Also, the set depicts Aragorn as black. This is having the expected effect in the usual dark recesses of nerd culture.
Well, it's not book accurate - Aragorn is described as having a "pale face" and shaggy hair "flecked with grey" - but when you're creating artwork or casting actors you're never going to match the picture people have in their head of the characters anyway, so I'm fine with the artist doing whatever they like.
I know there's a lot of people who are really invested in the integrity of the MtG lore. I'll never understand that but far be it from me to just dismiss people who want to take the storyline seriously.
But I don't see where crossovers really violate that, since I understand the setting to be broadly about dimension hopping anyway.
Yeah, it doesn't really hurt the MtG lore at all - MtG is based on the idea that there are a whole multiverse of different "planes", and you the player are a powerful planeswalker who can summon minions to fight for you from any world in the multiverse. Most MtG sets are based on different planes; like, there's one plane that is inspired by the Arabian Nights (so you can summon Sinbad and Aladdin), one that's based on classic horror tropes (so you can summon a greater werewolf and a vampire baron), one based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (so you can summon Huang Zhong and Lu Meng) and so on. You can already happily make a deck where all those characters rub shoulders.
It's entirely inconsistent with LotR lore, of course (but then, it's just as inconsistent with Arabian Nights lore and Romance of the Three Kingdoms lore).
I know there's a lot of people who are really invested in the integrity of the MtG lore. I'll never understand that but far be it from me to just dismiss people who want to take the storyline seriously.
But I don't see where crossovers really violate that, since I understand the setting to be broadly about dimension hopping anyway.
Yeah, it doesn't really hurt the MtG lore at all - MtG is based on the idea that there are a whole multiverse of different "planes", and you the player are a powerful planeswalker who can summon minions to fight for you from any world in the multiverse. Most MtG sets are based on different planes; like, there's one plane that is inspired by the Arabian Nights (so you can summon Sinbad and Aladdin), one that's based on classic horror tropes (so you can summon a greater werewolf and a vampire baron), one based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (so you can summon Huang Zhong and Lu Meng) and so on. You can already happily make a deck where all those characters rub shoulders.
It's entirely inconsistent with LotR lore, of course (but then, it's just as inconsistent with Arabian Nights lore and Romance of the Three Kingdoms lore).
I'm not personally invested in MtG so I don't know how strange it is in this case specifically and I'm just speaking generally... But that's kind off a different thing, though.
Stuff like fairy tales or classic like the three Kingdoms aren't really like Brands. They're public domain stories and so ancient that they are now more like general themes. Visiting a "Arabian Night" world feel more like the same thing as "visiting a old west- themed world" or a general "medieval fantasy world" rather than specifically a crossover with the Lord of the Ring franchise. That would be more like visiting specifically the Dysney's Aladdin world.
As pointed in the thread, the issue is more that it break the 4th wall of your fictional universe to have a canon crossover with another brand with it's own distinct canon.
I'm not personally invested in MtG so I don't know how strange it is in this case specifically and I'm just speaking generally... But that's kind off a different thing, though.
Stuff like fairy tales or classic like the three Kingdoms aren't really like Brands. They're public domain stories and so ancient that they are now more like general themes. Visiting a "Arabian Night" world feel more like the same thing as "visiting a old west- themed world" or a general "medieval fantasy world" rather than specifically a crossover with the Lord of the Ring franchise. That would be more like visiting specifically the Dysney's Aladdin world.
As pointed in the thread, the issue is more that it break the 4th wall of your fictional universe to have a canon crossover with another brand with it's own distinct canon.
Yes, that's fair enough. The Arabian Nights and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are specific novels, when it comes down to it, but they do give the kind of feel of being broader categories - and most of MtG's planes are ones they have invented themselves. Of course, Tolkien did want some of that for Middle Earth - he says in one of his letters "Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story ... The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama." So perhaps he would have been happier with it than we might guess!
I thought you meant as in Mana, that'd be a particularly dark take on him coming back to become King. Take the throne only to then be immediately prepare to sacrifice all of your new subjects as an end game gambit - I mean it kind of checks out.
He did summon an army of the undead that one time so, maybe?
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Well, it's not book accurate - Aragorn is described as having a "pale face" and shaggy hair "flecked with grey" - but when you're creating artwork or casting actors you're never going to match the picture people have in their head of the characters anyway, so I'm fine with the artist doing whatever they like.
Yeah, it doesn't really hurt the MtG lore at all - MtG is based on the idea that there are a whole multiverse of different "planes", and you the player are a powerful planeswalker who can summon minions to fight for you from any world in the multiverse. Most MtG sets are based on different planes; like, there's one plane that is inspired by the Arabian Nights (so you can summon Sinbad and Aladdin), one that's based on classic horror tropes (so you can summon a greater werewolf and a vampire baron), one based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms (so you can summon Huang Zhong and Lu Meng) and so on. You can already happily make a deck where all those characters rub shoulders.
It's entirely inconsistent with LotR lore, of course (but then, it's just as inconsistent with Arabian Nights lore and Romance of the Three Kingdoms lore).
Shelob having an Uncle Ben (that she ate) would be hilarious though
I'm not personally invested in MtG so I don't know how strange it is in this case specifically and I'm just speaking generally... But that's kind off a different thing, though.
Stuff like fairy tales or classic like the three Kingdoms aren't really like Brands. They're public domain stories and so ancient that they are now more like general themes. Visiting a "Arabian Night" world feel more like the same thing as "visiting a old west- themed world" or a general "medieval fantasy world" rather than specifically a crossover with the Lord of the Ring franchise. That would be more like visiting specifically the Dysney's Aladdin world.
As pointed in the thread, the issue is more that it break the 4th wall of your fictional universe to have a canon crossover with another brand with it's own distinct canon.
Yes, that's fair enough. The Arabian Nights and Romance of the Three Kingdoms are specific novels, when it comes down to it, but they do give the kind of feel of being broader categories - and most of MtG's planes are ones they have invented themselves. Of course, Tolkien did want some of that for Middle Earth - he says in one of his letters "Do not laugh! But once upon a time (my crest has long since fallen) I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of romantic fairy-story ... The cycles should be linked to a majestic whole, and yet leave scope for other minds and hands, wielding paint and music and drama." So perhaps he would have been happier with it than we might guess!
After that power killed his uncle Isildur, Aragorn became Strider-Man.
Does whatever a Ranger can
Kills an orc, any size
Hires ghosts just like flies
Look out
Here comes the Strider-Man
He did summon an army of the undead that one time so, maybe?