In general just can’t agree with that stance. If what happened with the Obzedat is too easy then you really are just setting it up so Legendary creatures are infinitely more powerful than Walkers, which is absurd.
Yeah, how dare those millennias-old creatures be more powerful than some 20-years-old walker who was just born with a special power because the plot said so?
This is exactly it. And it applies to all Planeswalkers too.
If gods, guild leaders, souls of planes, Eldrazi, leading archangels, etc. are pushovers, if these characters have nothing they need to learn or struggle against except other Planeswalkers, the environments are pointless, as is their ability to travel. Being the main character doesn't mean eclipsing all other characters and rendering the settings pointless.
When PWs overthrew the guild leaders I just rolled my eyes. I don't even see the point of having these worlds if it's the same story told on them all.
Well, I am willing to read the Kaldheim story and give it a chance. Perhaps I am wrong, and this will be different. But if PWs just come in like Mary Sues against gods and their enemies then wtf.
I have to admit I kinda agree with Tiro in principle. Not about Kaya specifically but about how planeswalkers are treated in the story.
Focusing on only one instance of planeswalker-environment interaction leads a bit to a distorted picture. In a vacuum planeswalkers being able to kill/overshadow/supplant native legendary creatures is fine. It's not a problem, but it happens again and again and again. If a certain pattern happens too often, it stops being a story event and starts being a way the narrative is approached by the authors. Even War of the Spark would have been fine, even though three of the guilds were usurped by extra-planar agents. In fact it would have served as a major contrast to the other stories and underline Nicol Bolas' influence. It could have served to enhance the story. Except stuff like this happens constantly. Even if the planeswalkers weren't necessarily the means to solve the story, like in Shadows over Innistrad, they still overshadowed everything and everyone else.
I think the main reason why I loved the Amonkhet storyline so much despite it being qualitatively kinda average was because for once the planeswalkers were more of a backdrop, only there to lead up to the next storyline, and the real drama was how the environment reacted to the plot.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: Magic storytelling is best when it is environmental. It just doesn't lend itself well to character-centric storytelling, simply due to the game's own internal structure.
I understand why Magic does it. And the success seems to speak in their favour. But that does not make it a good approach to storytelling (which, fair, is only secondary to the game) and it also doesn't mean I have to like it.
This is exactly my point, good analysis.
For the record, I have criticized Gideon and Ulamog encounter the most, I only mention Kaya now due to the apprehension of which brand new character she's here to kill as soon as we're introduced to them. Wasting a character just to make a PW look like a badass (in general) and compromising a plane's environment/flavor in the process for such minimal, pointless gain is bad storytelling. Either PWs are pre-mending power, or they're not. The latter makes for better stories, if it's actually executed that way.
For the record I'm annoyed by how the majority of PWs are written, not just Kaya. I don't like them being OP in all the stories, undermining the mending, risks and consequences. Not asking for GOT-level purging of the cast or anything, just moderation and stakes. At the very least planar overlords should be respected. People on Ravnica don't spend generations in debt to the Obzedat or fearing their wrath when a PW can come in and one-shot them easily. It cheapens the story. Not directly related but Innistrad doesn't interest me anymore without Avacyn as a contrast. Legendary creatures may not be the face of the brand but losing them costs a plane its identity in part, so they shouldn't just be disposal in place of PWs.
Yeah, can’t relate to the people complaining. Kaya barely has shown up to get fleshed out. Here maybe she will have a chance where it isn’t really just her being used by other people hopefully. It honestly just reads like a no win situation as you can’t flesh out a character without giving them some spotlight, but you’re going to complain about them getting some spotlight to do what you say needs to happen.
Almost as if its not Kaya character people don't like about her.
^^^^ That is a reasonable suspicion.
I'd also like to point out how strategic and normatively sound it was of WotC to make Kaya the face of the 'vikings' set.
Both ancient Norse fandom generally, and Asatru as a religious and spiritual movement more specifically, have become more and more closely associated with white supremacist movements.
Kaya as Kaldeim's face planeswalker and lead protagonist is brilliant: Not only does her anti-undead power-suit and philosophy work well with ancient Norse beliefs and themes re: the afterlife (honourable death, Valhalla, separation between realms)-
-but also, as a well-written character who is also a Women of Colour, Kaya as Kaldeim's face planeswalker also signals greater commitment on WotC's part at combatting racial discrimination and tropes.
For the record, I'm not at all arguing that WotC's choice of Kaya as Kaldheim's face planeswalker was solely informed by her status as a Women of Colour. As mentioned by myself and many others, Kaya's particular interest in maintaining stability in a plane's afterlife process works well in a set that may have as a main plotpoint, the cosmological discontinuity of life and death. Maybe people are no longer being shepherded to their rightful afterlives by the Valkyrie and other divine servitors? Maybe someone who was supposed to die escaped their fate?
WotC would of course have to be careful at sufficiently differentiating such plot from Theros: Beyond Death but I am confident in thier ability to do so.
This isn't personal toward you - but people have cried wolf so much about "racism" on the heels of America's first black president (that I voted for twice) so much that frankly, I'm worried it's the left that will compromise America's racial progress, and not the fears they've either resurrected or invented.
Kaya is disliked because she killed off a famous Legendary character, a guild leader, that was a facet of Ravnica's core identity. We can see Kaya on any plane, but there is only one Obzedat.
She and her power suite were used to break a fundamental Planeswalking rule. Jiang wasn't even a break in my opinion, but she certainly was.
She was a major player in the most loathed, most abhorrent, most compromising aspect of the lore ever - the War of the Spark novels. And the greatest criticism of the series was in fact undermining a very Left-leaning ideal of embracing the LGBT community and progress.
She is an assassin, and the apprehension that she has returned to kill off another major character on our very first visit and introduction to this plane is a valid concern. Especially when we're first introduced to these characters.
Literally none of this has to do with her race or gender, even for those that want to be about that, against all reason, reality and odds, because the media told them it must.
It's just stupid writing. Planeswalkers show up on foreign worlds ready to show everyone who is boss. An entire unique plane is just a back drop for them instead of its own dimension. They should be exploring new worlds, learning from its mages, delving into new magic, etc. Not showing up and flexing on the turf of others. Planar overloads like gods, Avacyn, Progenitus, Eldrazi, etc. are unfathomable opponents, if they are just pushovers for Planeswalkers, then everything beneath them is as well, such as hydras, baloths, etc. at which point, literally nothing matters and there are no stakes.
Gideon whipping Ulamog back is the highest offense of this.
I’m sick of Planeswalkers period. They aren’t written like explorers that learn from visiting worlds, but like OP Mary Sues that somehow how every advantage on the turfs of others. I like how Ixalan Jace and Vraska and Tamiyo overall were written, however.
If gods, guild leaders, souls of planes, Eldrazi, leading archangels, etc. are pushovers, if these characters have nothing they need to learn or struggle against except other Planeswalkers, the environments are pointless, as is their ability to travel. Being the main character doesn't mean eclipsing all other characters and rendering the settings pointless.
When PWs overthrew the guild leaders I just rolled my eyes. I don't even see the point of having these worlds if it's the same story told on them all.
Well, I am willing to read the Kaldheim story and give it a chance. Perhaps I am wrong, and this will be different. But if PWs just come in like Mary Sues against gods and their enemies then wtf.
|| 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 ||
For the record, I have criticized Gideon and Ulamog encounter the most, I only mention Kaya now due to the apprehension of which brand new character she's here to kill as soon as we're introduced to them. Wasting a character just to make a PW look like a badass (in general) and compromising a plane's environment/flavor in the process for such minimal, pointless gain is bad storytelling. Either PWs are pre-mending power, or they're not. The latter makes for better stories, if it's actually executed that way.
|| 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 ||
|| 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 ||
Kaya is disliked because she killed off a famous Legendary character, a guild leader, that was a facet of Ravnica's core identity. We can see Kaya on any plane, but there is only one Obzedat.
She and her power suite were used to break a fundamental Planeswalking rule. Jiang wasn't even a break in my opinion, but she certainly was.
She was a major player in the most loathed, most abhorrent, most compromising aspect of the lore ever - the War of the Spark novels. And the greatest criticism of the series was in fact undermining a very Left-leaning ideal of embracing the LGBT community and progress.
She is an assassin, and the apprehension that she has returned to kill off another major character on our very first visit and introduction to this plane is a valid concern. Especially when we're first introduced to these characters.
Literally none of this has to do with her race or gender, even for those that want to be about that, against all reason, reality and odds, because the media told them it must.
|| 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 ||
Gideon whipping Ulamog back is the highest offense of this.
|| 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 ||
|| 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 ||
|| 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 ||