Why Is Sara Irine The Anti-Climax And Deus Ex Machina (Ragnarok Manhwa)?

Why is it that we can classify Sara Irine, the Valkyrie, from Ragnarok: Into The Abyss as the anti-climax and deus ex machina of said manhwa? What did this character do to get such a label?

This post is also known as "the uselessness of the main characters," "the pointlessness of some scenes and chapters," and "why does Sara Irine get to do all the work?".

So what reason is there for anyone to want to consider the aforementioned Valkyrie as the comic's anti-climax and deus ex machina?

To answer that question, let's take a look at Volume 7, particularly the scene wherein we see Sara killing Bijou. Don't you think that this was very anti-climactic? Why, you ask?

This is because, prior to this scene, we had several chapters showing us the fight between Fenris Fenrir, Iris Irine, Bijou and her troll. After being shown all those fight scenes, who would have expected it to end in the way that it did? It could be that the good guys will win or maybe the bad guys will temporarily win. Either way would have been fine.

But having the Valkyrie be the one to finish off Bijou when they were supposed to be in the same side is very much unexpected and not in the good way. While unexpected scenes would save the graphic novel from being predictable, this particular scene just fell flat and ended up becoming so anti-climactic.

After all, what was the use of showing us all those fight scenes between the women and the troll when it's just going to end with Sara, who wasn't even part of the fight in the first place, showing up to help out the heroes?

The Valkyrie's appearance made all the long fight scenes we had to go through pointless and a complete waste of time. After all, if Sara was just going to show up to off Bijou anyway, then what's the point of having the readers see all those pages and pages of fight scenes?

We could have been shown more plot instead. That would have been much more preferable as compared to this.

What about the deus ex machina though? How can Sara's appearance in that scene be described as a deus ex machina?

It's quite easy to see her appearance as a deus ex machina, because, if you recall, Bijou was winning in this particular chapter in Volume 7. She was about to defeat Fenris and Iris.

It would have been the end for our 2 female protagonists had it not been for the sudden and unexpected appearance of Sara Irine who comes to save the day. If she hadn't shown up, those two would have been destroyed by Bijou. How's that for a deus ex machina?

It doesn't even make sense for Sara to want to kill Bijou. When asked for a reason, she responds with, "Because I choose to," but what does that even mean? Why would she want to off Bijou when they're both working on the same side, when they're both working for Freya?

None of this makes sense and we don't even know what the Valkyrie is planning, so this really just comes across as being one anti-climactic scene topped with a deus ex machina.

It's like Bijou became so much more powerful than the main characters, so much so that there was no other way for them to win and they would have lost if a deus ex machina, in the form of Sara, hadn't shown up to help them out.

That scene isn't the only time that we see Sara the anti-climax and deus ex machina though. Later on, we see her killing Himmelmez in order to help out Chaos and Loki.

Once again, all the fight scenes that readers had to endure (and those were very, very long, annoyingly so) all went to waste thanks to how anti-climactic things turned out to be.

Once again, we see how the heroes couldn't possibly win and there would be no other way out but to introduce a deus ex machina in the form of Sara to get the protagonists out of this mess. It's very dissatisfying, to say the least.

This is exacerbated by the fact that we don't get a decent reason as to why Sara would do such a thing. Why would she destroy Himmelmez when they're both working for Freya? Her lame attempts at providing us with reasons as to why she kills Himmelmez just falls flat and ends up sounding weird and even insane, not to mention absolutely ridiculous.

She says she killed Himmelmez because she didn't like the woman and because the latter was apparently an obstacle, but to what, we don't know and it's likely that we never will.

Besides, even if Sara really wanted to off the woman, why didn't she do that after Himmelmez was through fighting with Chaos and Loki? Why does it have to be at that precise moment? Why not later on or before the heroes get in trouble? It's really like the Valkyrie just had to do this, so she could be the deus ex machina for the heroes.

Even if we can explain that the reason she killed Bijou was because she did care about Iris who is actually her half-sister (even though that's still unbelievable since the 2 aren't even close and she has jealousy issues seeing as her father, the Lord Irine, prefers Iris to her), Sara helping out Chaos just does not make sense.

After all, Chaos is the reincarnation of Balder and she knows that already, so why would she help the guy out? In short, it's really like all those fight scenes we just read were nothing but a complete waste of time.

Instead of seeing the main characters further develop their skills and learn from their battles, we just see Sara doing all the work for them. If this is what was going to happen anyway, then we should have skipped straight to this, so we could have had more plot-related scenes.

What do you think? Do you think that Sara Irine is indeed an anti-climax and deus ex machina? Do you think she shouldn't have done all the work for the heroes especially since she's not even on their side?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by hayashinomura, CC:BY-SA from deviantArt
- Image is meant to symbolize Sara Irine being the anti-climax and deus ex machina because the figure in said image appears to have come from out of nowhere
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget