I'd say part of the blame goes to Weissman, but another part of the blame goes to the overreacting fans, especially the diehard fan(atics) who were up in arms about Chandra and Nissa and the issue of gay representation. You can blame Weissman for that if you want, but I'll point out that he's also the one that gave us a gay Ral Zarek and the one who had Chandra tell Nissa she loved her, even if it was retconned the next book. People massively overreacted here based on something that was NEVER confirmed.
You're giving Weissman way too much credit. Gay Ral was mostly from Django Wexler, and the Chandra-Nissa pairing had enough build-up in previous stories that only a complete idiot would miss it and not deliver.
I stand corrected on Gay Ral, but it doesn't actually matter who is responsible for it, it was there. That goes against the accusations of lack of inclusion, which is the point.
As for Chandra-Nissa, link some stories that concretely establish them as an actual couple instead of really good friends who depend on each other. I've been reading the stories on the main site for years now and all I ever got from it was that the two of them had a pretty deep friendship, but that's all it ever was.
In short: War of the Spark ****ed it up for everyone and they were spooked by it. Nice to see them admitting this and are going back to the latest tried-and-true approach.
This ought to be interesting moving forward.
'buster
It genuinely irks me that Greg Weisman and his incompetent trash compromised the Theros story release for us all. As if Vorthos didn’t suffer enough enduring what he did to the Bolas arc and all the characters and relationships creative worked so hard to establish. Let alone the insult to injury. I doubt this vetting process for Theros fiction was even warranted. This was a Greg weisman issue. Unless he was the author, they could have just released the Theros ebook. That said, I understand why they needed to take this approach. But if Kate Elliot and the Wildered Quest demonstrated anything, it’s that Greg was the problem, not consumer sensitivity, not the lore itself, but a horrible “author” who smashed the “novels” he “wrote” together the night before on dragon software with Junior high locker room banter in the background evidently.
I'd say part of the blame goes to Weissman, but another part of the blame goes to the overreacting fans, especially the diehard fan(atics) who were up in arms about Chandra and Nissa and the issue of gay representation. You can blame Weissman for that if you want, but I'll point out that he's also the one that gave us a gay Ral Zarek and the one who had Chandra tell Nissa she loved her, even if it was retconned the next book. People massively overreacted here based on something that was NEVER confirmed.
Another part of the problem is the whole concept of "books by committee", which is what these books actually were. I doubt Greg had much creative freedom to actually write anything. Kate Elliot by comparison had more freedom as there wasn't years of buildup and backstory for Wildered Quest, but I think in both cases, most of the story was already written before either author got to start.
That said, his books were pretty badly written - well, at least WotS was, I couldn't bring myself to buy the second one so I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it being any better.
Now that the titans are loose we have some new Eldrazi-ish baddies to use for some plot. What existing antagonists do we have left in the MTG multiverse except for Phyrexia?
I don't think the Titans are near the scale of Eldrazi. For one, they're stuck on Theros - nothing has indicated otherwise other than unfounded speculation that the rest of them are on Ikoria for some reason.
Isn't Marit Lage still around, technically? Tezzeret is still out there, along with whatever the Raven Man is, too.
And the Hunt for Lili(Ana?), Dovin, and Tezzeret. And with all the knowledge and resources Tezz had he could probably, himself, be a big bad. He also has ties to Phyrexia.
The fate of Dovin was described in the book War of the Spark: Forsaken. Also, in that book, Liliana was found.
The lack of a developed story for Theros is the most unfortunate part. One of the main benefits of a set that returns to an established plane is that it gives you an opportunity to deepen the storyline, provide character development, and build a coherent plot through larger story arcs. These were issues they had when they kept on going to a new setting every block. After the presumed end of the Bolas arc with Ravnica, Theros was the first plane where old plot threads were present to be picked up. But the most we have to show for that is a synopsis, so the narrative is pretty much in limbo. That's something that I feel is especially critical to resolve since Bolas was honestly a terrible villain and we need to move on to something better asap.
Given the arguably substandard storywriting of the War of the Spark novels and past novels and some of the web stories, we may be better off with synopses for the set narratives and let the fans fill the gaps with their headcanons.
Headcanon is part of the reason Forsaken was so badly received, so I'm not sure letting fans run with that is the best idea.
I'm glad the Elspeth is the Wanderer theory is seemingly put to rest now. Now they just need to reveal where this set fits in the overall WAR timeline.
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I stand corrected on Gay Ral, but it doesn't actually matter who is responsible for it, it was there. That goes against the accusations of lack of inclusion, which is the point.
As for Chandra-Nissa, link some stories that concretely establish them as an actual couple instead of really good friends who depend on each other. I've been reading the stories on the main site for years now and all I ever got from it was that the two of them had a pretty deep friendship, but that's all it ever was.
I'd say part of the blame goes to Weissman, but another part of the blame goes to the overreacting fans, especially the diehard fan(atics) who were up in arms about Chandra and Nissa and the issue of gay representation. You can blame Weissman for that if you want, but I'll point out that he's also the one that gave us a gay Ral Zarek and the one who had Chandra tell Nissa she loved her, even if it was retconned the next book. People massively overreacted here based on something that was NEVER confirmed.
Another part of the problem is the whole concept of "books by committee", which is what these books actually were. I doubt Greg had much creative freedom to actually write anything. Kate Elliot by comparison had more freedom as there wasn't years of buildup and backstory for Wildered Quest, but I think in both cases, most of the story was already written before either author got to start.
That said, his books were pretty badly written - well, at least WotS was, I couldn't bring myself to buy the second one so I don't know for sure, but I can't imagine it being any better.
I don't think the Titans are near the scale of Eldrazi. For one, they're stuck on Theros - nothing has indicated otherwise other than unfounded speculation that the rest of them are on Ikoria for some reason.
Isn't Marit Lage still around, technically? Tezzeret is still out there, along with whatever the Raven Man is, too.
Headcanon is part of the reason Forsaken was so badly received, so I'm not sure letting fans run with that is the best idea.