My main gripe with the story as a whole was that the themes didn't really line up with what we were shown, and not even in a subversive way. Like, we were told at several times that both Nahiri and Nissa are the guardians of Zendikar. They were always, to some degree, considered equals in this. We know that Nahiri was a literal guardian of Zendikar for a huge part of it's Eldrazi era, so she actually has a pretty good claim. But then Nissa just usurps her without imo even earning it. She just talks to elementals. What makes her special. Why is Nissa the voice of Zendikar and not "yet another green aligned shaman". I know the answer is marketing, but it's annoying in-universe. There's thousands if not millions of green shamans on Zendikar, but for some reason Nissa is The Chosen One.
It goes a bit further. As Nahiri says on her story card, she commands the "bones" of Zendikar, which is a pretty neat foil thematically to Nissa. Not only are both concerned about the future of Zendikar, but both command a domain of Zendikar itself. Thematically they were equals. It would have been okay if this equality would have been acknowledged while moving the "true guardian" status to the other. Something like, "Nahiri was the guardian but now Zendikar needs a new guardian bla bla bla". Instead Nahiri is presented as an impostor, which is a slap in the face not only to her character but to the story in general.
If you set up the themes like this either make Nahiri have a "fall out" with Zendikar, or make her aware by herself that she is no longer the guardian of Zendikar. Or have them both be guardians and make both aware that Zendikar needs both its untamedness, but its people also need some safe havens. Maybe have Nahiri use the lithoform core to create roil-free hotspots around centers of civilization, while the roil continues elsewhere.
*throws hands up* There's so many things they could have done and they just did this. Urgh.
(Disclaimer: I do not blame the author in this. Wizards has a pretty bad track record with giving authors enough time and resources to produce good content, so until we get evidence that this was indeed the author's fault, I'll default (see what I did there) to Wizards.)
The core turns things into ash when used by Nahiri, so that implies that Zendikar and its inhabitants would suffer from her rebuilding ... but for my taste, this all relies on too much conjecture.
The problem is that we never really got any sort of explanation or hint as to how the lithoform core worked. I assumed, petrifying everything was just how it worked. But then Nissa uses it and does, like, the opposite? Did releasing the piece of Zendikar's soul inside cause all the damage to heal in an instant? That raises even more questions. Mainly, how much more can we devalue the threat of the Eldrazi if their damage to an entire plane can be undone in the blink of an eye, after they've already been destroyed by a large fireball.
Instead of the Obuun side story (which is set during the time when the Kor empire was a thing, but doesn't really explore how the world was different back then), they could've done a side story with a young, pre-spark Nahiri as the protagonist, showing us everyday life in the Kor empire and pre-Roil Zendikar in general.
I would have loved this. Why was this not a thing. Rude.
To a lesser degree, Nissa's attachment to the elementals also feels like something that was exaggerated for the sake of the story. I'm less hung up on this because Nissa has been a tree-hugger for a long time now, but it still would've been nice to get a bit deeper into her past. (Maybe there is some lore/story stuff I'm not aware of here?)
It was also very confusing. Like were the individual elementals actually entities that could die? Were they separate beings, like Kami that existed outside of their physical form? Or were they just manifestations of Zendikar's will, as elementals are usually understood? I mean, Ashaya was presented as the soul of Zendikar, but then what are the other elementals? Nahiri's reaction to elementals dying was justified, based on everything we used to know about elementals, but then Nissa goes "Noooo, you kiwwed it, it was my fwiend!" and we're left to wonder when that became a thing and whether or not Nissa is a reliable character. (Potshot theory of the day: Nissa has lost her mind after her encounter with Emrakul on Innistrad and is slowly descending into madness. You heard it here first folks.)
Also, the story spotlight cards have become pretty pointless. They're more like "here's something that happens in the story, in the vaguest possible sense" cards now.
They're also actively misleading. Lithoform Blight being a card, let alone a story spotlight makes it look as if it was, like a huge plot point in the story.
We get literally half a paragraph by Akiri seeing it and shrugging her shoulders before moving on. Like, at the very least use it as an argument by Nissa during her fight with Nahiri?
I mean-
*pinches nose*
Sigh.
Also, is it really that difficult to keep scale consistent in these stories? Ashaya is shown on its card to be enormous, but it can step on Jace and even has to bring down its arms to pin down Jace's? Like how big is it? The size of a lighthouse or the size of a person? Pick one.
Even if the hedrons overlapped with the Skyclaves: As someone mentioned earlier, Nahiri crafted them in 40 years. Which means that even if they had been around for a while during the time of the story, they were still somewhat of a new development. They really shouldn't have been refered to just in passing. They are the icon of Zendikar's change into a prison.
Also, showing a hedron less Zendikar, or indeed a completely different Zendikar (surely the roil must have wreaked some havoc on Zendikar landmarks. Keep the names of the continents but replace the Guum Wilds with a new location that stopped existing due to the Eldrazi devastation or the roil later on. There, massively cheap resemblance of worldbuilding. Urgh.) would have gone a long way to show just how much Zendikar has transformed, which would tie the story thematically into the current story arc, even if it is otherwise completely separate.
Not to mention that even if the hedrons were semi-regular thing at the time (maybe it was year 39 of Nahiri crafting Hedrons), there is some narrative obligation to still call it out and direct some attention to it, given, again, how imortant they are to Zendikar's design and history.
Argh! *rips out hair in frustration*
Otherwise this story didn't do much for me either. What was the point of it again? Obuun connecting with his ancestors? Why is this a noteworthy thing given that that appears to be the norm for the elves there? I was hoping we'd learn why Obuun became the spiritual leader (har har, see what I did there) for the elves, as per his snippet, but no. If this was a no-name "average Joe" character, whose purpose is to introduce us to the culture of the elves, sure, but this is a legendary character whose one-paragraph story snippet is more interesting than the entirety of this story. Uhhh...
I'm also not a fan of the writing style of these Zendikar stories. It's just way too verbose for no need. Like, I get it, not every writer subscribes to the brevity is key philosophy (though they should, don't at me) but at least during action scenes it serves to sell an atmosphere better than flowery verbose language. Instead we spend a paragraph describing what the air smells like and what the ground felt like while Obuun was being thrown around. Ok. It feels too much like the writer wants to flex their vocabulary and sentence crafting ability in the reader's face.
Also, another thing I was annoyed at from Obuun's character snippet, that I hoped this story would address, but wasn't is:
In a world where spirits are a thing and hang around for a long time (like Obuun) and are apparently directly involved in everyday affairs (like Obuun), how can the true identity of the Eldrazi be lost? That makes no sense.
Anyway, despite what I made it sound like, it wasn't a terrible story. It was okay, but like the first one, nothing I'd reread. My frustration mainly stems from the fact how easily you could improve this story substantially. But whatever. I'm just glad the online stories are back, like genuinely. I'm harsh because I care, see. :^)
Does it have to be one or the other? To me, it makes the character more realistic. People with *****ty general behaviour that are likeable under certain circumstances are a thing in the real world...
My gripe isn't that he isn't realistic, but that it appears to me that the author wants him to be likeable/semi-heroic/sympathetic etc without doing anything to earn that sympathy.
Like, Akiri thinks that despite his thieving activities, "his heart is in the right place". He was right about Nahiri's intentions etc. There's a point where it stops being just the characters' opinions, and starts becoming the author's intent.
The issue is all positive traits about him are either told to us (rather than shown) or aren't earned. Akiri says that he is a good person and we have to take her word for it. Zareth opposes Nahiri and believes the artifact to be harmful, despite no reason for the latter. His only reason is that he doesn't see a place for himself (an adventurer) in a healed Zendikar, which is A) somewhat selfish B) somewhat dumbass and C) not even related to any sort of information. It's just an emotional response. Zareth isn't against using the artifact because he has seen its effects. He just opposes Nahiri because he doesn't want her to succeed, even if the artifact did exactly the thing everyone hopes it does, no strings attached.
I wouldn't really count the "sacrifices people" thing as a bad character trait though (in this specific case). Not everyone is a selfless hero, and the author clearly described what kind of life-of-death situation they were in. I think in a situation like this, most people would've done what Zareth did instead of heroically, but pointlessly trying to save everyone.
To me there is a sharp distinction between abandoning people you care less about than your friend and actually calling them over and using them as bait with no intention to secure their survival, to save your friend.
New story was good, but I'm having some major cognitive dissonance about Zareth. On the one hand he's written as likeable and witty and actually right about the whole Nahiri thing, clearly a sympathetic character.
On the other hand he steals from people who don't seem to be particularly rich and actually literally sacrifices people to save his best buddy.
Not quite. All of the original dungeon diving for Zendikar was based around this mysterious "thing" known as the Eldrazi. It was unclear if they were a civilization, a group of Gods, or something. Just that they left powerful Artifacts and Zendikar wasn't happy about it. So there was this underlying feel of interconnectivity based around "What are/were the Eldrazi" and they can't get that back
I dunno, maybe it's my cynism, but I never really had this "oh wow so mysterious" feel about Zendikar. All the places on Zendikar were obviously just "lets throw as many unexplained things at the wall as we can to paint a colourful picture". Tal Terig the puzzle tower has no relation to the singing city, has no relation to glasspool, has no relation to the crypt of agadeem, has no relation to the blue strand of jwar isle. (To be fair, the singing city being ringed by giant multi-armed statues was okay foreshadowing, but literally never explained/shown on the cards, so probably missed by 99.9% of the players.)
There is nothing tying these secrets together, something that when connected creating something else or suddenly making something make sense. There is no payoff after the Eldrazi were freed, which confirmed that these mysteries were done the same way they did the mysteries in Lost: There literally was no answer baked into the design. They were open questions that even the creators didn't know how to solve.
And your mileage may vary, but that is not deep worldbuilding. That's just placing props on a stage to make it pretty. Which, again, isn't particularly bad, given that MtG is a game first and foremost and not an epic saga where a single world has years to be developed. But it's a thing. And it has been a thing during Zendikar I.
One question that's still left is "what is the Roil?", because until now, the assumption was that it was the plane's immune response to the Eldrazi. It should be gone, so why is it still there? This arguably qualifies as an element of mystery, at least for the readers and the planeswalkers in the story. From the perspective of the average Zendikari adventurer it doesn't really work though because for them, the Roil has always been there. Also it's not something you go on an adventure for, but just a hazard/obstacle that you run into along the way.
I mean the (current) in-universe explanation is that the roil is like a scab. It doesn't just stop from one day to the enxt just because the Eldrazi are gone. It may take centuries to heal. To spin the "physical harm" analogy further, Zendikar may never fully recover from it and remain "crippled".
The out of universe answer of course is that (planar) change in Magic is bad, or has been phased out sicne they started returning to planes. Obviously when you return to planes, you want to show what people fell in love with.
Personally, I am of the opinion that planes are the "real" characters in Magic (or should be, rather) and as such should undergo the same changes that characters do in other stories, including their destruction or, well, irreversible change, but that's just me and unfortunately theres a lot of players/fans who don't want things to change at all. Because for them it's about the franchise and not the stories.
I don't get why Nissa is acting awkwardly with Jace at the end. Can someone fill me in?
Because they want to make the planeswalkers relatable and social awkwardness is very relatable to a lot of Magic players.
Of course extracting real world modern society social awkwardness into a fantasy world where people literally fight for their survival on a regular basis and are involved in interplanar threats kinda doesn't work, but shh, don't tell Wizards that.
Also, I'm sorry for Nissa. Her character has been through so many retcons and shifts in tone, I feel like not even she knows what kind of character she is supposed to be.
At this point the Skyclaves don't feel like they're connected to anything. They're randomly generated video game dungeons where the characters can go to find the new story's MacGuffins. I'd be nice if there was more to them, but my expectations are low. Similarly, the bismuth patterns on some of the weapons seem to be nothing more than a superficial aestethic.
Is that new though? Zendikar was never a particularly deep setting. "Just" a rich one with lots of variety and content. All the places, ruins and so forth were just named dungeons with about a sentence describing their mysteriousness. Which isn't particularly bad for Magic's standards, mind you, but yeah.
I think part of why they feel so disconnected is not so much the lack of connect, but the fact that we know that they were made up for this set. Like, that's how Magic operates, which is fine, but it's become a bit of a sore point in the last years due to the constant retcons and inconsistencies. It killed speculation, and it kills excitement about new content, because the glamer that new content is just something that's always been there, but only just now discovered, has been dispelled. The good-will is gone.
I'm probably crazy, but, peeople have probably noticed that Legion Angel is carrying what looks like a bismuth lance, like made of the bismuth created by Kozilek and his spawn. Given how hard it must be for a society with the infrastructure of Zendikar to get hold of ores and metals, it makes sense that the Zendikari just decided to forge new weapons out of the bismuth which is probably found in abundance.
There's also Skyclave Pick-Axe, which has a similar texture. Its name being tied to skyclaves is probably coincidence.
Unless...
In the artwork of Skyclave Shadowcat (better seen here, fifth image) there's a strange patterning on the ruins around it, which are clearly from the skyclave. Similar patterning can be seen in other skyclave ruins, though not as detailed and clear. While it's possible that it's merely coincidence, the patterning on the skyclave ruins just trying to evoke "old stoneworking" aesthetic, it seems very very thoughtless to do something that so closely resembles Kozilek's bismuth, especially given that the colouration on some weapons matches the bismuth as well, while also matching the texture on the skyclaves.
So, what if the skyclaves and the eldrazi are related? Narratively it makes no real sense, given the skyclaves supposedly predate the Eldrazi's arrival on Zendikar. So I don't know what to think anymore. Did I spend too much time in the singing city? *starts rocking back and forth*
...
Unrelated to that, do you guys think we're gonna see the Surrakar again or did they go extinct?
Not a lot happened, but it was a nice introduction to two characters we are going to see for a large part of the Zendikar Rising arc, so it's good. I liked it.
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
For the same reason my absolute favourite story (installment) from Amonkhet was the one with the multiple vignettes showing how the Amonkheti survive (or not survive) the onslaught of the eternals. That is where magic storytelling shines the most. The other chapters focusing on the gatewatch were largely not memorable.
I don't know if I could live in Zendikar. While I do like planes with a lot of natural landscapes like it has, civilization on Zendikar always seems just a few steps away from annihilation. Much like Ikoria.
I mean, who does the books or sows the grain?
Farming on Zendikar sounds like precarious occupation.
Zendikar's main problem as a setting is that if you start looking too closely, the worldbuilding falls apart a bit. So best not look too closely.
I'll try not to be too damning, as I am just happy we have our online stories back.
But.
I found this story to be somewhat lackluster. Serviceable, but not something I'd want to reread. The character interactions felt forced and rushed and the same goes for some of the plotpoints. How Nissa came to the conclusion that it was the artifact that killed the elemental made no sense. I didn't realize until Nissa accused Nahiri that I got the author's intent. I simply assumed they were just attacked by something new. Also the talk between Nissa and Jace was very inorganic and had strong "I somehow need the two characters to have a little fight, but how?" vibe. Like, why did Jace jump up to get a book once Nissa mentioned the artifact was Kor? There was no question or stated problem yet to be solved. This is not how you write a character who's supposed to be an analytical thinker.
Also they played the stupid "you need to get artifact A in location A to open location B to get artifact B" trope straight, urgh. At least provide some throwaway sentence explaining why whoever placed these artifacts there thought it made sense to do it like this.
Aaaaaaaaanyway, glad the stories are back. Hooray. To end my post with something positive, I like the foreshadowing that Jace has his own plans with the artifact. Sounds like the story will culminate in a classic three-way stand-off.
Edit: first story up tomorrow, we will see stories on friday as well that will be more focused on not the main story!
Honestly, this is the most exciting news since the war of the spark trailer. Are there still going to be books alongside the online stories or is it online stories only?
The fact that the kor also used to be a tyrannical empire according to that article endears this set a lot to me. Funny, with the original block having a Black aligned "hero" and this one having plenty of evil!White.
Personally I always assumed the Kor were a naturally nomadic race, due to the way we've seen them in Rath and Zendikar before. But I know that was just my headcanon, so I can't be too angry at WotC. (Just a little bit angry, giving each race some more definition beyond "they have different visuals" would go a long way to make them feel less like human actors and more like their own things.)
Edit: I just gotta say it, there's been a little too much course correction in the lore I think in terms of representing a vibrant, recovered Zendikar. I know the MtG franchise has 'magic' to handwave the story to be what they want it to be but in my opinion there is not enough shade for the plot lamp they are lighting here.
This is what annoys me too. They didn't have to make it all about how Zendikar reclaims the wastes, but having some visual theme would go a long way to convey Zendikar healing. Similar to how they made Guilds of Ravnica set in autumn to make it look different from the previous two incarnations, they could have given Zendikar a similar treatment. Keep the world the same, but give it a distinct visual feel. They could have, for example, taken a book from pyrophilic forests on earth. Maybe make more-than-usual use of certain plants that are known to repopulate devastated areas quickly, like ferns. There was so much they could have done but ignoring BfZ altogether is exactly the kind of thing I was afraid they'd do when they announced no Eldrazi whatsoever in this block.
It goes a bit further. As Nahiri says on her story card, she commands the "bones" of Zendikar, which is a pretty neat foil thematically to Nissa. Not only are both concerned about the future of Zendikar, but both command a domain of Zendikar itself. Thematically they were equals. It would have been okay if this equality would have been acknowledged while moving the "true guardian" status to the other. Something like, "Nahiri was the guardian but now Zendikar needs a new guardian bla bla bla". Instead Nahiri is presented as an impostor, which is a slap in the face not only to her character but to the story in general.
If you set up the themes like this either make Nahiri have a "fall out" with Zendikar, or make her aware by herself that she is no longer the guardian of Zendikar.
Or have them both be guardians and make both aware that Zendikar needs both its untamedness, but its people also need some safe havens. Maybe have Nahiri use the lithoform core to create roil-free hotspots around centers of civilization, while the roil continues elsewhere.*throws hands up* There's so many things they could have done and they just did this. Urgh.
(Disclaimer: I do not blame the author in this. Wizards has a pretty bad track record with giving authors enough time and resources to produce good content, so until we get evidence that this was indeed the author's fault, I'll default (see what I did there) to Wizards.)
The problem is that we never really got any sort of explanation or hint as to how the lithoform core worked. I assumed, petrifying everything was just how it worked. But then Nissa uses it and does, like, the opposite? Did releasing the piece of Zendikar's soul inside cause all the damage to heal in an instant? That raises even more questions. Mainly, how much more can we devalue the threat of the Eldrazi if their damage to an entire plane can be undone in the blink of an eye, after they've already been destroyed by a large fireball.
I would have loved this. Why was this not a thing. Rude.
It was also very confusing. Like were the individual elementals actually entities that could die? Were they separate beings, like Kami that existed outside of their physical form? Or were they just manifestations of Zendikar's will, as elementals are usually understood? I mean, Ashaya was presented as the soul of Zendikar, but then what are the other elementals? Nahiri's reaction to elementals dying was justified, based on everything we used to know about elementals, but then Nissa goes "Noooo, you kiwwed it, it was my fwiend!" and we're left to wonder when that became a thing and whether or not Nissa is a reliable character. (Potshot theory of the day: Nissa has lost her mind after her encounter with Emrakul on Innistrad and is slowly descending into madness. You heard it here first folks.)
They're also actively misleading. Lithoform Blight being a card, let alone a story spotlight makes it look as if it was, like a huge plot point in the story.
We get literally half a paragraph by Akiri seeing it and shrugging her shoulders before moving on. Like, at the very least use it as an argument by Nissa during her fight with Nahiri?
I mean-
*pinches nose*
Sigh.
Also, is it really that difficult to keep scale consistent in these stories? Ashaya is shown on its card to be enormous, but it can step on Jace and even has to bring down its arms to pin down Jace's? Like how big is it? The size of a lighthouse or the size of a person? Pick one.
Also, showing a hedron less Zendikar, or indeed a completely different Zendikar (surely the roil must have wreaked some havoc on Zendikar landmarks. Keep the names of the continents but replace the Guum Wilds with a new location that stopped existing due to the Eldrazi devastation or the roil later on. There, massively cheap resemblance of worldbuilding. Urgh.) would have gone a long way to show just how much Zendikar has transformed, which would tie the story thematically into the current story arc, even if it is otherwise completely separate.
Not to mention that even if the hedrons were semi-regular thing at the time (maybe it was year 39 of Nahiri crafting Hedrons), there is some narrative obligation to still call it out and direct some attention to it, given, again, how imortant they are to Zendikar's design and history.
Argh! *rips out hair in frustration*
Otherwise this story didn't do much for me either. What was the point of it again? Obuun connecting with his ancestors? Why is this a noteworthy thing given that that appears to be the norm for the elves there? I was hoping we'd learn why Obuun became the spiritual leader (har har, see what I did there) for the elves, as per his snippet, but no. If this was a no-name "average Joe" character, whose purpose is to introduce us to the culture of the elves, sure, but this is a legendary character whose one-paragraph story snippet is more interesting than the entirety of this story. Uhhh...
I'm also not a fan of the writing style of these Zendikar stories. It's just way too verbose for no need. Like, I get it, not every writer subscribes to the brevity is key philosophy (though they should, don't at me) but at least during action scenes it serves to sell an atmosphere better than flowery verbose language. Instead we spend a paragraph describing what the air smells like and what the ground felt like while Obuun was being thrown around. Ok. It feels too much like the writer wants to flex their vocabulary and sentence crafting ability in the reader's face.
Also, another thing I was annoyed at from Obuun's character snippet, that I hoped this story would address, but wasn't is:
In a world where spirits are a thing and hang around for a long time (like Obuun) and are apparently directly involved in everyday affairs (like Obuun), how can the true identity of the Eldrazi be lost? That makes no sense.
Anyway, despite what I made it sound like, it wasn't a terrible story. It was okay, but like the first one, nothing I'd reread. My frustration mainly stems from the fact how easily you could improve this story substantially. But whatever. I'm just glad the online stories are back, like genuinely. I'm harsh because I care, see. :^)
My gripe isn't that he isn't realistic, but that it appears to me that the author wants him to be likeable/semi-heroic/sympathetic etc without doing anything to earn that sympathy.
Like, Akiri thinks that despite his thieving activities, "his heart is in the right place". He was right about Nahiri's intentions etc. There's a point where it stops being just the characters' opinions, and starts becoming the author's intent.
The issue is all positive traits about him are either told to us (rather than shown) or aren't earned. Akiri says that he is a good person and we have to take her word for it. Zareth opposes Nahiri and believes the artifact to be harmful, despite no reason for the latter. His only reason is that he doesn't see a place for himself (an adventurer) in a healed Zendikar, which is A) somewhat selfish B) somewhat dumbass and C) not even related to any sort of information. It's just an emotional response. Zareth isn't against using the artifact because he has seen its effects. He just opposes Nahiri because he doesn't want her to succeed, even if the artifact did exactly the thing everyone hopes it does, no strings attached.
To me there is a sharp distinction between abandoning people you care less about than your friend and actually calling them over and using them as bait with no intention to secure their survival, to save your friend.
On the other hand he steals from people who don't seem to be particularly rich and actually literally sacrifices people to save his best buddy.
Like, I dunno...
I dunno, maybe it's my cynism, but I never really had this "oh wow so mysterious" feel about Zendikar. All the places on Zendikar were obviously just "lets throw as many unexplained things at the wall as we can to paint a colourful picture". Tal Terig the puzzle tower has no relation to the singing city, has no relation to glasspool, has no relation to the crypt of agadeem, has no relation to the blue strand of jwar isle. (To be fair, the singing city being ringed by giant multi-armed statues was okay foreshadowing, but literally never explained/shown on the cards, so probably missed by 99.9% of the players.)
There is nothing tying these secrets together, something that when connected creating something else or suddenly making something make sense. There is no payoff after the Eldrazi were freed, which confirmed that these mysteries were done the same way they did the mysteries in Lost: There literally was no answer baked into the design. They were open questions that even the creators didn't know how to solve.
And your mileage may vary, but that is not deep worldbuilding. That's just placing props on a stage to make it pretty. Which, again, isn't particularly bad, given that MtG is a game first and foremost and not an epic saga where a single world has years to be developed. But it's a thing. And it has been a thing during Zendikar I.
I mean the (current) in-universe explanation is that the roil is like a scab. It doesn't just stop from one day to the enxt just because the Eldrazi are gone. It may take centuries to heal. To spin the "physical harm" analogy further, Zendikar may never fully recover from it and remain "crippled".
The out of universe answer of course is that (planar) change in Magic is bad, or has been phased out sicne they started returning to planes. Obviously when you return to planes, you want to show what people fell in love with.
Personally, I am of the opinion that planes are the "real" characters in Magic (or should be, rather) and as such should undergo the same changes that characters do in other stories, including their destruction or, well, irreversible change, but that's just me and unfortunately theres a lot of players/fans who don't want things to change at all. Because for them it's about the franchise and not the stories.
Because they want to make the planeswalkers relatable and social awkwardness is very relatable to a lot of Magic players.
Of course extracting real world modern society social awkwardness into a fantasy world where people literally fight for their survival on a regular basis and are involved in interplanar threats kinda doesn't work, but shh, don't tell Wizards that.
Also, I'm sorry for Nissa. Her character has been through so many retcons and shifts in tone, I feel like not even she knows what kind of character she is supposed to be.
Is that new though? Zendikar was never a particularly deep setting. "Just" a rich one with lots of variety and content. All the places, ruins and so forth were just named dungeons with about a sentence describing their mysteriousness. Which isn't particularly bad for Magic's standards, mind you, but yeah.
I think part of why they feel so disconnected is not so much the lack of connect, but the fact that we know that they were made up for this set. Like, that's how Magic operates, which is fine, but it's become a bit of a sore point in the last years due to the constant retcons and inconsistencies. It killed speculation, and it kills excitement about new content, because the glamer that new content is just something that's always been there, but only just now discovered, has been dispelled. The good-will is gone.
At least, that's how I feel about it.
There's also Skyclave Pick-Axe, which has a similar texture. Its name being tied to skyclaves is probably coincidence.
Unless...
In the artwork of Skyclave Shadowcat (better seen here, fifth image) there's a strange patterning on the ruins around it, which are clearly from the skyclave. Similar patterning can be seen in other skyclave ruins, though not as detailed and clear. While it's possible that it's merely coincidence, the patterning on the skyclave ruins just trying to evoke "old stoneworking" aesthetic, it seems very very thoughtless to do something that so closely resembles Kozilek's bismuth, especially given that the colouration on some weapons matches the bismuth as well, while also matching the texture on the skyclaves.
So, what if the skyclaves and the eldrazi are related? Narratively it makes no real sense, given the skyclaves supposedly predate the Eldrazi's arrival on Zendikar. So I don't know what to think anymore. Did I spend too much time in the singing city? *starts rocking back and forth*
...
Unrelated to that, do you guys think we're gonna see the Surrakar again or did they go extinct?
The short flashbacks to the battle at seagate highlight for me the fact that Magic story telling at its core works best as vignettes, rather than continous storylines following the same five planeswalkers. The descriptions of Zareth's and Akiri's experiences at seagate had more atmosphere and feeling than any of Gideon's "I whip my hair back and forth" and Nissa's "Zendikar is crying!" segments, like by a magnitude. The multiverse is a setting of countless worlds, and as a result of countless stories. They need to be told from the perspective of its countless peoples, not someone who's just passing through.
For the same reason my absolute favourite story (installment) from Amonkhet was the one with the multiple vignettes showing how the Amonkheti survive (or not survive) the onslaught of the eternals. That is where magic storytelling shines the most. The other chapters focusing on the gatewatch were largely not memorable.
Don't be too sure about this. We haven't seen Akiri die on-screen. And she is a master line-slinger.
Zendikar's main problem as a setting is that if you start looking too closely, the worldbuilding falls apart a bit. So best not look too closely.
But.
I found this story to be somewhat lackluster. Serviceable, but not something I'd want to reread. The character interactions felt forced and rushed and the same goes for some of the plotpoints. How Nissa came to the conclusion that it was the artifact that killed the elemental made no sense. I didn't realize until Nissa accused Nahiri that I got the author's intent. I simply assumed they were just attacked by something new. Also the talk between Nissa and Jace was very inorganic and had strong "I somehow need the two characters to have a little fight, but how?" vibe. Like, why did Jace jump up to get a book once Nissa mentioned the artifact was Kor? There was no question or stated problem yet to be solved. This is not how you write a character who's supposed to be an analytical thinker.
Also they played the stupid "you need to get artifact A in location A to open location B to get artifact B" trope straight, urgh. At least provide some throwaway sentence explaining why whoever placed these artifacts there thought it made sense to do it like this.
Aaaaaaaaanyway, glad the stories are back. Hooray. To end my post with something positive, I like the foreshadowing that Jace has his own plans with the artifact. Sounds like the story will culminate in a classic three-way stand-off.
Honestly, this is the most exciting news since the war of the spark trailer. Are there still going to be books alongside the online stories or is it online stories only?
Personally I always assumed the Kor were a naturally nomadic race, due to the way we've seen them in Rath and Zendikar before. But I know that was just my headcanon, so I can't be too angry at WotC. (Just a little bit angry, giving each race some more definition beyond "they have different visuals" would go a long way to make them feel less like human actors and more like their own things.)
This is what annoys me too. They didn't have to make it all about how Zendikar reclaims the wastes, but having some visual theme would go a long way to convey Zendikar healing. Similar to how they made Guilds of Ravnica set in autumn to make it look different from the previous two incarnations, they could have given Zendikar a similar treatment. Keep the world the same, but give it a distinct visual feel. They could have, for example, taken a book from pyrophilic forests on earth. Maybe make more-than-usual use of certain plants that are known to repopulate devastated areas quickly, like ferns. There was so much they could have done but ignoring BfZ altogether is exactly the kind of thing I was afraid they'd do when they announced no Eldrazi whatsoever in this block.
Also, I don't think that's an actual Eldrazi. Look at the cubes in front. It's an overgrown Eldrazi Monument.