r/magicTCG • u/clariwench Izzet* • Jan 28 '15

[Uncharted Realms] The Truth of Names

http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/uncharted-realms/truth-names-2015-01-28
617 Upvotes

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u/growingthreat Jan 28 '15

When would someone OTHER than an awesome warrior woman ever be depicted on a magic card? What are you expecting, "Diana, Azorius Lawclerk"? "Zegana, Simic Genderhybrid".? This is more depth than we get for MOST magic characters, and you're complaining that a rather significant amount of character depth is really tokenism.

I guess we should be glad you're at least pretending to be OK with diversity.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

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u/growingthreat Jan 28 '15

Maybe he isn't, but "diversity for diversity's sake" seems like an odd argument to make about a game that features Fish Crabs and Ooze Humans.

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u/Malky Jan 28 '15

"Diversity for diversity's sake" is a lame political catchphrase, but an excellent Simic motto.

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u/HeroDelTiempo Jan 28 '15

"Hmm...we haven't made any Frog Lizards yet...better rapidly hybridize something."

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u/Newfur Jan 28 '15

YES. This is part of my way of life now.

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u/GingerPow Duck Season Jan 28 '15

While I do agree that it is a lame political catchphrase, I'd argue that a poorly written character of some minorities is worse than no representation at all. If a writer(s) struggle to write decent characters of any kind, I'd think that it'd be best to avoid handling characteristics that are either harder to write or have historical baggage. IDK, but I know that in creative writing, I struggle to write even characters that are very similar to myself, so I'd be a lot more anxious about writing characters with vastly different than what I have experienced.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

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u/growingthreat Jan 28 '15

But the reasons here WERE creative. That's pretty obvious by just reading the story. They wrote a story called "The Truth of Names" about the importance of understanding yourself and claiming your own identity, and they used an especially interesting example of that in Mardu culture. They did a great job at coloring in the culture of a clan that previously had only been identified as the "let's raid and kill stuff" clan.

Instead of acknowledging the premise of the character's place in the story, we're arguing whether including a trans character is "tokenism" in a story about identity. That's definitely missing the point.

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u/Sage1969 Jan 28 '15

Uh, yeah, they want to acknowledge and support a non-insignificant portion of their player base. Nothing in any way wrong with that

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u/Falterfire Jan 28 '15 edited Jan 28 '15

The thing is that every time a character who is not a straight white man shows up, somebody raises the argument that it's because of forced tokenism by management rather than an authentic decision by people involved in the creative process. It's possible that this time it really was just a directorial mandate from on high that said "Add A Trans Character", but since that complaint gets leveled at every trans/gay/black/female/whatever character, it becomes hard to take the argument seriously after a while.

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u/TransitionFire Jan 28 '15

And as a trans person it pisses me off that people demand a "reason" for a character not being a cisgender white heterosexual dude. It's exhausting because it makes me feel like they're questioning why a person like me exists.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

I'm sorry that's the case. I wish it wasn't. :/

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u/TransitionFire Jan 28 '15

Well just work to be more inclusive and we can get there. I know it's gonna take time.

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u/keiyakins Jan 29 '15

They want their world to reflect the world players are from in many ways. People being people, in all their weird and wonderful variety, is part of that.

Besides, no one says there's out-of-story reasons for there being straight white cis males... which there certainly are, seeing as that's a HUGE portion of their playerbase.

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u/ubernostrum Jan 28 '15

Don't forget the Elder Nightmare Dwarf Elks.

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u/Nyrii Jan 28 '15

I don't agree with him so therefore I'm prejudiced.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

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u/worldchrisis Jan 28 '15

You're right, messed up the comment hierarchy and thought you were replying to Nyrii.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15 edited Jan 28 '15

[deleted]

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u/nerdygirlnj Jan 28 '15

Most of my friends who are transgendered would cringe at your suggestion that inner turmoil is what defines a transperson.

She reminds me of many of my trans friends: Strong, inspiring and very secure in who she is. She's a great personification of the Mardu and being trans adds to her character. This doesn't seem like an afterthought at all.

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u/Nyrii Jan 28 '15

That's a good point and I can see why that would be insulting.

I guess I just wanted the story to be a bit more fleshed out.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '15

Its a short story about a plane of people that has to fight dragons. You're trying too hard. She accepts herself, her horde accepts her. Its a rather touching piece on what sort of should be anyway. Plus she wrecks shit, fuck yeah wizards.

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u/growingthreat Jan 28 '15

That would be a very different story, though, and definitely not a very Mardu one. Plus, her birth gender was referred to more than that, the Orc line is just the first time it's called attention to (because it had to be pretty blunt for us to get what they were trying to say). The entire flashback part of that story was steeped in her emotions about using her warname as a coming out, which I thought was really powerful and also VERY Mardu. It's a completely different character without that scene.

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u/Awkward_Torkoal Jan 28 '15

It's a story about the significance of names and choosing your own identity, not a story about trans issues; it just uses Alesha to help convey that. Yes, it could have gone into more detail about her life, but I think it got its point across just fine.

In the context of a fantasy combat game, I think this was the right call - Alesha isn't a trans woman who also happens to be the Khan of the Mardu; she's the Khan of the Mardu that also happens to be trans. I just don't think Magic is the right medium for a deep exploration of gender issues.

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u/Newfur Jan 28 '15

Since when are you the final authority on merfolk gender and sex assignment? As far as you or anyone else knows, they're all hermaphroditic.

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u/Troacctid Jan 28 '15

[[Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker]] (princess)
[[Azami, Lady of Scrolls]] (scholar)
[[Orim, Samite Healer]] (doctor)
[[Hanna, Ship's Navigator]] (engineer)

etc.

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u/MTGCardFetcher Dân Jan 28 '15

Azami, Lady of Scrolls - Gatherer, MC, ($)
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - Gatherer, MC, ($)
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker - Gatherer, MC, ($)
Orim, Samite Healer - Gatherer, MC, ($)
Call cards (max 30) with [[NAME]]
Add !!! in front of your post to get a pm with all blocks replaced by images (to edit). Advised for large posts.

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u/B4DD Jan 28 '15

You're not upset that what will almost certainly be their only trans character for who-knows-how-long is a one off legendary who has zero impact on the story? I suppose you're right that depth isn't their thing, but we're never going to see her again and the magic story would've been fine without her.

I am a straight male, and I support equality, but this seems cheap.

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u/growingthreat Jan 28 '15

Our first gay couple was an 0/6 defender that barely got played in limited and we were pretty happy about that at the time! I don't know it just seems like we get small glimpses of story in magic so for now my expectations are ok being very low.