Glad they finally spelled it out rather than dancing around it and just implying it.

Not gonna lie, this was rpetty cute and Huatli's a dork. Though, I have to wonder: given how radically different the Mesoamerican script is to what I presume is not-Latin, how quickly did she learn it?

This is the second time that I saw someone refer to Huatli as a dork and then I realized that the entire quote is verbatim. So, hi from Reddit!

This was a great story for a bunch of reasons. Canonizing Saheeli and Huatli is the most obvious one, but shouldn't be overlooked. I'm a little miffed about a little quirk of continuity, however.


You did go back. In Forsaken. You stayed at Saheeli's house because there was no more room at Chandra's. I know Forsaken is dubious canon, but if we're going to just throw everything out from it, can we tacitly acknowledge doing so (and bring back Dovin while we're at it)?

I also really like the interplanar billboard. One of the weakest points of current storytelling in Magic is how characters know what they need to know for the plot to work. For example, Vivien knowing about the events on Kamigawa...somehow. So showing how information could be disseminated to planeswalkers is helpful.

Finally, it's nice to see a story unattached to a set again. I doubt this is going to lead to a larger trend of one shots, but I do miss the story telling opportunities that we got between set releases (Kruphix's story, et al).

Yes, I do hope they utterly ignore Forsaken as Dovin still had potential as a villain.

Also, that bllboard hookup message was apparently Dack Fayden's last memento...

Hrm... So, as it turns out, this crystallized an opinion I didn't realize I had, but apparently I don't much care for walkers having a relationship with one another. Never really cared for Vraska x Jace and hated Nissa x Chandra, but I misunderstood why I didn't like that in each of those cases.
Weirdly, I really like Ral x Tomik, so it must be specifically walkers hooking up that doesn't settle with me.

Well, all the same, it's whatever. Not a big deal, folks that like it can have it, not for me to rain on their parade. Unless it's Nissa, because she doesn't deserve happiness. Ever.

OH this is a tie in with that secret lair that I need 100 copies of. Very cute story gimme all the yuri

How about Feroz and Serra? Sandruu and Kristina of the Woods?

Feroz and Serra is a kinda, but only because it's such a self contained story and anchored so hard to Ulgrotha.
In a somewhat similar vein there's Liliana x Jace, which I only really like in a retrospective sense, and that's probably mostly because 1) Ari Marmell is awesome and 2) I really like Liliana.

Kristina of the Woods and literally anybody is a no for me. Sandruu, Taysir, Jared, none of them.

I tink what bothers me so much is the effects it has on the agencies of the characters, but there's also the problems that exacerbate the detachment from the settings that the romance angle presents. For example, Tomik cannot leave Ravnica. This gives Ral a personal, emotional stake to the world. One could say he should have that because it's his home, but history is littered with counterarguments to that point. Walkers, by and large, don't give a crap about their homeworld. (Exceptions are present, I'm aware. We just went through the entire crap with Elspeth and home, but MAN that doesn't feel organic for Capenna or her)
To the flipside, we've had TONS of really weak excuses to make the walkers travel (gods there have been some garbage explanations before...) but there aren't that many reasons for them to STAY in one place. Having a couple able to uproot themselves... It just makes them feel more and more like tourists since their couplehood is probably going to be a major defining feature. If we were talking about something like Serra and Feroz, it's a somewhat different story, but they don't make walkers like those two anymore either...

Kinda hate the implications of an interplanar notice board/messaging thing being Canon. They could have had them fall in love in innumerable other ways. Also, given the rarity of seeing a walker, even on ravnica, huatli would for sure have known that Saheeli was the person that was meant to be meeting her there.

Surprise Story 2

I love how Elesh Norn's nightmare is something that would be biopunk nightmare to us (organ-weeds), but it's only horrific to her because it's breaking through her perfect architecture and resisting being stomped out. I also like her self-doubt of carrying the seed of Phyrexian destruction despite being the Mother of Machines, just like Karn carried the seed of Mirran destruction.

I wonder if this actually takes place before SNC, because it seems like this is Ashiok planting a seed of fear of Elspeth, and then Urabrask says how important Elspeth is in SNC. I don't think I actually like Elspeth being elevated so much, even though it's fitting for her to come back to New Phyrexia at some point. It will especially suck if Koth gets sidelined for her. It feels too Chosen One-y, but maybe it'll play out differently.

Also, it'd be funny if there's a whole week of stories related to Pride and this is actually meant to fit into that.

This technically still fits the SL week given Ashiok.

Yes, that's what I'm saying.

Looks like the Norn story was archived as/counted as a side story to New Capenna.