From the sneak peak/interview with the author she mentions it hasn't been very long since Skalla was destroyed and this seems to be set present day or close to present day, since it looks like we are Ixalan after the Sun was taken, so post conflux seems right.
Wouldn't this imply that Skalla was destroyed post-Mending? Where would Bolas draw the power to destroy an entire plane after the Mending? He needed to rush as his power was diminishing to defeat the Amonkhet God's and create his new society. This tells me he doesn't have planes-destroying power anymore.
The Skalla timeline is a bit messy to me.
Which is why I brought up the Alara Maelstrom 5 posts ago
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"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
From the sneak peak/interview with the author she mentions it hasn't been very long since Skalla was destroyed and this seems to be set present day or close to present day, since it looks like we are Ixalan after the Sun was taken, so post conflux seems right.
Wouldn't this imply that Skalla was destroyed post-Mending? Where would Bolas draw the power to destroy an entire plane after the Mending? He needed to rush as his power was diminishing to defeat the Amonkhet God's and create his new society. This tells me he doesn't have planes-destroying power anymore.
The Skalla timeline is a bit messy to me.
Which is why I brought up the Alara Maelstrom 5 posts ago
Bringing it up doesn't explain anything. Alara would only have been destroyed if Bolas succeeded with the Maelstrom. In the absence of that success, Alara would not have been (and wasn't) destroyed. Which means there's more evidence to say he doesn't have planes-destroying power post-Mending than there is that says he does. He had to spend time and effort to bring the shards closer to each other to even create the situation where he could have a shot at absorbing the Maelstrom. Ajani stopped him, and he didn't absorb it.
-The arc bow captures the essence of dying creature and the spirit it makes will be the creature at its prime and only a Skalla druid can preform it.
-If anyone has read Emperor Mage by Tamara Pierce this story screams that as Vivien causes destruction with the Dino and frees the other animals.
-Luneau has its own running of the Bulls but with dinosaurs of course.
-Vivien destroys Luneau by letting the animals over take and now decided to go to Dominaria for dragons.
Overall I'm enjoy the stories but I wished we gotten more on Vivien herself. These stories just showed what we kinda already knew, she hates cities and has animal magic. I get that she is recovering a bit from Skalla now but I wish that would have been a better focus for her story. I won't say these are filler since we don't know what role Vivien will be playing in later stories but overall there wasn't much that adds on the main story. I heard a few theories that due to art work for part 2 Vivien might join Chandra in the comics so maybe this the set up for that.
Bringing it up doesn't explain anything. Alara would only have been destroyed if Bolas succeeded with the Maelstrom. In the absence of that success, Alara would not have been (and wasn't) destroyed. Which means there's more evidence to say he doesn't have planes-destroying power post-Mending than there is that says he does. He had to spend time and effort to bring the shards closer to each other to even create the situation where he could have a shot at absorbing the Maelstrom. Ajani stopped him, and he didn't absorb it.
So Skalla remains messy.
That is all wrong. Bolas didn't bring the shards together, the conflux was gonna happen anyways and Bolas being Bolas twisted this event to his own end and set the shards to war against each other to feed the maelstrom.
Bolas did absorb the maelstrom and he was gonna use his new power to destroy Alara for fun. Ajani begged Bolas to just leave since Bolas had what he came for. When Bolas refused Ajani absorbed the little bit of maelstrom Bolas hadn't, made the avatar clone of Bolas and drove him off. I can't find my copy of Alara Unbroken at the moment but you can look thru Jay13x archive trap as source; https://www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/49576-the-world-of-alara-part-iv-alara-reborn
“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"
This final chapter was better written than the first two. Still not great, but a definite improvement.
Also, are we supposed to feel like Vivien is the villain here? Sure, some of the vamps were doing bad things, but this society seems more like a bunch of immortal pompous jerks than solid villains. They torture animals, but so do a bunch of our own socities.
So she uses animals for her own purposes (makes them bigger, lets them attack and destroy), which is a different strain of using animals for what you want, much like the vamps using them for entertainment. She seems to even change their species at one point? There's wholesale killing and destruction. She seems to lay low the entire island, vamp and human alike, and destroys business and homes of presumably innocent people. She relishes it. If this were Bolas and a society that attacked dragons, wouldn't Bolas be seen as the villain? (As he was in the other Core stories) In what way is Vivien 'good'?
Also, we still don't know jack about Skalla. And so I don't care at all about Skalla.
This final chapter was better written than the first two. Still not great, but a definite improvement.
Also, are we supposed to feel like Vivien is the villain here? Sure, some of the vamps were doing bad things, but this society seems more like a bunch of immortal pompous jerks than solid villains. They torture animals, but so do a bunch of our own socities.
So she uses animals for her own purposes (makes them bigger, lets them attack and destroy), which is a different strain of using animals for what you want, much like the vamps using them for entertainment. She seems to even change their species at one point? There's wholesale killing and destruction. She seems to lay low the entire island, vamp and human alike, and destroys business and homes of presumably innocent people. She relishes it. If this were Bolas and a society that attacked dragons, wouldn't Bolas be seen as the villain? (As he was in the other Core stories) In what way is Vivien 'good'?
Also, we still don't know jack about Skalla. And so I don't care at all about Skalla.
This final chapter was better written than the first two. Still not great, but a definite improvement.
Also, are we supposed to feel like Vivien is the villain here? Sure, some of the vamps were doing bad things, but this society seems more like a bunch of immortal pompous jerks than solid villains. They torture animals, but so do a bunch of our own socities.
So she uses animals for her own purposes (makes them bigger, lets them attack and destroy), which is a different strain of using animals for what you want, much like the vamps using them for entertainment. She seems to even change their species at one point? There's wholesale killing and destruction. She seems to lay low the entire island, vamp and human alike, and destroys business and homes of presumably innocent people. She relishes it. If this were Bolas and a society that attacked dragons, wouldn't Bolas be seen as the villain? (As he was in the other Core stories) In what way is Vivien 'good'?
Also, we still don't know jack about Skalla. And so I don't care at all about Skalla.
You're right, she's not good. The author uses vocabulary and torture to make her less bad than the baron and nobility - but she isn't a hero. The story straight up said some of the animals were killing each other upon release. She also does release them on essentially innocents that we can assume up to this point know little/nothing of the the darker side of what's going down in the heart of the city.
Humans in oppression may be happy to see a reckoning on their oppressors sure, but as a race we're not dumb enough to run out into the middle of a stampede that includes carnivores - especially some 3x larger than their normal size.
This story is a step backwards for me and I have zero investment in skalla or Vivian. I get they are writing for multiple target audiences but the underlying story just throws logic out the window at some points.
Welp, time to join the dissenting voices. After this final installment I'm quite displeased with the new character and the story itself. Florid language and violence are a combination that I'm not particularly into, especially if that violence doesn't track with any kind of reason beyond sensationalism.
I love a good story of nature rising up to destroy those that do it wrong, but the story was stepping into some weird PETA-level masturbational fiction. There was nothing to love about Vivien and the only character that one could really hate was The Baron himself (whose death wasn't even all that satisfying). They definitely got me with descriptions of vivisection (doubtlessly one of the most evil things you can do to a living being), but beyond that, I couldn't care and was just all around disappointed.
This final chapter was better written than the first two. Still not great, but a definite improvement.
Also, are we supposed to feel like Vivien is the villain here? Sure, some of the vamps were doing bad things, but this society seems more like a bunch of immortal pompous jerks than solid villains. They torture animals, but so do a bunch of our own socities.
So she uses animals for her own purposes (makes them bigger, lets them attack and destroy), which is a different strain of using animals for what you want, much like the vamps using them for entertainment. She seems to even change their species at one point? There's wholesale killing and destruction. She seems to lay low the entire island, vamp and human alike, and destroys business and homes of presumably innocent people. She relishes it. If this were Bolas and a society that attacked dragons, wouldn't Bolas be seen as the villain? (As he was in the other Core stories) In what way is Vivien 'good'?
Also, we still don't know jack about Skalla. And so I don't care at all about Skalla.
Vivien is insufferable as a "hero", but she works well if viewed as a mono green villain. Her actions in this story are the actions of a villain. There were no heroes, the Baron was a villian but Vivien was a bigger one. The Baron ilwas an unethical scientist who tortures animals and prisoners. We can't even say he tortured innocent people, because we only see him torture Vivien, who had committed terrorism and murdered people. Whenever we have speculation on this forum as to what a mono green villain would look like, it always ends up looking like Vivien in this story arc. An eco terrorist who tears down civilizations and kills people for pedestrian transgressions againts nature (and yes, a zoo, even an evil zoo, is a pedestrian transgression. The Baron didn't even rise to the level of a captain planet villain, he was more Wild Kratz villain tier). The whole Skalla thing gives her some motivation that makes her somewhat more interesting, a bit like Nahiri except without the excuse of being insane.
I'm not sure they intended Vivien to be a villain, but they've certainly ended up there, and it's going to be really hard to get away from it without retcons.
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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 don't think she is suppose to be a Villain. She reminds me of Garruk before Lili. But her actions and motivations can go that way hence why they sent Viv to a plane where she look good.
I seen a number of people wonder if Vivien is meant to be a seen as a villain/ anti-hero and, like Nahiri, could be an ally or enemy to the gatewatch depending on what the situation at hand is.
Still Bolas what a god at time management apparently had enough time to snuff out Skalla after Maelstrom while juggling his other balls.
Well there was a gap of time between Mirrodin 2 and Kaladesh (a year or so worth of time) where he disappeared lore-wise. A theory a few people have said that I believe is he was looking for a plane to build a new plane traveling device which is why he showed interested in Mirrodin, Skalla and Kaladesh. Could be he was looking into Skalla, received word that Tezzeret had the bridge and nuked Skalla since he didn't need them anymore.
“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"
My point is when WOTC made Vivian I don't think they thought anyone would see her as a villain. However, if it was intentional then I applaud the change going back to the Oldwalker times when there were more shades of grey with different objectives is much preferred to a generic team of good guys like the Gatewatch running around. Especially in a post Bolas Era where there is no unified foe.
I like a bloody revolution as anyone else, but the description of a civilisation crumbling and being treated as a good thing sickens me.
Vivien has the potential to be a great Green villain, she definitely stepped up a notch in terms of motivations and I love both her powerset and how she sees the multiverse, very scientific and thus ironic. But unfortunately the narrative treats the eco-terrorist as the hero.
There's got to be a bit of black in Vivien. Using things/animals for her own purposes, actions bordering on the immoral, her goals vs. well-being of others. Unlike Sarkhan, who sought out dragons to worship them, Vivien is seeking them out solely on their usefulness. She hunts down a dinosaur for whatever reason to give over to a group? Why? Then she starts slaughtering them and using animal spirits to do it? Then she slaughters even more people while manipulating other living things?
Started reading it, couldn't (didn't want to) finish it. I flat out dislike the character, the writing style, and the plotline. I went into it frankly not even wanting to read it after parts 1 and 2 (I saw it this morning and put it off all the way till tonight because I just didn't even really care at this point), and absolutely nothing in it changed my mind or motivated me to complete it.
I really hope they're not intending to foist her off on us as a hero or part of the Gatewatch. I couldn't (didn't want to) finish one story with her, the last thing I want is MORE of them.
There's got to be a bit of black in Vivien. Using things/animals for her own purposes, actions bordering on the immoral, her goals vs. well-being of others. Unlike Sarkhan, who sought out dragons to worship them, Vivien is seeking them out solely on their usefulness. She hunts down a dinosaur for whatever reason to give over to a group? Why? Then she starts slaughtering them and using animal spirits to do it? Then she slaughters even more people while manipulating other living things?
Seems pretty B/G to me.
Nah, mono green covers her behavior just fine, survival of the fittest, nature over civilization, etc. She isn't using things just to have power over them, she has practical reasons that advance a goal that isn't just self aggrandizement. She wants to kill Bolas for destroying her plane, and she needs powerful support to do it. Yes, she kills the animals that get stored in the arkbow, she's a hunter, and hunters are mono green just fine. Their deaths serve a purpose, they preserve the animals in a way, not just their form but also their spirit in a sort of gentle slumber unless called upon. The whole thing seems to have served some sort of ritual purpose among the shamans of Skalla. The process certainly isn't her collecting the animals to gain personal power. She also expressed a clear revulsion to many black aligned concepts, such as death, undeath, cruelty, forms of power other than natural ones such as strength, luxury, wealth, etc.
She is what mono green villain looks like.
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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 don't think she is suppose to be a Villain. She reminds me of Garruk before Lili. But her actions and motivations can go that way hence why they sent Viv to a plane where she look good.
She shares some qualities with Garruk, though Garruk was really just focused on being a hunter and didn't have any desire to go burning cities down or chasing revenge. His whole motivation for going after Lili was getting rid of the curse she put on him when they happened to cross paths. Without that, Garruk's schtick doesn't really lead to villainy. Viv, though, is pretty far up her own ass, which is a really good way to start down the villain route.
I disagree that Ixalan is a plane where she can look good. I actually think this made her look really, really bad. Unless she approaches most civilizations this way, then her disdain for vampires may have made her more capricious in her destruction of the city. Perhaps she goes to Ravnica and starts a minor riot, or blows up a consulate office on pre revolt Kaladesh or something, but here she thinks that destroying the entire city, civilians included, is a good idea. It paints her in the worst possible light. Maybe against Innistrad vampires, but Ixalan vamps are downright reasonable compared to her. Until she starts killing them, they not only do not have a problem with her, they fete her, and this knowing she isn't a vampire.
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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!
Gee, I wonder not only how many uninvolved vampires, but also innocent human servants died in that stampede. It kind of bores me how the vampire society isn't even given a modicum of nuance, they're just all horrible people. Granted, this was Vivien's perspective, but still.
Overall, in this story Vivien as a character seemed rather bland to me. My interest was piqued when it as mentioned that the arkbow takes in the essence of dying animals, because that would mean that you'd have to kill an animal with the arkbow first before absorbing it. Could've been an interesting contradiction for a person with views as extreme as Vivien to work through. Back when art of her was first spoiled, people called her the Pokemon trainer PW and ramifications similar to how Pokemon catching and training would hypothetically work in real life (having to weaken/hurt them first, the whole dogfighting thing) is something that could be explored through a character like Vivien. But I guess we'll never get to see that that because she was already conveniently given a bow full of animals due to Skalla's obliteration by Bolas and even the Monstrosaur she obtained in this story was killed by another person so she didn't have to do it herself.
There's got to be a bit of black in Vivien. Using things/animals for her own purposes, actions bordering on the immoral, her goals vs. well-being of others. Unlike Sarkhan, who sought out dragons to worship them, Vivien is seeking them out solely on their usefulness. She hunts down a dinosaur for whatever reason to give over to a group? Why? Then she starts slaughtering them and using animal spirits to do it? Then she slaughters even more people while manipulating other living things?
Seems pretty B/G to me.
Just cause she is an evil jerk doesn't mean she is in the black part of the pie, She is doing what she does "Because Muh Natures" that has nothing to do with Black.
I couldn't even finish reading. This entire Viven Reid segment is probably the worst MTG lore I've ever read. It managed to capture everything that I hate about MTG lore at once. The writing quality felt like fanfiction. It was exhausting to get through, and I eventually stopped trying. The motives were shallow and pointless. The character, if developed at all, turned out to be generic and loathsome. I found myself rooting for the vampires and Luneau the whole time, because of how one-dimensional and bland the main character was, that I'd have sooner seen her dead for there to be one interesting stake in the story. And frankly, Luneau looked a whole lot more interesting than Viven Reid or Skalla ever will. Worst of all, it made zero sense. So what, Viven had her plane destroyed by a malicious creature, so she goes around now doing the same to other planes, and considers herself doing justice, while resenting her plane's fate all the while? Viven just seems like a very stupid character, like an angry little girl's fantasy about getting revenge on her parents for spanking her after wetting the bed again.
The most grave of crimes committed by these three stories however, is the single most critical complaint I have in MTG lore. A single, ignorant, meaningless mortal Planeswalker can level an entire developed city in a world foreign to them, full of powerful mages that have built a ruling society of conquerors and explorers backed by a monarchy and church that are somehow helpless, because Planeswalkers. It's really a wonder that, considering how many Planeswalkers are out there, that we don't have more Viven Reids out here, traveling from plane to plane destroying entire civilizations, creating more of themselves. Perhaps we'll get lucky and see her humbling more planar overlords and laying waste to entire continents next time, because Planeswalker.
At this point, I'm just going to say "because Planeswalker" to critique horrible stories like these. I can't believe we departed from Kate Elliott's brilliant work to something this reductive.
I think you're all thinking about Vivien from the wrong angle. The author, overall, failed at conveying Vivien's character as shown on the cards from the set. It's not that she's portrayed as a villain when she's supposed to be the protagonist. Rather, she comes across as a very red character when she's supposed to be green. Apart from the actual spells she casts, which are all in green's color pie, this Vivien is red through and through. She's driven almost solely by emotion, not any universal values, acting out violently even when it's very much against her best interests. Her hatred of Bolas and the vampires stem from her own personal feelings on Skalla and her own morals respectively. A green character might level a city like Luneau to return it to nature, Vivien just did it because they took away her bow and her freedom. If anything, she reminds me of Koth, in terms of story arc and personality. Heck, we know Ms. Khaw is a fan of New Phyrexia, she probably wanted to write a story about Koth but was forced into this instead.
Which is why I brought up the Alara Maelstrom 5 posts ago
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Bringing it up doesn't explain anything. Alara would only have been destroyed if Bolas succeeded with the Maelstrom. In the absence of that success, Alara would not have been (and wasn't) destroyed. Which means there's more evidence to say he doesn't have planes-destroying power post-Mending than there is that says he does. He had to spend time and effort to bring the shards closer to each other to even create the situation where he could have a shot at absorbing the Maelstrom. Ajani stopped him, and he didn't absorb it.
So Skalla remains messy.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/unbowed-part-3-2018-09-07
-The arc bow captures the essence of dying creature and the spirit it makes will be the creature at its prime and only a Skalla druid can preform it.
-If anyone has read Emperor Mage by Tamara Pierce this story screams that as Vivien causes destruction with the Dino and frees the other animals.
-Luneau has its own running of the Bulls but with dinosaurs of course.
-Vivien destroys Luneau by letting the animals over take and now decided to go to Dominaria for dragons.
Overall I'm enjoy the stories but I wished we gotten more on Vivien herself. These stories just showed what we kinda already knew, she hates cities and has animal magic. I get that she is recovering a bit from Skalla now but I wish that would have been a better focus for her story. I won't say these are filler since we don't know what role Vivien will be playing in later stories but overall there wasn't much that adds on the main story. I heard a few theories that due to art work for part 2 Vivien might join Chandra in the comics so maybe this the set up for that.
That is all wrong. Bolas didn't bring the shards together, the conflux was gonna happen anyways and Bolas being Bolas twisted this event to his own end and set the shards to war against each other to feed the maelstrom.
Bolas did absorb the maelstrom and he was gonna use his new power to destroy Alara for fun. Ajani begged Bolas to just leave since Bolas had what he came for. When Bolas refused Ajani absorbed the little bit of maelstrom Bolas hadn't, made the avatar clone of Bolas and drove him off. I can't find my copy of Alara Unbroken at the moment but you can look thru Jay13x archive trap as source;
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/49576-the-world-of-alara-part-iv-alara-reborn
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Still Bolas what a god at time management apparently had enough time to snuff out Skalla after Maelstrom while juggling his other balls.
Also, are we supposed to feel like Vivien is the villain here? Sure, some of the vamps were doing bad things, but this society seems more like a bunch of immortal pompous jerks than solid villains. They torture animals, but so do a bunch of our own socities.
So she uses animals for her own purposes (makes them bigger, lets them attack and destroy), which is a different strain of using animals for what you want, much like the vamps using them for entertainment. She seems to even change their species at one point? There's wholesale killing and destruction. She seems to lay low the entire island, vamp and human alike, and destroys business and homes of presumably innocent people. She relishes it. If this were Bolas and a society that attacked dragons, wouldn't Bolas be seen as the villain? (As he was in the other Core stories) In what way is Vivien 'good'?
Also, we still don't know jack about Skalla. And so I don't care at all about Skalla.
You're right, she's not good. The author uses vocabulary and torture to make her less bad than the baron and nobility - but she isn't a hero. The story straight up said some of the animals were killing each other upon release. She also does release them on essentially innocents that we can assume up to this point know little/nothing of the the darker side of what's going down in the heart of the city.
Humans in oppression may be happy to see a reckoning on their oppressors sure, but as a race we're not dumb enough to run out into the middle of a stampede that includes carnivores - especially some 3x larger than their normal size.
This story is a step backwards for me and I have zero investment in skalla or Vivian. I get they are writing for multiple target audiences but the underlying story just throws logic out the window at some points.
I love a good story of nature rising up to destroy those that do it wrong, but the story was stepping into some weird PETA-level masturbational fiction. There was nothing to love about Vivien and the only character that one could really hate was The Baron himself (whose death wasn't even all that satisfying). They definitely got me with descriptions of vivisection (doubtlessly one of the most evil things you can do to a living being), but beyond that, I couldn't care and was just all around disappointed.
Vivien is insufferable as a "hero", but she works well if viewed as a mono green villain. Her actions in this story are the actions of a villain. There were no heroes, the Baron was a villian but Vivien was a bigger one. The Baron ilwas an unethical scientist who tortures animals and prisoners. We can't even say he tortured innocent people, because we only see him torture Vivien, who had committed terrorism and murdered people. Whenever we have speculation on this forum as to what a mono green villain would look like, it always ends up looking like Vivien in this story arc. An eco terrorist who tears down civilizations and kills people for pedestrian transgressions againts nature (and yes, a zoo, even an evil zoo, is a pedestrian transgression. The Baron didn't even rise to the level of a captain planet villain, he was more Wild Kratz villain tier). The whole Skalla thing gives her some motivation that makes her somewhat more interesting, a bit like Nahiri except without the excuse of being insane.
I'm not sure they intended Vivien to be a villain, but they've certainly ended up there, and it's going to be really hard to get away from it without retcons.
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!
Well there was a gap of time between Mirrodin 2 and Kaladesh (a year or so worth of time) where he disappeared lore-wise. A theory a few people have said that I believe is he was looking for a plane to build a new plane traveling device which is why he showed interested in Mirrodin, Skalla and Kaladesh. Could be he was looking into Skalla, received word that Tezzeret had the bridge and nuked Skalla since he didn't need them anymore.
EDIT: Guilds of Ravnica online stories will start October 10th.
Source http://wizardsmagic.tumblr.com/post/177838063191/unbowed-part-3#notes
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Vivien has the potential to be a great Green villain, she definitely stepped up a notch in terms of motivations and I love both her powerset and how she sees the multiverse, very scientific and thus ironic. But unfortunately the narrative treats the eco-terrorist as the hero.
Seems pretty B/G to me.
I really hope they're not intending to foist her off on us as a hero or part of the Gatewatch. I couldn't (didn't want to) finish one story with her, the last thing I want is MORE of them.
Nah, mono green covers her behavior just fine, survival of the fittest, nature over civilization, etc. She isn't using things just to have power over them, she has practical reasons that advance a goal that isn't just self aggrandizement. She wants to kill Bolas for destroying her plane, and she needs powerful support to do it. Yes, she kills the animals that get stored in the arkbow, she's a hunter, and hunters are mono green just fine. Their deaths serve a purpose, they preserve the animals in a way, not just their form but also their spirit in a sort of gentle slumber unless called upon. The whole thing seems to have served some sort of ritual purpose among the shamans of Skalla. The process certainly isn't her collecting the animals to gain personal power. She also expressed a clear revulsion to many black aligned concepts, such as death, undeath, cruelty, forms of power other than natural ones such as strength, luxury, wealth, etc.
She is what mono green villain looks like.
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!
She shares some qualities with Garruk, though Garruk was really just focused on being a hunter and didn't have any desire to go burning cities down or chasing revenge. His whole motivation for going after Lili was getting rid of the curse she put on him when they happened to cross paths. Without that, Garruk's schtick doesn't really lead to villainy. Viv, though, is pretty far up her own ass, which is a really good way to start down the villain route.
I disagree that Ixalan is a plane where she can look good. I actually think this made her look really, really bad. Unless she approaches most civilizations this way, then her disdain for vampires may have made her more capricious in her destruction of the city. Perhaps she goes to Ravnica and starts a minor riot, or blows up a consulate office on pre revolt Kaladesh or something, but here she thinks that destroying the entire city, civilians included, is a good idea. It paints her in the worst possible light. Maybe against Innistrad vampires, but Ixalan vamps are downright reasonable compared to her. Until she starts killing them, they not only do not have a problem with her, they fete her, and this knowing she isn't a vampire.
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!
Overall, in this story Vivien as a character seemed rather bland to me. My interest was piqued when it as mentioned that the arkbow takes in the essence of dying animals, because that would mean that you'd have to kill an animal with the arkbow first before absorbing it. Could've been an interesting contradiction for a person with views as extreme as Vivien to work through. Back when art of her was first spoiled, people called her the Pokemon trainer PW and ramifications similar to how Pokemon catching and training would hypothetically work in real life (having to weaken/hurt them first, the whole dogfighting thing) is something that could be explored through a character like Vivien. But I guess we'll never get to see that that because she was already conveniently given a bow full of animals due to Skalla's obliteration by Bolas and even the Monstrosaur she obtained in this story was killed by another person so she didn't have to do it herself.
Just cause she is an evil jerk doesn't mean she is in the black part of the pie, She is doing what she does "Because Muh Natures" that has nothing to do with Black.
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
The most grave of crimes committed by these three stories however, is the single most critical complaint I have in MTG lore. A single, ignorant, meaningless mortal Planeswalker can level an entire developed city in a world foreign to them, full of powerful mages that have built a ruling society of conquerors and explorers backed by a monarchy and church that are somehow helpless, because Planeswalkers. It's really a wonder that, considering how many Planeswalkers are out there, that we don't have more Viven Reids out here, traveling from plane to plane destroying entire civilizations, creating more of themselves. Perhaps we'll get lucky and see her humbling more planar overlords and laying waste to entire continents next time, because Planeswalker.
At this point, I'm just going to say "because Planeswalker" to critique horrible stories like these. I can't believe we departed from Kate Elliott's brilliant work to something this reductive.
|| 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 ||
Honestly, having read literally thousands of fanfics, I can assure you that a great many of them are, in fact, much better written.
|| 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 ||
There is one problem with this.
She is supposed to be a good guy, in this she came off as well a Llanowar Elf who shoots first and asks later.
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