I had forgotten about the rape that came to innistrad, largely because it happened right before I started playing and caring about magic. If I remember correctly the big deal was players thought the art was alluding to sexual assault, which is really retarded if you had been following magics story or think for one minute about the fact that these are two fucking magic users who are probably equally powerful.
This Wordpress blog from 2012 actually provided some perspective on the mess, and also shows the art for card of the reversed situation with Garruk getting his ass beat. This may be when the players started getting retarded, but I stand by WotC not getting brainrot until origins or BFZ, since that’s when they started pandering to the Reddit cucks and forcing diversity into their storylines.
On a BG3 note, I finally managed to slaughter Moonrise tower on tactician and I feel retarded for not thinking of the solution earlier. I’d been stockpiling explosive barrels since act one, and after engaging zrell in conversation I swapped to Karlach and just set up a mega bomb around all the ground floor enemies. Used like 25 barrels of wine, oil, and smoke powder. Only had to fight 9 people, 3 of them at 1-10 health that barely survived the blast.
Yeah, so, the card is called Triumph of Ferocity.
The complaint was that the card was sexist, like the new playmat, and showed disrespect for women in general and so on.
The complaint came amidst an influx of "new players."
We also know, around this time, video games and focused marketing were trying to break new ground among a new generation.
The claim was that the above image of Garruk choking Liliana had "triggered" people.
Elaine Chase, the Brand Director for Magic: The Gathering tweeted this in response:
"Regarding Triumph of Ferocity: Wizards and I apologize for the upsetting situation related to card imagery. In light of the community conversation it can clearly be viewed in a way that is in direct opposition the brand image we strive to maintain. This was absolutely not our intent, but intentions don’t override the real emotional reactions our fans have. While the bigger story provides context, individual cards are seen in isolation. That is the standard each card needs to live up to. In hindsight this story point could have been depicted in a less real-world related and emotionally charged way. We will take this as a learning opportunity and strive to do better in the future."
I don't know if this was archived. I cannot find the original tweet.
At any rate note at the end there the "...strive to do better..."
They're basically apologizing for nothing.
Now, from what I've gathered, this controversy also eventually led to the firing of one
Brady Dummermuth:
I don't know if this was archived. I cannot find the original post.
This also led to a major retcon of the characters and backstories known as 'Magic Origins'.
Although all the characters had major retcons, the most sited and controversial is a character named
Nissa Revane who was created as far back as 2009 as part of an elf deck:
Her conception was "a villainous, you know, hardcore, staunch xenophobic person..." that would run an elf deck. Originally, Nissa was an elf-supremist, who had a 'my shit don't stink attitude'. The story elements made sense. Elves throughout fantasy history are usually hoity-toity assholes--even the ones in Tolkien's
The Lord of the Rings.
But all that was changed because they wanted a character who would "reflect our current values and blah blah blah..."
Note, this was back in
2015.
