Everyone knows that the fans of the MtG storyline like to complain, especially after the mending. A lot of us just feel things could have been handled better within the storyline and a lot of mistakes have been made after Apocalypse.
So here is a discussion for you! What would you have done in that situation? You cannot change the basic storyline, just change what was done in it.
In example: Karona exists on Dominaria and people come to her and just worship her. What would you have done after that? Would you have her bring back a fake Teferi and a dead Yawgmoth? Or would you have handled her differently?
Creative comes to you and tells you the Mending is happening no matter what! You much kill off Leshrac, Jeska, Freyalise and Windgrace! Teferi and Bolas need to be de-powered. How do you handle this?
The Mirrodin Timeline, how does it fit into the overall storyline?
Please don’t start complaining about the story or anything like that, just let us know what you would have done in that situation! We sure do liek to complain but let's be contructive and offer up what we would have done instead of what actually happened. Maybe we can give the creative team a few pointers :-D
The two major changes i would make to Time Spiral are the focus and the villains.
The Focus of time spiral is that the multiverse would end unless the time rifts were fixed. The depowering of the planeswalkers was thrown in near the end, kind of randomly.
I'd have the danger be to Dominaria and its surrounding planes only, the multiverse isn't at stake. And Teferi would know that closing the rifts would rob the planeswalkers of thier power. "The end to planeswalking as we know it" would be a constant theme of the books.
As for Villains, we can now replace The Weaver King with Bolas. After escaping and raising hell in Kamigawa, Bolas returns to Dominaria to stop Teferi and co. from closing the rifts, saving Dominaria, and stripping him of his power.
Those are the two big changes i'd make to the story.
For Time Spiral I would have eliminated the weaver king storyline myself also. He was an interesting character but more was going on at the moment that was way more important.
I would have left the first book alone, I think it was handled well. even with Teferi losing his spark i was fine with that.
The second and third though I would definitely have changed it. For one jeska wouldn't just use Radha, Jeska knew what that felt like being both Phange and Karona. It was so out of character for her to make Radha a tool to close the Rifts.
I don't believe I would have killed any Walkers except for Leshrac, the Leshrac vs Bolas match up was great.
Freyalise: Her spark would not have been sacrificed, i would have had Freyalise use Radha to close her Rift because that IS something Freyalise would have done (unlike Jeska). She would then ignore the rest of Dominaria and just protect he rhomeland, possibly by ripping the phasing information form Teferi's now mortal mind.
Windgrace: I might have sacrificed him, he is a character that would have sacrificed hismelf for the land. I would not have him bless himself into the land though, too vague and open ended for me.
Bolas would have been freed and I really do not know what I would have done with him. I probably would have had him fight Leshrac the moment he came out of the rift and if he left Dominaria he would stay gone. Never made sense to me that he returned.
Jodah: In the end he would be the same Jodah, none of this other timeline nonsense people seem to be speculating about.
Like Skibo I would not have the Mending take place all ove rth eMultiverse, it would only effect the "shard" of Dominia. I would take the walker simmortality away but I would leave them to be a being of pure mana and have their lifetime go by elven MtG Years(only live to be 900 or so). I would bring in new characters but I would not ignore all of the older ones.
I would not have had he rlittle meating with the five colors of mana. It was not needed for the story, felt forced and really all around messed too much up. If she wanted to meet with the five colors she should have pulled Gaia from the core of Dominaria, which would have been mor eitneresting.
Mirrodin
I agree, it should have been explained to be the Rift smessing with it's time or Karn did it. all in all I woul dhave given an answer. I also would have explored the black ooze mroe and itnroduce an artifact infecting, Black Phyrexian Infection into the game. Kinf o like "If you control any B cards you gain control of target creature and it becomes and artifact creature until end of turn" or somehting similar that would be as flavorful.
I would have focused on the people of each plane meeting up with each other. It would be more down to earth as planeswalkers fight for thier own shards (who have seen the other worlds) and about people being uprooted by the effects of the shards comming together.
I would give Bolas unique goals for each shard instead of just "Starting wars". He would be working behind the scenes trying to set up for the comming of the merger.
Basically show off each planeswalker in his or her prime.
For Karona:
* For her talking with people, i'd have her talk with Kuberr (It makes no sense to me that only one of the three numbea were contacted)
Then when she went to Phyrexia she'd see a plane completely devoid of life. And leave it soon after.
Phyrexia going forwards:
I'd love to see Phyrexia become a meeting place for planeswalkers. Kind of like a back alley of the multiverse that most planeswalkers avoid because of its history. I'd love to see Vess and Jace meet there to exchange information or something. (This is taking the cue that it's completely devoid of life and destroyed)
Legends I:
I like the story as is, but given the clashing nature of several characters and places (i.e. the Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale), I would've made some cosmetic changes to setting to avoid this.
Legends II:
Again, I love the story, but I might've made it so Tetsuo went through a little more development so there would be less arguing that he's a Gary Stu, and again, I'd actually put some research into names already used, so issues like those with Lady Caleria and Ramirez DePietro wouldn't come up, considering the way said characters were referenced in Legends I.
Artifacts:
I wouldn't have written Urza as being as downgraded as he was in Time Streams - a common issue I've noted with planeswalkers in King's books. As a side note, his interpretation of planeswalkers seems to be the closest representation of modern-day 'walkers in old Magic books. I'm not sure how I would've made it work...but I'm sure I could've come up with something.
Oh, and here's something I've been complaining about for years: HOW THE FRICK DID URZA AND BARRIN MEET IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
Mirage:
Make some frakking books in the first place!
Rath:
Give Mirri one or two crowning moments of awesome so her place in the story wouldn't feel as shoehorned. Either that, or write Hanna out of it; she felt like the weakest character on the Weatherlight to me, and while I did feel sad when she perished in Invasion, I really had to force myself to feel as bad as the story wanted me to feel.
Oh yeah, and give Orim some friggin' backstory.
Masques:
Where did the myth that remaining Thran weren't all Phyrexian come from?
Uh, yeah, how did Volrath make it back to Rath?
Why wasn't the plotline concerning characters we've been reading about before not the more important one in Prophecy? What the heck is Greel?
(note, I actually did like Prophecy, and even Haddad's story, I just didn't like the lack of focus on the long-term characters)
Invasion:
Hmm...
Make the Primevals more important. Look to Magic's past and find a way to tie them into it. Either that, or ignore them and include some other legends of the block like Kangee or Reya instead.
Make the deaths of Hanna and Crovax more poignant. Maaayybee actually have that scene of a disembodied Selenia carrying him off make some sense. Not include a Mishra cameo if it doesn't actually matter in the slightest.
Rewrite Karn's decision to cast aside his vow of nonviolence so it was a bit more of a gearwrenching decision for him.
Make Weatherlight a significant character and not merely yet another of many random things thrown into the story.
While it certainly would take a while, actually figure out a means for Legacy Weapon in and of itself to be the true instrument of Yawgmoth's destruction, and not rely on a deus ex power source like the Null Moon. If nothing else, I'd actually find a way to forshadow its use way back in the Thran.
Odyssey:
I'm torn between this and Onslaught for worst MtG saga. Kamahl, the main character of the whole arc, was dull and really didn't do all that much. The Nantuko were promptly forgotten about after this storyline. Likewise, the terrestrial subraces of aven were never mentioned again after the first book. Speaking of which, Odyssey itself was awful, my all-time least favorite. It was an endless race for the MacG - er, Mirari - and dialogue scenes took up like a fifth of the book at most, next to never. ending. action. scenes. that. accomplished. nothing. Oh and let's not forget how tedious and obnoxious the villain of Laquatus was. I really couldn't stand the aquatic creatures in that arc.
Onslaught:
Oh dear lord where to begin? The races we saw in the cards of the time weren't explained and just assumed to be present the whole time. The thing was basically written as a sequel to Invasion - a poorly-designed one at that - and had major continuity errors with Invasion, from casting Teferi as predominantly a white mage, to saying the Primevals dominated 20 millennia prior instead of 10 millennia. As poor a character as Kamahl was, he barely got any real significance or screen-time. Karona and her constituents were annoying and tedious to read about. Sash and Waistcoat were the only interesting characters in the bunch, and they were fairly inconsequential over the entirety of the saga.
Oh, and let's not forget all the giant continuity guffaws introduced with Karona's wandering the planes, NONE of which have been properly corrected or followed up on.
The whole of Otaria feels like wasted potential to me. There were a good number of interesting new creatures and races, a new homeland for Invasion refugees, tons of possibilities for cultures and subcultures like the Cabal and the dementists, continuity with Invasion, seeing Karn again...and so little was actually developed.
Mirrodin:
Let's see...provide actual backstory to the Kaldra artifacts, Miracore, the blinkmoths, and Panopticon.
Write Glissa a bit better, and if Bosh is going to be killed off, not simply drop a bridge on him.
Explain the state of the world, at least to some degree, after the end.
Kamigawa:
Take out at least a couple of legends; the story suffered a little bit in the same way as the Legends Cycles from legend saturation.
Ravnica:
Remove at least one of the take-over-the-world plots. It was a decent read, and certainly action-packed, and creative in such...but there was just a bit too much going on at once in the end of it. Oh, and make the Gruul actually have a point in Guildpact.
Time Spiral:
Rewrite Freyalise's final end, make Venser less of a tagalong character, not write Jhoira into falling for alt-Jodah (there's no way that was the original), and make a certain dragon seem a tad more villainous, so that SOME people on these boards don't continue to labor under the misguided notion that he isn't a bad guy!
Oh, and Wizards? When you have a character as popular, by your own admission, as Jaya Ballard, do not, I repeat DO NOT, attempt to kill her off-screen, and not even have the integrity to explain how it happened, or why you arranged for this plot point! I personally like Chandra, but her presence is always going to be tainted for me, since she's supposed to be a replacement for Jaya and she simply is not the same, yet ironically is still a rip-off in conception.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor:
Again, too many legends thrown in there at once.
Isn't the point of Lorwyn to be a bright, sunny storybook world? Why is the story so dark to begin with?
I'm honestly not sure what I'd change about the plot, but it definitely could use a major overhaul, in particular Ashling's part in it. I don't think it was a bad idea to turn her into the Extinguisher, but it was majorly confusing to read through and it really didn't work for me.
Again, let's freaking have an explanation for what the world looks like in the aftermath. All we know for certain is that a regular day/night cycle was restored...what else was? Is either the day version or the night version correct for any entity? Have we ever seen the true version? If the plane won't naturally revert in Oona's absence, then what does that mean for people, creatures and places in the long run? We may never know.
Alara:
...
...
...just...
...
Why didn't Progenitus matter?! Why even mention him or Mayael if they didn't matter?! What was Elspeth's actual point in the story?! Why wasn't Esper even mentioned until a third of the way into the book?! Why did Sarkhan spontaneously start working for Bolas?! What was the point of Kresh?! Why the hell did the Shards merge?! Who made the obelisks?! Why was there only one per Shard?! Why was an ancient demon like Malfegor defeated so easily?! Why wasn't Ajani's means of defeating the big bad alluded to prior, when it's a major characteristic of his abilities in the game?! Why was Ajani so willing to forgive his friend for killing his brother?! Why were TWO of the webcomics absorbed into the narrative?! How is it possible that this crap happened across the five Shards, they merge, the inhabitants war, Bolas is taken out, and they settle down and try to adapt to New Alara ALL in a matter of months?!?! Why did Bolas do ANY of this junk yet STILL underestimate his foes in spite of how dearly it's cost him before?!?!? Dear GODS this book sucked!!!
...
Okay...I went on a little long in that last one. My apologies, I just feel that while Odyssey, the Onslaught Cycle and the Darksteel Eye were the worst books overall, Alara Reborn will go down in MtG history as having the most potential for story, and squandering it for not just one setting, but five at once.
Well, that's my fifteen cents. Good nite.
EDIT: Oh yeah, for tPF - include those extra chapters in the book and make the Diraden scene have an actual point!
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Ravnica:
Remove at least one of the take-over-the-world plots. It was a decent read, and certainly action-packed, and creative in such...but there was just a bit too much going on at once in the end of it. Oh, and make the Gruul actually have a point in Guildpact.
I thought there was the right number of "take over the world" plots in the story. I mean that's what Ravnica is about, guilds vieying for dominance over Ravnica.
* I do agree that it's weird that every guild had at least one legend show up in the storyline, except for the Gruul.
Why didn't Progenitus matter?! - Throw-away legend. Why even mention him or Mayael if they didn't matter?! - To flavor Naya What was Elspeth's actual point in the story?! - Generic planeswalker Why wasn't Esper even mentioned until a third of the way into the book?! - Because the stories about Bolas/Elspeth/Anjani/Vol, it had no real reason to go to Esper. Why did Sarkhan spontaneously start working for Bolas?! - It's convienent for the story at that point. What was the point of Kresh?! - Fill space Why the hell did the Shards merge?! - Natural laws. Who made the obelisks?! - Generic people from long ago. Why was there only one per Shard?! - Convienence of the story. Why was an ancient demon like Malfegor defeated so easily?! - Story needs. Why wasn't Ajani's means of defeating the big bad alluded to prior, when it's a major characteristic of his abilities in the game?! - Poor writing. Why was Ajani so willing to forgive his friend for killing his brother?! - Story needs. Why were TWO of the webcomics absorbed into the narrative?! - Doug writes the comics and wrote Alara Unbroken. How is it possible that this crap happened across the five Shards, they merge, the inhabitants war, Bolas is taken out, and they settle down and try to adapt to New Alara ALL in a matter of months?!?! -Story needs. Why did Bolas do ANY of this junk yet STILL underestimate his foes in spite of how dearly it's cost him before?!?!? - Yeah... Bolas has Amnesia.
Basically, Alara is a pile of writing conviences designed to tell the story of Anjani... that just so happens to take place on Alara. It's kind of like how "Alice in wonderland" is a story about Wonderland.
Basically, Alara is a pile of writing conviences designed to tell the story of Anjani... that just so happens to take place on Alara. It's kind of like how "Alice in wonderland" is a story about Wonderland.
I am actually perfectly aware of all that, I just wanted to rant and let off steam from that...heinous work. There was no good reason for anything I yelled about aside from trying to make a book telling an epic story of Alara into an Ajani novel when it wasn't his place in the queue.
Oh and now that I've started thinking about it again...
Why was Rakka even Bolas's minion?! What good did she possibly have in his plans when everything of Jund would have gladly joined the conflicts of the Conflux anyway?! What was the point of the scene of the Grixis family?! Why were all the chapters so short?! For that matter, why make them short if you're just going to jump to another scene on the same Shard?! Why did any of the planeswalkers leave?! Why was Gwafa such an idiot?! What was the point of the scene of establishing that sangrite is carmot?! On that same note, if the Codex Etherium was faked anyway, how the Phyrexia did they know to process sangrite into etherium?! How did the wars die out instantly after Bolas's defeat?! Where were all the creatures born of the Maelstrom?! Not even a mention?! Why did nobody at Wizards look at background info and realize that it's impossible for Marisi to be 200 by Dominarian reckoning?! Why put so much emphasis on Bolas as a big bad of the multiverse and then write him so he's dumber than Voldemort?! Why were all the main characters such idiots?! Why should we care about any of the minor characters?! If Marisi is such a great hero in nacatl folklore, then why did Ajani immediately act as though mentioning him is a sign of suspicion?! Why was Elspeth so whiny?! Why was Sarkhan so lame?! Where the hell was Sedris?! Where the hell was Thraximundar?! Why did those two get so much build-up if they never appeared in a book OR a comic?! What were the borders on the Shards supposed to be anyway, and how could we go through a whole book devoted to them coming back together, and not ONCE mention what the Shards converging along the borders actually looks like?! Oh dear GODS this book sucked!!!
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
IMO, the whole planeswalking concept needs fleshing out.
Seriously, I was out of words for creative when they were backing up the Mending. "You know this PLANESWALKING? it's a really hard thing to do! I mean you must like concentrate and stuff to do it right".
Then a couple of weeks later went "Oh, scrap that..."
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I'd like to see a cool conceptual system behind it. I don't mean pulling a Phantom Menace "The force is powered by phytoplankton... Whew! Glad we got that out of the way!". But some sort of pseudoscience that explores the ideas without retreading familiar religious-like concepts. IMO, the potential for a intricate alien pseudo-science lurks beneath the surface.
A) No, the game is called Magic, we don't need science to explain things... because we have magic. Magic in the form of the spark that allows planeswalkers to planeswalk. I'd like to know more about the spark myself, but i wouldn't want it revealed that the spark is an alien device implanted by the Eldrazi in order to conqure more planes or something like that.
I'd like it to be a natural system of the multiverse.
Seriously, I was out of words for creative when they were backing up the Mending. "You know this PLANESWALKING? it's a really hard thing to do! I mean you must like concentrate and stuff to do it right".
Then a couple of weeks later went "Oh, scrap that..."
Yeah... i think that concept only comes in when they need a reason why Jace can't planeswalk away from those guys that are chasing him. Like everything else in the mending, it's a law of conviencence.
The easiest way to fix the Karona plot line is to make her live up to her name. False Goddess. Not magic incarnate. Keep her characterization and draw the same, but drastically tone down her effects on mana. Create a group who's well aware she's a fake, but doesn't care and plans to use her for their own ends. Then let the story unfold as it did.
That also gives you a nice white-ish villain cycle for Timespiral. Karona's death doesn't mean her cult will have gone away. Adding zealotic fundamentalists always makes post-apocolyptic settings better.
As far as Timespiral goes, I think I probably would have kept it mostly the same, though changing the Weaver king might have made sense given how minor he was. I think, however, that I would have played up the alternative realities side of the story. We really only see that tangentially, after all. It might have been interesting to actually see those realities, and perhaps have the key to fixing them be on the other side of the rifts, not just in the prime world.
Especially if some of those realities weren't nearly as bleak as others. It would've moved the plot away from AHMYGOD TEH WRLD IS ENDING AGAIN to something with an interesting plot. I think I'd probably also change the nature of the Mending, probably again by drawing on those alternate realities. Fixing the rifts some how depowering every walker everywhere doesn't even make sense using Magic's totally illogical system, to say nothing of the sudden appearance of countless walkers in just a hundred years.
If, instead, closing the rifts also merged that reality into the primary world, however, perhaps that's not just where all these walkers came from, but why the nature of planeswalking had to change. It also leaves a nice out for Dominaria to be both restored, by the addition of the alternate realities where things aren't totally screwed up, and refreshed, by letting writers take a new spin on old places due to different natures of realities.
You know, just in case you ever want to go back to Dominaria and not have to retcon out the latest armageddon class events.
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Cyme we inne frið, fram the grip of deaþ to lif inne ðis smylte land.
Well, as you can totally tell, I love alternate realities, but I'm very VERY much of the opinion that they shouldn't have merged.
The reason why is the exact reason DC had to introduce Zero Hour after Crisis on Infinite Earths. The problem would stem from what to do with those stories that directly contradicted each other. Of course, then along comes Infinite Crisis and undoes pretty much all of both of those events. Then again, Geoff Johns had already been killing much of Zero Hour by that point.
Changes I would have made...hmm, where do I begin?
For Kamigawa I would have used more characters that are actually from the game. Like 3/4 of the people who popped up in that storyline had no card counterpart. It really left the whole legends thing feeling very poor and undeveloped. From a lore standpoint, that is.
Time Spiral
Would have ended it with one big time paradox that caused the universe to go ZOMGWTF and essentially retcon Dominaria out of existence in order to course correct things and restabilize the universe. This would cause all prior events to be erased from the multiverses history and all time to unfold and spiral back into itself. Urza is never born, Legacy weapon is never created, Yawgmoth is never defeated, the Mirari and Mirrodin never come into being, etc, etc. Buttefly effect and everything changes. Essentially, Dominaria had to exist so that it could erase itself and cause existence to continue to exist.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor
Would have had a story. And characters.
Alara
Nicol Bolas was handled horribly in this book. Somehow they found a way to make him boring, bland, and generic. Not nearly enough emphasis on him being an egotistical jackass. That is what he is. Make no mistake about it. Bolas is full of himself and loves nothing more than to mock people and prove his superiority. And instead of having him get owned by Ajani I would have gone with a much more logical conclusion. Something along the lines of his plan not panning out right and him ending up right back where he started. No better, no worse. Alara is reborn, Ajani has an origin story, and Bolas now has someone to call his nemesis.
What could follow could be a twelve book series of Bolas pretty much just trolling Ajani and laughing about it, because griefing him never seems to get old.
I am probably the only person in the world that collects Tarnished Citadels. Not because I like the card, but because I don't want someone to get his hands on one and then attemp to actually play the damned thing.
It's always, always the end of the world, and everything basically blows up in a big explosion at the end.
Arguably, the context of magic is about battle, plain and simple.
It's interesting because Zendikar had it's chance to just be about exploration and mystery, plain and simple. In fact there is a lot of it in the guide, a ton of background.
But the stories and plots we keep getting from from Wizards is just Tolkien's Hereo's journey over and over and over and over again...
it's just getting old.
You need to create something other than
1. Here is likable protagonist with growth potential
2. Apocalyptic forces (directed by the villain) take away everything he/she loves
3. Protagonist goes out on a quest into the unknown, making sure to stop in on the various allied color lands/characters
4. Protagonist gains enough experience/friends to challenge the villian
5. Protagonist meets villain and kills him.
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It's always, always the end of the world, and everything basically blows up in a big explosion at the end.
Kamigawa really wasn't the end of the world, nor was Ravnica. Shards wasn't the end of the world either (it was the start of the world), and Lorwyn had the end of the world in the middle. The only explosion i recall is at the end of Mirrodin.
But the stories and plots we keep getting from from Wizards is just Tolkien's Hereo's journey over and over and over and over again...
... not really.
Ravnica wasn't a hero's journey, it was a mystery.
Time spiral, Mirrodin, and Alara were hero's journeys but i wouldn't call them Tolkenish. They are more diverse than that.*
Actually, alot of the stories are focused on more mature characters dealing with problems, Rhys in Lorwyn, Ajani in Alara, and Glissa in Mirrodin. These characters aren't Tolkenish "comming of age" characters.
I think the closets storyline to a Tolken "hero's journey" was Apocolypse, which featured a young hero, comming of age, building a crew, and defeating an impossible evil through sacrifice.
1. Here is likable protagonist with growth potential
2. Apocalyptic forces (directed by the villain) take away everything he/she loves
3. Protagonist goes out on a quest into the unknown, making sure to stop in on the various allied color lands/characters
4. Protagonist gains enough experience/friends to challenge the villian
5. Protagonist meets villain and kills him.
... yeah, um... magic actually has alot of diversity in its storylines. Mirrodin is strikingly diffrent from Kamigawa, which are both diffrent from Ravnica. Yes they fall into similar veins, but i have a hard time thinking of another storyset with a more diverse story selection.
1) I mean in Kamigawa you had Toshi as the protagonist, and i don't think he was very likeable. And Sorin looks like he might be just as bad.
2) Time spiral, Lorwyn, Mirrodin, Alara, and it looks like Zendikar, all have forces that aren't controls by a person. (The time rifts, day/night change over, Mirrodin falling apart, Alara reforming, and the Eldrazi awakening)
3) Eh, this is more of a product of having alot of characters and only five colors. I mean characters interact with many diffrnet people, if you have six or seven characters besides the main character, the chances of having all five colors show up is great. I mean toshi hung out with three black characters, a white one, and a red one, while glissa hung out with one from each color plus artifact. Teferi hung out with everyone but white.
4) A story without a climax is boring. Though Lorwyn disrupts Rhys's memories setting them back, Glissa is frozen for seven years in the middle of the story, Teferi actually loses his power in the first book.
5) Memnarch lives, Szadek lives, Konda lives, Bolas lives, Oona lives, (technically Karona couldn't die)... who have the protaganists killed recently?
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I wouldn't call the storylines the most unique and original peices of work, but implying that they are the same story over and over again isn't fair. They are very diffrent when you get down to it. Also if you are going to mock them, make sure you get it right, number 5 doesn't make sense since the most of the villains recently weren't killed, or weren't killed by the protagonist.
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* Tolken didn't create the Hero's journey. So my assumption is that you mean a hero's journey with a fellowship, a young protagonist, a fantasy setting, a defined goal, and a absolute evil that will end the world.
Shards was the end of the world. Infact of five worlds. And lorwyn up until the end was about the end of the world in terms of world dominance (by what I mean all this "end fo history"-crap from Hegel and Fukuyama).
Explosions aside, I believe Bad Lucks main premise here is correct: a lot of the stories from Magic have been about a world ending or at least world threatening conflict. Thus I suppose derives the Tolkien-comparison as well. Very feww stories have been mostly about a personal conflict or a small scale conflict (Legends comes to mind for instance).
I don't know, the problem with "end of the world" stories is what is you're definition of end? Lorwyn is in an endless cycle of day and night, there is no end and no beginning. And the world doesn't end at the end, it become right. We don't know what effects this has.
ALso Lorwyn isn't about the end of the world, if they didn't defeat Oona, there would have been no effect on the world. It would have just gone on like it always has.
Alara isn't about the end of the world, the worlds are fine after they come together. Yes each of the seperate world's isolation ends, but they are comming together.
What were the mature character problems for Ajani and Glissa again? I believe these were basic coming of age stories just as well. Which, and here I differ from both of your assesments, I don´t find to be that problematic. Fantasy and even other genres are filled with some sort of coming of age stories. But if done right and for a series in many different directions they can be quite entertaning. For a while.
A comming of age story is about a person finding themselves, and becomming an adult. Glissa and Ajani are already adults. Thier stories don't revolve around them growing up as people. Their stories are about revenge, discovery, and friendship.
Toshi is the classic anti-hero. That makes him even more likeable and relatable! I propose that about Sorin we will find out that he is badass but in the end we´ll see his "heart of gold".:rolleyes:
Toshi isn't an Anti-hero because he's not trying to be a hero. Toshi is a villain. He's relatable, i'll give you that, but he is no hero. He's only a hero in the terms of him against Konda. (Which is a bad explaination of why he's a hero)
Look at what he does, lies, manipulates, causes the death of his friends, steals, and numerous other things he does. Now sure, he does some good, purely alturistic things. He kills that student Heartless has locked up, and he saves the princess. But in the end, 90% of what he does is for himself and no one else. And that's my defnintion of a villain. Did he save the day? Yes, but that doesn't make him a hero.
And Sorin could be a good guy, if they want to make him nonblack. Black can't really be a good guy in the end, and i don't want to see them as such. Sorin seems to be a bad guy who's goals (the imprisonment of the eldrazi) line up with others.
From what I gather, Bad Luck is proposing that having the same (sort of) climax all the time is equally boring.
Mirrodin - The Ascendtion web activates, everyone dies.
Kamigawa - The sisters defeat O-kaga.
Ravnica - Nine diffrent battles plus Kos defeating Szadek. Big explosion.
Time Spiral - Jeska sealing the last rift, sealing all rifts. Emotional end.
Lorwyn - Oona is defeated, big battle of the Fae.
Alara - Ajani defeats Bolas.
^ How are these the same kinds of endings. Yes thier big, but that's what a climax is. They have alot of variety in these endings.
I mean what do you want? Okay, go through any of the recent stories and propose a climax that fits into your line of thinking.
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So here is a discussion for you! What would you have done in that situation? You cannot change the basic storyline, just change what was done in it.
In example: Karona exists on Dominaria and people come to her and just worship her. What would you have done after that? Would you have her bring back a fake Teferi and a dead Yawgmoth? Or would you have handled her differently?
Creative comes to you and tells you the Mending is happening no matter what! You much kill off Leshrac, Jeska, Freyalise and Windgrace! Teferi and Bolas need to be de-powered. How do you handle this?
The Mirrodin Timeline, how does it fit into the overall storyline?
Please don’t start complaining about the story or anything like that, just let us know what you would have done in that situation! We sure do liek to complain but let's be contructive and offer up what we would have done instead of what actually happened. Maybe we can give the creative team a few pointers :-D
The two major changes i would make to Time Spiral are the focus and the villains.
The Focus of time spiral is that the multiverse would end unless the time rifts were fixed. The depowering of the planeswalkers was thrown in near the end, kind of randomly.
I'd have the danger be to Dominaria and its surrounding planes only, the multiverse isn't at stake. And Teferi would know that closing the rifts would rob the planeswalkers of thier power. "The end to planeswalking as we know it" would be a constant theme of the books.
As for Villains, we can now replace The Weaver King with Bolas. After escaping and raising hell in Kamigawa, Bolas returns to Dominaria to stop Teferi and co. from closing the rifts, saving Dominaria, and stripping him of his power.
Those are the two big changes i'd make to the story.
I would have left the first book alone, I think it was handled well. even with Teferi losing his spark i was fine with that.
The second and third though I would definitely have changed it. For one jeska wouldn't just use Radha, Jeska knew what that felt like being both Phange and Karona. It was so out of character for her to make Radha a tool to close the Rifts.
I don't believe I would have killed any Walkers except for Leshrac, the Leshrac vs Bolas match up was great.
Freyalise: Her spark would not have been sacrificed, i would have had Freyalise use Radha to close her Rift because that IS something Freyalise would have done (unlike Jeska). She would then ignore the rest of Dominaria and just protect he rhomeland, possibly by ripping the phasing information form Teferi's now mortal mind.
Windgrace: I might have sacrificed him, he is a character that would have sacrificed hismelf for the land. I would not have him bless himself into the land though, too vague and open ended for me.
Bolas would have been freed and I really do not know what I would have done with him. I probably would have had him fight Leshrac the moment he came out of the rift and if he left Dominaria he would stay gone. Never made sense to me that he returned.
Jodah: In the end he would be the same Jodah, none of this other timeline nonsense people seem to be speculating about.
Like Skibo I would not have the Mending take place all ove rth eMultiverse, it would only effect the "shard" of Dominia. I would take the walker simmortality away but I would leave them to be a being of pure mana and have their lifetime go by elven MtG Years(only live to be 900 or so). I would bring in new characters but I would not ignore all of the older ones.
Oh and doug Beyer would not have written AU.
I would not have had he rlittle meating with the five colors of mana. It was not needed for the story, felt forced and really all around messed too much up. If she wanted to meet with the five colors she should have pulled Gaia from the core of Dominaria, which would have been mor eitneresting.
Mirrodin
I agree, it should have been explained to be the Rift smessing with it's time or Karn did it. all in all I woul dhave given an answer. I also would have explored the black ooze mroe and itnroduce an artifact infecting, Black Phyrexian Infection into the game. Kinf o like "If you control any B cards you gain control of target creature and it becomes and artifact creature until end of turn" or somehting similar that would be as flavorful.
I would have focused on the people of each plane meeting up with each other. It would be more down to earth as planeswalkers fight for thier own shards (who have seen the other worlds) and about people being uprooted by the effects of the shards comming together.
I would give Bolas unique goals for each shard instead of just "Starting wars". He would be working behind the scenes trying to set up for the comming of the merger.
Basically show off each planeswalker in his or her prime.
For Karona:
* For her talking with people, i'd have her talk with Kuberr (It makes no sense to me that only one of the three numbea were contacted)
Then when she went to Phyrexia she'd see a plane completely devoid of life. And leave it soon after.
Phyrexia going forwards:
I'd love to see Phyrexia become a meeting place for planeswalkers. Kind of like a back alley of the multiverse that most planeswalkers avoid because of its history. I'd love to see Vess and Jace meet there to exchange information or something. (This is taking the cue that it's completely devoid of life and destroyed)
I like the story as is, but given the clashing nature of several characters and places (i.e. the Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale), I would've made some cosmetic changes to setting to avoid this.
Legends II:
Again, I love the story, but I might've made it so Tetsuo went through a little more development so there would be less arguing that he's a Gary Stu, and again, I'd actually put some research into names already used, so issues like those with Lady Caleria and Ramirez DePietro wouldn't come up, considering the way said characters were referenced in Legends I.
Artifacts:
I wouldn't have written Urza as being as downgraded as he was in Time Streams - a common issue I've noted with planeswalkers in King's books. As a side note, his interpretation of planeswalkers seems to be the closest representation of modern-day 'walkers in old Magic books. I'm not sure how I would've made it work...but I'm sure I could've come up with something.
Oh, and here's something I've been complaining about for years: HOW THE FRICK DID URZA AND BARRIN MEET IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
Mirage:
Make some frakking books in the first place!
Rath:
Give Mirri one or two crowning moments of awesome so her place in the story wouldn't feel as shoehorned. Either that, or write Hanna out of it; she felt like the weakest character on the Weatherlight to me, and while I did feel sad when she perished in Invasion, I really had to force myself to feel as bad as the story wanted me to feel.
Oh yeah, and give Orim some friggin' backstory.
Masques:
Where did the myth that remaining Thran weren't all Phyrexian come from?
Uh, yeah, how did Volrath make it back to Rath?
Why wasn't the plotline concerning characters we've been reading about before not the more important one in Prophecy? What the heck is Greel?
(note, I actually did like Prophecy, and even Haddad's story, I just didn't like the lack of focus on the long-term characters)
Invasion:
Hmm...
Make the Primevals more important. Look to Magic's past and find a way to tie them into it. Either that, or ignore them and include some other legends of the block like Kangee or Reya instead.
Make the deaths of Hanna and Crovax more poignant. Maaayybee actually have that scene of a disembodied Selenia carrying him off make some sense.
Not include a Mishra cameo if it doesn't actually matter in the slightest.
Rewrite Karn's decision to cast aside his vow of nonviolence so it was a bit more of a gearwrenching decision for him.
Make Weatherlight a significant character and not merely yet another of many random things thrown into the story.
While it certainly would take a while, actually figure out a means for Legacy Weapon in and of itself to be the true instrument of Yawgmoth's destruction, and not rely on a deus ex power source like the Null Moon. If nothing else, I'd actually find a way to forshadow its use way back in the Thran.
Odyssey:
I'm torn between this and Onslaught for worst MtG saga. Kamahl, the main character of the whole arc, was dull and really didn't do all that much. The Nantuko were promptly forgotten about after this storyline. Likewise, the terrestrial subraces of aven were never mentioned again after the first book. Speaking of which, Odyssey itself was awful, my all-time least favorite. It was an endless race for the MacG - er, Mirari - and dialogue scenes took up like a fifth of the book at most, next to never. ending. action. scenes. that. accomplished. nothing. Oh and let's not forget how tedious and obnoxious the villain of Laquatus was. I really couldn't stand the aquatic creatures in that arc.
Onslaught:
Oh dear lord where to begin? The races we saw in the cards of the time weren't explained and just assumed to be present the whole time. The thing was basically written as a sequel to Invasion - a poorly-designed one at that - and had major continuity errors with Invasion, from casting Teferi as predominantly a white mage, to saying the Primevals dominated 20 millennia prior instead of 10 millennia. As poor a character as Kamahl was, he barely got any real significance or screen-time. Karona and her constituents were annoying and tedious to read about. Sash and Waistcoat were the only interesting characters in the bunch, and they were fairly inconsequential over the entirety of the saga.
Oh, and let's not forget all the giant continuity guffaws introduced with Karona's wandering the planes, NONE of which have been properly corrected or followed up on.
The whole of Otaria feels like wasted potential to me. There were a good number of interesting new creatures and races, a new homeland for Invasion refugees, tons of possibilities for cultures and subcultures like the Cabal and the dementists, continuity with Invasion, seeing Karn again...and so little was actually developed.
Mirrodin:
Let's see...provide actual backstory to the Kaldra artifacts, Miracore, the blinkmoths, and Panopticon.
Write Glissa a bit better, and if Bosh is going to be killed off, not simply drop a bridge on him.
Explain the state of the world, at least to some degree, after the end.
Kamigawa:
Take out at least a couple of legends; the story suffered a little bit in the same way as the Legends Cycles from legend saturation.
Ravnica:
Remove at least one of the take-over-the-world plots. It was a decent read, and certainly action-packed, and creative in such...but there was just a bit too much going on at once in the end of it. Oh, and make the Gruul actually have a point in Guildpact.
Time Spiral:
Rewrite Freyalise's final end, make Venser less of a tagalong character, not write Jhoira into falling for alt-Jodah (there's no way that was the original), and make a certain dragon seem a tad more villainous, so that SOME people on these boards don't continue to labor under the misguided notion that he isn't a bad guy!
Oh, and Wizards? When you have a character as popular, by your own admission, as Jaya Ballard, do not, I repeat DO NOT, attempt to kill her off-screen, and not even have the integrity to explain how it happened, or why you arranged for this plot point! I personally like Chandra, but her presence is always going to be tainted for me, since she's supposed to be a replacement for Jaya and she simply is not the same, yet ironically is still a rip-off in conception.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor:
Again, too many legends thrown in there at once.
Isn't the point of Lorwyn to be a bright, sunny storybook world? Why is the story so dark to begin with?
I'm honestly not sure what I'd change about the plot, but it definitely could use a major overhaul, in particular Ashling's part in it. I don't think it was a bad idea to turn her into the Extinguisher, but it was majorly confusing to read through and it really didn't work for me.
Again, let's freaking have an explanation for what the world looks like in the aftermath. All we know for certain is that a regular day/night cycle was restored...what else was? Is either the day version or the night version correct for any entity? Have we ever seen the true version? If the plane won't naturally revert in Oona's absence, then what does that mean for people, creatures and places in the long run? We may never know.
Alara:
...
...
...just...
...
Why didn't Progenitus matter?! Why even mention him or Mayael if they didn't matter?! What was Elspeth's actual point in the story?! Why wasn't Esper even mentioned until a third of the way into the book?! Why did Sarkhan spontaneously start working for Bolas?! What was the point of Kresh?! Why the hell did the Shards merge?! Who made the obelisks?! Why was there only one per Shard?! Why was an ancient demon like Malfegor defeated so easily?! Why wasn't Ajani's means of defeating the big bad alluded to prior, when it's a major characteristic of his abilities in the game?! Why was Ajani so willing to forgive his friend for killing his brother?! Why were TWO of the webcomics absorbed into the narrative?! How is it possible that this crap happened across the five Shards, they merge, the inhabitants war, Bolas is taken out, and they settle down and try to adapt to New Alara ALL in a matter of months?!?! Why did Bolas do ANY of this junk yet STILL underestimate his foes in spite of how dearly it's cost him before?!?!? Dear GODS this book sucked!!!
...
Okay...I went on a little long in that last one. My apologies, I just feel that while Odyssey, the Onslaught Cycle and the Darksteel Eye were the worst books overall, Alara Reborn will go down in MtG history as having the most potential for story, and squandering it for not just one setting, but five at once.
EDIT: Oh yeah, for tPF - include those extra chapters in the book and make the Diraden scene have an actual point!
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
I thought there was the right number of "take over the world" plots in the story. I mean that's what Ravnica is about, guilds vieying for dominance over Ravnica.
* I do agree that it's weird that every guild had at least one legend show up in the storyline, except for the Gruul.
Why didn't Progenitus matter?! - Throw-away legend.
Why even mention him or Mayael if they didn't matter?! - To flavor Naya
What was Elspeth's actual point in the story?! - Generic planeswalker
Why wasn't Esper even mentioned until a third of the way into the book?! - Because the stories about Bolas/Elspeth/Anjani/Vol, it had no real reason to go to Esper.
Why did Sarkhan spontaneously start working for Bolas?! - It's convienent for the story at that point.
What was the point of Kresh?! - Fill space
Why the hell did the Shards merge?! - Natural laws.
Who made the obelisks?! - Generic people from long ago.
Why was there only one per Shard?! - Convienence of the story.
Why was an ancient demon like Malfegor defeated so easily?! - Story needs.
Why wasn't Ajani's means of defeating the big bad alluded to prior, when it's a major characteristic of his abilities in the game?! - Poor writing.
Why was Ajani so willing to forgive his friend for killing his brother?! - Story needs.
Why were TWO of the webcomics absorbed into the narrative?! - Doug writes the comics and wrote Alara Unbroken.
How is it possible that this crap happened across the five Shards, they merge, the inhabitants war, Bolas is taken out, and they settle down and try to adapt to New Alara ALL in a matter of months?!?! -Story needs.
Why did Bolas do ANY of this junk yet STILL underestimate his foes in spite of how dearly it's cost him before?!?!? - Yeah... Bolas has Amnesia.
Basically, Alara is a pile of writing conviences designed to tell the story of Anjani... that just so happens to take place on Alara. It's kind of like how "Alice in wonderland" is a story about Wonderland.
Well that's a design problem not a creative one. They would have had a planeswalker in future sight, but R&D hadn't finished them yet.
I am actually perfectly aware of all that, I just wanted to rant and let off steam from that...heinous work. There was no good reason for anything I yelled about aside from trying to make a book telling an epic story of Alara into an Ajani novel when it wasn't his place in the queue.
Oh and now that I've started thinking about it again...
Why was Rakka even Bolas's minion?! What good did she possibly have in his plans when everything of Jund would have gladly joined the conflicts of the Conflux anyway?! What was the point of the scene of the Grixis family?! Why were all the chapters so short?! For that matter, why make them short if you're just going to jump to another scene on the same Shard?! Why did any of the planeswalkers leave?! Why was Gwafa such an idiot?! What was the point of the scene of establishing that sangrite is carmot?! On that same note, if the Codex Etherium was faked anyway, how the Phyrexia did they know to process sangrite into etherium?! How did the wars die out instantly after Bolas's defeat?! Where were all the creatures born of the Maelstrom?! Not even a mention?! Why did nobody at Wizards look at background info and realize that it's impossible for Marisi to be 200 by Dominarian reckoning?! Why put so much emphasis on Bolas as a big bad of the multiverse and then write him so he's dumber than Voldemort?! Why were all the main characters such idiots?! Why should we care about any of the minor characters?! If Marisi is such a great hero in nacatl folklore, then why did Ajani immediately act as though mentioning him is a sign of suspicion?! Why was Elspeth so whiny?! Why was Sarkhan so lame?! Where the hell was Sedris?! Where the hell was Thraximundar?! Why did those two get so much build-up if they never appeared in a book OR a comic?! What were the borders on the Shards supposed to be anyway, and how could we go through a whole book devoted to them coming back together, and not ONCE mention what the Shards converging along the borders actually looks like?! Oh dear GODS this book sucked!!!
About any "subpar" mechanics or cards: Context is king.
If I make a templating or grammar error, let me know.
The franchise MtG most resembles is Battlestar Galactica. Why? Its players exist in, at most, a dozen different models at any given point in time, with perhaps up to 3% variation, 5% if you're lucky.
Seriously, I was out of words for creative when they were backing up the Mending. "You know this PLANESWALKING? it's a really hard thing to do! I mean you must like concentrate and stuff to do it right".
Then a couple of weeks later went "Oh, scrap that..."
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A) No, the game is called Magic, we don't need science to explain things... because we have magic. Magic in the form of the spark that allows planeswalkers to planeswalk. I'd like to know more about the spark myself, but i wouldn't want it revealed that the spark is an alien device implanted by the Eldrazi in order to conqure more planes or something like that.
I'd like it to be a natural system of the multiverse.
Yeah... i think that concept only comes in when they need a reason why Jace can't planeswalk away from those guys that are chasing him. Like everything else in the mending, it's a law of conviencence.
That also gives you a nice white-ish villain cycle for Timespiral. Karona's death doesn't mean her cult will have gone away. Adding zealotic fundamentalists always makes post-apocolyptic settings better.
As far as Timespiral goes, I think I probably would have kept it mostly the same, though changing the Weaver king might have made sense given how minor he was. I think, however, that I would have played up the alternative realities side of the story. We really only see that tangentially, after all. It might have been interesting to actually see those realities, and perhaps have the key to fixing them be on the other side of the rifts, not just in the prime world.
Especially if some of those realities weren't nearly as bleak as others. It would've moved the plot away from AHMYGOD TEH WRLD IS ENDING AGAIN to something with an interesting plot. I think I'd probably also change the nature of the Mending, probably again by drawing on those alternate realities. Fixing the rifts some how depowering every walker everywhere doesn't even make sense using Magic's totally illogical system, to say nothing of the sudden appearance of countless walkers in just a hundred years.
If, instead, closing the rifts also merged that reality into the primary world, however, perhaps that's not just where all these walkers came from, but why the nature of planeswalking had to change. It also leaves a nice out for Dominaria to be both restored, by the addition of the alternate realities where things aren't totally screwed up, and refreshed, by letting writers take a new spin on old places due to different natures of realities.
You know, just in case you ever want to go back to Dominaria and not have to retcon out the latest armageddon class events.
The reason why is the exact reason DC had to introduce Zero Hour after Crisis on Infinite Earths. The problem would stem from what to do with those stories that directly contradicted each other. Of course, then along comes Infinite Crisis and undoes pretty much all of both of those events. Then again, Geoff Johns had already been killing much of Zero Hour by that point.
For Kamigawa I would have used more characters that are actually from the game. Like 3/4 of the people who popped up in that storyline had no card counterpart. It really left the whole legends thing feeling very poor and undeveloped. From a lore standpoint, that is.
Time Spiral
Would have ended it with one big time paradox that caused the universe to go ZOMGWTF and essentially retcon Dominaria out of existence in order to course correct things and restabilize the universe. This would cause all prior events to be erased from the multiverses history and all time to unfold and spiral back into itself. Urza is never born, Legacy weapon is never created, Yawgmoth is never defeated, the Mirari and Mirrodin never come into being, etc, etc. Buttefly effect and everything changes. Essentially, Dominaria had to exist so that it could erase itself and cause existence to continue to exist.
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor
Would have had a story. And characters.
Alara
Nicol Bolas was handled horribly in this book. Somehow they found a way to make him boring, bland, and generic. Not nearly enough emphasis on him being an egotistical jackass. That is what he is. Make no mistake about it. Bolas is full of himself and loves nothing more than to mock people and prove his superiority. And instead of having him get owned by Ajani I would have gone with a much more logical conclusion. Something along the lines of his plan not panning out right and him ending up right back where he started. No better, no worse. Alara is reborn, Ajani has an origin story, and Bolas now has someone to call his nemesis.
What could follow could be a twelve book series of Bolas pretty much just trolling Ajani and laughing about it, because griefing him never seems to get old.
Apocalypse
Odyssey
Onslaught
Mirrodin
Kamigawa
Ravnica
Time Spiral
Lorwyn
Shards
Zendikar
Here's the problem:
It's always, always the end of the world, and everything basically blows up in a big explosion at the end.
Arguably, the context of magic is about battle, plain and simple.
It's interesting because Zendikar had it's chance to just be about exploration and mystery, plain and simple. In fact there is a lot of it in the guide, a ton of background.
But the stories and plots we keep getting from from Wizards is just Tolkien's Hereo's journey over and over and over and over again...
it's just getting old.
You need to create something other than
1. Here is likable protagonist with growth potential
2. Apocalyptic forces (directed by the villain) take away everything he/she loves
3. Protagonist goes out on a quest into the unknown, making sure to stop in on the various allied color lands/characters
4. Protagonist gains enough experience/friends to challenge the villian
5. Protagonist meets villain and kills him.
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Kamigawa really wasn't the end of the world, nor was Ravnica. Shards wasn't the end of the world either (it was the start of the world), and Lorwyn had the end of the world in the middle. The only explosion i recall is at the end of Mirrodin.
... not really.
Ravnica wasn't a hero's journey, it was a mystery.
Time spiral, Mirrodin, and Alara were hero's journeys but i wouldn't call them Tolkenish. They are more diverse than that.*
Actually, alot of the stories are focused on more mature characters dealing with problems, Rhys in Lorwyn, Ajani in Alara, and Glissa in Mirrodin. These characters aren't Tolkenish "comming of age" characters.
I think the closets storyline to a Tolken "hero's journey" was Apocolypse, which featured a young hero, comming of age, building a crew, and defeating an impossible evil through sacrifice.
... yeah, um... magic actually has alot of diversity in its storylines. Mirrodin is strikingly diffrent from Kamigawa, which are both diffrent from Ravnica. Yes they fall into similar veins, but i have a hard time thinking of another storyset with a more diverse story selection.
1) I mean in Kamigawa you had Toshi as the protagonist, and i don't think he was very likeable. And Sorin looks like he might be just as bad.
2) Time spiral, Lorwyn, Mirrodin, Alara, and it looks like Zendikar, all have forces that aren't controls by a person. (The time rifts, day/night change over, Mirrodin falling apart, Alara reforming, and the Eldrazi awakening)
3) Eh, this is more of a product of having alot of characters and only five colors. I mean characters interact with many diffrnet people, if you have six or seven characters besides the main character, the chances of having all five colors show up is great. I mean toshi hung out with three black characters, a white one, and a red one, while glissa hung out with one from each color plus artifact. Teferi hung out with everyone but white.
4) A story without a climax is boring. Though Lorwyn disrupts Rhys's memories setting them back, Glissa is frozen for seven years in the middle of the story, Teferi actually loses his power in the first book.
5) Memnarch lives, Szadek lives, Konda lives, Bolas lives, Oona lives, (technically Karona couldn't die)... who have the protaganists killed recently?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wouldn't call the storylines the most unique and original peices of work, but implying that they are the same story over and over again isn't fair. They are very diffrent when you get down to it. Also if you are going to mock them, make sure you get it right, number 5 doesn't make sense since the most of the villains recently weren't killed, or weren't killed by the protagonist.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Tolken didn't create the Hero's journey. So my assumption is that you mean a hero's journey with a fellowship, a young protagonist, a fantasy setting, a defined goal, and a absolute evil that will end the world.
I don't know, the problem with "end of the world" stories is what is you're definition of end? Lorwyn is in an endless cycle of day and night, there is no end and no beginning. And the world doesn't end at the end, it become right. We don't know what effects this has.
ALso Lorwyn isn't about the end of the world, if they didn't defeat Oona, there would have been no effect on the world. It would have just gone on like it always has.
Alara isn't about the end of the world, the worlds are fine after they come together. Yes each of the seperate world's isolation ends, but they are comming together.
A comming of age story is about a person finding themselves, and becomming an adult. Glissa and Ajani are already adults. Thier stories don't revolve around them growing up as people. Their stories are about revenge, discovery, and friendship.
Toshi isn't an Anti-hero because he's not trying to be a hero. Toshi is a villain. He's relatable, i'll give you that, but he is no hero. He's only a hero in the terms of him against Konda. (Which is a bad explaination of why he's a hero)
Look at what he does, lies, manipulates, causes the death of his friends, steals, and numerous other things he does. Now sure, he does some good, purely alturistic things. He kills that student Heartless has locked up, and he saves the princess. But in the end, 90% of what he does is for himself and no one else. And that's my defnintion of a villain. Did he save the day? Yes, but that doesn't make him a hero.
And Sorin could be a good guy, if they want to make him nonblack. Black can't really be a good guy in the end, and i don't want to see them as such. Sorin seems to be a bad guy who's goals (the imprisonment of the eldrazi) line up with others.
Mirrodin - The Ascendtion web activates, everyone dies.
Kamigawa - The sisters defeat O-kaga.
Ravnica - Nine diffrent battles plus Kos defeating Szadek. Big explosion.
Time Spiral - Jeska sealing the last rift, sealing all rifts. Emotional end.
Lorwyn - Oona is defeated, big battle of the Fae.
Alara - Ajani defeats Bolas.
^ How are these the same kinds of endings. Yes thier big, but that's what a climax is. They have alot of variety in these endings.
I mean what do you want? Okay, go through any of the recent stories and propose a climax that fits into your line of thinking.