"I am Yrael. I am the hammers."

ModEchoing·1/16/2019, 9:19:42 PM·26 votes·17,166 views

Just kidding, he's dead on the next page.

I wasn't expecting anyone to survive, and the comic as a whole is pretty great, but what's the point of hyping up a martial culture of badasses if you're going to kill the guy immediately before he gets to make a single swing of his hammers?

If you're trying to sell the opposition as terrifying, that's the wrong way to do it. Jobbing only works if the jobber in question is known to be skilled. Taking out a nobody doesn't mean anything to the strength of the attacker. If it's total comic size that's the problem, that seems like you'd be better served finding somewhere else to cut instead of sacrificing a good way of actually showing the strength of the combatants in question.

Just something that's bothering me about an otherwise pretty decent comic, is all.

31 Comments

RyzeTheSmurfMage1/16/2019, 10:54:40 PM22 votes

Ashe ; I am the daughter of Grena. I am Ashe. I am the bow. I am.... THE SENATE http://imgur.com/a/lCRYxMX

6FlagsFunnelCake1/16/2019, 10:10:26 PM8 votes

Tbf, I think Yrael actually decimated a lot of the ambushers. After all, the only ones left were Maalcrom and his two associates, it seemed as if the rest of them were frozen to death by the ice powers of his hammers and the fight with Grena

RyzeTheSmurfMage1/16/2019, 10:51:07 PM7 votes

I am the hammers! proceeds to get slashed by Maalcrom's Dark Ice magic I am the dead!

Dan Squared1/17/2019, 1:46:39 PM4 votes

Yrael was never important to the story. Ashe and Grena were. Comics have the issue where the story your telling has to be able to fit in the allotted pages. That means sacrificing some things, so instead of a seasoned warrior being shown to put up a fight against what is supposedly a highly skilled frostguard priest, he gets stomped.

Then the important character, Grena, gets at least a few panels of action before likewise being defeated. Grena being defeated when we know she is still highly skilled and respected then gives Maalcrom the hype he needs to a threat.

Nevrankroaton1/17/2019, 8:09:26 AM3 votes

I... don't agree with this take.

The idea is to make the opposition threatening, he is slaying EVERYONE in his ways. EVERYONE. It is the number of people taken, the idea of incoming doom, the "easiness" of their death even.

You present him and you don't know how strong he is, but you see during the comic that he never falter, he never go back, he kill everyone in his path.

That is how you make a buble pop, how you introduct a narrative to a new dynamic. It isn't about Ashe's internal problem with her mother apparent madness, it isn't about the quest when he is here, it is about a new doom. Something that just destroyed among Freljord best warrior. I think it is fair, I think it show that people that are spoken as incredible warrior are kind of "no match" against him.

It prove how terrifying Lissandra army truly is.

XIII Vanitas1/17/2019, 4:56:50 PM3 votes

"I am Yrael, I am the hammers...

AND THIS IS JACKASS!" gets one-shot

Darrosh Jewfist1/17/2019, 5:27:20 AM2 votes

Something that has bothered me a long time about the League canon because outside of the champions, there's no developed characters -- almost all of them die or are stupidly incompetent. The overwhelmingly vast majority of short stories has their short secondary characters die or have people dying. The secondary characters that do live are often not very remarkable (Rafen from Miss Fortune's crew during the Bilgewater event and Fiora's brother from her color story come to mind.)

Yreal was a character, following the wise old warrior trope with a grizzly like demeanor, written to die. I don't know how they could have hyped up Yreal's martial prowlness in the set-up of the story without making it seem stupid that Yreal, a guy who cut down 10+ dudes in the Battle of Whatever-rock, gets taken out by a Draklorn, who loses to Ashe because he opted to strangle her instead of dark magic-ing it up.

The comic could have tried to angle his defeat more in the fact that he was old/aged and far from his youth? They could show a flashback right before Yreal's death when Ashe was like 4 or something and remarking how that was the first death she remembered, taken by Yreal's hand when she off collecting arrows off the battlefield or something and Yreal beats up 2-3 dudes without a sweat then offer Ashe some jerky. So Ashe's bright and bloody memory of that day is contrasted with the cold reality of Yreal dead on the floor like nothing.

Elf04911/17/2019, 1:44:41 AM2 votes

There can be only one. [poppy-wink] Seriously though, OP is spot on.

Moonscourge1/17/2019, 8:16:48 AM1 votes

Bathos incarnate

MarcReady1/17/2019, 12:19:56 PM1 votes

Thanks for the spoiler

The Iceborn1/16/2019, 10:39:13 PM1 votes

Yrael fulfilled his duty his essential position is first an Oathsworn before a warrior and he showed what oathsworn do for the tribe.. Now he is no longer needed

Thefrostyviking1/17/2019, 4:27:45 PM1 votes

I mean, he was old, his enemies were highly trained and the only reason Ashe could beat them basically boils down to the enemy leader being extremely soft hearted and unlucky at the same time.

I dont really like those plot armor points but oh well <.<

HungryAngry2SPP1/17/2019, 6:33:04 PM1 votes

THANKS FOR THE SPOILER11!!11

(What comic are you talking about? The Ashe one?)

BronzeDriver1/17/2019, 12:58:20 AM1 votes

I think Riot just used him too start the ' I am my name, i am the weapon i use' line that was used by Ashe and her mother. but yeah a panel or two of Yrael smashing fool would have been nice.