http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles...mes-2015-01-28
I like it.Alesha nodded and stepped close to the nameless orc. She grabbed the edge of his armored collar and pulled his head down, forcing his eyes to meet hers.
"I know who I am. I am not a boy. I am Alesha, like my grandmother before me."
Several of the nearest warriors murmured their approval.
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
Quite frankly: Who cares? I hate that kind of corporate pandering, pretending to be "progressive".
I'm going to leave this thread here for now with the somewhat optimistic request that it not turn into a shitshow.
Ugh, sorry. That's exactly what I was afraid would happen, but I just hoped we'd be civil for once.Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies
Who knows, maybe it is just "pandering" to the extremely lucrative transgender fantasy/gaming enthusiast demographic, but given that it's generally safer for a corporate entitey to entirely avoid race, religion, or sex, I was kinda hoping this is something a little more genuine.
Maybe it's just that they recognize that magic attracts all kinds of people, and this is just a little nod to say "doesn't matter who you are, you're one of us". Or maybe I'm over thinking it and it really is just a PR move.
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
You might call it "corporate pandering" but I'd call it "being nice"? Marvel has introduced reimaginings of popular characters outside of their traditionally White Male roles (Thor is a woman, Spiderman is Black/Hispanic, one of the Spiderwomen is a lesbian, Ms. Marvel is Muslim, and of course Nick Fury is Black) and I think it's awesome that this kind of mindset is expanding to other nerd realms.
The "who cares?" mentality is childish. People care. If you don't care, then either way (minority character vs non-minority character) you should just...be quite over there. For people to whom those characters are reflections of themselves, they do care. Very much. For every transgender kid, or Hispanic kid, or FEMALE kid, or whatever, seeing heroes and characters that *look like you* really does matter, especially when almost all of the "heroes" we grew up on really, really, really do not look a damn thing like us.
If you grew up White, male, and generally oblivious to the very real ways that race and media interact, then this may seem like a "who cares" scenario. But for the rest of us, these things matter.
I think WOTC gets +10 Gryffindor points for this move. And I think other companies with entrenched heroes, or heroes with flexible identities, should follow suit. It's not "pretending" to be progressive. It's actually...*being* progressive.
Elves Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/2EVsdw2
I personally will give one of my griffindor points for this.
I care.
Not honeybadger on the subject
"Brainstorm and Fetchlands are interesting although I don't know if Brainstorms alone are worth it right now, because Stifle is a common card. " -Peddi 2015.
Danyul is right! It can be little things like this that raise awareness and acceptance. And it is a big deal for people struggling with gender identity to see positive (or even neutral) characters they can relate to.
Up until a few years ago I would snicker or joke about seeing a trans person. It wasn't done out of hate, but I think I'm funny and have had little exposure to anyone trans.
Turns out they are people like anyone else and deserve the same level of respect and politeness.
It took me some time to use the proper gender pronouns, but it is stuff like the story in the WotC article that helped me. Way to go Wizards!
I had to read the story twice because I missed the reference - at first I just thought it was one of those stories where a woman dressed as a man to perform a role the others would not have allowed her to engage.
Well, good on 'em.
The best statements are generally 'loud silence' in my opinion, xample - the DS9 episode Rejoined where no one comments on the same-sex nature of the relationship (there's still a taboo in play but it isn't the w4w aspect, it's the whole "no lovers from your past lives" thing) and no one even really bats an eyelash. There's not really a way to do that with a card game, so if MtG wants to adopt an inclusive stance, they'll have to actually tell the story, somehow.
It actually is quite large, considering the general attitude in the Magic community, regarding females playing the game. (Anyone remember how Melissa DeTora etc. had to put up with all kind of bullshit earlier?)
I find it a nice gesture.
Pretty much. The shift in the left from a class-driven narrative to an identity-driven one has been a boon for corporations and other entrenched power structures, allowing them a means to redirect any ire towards them onto some ill-defined group of "bigots". Instead of fighting against the interests of the moneyed elite, people waste their time fuming on snarkerati shitblogs like Gawker, going through the two-minutes-hate whenever somebody, somewhere says something impure, and NOT OKAY!
Somebody read Jonathan Chait this week
I'm not gonna post anything else in this thread because I can tell I will just get pissed at some of you who seem to be a rather close-minded. But I'll just say this: if a little bit of diversity makes you upset, then you are gross and could benefit from some self-reflection.
Elves Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/2EVsdw2
I thought Ertai was first ... but I'm hopelessly naive.
So you're saying this is just WotC/Hasbro trying to distract players from record profits or something? I'm not seeing who the "bigots" are in this scenario though...people that are uncomfortable with a fictional transgender character?
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
Technically Mistform Ultimus came first as the first legend ... it's omnigender.
Nah, according to the Salvation Wiki, he's just a dude...who apparently got it on with a cyborg elf? The storyline of Magic is some silly shit sometimes.I thought Ertai was first ... but I'm hopelessly naive.
I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel
"Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."
We've had characters have sexual relations with a cat and people care about this. Seems in-congruent.
I say "who cares" but I say it for different reasons than the ones that are being assumed further up. I guess when I say "who cares" I really mean "I don't care." I don't care because I have no problem with a character being trans (or anything else for that matter) and I think it's pretty ridiculous that someone would.
Note that the Nemesis book is regarded as one of the best MtG books. Which is kinda telling how bad the rest is.
IIRC, it went like this: Eldamri's daughter got killed and turned into a cyborg called Belbe, which the captured Ertai boned while he tried to make the best out of his situation - to become the next Evincar of Rath. In the end, he lost to Vampire Crovax (who now was on roids for no apperant reasons) and Belbe got killed by Eldamri/his troops who had no idea who she was. At that point, Ertai lost all hope and turned himself into Ertai, the Corrupted.
A cat is fine, too. But who was that?
In the end, Alesha is highly likely to be a throwaway side character with no impact on anything since we're in the long-gone past. Unless they pull off a "Hey, that character got a spark off-screen to be relevant again" if the character gets popular.
I thought somebody nailed Mirri. Maybe I'm wrong. Or perverted.
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