The card representing WAR's story: Tyrant Scorn

[[Tyrant's Scorn]] is the card that represents best not only the type of story that WAR is, but more importantly the kind of people those stories are made to appeal to.

What is the card? It is a blue-black instant that allows one to destroy or bounce a creature, so nothing amazing or newsworthy here. To tell the truth, it's a pretty boring and lackluster card.

What is a lot more interesting is the flavor of the card, the art and the flavor text. A falling Gideon, next to a broken Blackblade, is looked down by a confident Bolas.

"The hero with the magic sword slays the dragon? Not this time."

So you have a flavor that points to an expectation being subverted. The nobleman with qualities and valor, yielding the sword, is meant to slay the dragon and thus accomplish his destiny and make the story.

But instead Bolas saw it all coming, and thus the Blackblade did not work and instead Gideon fell, making everything he did meaningless. The kind of story you are looking for is not here.

So you end up with:

• a pretty mediocre card mechanically,
• selling a story that is subverting your expectation,
• and that to then to sell you a piece of cardboard.

If you have seen the kind of movies and stories of the last 6 years, you should not be surprised by what you are seeing here.

Stories have been all about subverting your expectations, but why?

There is a clear ideological reason for those need for subversion:

The desire to prove that the expectations that are, are in essence arbitrary and subjective, and thus could be replaced by any other set of expectations and have the same success.

Star Wars being the biggest and more visible offender. There you had the story of the young male, invisible and wanting, abandoning his secure place (being forced to also) in the world to find the one he is destined to take.

How could you subvert that?

By making the hero a female now.

Males never have to fight being invisible compared to the 2-3 guys at the top and the army of women who surrounds them. No, this is also a woman's problem now.

Males also don't have to face uncertainty, confusion, danger in the forms of gangs, rebellion, and violent urges that they have to dominate, each one having the potential to destroy its entire prospects in life. No, this is a woman's problem now.

Expectations subverted, the hero is now a young female with nothing particularly female making her give something to the archetype of the young hero.

Male or female, it doesn't matter. Expectations subverted.

We still want you to buy tickets to see a story about a young hero going on an adventure, so please give us your money and buy those tickets.

This above is the important part because the one expectation they are not willing to subvert is the expectation of them getting your money, that one can stay and doesn't have to be challenged, you better not challenge it tbh.

I won't even get into the others, anyone with eyes can see what was happening in The Last Jedi. But, subverting expectations has been the style of many of the recent stories, and that being motivated by forces that are obvious to see to those who pay attention.

So now, to go back to the story of WAR. Here WotC crafted an epic story, after years of build-up with the goal of selling you the epic conclusion to that gigantic arc of the Gatewatch.

Bolas is one hell of a challenge to overcome, obviously since Wizards spent years describing him as an 'all according to kekaku' villain with a 420 iq level. With that level of... power level, he is not supposed to lose that easily, right?

"So what is the best way for him to show that?" You would ask yourself if you were WotC...

Subvert expectations.

The heroes have worked, sacrificed and suffered (a bit but not that much actually), so they can meet that challenge head on.

You would think so, but no. They are woefully outnumbered and outskilled (reminder that the goal of creating Amonkhet for Bolas was to literally farm an army of more than elite soldier who could master the way of each of the forms of mana) by an army of immortal soldiers led by gods.

But, that army led by gods and with the skills to threaten planes, you would expect it to be ruthlessly efficient and level the plane with a degree of aggression, ferocity, discipline, intelligence, and raw power that would be dreadful to witness.

You would think so, but no. They act like nameless grunts and need a... general.

The heroes fight, you would expect them to take a lot of casualties during what is qualified as a war, to have seen themselves die left and right but ultimately doing so as the price to be able to slay the dragon?

After losing his trusted pegasus, the hero goes, Blackblade in hand, the sword he struggled to get and wield, with a twist of destiny that allows an uncaring, bored demon to now care to be used as his ride, flying straight to dragon and ready to deliver the final strike that would make the oh-so-cruel and intolerable bloodshed (lol sure) finally end? Truly that's what you expect?

E.Ve.Ry.Thing. on that final thrust?

[[Tyrant's Scorn]]

Wizards still will try to sell you that story, they want you to buy those pieces of cardboard. No twist there, the story is epic even if it isn't, stakes are high even if they aren't, the whole multiverse is involved if it is just a dozens of planewalkers really, look at that picture with all the planeswalkers going to war, BUY THIS SHIT, IT'S EPIC,... pls.

So now, if we lived in a more just and balanced world, those expectations would have indeed been subverted up to the final one. Them expecting you to give them your money.

And maybe it will, despite the rampant fanboyism from awkward nerds who have staked their pride on that product (I used to be one of them, so not only I know, but I can judge), more and more people can see that what WotC did there is lackluster. Gideon's sacrifice is overplayed because that is the only significant thing that arose of this whole subversion, and despite it being sold as that enormous twist, who would have not seen the only stereotypical, disciplined, soldier-y, moral male being the object of sacrifice to save the day coming..............

So here you are, you have the fad of the day, subversion, being used again and again, and all that to commodified a story that very much adheres to one expectation, selling you shit you shouldn't care about.

This is the real Scorn there, the [[Tyrant's Scorn]].

The same scorn that makes Marvel Comics makes countless no. 1 of the same failed heroes and make Cpt. America a nazi.

The same scorn that makes Star Wars subvert everything about itself but very much expects you to go to the theaters.

The same scorn that makes big names in the fighting games community act all hot and bothered when real tits jiggle on stream when their audience is easily comprised of 90% males (with a slight streak of testosterone-fueled aggression).

It's a scorn that is willing to commodify its subversions into a pretty mediocre package and sell it to you at full price, as long as you don't challenge that one tiny expectation right there.

I'd suggest we do it for them.

Tl;dr: Fuck you! Read it!