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douglysium · 2 years

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In Defense of Green and Technology(A Color Pie Analysis)

So if you’re reading this then by now I should have uploaded my fifth and final article covering Green and the Order of Jukai. In it I had bonus section covering Green as a color pie philosophy and its relationship with technology as well as what I feel are some major misunderstandings of Green both philosophically, flavorfully, and mechanically. Due to the length of the article and the fact that I have decided that this section of the article stands well enough on its own I have decided to post said section here if you do not feel like reading the entirety of the other article. With that out of the way we can begin.

There are some major misunderstandings regarding Green and how it views artifacts and technology. One of the biggest, and one I want to address here, is the idea that Green as a philosophy is inherently incompatible with technology and that all Green characters and factions should view all technology as evil or bad in order to not be contradictory. While there are Green factions and characters that hate all technology there seem to be people that think you can’t really call yourself Green aligned unless you are completely barebacking it in the woods somewhere living off nothing but what the land provides and the skin on your back and any interaction Green has with technology that doesn’t involve immediately smashing it to pieces is a flavor fail or a color pie break. I bring this up because even though Green is the most tradition focused of all the colors on Kamigawa it still has at least a few artifacts so I think this needs to be addressed because inevitably someone is going to ask why is Webspinner Cuff Green or something.

So when it comes to how or why Green may use or like technology and artifacts there are several possible answers, with more than one answer possibly being true at the same time.

Firstly, artifacts in Magic the Gathering as a whole do not literally always represent the artificial or technology. While they can and often do represent those things, artifacts also just represent anything that’s physical but also like not a creature or land. Like if something is just a rock it would be thrown in the same category as a sword in MTG because it's just an object even if there are plenty of naturally occurring rocks in nature and not every rock is manmade. They are ultimately both just nonliving objects that don’t have a strong enough connection to a mana color to be given a color alignment.

I think this is also where the art of MTG can sometimes really matter because while things like treasure and food may sometimes have art depicting artificially made versions of these things, that's not the end all be all for what these things represent.

Food is the most obvious point to make because food is a very vague term and just because something is food does not mean it is automatically artificial.

In fact, one of the major themes in Green is the food chain and your place in it, such as predator and prey.

I would argue that treasures also fall under a similar category because all and all “treasure” can represent both natural and unnatural things. Sometimes treasures represent the gold coins you find in a chest, sometimes they’re pieces of amazing art someone crafted…

and sometimes it’s a naturally occurring gemstone, mineral or what have you.

What I’m basically trying to say is that not all artifacts represent something that is artificial and some artifacts can represent both the natural and/or unnatural depending on the context of Magic the Gathering due to the limitations of card types. Also, while Green is all about accepting the world for what it is, that doesn’t mean it is against all uses of resources and the like. Trying to survive while using nothing and having no impact on the land or environment is literally impossible since you are at the very least going to need to eat something somewhere, and appreciating nature’s beauty or using things like treasure for specific purposes is fine as long as you aren’t greedy, disrupting the natural cycle or getting these things at the expense of nature. Plus, things like gold and jewels can be found naturally in the land and we all know that in Magic, Green has a strong connection to lands and the things they provide

However, this answers why Green in gameplay mechanics may care about artifacts but what about Green and technology from a pure flavor perspective. How can someone go around riding a fucking mecha-horse and have a job as an artificer, a job/occupation that literally requires working with artifacts and technology, and yet still call themselves Green or end up as a purely Green card?

There is once again an answer, actually two answers, for this and the answer is sort of weird. That answer is perspective, but this is a bit complicated so I’ll go into more detail. Different Green characters and factions may draw different lines in the sand for what is and isn't considered natural or part of the natural cycle. Creatures such as beavers build dams and while dams are in fact an artificial creation basically no one is about to argue that a beaver building a dam is unnatural.

In fact, beaver dams can be extremely vital and healthy to an ecosystem. In this way a Green character may view say humans or elves doing things like making a crafting spears, making farms or helping plants grow in a similar light.

All these examples I’ve been using so far are of rudimentary or basic technology but this can be used for more advanced technology too. Machines can be used to better understand and take care of nature. Think of how with the internet or an encyclopedia you can look up all kinds of biological information about creatures and even figure out ways to help take care of the ecosystem and different flora and fauna and make sure they’re healthy or preserve them.

So when you see that mono Green elf living in a house or wielding tools it’s important to remember that they may see themselves and these things as still being part of a bigger natural picture.

Not to mention that it’s not like literally all houses/huts or tools are inherently harmful to nature or anything. There’s also the fact that Green characters disagreeing on where the line exactly starts and ends for what is and isn’t natural isn’t any different than White aligned characters disagreeing on what is morally good or bad, or Blue characters disagreeing on what is an improvement.

A good example of this would be the respective Green-White aligned and Red-Green aligned guilds of Ravnica, the Selesnya Conclave and the Gruul Clans. It’s important to take into account that even though these guilds both have Green the splash of White and Red respectively pull them in different directions but I think this example still works because ultimately the guilds both have Green in equal amounts and we can see the possible differences Green factions may have based on any extra colors they choose to align themselves with over others.

In this case the Selesnya and Gruul are both explicitly stated to care about nature and have some form of worship and/or reverence for it but their approach to it is vastly different. The Gruul definitely leans into a more feral, wild, and untamed ideal of nature and they see the city of Ravnica as something that needs to be torn down for nature to flourish.

On the other hand the Selesnya have an emphasis on aid and the community and from their perspective their farms, communes, etc. are ways of living in harmony with nature and helping it flourish.

Yet another example would be the animosity between the Mono-Green Therosian god of the hunt Nylea and the Green-White Therosian god of harvests Karametra.

As stated in a “PLANESWALKER'S GUIDE TO THEROS, PART 1” Nylea is a god that is stated to believe in letting nature have free rein and does her best to make sure this applies to her domain. So she is against stuff like building temples and preventing the spread of humans in her domain. Something that conflicts with Karametra because Nylea’s philosophy sees agriculture, the thing that a god of harvests is all about, as a disgusting aberration of the natural world. However, Nylea is also the god of the seasons and the seasons change at her whim since she is a god of nature. Meaning that Karametra gets annoyed with Nylea’s interference with the seasons.

I guess another major factor for these misconceptions is that people interpret Green philosophy as some peace-loving or hippie style philosophy that says you can’t hurt anything or use any of the resources at your disposal when that is not necessarily true. Another example of this would be hunting. Green is against things like poaching because it disrupts the natural system. You aren’t hunting because you need to or because you're supposed to but just to make more money or have a trophy. Poaching is also something that is very infamous for disrupting the ecosystem by driving various animals to endangerment or even extinction. However, if you’re hunting for food or certain resources, just happen to kill whatever you’re defending yourself from, etc and then use the parts of the animal you killed to make say clothes, a tent, weapons, and the like then that’s fine. Firstly, because the reason for why you are hunting aligns with Green’s ideals, and what you are ultimately doing is just using all the parts from something that was dead anyway. This sort of cycle could also be seen as something that works with the flow of the natural cycle or at the very least doesn’t conflict with it.

Not to mention that in certain environments, like a freezing cold tundra, trying to bareback it there is probably just going to end up with you dead. So trying to ditch all tools and technology just isn’t possible in some circumstances so they may have to make do with the next best thing.

If you want a more recent more magical version of this there is the plane of New Capenna. Which I think is a good example of what I mean due to the fact that the entirety of the plane outside of the city has been ravaged to the point that living outside of it is unrealistic, impossible or unoptimal for a majority of people(I would say New Capenna honestly has some very interesting takes on Green with the Brokers, Riveteers and Cabaretti. In fact I might make a quick article or video on Green in New Capenna alone).

There is of course, Kaldesh a plane where people like Oviya see the act of building servos and the like as repurposing the Aether and other materials needed to make them as part of one big cycle on the plane that ultimately doesn’t harm nature. Ultimately, one could argue that Kaladesh’s technology lives in harmony with nature rather than always damaging or destroying it.

The next point I want to make is that color philosophy is ultimately about VALUES. Green values acceptance and nature because it views them as the most important thing. So you can make technology and artifacts but you need to have nature in mind, i.e. it can’t disrupt the natural balance or hurt nature. A color like Blue also cares about nature but the difference between Green and Blue is their value or what they deem most important. Blue views progress as more important and is fine with nature as long as it isn’t getting in the way of its progress. Green views some forms of progress as natural and is just fine with progress as long as it isn’t interfering with how things should be. These two reasons are why I would heavily argue against the notion or idea that a person or creature is not green aligned because they use tools or what not. There’s also the fact that, flavorwise, just because a person doesn’t or can’t live up to their philosophical ideal does not mean they aren’t a certain color alignment. They might be hypocritical sure but being a hypocrite doesn’t make you not a color, just like how accidentally losing your temper wouldn’t mean you're are not Blue or doubting your feelings doesn’t make you not Red.

Also, it is possible for a construct or otherwise mechanical creature to be Green aligned. I already went over this in my article covering the general color pie, but what determines what color alignment someone/something falls under is not necessarily the state of their existence or even their personalities but rather what they believe in and value. I mean yeah, goblins are often Red-aligned and different species or tribes within Magic tend to share one or more colors for various reasons, such as culture, but this isn’t the end all be all mind you. Being human doesn’t mean you have to have White in your color identity, and just being a living thing isn’t enough to make you Green-aligned, and simply being hungry and wanting to eat or just feeling emotions does not guarantee you are of the Red-alignment. So if a robot, machine or artificial creature is Green aligned that is because they have Green’s philosophy and values.

What I’m trying to get across here is that Green using any sort of technology or artifact isn’t automatically a flavor fail or color pie break. Yes, there are of course flavor fails and color pie breaks that involve Green using tech but it’s not as simple as just technology =/= Green. However, just to be clear I’m not saying that factions or characters that hate all technology or want to bareback in forest somewhere aren’t really Green or anything, in fact they are probably very Green most of the time, just that it’s not the ONLY way for Green philosophy to manifest. These things become even more interesting to talk about when you consider the fact that Magic has all kinds of planes with each one potentially following different rules and different kinds of logic. Something that might be clearly unnatural or artificial in our world or on certain planes may be a completely naturally occurring phenomenon on other planes, i.e. the denizens of Mirrodin being born with metal body parts.

Now I know this is usually the part where there’s a pay off by talking about a faction that is a good example of what I was talking about but I’m going to be honest the Order of the Jukai are stated to mostly hate technology. That doesn’t mean what I said was meaningless or doesn’t at all apply though because we still see them use tools, like bows and arrows, ninja stars, etc., and we do see Green aligned people and cards using technology on Kamigawa so i feel like this stuff was important to mention and get off my chest since I imagine a lot of you would have brought it up anyway.

#mtg #colorphilosophy #mtgcolorphilosophy #green #mtggreen #greenphilosophy #TheTasteOfMagicTheGathering #TheFlavorOfMagicTheGathering

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