War of The Spark: A Treatise On Why WOTC Can't Write Good Stories

[benjameenbear]

When Wizards of the Coast finally released the War of the Spark: Ravnica book, my hopes and dreams died.

As a longtime customer and consumer of WOTC's story content, I was absolutely thrilled at the buildup they were putting into Nicol Bolas's plotline. The development of plane-traveling super-weapons (AKA the Bolas'ed God Eternals). The creation of a spark-suppressing device to trap Planeswalkers so he could harvest their sparks. An encounter between our heroes and Bolas that ended up with the heroes' complete, ruthless displacement. The emotional depth behind Bolas's manipulation on Tarkir against his brother. Not to mention the depth of relationship between Bolas and his brother.

I don't have a ton of time to unpack exactly how badly I was disappointed, but I intend to devote multiple sections to dissect the major points and themes of why WOTC has ZERO trust from me when it comes to creating compelling stories anymore.

[benjameenbear]

Plot Development, Continuity of Plot Elements & Development

Rough Outline:
Bolas arc
Jace & Vraska
New Phyrexia storyline

[benjameenbear]

Reserved

[benjameenbear]

@RxPhantom @kirkusjones @TheAmericanSpirit @Guardman @toctheyounger

[kirkusjones]

I've dipped in and out of the story over the years and have always been disappointed. I know people think highly of the original Brother's War book(s), but I've never made the effort to track them down. The only piece I remember enjoying was Higure, the Still Wind's origin story, though that could be the nostalgia goggles talking.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I had this whole rant written out and my page refreshed and I lost it. %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#%

[benjameenbear]

I've dipped in and out of the story over the years and have always been disappointed. I know people think highly of the original Brother's War book(s), but I've never made the effort to track them down. The only piece I remember enjoying was Higure, the Still Wind's origin story, though that could be the nostalgia goggles talking.

I've only Wiki'd the Brothers War for details, since the books are hard to find. I wonder if my Kindle has access to them...

I had this whole rant written out and my page refreshed and I lost it. %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#% %$#%

Try to remember what you can!

[Guardman]

My personal opinion is that the problem with the stories is planeswalkers. I remember reading the Ravnica, Kamigawa, and Lorwyn novels back in high school/college and while not high art, they were enjoyable. Ravnica especially just seemed to ooze flavor and potential with the characters who lived in a city the never ends. But every return seems to be lacking the essence that made Ravnica and the guilds so much fun, instead replacing it with look what Jace is doing now.

Even now, I find the articles about the denizens of the planes much more enjoyable than what the planeswalkers are up.

[toctheyounger]

I think Guardman might be onto something there, although I did really enjoy the Ixalan stories. Jace and Vraska were more than just cardboard cutouts and that's what you read for - depth and dimension.

I generally dont put much stock in the modern day lore, its fine but not stellar. My favorite lore is from Weatherlight/Tempest era, but I don't know how much of that is nostalgia from one of the blocks I cut my teeth on. Regardless, what I remember was an archenemy who had grit and depth - Volrath was vitriolic and maniacal, and layered due to his history with Gerrard and place in Yawgmoth's machinations. Crovax was a tortured hero that draws comparison to Darth Vader in story arc, and there was plenty of dynamics in the rest of the crew too.

I think these days wotc are too busy chasing dollars to build a solid lore foundation for their own IP. The story at the moment is fine, but I think every Universes Beyond they get further away from having a solid foundation for their own story - you can try to be everything to everyone, but you're more likely to end up being nothing to anyone.

Edit - fwiw I think Wotc did ok letting the guy go who butchered the story management for Spark. Being as banal and homophobic as it was was pretty tragic, so letting him go was the right call, and walks back some ill will a tiny way at least. Generally though I don't go out of my way to seek out the lore these days though. I've been listening to YouTubers read the stories for me this time round, and thats been effort free which is good. As for quality, its fine but maybe covers a bit too much ground for as short as the story is.

[5colorsrainbow]

I think magic lore has been the same since the beginning mostly, it's had its ups and downs depending on the writer and the characters but ultimately it is a side pulp fantasy story to help go along with cards. People complain about the new storylines being too similar's to the avengers with the whole weather light saga was based on Star Trek and tried to copy the beats of Star Wars. People talk about Mary Susan and deus ex machina and yet they had commander guff, a new character who was based on a magic author, come in and change the ending so the good guys can win at the end of the last Phyrexia war.

Anyways as someone who knows what happened behind the scenes, is wizards of the coast made a new branch of the creative team called the franchise team who is in charge of handling magics IP. The leader of this team who has a man named Nic Kelmen and he took over around the first returned a Dominaria storyline. Hard to say exactly what was his decision and what was part of the teams etc. but they supposedly did not like how the online web fiction model was going and they wanted to move it novels written by fantasy writers instead of the in-house world building members at Magic. To be fair the old system also wasn't working the best as many of people writing the story were also part of the creative team so they were essentially having to the world building and story writing with the team shrinking until Ixalan was written basically solo by Alison Luhrs with Kelly Diggs helping her with bouncing off ideas and working on scenes with her.

For the fiction it's written by the author roughly less than a year before we see it* which is why the novels before wots and after failed as that's not a lot of time for authors to do and Greg Weisman imo was set up to fail with as little time as he had to basically wrap up a 5 year story arc that had about another 10 years of lord it built off. And looking at his career Weisman has mostly done TV and screen play and not novels often, which is what a lot of the first novel felt like.

That said in my opinion the worst offender was more of the sequel novel, because while the first novel wasn't the best, it was the sequel novel that had the biphobia and really seem to try to undo a lot of the characterization and development that had been going on so far, such as with Jace, Vraska, Chandra, Kaya, ect and outside of the Eldraine novel, all of the novel they tired where not hits (though Ikoria was decent enough imo) and the push back for the Biphobia had them returned the online fiction and had charcters like Niko or showed Chandra having a fling with Adeline during Innistrad to try and work to making up thing.

Currently I just think the Storyline isn't giving enough room to breathe they need either a higher word count or more chapters for the authors to be able to let the story breath. The base storyline I think is fine but the execution has been wishy-washy but once again I think that can be said for everything a magic lore.

* The story is drafted as the set is being made and then they have the author come in and fill in the draft.

[duducrash]

My personal opinion is that the problem with the stories is planeswalkers. I remember reading the Ravnica, Kamigawa, and Lorwyn novels back in high school/college and while not high art, they were enjoyable. Ravnica especially just seemed to ooze flavor and potential with the characters who lived in a city the never ends. But every return seems to be lacking the essence that made Ravnica and the guilds so much fun, instead replacing it with look what Jace is doing now.

Even now, I find the articles about the denizens of the planes much more enjoyable than what the planeswalkers are up.

To a point Ixalan was an anti planeswalker story, because the inability to planeswalk was a theme. But planeswalkers and planeswalking (and the inability to do so) were the core of the story and it was one of the greats. I think its the quality of the talent and the resources hasbro devotes

[Guardman]

I probably should go back and finish the Ixalan stories, but that's for another time. I will say that there are potential stories that could be done with Planeswalkers, but if the best planeswalker stories are the ones were they can't planeswalk, that's a problem.

I do want to point out that I really liked Brandon Sanderson's Children of the Nameless and his characterization of Davriel. I personally love Davriel and want to see more of him, but I should also point out that Davriel was created by Brandon Sanderson with minimal input from WotC. Also the book was very heavily invested in Innistrad feel, not planeswalker feel, if that makes sense. I'm not sure if there are too many cooks in the kitchen or they just have a bad habit of hiring writers that aren't right for the job, but it does seem to me they have a problem writing planeswalkers.

[toctheyounger]

I think there's many issues with the stories, and without diving deep on everything, I think for what they are they're fine. I don't expect much from them and they sometimes surprise. I enjoyed Imnistrad 2: tentacle Boogaloo as well as the Ixalan stuff, it was nice to see something from Lili other than "goth tease hoe".

I think these days release schedule is a problem. There is absolutely no way to put out good material to keep up with the pace of sets. If they're timed in for a marketing flourish they're going to be subpar. If there's a little more flexibility in terms of transitions from one set to the next, that could give a little more leeway which I suspect is desperately needed.

I think the walker problem is a thing for sure. Jace might as well be yesterdays newspaper as far as depth goes, he's broody emo kid. Thats changed a little, but its slow. Other than that its hard to squeeze characters in that have depth and still have a quick story work, so I suspect its easier from an authorial perspective to just plonk a cardboard cutout down in the scene they're building and call it a day. Theres not a lot to work with with some of them, anyway.

I think that now the phobia cat is out of the bag WotC are going to be continually walking a fine line. They can't sweep it under the rug anymore, and there's always going to be people who clap back about social acceptance of various differences, be they skin color or sexual orientation. That said, %$#% anyone who tries. I want the new Bearscape variant, its hilarious.

I think the more time they commit to Fortnite, Street Fighter, TWD et al, the more it shows they don't really value their world building staff and in-house lore as is. Its not like the lore is amazing at present, even though pretty much everyone is stoked to see Phyrexia back again. Baby steps, but every SL and Universes Beyond detracts further from the lore of WotC's own IP.

I think while time has been kind to some of the elder lore, we tend to have rose tinted glasses on where they're concerned, and perhaps our expectations are too high. While I know I loved Tempest block unconditionally, I know there are some patches that followed in which there was no lore at all, or it was terrible. Commander Guff was a cringefest, Fallen Empires was forgettable entirely, and time remembers Gerrard much more fondly than he probably deserves.

End of the day I think mostly things are fine post WAR, we probably just need to manage our expectations for what is quite the task being asked of creative teams. Branderson wrote the Davriel novel because he WANTED to, not because they paid him enough. He specifically told WotC they couldn't afford him and just wanted the proceeds to go to a good cause. Any other modern day fantasy authors are probably in the same boat, and if they are hired they'll write a story as good as their commission allows and not much more.

I think a lot of these issues come with the territory of world building for a tcg, so we should cut the authors a little slack. But yeah a lot.of the issues with the story moving forward really are predicated on what's going on further up the food chain.

[RxPhantom]

There is so much potential for cool characters and stories in MTG's multiverse, but all too often the stories end up being shallow or rushed. But my biggest issue is WotC's over-reliance on retcons.

Remember when Gideon was an old, maybe even a bit grizzled white guy? Well he's a youthful Mediterranean beefcake now.
Remember when Nissa was a dour elvish supremacist? Well she's a tree-hugging granola girl now. Check out her belly!
Remember when Jace was a condescending dickhead in every single piece of flavor text? Well now he's noble and sensitive.

Outside of that, I just get a sense of minimum effort when I read most of the stories. Quite often, I think I could do better.

[Krishnath]

Remember when Nissa was a dour elvish supremacist? Well she's a tree-hugging granola girl now. Check out her belly!

I honestly prefer the new Nissa over the old, the old was a dime a dozen wannabe villain. New Nissa has depth of character. And they against all odds provided a perfectly reasonable way for her change of personality instead of just retconning it completely gone. She was the way she was originally because she was raised xenophobic, which led to her actions in Worldwake, which in turn lead to the final lock breaking and letting out the Eldrazi from their prison, which ultimately caused her tribe to be nearly wiped out. If getting everyone you know and love wiped out due to your actions doesn't change your outlook and behavior, then you are a psychopath.

[NZB2323]

WOTC can write good stories; look at Ixalan.

I'm enjoying the current story, but Invasion is my favorite set and the nostalgia is strong for me.

[onering]

It's ticked up a bit in terms of quality lately, starting with Innistrad 3. Even still, the stories still suffer from the rushed pace of only stopping on each plane for one set. Innistrad 3's story benefited by getting 2 blocks, and New Capenna could have as well. Dominaria United NEEDED two sets. It felt extremely rushed, and while the plot was ok overall and had some strong points, it was really hurt by the rushed pace and some cheap decisions. Ertai was an underwhelming an addition whose inclusion felt rushed and like checking off a box. Compleating the Weatherlight was a terrible choice. They spent the time during Dominaria building up a new team, with some interesting characters, and then throw it all out for no reason just for some shock value that gets overshadowed by Ajani and Jaya anyway. This really should have been two sets with the first set focused on the sleepers and building a coalition and the second focused on the war, with war breaking out in the last story of this block and the Weatherlight and her crew playing a larger role, and not getting compleated, and Ajani's reveal and battle of the Mana Rig being left for the last story of set 2.

On the bright side, Dom United did a great job making the phyrexians horrifying, and making the new sleepers disturbing. The major deaths and compleations besides Weatherlight were done well and had impact, and Meria is an interesting character.