What exactly does Tezzeret "became the bridge" even mean? o_O
He's part machine. I assume it means he's able to open up portals and transport things with the bridge's core himself, without the remaining machinery of the device itself.
On one hand, it's disappointing to read that, yes, the Consulate/Renegade conflict was your standard pulp/jRPG "evil empire" fare. On the other hand, it saved me time reading the Uncharted Realms. Hopefully Amonkhet will be better...
Is it? I didn't get that impression at all. If anything, without Tezzeret the renegades are the bad guys.
Are you kidding? The Renegades are utterly spotless. They're goofy teenagers, sports heroes, socialites, lovable grandmothers, etc. Not one of the stories shows them doing anything that could be seen in a morally grey way, much less in a bad light. They're not FALN, the Irish Republican Army, or whatever recent revolutionary comparison would be.
Now the Consulate on the other hand, these guys are stereotypical authoritarian goons, corrupt mafiosos, and ruthless Einsatzgruppen burning down villages. They're even okay with public executions of children, per Chandra's origin story. Bad dudes, clearly, with little redeeming value showcased in the stories. Oh wait, the Aradara Express runs on time...that's all that matters.
The Uncharted Realms offered no evidence of Renegade wrongdoing and plenty of boundaries crossed by the Consulate. If WotC creative didn't want this to be some Manichean, Star Wars kinda deal, then they've done an exceptionally poor job.
Is it? I didn't get that impression at all. If anything, without Tezzeret the renegades are the bad guys.
Are you kidding? The Renegades are utterly spotless. They're goofy teenagers, sports heroes, socialites, lovable grandmothers, etc. Not one of the stories shows them doing anything that could be seen in a morally grey way, much less in a bad light. They're not FALN, the Irish Republican Army, or whatever recent revolutionary comparison would be.
Now the Consulate on the other hand, these guys are stereotypical authoritarian goons, corrupt mafiosos, and ruthless Einsatzgruppen burning down villages. They're even okay with public executions of children, per Chandra's origin story. Bad dudes, clearly, with little redeeming value showcased in the stories. Oh wait, the Aradara Express runs on time...that's all that matters.
The Uncharted Realms offered no evidence of Renegade wrongdoing and plenty of boundaries crossed by the Consulate. If WotC creative didn't want this to be some Manichean, Star Wars kinda deal, then they've done an exceptionally poor job.
This is all true. There was a great opportunity for a moral dilemma in this conflict, and they utterly blew it. As you said, this was almost certainly intentional. Apparently we're now too dumb to understand any storyline with actual complexity and depth, even though we have done exactly that in the past. Congrats, WotC, you figured out that some 12 year olds play this game. That doesn't mean that you have to write stories that appeal exclusively to them, leaving the rest of us to either be disappointed or rationalize the hell out of it so that it might appear adequate. But it isn't.
I might have been able to forgive them for BFZ and SOI, since they involved main conflicts against incomprehensible alien monsters, leaving little room for any sort of moral dilemma or debate. But, given that we hadn't had any conflict that wasn't black and white since KTK block, they should have gone out of their way to compensate for this in Kaladesh. Naturally, they did the opposite. They gave of us another oversimplified, black and white conflict, despite having being completely able to and obligated to produce something better.
Tezzeret and the Consulate could have actually been presented decently, maybe even sympathetically, but no. Heaven forbid any readers of the story actually have to think about what's going on. We can't have that! Instead we get stereotypical and borderline cartoonish antagonists like Ob Nixilis and Tezzeret. Great, just great.
And the next block is Gatewatch vs. Bolas. No way that will devolve into another basic black and white conflict! Absolutely no way!
I don't know how much longer I can keep reading this stuff...
Honestly, while I've enjoyed a lot of WotC's storytelling over the years (some stories more than others, naturally), I've always felt that they were better at creating worlds than they were at doing anything with them - basically, I enjoy reading the Planeswalker's Guide to *_____* articles more then I do reading the storyarcs they do about the planes. Self-contained stories like Mercy are usually more entertaining to me than Reading about the Gatewatch from week to week.
Is it? I didn't get that impression at all. If anything, without Tezzeret the renegades are the bad guys.
Are you kidding? The Renegades are utterly spotless. They're goofy teenagers, sports heroes, socialites, lovable grandmothers, etc. Not one of the stories shows them doing anything that could be seen in a morally grey way, much less in a bad light. They're not FALN, the Irish Republican Army, or whatever recent revolutionary comparison would be.
Now the Consulate on the other hand, these guys are stereotypical authoritarian goons, corrupt mafiosos, and ruthless Einsatzgruppen burning down villages. They're even okay with public executions of children, per Chandra's origin story. Bad dudes, clearly, with little redeeming value showcased in the stories. Oh wait, the Aradara Express runs on time...that's all that matters.
The Uncharted Realms offered no evidence of Renegade wrongdoing and plenty of boundaries crossed by the Consulate. If WotC creative didn't want this to be some Manichean, Star Wars kinda deal, then they've done an exceptionally poor job.
Our very first introduction to renegades are Pia and Chandra Nalaar sending their reckless young child on a smuggling run. The renegades use a bunch of child soldier in life-or-death scenarios. Oviya Pashiri's activities directly fund crime lords like Gonti.
I think Jay is overstating the grey-ness of the renegades, but I also think that everyone else is overstating the evil of the Consulate. I interpret the conflict as an example of white and grey morality. The renegades have largely been shown to be sympathetic, and even the worse elements in them like smuggling and association with crime lords have not actively been shown to be evil. The Consulate is largely concerned with the welfare of its people - Dovin Baan exemplifies this - and they ran Ghirapur well enough before the events of the block. Most of the Consulate soldiers, like the one Ajani stopped himself from killing, are just regular people. The only problem with the Consulate is that it is prone to corruption and abuse of authority, since it doesn't seem it has many checks on its power. The only really evil people in this conflict are those corrupt elements, people like Tezzeret, Kambal, and Baral.
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Our very first introduction to renegades are Pia and Chandra Nalaar sending their reckless young child on a smuggling run. The renegades use a bunch of child soldier in life-or-death scenarios. Oviya Pashiri's activities directly fund crime lords like Gonti.
They're not good.
C'mon. The presence of children in the story/conflict has a lot less to do with the Renegade's lack of scruples than it does with the story being aimed at kids/teens who, at least according to marketing focus groups, will be more able to relate to younger characters. Making the argument that the Renegades are written such that the reader should see the presence of young Chandra, Kari Zev, or xX420_sHaDoWbLaYdE_MLGXx as a pragmatic use of child soldiers is quite a stretch.
And as far as Gonti and his criminal enterprises go, that's another example of the morality of the Renegade cause, or lack thereof, being completely unsubstantiated through the stories. We're only told that Gonti is some unsavory crime boss; we have no direct evidence of his misdeeds. We're not seeing young Ghirapurians ODing on Aethersmack that Gonti's uh...people cut with Narnam Cobra blood. Nothing is shown that would make the Renegade "alliance" with Gonti seem morally ambiguous.
Our very first introduction to renegades are Pia and Chandra Nalaar sending their reckless young child on a smuggling run. The renegades use a bunch of child soldier in life-or-death scenarios. Oviya Pashiri's activities directly fund crime lords like Gonti.
And Han Solo was a smuggler working for Jabba the Hutt.
Our very first introduction to renegades are Pia and Chandra Nalaar sending their reckless young child on a smuggling run. The renegades use a bunch of child soldier in life-or-death scenarios. Oviya Pashiri's activities directly fund crime lords like Gonti.
And Han Solo was a smuggler working for Jabba the Hutt.
Basically, this.
If the Renegades are meant to be moral grey, WotC did a horrible job of conveying it.
That said, for me personally, having not read Chandra's books (or really any MTG book except Kamigawa) I think they've also done a pretty poor job of conveying the Consulate as the bad guys. Yes there are obviously bad guys involved (Tezzeret, Kambal, Baral) but they really come across as simply a corrupt element of the government, not a corrupt government. (Governments by their very nature of power over the people, attract people who want power over other people. There will be at least some degree of corruption in every government, because human nature.)
OK, now that I read the story, I have to say that I really dislike it. In general, I dislike the turn of the events with all the planeswalkers always ganging up on whatever villains on whichever plane they find. Every minor story arc becomes the same. This, coupled with the actual two-block set structure, in my opinion really leaves no space for the story and the many characters (Pia, Balar, Dovin Baan, Rashmi,...) of each setting to unfold and to be developed. Now let's see how they will dismantle Amonkhet...
Besides, in Aether Revolt there is a real lack of pro-consulate cards, isn't it? I just got that there was a revolt, but why? How? How did the other faction react? It isn't at all apparent from the cards, to me.
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|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
Not saying it cant happen but I highly doubt it.
But it will be like the last two blocks, they win but there will be some obscure caveat that makes it not an utter defeat.
I shivered with anticipation.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
On one hand, it's disappointing to read that, yes, the Consulate/Renegade conflict was your standard pulp/jRPG "evil empire" fare. On the other hand, it saved me time reading the Uncharted Realms. Hopefully Amonkhet will be better...
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Are you kidding? The Renegades are utterly spotless. They're goofy teenagers, sports heroes, socialites, lovable grandmothers, etc. Not one of the stories shows them doing anything that could be seen in a morally grey way, much less in a bad light. They're not FALN, the Irish Republican Army, or whatever recent revolutionary comparison would be.
Now the Consulate on the other hand, these guys are stereotypical authoritarian goons, corrupt mafiosos, and ruthless Einsatzgruppen burning down villages. They're even okay with public executions of children, per Chandra's origin story. Bad dudes, clearly, with little redeeming value showcased in the stories. Oh wait, the Aradara Express runs on time...that's all that matters.
The Uncharted Realms offered no evidence of Renegade wrongdoing and plenty of boundaries crossed by the Consulate. If WotC creative didn't want this to be some Manichean, Star Wars kinda deal, then they've done an exceptionally poor job.
This is all true. There was a great opportunity for a moral dilemma in this conflict, and they utterly blew it. As you said, this was almost certainly intentional. Apparently we're now too dumb to understand any storyline with actual complexity and depth, even though we have done exactly that in the past. Congrats, WotC, you figured out that some 12 year olds play this game. That doesn't mean that you have to write stories that appeal exclusively to them, leaving the rest of us to either be disappointed or rationalize the hell out of it so that it might appear adequate. But it isn't.
I might have been able to forgive them for BFZ and SOI, since they involved main conflicts against incomprehensible alien monsters, leaving little room for any sort of moral dilemma or debate. But, given that we hadn't had any conflict that wasn't black and white since KTK block, they should have gone out of their way to compensate for this in Kaladesh. Naturally, they did the opposite. They gave of us another oversimplified, black and white conflict, despite having being completely able to and obligated to produce something better.
Tezzeret and the Consulate could have actually been presented decently, maybe even sympathetically, but no. Heaven forbid any readers of the story actually have to think about what's going on. We can't have that! Instead we get stereotypical and borderline cartoonish antagonists like Ob Nixilis and Tezzeret. Great, just great.
And the next block is Gatewatch vs. Bolas. No way that will devolve into another basic black and white conflict! Absolutely no way!
I don't know how much longer I can keep reading this stuff...
They're not good.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Cōnservātum album delenda est.
C'mon. The presence of children in the story/conflict has a lot less to do with the Renegade's lack of scruples than it does with the story being aimed at kids/teens who, at least according to marketing focus groups, will be more able to relate to younger characters. Making the argument that the Renegades are written such that the reader should see the presence of young Chandra, Kari Zev, or xX420_sHaDoWbLaYdE_MLGXx as a pragmatic use of child soldiers is quite a stretch.
And as far as Gonti and his criminal enterprises go, that's another example of the morality of the Renegade cause, or lack thereof, being completely unsubstantiated through the stories. We're only told that Gonti is some unsavory crime boss; we have no direct evidence of his misdeeds. We're not seeing young Ghirapurians ODing on Aethersmack that Gonti's uh...people cut with Narnam Cobra blood. Nothing is shown that would make the Renegade "alliance" with Gonti seem morally ambiguous.
And Han Solo was a smuggler working for Jabba the Hutt.
Basically, this.
If the Renegades are meant to be moral grey, WotC did a horrible job of conveying it.
That said, for me personally, having not read Chandra's books (or really any MTG book except Kamigawa) I think they've also done a pretty poor job of conveying the Consulate as the bad guys. Yes there are obviously bad guys involved (Tezzeret, Kambal, Baral) but they really come across as simply a corrupt element of the government, not a corrupt government. (Governments by their very nature of power over the people, attract people who want power over other people. There will be at least some degree of corruption in every government, because human nature.)
Besides, in Aether Revolt there is a real lack of pro-consulate cards, isn't it? I just got that there was a revolt, but why? How? How did the other faction react? It isn't at all apparent from the cards, to me.