I think both the friend incident in the new story and the devil incident in the old story were written with the intention of showing her spark ignite. The thing is, her being pulled to another plane and away from the influence of Innistrad's moon is what helped her control her transformation, so the devil incident wouldn't make sense if the friend incident had actually happened before that. Besides, the author's reply sounds to me like she's acknowledging the probelm, or she wouldn't have praised the other person's "good eye". What's more, both events being "components of the same memory" would seem to imply that they are supposed to be one and the same event, or how else could they belong to "the same memory"? I bought new shoes today for instance, and I have different memories of previous - but different - instances when I also bought new shoes (once every few years or so). There is just nothing to indicate to me that this story was written to be compatible with the original one, and I honestly don't feel like making this harder for myself than the people who wrote and approved it made it for themselves.

I don't think we can blame Emrakul because Tovolar clearly talks and transforms in those flashbacks that are set during Arlinn's youth, long before Emrakul was even freed from Zendikar.

Sapphic too with Rootha.

Nah, that's still primarily with Halana and whats-her-name while Nissa and Chandra are on a sabbatical.

I don't know if it's been mentioned anywhere already, but page 204 of the Innistrad artbook states that Ormendahl was Eldrazified (and should have died when Emrakul was sealed), but we got still got his new card. Don't know how cannon the art books are considered but I definitely was not pleased about that one.

From the legends bios for the set it seems the card of Ormendahl and Jerren is pre-Emrakul;
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-17

Yes, they're post-humous characters. Jerren was killed outright in the Travails and Ormenroalddahl was twisted by Emrakul so he died when she was locked in the moon, as all of her spwan died off in her absence.

Yeah, the Jerren/Ormendahl situation is pretty weird, they don't normally give cards to dead characters in a normal expansion set.

And speaking of Halana and Alena, does anyone else think it's strange that they've been conspiciously absent both from the story and the set? You'd think a dedicated werewolf set would include some popular werewolf hunters, but no... Plus, they are from Kessig and know Arlinn, so it would make sense for them to help defend the Harvesttide festival.

And since we're already opening the can of worms of which characters are and aren't in the set, I would have loved to see a nod to Children of the Nameless, even a small and subtle one in a cardname or flavour text. Chrunchgnar is dead, but Miss Highwater is still around and needs a card. And I guess Davriel is on the run or whatever, and Tacenda also appears to have planeswalked away at the end of the novella, but she at least would have been a reasonable inclusion. Heck, Chandra and Kaya are in the story, too, but didn't get cards of their own, so that's clearly something WotC is willing to do. Tacenda's Song of Warding would have come in handy at Harvesttide, and I really like her backstory and general character concept. I don't have much hope for her being in Crimson Vow either. It'd be pretty awesome if she showed up in Dominaria United, hanging out in Almaaz and picking up some of their local song magic, but I guess that's also not going to happen...

My guess is they will be on a card together next set (like they did with Gisa and Geralf) since the werewolf set wanted all the RG legend slots* for werewolves.

*Arlinn is basically another legendary werewolf in terms of game play/design/card slots ect.

WOTC's weird on Tacenda so I wouldn't count on her. But I hope with all my heart she's the saviour of this crisis: after the Harvestide fails due to Olivia murdering Katilda, she could swoop in and kill off the darkness with her song.

I imagine Mrs Highwater will be a commander character or something. She's a demon and a woman one to boot, so Creative hates her.

On the Tovolar problem:

People say that he's mute, but he simply talks very little. That point is actually adressed in the story.

On the 'he never seems to change' thing: he does change, but people probably don't get to see him change.

That's what I made of it.

I'm just happy they used Tovolar for this set instead of making up some new character. Tying him to Arlinn is nice, though I think the incompatibility of the two Arlinn background stories is irksom.

All in all the set is a flavor homerun for me...and a fairly nice return to form after a year's worth of pretty hollow sets, with a D&D set as my absolute lowpoint.

I'm personally hope for the Leeraug and/or Vildin alpha in Crimson Vow.

Huh, not sure how I missed that section. Guess I'm just blind. Do we know how Emrakuls corruption effect impacts the demon reformation process? Could Orhmendhal eventually reform, or is did his "demonic essence" get absorbed and locked inside the moon with Mama Spaghetti?

The way Emrakul spawn are described, they become part of the titan, like its organs. Once she was sealed most of her abominations died en masse. I assume that even angels and demons can't come back from that; they became part of Emrakul, not their own individual beings, not to mention they lost their connection to or mana.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-22

Goddamn Olivia went full Bathory

That was a great story.
I love that Olivia made a plan in all but two seconds. She's great....and horrible at the same time.

Arlinn is a great protagonist for these stories. I love that the main theme of them is her struggle. The juxtaposition between her and Tovolar, seen through her wolves is awesome.

The difference in quality between this week's story and last week's is just astounding.

Yeah, pity last week scared Pavor away because this was is a classic.

Story was really well written, though I have to say, like every online story since Zendikar Rising they need to give the main story more chapters. Midnight Hunt isn't feeling it as bad as the main stories for Strixhaven or Kaldheim, I still feel like the stories want a bit more room to breath.

Yep, he should have read this one instead of last week's.

On the number of episodes: why they choose to do it in only 5 is beyond me. It's less problematic here because it leaves out most of the travelling and instead takes us straight through the beats of the plot, which is kinda working, but it comes at the expense of world building and fleshing out said world. However, I'll take that anyday over the botched plot from Kaldheim, which felt rushed as all hell, or the practically non-existing plots of Strixhaven (we are going to be attacked, we are attacked, but it's okay because we can beat it without to much of a fuss) and Zendikar (seriously, what wás the plot there....i remember some generic artifact MacGuffin....)

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2021-09-24

Gisa and her Gaston

It was ok. The humor, as always with G and G is great...though i could do without Wilham.

Really loved the last two letters, especially Geralf's reply. It seems that Gisa genuinely misses Geralf, but Geralf REALLY doesn't reciprocate said feelings.