Are Planeswalkers a "Plot Tumor" in this Game?
General forum
Posted on May 13, 2019, 6 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
A “plot tumor” is a trope in which a single, often minor, element of a story gradually grows in prominence until it completely dominates the story, with prominent examples being the Uchiha clan and their Sharingan in Naruto (at the beginning of the story, the Uchiha were no more special than any other clan and their Sharingan was no more special than any other kekkei genkai), the card games in Yu-Gi-Oh (originally, the series focused on many different games, but the card game proved to be so popular and profitable that Kazuki Takahashi changed the franchise to focus specifically on it), lightsabers in Star Wars (in the original trilogy, lightsabers were used only occasionally, but in the prequel trilogy, they were used nearly constantly), and relationships in far too many sitcoms to list (for example, The Big Bang Theory originally focused on four nerds doing nerdy things, but, eventually, relationships began to dominate the plot, with nerdiness being only an occasional element in later seasons). In effect, it is a much more extreme example of “Flanderization,” except that it affects an entire story, rather than individual characters.
Usually, the audience regards a plot tumor as a negative element, because it detracts from other elements of the story that often are far more interesting than the element that is receiving focus or is otherwise a blatant example of either meddling from the executives who are producing the media or the author becoming egotistical and writing only what appeals to them.
In Magic: the Gathering, planeswalkers were an element of the story from nearly the beginning, but became a card type only relatively recently (actually, the first planeswalker cards appeared in 2007, and I cannot believe that that much time has passed; I certainly feel old, now), and they have unquestionably dominated the game since then; they are the faces of the game, the focus of the story, and their cards range in power from being acceptable to insanely overpowered.
In recent years, WotC has been making an effort to ensure that there are ways to deal with planeswalker cards, but I definitely believe that planeswalkers are now a plot tumor in this game, because of how they are so prominent, with War of the Spark being a very flagrant example, in that it focused specifically on planeswalkers.
I have no problem with planeswalkers themselves, but I would rather that they be treated like any other element of the game, being of equal important and not overshadowing everything else.
What does everyone else here say about this? Do you believe that planeswalkers are a plot tumor in this game?
This is a very good question, and well articulated, i had the same discussion about this with a friend, i dont know much about the story line, but i had definitly wondered weather this massive inclusion into the game of such powerful mechanics would cause a dilution of current cards and decks, i too am an old school magic player (infact the other day i was arguing that the 'Maqius' were a plot tumor in ds9 lol), planes walkers were invented while i was taking a break from magic so when i came back needless to say i was caught off guard by them, and have more of an appriciation of how off set they are compared to newer players, that being said i have found that the veriety that they have added has been to such a degree that even though there are a couple cards that could become staples for certain formats (ugin has been slipped in many commander decks for example) i dont see superfriends becoming an overwhelming unstoppable force, but i guess only time will tell. (Btw sorry, if you were just talking about story line, and disregard statement lol)
May 13, 2019 6:36 p.m.
Hmmm. I feel that they are. I liked my planeswalkers more enigmatic & less humanized. It would be nice if WoTS addressed this with a great walker purge & a return to walkers being primarily background lore... But I am more for the lore being more enigmatic on the whole, you can tell I'm an Old Fogey. I liked it better when a whole bunch of cards made you sort of dream up what must be going on, rather than having it all spelled out.
May 13, 2019 10 p.m.
Gleeock i agree with that absolutly i remember when the books forst started coming out i thought it was a little much, i enjoy the self created narritive, it used to be my favorite thing about magic is that i could twist a deck into being themed after anything else i was interested in, so from that stand point i can agree they are
May 13, 2019 10:37 p.m.
You would think that a great war of almost all planeswalkers in existence would be a great way to do an extermination event and reset a bit the overabundance of planeswalkers. But no, we will name 37 walkers but kill off exactly 3.
Honestly, planeswalkers are starting to get annoying, I get that an audience surrogate is needed, but there is a difference between being an audience surrogate and oogling the Marvel dollars and trying to emulate that.
For me, after WAR especially, Wotc needs to back off of planeswalkers. They rarely drive the story in satisfying ways - reading about Ravnica from Jace's perspective is infinitely less interesting than doing the same from say, Niv-Mizzet's perspective.
TLDR: Walkers are inserted into interesting stories centered on the planes themselves and make said stories less interesting.
May 14, 2019 4:10 a.m.
ToolmasterOfBrainerd says... #8
I think planeswalkers are almost necessary for the story. I say this because if each block takes place on a new plane, then there's a new cast of characters every year. Planeswalkers are the only faces that can appear all the time. As fans get attached to their favorite characters, it would kind of suck if you knew your favorite character could only get a few months in the spotlight before being gone for a few years.
Nonetheless, I do agree that planeswalkers are overbearing. Personally I don't like the gatewatch at all. Magic has created some really cool characters. Why'd WOTC have to pick a sucky squad to be the main characters?
Also WOTC has no balls. I wanted to see a pile of bodies in WAR. Instead we lost 3 planeswalkers. Bolas is pathetic if he could only bring 3 named characters down with him. The Bolas I know is better than that!
May 14, 2019 3:56 p.m.
Now what if it's the idea of multiple planes that are the plot tumor, the majority of magic's early lore was all set on dominaria, then wotc kind of ran out of juice from there and played with the multiverse idea, they then had issues with building too many characters and none of them really mattering because their plane story was over so they made planeswalkers the main characters. Essentially planeswalkers are just the symptom of the actual plot tumor we're mistaking as just extra gut from the game getting older and eating too much.
May 14, 2019 5:51 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #10
Demarge, I do agree that continually traveling from one plane to another is annoying, and that WotC should spend more time developing existing planes; Dominaria, Ravnica, and Zendikar all have been explored in great detail, but there is an entire other continent on Ixalan that has yet to be explored, all the action of both Innsitrad blocks occurred in specific areas, and very little of Kylem has been seen outside of the Colosseum.
May 14, 2019 10:04 p.m.
Hey dont forget the best plane they ever went to, 'alternate 300 b.c. china' i want portal three kingdoms to make a comeback
May 15, 2019 12:20 a.m.
But why do we have to have a certain cast of characters go from place to place? If the only thing that changes is the plane, but not the cast of charecters, it drags the story down. The background changes, but the foreground does not.
Moreover, the characters we do get most often, experience the least changes - Jace experiences change several times, but is never permanent, memory wipes are very frequent with him and story beats you think are important are ignored (eg did we get any payoff for the whole Ixalan story? It really did not matter that Vraska got amnesia.)
How cool would it be not to planeswalk to a certain place, but rather experience it through the eyes of important characters from the local populace? I personally that will be effortlessly cooler than figuring out how to cram Jace into the story for umteenth time.
May 15, 2019 3:07 a.m.
Certainly Boza... Also, continuing that line of thought. Planeswalkers, by nature of proliferation & condensed storyline have a way of starting as a finished product (already walking left and right & sometimes having a short spark story). Also, the monetizing of "sparks" is this goofy deus-ex-machina type of plot device... If anyone argues with me on this point I am going to sacrifice my spark to win the argument! Starting as an established walker pigeon-holes characters and usually hems them into whatever color trope they possess... Want to know the most fascinating characters to ME? I actually loved the story written from SLIMEFOOT'S perspective! :) A rough-hewn character, not written for greatness, reacting to the world around him (instead of the world reacting to him), full of potential. Leave it vague & you leave room for more. In fact! I want to know more about Hans, before he likely got devoured by the Ghoyf!
May 15, 2019 11:03 p.m.
I hope Hans was like the original Fblthp flying around lost from plane-to-plane being chased constantly by the Goyf. Maybe like an Abbott & Costello vs. the Wolfman skit.
SynergyBuild says... #2
Are they a part of the game that has grown and become a major part of the plot more and more as time has gone on? Yes. Are they a plot tumor? Not really.
To be a plot tumor, you'd have to push out other narrative devices in the story, which I don't think they have done, despite growing, I think the story has grown so much it can still be extremely inclusive of planeswalkers and the rest of the story, including both, rather than one blocking another out.
If you have examples to differ, I'd love to hear them.
May 13, 2019 6:14 p.m.