Magic: The Gathering Writers Think War of the Spark: Forsaken Ruined The Game's Lore

Magic: The Gathering fans have been criticizing Greg Weisman's new novel War of the Spark: Forsaken for its terrible writing and depiction of Chandra Nalaar's sexuality, and we've recently shared their reactions online, but it looks like the others who were invovled in developing Magic's lore also shared their opinions about the new novel, and unsurprisingly they're not positive.

Doug Beyer, the Principal game designer on the worldbuilding team for Magic: The Gathering at Wizards of the Coast, took it to Twitter to express his thoughts about MTG's recent story, and even changed his Twitter profile picture to Chandra, a clear sign that he didn't like how Chandra's character was developed in War of the Spark: Forsaken.

"Hard week for my heart, and for many of yours," Beyer wrote. "Still feeling raw today. Gonna for a while. But I guess there's nothing to do but pick myself up, set my profile pic back to Chandra, and head back into the trenches to try again to make things better."

Just in case you haven't read the novel or the quotes shared on Twitter, there's a passage in the novel that erases Chandra's bisexual personality. She has always been bisexual. The way the book repaints Chandra as a straight girl who had a crush, that's over, and now she's just into "decidedly male" guys is terrible

Michael Yichao, who used to be part of MTG creative at WotC, expressed how he felt about how the novel handled Chandra and Nissa's relationship.

"Hoooooly wow. I have thoughts and feelings on reading this," Yichao tweeted. "Especially as a bi writer who wrote for Magic story, who along with other writers at the time worked so hard to advocate for an authentic, positive queer relationship among our primary protagonists."

An anonymous Twitter user who goes by Reclusive Wizard claims that they worked at Wizards when the Bolas arc was being planned, and that he was consulted on queer representation issues then because he's a gay man. Reclusive Wizard shared a series of tweets talking about how "external forces" retconned Chandra's character in War of the Spark: Forsaken.

"My understanding at the time was that Chandra would be a pansexual hot mess, which is both hilarious and totally in character," Reclusive Wizard wrote. "This thing where she always liked big muscled manly men is a retcon. We built everything from BFZ forward with the intention of representing diverse sexualities. This represents external forces actively choosing to squish that work."

"If they wanted to stop a Nissa-Chandra romance, that's fine," Reclusive Wizard said. "All you would have to do there is have Chandra say something like 'Look, we had a thing, but I've had a lot of things, and I know you want to settle down or whatever but that's not me etc'. This isn't that. This is a slap in the face to everything we were trying to do."

Reclusive Wizard continues to talk about how the creative team behind some of Magic's character developments would be against the story direction of the new novel, hinting that somone is behind the retcon.

"The team that gave you Alesha would not have wanted this," Reclusive Wizard tweeted. "The team that gave you Ral and Tomik would not have wanted this. The team that maneuvered Nissa and Chandra close together slowly over three years would not have wanted this."

"We were trying to do it right. Somebody stepped in and stopped us. Who was it? What is their problem? And what can we do about it?"

In a new video, the Professor of the Tolarian Community College YouTube channel talked about how Weisman's novel is a failure in all levels. You can watch it below:

Yikes! This seems like a disaster for MTG's lore, and I'm hoping that Wizards of the Coast will eventually remove Weisman's MTG novels (including the first one - War of the Spark: Ravnica) from canon.

Here's the official description for War of the Spark: Forsaken:

The Planeswalkers have defeated Nicol Bolas and saved the Multiverse—though at grave cost. The living have been left to pick up the pieces and mourn the dead. But one loss is almost too great to bear: Gideon Jura, champion of justice and shield of the Gatewatch, is gone. As his former comrades Jace and Chandra struggle to rebuild from this tragedy, their future, like the future of the Gatewatch, remains uncertain. As the Gatewatch's newest member, Kaya aims to help write that future. In joining, she pledged an oath to protect the living and the dead, but now that oath will be tested. The grieving guild masters of Ravnica have tasked her with a grave mission suited to her talents as a hunter and assassin—a mission she is ordered to keep secret from the Gatewatch. She must track down and exact retribution on the traitor Liliana Vess. But Liliana Vess has no interest in being found. Forsaken by her friends, she fled Ravnica after the defeat of Bolas. She was hostage to his wicked will, forced to assist in his terrible atrocities on pain of death—until Gideon, the last one who believed in her goodness, died in her place. Haunted by Gideon's final gift, and hunted by former allies, Liliana now returns to a place she'd thought she'd never see again, the only place she has left: home.

War of the Spark: Forsaken by Greg Weisman is now available.

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