Why Does Skurai Kidnap Iris Irine (Ragnarok Manhwa)?

What's wrong with having Skurai kidnap Iris Irine in Ragnarok: Into The Abyss manhwa? Why would he want to do that anyway?

In Volume 9 of the graphic novel, Skurai captures Iris Irine, intending to use her as bait in order to fight Chaos.

So that's the entire reason why he decides to kidnap the girl. But the real question is why does Skurai have to do something like that just to fight Chaos?

Why does he need to resort to such a method just to challenge the main character?

Let's start from the beginning in order to understand why this just doesn't make sense and why it comes across as downright unbelievable.

First of all, we are initially told that Skurai planned to have Loki and Chaos fight by blaming the destruction of the Assassins' Guild on the latter. When the main character was weakened after his fight with the assassin, the swordsman planned to step in to finish him off. Of course, we know that that's not exactly what happened.

Loki and Chaos did end up fighting, but, for some strange and unknown reason, Skurai decided it was a good idea to step in and join the fight. So much for not wanting to fight the protagonist head-on because the hero was apparently more powerful than him.

That would have been far more believable if the swordsman hadn't decided to interfere with the Loki and Chaos fight especially since we saw how capable Skurai was during that fight scene and how the resident hero himself wasn't exactly having an easy time.

The aforementioned fight scene shows us that the swordsman has absolutely no qualms in just confronting the main character and challenging him to a fight pretty much whenever he wants to.

As such, exactly what is the point of having to kidnap Iris just to pick a fight with Chaos? Why would Skurai need to do that when he could just go straight to wherever the protagonist is and challenge him to a fight?

Whether the main character will agree or not isn't the point here.

Even if the hero refuses to fight Skurai at first, if the swordsman keeps trying to attack him and hurt him, then obviously Chaos will have no choice but to fight back to defend and protect himself unless he wants to be defeated.

Besides, Chaos should have no problems in accepting Skurai's challenge and fighting with him since the swordsman was the one responsible for killing Peony Irine and many other citizens of Fayon.

As such, the whole 'kidnap Iris and use her as bait to fight Chaos' scene just comes across as contrived and convoluted.

In other words, it simply doesn't make sense because it shouldn't be necessary to do this at all.

It's like we're just being given false plot or drama or it could even be just another excuse for yet another long fight scene.

Do you think it was necessary for Skurai to have to capture Iris just so he could challenge Chaos to a fight or was this act completely pointless and useless?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by CoDLia (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to represent Skurai and his sword, Talatsu
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget

What's Wrong With The Fenris Fenrir, Iris Irine, And Bijou Fight (Ragnarok Manhwa)?

In Ragnarok: Into The Abyss manhwa, we see Fenris Fenrir and Iris Irine battling against Bijou. What could possibly be wrong with this fight scene?

The fight between the aforementioned women starts in Volume 5 and is continued in Volume 6.

Needless to say, the fight is quite long and drawn-out (but let's not focus too much on that as there is already a post that discusses the seemingly never-ending fight scenes in this comic).

Let's take a look at some of the things that make this fight rather frustrating and even aggravating (aside from how long it is).

Fenris Fenrir and Iris Irine are teamed up for this fight, but Bijou isn't outnumbered because she has a troll to help her. Why is it that either Fenris or Iris have the tendency to just stand there, watch and do nothing while the other is busy battling the troll or Bijou?

For instance, in Chapter 49 of Volume 6, we see Fenrir just standing by and watching. But why? Why isn't she doing anything? Why isn't she helping her friend? Why can't the two women work hand-in-hand together in order to defeat Bijou and her troll?

We later on see that Bijou has almost gotten to the Heart of Ymir, but if the 2 main characters had just split up the job between themselves, then this might not have happened.

Why didn't they agree and decide that one of them will take care of the troll while the other battles Bijou? This could have helped ensure the safety of the shard, so that their enemy will have a harder time getting to it.

As it is, with how one of the protagonists is just standing by and doing nothing and with how none of them pay much attention to Bijou, this was practically an invitation for the latter to go and get the heart shard. They might as well have just handed it over to her without a fight if they weren't going to take this seriously.

Besides, doing it the way they did just seemed to prolong and draw out the fight even more when it could have ended far sooner. It was wonderful and about time when the troll was finally defeated.

However, don't you wonder why Iris Irine had to be the one to land the finishing blow with her sword? Why couldn't it have been Fenris instead? What was the reason why she couldn't be the one to kill the troll?

She has an awesome and cool weapon too and we've seen how good she is with her staff and how magical and powerful said staff is, much like Iris' weapon. So, why was it Iris' job to destroy the troll? This is especially baffling considering how it seems that Iris isn't really much of a fighter.

She's pretty good at fighting, but we mostly see her as being the support or the healer of the group. Do you think that the 2 protagonists should have split the job and decided who will fight with who? Who do you think should have destroyed Bijou's troll?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki based on the image by Rusembell (CC:BY) from deviantArt
- Image of two fighters is meant to represent Fenris Fenrir and Iris Irine who fought side-by-side against Bijou and her troll
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget

What's So Annoying About Some Of The Scenes In Ragnarok Manhwa?

While many of the scenes in Ragnarok: Into The Abyss are perfectly fine, just what can be so annoying, frustrating, wrong and even pointless about some of the scenes in said manhwa?

In other posts, we've already discussed just what is not to like about the fight scenes that appear in this comic. You can find those articles here (the Chaos, Loki, Skurai fight), here (the Fenris Fenrir, Iris Irine, Bijou fight) and here (fight scenes in general).

We've even touched up on the pointlessness and uselessness of some scenes that introduce us to nameless characters, some of whom seem to exist just to dump information on us before being killed off.

Now, let's take a look at some of the other scenes in the manhwa that can be said to be annoying, aggravating and even confusing. What scenes are these and what's so wrong about them?

If you've read the graphic novel, then you might have noticed the many pages wherein we get absolutely no dialogue at all. We just get a drawing of a scenery or some such and that's it. Pages with no dialogue appear to be a complete waste because it just takes up space in the comic, which could have been put to better use by advancing the plot.

Instead, the action appears to have stopped as we pause to take in pages of scenery or pages where pretty much nothing happens since there is no conversation. There are many such scenes in Ragnarok, so let's take a look at some of them to provide examples.

Chapter 23 of Volume 5 starts with a full page of no dialogue. Instead, we just get a drawing of Himmelmez's fortress and some houses, which takes up an entire 2 pages. What do you think is the point of that? Does that entire drawing really need to take 2 pages? Why?

It seems to be such a waste since we could have gotten some dialogue by now. We could have seen some of the characters talking or discussing what to do. We could have seen the plot advancing by now and moving forward instead of being held at a stand still because we have to pause to take a look at a pointless scene.

Even the next page of this chapter has pretty minimal dialogue. Why can't we have both scenery and dialogue at the same time?

Sure, the artwork is nice, but there's no reason why we can't admire the artwork even with dialogue to go along with it.

Moreover, scenes with no dialogue just make things harder to understand and it can even get confusing.

A prime example of this is in Volume 10 wherein we finally find out all about Skurai's past.

Such a scene could have been very interesting, but, thanks to pages and pages of no dialogue, readers just end up confused and even miffed as they struggle to understand exactly what happened.

We get a few things such as that the swordsman apparently fell in love with this noble princess. But why was he imprisoned? Could he really be imprisoned just because he fell in love or did something else happen?

Why was the sword, Talatsu, even in the dungeon with Skurai in the first place?

Why would the sword just happen to be exactly where he is? Why was he placed in that particular dungeon? Don't you think it's way too convenient?

It's like they're just asking him to please escape since they're giving him an opportunity to do so by leaving Talatsu with him.

What about the girl that Skurai fell in love with? Why did she have to die? Why did that guy have to kill her?

Thanks to several pages of no dialogue, Skurai's past just became confusing and even annoying instead of coming across as interesting.

What do you think of these aforementioned scenes? Do you find them annoying and confusing and pointless? Do you wish there were less scenes with no dialogue in the manhwa?

*Notes:
- Image with added text was modified by Freya Yuki (CC:BY-SA) based on the image by MizuSasori (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- Image is meant to represent the scenes in the manhwa where there was no dialogue since the 2 figures in said pic appear to be talking
- The rest of the pics are enlarged product images from Amazon.com; links shown above via Amazon's Native Shopping Ads widget