quality of each of those executions, and when jumping mediums would sometimes simply not work at all.

Funnily enough I taught screenwriting for a couple years, and an exercise that would inevitably come up was having the class adapt something from a prose story. (Usually, because one of the producing students had the rights to some novel) . There was often the mistaken Idea, that the scene could just be cut & pasted-- but a table-read of it immediately showed that as folly. Dialog had to change, setting might need to change, perspective and often large parts to be added or cut-.

Canon is the core events, and they should always the same, But the core events are pretty simple:

  1. Zed goes looking Shen, knowing his former friend wants to kill him.
  2. Zed asks Shen for help.
  3. Shen agrees to go after Jhin, but refuses to work with Zed.
  4. Shen warns Zed the next time he sees him, he will kill Zed.

But the execution, the lens of how we see those core events, can to change radically.

Piecing the timeline together

I think several other people here have corrected the timeline you presented.
But yeah, this was arranged marriage and they tend to have quite long engagements (Historically, sometimes from birth to late teens or even longer!)

So why did Zed really pick Kayn up?

I wanted to discuss the reason because of the comic paints a completely different light than the bios we have.

We know how Kayn came to the Yánléi. After the lost Battle of Placidium, Noxus sent children into the war and massacred Ionians and their own children soldiers on the Epool River alike. It was about sending a message - Noxus would show no mercy. Theoretically, both Kayn’s and Zed’s lore says pretty clearly Zed saw Kayn as a weapon he could use for his own goals.

And

Now, of course, I could say the canon says so but the comic is ALSO canon which shows a completely different side of Zed. Zed, which cares too much about the people around him. Zed, which comforted a girl during the Siege of Thanz. Zed, which was named Usan because his compassion was his greatest strength and his biggest weakness. The canon tells me that he saw a weapon in Kayn. But I think Zed picked up Kayn because I felt pity with the boy. And now the same boy repays that mercy with letting his master fall into the hands of enemies because his ambition got over his head.

Kayn and Zed's relationship will be further explored in the comic, but yes you're correct, this highlights elements of their relationship somewhat differently than the bio. I actually helped out the narrative designer on Kayn and exploring this relationship was always intended. And yeah, I certainly want to show that Zed and Kayn's relationship is deeper and more complex than "This kid might be useful to me."

Questions

Shadow Magic World-Building

  1. Is Yánléi a finite resource? I mean, they use to digest and inject it into their body, if it is finite it has to run out one day.

Sadly, I had a scene which further explained this but had to be cut. (20pages per issue is an study in cramming and compressing content) The scene also featured the more villainous side of Zed's order-- committing a massacre against some nice monks and Vastaya.

The ichor is generated by some of the Quinlons. Quinlon's are the magical filters and damns scattered around Ionia that attempt to contain the amount of magic released into the region, or limit it to positive and helpful magic. The Ichor is a byproduct of filtering out the "negative magic." So there is a limited supply of it, but that supply is very very slowly regenerated. The size of Zed's order is however limited by the supply of the Ichor.

Consumed Yanlei's is intense, but limited and short term. Tattoo's allow a much longer use with greater control, but has a less powerful effect.
(I also always assumed the tattoo's leech away must be painfully re-applied at least annually)

  1. What would happen if cut off someone’s arm, where are their Shadow Tattoos are located? Would the person lose his power?

yep.

  1. How common are tattoos? Because right now we only know that Kayn has some on his right forearm and his suppose to be the second-best shadow magic user.

The amount can vary, So one warrior might only have a single teardrop tattoo on his cheek, or a murdered parents name tattoo'd over her heart, while another person might have their entire torso tattoo'd.

But the size of the tattoo is only one variable describing a person's strength with the technique.
The person also needs to be able to harness the power they have. So they may limit the scale of the tattoo for that reason. They also might not emotionally resonate with magic very well.

So for instance, a character like Braum, the magical ichor would flee from his skin. He's too healthy, too happy, too well-adjusted.
It would leech from his body probably within a few seconds or hours.

Similarly a character like Tryndamere would lack the emotional control to the harness the magic of the ichor. So giving him more than a tiny tattoo would have rapidly diminishing results.

Kayn and Zed are special because they can resonate with magic AND can control large amounts of it.

  1. Does the use of Yánléi bring any side effects? I could either imagine these would be either mental (good-bye normal sleep, hello nightmares) and/or physical (pain, maybe overall heavy uncomfortable feeling, maybe feeling of disconnection of the said part of the body).

It's probably not good for your mind, your soul, and your body. I mean-- the Yanlei all kinda have unhealthy looking skin.

  1. You can burn out Shadow Magic. How? I want every single detail.

Maaaa'ggg'iiiicc..... relates to the above. But lore for another time. In short a Mage or Quinlon could probably speed up the process of ridding the body of the ichor.

Timeline related / Kinkou questions

  1. Why are Shen and Yevnai were engaged for 9 years? Is there more than we can assume?
  2. When did Zed leave the Kinkou Order? Because they caught Jhin 16 years ago and I need want to know how long Zed stayed with Kinkou before he decided he has to take matters in his own hand.
  3. Speaking off Zed after he left his Order - how was his relationship with Shen after it and before he killed Kusho? Did they stop talking with each other from one day to another? Did they write letters to each other?
  4. How did Kennen and Mayym feel about Zed’s act? Since Mayym comment “One should not rely on kinship when it comes to succession.” in TBatK, which makes me think she knew about Kusho’s plan for Zed as Eye of Twilight and approved it.
  5. Are the positions of the Eye of Twilight and Fist of Shadow are restricted to a certain gender? Because I noticed that Kusho only had Shen and Zed as his student (both male), and Mayym took Faey under her wing (female). Or it just coincidence?

So these are better questions for Editors (or other writers)

I think some of the timeline stuff was figured out by other people-- here.

Cheers!

WAAARGHbobo

Raven Redeemed2/19/2020, 9:41:00 PM6 votes

I liked this issue very much. I never been a big fan of Shen, but he was pretty awesome this comic (besides trying to attack Zed in his pursuit of Jhin). Did you notice his smile, on ground, after letting Zed beat him down; precious. I also like how he wasn't swayed by his own life being saved and immediately attacked Zed.

Annoyingly Jhin is once again saved by coincidence (Zed giving up his attack to save Shen) instead of stratagem.

Shen seemed really convinced that Jhin would not have attacked if Zed was not there, but I really wonder about that. His previous attacks were directed against targets that would torture Zed (the girl he saved in the war, and his own students), but this attack was on a random town so I wonder if Zed was correct in that this was an attack Jhin was contracted for.

Also, it's interesting that Zed's clones personify his negative emotions. In the game, cinematics, and LoR we see his clones always take Zed's form. I wonder this is foreshadowing (heh) that Zed will take an action that he can't reconcile with. At the moment he doesn't seem to have much reason to hate or fear himself.

Looks like Kayn and Zed might be in for some conflict when Zed returns to lead the order. Also, Akali might get some action in being the only one going after Jhin.

4 Step Cadence2/19/2020, 6:15:16 PM5 votes

I... Don't think this comic is retconning anything and I think both the traditional lore and the comic are canon. The comic has to be different from the text source material, cause the text source material is, for lack of a better term, boring. Jhin's color story doesn't translate well to a comic because its essentially all dialog and no action. The comic is simply an improvement on it.

And how do we know Jhin didn't blow up the entire town? His color story ends with him walking to the boat, exactly where issue 4 begins. Issue 4 is basically the continuation of his color story. Zed spots him, Jhin runs, Shen intervenes, town goes boom and Jhin sails off to perform in Zaun. Its just, as I said, an improvement on the source material, but its overall the same.

Ryuhardt2/19/2020, 4:10:55 PM4 votes

I liked the issue, the only "problem", for the lack of a better word, that I have is that both Shen and Zed are depicted with their masks on the issue covers, but never wear them in the actual issue aside from the first. That's really minor though so I don't mind. I noticed that on the cover of issue 5, the spirit blade has a crack on it. Does that mean something? Can the spirit blade actually be broken?

Kyzio2/19/2020, 6:22:01 PM3 votes

I really dislike the idea that Kayn is so cold-hearted towards the man that raised him and want to think you're right. He's simply out-numbered and it would be stupid to rush in; after all, if he didn't care he wouldn't have stalked Zed who was stalking Shen for all of that time._ Hopefully _he's going to be the rescuer in this situation.

notkai2/19/2020, 4:13:41 PM3 votes

Re: arranged engagement lasting forever

My thought with arranged marriages is that they can happen when the two individuals to be married are quite young. Therefore, the "engagement" extends until they reach adulthood and proper marrying age (which I assume is measured by certain degrees of maturity, financial independence, job security, what have you). A question I would ask to contextualize this information is "how old were Shen and Yevnai when the arrangement was made?". I've been assuming that Zed and Shen (and by default, Yevnai) are somewhere in their mid-thirties. So if the engagement was arranged nineteen years ago, it would have been initiated when Shen and Yevnai were young teenagers. Which lines up, since Shen tells Zed about the marriage while they're hunting for Jhin, which took place in their teens.

Jeddy0172/19/2020, 4:46:45 PM3 votes

Urgod, I'm really liking how this whole series just expands Zed's personality & portrayal beyond who he is in game. I understand that the Zed in game (honestly any champ) is based on a moment in his life & doesn't fully represent all the characters traits & personality. In game Zed could be from a few years after comic Zed. It could be his portrayal in a certain moment or that's how he's normally is.

Regardless, it's great to see an iconic character portrayed in a different way while make sense.

I wanna know what they'll do with Zed next now that he's in prison.

kda akali2/19/2020, 5:06:41 PM3 votes

excited to see what Akali does in Piltover or if she even makes it there

Camille Ferrøs2/21/2020, 7:40:36 PM2 votes

Even tho they explained why they change parts of the canon story to capture and fit comic standards but Jhin going haha I blew up the entire fucking town... I just hope this isn't the case for Arcane.

Jaspers2/19/2020, 4:27:00 PM1 votes

Enjoyed this a lot more than most of the series so far. Well portrayed strong characterisation, nice flow, good revelations. Is the next the last?

Kashtara2/24/2020, 6:45:51 PM1 votes

Speaking of tattoos, today I saw the ones on Zed's arm in Issue 1. They are later covered by bandages. But then, by the point Zed talks to Shen in Issue 3, they are gone. I wonder if that has to do with what WAAARGHbobo has recently mentioned on this thread about the tattoos having to be re-applied or if they forgot about them.

GodSupport Katie3/1/2020, 8:06:13 PM1 votes

So i think that its safe to say that zed is on par with shen. He doesn't attempt to fight back at all trying to convince him to help him.