Asmongold Reacts to League's New Cinematic "Still Here"

Watching Asmon's reaction actually made me realize how random this cinematic looks when you don't have context. If you don't know that Kindred is a manifestation of death then it's just a barbarian with big sword fighting a magical lamb and a ghost wolf(???).

The idea that Tryndamere has to fight Kindred "The essences of death" everytime he's ult is fascinating

Even some of the more knowledgeable League players/fans have missed out on stuff in the cinematic. Kindred (Lamb and Wolf), the embodiment of death, actually appear in all three scenes, as they're all about a character facing death. Lamb offers the mercy of a single killing arrow to those ready to accept that their time has come, whereas Wolf relentlessly hunts those who would refuse to accept their own mortality. In the first scene, Kindred can be seen in the wave of fire that engulfs Aatrox (the demonic guy) before the scene transition, as the human he's inhabiting is killed. The characters he's battling are Kayle (with the white wings) and Morgana (with the purple wings), twin daughters of the Aspect of Justice. The second is about Yasuo, in a future where he's older and wiser, and ready to accept the merciful death of Lamb's arrow having saved the village from marauders. The third is Tryndamere, a Freljordian king, envisioning himself fighting Kindred while he uses his ult (a last-stand ability that prevents him from dying for a handful of seconds) to fight the enemies surrounding him. Kindred retreat as Tryndamere's wife, Ashe (the archer) arrives to take out the last two enemies, who would have landed the killing blow had she not arrived in time to save her husband. Honestly, this might be the most lore and context sensitive cinematic of them all, and I have a hard time deciding whether Still Here or The Call is the best League cinematic to date.

The whole Cinematic is based around Kindred (Lamb and Wolf). In the World of Runeterra, Kindred is essentially the grim reaper. She collects those in death. there are signs of Kindred in all 3 scenes. the Scenes are broken up into Past, Future, and Present. In the Past, Two Demi-Angels, Kayle and Morgana Defended and dealt justice in a Land that would eventually become known as Demacia. The Scene Depicts an area under siege by the Darkin Aatroxx. Darkin were originally ascendant beings but they were driven mad by the void in a war long ago. Kayle and Morgana are sisters, their Mother is an angel, and they both hold 1 half of their mother's sword. They defeat Aatrox. In the lore, Kayle is stoic and brings justice in a very cold and unemotional way, while Morgana is more affected by the plight of humans and reasons that judgement and justice can be tempered. In the scene Morgana drops her mothers weapon and taps into darker powers to fight Aatrox, you can see the disdain Kayle has for Morgana in the quick glance she gives her, even as she takes up both halves of her mothers sword and causes the firestorm. if you look closely, there is an afterimage in the fire that is Kindred. Then you go to the Future, in Ionia, where we are greeted by an Old man version of Yasuo. After he uses his whirlwind, you see many arrows in the sky coming for Yasuo, including a bright one, which appears to hit him, this is the Arrow of Kindred, claiming Yasuo. if you look in the sky, you can also see the apparent shape of a wolfs head. in the last scene, which would be considered the Present, in Frejord, you see Tryndamere, who has the power to avoid death by tapping into his rage via blood magic. He is married to Ashe, a Frostborn Tribal Leader. In the scene, Trendamere is fighting death (literally) by fighting against Kindred (the Lamb and the Wolf). Tryndamere power in game is literally to become un-killable for a short period of time. As the fight goes on, Kindred lets her bow go because Ashe has arrived, and saves Tryndamere. It's not his time to die.

to be fair this cinematic was very lore related so outsiders might not understand.

Not a fan of LoL game, but I'm "sorta" invested in its universe. They have some great stuff in it.

I love how they portray Kindred. It seems like she's not actually there, but when Tryndamere is close to death, she appears as the enemies he's fighting. When Ashe saves him, Kindred lowers her bow because it's not his time to go yet.

Explaining what happened in this cinematic. This cinematic is about time and death. The cinematic have 3 moments: The angel vs demon scene happens in the past. The old samurai scene happens in the future and the barbarian fighting at snow happens in the present. The archer spirit and its wolves that you see in the snow scene are Kindred, the most powerful being in League of Legends. It is basically the Grim Reaper of this universe that only shows up when the time has come to someone. Althought you can clearly see them (Kindred is referred to in the plural) in the last part of the cinematic, they also appears when Kayle (the blonde angel) attacks Aatrox (the demon) while Morgana (her twin sister, the brunnete angel) is exausted on the ground, in form a silouete in the flames. In the future part, the Kindred also show up as Yasuo (the old samurai) closes his eyes accepting death before being hit by a rain of arrows. You can see the white spirit arrow from Kindred going straight to him. In the present moment is where the cherry on the cake is. The barbarian with a giant sword is Tryndamere and his ultimate skill is the ability to resist death for a few seconds. In game, he basically continues taking damage, but never drops bellow 1hp while the ult is active. You see him fighting the Kindred wolves, but it is just his vision. He is actually fighting this horde of human warriors surrounding him, taking hit and resisting death (resisting Kindred) as he tries his last standing. Kindred aim their arrow to him but stop from shooting when the two arrows from Ashe (the white haired archer queen) saves him from the last 2 enemies behind him. Kindred lost their purpose to catch Tryndamere as they saw that his time hasn't come yet. I love the detail of Kindred tilting the head looking at Tryndamere after dodging his attack, intrigued because the barbarian is fighting the death itself and this fact took the attention of this powerful godlike being. Trully a nice touch. This video is a master piece.

Knowing even a little bit about lore definitely improves the experience for me. Like the last scene with the wolf and all? The masked archer with the wolf is Kindred, and she's basically death? Afaik? So it's Tryndamere facing death. And she lowers her bow because Ashe (who's his waifu btw) comes and saves him from the actual danger, the warriors from the beginning. So cool.

So basically, Trynda was fighting againts kindred but remember that Kindred its basically death. So Trynda was fighting against death until his wife showed up to save him, that's why kindred stopped attacking, Trynda was no longer fighting death since Ashe got there in time to help him.

league of legends lore is actually so good, kindred representation of death and how it varies in each country would have been cool to see

Asmon's reaction: "This is actually pretty good! Damn!" mostly positive and impressed if confused by what is happening, and a little mild at times. Totally reasonable. Chat: "music ruined the cinematic" "Mid tbh" "Meh. Looks bad" "Meh the song is carrying the video" "this music is ***" "its so bad" "this one is terrible to" "This one is trash srsly" Those are all chat messages that I picked out word for word lol. Ofc there were lots of positive chats too, but in no other reaction so far have I seen so much extreme negativity haha (there were a LOT of 'hate this music' type comments in particular). Don't get me wrong, people can have other opinions to me, I just find it interesting how much negativity there was here compared to elsewhere q: Especially since Asmon himself didn't seem to be sharing their opinions.

The cinematic is really good, this is a "lore accurate" cinematic However, the cinematic for the MMO has to be "inviting" for everyone, not only people who know the lore, similar to the warlords of draenor cinematic

Trynd fighting Kindred off from pure rage is so fucking badass. If they don't flop the MMO its gonna be amazing because the world is there, the characters are there, the lore the soul, just don't fuck up the gameplay man

I love how every single time Asmon gets slightly out of hand his editors instantly humble him. As someone that played both league and wow, ye, i wish the game was as good as the cinematics.. :D

Kindred was so absolutely godly in this whole cinematic. You could feel the majesty and undesirability they represent. And her curiousness when a mere mortal refuses their power. This is what we want to see Riot.

Knowing who Kindred are definitely improves the meaning and enjoyment of the cinematic

Watching with a WoW andy chat is really something else. They called Morgana "Sylvanas at home" I can't.

Ice arrow girl shot the barbarians that the longsword guy was fighting in the start. The longsword guy was fighting the mask guy and the big wolf because they are the embodiment of death and the ultimate ability of the longsword guy is not dying, so he was basically fighting the embodiment of death while he had activated his ultimate ability, while he was also fighting the barbarians.

From a lore standpoint, cinematic direction standpoint, art direction standpoint, character identity standpoint. I would call it a huge success