#markrosewater

[jonaskoebele]

Alchemy is cancer. This was a turn two drop on the play. Quit the game right after to rant on tumblr.

[thats-not-racism]

There is absolutely nothing racist about this card. Nothing. When the card was entered into the Gatherer database, the racism-associated multiverse ID assigned to it was the result of the very same misinterpretation and misunderstanding that resulted in this card being banned.

Banning this card undermines the fight against real racism, because it conflates harmless things with genuine gestures of hatred and bigotry. Although your efforts are well-intentioned, you are actually hurting the fight against racism by embracing this silliness.

[callmearas]

@markrosewater

I think the way to discuss most fans' interpretation of planewalking is that it was most commonly thought of up to now as consistant tool that is implemented differently by each user rather than unique forms of conveyance as you seem to be indicating is the intended understanding. Ie. Everyone riding the same model of bike differently as a result of variation in the riders' skill/affinity/experience vs. everyone riding slightly different models to begin with, where some are faster/slower and some have a basket to carry your puppy.

In addition, I have read almost every piece of fiction from Origins onwards, a trait I have in common with what I believe to be a decent share of story fans, and I don't think I read anything to imply the latter strongly until Yanguu and Mowu were introduced. Storywise, describing the character's difficulty, speed, and flair with planeswalking was most often used structural as a reflection of their general identity, making it easy to interpret that planeswalking is a common trait expressed differently because of a difference in identity just as one's ability to ride a bike is affected by the same traits. For example, Jace might be able to planeswalk onto a speeding air ship because his intellect and great understanding of the mechanics of planeswalking because of his natural inquisitiveness whereas Chandra might have a harder time with the same task because she feel things out more but maybe she's quicker to make the jump and land, but less accurate overall, like her fire powers. Both these descriptions would be choices an author would make to reflect their overall character making it easier to see it as a reflection of their power over their ability.

Now if both of them had similar abilities to planeswalk, but somewhere in the story it's mentioned that Jace was worse than her and had to work up to what was her innate level, then it would have been easier to see that there is something about each characters' planeswalking that is innate to the ability itself, indepedent of their personal traits. While this way of explaining it can still help to reflect their characters, it would then be easier to accept that there is a disconnect between one's personality and the ability of planeswalking they have been granted, and leave more room open for oddities such as Yanggu to naturally exist. Instead, since a character's quality of planeswalking have so closely matched the expectations of their ability implied by their personalities, most people are unable to accept that ability is supposed to be understood as naturally different.

Mowu and Yanggu stands out all the more since it is such an extreme difference, and you yourself as well as the rest of WotC has pushed a rule telling us planeswalkers could only travel alone which is now feels like you are trying to upend as never being the case. All of it is also harder to swallow as now it seems like you are showing there are no contradictions with your previous statements with evidence that, I would wager, most would not interpret as meaningful proof since it is far easier to see the differences in planeswalking mentioned in the story as a reflection of character rather than a natural ability they have no control over. Having character appropriate speed, accuracy, ease, and power related particle effects as a part of planeswalking all point to a particular directional relationship between walker and walk more strongly than the opposite way around which you are suggesting allows Yanggu to work within the established rules.

To be clear, I'm not trying to disagree with your explanation. It just feels like you are misunderstanding why people aren't accepting the evidence you present as valid proof because it's just easier, and frankly more appropriate given the circumstances, to interpret the evidence as characters being different than as planeswalking being inherently different.

I don't know if this is going to make sense anymore. I'm quite tired so I'm going to go to bed now.

[counter-target-spell]

Mark looks like he's about to lose it. That is the face of a man who is trying to stay focused when a room is like a hundred degrees.

[wh00---s]

new meme, what is @markrosewater giving us

[blogatag]

Queue’s set up!

School’s busy, but I got some more posts tagged in the queue. Five thousand pages is a lot, but I’m chipping away at it as best I can.

Also, I’ve gotten a couple of asks about this. Just to clarify, I AM NOT MARK ROSEWATER. I’m just a Magic fan trying to create a sortable archive of Mr. Rosewater’s answers.

[187commander-blog]

Is that Gadnuk, Breaker of Worlds? Maybe in Unstable?

[dialmformara]

Hazoret is (or is very close to, I’m not a native speaker) the Hebrew word for “she who sows.” Seems odd, since given what we know, Hazoret is the one who does the reaping of the “crops.”

She’s not particularly a grim reaper either. It’s an honor to be killed personally by Hazoret the Fervent.

Those who sow in tears shall reap with songs of joy? (Psalm 126)