The recent Teysa story got me thinking. Why are all the female Black characters written the same? Liliana, Drana and Teysa are barely distinguishable, even on the superficial levels. They're all centuries-old schemers that manipulate the men around them to do what they want, and talk like teenage girls instead of weary old veterans. You don't see this kind of samey-ness with the male characters, and I feel the writers need to fix this issue going forward.
Tibalt, Koth, Daretti and Sarkhan are all as different as night and day. Lazav and Ashiok, despite both having the same mindfreak secret-stealing schtick are tremendously different as well. Now I don't mean to sound like the typical internet "feminist", but I think more can be done with the Black women, or just the women in general... but wizards will need to throw out any trepidation they might have lingering from Triumph of Ferocity for it to happen.
I pretty much can't will myself to sit through these stories now that I know the ending, and have not read this week's story as a result. That's a complaint, right?
This week's is the best so far.
It's so weird that I've been asking for more Gideon since I read The Purifying Fire last year, and now that I'm getting more Gideon I've lost interest. They're doing a good job with the Gideon character (only thing I disagree with is his retconned sparking; I liked that it was the serenity after battle and deep contemplation that made him awaken his spark), but the thing I'm most interested about with him hasn't gotten much of any focus: his relationship with Chandra. I've little doubt that the most recent story is good, but I just can't care about it.
I pretty much can't will myself to sit through these stories now that I know the ending, and have not read this week's story as a result. That's a complaint, right?
I think Clockworking was mentioned in the Planeswalker's Guide to Alara (with only a vague description of what it was), but it was probably the author's decision to build the story around it.
They'd need to have told him that Ren was a clockworker, which is why he was so powerful. Matt then used that as a sort of plot point.
In truth, clockworking was just a distraction of the story and didn't play a role beyond making really complex battles. Which is partly why I'm okay with it. Tezzeret had to use actual intelligence and planning to overcome Ren's (and fake Bolas') clockworking, so we were SHOWN him being smart. It was a battle of wits, and I really dug that for the character. Infinitely better than the so-called genius Jace that just runs around mind-wiping people.
Clockworking was way too needlessly confusing. That makes me feel like it was Creative that came up with the concept because there's no way Matt would just make that ish up lol.
When it comes to fight scenes, Matthew Stover's one of the best there is. His Star Wars fight scenes are like a sultry massage on the imagery sections of the brain. His fight scenes in Test of Metal are good too.
There are constructive complaints (which is what this thread is for) and there are unconstructive complaints.
Example: Constructive Complaint:
"I don't like how they characterized Nissa's 'secret power' she's been 'suppressing'. It's never been mentioned before, and it makes her sound more green/red (primal, uncontrolled energy) than green/black."
Example: Unconstructive Complaint:
"I should know better by now, but I'm tired of creative yet again retconning Nissa. Which of their stable of idiots wrote this piece of garbage this week. Nissa's never had some secret well of power to suppress. What the ****? It's like Creative doesn't even know how the color pie works."
I'm more disturbed that the poster got a curse word in. Ha.
But anyway, both are essentially saying the same thing to me. Maybe I'm weird. Probably. Most likely.
To me at least, it seems like most of what we get is Unconstructive Complaints that derail every thread. Less enfranchised Vorthosi come into the storyline forum, and instead of seeing us talk about Nissa and Ob fighting (which was a great scene), they find a bunch of angry posts about how much the story sucks. It's not welcoming, and it's not how you build up a community. We're supposed to be the place to celebrate the Vorthos aspects of Magic. We shouldn't be driving away the next generation of Vorthosi just because there are things we don't like. I'm not saying our complaints are invalid, but the constant negativity defeats the very purpose of this forum and turns off new people from coming in.
Yeah, I completely understand that, but I disagree. Discussion's discussion, and if someone feels strongly about something, they're gonna post. If someone likes the story enough, they'll defend it. I mean, I started posting regularly because I saw people saying "Zurgo should die for killing Narset, even though she attacked him!"
Regardless, I'll just post my thoughts on the Uncharted Realms when they're bad here and link the post in the UR thread so readers can choose to access my thoughts. I can be reasonable. Sometimes.
And this is the last thing I'm going to say about the subject, because now I'm derailing the Complaint Thread with a complaint about complaints. It's getting too Complaint-ception in here.
I've for the most part stopped posting in Storyline because of the negativity, and I'm a freaking Mod. That's how bad it is. Every thread that goes up I know is just going to be the same five or six people complaining about how "creative sux" "this was stupid" "I hate creative" "Raaa retcons" etc. They just want to complain.
I skipped over this post for some reason.
Well when the story's good, it gets praise or generates discussion. When it isn't, the missteps generate discussion. Don't blame the posters; blame Creative for having more missteps than good stories.
Does Wizard's have an overseer for UR? I get that having multiple writers makes it easier but we have had some major inconsistencies.
Inconsistencies? Impossible! This new era of storytelling means a streamlined canon!
Man, people from back in May sure had a lot of faith that amounted to nothing. If creative can't respect the past, what would make anyone believe in them going forward?
Nissa, to me, represents the "new era of storytelling". She's essentially a new character now, kicked out Garruk and all her stories are self-important facsimiles of depth and nuance. It's emblematic of what the Creative team considers good writing. Just as Nissa supplanted Garruk, their new plot supplants all the older ones in that the past no longer matters.
Just as Nissa's stories pretend to be deep with their endless "I'm such a terrible person. Oh wait, no I'm not!" so does Creative carry an annoying air of "We're infallible". Take Design, for example. MaRo will freely talk about mistakes they've made, even for things as recent as Dragons of Tarkir. Creative, on the other hand, pretends everything they put out is gold. They never acknowledge when they do something wrong, and they have no voice to the public.
Nissa represents everything wrong with the current story, as far as I'm concerned.
Does that not severely limit discussion? If anything resembling a complaint is formed in a new story happening, it would immediately get relegated to here, and NOBODY is going to go to a thread meant to be just for whiners.
I think this thread should be for dedicated discussions about the quality of the story and shouldn't restrict what types of threads get made.
Obviously, if your thread is "The story sucks, and here's why" you should be posting here, but if your thread is something like "Vampirism" and eventually it goes to talk of the retconned nature of vampires, I don't think it's fair to tell that/those poster(s) to leave the thread and come here.
Tibalt, Koth, Daretti and Sarkhan are all as different as night and day. Lazav and Ashiok, despite both having the same mindfreak secret-stealing schtick are tremendously different as well. Now I don't mean to sound like the typical internet "feminist", but I think more can be done with the Black women, or just the women in general... but wizards will need to throw out any trepidation they might have lingering from Triumph of Ferocity for it to happen.
No, but I have now.
His points on Nissa are the sames ones I've been making since Origins.
Your mods are terrified of me.
It's so weird that I've been asking for more Gideon since I read The Purifying Fire last year, and now that I'm getting more Gideon I've lost interest. They're doing a good job with the Gideon character (only thing I disagree with is his retconned sparking; I liked that it was the serenity after battle and deep contemplation that made him awaken his spark), but the thing I'm most interested about with him hasn't gotten much of any focus: his relationship with Chandra. I've little doubt that the most recent story is good, but I just can't care about it.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Your mods are terrified of me.
They'd need to have told him that Ren was a clockworker, which is why he was so powerful. Matt then used that as a sort of plot point.
In truth, clockworking was just a distraction of the story and didn't play a role beyond making really complex battles. Which is partly why I'm okay with it. Tezzeret had to use actual intelligence and planning to overcome Ren's (and fake Bolas') clockworking, so we were SHOWN him being smart. It was a battle of wits, and I really dug that for the character. Infinitely better than the so-called genius Jace that just runs around mind-wiping people.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Wasn't Brady the one in charge back then?
And a lot of the members of the current creative team weren't around back then.
Your mods are terrified of me.
I'm more disturbed that the poster got a curse word in. Ha.
But anyway, both are essentially saying the same thing to me. Maybe I'm weird. Probably. Most likely.
Yeah, I completely understand that, but I disagree. Discussion's discussion, and if someone feels strongly about something, they're gonna post. If someone likes the story enough, they'll defend it. I mean, I started posting regularly because I saw people saying "Zurgo should die for killing Narset, even though she attacked him!"
Regardless, I'll just post my thoughts on the Uncharted Realms when they're bad here and link the post in the UR thread so readers can choose to access my thoughts. I can be reasonable. Sometimes.
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM
Your mods are terrified of me.
I skipped over this post for some reason.
Well when the story's good, it gets praise or generates discussion. When it isn't, the missteps generate discussion. Don't blame the posters; blame Creative for having more missteps than good stories.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Inconsistencies? Impossible! This new era of storytelling means a streamlined canon!
Man, people from back in May sure had a lot of faith that amounted to nothing. If creative can't respect the past, what would make anyone believe in them going forward?
Your mods are terrified of me.
Nissa, to me, represents the "new era of storytelling". She's essentially a new character now, kicked out Garruk and all her stories are self-important facsimiles of depth and nuance. It's emblematic of what the Creative team considers good writing. Just as Nissa supplanted Garruk, their new plot supplants all the older ones in that the past no longer matters.
Just as Nissa's stories pretend to be deep with their endless "I'm such a terrible person. Oh wait, no I'm not!" so does Creative carry an annoying air of "We're infallible". Take Design, for example. MaRo will freely talk about mistakes they've made, even for things as recent as Dragons of Tarkir. Creative, on the other hand, pretends everything they put out is gold. They never acknowledge when they do something wrong, and they have no voice to the public.
Nissa represents everything wrong with the current story, as far as I'm concerned.
Your mods are terrified of me.
I think this thread should be for dedicated discussions about the quality of the story and shouldn't restrict what types of threads get made.
Obviously, if your thread is "The story sucks, and here's why" you should be posting here, but if your thread is something like "Vampirism" and eventually it goes to talk of the retconned nature of vampires, I don't think it's fair to tell that/those poster(s) to leave the thread and come here.
Your mods are terrified of me.
--------------------------------
So would threads like "Would the Eldrazi losing be bad writing" be just a post here rather than its own topic?
Your mods are terrified of me.