Fun folk horror story and does show there are still some evil witches/warlocks still a threat.
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“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"
It looks like Olivia wrecks everything by killing the headwitch, then casually invites the cast to her wedding, leading the gang (or at least the story) to the great nuptial celebration/story conclusion.
cuz it’s all about her.
Not gonna lie, I really love to hate that woman.
Just…SOMEBODY STAB HER WITH A STAKE ALREADY!!
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Wizards. listen. 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
So I've been thinking. We got a Green-White and a White-Black angel in Midnight Hunt. Anyone think the two remaining archangels will create/appoint new archangels for the other two colours and we're going to see a White-Blue and a Red-White archangel in Crimson Vow?
My guess is that it has something to do with the Celestus, since that ***** fixes the balance between day and night. The ritual to bring back the day will probably fail based on Olivia's ambush, but it will generate enough light energy to ressurect Liesa.
So I've been thinking. We got a Green-White and a White-Black angel in Midnight Hunt. Anyone think the two remaining archangels will create/appoint new archangels for the other two colours and we're going to see a White-Blue and a Red-White archangel in Crimson Vow?
All depends on how Liesa was retuned, thought I could also see that Bruna and Gisela being corrupted somehow keeps them from retuning.
I wonder if maybe Sorin has something to do with it. Maybe knowing Sigarda can't be controlled by him like Avacyn could and likely she isn't interested in keeping a balance but would kill/cure all the monsters if given the chance Sorin brought back Liesa (since maybe Avacyn is beyond his power as neo-walker) since from what we know of her she seems willing to work with Sorin than Sigarda.
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“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"
So I've been thinking. We got a Green-White and a White-Black angel in Midnight Hunt. Anyone think the two remaining archangels will create/appoint new archangels for the other two colours and we're going to see a White-Blue and a Red-White archangel in Crimson Vow?
All depends on how Liesa was retuned, thought I could also see that Bruna and Gisela being corrupted somehow keeps them from retuning.
I didn't mean to imply I'm expecting Bruna and Gisela to return. Rather, I think we might get new archangels to fill their roles.
Everything's fair game but I hope not. The archangels are special because they were born from essentially Innistrad's big bang, no ordinary angel should be in the same role as such beings and perhaps tellingly there's not a single non-legendary multicoloured angel to be found even as the flights are clearly multicoloured.
My guess is that it has something to do with the Celestus, since that ***** fixes the balance between day and night. The ritual to bring back the day will probably fail based on Olivia's ambush, but it will generate enough light energy to ressurect Liesa.
I like this theory. It’s simple yet perfectly demonstrates how Green can sometimes infer what problems and solutions are without fully understanding both their details and/or consequences.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Wizards. listen. 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
“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"
I understand for brevity’s sake why they can’t go into greater detail on the Gatewatch’s travels through Innistrad but as someone who’s had GM’d a D&D campaign that visited the plane, let me tell ya, a lot can happen over 6-7 days of travelling; especially in a realm of gothic horror, where ‘light only exists to cast a shadow’.
what inns did they stay in? How did the Gatewatch feel returning back? Did they seriously up and leave Thraben a post-apocalyptic death-trap post-Travails, even with a necromancer and pyromancer in tow??
The least they could’ve done was clean up the mess before they left.
Animated and gathered the battle’s dead & given them a fair & fiery Rest.
That would have saved the surviving villages a lot of refugees to manage and take care of and preserved the city and its property for the survivors.
Maybe I’m getting too old for this game but one would think these would be things rational people would do and consider if the rest of the worldbuilding is to be believed.
I’m also disliking how all the planeswalkers seem to know one another without explaining how. Yes they know people who have interacted with the characters in question but wouldn’t that be make for some interesting dialogue and story material.
I’d love to hear of these briefings, even if only through breadcrumbs. It reminds me of the interaction between Nissa and Nahiri on Zendikar.
Nissa witnessed the influence of Nahiri on Zendikar but we never saw Jace conclusively determine that the Travails was instigated by a bitter member of The Three. And if he did, did he tell Nissa??
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Wizards. listen. 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
Okay, this one had some problems, so I'll start with the bad.
-The pacing was wonky, and at times it was apparent the author was cutting corners (the truncated journey to Thraben, for example, as well as the heroes' brisk entry into Markov Manor.)
-Yet at other times the story was needlessly dragged out. The detour to the Betzold House - the very namesake of this chapter - was wholly unnecessary and could have been edited out. That entire thread was just a sidequest within a fetch quest, calling to mind the most pointless excesses of The Rise of Skywalker.
-Similarly, Kaya does not need to be here at all, and the Beltzold Manor tangent seemed to exist purely to give her something to do.
-Sorin's opposition to Arlinn and co., and particularly his seeming indifference to the plight of Innistrad, is never explored and thus feels out of character. Now, Sorin's attitude didn't bother me at first, because I was curious to see how he would explain and justify himself. But we're given nothing; his deeper frame of mind isn't even hinted at. Innistrad has fallen out of balance, and this ought to be a source of great concern to him. He seems to resist the heroes just to provide momentary (and in the end, meaningless) conflict.
- The discovery of the key was resolved so fast that it felt mundane and anticlimactic. Sigarda just showed up and swiftly, painlessly, solved the heroes' quest for them. Nothing was sacrificed. Nothing even felt risked. Nothing new was revealed. This whole chapter turned out to be just a sidequest to retrieve a McGuffin that in the end was just handed to the heroes with minimal effort.
-This story could have - and should have - done at least a little bit to further build up the main threat of Tovolar and his werewolves. Instead of just zapping our heroes from location to location, this would have been a great chance to glimpse some carnage from the increasing werewolf attacks. Yes, this is Gavony, but maybe we could hear the howls of the Dires in the distance or rumors of the rising carnage, so their threat feels like it's growing, even if just in the background. Instead, this chapter does nothing to build up the main conflict of the story, which wouldn't be such a problem except that we only have two or three chapters left.
Now, the good:
- For all the issues I had this time around, I'm still enjoying this author's voice. I like the cold, dark atmosphere she paints, and the way she instills in me a sense of eeriness and disquiet. Her writing style suits this world well, and I hope she returns for Crimson Vow. (Furthermore, she keeps a skilled thumb on Chandra, preventing her from ever ruining the mood - which was always a risk on Innistrad.)
-Arlinn continues to be a good protagonist. I can feel the weight she carries, her gnawing fear and doubt. It helps sell the gravity of this story and makes her feel particularly human, particularly real.
-Liliana's dismissive line about the zombies made me smirk. That's exactly the kind of humor that works in this setting. Liliana wasn't even present, yet with just that one sentence the author shows just how completely she understands the character.
-The constant mentions of the Travails and the havoc they caused was welcome. The events of the last Innistrad block were indeed catastrophic and world-warping, and I'm glad to see their lasting effects touched upon.
All in all, I'm continuing to enjoy this story and can't wait to get back to the main thread. I just think this chapter could have been written in a way that made it feel less like a box-ticking fetch quest, and more relevant to the primary conflict.
I have to say defiantly feels like a lot of characters are getting set up stuff for more stories;
-Adeline and her vampire brother which might be a story note in crimson vow as Adeline and Chandra are said to have upcoming story moments
-Olag mysterious visitor (also nice on having the Frankistein monster "good")
-Wilhelt is indeed Gisa new caller
-Lynde has a cool nod to the Unluckiest
Private Mod Note
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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"
Interesting implication in the New Characters of Midnight Hunt article: since Warren Betzold's first name is spelled "Warren" in that article and "Worrin" in the latest story, the conclusion that comes easiest to me is that Arlinn cannot spell Warren's name correctly. (The article already admits that Gisa has never bothered to learn Wilhelt's name correctly, so presumably, Arlinn could be following suit.)
Aw, it was very easy for me to agree with the assumption that Olag was who Ludevic stitched himself into as he ended up euthanizing himself and becoming a zombie, not Ludevic's last project who he's still alive to manage.
With Florian's blurb, Wizards has successfully managed to make a blood bank for (less violent) vampires sound horrific (at least IMO). I'm impressed.
In particular, Wizards says that Liesa has reformed from mana and her own essence "Perhaps due to her demonic dealings, or perhaps because of the shared nature of angels and demons". The reforming process took centuries, though. Wizards leaving it completely ambiguous and open about whether Bruna and Gisela can return in a similar fashion yet again.
Ludevic's bio also leaves it ambiguous whether his "final creation" involves stitching himself into it and Ludevic becoming a skaab that way...but Olag's earlier bio does not - Ludevic does not become Olag. Shame; the Showcase art version of their shared card was really leaning into the direction of Ludevic becoming Olag.
I love this part of Rem Karolus's bio, though: "Rem does not wish for a glorious end in battle. Let's be clear: Rem very much enjoys living. After all, the longer he lives, the more fights he gets to have. He's just looking for a little challenge." I think a lot of blood knights in fiction think like Rem.
Glad they kept that Ormendahl was corrupted it was a small detail in the art book I was wondering if they keep.
I also like how sections of the church as shifted into more GW after Sigarda.
Liesa come back works for me, most of us guessed she came back similar to how demons can reforms and through her own will she kept her selfhood to boot.
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"
“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"
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We get just a little bit of the Midsommar horror people speculated about the cult, though of course it's not actually the witches.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
*spoilers*
It looks like Olivia wrecks everything by killing the headwitch, then casually invites the cast to her wedding, leading the gang (or at least the story) to the great nuptial celebration/story conclusion.
cuz it’s all about her.
Not gonna lie, I really love to hate that woman.
Just…SOMEBODY STAB HER WITH A STAKE ALREADY!!
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
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/making-magic/burning-midnight-oil-part-1-2021-09-13
important note
Sorry if you guess'd escape from the helvault (or jail break of some sort) your wrong she did infact resurrect somehow.
All depends on how Liesa was retuned, thought I could also see that Bruna and Gisela being corrupted somehow keeps them from retuning.
I wonder if maybe Sorin has something to do with it. Maybe knowing Sigarda can't be controlled by him like Avacyn could and likely she isn't interested in keeping a balance but would kill/cure all the monsters if given the chance Sorin brought back Liesa (since maybe Avacyn is beyond his power as neo-walker) since from what we know of her she seems willing to work with Sorin than Sigarda.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I didn't mean to imply I'm expecting Bruna and Gisela to return. Rather, I think we might get new archangels to fill their roles.
I like this theory. It’s simple yet perfectly demonstrates how Green can sometimes infer what problems and solutions are without fully understanding both their details and/or consequences.
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
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/episode-3-fall-house-betzold-2021-09-15
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
-Liliana Vess, 2021
what inns did they stay in? How did the Gatewatch feel returning back? Did they seriously up and leave Thraben a post-apocalyptic death-trap post-Travails, even with a necromancer and pyromancer in tow??
The least they could’ve done was clean up the mess before they left.
Animated and gathered the battle’s dead & given them a fair & fiery Rest.
That would have saved the surviving villages a lot of refugees to manage and take care of and preserved the city and its property for the survivors.
Maybe I’m getting too old for this game but one would think these would be things rational people would do and consider if the rest of the worldbuilding is to be believed.
I’m also disliking how all the planeswalkers seem to know one another without explaining how. Yes they know people who have interacted with the characters in question but wouldn’t that be make for some interesting dialogue and story material.
I’d love to hear of these briefings, even if only through breadcrumbs. It reminds me of the interaction between Nissa and Nahiri on Zendikar.
Nissa witnessed the influence of Nahiri on Zendikar but we never saw Jace conclusively determine that the Travails was instigated by a bitter member of The Three. And if he did, did he tell Nissa??
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
|| 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 pacing was wonky, and at times it was apparent the author was cutting corners (the truncated journey to Thraben, for example, as well as the heroes' brisk entry into Markov Manor.)
-Yet at other times the story was needlessly dragged out. The detour to the Betzold House - the very namesake of this chapter - was wholly unnecessary and could have been edited out. That entire thread was just a sidequest within a fetch quest, calling to mind the most pointless excesses of The Rise of Skywalker.
-Similarly, Kaya does not need to be here at all, and the Beltzold Manor tangent seemed to exist purely to give her something to do.
-Sorin's opposition to Arlinn and co., and particularly his seeming indifference to the plight of Innistrad, is never explored and thus feels out of character. Now, Sorin's attitude didn't bother me at first, because I was curious to see how he would explain and justify himself. But we're given nothing; his deeper frame of mind isn't even hinted at. Innistrad has fallen out of balance, and this ought to be a source of great concern to him. He seems to resist the heroes just to provide momentary (and in the end, meaningless) conflict.
- The discovery of the key was resolved so fast that it felt mundane and anticlimactic. Sigarda just showed up and swiftly, painlessly, solved the heroes' quest for them. Nothing was sacrificed. Nothing even felt risked. Nothing new was revealed. This whole chapter turned out to be just a sidequest to retrieve a McGuffin that in the end was just handed to the heroes with minimal effort.
-This story could have - and should have - done at least a little bit to further build up the main threat of Tovolar and his werewolves. Instead of just zapping our heroes from location to location, this would have been a great chance to glimpse some carnage from the increasing werewolf attacks. Yes, this is Gavony, but maybe we could hear the howls of the Dires in the distance or rumors of the rising carnage, so their threat feels like it's growing, even if just in the background. Instead, this chapter does nothing to build up the main conflict of the story, which wouldn't be such a problem except that we only have two or three chapters left.
Now, the good:
- For all the issues I had this time around, I'm still enjoying this author's voice. I like the cold, dark atmosphere she paints, and the way she instills in me a sense of eeriness and disquiet. Her writing style suits this world well, and I hope she returns for Crimson Vow. (Furthermore, she keeps a skilled thumb on Chandra, preventing her from ever ruining the mood - which was always a risk on Innistrad.)
-Arlinn continues to be a good protagonist. I can feel the weight she carries, her gnawing fear and doubt. It helps sell the gravity of this story and makes her feel particularly human, particularly real.
-Liliana's dismissive line about the zombies made me smirk. That's exactly the kind of humor that works in this setting. Liliana wasn't even present, yet with just that one sentence the author shows just how completely she understands the character.
-The constant mentions of the Travails and the havoc they caused was welcome. The events of the last Innistrad block were indeed catastrophic and world-warping, and I'm glad to see their lasting effects touched upon.
All in all, I'm continuing to enjoy this story and can't wait to get back to the main thread. I just think this chapter could have been written in a way that made it feel less like a box-ticking fetch quest, and more relevant to the primary conflict.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/new-legends-innistrad-midnight-hunt-2021-09-16
I have to say defiantly feels like a lot of characters are getting set up stuff for more stories;
-Adeline and her vampire brother which might be a story note in crimson vow as Adeline and Chandra are said to have upcoming story moments
-Olag mysterious visitor (also nice on having the Frankistein monster "good")
-Wilhelt is indeed Gisa new caller
-Lynde has a cool nod to the Unluckiest
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
after reading Olag
I...SMELL...PHYREXIAN!
(Somewhat kidding it co7ld be just geralf or whoever lives on innistrad the praetor is the tin foil theory)
and really lynde saids the unluckiest walker is the most irritating person she ever met
now I really want to learn who the walker is now.
|| 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 ||
A true return to form to Magic trailers. Love it.
Aw, it was very easy for me to agree with the assumption that Olag was who Ludevic stitched himself into as he ended up euthanizing himself and becoming a zombie, not Ludevic's last project who he's still alive to manage.
With Florian's blurb, Wizards has successfully managed to make a blood bank for (less violent) vampires sound horrific (at least IMO). I'm impressed.
In particular, Wizards says that Liesa has reformed from mana and her own essence "Perhaps due to her demonic dealings, or perhaps because of the shared nature of angels and demons". The reforming process took centuries, though. Wizards leaving it completely ambiguous and open about whether Bruna and Gisela can return in a similar fashion yet again.
Ludevic's bio also leaves it ambiguous whether his "final creation" involves stitching himself into it and Ludevic becoming a skaab that way...but Olag's earlier bio does not - Ludevic does not become Olag. Shame; the Showcase art version of their shared card was really leaning into the direction of Ludevic becoming Olag.
I love this part of Rem Karolus's bio, though: "Rem does not wish for a glorious end in battle. Let's be clear: Rem very much enjoys living. After all, the longer he lives, the more fights he gets to have. He's just looking for a little challenge." I think a lot of blood knights in fiction think like Rem.
I also like how sections of the church as shifted into more GW after Sigarda.
Liesa come back works for me, most of us guessed she came back similar to how demons can reforms and through her own will she kept her selfhood to boot.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/his-eyes-all-them-2021-09-17
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"