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A review by burningdarkfire
League of Legends: Ashe - Warmother by Odin Austin Shafer
3.0
The choice to wipe the League of Legends universe and restart roughly from scratch in 2014 was the work of madmen, but it was desperately needed and I think, as of 2019 or so, finally worth it. After residing in a barren wasteland of lore for many years, I was really happy to read (for free, online!) and then buy these comics.
Ashe is beautifully drawn, and this story does good work in fleshing out her backstory and giving some depth to Ashe and Sejuani in particular. It works well as an origin story, but I think I find it frustratingly hard to place in the context of the Freljord in general and in the wider world of Runeterra.
We learn little about Freljord and their traditions besides that they are tribal and they raid - we know that Sejuani is for this and Ashe is against this - but I had a hard time understanding what the life of an average person in Freljord would be like if they were not a warrior. Are they entirely nomadic? Fleshing out details like this would make the stakes clear between Sejuani's position and Ashe's position.
We also have Lissandra's priests in the story, although they are barely explained besides seeming generically evil, and True Ice plays a part but is never explained well either. Because I'm already familiar with the lore behind Freljord's magic, it makes a little more sense to me, but I think that lacking the context makes a lot of the magic just seem contrived and convenient.
I'm definitely a little biased, but I think unfortunately Ashe's lore has always been shackled by her position as one of the more iconic champions of the game. She has to be heroic and relatable as a young idealist who is (or at least was) the tutorial character, but she's by far the least interesting part of her region which has a roster of old elemental gods, spirit walker shamans, and the Watchers from the Void.
Ashe is beautifully drawn, and this story does good work in fleshing out her backstory and giving some depth to Ashe and Sejuani in particular. It works well as an origin story, but I think I find it frustratingly hard to place in the context of the Freljord in general and in the wider world of Runeterra.
We learn little about Freljord and their traditions besides that they are tribal and they raid - we know that Sejuani is for this and Ashe is against this - but I had a hard time understanding what the life of an average person in Freljord would be like if they were not a warrior. Are they entirely nomadic? Fleshing out details like this would make the stakes clear between Sejuani's position and Ashe's position.
We also have Lissandra's priests in the story, although they are barely explained besides seeming generically evil, and True Ice plays a part but is never explained well either. Because I'm already familiar with the lore behind Freljord's magic, it makes a little more sense to me, but I think that lacking the context makes a lot of the magic just seem contrived and convenient.
I'm definitely a little biased, but I think unfortunately Ashe's lore has always been shackled by her position as one of the more iconic champions of the game. She has to be heroic and relatable as a young idealist who is (or at least was) the tutorial character, but she's by far the least interesting part of her region which has a roster of old elemental gods, spirit walker shamans, and the Watchers from the Void.