I like Cassandra's style, it paints vivid picture in my head with her accurate description, comparison, and physical stimuli. As Trinite0 said, I'd vote Cassandra to write for Phyrexia related stories as well. Once again, I think the agenda WotC bestowed on writers might not have been entirely fair, asking them to create a certain "ending" without enough time to flush out the character. The vampires were great, since they are minor and had earned their due, Vivien being major character deserve more layout.
Or Innistrad. Shame they didn't do the author things during SoI that would have been right up her ally.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Having largely enjoyed the first two installments, despite agreeing with some of the criticisms of Vivien's character, this chapter has brought me around closer to the negative viewpoint. Looks like it was all pushing toward thinly-justified eco-terrorism the whole time. And also apparently she could have planeswalked out of the torture cells earlier, and just didn't. Okay.
I've been defending the writing style, but by this chapter was wearing thin on me, too. Stuff like:
"I'm really not sure what the protocol is on this." Unbidden, a smile anchored itself. "But I keep feeling like some measure of informational exposition is necessary."
So now the shamans of Skalla talk like Azorius lawyers, I guess.
And:
"Someone once described the death of a nation to me as a 'mercy.' I didn't really understand his point then, or where he was coming from. But now, now I find myself in perfect comprehension." Vivien drew lazy figure eights with her fingers, magic beginning to collect in her palm, spokes of glittering power. "Anyway. This is a mercy. This is the last that you will see of Luneau. By this time tomorrow, the wilds will have this place again and you will be nothing but a memory to be forgotten."
I certainly hope they're deliberately pitching her as a villain, because that's certainly what this bit of dialogue does. I don't know if she's quoting Nicol Bolas or someone else, But it's something he certainly might say (with a bit of a G twist).
That being said, I'm down for non-heroic neo-walkers, and even a return to walkers in general being almost bad guys by default. But I'd rather they come off as smart and reflective, even in their villainy, rather than monomaniacal and kinda dumb.
I also agree with Lord Mektar above, that Vivien's personality and behavior come off as more R in nature, or RG. She seems to really enjoy watching violence, and has more regard for raw power than natural order.
But hey, I guess when you manage to use your -8 Ult, it feels pretty good to swing with everything.
Having largely enjoyed the first two installments, despite agreeing with some of the criticisms of Vivien's character, this chapter has brought me around closer to the negative viewpoint. Looks like it was all pushing toward thinly-justified eco-terrorism the whole time. And also apparently she could have planeswalked out of the torture cells earlier, and just didn't. Okay.
I've been defending the writing style, but by this chapter was wearing thin on me, too. Stuff like:
"I'm really not sure what the protocol is on this." Unbidden, a smile anchored itself. "But I keep feeling like some measure of informational exposition is necessary."
So now the shamans of Skalla talk like Azorius lawyers, I guess.
And:
"Someone once described the death of a nation to me as a 'mercy.' I didn't really understand his point then, or where he was coming from. But now, now I find myself in perfect comprehension." Vivien drew lazy figure eights with her fingers, magic beginning to collect in her palm, spokes of glittering power. "Anyway. This is a mercy. This is the last that you will see of Luneau. By this time tomorrow, the wilds will have this place again and you will be nothing but a memory to be forgotten."
I certainly hope they're deliberately pitching her as a villain, because that's certainly what this bit of dialogue does. I don't know if she's quoting Nicol Bolas or someone else, But it's something he certainly might say (with a bit of a G twist).
That being said, I'm down for non-heroic neo-walkers, and even a return to walkers in general being almost bad guys by default. But I'd rather they come off as smart and reflective, even in their villainy, rather than monomaniacal and kinda dumb.
I also agree with Lord Mektar above, that Vivien's personality and behavior come off as more R in nature, or RG. She seems to really enjoy watching violence, and has more regard for raw power than natural order.
But hey, I guess when you manage to use your -8 Ult, it feels pretty good to swing with everything.
Raw power is more of a mono G thing than mono R. I'm really seeing very little R in her character except on points that green and red share. Both value emotion, both value action and directness over planning and discretion. Neither like being constrained, and neither like pompous intellectuals or social elites (of note, I thought her suddenly changing her manner of speech during her evil monologue was intended to mock the vampires and the way they speak, specifically how they feign politeness and civility and madk malice with powdered words. She was telling them that she was going to kill most of them and destroy their city, and was mimicking their fake manners as a final **** you to show them how little she thought of it, in a very green way).
But red doesn't make connections the way green does, nor does it value them. Red is also not tied to nature unless tied to green, and then only tied to the destructive side. While Vivien is clearly destructive, she also values the nurturing and interconnected side of nature. Her destruction of the city is also indirect, she empowers the animals to take it down and to do what they will with it. A red character would destroy the city but want the peasants to rebuild from the ashes, a green one returns it to nature, because while the peasants are victims of the civilization they are also tainted by it, and thus die beside their masters. The personal connections she makes with the animals, even those she kills, empathy for their pain and her spiritual understanding of the process behind the arkbow, that's all green. And as impetuous as she is still far more patient than a red character would be.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Red can have a connection to nature but its more a connection to natural forces then animals except Dragons lol.
Red does value connections though but more to your tribe, your family, your friends then nature in general.
I want to give WotC the benefit of doubt and assume that Vivien is indeed supposed to be a grey character at best, if not a full-blown villain. Note that her stories were told from her perspective. Of course she is presented as being in the right. How else would you write a story centered around a villain? Have her twist her moustaches and muse how evil she is while letting out a manic laugh? We got Bolas for that.
Hopefully, hers is one of those stories that is retroactively viewed more positively later on, when people know where her arc and character are headed.
Having all that said I do agree that having her roflstomp the vampires all alone seems a bit... lame. As I said last time, I was really hoping for Vivien to meet her match, maybe going as far as being overpowered despite her arkbow, because the vampries aren't dumb and have prepared contingency measures, leaving her the only option to planeswalk away with unfinished business as well as the realization she is nowhere near the level to take on Bolas.
But whatever I don't hate the stories as much as some others here and sometimes I wonder if all that vitriol that is being thrown around frequently is justified...
I want to give WotC the benefit of doubt and assume that Vivien is indeed supposed to be a grey character at best
Cause they deserve it after Huatli? They did this same garbage with her and the vampires in Ixalan proper.
How else would you write a story centered around a villain? Have her twist her moustaches and muse how evil she is while letting out a manic laugh?
*Looks at Vona's Story* Nah they would never just write a story centered around a villain and have them just be obviously evil.
We got Bolas for that.
At least Bolas manages to be somewhat entertaining once in a while.
when people know where her arc and character are headed.
We know where this is heading, her replacing Garruk as the "non Gatewatch Mono-green good planeswalker" who makes Captain Planet look like a Nuanced and deep character.
because the vampries aren't dumb and have prepared contingency measures,
If you thought that was gonna happen, you didn't read the "alternate ending" to Ixalan, the Dusk Legion are comedic relief who get stepped on by Monty Python feet.
But whatever I don't hate the stories as much as some others here and sometimes I wonder if all that vitriol that is being thrown around frequently is justified...
I dunno about anyone else's but I feel mine is quite justified, The first sentence of the set was literally an unimportant side character -Telling- us how "ZOMGAWESOME!!!" Viven is. Not even showing us her skills in talking to animals, just a guy we don't know saying "This character is powerful, you should be in awe of her power."
And then we go into The Legion of Dusk, who are once again shown with all the great Shades of Grey they were shown with in Ixalan showing that WOTC learned absolutely nothing from their mistakes the first time around, so it ends with the exact thing we just saw. The "One with nature" character unleashing the beasts of the wild to teach those evil Vampires a lesson.
These stories were a pointless retread of what Huatli did, with none of the more interesting parts that made Huatli remotely bearable.
The two quibbles I have here is that this is the first time that we've seen vampire society at home and it's pretty damn functional. We see nothing that indicates the non vampires are abused beyond what the lower classes would endure pretty much anywhere (being servants and working crap jobs), except for the blood trade, which we learn is supplied in lieu of work and the vamps don't take enough from anyone to do harm. The vamps are elitist jagoffs, but not much more so than rich nobles anywhere. The worst they do in this story is abuse dinosaurs and torture terrorists, definitely bad but in a pedestrian way compared to what villains typically get up to in these stories.
I agree with Flisch that this is a series of stories that can be redeemed if Vivien truly is a villian. If she isn't, then the stories are terrible. Even if she is, they'll only be ok at best for their predictability and how easily, and lazily, the vamps are dealt with, along with style issues.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I want to give WotC the benefit of doubt and assume that Vivien is indeed supposed to be a grey character at best
Cause they deserve it after Huatli? They did this same garbage with her and the vampires in Ixalan proper.
No, because it's one thing to remain sceptical if they can pull it off and actually complaining before the thing being complained about happened yet.
We don't know what WotC's intentions are. Their track record isn't good, but to blame them for doing things they haven't done and we don't know will do is not something I want to engage in.
Plus, having written a story with an unreliable narrator myself I know how disappointing it is if everyone takes the protagonist's thoughts at face value without questioning their bias. I have nothing to lose from giving them the benefit of doubt, so why should I disincentivise WotC from writing stories with twists by not giving them the opportunity to actually have a twist.
How else would you write a story centered around a villain? Have her twist her moustaches and muse how evil she is while letting out a manic laugh?
*Looks at Vona's Story* Nah they would never just write a story centered around a villain and have them just be obviously evil.
Vivien is not Bolas or Vona. Are you saying every villain should kick puppies to prove how evil they are? To each their own, but I find those villains who don't see themselves as such to be the most engaging.
when people know where her arc and character are headed.
We know where this is heading, her replacing Garruk as the "non Gatewatch Mono-green good planeswalker" who makes Captain Planet look like a Nuanced and deep character.
No you don't know. You assume. There is currently nothing pointing either way. She has gripe with Bolas, but that doesn't necessarily mean she will join the gatewatch.
Again, you are complaining about something that has not even happened.
because the vampries aren't dumb and have prepared contingency measures,
If you thought that was gonna happen, you didn't read the "alternate ending" to Ixalan, the Dusk Legion are comedic relief who get stepped on by Monty Python feet.
Ixalan was written as a posse. I don't agree with the stylistic choice of Ixalan and I find it was one of the least engaging ones in a while, but Vivien's story was not a posse. As such I fail to see how this is relevant.
But whatever I don't hate the stories as much as some others here and sometimes I wonder if all that vitriol that is being thrown around frequently is justified...
I dunno about anyone else's but I feel mine is quite justified, The first sentence of the set was literally an unimportant side character -Telling- us how "ZOMGAWESOME!!!" Viven is. Not even showing us her skills in talking to animals, just a guy we don't know saying "This character is powerful, you should be in awe of her power."
And then we go into The Legion of Dusk, who are once again shown with all the great Shades of Grey they were shown with in Ixalan showing that WOTC learned absolutely nothing from their mistakes the first time around, so it ends with the exact thing we just saw. The "One with nature" character unleashing the beasts of the wild to teach those evil Vampires a lesson.
These stories were a pointless retread of what Huatli did, with none of the more interesting parts that made Huatli remotely bearable.
The vampire Forgothisname's comment told us more about the vampire than Vivien. She could talk to eels. That's not very exciting to us, but his mannerism of showering her in euphemisms was a red thread that wound itself throughout the first story and sharply contrasted him to Vivien, which set up their antagonistic stance towards each other. The opening paragraph was characterizing the vampire and at the same time set the mood for the Vivien-vampires dynamic that evolved over the three stories.
I'm totally on board with being annoyed at Vivien overpowering an entire city full of immortals. And I am completely on board with being annoyed at having yet another "I hate all civilization rawr" green character (though none of the planeswalkers we have had so far were as antagonistic towards society as Vivien. Even Garruk was more of a loner than anything else.) but it seems like you're grasping at straws in order to "prove" the story was *****.
I certainly think Vivien comes off as more interesting and believable than Huatli did, despite the flaws in this story. That's a fairly low bar, though. Khaw's work, whatever its qualities, is far better than the casualty-of-committee embarrassment that was the non-Jace-Vraska parts of the Ixalan story.
I certainly think Vivien comes off as more interesting and believable than Huatli did, despite the flaws in this story. That's a fairly low bar, though. Khaw's work, whatever its qualities, is far better than the casualty-of-committee embarrassment that was the non-Jace-Vraska parts of the Ixalan story.
Here I'll vehemently disagree. I read all of the Ixalan stories end to end, even the bad ones. I read the first Vivien story, skimmed over many parts of the second, and couldn't even force myself to finish the third.
It's a matter of taste, certainly, and thus subjective as to a better or worse comparison, but at least for some of us Khaw's work is simply unpalatable.
I certainly think Vivien comes off as more interesting and believable than Huatli did, despite the flaws in this story. That's a fairly low bar, though. Khaw's work, whatever its qualities, is far better than the casualty-of-committee embarrassment that was the non-Jace-Vraska parts of the Ixalan story.
Here I'll vehemently disagree. I read all of the Ixalan stories end to end, even the bad ones. I read the first Vivien story, skimmed over many parts of the second, and couldn't even force myself to finish the third.
It's a matter of taste, certainly, and thus subjective as to a better or worse comparison, but at least for some of us Khaw's work is simply unpalatable.
That's perfectly fair. But she can maintain a consistent verb tense, and not copy/paste the same sentence into two different places, so in my book she beats the Ixalan spread.
I certainly think Vivien comes off as more interesting and believable than Huatli did, despite the flaws in this story. That's a fairly low bar, though. Khaw's work, whatever its qualities, is far better than the casualty-of-committee embarrassment that was the non-Jace-Vraska parts of the Ixalan story.
Here I'll vehemently disagree. I read all of the Ixalan stories end to end, even the bad ones. I read the first Vivien story, skimmed over many parts of the second, and couldn't even force myself to finish the third.
It's a matter of taste, certainly, and thus subjective as to a better or worse comparison, but at least for some of us Khaw's work is simply unpalatable.
That's perfectly fair. But she can maintain a consistent verb tense, and not copy/paste the same sentence into two different places, so in my book she beats the Ixalan spread.
Perhaps it's simply a measure of my involvement with certain fanfiction communities that grammatical errors and poor formatting, while annoying, simply aren't deal breakers for me (unless they're egregious).
Especially if I am getting it for free...honestly bad plot ideas, poor characterization and loose continuity are far bigger concerns when it comes to writing for me especially WOTC's current ouput.
No, because it's one thing to remain sceptical if they can pull it off and actually complaining before the thing being complained about happened yet.
We don't know what WotC's intentions are. Their track record isn't good, but to blame them for doing things they haven't done and we don't know will do is not something I want to engage in.
Plus, having written a story with an unreliable narrator myself I know how disappointing it is if everyone takes the protagonist's thoughts at face value without questioning their bias. I have nothing to lose from giving them the benefit of doubt, so why should I disincentivise WotC from writing stories with twists by not giving them the opportunity to actually have a twist.
Except we know that she isn't "unreliable" we have seen ONE Ixalan vampire who wasn't evil, and she isn't ever actually shown in the wrong.
Vivien is not Bolas or Vona. Are you saying every villain should kick puppies to prove how evil they are? To each their own, but I find those villains who don't see themselves as such to be the most engaging.
No she isn't because she is a "Good Guy" so all the evil crap she does is just hand waved as "The Right Thing" which is worse than puppy kicking to me, it is the same half hearted moral whitewashing they do with Liliana.
No you don't know. You assume. There is currently nothing pointing either way. She has gripe with Bolas, but that doesn't necessarily mean she will join the gatewatch.
Again, you are complaining about something that has not even happened.
Did I say she was going to join the Gatewatch? I don't remotely think she will because they have a Green Centeric Planeswalker in it already, and since Garruk has gone to Golgari as an antagonist they have a whole in their roster of "Mono Green Walker who isn't Gatewatch." just because she is a Good Guy doesn't mean she is gonna jump on the Oath Train.
However Blizzard is still gonna shove her down our throats as the new Garruk.
[quote]But whatever I don't hate the stories as much as some others here and sometimes I wonder if all that vitriol that is being thrown around frequently is justified...
I dunno about anyone else's but I feel mine is quite justified, The first sentence of the set was literally an unimportant side character -Telling- us how "ZOMGAWESOME!!!" Viven is. Not even showing us her skills in talking to animals, just a guy we don't know saying "This character is powerful, you should be in awe of her power."
And then we go into The Legion of Dusk, who are once again shown with all the great Shades of Grey they were shown with in Ixalan showing that WOTC learned absolutely nothing from their mistakes the first time around, so it ends with the exact thing we just saw. The "One with nature" character unleashing the beasts of the wild to teach those evil Vampires a lesson.
These stories were a pointless retread of what Huatli did, with none of the more interesting parts that made Huatli remotely bearable.
The vampire Forgothisname's comment told us more about the vampire than Vivien. She could talk to eels. That's not very exciting to us, but his mannerism of showering her in euphemisms was a red thread that wound itself throughout the first story and sharply contrasted him to Vivien, which set up their antagonistic stance towards each other. The opening paragraph was characterizing the vampire and at the same time set the mood for the Vivien-vampires dynamic that evolved over the three stories.
I'm totally on board with being annoyed at Vivien overpowering an entire city full of immortals. And I am completely on board with being annoyed at having yet another "I hate all civilization rawr" green character (though none of the planeswalkers we have had so far were as antagonistic towards society as Vivien. Even Garruk was more of a loner than anything else.) but it seems like you're grasping at straws in order to "prove" the story was *****.
You don't have to grasp at straws to recognize poor writing, poor story, and poor character. I often give authors some space to showcase what they can do. I often have critiques, but I can usually find things to compliment or takeaways that I'm satisfied with. This story contributed almost nothing of value (to me). It may be the first time since Wintermute that I felt reading an MtG story was a complete waste of my time. Even Gideon whipping at an Eldrazi Titan had some redeeming factors in that chapter.
Writing is an art. Thus, often, the interpretation of the art is subjective. My criticisms are both objective and subjective, though. It would be grasping at straws to find some metric by which these three chapters were even 51% good, to put it over the top into 'good story' territory.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
|| 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 ||
Or Innistrad. Shame they didn't do the author things during SoI that would have been right up her ally.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I've been defending the writing style, but by this chapter was wearing thin on me, too. Stuff like:
So now the shamans of Skalla talk like Azorius lawyers, I guess.
And:
I certainly hope they're deliberately pitching her as a villain, because that's certainly what this bit of dialogue does. I don't know if she's quoting Nicol Bolas or someone else, But it's something he certainly might say (with a bit of a G twist).
That being said, I'm down for non-heroic neo-walkers, and even a return to walkers in general being almost bad guys by default. But I'd rather they come off as smart and reflective, even in their villainy, rather than monomaniacal and kinda dumb.
I also agree with Lord Mektar above, that Vivien's personality and behavior come off as more R in nature, or RG. She seems to really enjoy watching violence, and has more regard for raw power than natural order.
But hey, I guess when you manage to use your -8 Ult, it feels pretty good to swing with everything.
So what are we getting for the next Month? Nothing?
Raw power is more of a mono G thing than mono R. I'm really seeing very little R in her character except on points that green and red share. Both value emotion, both value action and directness over planning and discretion. Neither like being constrained, and neither like pompous intellectuals or social elites (of note, I thought her suddenly changing her manner of speech during her evil monologue was intended to mock the vampires and the way they speak, specifically how they feign politeness and civility and madk malice with powdered words. She was telling them that she was going to kill most of them and destroy their city, and was mimicking their fake manners as a final **** you to show them how little she thought of it, in a very green way).
But red doesn't make connections the way green does, nor does it value them. Red is also not tied to nature unless tied to green, and then only tied to the destructive side. While Vivien is clearly destructive, she also values the nurturing and interconnected side of nature. Her destruction of the city is also indirect, she empowers the animals to take it down and to do what they will with it. A red character would destroy the city but want the peasants to rebuild from the ashes, a green one returns it to nature, because while the peasants are victims of the civilization they are also tainted by it, and thus die beside their masters. The personal connections she makes with the animals, even those she kills, empathy for their pain and her spiritual understanding of the process behind the arkbow, that's all green. And as impetuous as she is still far more patient than a red character would be.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Red does value connections though but more to your tribe, your family, your friends then nature in general.
Spoiled all all the major plot points before the stories start! Just like every other set!
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Hopefully, hers is one of those stories that is retroactively viewed more positively later on, when people know where her arc and character are headed.
Having all that said I do agree that having her roflstomp the vampires all alone seems a bit... lame. As I said last time, I was really hoping for Vivien to meet her match, maybe going as far as being overpowered despite her arkbow, because the vampries aren't dumb and have prepared contingency measures, leaving her the only option to planeswalk away with unfinished business as well as the realization she is nowhere near the level to take on Bolas.
But whatever I don't hate the stories as much as some others here and sometimes I wonder if all that vitriol that is being thrown around frequently is justified...
Cause they deserve it after Huatli? They did this same garbage with her and the vampires in Ixalan proper.
*Looks at Vona's Story* Nah they would never just write a story centered around a villain and have them just be obviously evil.
At least Bolas manages to be somewhat entertaining once in a while.
We know where this is heading, her replacing Garruk as the "non Gatewatch Mono-green good planeswalker" who makes Captain Planet look like a Nuanced and deep character.
If you thought that was gonna happen, you didn't read the "alternate ending" to Ixalan, the Dusk Legion are comedic relief who get stepped on by Monty Python feet.
I dunno about anyone else's but I feel mine is quite justified, The first sentence of the set was literally an unimportant side character -Telling- us how "ZOMGAWESOME!!!" Viven is. Not even showing us her skills in talking to animals, just a guy we don't know saying "This character is powerful, you should be in awe of her power."
And then we go into The Legion of Dusk, who are once again shown with all the great Shades of Grey they were shown with in Ixalan showing that WOTC learned absolutely nothing from their mistakes the first time around, so it ends with the exact thing we just saw. The "One with nature" character unleashing the beasts of the wild to teach those evil Vampires a lesson.
These stories were a pointless retread of what Huatli did, with none of the more interesting parts that made Huatli remotely bearable.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
I agree with Flisch that this is a series of stories that can be redeemed if Vivien truly is a villian. If she isn't, then the stories are terrible. Even if she is, they'll only be ok at best for their predictability and how easily, and lazily, the vamps are dealt with, along with style issues.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Vivien straight doesn't have that, which is a shame if they're aiming for her to be anything less than a villain.
No, because it's one thing to remain sceptical if they can pull it off and actually complaining before the thing being complained about happened yet.
We don't know what WotC's intentions are. Their track record isn't good, but to blame them for doing things they haven't done and we don't know will do is not something I want to engage in.
Plus, having written a story with an unreliable narrator myself I know how disappointing it is if everyone takes the protagonist's thoughts at face value without questioning their bias. I have nothing to lose from giving them the benefit of doubt, so why should I disincentivise WotC from writing stories with twists by not giving them the opportunity to actually have a twist.
Vivien is not Bolas or Vona. Are you saying every villain should kick puppies to prove how evil they are? To each their own, but I find those villains who don't see themselves as such to be the most engaging.
No you don't know. You assume. There is currently nothing pointing either way. She has gripe with Bolas, but that doesn't necessarily mean she will join the gatewatch.
Again, you are complaining about something that has not even happened.
Ixalan was written as a posse. I don't agree with the stylistic choice of Ixalan and I find it was one of the least engaging ones in a while, but Vivien's story was not a posse. As such I fail to see how this is relevant.
The vampire Forgothisname's comment told us more about the vampire than Vivien. She could talk to eels. That's not very exciting to us, but his mannerism of showering her in euphemisms was a red thread that wound itself throughout the first story and sharply contrasted him to Vivien, which set up their antagonistic stance towards each other. The opening paragraph was characterizing the vampire and at the same time set the mood for the Vivien-vampires dynamic that evolved over the three stories.
I'm totally on board with being annoyed at Vivien overpowering an entire city full of immortals. And I am completely on board with being annoyed at having yet another "I hate all civilization rawr" green character (though none of the planeswalkers we have had so far were as antagonistic towards society as Vivien. Even Garruk was more of a loner than anything else.) but it seems like you're grasping at straws in order to "prove" the story was *****.
It's a matter of taste, certainly, and thus subjective as to a better or worse comparison, but at least for some of us Khaw's work is simply unpalatable.
Except we know that she isn't "unreliable" we have seen ONE Ixalan vampire who wasn't evil, and she isn't ever actually shown in the wrong.
No she isn't because she is a "Good Guy" so all the evil crap she does is just hand waved as "The Right Thing" which is worse than puppy kicking to me, it is the same half hearted moral whitewashing they do with Liliana.
Did I say she was going to join the Gatewatch? I don't remotely think she will because they have a Green Centeric Planeswalker in it already, and since Garruk has gone to Golgari as an antagonist they have a whole in their roster of "Mono Green Walker who isn't Gatewatch." just because she is a Good Guy doesn't mean she is gonna jump on the Oath Train.
However Blizzard is still gonna shove her down our throats as the new Garruk.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
You don't have to grasp at straws to recognize poor writing, poor story, and poor character. I often give authors some space to showcase what they can do. I often have critiques, but I can usually find things to compliment or takeaways that I'm satisfied with. This story contributed almost nothing of value (to me). It may be the first time since Wintermute that I felt reading an MtG story was a complete waste of my time. Even Gideon whipping at an Eldrazi Titan had some redeeming factors in that chapter.
Writing is an art. Thus, often, the interpretation of the art is subjective. My criticisms are both objective and subjective, though. It would be grasping at straws to find some metric by which these three chapters were even 51% good, to put it over the top into 'good story' territory.