What Happens in the Midnight Hunt Side Stories? 

First of all I love your content and respect your opinions. I respectfully disagree about your point about the crone. I don’t think that non-cis gender identities need a story explanation every time. We don’t complain about pandering when a straight cis person is included in the story and certainly don’t ask for a good reason for it to be included. I think a big problem stems from the idea that there is a “default” type of person.

"The angel says, 'I was dead.'" God I love deadpan answers like that.

Leisa wearing the skin of the demon she is bound to is brutally metal and I love it.

Whoa. Leisa getting literal Demonskin Armor seems super cool. Huge fan of that

I haven't really read any of the stories since the travesty of War of the Spark, so I really appreciate your videos. They give people like me a way to get in touch with the lore without having to invest too much of our time reading them.

Stickfinger is such an interesting character, really enjoy his more ancient-feeling and old invincible horror type of lore behind him

I always loved the side stories. Things like "the larger narrative " can get old very fast with the same cast of characters. These stories help fill out the picture and make the multiverse feel more like a multiverse, instead of a marvel movie.

I sometimes find the side stories as interesting as the main story, sometimes even more, love the idea, great video!

I can only imagine how cool it would be for Wrenn to help Teferi bring back Zhalfir in Dominaria United. It would be a huge emotional moment for Teferi and could really help create a true "United" feel.

The side characters of a story, especially in this set, are more about character development and and can be the MVPs of the set. And I like those things ❤️❤️

Time is a weird soup. The Old Stick Fingers take would be a fun Halloween D&D session of investigating mysterious murders and fighting a animated scarecrow.

16:13 I already mourned for Gisela once, don't give me hope!

I really hope Liesa will have an impact in the Next set. She is such a great Character. Nice video once again. Love to watch them every time.

My only takeaway from the Stickfingers story is how much it makes me think of Pumpkinhead. That aside, Teferi taking in a new way to view magic will definitely play a role in restoring Zhalfir. I mean, why even call it "Dominaria United" if that wasn't the case?

These side stories seem to be setting things up for Crimson Vow. Imagine Stickfingers and Liessa mowing down hordes of neonate vampires together.

I definitely prefer the side stories, as they're not bound by the larger narrative. I thought the empty bed in the house at the end of the Vadrik one was an interesting loose thread. I also believe that perhaps the meeting of Liesa and Sigarda may play a role in the next set. It would be interesting if they fuse like their sisters did under Emrakul's presence.

I always had the idea the sides stories were there to take your mind off how... "subpar" the main story was. That being said, I thought this was the best group of sides i could remember. Wrenn was a really deep adventure that really brought depth to an unexplored character as well as Teferi (there's stuff he doesn't know?). The Wilhelt was amazing; I loved the continued saga of Gisa & Geralf though letters. Their interactions are as enjoyable as Arcanum content!

Thanks for covering these! Was hoping Liesa's return would be a bit more.... interesting? But only because she's a personal favorite.

Thanks for bringing us all these great stories.

I say this before I will say it again. You have no idea how much I am grateful that you are the the cliffnotes of the Magic lore universe and it helps me greatly and I thank you.

I actually love when we hear your interpretation of the prose and content, interesting stuff! Also I genuinely feel like your channel is the absolute best when it comes to lore explanation, and story summaries. I have said it before on your previous videos but your voice truly makes for great listening and it is so important to not be put off by your cadence. Great video as usual!

I think Gisa abandoning Threbon(?) and taking her zombie army with her might have some story impact as surly some other faction will try to claim or re-claim the city with her gone.

Thank you for making my drive to work enjoyable

Time Is relative... Watching this video (that is 11 minutes or so) feels like an instant... Waiting for the next video is maybe a week but it feels like an eternity... Time is relative... Loved this video Ryan and Nicole! Thank you!!

gj this is the go-to channel for magic lore content!

great synopses appreciate the Cliffs notes.

Wake up babe, new magic arcanum video dropped

Hey - Really enjoyed this summary. Thank you !

Great video!

I love Gisa and Geralf stories, its like watching children play but with epic toys. Btw how would you rate these stories?

I liked the side stories the most. I think I ship teferi, and wrenn. Stickfingers felt like a certain frog tale I heard back in the day. These stories were well written in my opinion. The main story can't really be judged until we get part two. Please don't start a ship war. I'm pretty sure teferi is taken, I don't remember that story.

The liesa and Gisa stories probably have some bearing on the future plot. I’d imagine Leisa has a bigger part in the story, but who knows at this point.

Ooh boy, new video!

The one with Gisa is my favorite

"omg where were you" "Yeah sorry about that I died."

7:00 this short story REALLY reminds me of The Haunted Mask Goosebumps book! One of the very best ones and a fave of mine haha

I've finally got used to the flow Nicole's new surname in the opening... By which I mean I now mouth along with it in the same way that I used to

You should try. Everything about Vampires. Perfect for October. Reeeeally love all the content. Don't miss a single episode , haha

Excellent work as Ever!! In my point of view(after reading it, of course) the return of Liesa have more things to do with her been ''Pact bounded'' with the demon than the returning mana stuff and I know I'm dreaming high but the main lore ended with Sigarda fighting Sorin, if Liesa suddenly appeared as last moment hero would be amazing haha!

Thanks for covering these. I read the main story but never got around to the side story for this set but I still really wanted to know what happened.

Yup Teferi and Wren was a great little story,can't wait to see those 2 in Dominaria again Thank you for the stories as alwais you make them awesome everytime,i read them but you make them better! 100% agree on the "FORCED INCLUSION" most of the time it suck

i love lore and, the amount of art and work it takes to pass it on. Storytelling is the greatest form of communication, details about fictional characters that make it seem pushed or forced are just unnecessary. I am glad our community is diverse and excepting, we get it. just dont fake it, on with the lore!

Actually I'm more excited to see the sisters see each other, knowing me we might have another Innastrad expansion coming up. Cause I wanna see her in the armor now.

Innistrad having eternal night destroys my expectation for a return to Shadowmoor/Lorwyn

I am definitely building a heavy metal themed Liesa commander deck.

It was so cool seeing wrenn in the story. Was not expecting her to be as caring and good natured as she was but it was wholesome and awesome!!! Its always nice to see folklore/tales of other worldy creatures even in worlds with magic planeswalking each plane has there own monsters and ghosts of the planes. The 3rd story was my fav outta the bunch. I love the idea of stickfingers. Like i said its awesome seeing folklore of the planes. Stickfingers is one of my fav creatures in the whole set. So this has been eatting me for awhile and im wondering your take on it. At the end of the story this paragraph is said As his mount's hooves struck the cobbles, Vadrik kept thinking about the second bed, made up in the old farmhouse. Thinking how odd it was that the bed was still made. Thinking about the green twinkling he'd seen in the house before they'd met Stickfingers in the grove. How odd it was that Ariosa had survived, unscathed. What did they mean by this? Is the bed for stickfingers is ariosa some how a ghost? Iv asked people before and most said they where just putting the old horror Troup of the evil is never gone or something similar. I found Gisa's story really kinda cute. The banter between Gisa and wilhelt was funny as heck. It was interesting seeing Liesa back and the story was really good too. I like the idea of turning a demon into her armor. As for crimson vow id guess we see her in the story possible with sigarda near the climax of the story

An angel wearing armor made of the still-living, torn apart body of a demon that she is bound to is the most metal thing I've ever heard

I feel kind of bad not reading the actual stories but dahm i adore those videos

Nice video

Its because of these videos I am able to create a dnd 5e campaign based on these stories. More of a mega campaign with multiple separate parties working across the realms to deal with the troubles that brew

So you're telling me that in the past 15 years of magic nobody went to Zhalfir and said "Just Naturalize it"

The side stories are spicy 🔥

Theses side stories are kinda great, I personally prefer that they don’t impact the main story but if they do, I prefer that it’s a few of them. The only thing that I would is that theses story actually explore the world other than just tell events, i would love to see a story about nephalia, the mountains (i think kessig) with maybe the dragons and devils that live there, and i was hoping a side story about these weird light thing in the sky

So Liesa is now an angel who came back from the dead and also wears the dead body of a demon she killed as armor? That is metal as f*ck!

Return of the Flight of Dusk!

Given how many planeswalkers end up on innistrad, im going to choose to believe that sayings about things like elephants have entered common vernacular due to all these travelers.

The first with Wrenn and Teferi may be important

Gissa confirms that Innistrad both has elephants, and, even more unlikely in my mind, topiary.

What kind of famer would summon a horror to protect their house? Life on Innistrad sure is tough

I like these for world building and giving lore to characters but I do wish some of these would relate to the main plot better. I like how they had Niko show back up at the end of Kaldheim and hope we see more of that. Maybe Liesa will get more in the next set.

I like the side stories being side stories.

I think Liesa may be able to rouse Sorin, after all talking to creatures of darkness is what she does. And he clearly mourns Avecyn and she's proof that Avecyn will eventually return.

heres a thought is garth one eye the same guy whose been in liliana's head talking to her

I would be cool if Liesa and Sigarda could have a reunion in Crimson Vow. Although that would probably happen either before or after Sigarda "talked" with Sorin.

I always thought Leisa was a double agent. Working with Demons and Devils to undermine them. Guess Avacyn's fratricide makes more sense if Leisa was actually working with them.

maybe its just my love for innistrad, but I really enjoyed the side stories for this set. They weren’t revolutionary or anything, but they were pretty fun in my book

I was hoping that ludevic would have had a short story, like does he become the hubris side did he finally change himself into an abomination or is that his Magnum opus?

I'm glad Liesa is back (I think her name is actually pronounced LEESA, not LYSA. But, you know, "tomatoes/tomahtoes"). I first heard of her in the Magic side-story regarding Avacyn going insane, and converting Gisela and Bruna to her side. Liesa is actually mentioned in that story (not by name, but it's her) while talking with Sigarda, and trying to woo Sigarda to "purge the human filth." It makes me wonder if Liesa and Sigarda are going to become the new "Night and Day" protectors of Innistrad, when all this is resolved. With Sigarda protecting humanity during the daylight hours, and Liesa, who seems to thrive in the darkness, protecting the night, and keeping the vampires/werewolves in check. A sort of "Batman/Superman" type of relationship. I like Liesa, and hope to hear more from her. Because she seems like an intriguing "x-factor" on Innistrad. She is an Angel, but definitely comes across as the more "gothic" type of Angelic being. She also seems like the type of Angel that Sorin Markov might be interested in becoming the new protector of his plane, just because of her ability to form peace/relationships with Demonkind.

7:35 "And now she's dead..." said no one living on Innistrad ever.

I'm thinking these stories will, for the most part, play a role later in some form. But maybe not the rest of this block Teferi and Wrenn will almost certainly return for the Dominaria set's storyline. Old Stickfingers... Probably not directly, but might indirectly in the form of showing that there's more horrors and aid for Innistrad than we realize. Perhaps an early hint to other ancient magics and horrors that protect at a cost, like Old Stickfingers itself. Maybe some will be summoned to protect towns against the other monsters, maybe some will be summoned only to betray those they are meant to help. But as for Old Stickfingers itself, I can't see it playing a big role, at least not any time soon. As for Saryth, Sinnia, Leinore, Katilda, and the mask... I can see that being more like the Old Stickfingers importance. Once again showing the people of Innistrad desperate for new protectors, turning to old legends and stories for help. The Coiled One that Saryth was trying to summon was, in Saryth's mind, exactly that, a snake-like god she wanted to summon to chase away the darkness, but which Katilda believed would bring disaster instead. Both this and Old Stickfingers seem like warnings and foreshadowings of problems to come. Actually, what happened at the Celestus seems like another instance of that, something intended to help that ended up making things worse, but The Coiled One and Old Stickfingers seem like specific beings that would be summoned as guardians, with more to come over time. As for Liesa... She could be another foreshadowing of the same thing, as the demon was summoned as a guardian and she returned as one as well. But I feel she might also foreshadow a much later story, perhaps something to come when we eventually return to Innistrad again years from now. After all, she is a reminder that demons and angels can both come back in Innistrad given enough time, so perhaps foreshadowing an eventual return of all of the angels, maybe a new story with Withengar or angels facing a similar problem to Liesa? Or perhaps Liesa herself being a future problem? I can see this more setting up an eventual plot, if not foreshadowing other events or ideas like before. If this story has any direct connection to this eternal night storyline, it would be foreshadowing an end to the problem, but if that is the case, I can only see it bringing a new issue. Perhaps a return of the demons as the new protectors, keeping the other monsters in line to keep them from wiping out humanity, but not going as far as the angels did. They allow chaos to continue and merely keep the others from wiping out humanity to doom the plane, making humans more like cattle to them. This would bring an end to the current problem, resolving the eternal night, the midnight hunt, and putting an end to the current plans, but lead into an eventual later story with humans dealing with demons as the new threat, perhaps summoning something more powerful, maybe something trapped in the moon?

As someone who actually asked for this video, thank you! Also, it might not have no relevance at all, but Liesa wearing demonskin armor is pretty metal.

I still feel cheated out of a proper ending to sub-plot of Chandra trying to figure out her personal feelings for Nissa that got abruptly and terribly ended in war of the spark

I think Saryth could and should survive because they’re such a cool concept

It's true that with time creatures made of mana, like demons and angels, will reform, but we've only seen It with demons, and it seeme that Liesa was revived thanks to the pact with the demon lord. So either angels take a VERY long time to reform, or only demons reform, probably due to the black nature of the plane

I really want Algli to be a legendary card in crimson vow. Maybe she can buff black cards and therefore Liesa.

I think the only relevant one going forward will be Teferi learning to fix his often-messed-up spells

Wait, Teferi messing with enchantments? BANT TEFERI WHEN?

I feel like there should be some kind of troubleshooting forum for planeswalkers. "so I got this curse that makes me want to murder planeswalkers. oh there's an artifact on Eldraine that could help me, cool I'll go check it out." "Aww man my time freezing spell is donking out on me again. Wait, you can just open up the logger and see what the problem is?"

I was hoping to hear about Ludevic and Olag, hopefully WotC writes something interesting about them.

I don't mind side stories being just side stories, but considering the magic story has been about planeswalkers almost exclusively for over a decade leads me to believe the Teferi/Wrenn one will be relavant in the future at least.

From what I've gathered about the development of the new Innistrad sets I believe Liesa will have no impact at all on Crimson Vow and, while I have less confidence concerning Vadrik and Rem even moreso, I expect that other characters will be filling the side stories for Crimson Vow. Aside from Katilda( in some form), I believe the other characters from that story will go the way of Old Stickfingers and remain only in their own side story. My thought regarding Tangled are very similar to yours, though I believe Teferi will ask a more acquinted nature mage(, that is also a planeswalker,) that will be the one who helps him for the events of the Dominaria United storyline.

i wonder if the other 2 angels will return as well given enough time

I would like your ranking/ recomendations of which stories to read. As they are one shots, I was thinking abount reading them, but WotC quality of writting and narrative is very inconsistent, so I would like to now if there is some must read or some to better avoid

yess

This is just a thought of mine, but given how the other sisters names are pronounced in Italian, Liesa should be pronounced LEE-EH-SA, like Lisa from Castlevania, with and E (pronounced like the E in grey) in the middle

What did you think about the ending of the Old Stickfingers story? I think they imply the father of the girl was Stickfingers

In the teferi story, is there much indication that it happened recently? Or could it be a story from weeks or months before the rest?

Does the deamon mask has any of Griselbrand power on it? Because that would be a interest artifact for other deamons, witches and cults fight for. Maybe the key to ressurect him to, so he can demand the soul of Liliana And I actual love what they did to Liesa. Like Sorin, she wants a balance to Inistrad, and her metods was quite different and simbolic for an Angel. Hope to see a side history of tea time with her survival sister

I would love for Leissa to fight in her demonhide armor, then have to visit her tanner friend for repairs, then after the Nth time, she formally invites the tanner to fight alongside her. That wouldnbe rod.

Love these videos! So interesting to hear about Liesa.. And I had no idea Vadrik was gay. Yay for representation!

as a trans person, i agree the inclusion did feel quite a bit forced, and while i do appreciate the effort by the authors, it would be nice to have inclusion that doesn't need to be thoroughly explained beforehand

I never was interested in mtg lore until I saw your channel. I used to be a Yugioh player, so.... But thanks to your videos I think like I'm quickly catching up.

I need more Liesa, I always wanted to know more about this odd angel which bargained with demons to seek peace, She Is basically reversed Sorin! And now it's the perfect time to make her an importante character, Sigarda has been the last hope for the humans, and that must be incredibile taxing for her, not to forget that she witnesed the horrifing fall of her other two sisters, She could really use some help. And camon how fucking badass Liesa Is? She's wearing armor made out of the corpse of demon, which is bonded to her, it's just so fucking cool! And seeing how she would react to all of the bullshit that has happened on Innistrad, while she was death... I don't know I really really hope that she's going to be important in Crimson vow.

I feel sort of cheated demons is one of my favourite tribes and I would have loved a giant demon snake in midnight hunt set

Did I miss any stories about Eliose? I think a PI in Innistrad would've made a good story :P

Hm. I THINK the Teferi and Wreen story will have a impact in the future. There is clear foreshadowing BUT we all know Wizards love to waste their good ideas and instead use bad ideas (yes Ikoria, I'm looking at you). That said though, I would LOVE to have Liesa actually take part in the main story of crimson vow. We had Sigarda appear and interact with Sorin, we don't know what happen after that but I guess Sigarda would be happy to see her sister again. And given how Liesa was portrayed and how Sigarda herself acts, I really don't think they would leave Innistrad to the vampires and the werewolves. Now, moving a bit on a tangent: At the end, you said that beings of mana on Innistrad can take a while but eventually reform. That opens the door for the other angels to return as well(which _could_ be something interesting if WotC gives the story and the freedom to some writers). However, I don't think that would include my girl Avacyn since she was created by Sorin(but that could also be worked out). Thinking about this tangent, if someone is willing to bent a few rules, we could see Griselbrand return somewhat, and that would have some implications with Liliana... and.. you know, advance the story somewhat. Now, closing the tangent with a few ideas of my own: Since time magic is a thing and we had a little something called Time Spiral, wouldn't it be interesting to see some kind of "time crunch" on Innistrad? Like, some really nasty thing pulling the long past, the present and a few possible futures together into one mix? That would include Avacyn at full power fighting with Griselbrand while Emrakul emerges from the moon as Innistrad is "ready for her" in the future. I don't know, I really enjoy thinking about this kind of "what if" scenarios and more than so on Innistrad(which is one of my favorite planes).

The Old Stickfingers story also ends on a weird note, like it was supposed to be intriguing or mysterious. Personally, I felt rather confused. I tend to prefer mysteries where the reader is given just enough information to come up with support for potential theories, but I felt the short story didn't have enough information to do anything other than blind guessing. Here is the (almost) final passage by the way, for anyone who didn't read the story. After it is a poem about Old Stickfingers. I just personally feel rather bothered that this seems quite ambiguous and came kind of out of nowhere. "As his mount's hooves struck the cobbles, Vadrik kept thinking about the second bed, made up in the old farmhouse. Thinking how odd it was that the bed was still made. Thinking about the green twinkling he'd seen in the house before they'd met Stickfingers in the grove. How odd it was that Ariosa had survived, unscathed."

Still mad/sad we didn’t see Tacenda

Thinking about what happened to Liesa... Do you think Gisela and Bruna can come back in a non eldrazi form? Gisela is my all time favorite angel in MtG and would love to see her back unbroken

Liesa is so bad a$$ she is literally wearing a demon she made a deal with as armor, Liliana has competition.