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Poppy's new comic is by far the worst fantasy peice I've ever read.

Knalxz·12/2/2015, 6:37:52 PM·4 votes·1,921 views

Essentially the concept is Poppy is a great Hero and doesn't know it yet. That's actually something cool to work off of but the comic goes far out of it's way to insult the reader and every character in the universe, most importantly Poppy, since she's the focus of the comic...sort of.

I've made and read literally thousands of short stories over the years and this is just the worst I've read in a fantasy series.

Poppy goes into a village of many great Heros looking for the true wielder of his OP hammer and then a giant monster attacks. She sees this as the perfect opportunity to find the hammer's master and after a stalwart hero losing his weapon fighting the monster he is given Poppy's hammer. He then fails to even scratch the large mountainous monster and dies in the process. Poppy then causally takes the hammer back and destroys the monster leaving the village in search of the so called legend meant to wield the hammer.

The reason why this is so insulting to the characters and the reader is that it's so obvious that she's the hero she's looking for. Hell they even try the worst throw off ever by having her constantly refer to the hero as a male, in a universe where females seem to the the most powerful. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you're looking for a man there Poppy. It's insulting to the characters because not a single villager comments on her ability to destroy fiend that apparently was causing massive issues for this town of heros. She also doesn't even seem to think that in anyway she could be this hero.

You of a better way this comic could of gone?

Imagine this, instead of Poppy being oblivious to her great power, she is instead looking for someone greater to wield the Hammer because it is rumored to have a next level of power that she can't unlock after many attempts. Unknowingly to her she can unlock this power but after much practice.

That'd make far more sense then turning her into the most powerful idiot in fantasy. Modesty is thrown out of the window with this comic. She and the entire village are totally unaware of it.

Imagine how annoying it'd be if in Lord of The Rings instead of Fordo being tasked with destroying the The One Ring he is instead tasked with finding someone who can take the journey. Watch as he goes from major city to major city uncorrupted, giving this power to randoms who are killed by the raw power, than moving on to screw over more innocents.

That's basically what Poppy does here. She could of easily of killed the monster but got the Helmetless Bro killed because she's an idiot.

Is this really the kind of hero's Riot thinks people want? It's an obvious slap to the face. How does something like this get the green light? It's insulting to the reader, it's insulting to the characters and it's a terrible show of Riot's writers.

Now the art is great and hints to many things. Like how the monster is attacking because the native people are mining it's fellow monsters and that blue buff could one day become something so monstrous. But that goes on to make you wonder, why Baron Nashor was even a problem. I'm pretty sure that this literal mountain monster could fight Baron and win. If you look at the new baron's comparison size, this creature could just do a barrel role over Big Nashor and GG.

Art=Great Lore=Immersive Story=Abysmal

40 Comments

Zyorhist12/2/2015, 7:44:30 PM8 votes

Starting with the Gender concern. Granted that there are many female champions out there, they are the anti-norm. Soldiers, warrior, bandits and the like are primarily male. Riot has even gone so far as to emphasize this through lore such as Fiora's. So even though you get a random hero or two that are female, they would primarily be male.

Secondly I'd like to point out that she leaves through the opening in the walls, she doesn't go back and get people out of the cellar, she doesn't say bye to anyone. There is literally no one around to talk to her. No one witnessed her deed. No one to tell her that she is the hero. Then there's the fact that she has already stated (in her quotes) that he isn't the hero. Whether she is right or not she believes she isn't and therefore wouldn't believe anyone who told her she was. She wouldn't see it.

The other fact is that she believes the power she wields is from the hammer not her. She is looking for someone who can use the hammer's powers better than her. She doesn't believe that she could do these things without the hammer. She knows two things. 1) she will fight to protect those who need to be protected, and 2) she will continue to look for the hero for the hammer.

Like the comic or not, it drives home the point they were making. Even when it's blaringly obvious that she is the hammer's owner, she cant see it.

rand0mredneck12/2/2015, 7:09:28 PM3 votes

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/small-violin.gif

PROJECT Bear12/2/2015, 7:46:36 PM2 votes

the comic was pretty bad, but then again I doubt they hire professional storytellers (like, Rothfuss who is a bestseller fantasy author). I'm sure the story was written by a professional game designer, which is a different artistic medium altogether.

your idea sounds better already.

Ryugi Kazamaru12/3/2015, 2:32:22 AM2 votes

Poppy's new story is unique mainly because she doesn't see herself as the true hero of the hammer.

She's humble, she's sort of soft-spoken, she's a little awkward, and she doesn't truly believe in herself. She is not, by any means, your traditional hero on some traditional quest. She doesn't see herself as "the hero destined to shape Demacia" even though she does great things. Instead, she sees what she can do as nothing special, that anyone could do it if they could use the hammer effectively. She rationalizes her supposed greatness in any way that makes her seem less amazing than she truly is, because she refuses to believe she's anyone or anything special.

And honestly, in a world filled with powerful people, thinking of yourself as lesser when compared to them is pretty easy to do. So what if she beat up the mountain monster? Someone else could have done it too, like Garen or Jarvan, or some other hero. She's nothing special. She's just a yordle looking for the right person to wield the hammer. That's how she sees herself. And people in that kind of mindset constantly underestimate their abilities compared to everything else. It isn't unrealistic in the slightest.

Look at artists, in every sense of the word. Artists can create things that make the rest of us swoon with envy and interest, and yet, they only see the flaws, where they can improve, and fail to see it as anything amazing. They instead see their shortcomings, what the thing lacks, and not the beautiful colors and lines those of us outside might see. We, as people, constantly underestimate ourselves, we fall into depression, we believe that we can't do something, and that's simply the way things are to us.

Runeterra is FULL of heroic people who know they're badasses. They don't have to question it. They just are. They know how powerful and capable they are. Turning Poppy into another such character wouldn't have been unique or nearly as interesting, as you've suggested in your initial post. It would have just made her "the heroic yordle" rather than re-imagining her to be something more. Here, we have a dynamic and complex character with many different levels working together to create her.

She's filled with doubt at her own abilities. She doesn't think she's good enough. She's convinced that she's not anything special. Yet, when the chips are down, she'll fight, and fight hard to protect what she feels needs protecting. Despite her humble, dismissive nature, she's determined to find the right person to wield the hammer, a real hero. I don't think this slaps the reader in the face, and I don't think it insults them, or Poppy. What I think it does is challenge our concept of what a "hero" really is. Sometimes a hero isn't the biggest, strongest, baddest bastard around. Sometimes it's the quiet one, who walks softly, doesn't draw attention, and carries a big hammer.

Stars Shaper12/3/2015, 11:04:18 AM1 votes

It's probably a matter of standards. Poppy declares that ppl around demacia must be strong if they are able to fight those monsters but after seeing the most brave and strong of them fail she looses hopes about finding the hero there, she consider them weak because even she could defeat the monster.

Disneylord12/3/2015, 3:31:39 PM1 votes

its not fantasy it happened in real

Star Guardían12/3/2015, 5:33:41 PM1 votes

Who says that the blonde guy died? People have survived from worse.

Also Baron Nasor is waaaaay bigger in the lore than he is in game. The same goes for blue and red buff. The blue buff in game is probably as big as the monster in the comic.

ADepressedLeona12/2/2015, 6:43:48 PM1 votes

That's kinda the joke here. Poppy doesn't recognize herself as a hero, even when it's painfully obvious. As the old saying goes, we are our own worse critics. As far as females being the most powerful... I'm not so sure about that, yes there are powerful females in Runeterra, but there are male characters that are equally powerful

Hecarim Azir Bard Brand Mordekaiser Nocturne Kassadin Malzahar Aatrox MasterYi etc

Are all very powerful on multiple levels

V Khat12/10/2015, 8:46:13 AM1 votes

Poppy suffers from Anxiety Disorder. She seeks stability as her lore and voice suggest, has issues fitting in, and wants settlement, something concrete to base herself. The reason why she doesn't think she is the hero is because she lacks confidence, but she had trained for so long, so her skills in combat is part of her security and safety zone, but she lacks the confidence to ever think that.

Ralanr12/2/2015, 7:32:22 PM1 votes

The gender dynamic might be a cultural thing. Gender seemed to be a tough topic in Fiora's story. Demacia might be very patriarchal.

TurquoiseYoshi12/2/2015, 8:25:58 PM1 votes

Note: If Poppy refers to the hero as a "he", that's technically correct grammar for someone she doesn't know the gender of, in proper English. Also, she didn't kill the guy, the guy asked for a weapon. She literally did what he wanted.

While the story is pretty bad, compare it to the Ekko comic. Both are pretty bad, and Ekko had 5 more pages. I just think that Riot can't fit decent amounts of lore into a very short comic while still making the comic good.

Doctor Jarvis12/2/2015, 10:30:21 PM1 votes

I just think its funny that apparently the Hero will just "know" how to use that hammer. Like she thinks she can just huck it at a dude and he'll be like "Oh yeah, huge hammer. This is the sort of thing I've trained with for years" instead of "This looks nothing like a sword".