askriven-theexile

[askriven-theexile]

Happy eleventh birthday, Riven. You'll always have a place in my heart.

[askriven-theexile]

I'm not much of a fan of what they're doing with Riven in this event. A lot of the time her voice feels off - they're writing her less well-spoken than she tends to be - and her actual recruitment feels pretty forced in that written-off-a-surface-level-version-of-the-character way. She reminds me more of her Spirit Blossom AU self than the one in Seams and Scars or Sisterhood of War.

Riven had a home and loving adoptive family in Ionia for a not inconsiderable period of time - her father's still waiting for her with no idea if she'll ever return. The idea that she'd just go "Welp, I guess I can't get back to Ionia" rather than committing herself to doing so no matter what, and having her be reduced to tears over finding a home in the Sentinels just feels wrong, especially when one considers that she's literally in the company of people with a teleportation device that we know will get them to Ionia in due course.

Like ... why not just leverage that? Make it that she's working with them because she's not going to run from the responsibility of trying to save the world and the Sentinels promise they'll eventually head to Ionia where she can help relieve the place and her family with it? Isn't that simple enough to do?

I don't mind the jokes and all that, I just don't understand why the serious stuff feels like it isn't playing to the character and lore when opportunities to do so are right there.

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Some brushwork practice

I almost forget to add that if you like my drawings pls reblog it. It helps me a lot

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I’m not usually fond of doing much to disturb this blog, but I thought I might as well mention that I’m vaguely active over at https://sr-023.tumblr.com/ putting together the occasional WIP Valorant piece. It’s something I’m enjoying, but as has always been the case for me it’s more of a marathon than a sprint to get anything properly finished.

That’s only a side-blog so I thought it made sense to put that here in case anyone I follow who is more connected to Valorant stuff decides to look me up.

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Man, every time Riot release new lore content for Riven I’m always hit by this horrible sense of like ... this is very good but also full of things that make me go ??? because they don’t resonate with the version of the character I’m attached to or just seem weird.

Seriously though Seams and Scars is a nice story (with great art) and I’m sure someone coming at it without my old hangups would never even consider the things that bother me about it.

Burdens of the past amirite ...

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Seven years ago today ...

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Only a few days ago @xpirategirlx got in touch with me completely out of the blue and made the incredibly generous offer to produce some sort of Riven-centric piece for me - an icon, or so they said. I was only really expecting something along the lines of a headshot on a simple background to suit a tumblr icon, but it’s been really cool to watch inspiration take them and that base idea blossom into something as amazing as this. I’m completely and utterly blown away by the end product.

It’s been great talking with them these last couple of days and seeing some of their passion for art. I’d really recommend giving their blog a look-in and throwing a Follow and/or some Likes their way if you like what you see. I think someone who can produce a Kai’Sa as cute as this deserves a little more attention and love <3

Don’t worry little bird she would fly with you if her wings weren’t broken

@askriven-theexile

[askriven-theexile]

[FIC] a city divided

The Spirit of Noxus is dying. For Riven, this is not an abstract. For Katarina, this is not acceptable. Katarina/Riven, rated PG for violence. Commissioned by @askriven-theexile​ as a continuation of an AU scenario from this post.

The Spirit of Noxus, they call her, and at first Katarina is too young to understand. She thinks Riven is strong, she thinks Riven is everything she wants to be when she grows up. She asks Riven for the stories behind her scars and listens raptly to the tales of Noxus’ past, forgetting what she asked about. Riven has white hair and a scarred face. It’s not until Katarina turns thirty, and Riven still looks as she did when Katarina was six that Katarina understands Riven’s title is more than a courtesy. The Spirit of Noxus stands before her in the flesh. How can Katarina help but love her? 

Keep reading

[askriven-theexile]

“Disagree.  

Riven still represents the best of what Noxus is and could be. Currently she is being tempered and reforged by Ionia.” 

 - WAAARGHbobo on whether Riven should now be regarded an Ionian Champion.

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Huh. Apparently that Riven and Yasuo story has been essentially ready to ship for the last 18 months and they just haven’t had an opportunity to release it until now.

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Reading your old writing like:

I entered exile to escape Noxus and leave the city behind, but eventually I realised that I simply couldn’t. The Noxian Way, as I had known it, had defined my life and life without it seemed hollow. Pointless. My city had made me who I was and still felt like home to me even though I hadn’t walked its streets for many years. I still believed in the ideals I had been shown there and the way I had seen them abused at Coeur made me miss them all the more keenly. My eyes had finally been opened and I wanted nothing more than to do the same for others, no matter what it might cost me; I wanted them to see that there could be another way. Exile had always been my choice and I finally felt as though I had found a reason to return.

So long I’ve wandered … and all because there is no place for me away from Noxus. I entered the service knowing that my life would never be one of peace and that still rings true today. I may find solace in moments of calm but I know that, whatever may happen, I have to keep going because I still have battles to fight. My life belongs to Noxus and any path I walk will inevitably lead me back there, no matter how long the road may be. Looking for a new home feels like a betrayal of everyone and everything I’ve ever fought for. I love Noxus and settling for somewhere else feels like admitting that I don’t have the strength to see this through.

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Man, I just ... really don’t know what to do with this.

I absolutely don’t want to take anything away from this series in its own right as it’s been very solid within the context of the new lore and what it’s set out to do, but as someone with an extremely strong connection to who Riven used to be it’s just really hard to come out of this feeling anything more positive than just ... numb.

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Stray thought:

So does Riven actually use wind techniques or are Yasuo’s lines concerning her technique in-game now retconned into being total red herrings?

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// So this, or more specifically both halves of it, has been added to Riven and Yasuo’s Universe pages respectively. Interesting to consider whether that’s actually hinting at some real progression to come or just them getting some more artwork into the galleries after the Ionia pass.

I have to say that it bugs the hell out of me how that sword looks absolutely nothing like Riven’s blade on any level though :|

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One thing of note:

The same individual is responsible for the chemical attacks in both Darius’ lore comic and Riven’s bio - Emystan, referred to by Quilletta Varn as “... a bloodthirsty bitch.”

[askriven-theexile]

Just to give an example:

Old bio: ‘What began as war quickly became extermination [...] It wasn't the glorious combat for which Riven trained [...] terminating the remnants of a beaten and fractured enemy with extreme prejudice.’

New bio: The brutality of the war is summarised as “As this new war dragged on, it became clear that Ionia would not kneel.” Riven does not recognise that the invasion is meant to be “... a complete annihilation of the enemy” until the moment before the loss of her unit to chemical fire.

My fundamental issue with this particular change is that it changes Riven from someone who was utterly dedicated to the Noxian cause, an individual who bore massacres, executed civilians and was certainly aware of the role of chemical weaponry, to someone who just had one bad day. Nothing in her bio suggests any particular darkness in her character - the ‘no ethical pause’ she was once attributed - and she abandons Noxus the moment it becomes apparent that the war doesn’t mesh with her beliefs. That’s not to downplay the massive personal losses she suffered of course, but nothing in the bio tells us of her experience of the war before the single critical incident and it’s expressed as the moment she suddenly realised this wasn’t just another war.

Old Riven was willing to go through hell and become a monster for Noxus for the sake of her beliefs, but the new Riven had her faith in the nation broken the very first time that something went bad.

Why does she desire atonement when the most expressly ‘wrong’ thing she did during the conflict was escorting chemical weapons without even recognising their purpose?

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I think Riven’s new bio is a step down, even if ultimately it changes very little.