Late to the Awaken party...

So, I know the Awaken hype has long ago died down, but I suppose I am simply slow and finally decided to write a short piece.

Whoever wrote the story for Riven in Awaken, you are wonderful. The depth of that sequence is amazing and I’ve seen no one at all in the community who understands it. But I hear you.

I adore the story of Riven. I will never be able to play her - I barely have the hand-eye coordination to play my second-favorite champion, Diana. But I adore the story. It’s compelling and gut-wrenching and ends with even the promise of beauty and - as her first skin is named - redemption.

Now Riven is a Noxian, and Noxus worships strength. Riven is a soldier who was thrown aside by Noxus in a vain and ill-fated war. They would have killed her for no gain, and she escaped. And now she stands in an arena watched by the ones who failed and would have killed her, and they bind her to have her killed for the crime of not dying at their whim. Riven is a Noxian who was betrayed - her strength was not respected.

So when Riven looks straight at Draven, the brother of Darius - strength incarnate - she stands before the one who betrayed her and now wishes her to die for sport - for a game. And so she drops her opponents with bare hands and displays her chain in no simple taunt. It might as well be thunder: “You call this chain strength? I am no weaker than you, but you continue to sit atop your thrones when you try to kill me. You chain me because you will not admit that you betrayed me.” Her simple chain drop is only little short of a revolution.

That chain drop was not a taunt, it was an accusation - and making it with her own body after throwing down her would-be executioners only made it more powerful. Draven displays anger - because he knows as well as she does that if he kills her now he proves her right. And she knows it too, which is why at 1:33 when she heard the blade coming she squares her shoulders. She prepares for the hit - because she is waiting for Draven to throw his axe and treat her accusation with another betrayal. She expects the Noxian leadership to finish the job they failed at in Ionia.

This is also why she is confused - when she looks up and we get that beautiful shot of her face with the broken chain in the background. Credit to the animators there, her eyes ask a question as clearly as any real person’s could have. “Was my cry heard? Why did he cut my chain?”

And then her answer comes - no, it is because Draven has taken her accusation as a challenge - a literal trial by combat. And so the story ends with a collision of titans, the heart and soul of Noxus in the balance.

This sequence alone keeps me re-watching the video over and over. I have a multitude of problems with the rest of Awaken, to the point I can barely watch certain parts of it because of how anemic the fighting looks. But over and over this powerful sequence keeps me returning.

So, whoever wrote the story: you are my favorite person at Riot. I discovered the community of this game and the depth of the systems underneath of it because I loved the story of Riven and wondered how you played her. Riven's story in Awaken compelling not because of its flashiness or slick animation but because of the colossal collision of moral ideas underneath. And every time I watch this clip I want to boot League up again.

Thank you, and please keep writing the lore, DQD