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Episode 219: Parents play Magic?
153 Plays8 months ago
Hello, Podwalkers, and welcome to the Goblin Lore Podcast! Today Hobbes and Taya are joined by Michelle to discuss the evolution of the representation of parenting in Magic Story as well as their own experiences as parents who play Magic. This looks at impact and changes this can have on their relationship with this game, as well as simply the joys (and challenges) of parenthood in general!
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As promised, we keep Mental Health Links available every episode. But For general Mental Health the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has great resources for people struggling with mental health concerns as well as their families. We also want to draw attention to this article on stigma from NAMI's site.
If you’re thinking about suicide or just need someone to talk to right now, you can get support from any of the resources below.
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
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- Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741-741
- International suicide hotlines: A comprehensive resource list for people outside the US.
- IMAlive: Click Chat Now to access a live online network of volunteers through instant messaging.
- TrevorLifeline, TrevorChat, and TrevorText (LGBTQ+ crisis support): 1-866-488-7386, or text “Trevor” to 1-202-304-1200
- Trans Lifeline (US): (877) 565-8860
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Opening and closing music by Wintergatan (@wintergatan). Logo art by Steven Raffael (@SteveRaffle)
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Transcript
Introduction and Parenting Themes
00:00:29
Speaker
Hello Podwalkers and welcome back to another episode of the Goblin Lore Podcast. This is HobbsQ, who you have not heard in several weeks because, well, kind of because of parenting and just life stuff in general, which is some of what we're going to be talking about today, which is kind of interesting and cool. Before we jump into our topic today, we will be having a returning guest, one of our favorite returning guests.
00:00:56
Speaker
Basically another host, I would say. They've done funnels with us. This is news? What? You didn't realize that this was my... Yeah, you're taking over. I thought we... You really didn't read the show notes.
00:01:15
Speaker
So my daughter is TV. OK. Well, to be fair, there weren't show notes, so you're doing OK. I was like, you don't got to worry about that because we didn't have them to start with. So. But yes, that lovely voice is Michelle. So hello. Hello. Welcome back. Welcome back.
00:01:41
Speaker
It's always wonderful to
Favorite Magic: The Gathering Parents
00:01:43
Speaker
be here. Thank you so much for having me temporarily. On a permanent temporary basis.
00:01:57
Speaker
But anyway before we get started we should all introduce I sorrows I guess because as Alex pointed out recently any episode can be a person's first episode so I've been talking for dear lord a minute and a half and Haven't told anybody my name is Hobbs cue. I can still be found everywhere on the internet since 1998 under Hobbs cue
00:02:20
Speaker
And yeah, I thought we would do a question for today, which is kind of a lead into what we'll be talking about. But who is your favorite parent in Magic the Gathering? I chose this because I have an easy answer. It's Angrath. I love my angry minotaur dad, who really just wanted like this entire time to get back to his daughters. I did a whole episode on him a while ago.
00:02:45
Speaker
solo episode before Taya had joined the show, when Alex had a week off, it was about parenthood. And that's what it was. It was about me talking about Angraff. So that's who I'm going to take. And I will pass it over to Taya. Hi. Taya, pronounce her, she heard they them. Taya transcends on blue sky.
00:03:09
Speaker
You know, I'm probably gonna steal Michelle's. Well, let's just say, my favorite parent is Urza. You know, that's... That's a crock of shit. I really like the preface of like, I'm probably going to steal Michelle's and my favorite is Urza.
00:03:33
Speaker
No. Anyway, it was nice being here. I'm going to head out now. Bye. Bye. Bye. Now, that would definitely be my vote for worst parent in magic, I think. To more than one being entity? Yeah.
Family Stories in Magic
00:03:57
Speaker
My favorite parent is
00:04:00
Speaker
You know, Rest in Peace, Tamio. Aw, yeah. At least she's still there in digital format. We did just have a lovely story with her digital version. We did. And it was nice to see her back in that form at least, but she was such a good mom and
00:04:26
Speaker
It was even nice to see, you know, just getting her back a little bit in story and seeing, you know, we even got some flashbacks to her when she was still alive. It was nice to see her back in story, but definitely my vote for best MTG parent. Well, I, hi, I'm Michelle Rapp. I have been on this podcast several times.
00:04:49
Speaker
and did a panel with us in Minneapolis. I did do a panel with y'all in Minneapolis. That was a lot of fun. You're basically a host. You're very kind. My pronouns are they, them, she, her. And as far as my favorite parent, planeswalker, I mean, undead doesn't really count as children, so I can't say her name.
00:05:19
Speaker
I'm like, wait, what? But since, you know, Taehyung Taehyung, who would be my answer, I'm going to go ahead and say the other big one is just to fairy. I think particularly with Kelly Diggs writing, there has been a lot of work to really
00:05:38
Speaker
I think out of all of the planes walkers, like the old walkers we've seen, Tefaria has given us the most insight into his growth between being an old walker and now being a slightly more diminished walker from being this almighty powerful person to becoming a father.
00:06:02
Speaker
raising his child Niambi and seeing her flourish and thrive. It's something just, it's a lot to go from near powerful God-like being to, okay, I'm kind of like got a few tricks up my sleeve with time. I'm feeling very vulnerable to, oh God, I'm now in charge of this extremely vulnerable person and I have to wrestle with all of my handcuffs. So I really empathize and appreciate that.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, so it's a very good time. Dad, definitely a nerd dad for sure. If we had to separate the dads into their various factions, he would be nerd dad. The one with the worst dad jokes. Would Soren count as a dad? Wow.
00:06:56
Speaker
wow this just took like a very dark turn it's definitely goth dad i mean i'm thinking now of oh god what was that video game with all the dads it was yeah does anyone remember this it was the dating dev it was like yeah i know what you're talking about but i can't think of the name of it oh my god they had a goth dad and that's definitely sorry
00:07:20
Speaker
Like, yeah, like there's definitely, we could go down some dark pathways if we're going to be talking about Soren, I guess. I mean, I mean. Anguished on making your own kids, I guess. They used to look fabulous doing it. Whatever he goes, he's just not.
00:07:44
Speaker
So back when I helped write the help, I saw I did help the professor write his like office hours for sore way back in the day. And I did like very strongly suggest that we have box fans everywhere. So that whenever the cosplayer comes in, it's just like blowing. Where's that wind coming from? Just like papers flying off his desk.
00:08:13
Speaker
Oh yeah, that is, that is a, you know, I, I did not. So, so far we've named two parents. I didn't necessarily expect that we were going to talk about, I mean, do we want to just finish this off by bringing up Oco now? I don't think anyone, I mean, to be fair, he didn't know he was a parent. And I haven't read the war recently because I've been kind of busy. To be fair, I don't, if you do, I think you will very strongly
00:08:43
Speaker
I agree. Oh, it's exactly the kind of parent we expected. Yeah, like like he is who we thought he is really applies here. Oh, OK. So he's going to not pay alimony is what I'm saying. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cleaner alimony. Oh, my God. Think of all those like decades because what? Kellen is out like what? His 20s.
00:09:18
Speaker
unclear way between sets now. It's really not as stark as it used to be. So I think he's supposed to be like 20, 21 or something like that. Yeah, something like that. But that's two decades of, not two decades, that's 18 years of, well, actually, no, it's probably about 14 years because I imagine that Eldraine is based in medieval Europe. So someone they would consider a child is probably like what, 10?
00:09:38
Speaker
He doesn't act it, but I guess he must be.
00:09:47
Speaker
So that's still a decade's worth of like back pay. We've got to garnish off of Oko's wages. So whatever he makes off his heist, we really need to go and look at the thing. Like look at total outcome and you know. Yeah, Kellen should have negotiated a much better fee because I don't even think he's getting paid here. He's doing it out of the love of meeting his father.
00:10:13
Speaker
which is just sad and pathetic. God, it's so sad and pathetic. I mean, who, I mean, it's, first of all, he is a golden retriever boy, but to
Parenting and Magic Engagement
00:10:26
Speaker
like, we all did cringe stuff when we were in our early twenties, you know?
00:10:33
Speaker
I was really into doing like ripped up custom t-shirt art and like designing t-shirts that way. I mean, Kellan did crimes. So, you know. He's accidentally doing crime. He believed that his his his father, he had never met with his father's like, yeah.
00:11:02
Speaker
Yeah, those innocent people will be totally fine. You can do what else? We'll leave them alone. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, now the yeah, we'll see what happens to poor Kellen, but. But yes, so we're here to talk about parenting in Magic the Gathering. And.
00:11:30
Speaker
You know, I don't know exactly what realm we're going to hit this from. We kind of, we're just talking about there's different things we can be talking about when it comes to this. You know, for everything from, well, we want to talk about our experiences as parents who play Magic the Gathering.
00:11:47
Speaker
You know, I'm, I'm interested in discussing a little bit about my, just the change that it just, what I've had with my relationship with the game since becoming a father, both in terms of my ability to travel for events, my ability to engage my ability to hell, even play magic.
00:12:07
Speaker
So that sign is very interesting to me from like the real world perspective. But we are also very interested in the lore to think about how magic has treated parents. So I don't know if my co-hosts have any preference on where we can start. You notice I did say co-host again, because my plan is if I say it enough times, then Michelle is just obligated.
00:12:32
Speaker
Like, Beetlejuice. I know enough, I just suddenly find myself compelled to log on and find this headcaster link. Michelle, I thought you were putting your daughter to bed. I have to go. I don't know why. I don't know why. I believe this. I'm getting messages that they're starting. I mean, I'm down to, like, discuss
00:13:00
Speaker
like the role of parenting, like the themes of parenting in Magic the Gathering, which I think is really interesting considering it is not a game like, it's not a family game, is how I would say it. It's how I put Magic the Gathering, like it's a game that your families can play, but it's not geared towards families. And I think a lot of the lore reflects that, if that makes any sense.
00:13:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's fair to say. Although, you know, I do have to say that this recent, this set story actually has probably had more family in it than any set story previously. So it's kind of interesting that this comes up at this time. And I know that, you know, Michelle, you said you haven't had a chance to read the current story, but it's
00:13:53
Speaker
It's just weird. And I hadn't even thought about that when we were talking about this earlier, that the current story was completely out of mind until Hobbs mentioned Oko earlier, but just how much of a how much it came into this. I keep wanting to forget that Oko's a dad because he doesn't deserve it. Yeah. Oh, well, I mean, anyone can become a parent. Yeah. Which is awkward.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, we should not be able to procreate so easily. Well, to be fair, I think if we if we weren't us being a species might not have worked out as well. This is fair. Yeah, so. You know, we have we have the current examples, but kind of even going back, it's it's been part of the story. You know,
00:14:55
Speaker
for a long time. We do have a lot of, you know, the D&D, all of our heroes are orphans, you know, thing going back to like, go back and look like it, Gerard back in the Weatherlight saga. You don't really see much in the way of families, you know, regarding anything, anybody else. I mean, there's there's Erza and Caleb and Krug and their son who may or may not in fact be his nephew. Yeah.
00:15:26
Speaker
Yeah. And I feel like. And even that story, you know, that comes a little bit later. But yeah, that that. That's not exactly like good positive story. And then there's card. Yeah. Well, you know, he's in charge of a whole plane. You know, these things. Oh, no. I mean, like with Ursa and car. Oh, OK. OK. Car. Carony. Yeah.
00:15:51
Speaker
of apparent and absentia too. I mean, the entire party did a really crappy job as a parent. I'm trying so hard. Oh god, I'm very oily. But again, again, we could just be back to who turns role model ones. Right? Like, it's not like it's not like we're exactly
00:16:13
Speaker
Yeah, I think that a lot of the way that we've seen parental figures sort of like displayed in the past has been a lot of like the sins of the fathers. And that's definitely been a theme that we can, as we mentioned before, you know, we start with Urza and Mishra and they've got their thing going on and because of their nonsense and also the phyrexians, like everything goes to crap. And then we've got
00:16:42
Speaker
Karn who was, you know, basically made in the image of Ursa in some ways and then he creates a plane that tries to
00:16:55
Speaker
He tries to make a better utopia for himself, and then he's like, I'm going to go now. I'm depressed. I actually really identify with this. I hear that, but at the same time, it's like you just create this whole world and there are people, people who rely on you. You need to create a system to support them if you're not going to be able to.
00:17:21
Speaker
anyway and what do you leave in charge but a thing made from the recycled remains of something that caused the near apocalypse on dominari sticks out like it's in his duffel bag he's like well but yeah it's very much sort of
00:17:42
Speaker
I think kind of trying to keep in with this older generation of fantasy science fiction that I find. For example, there's Dune, which is the hotness right now because of Mr. Chalamet and his epic cheekbones, and also Zendaya and her just general epicness. And also Florence Pugh, who frowns like no one else in Hollywood. It's amazing.
00:18:09
Speaker
but no really look at her frown it's like a masterpiece in in like sadness and scowling anyway but there is that whole sins of the fathers right where
00:18:21
Speaker
we sort of look at the past and look at the ways our previous generations have essentially like f'd us over and how do we move on from that. And a lot of like the older lore, which obviously took a lot of inspiration from this era of like 70s, 80s, like
00:18:44
Speaker
science fiction fantasy carries over. And so it's interesting when we look at how parenting is modeled and discussed now in lore, because I actually don't think it really plays as much of a part as it did in the past. We're not getting these epic sagas anymore that really focus on legacy. It focuses more on
00:19:14
Speaker
thwarting some kind of big diabolical plot, Bolas, or... Whoa, wait, what? And it's like, even then, you can't even make an argument that Bolas is a parent, right? Because he just contorted this plane to this liking, poor Amonkhet. But yeah, it's not really a foundational piece of the lore, I would argue, in recent years.
00:19:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's just been there, which I kinda, I don't mind. There's some characters that are parents or have parents that are part of the lore, and that's what we see with the characters that we've mentioned already. It hasn't been a part of the story until really this set, other than the side story, where we do get a lot of
00:20:12
Speaker
you know, the the nashi tamio relationship has been part of the kamigawa story and then part of the side story here but the oko kellin story has been kind of interwoven through this whole basically this whole years block it's been kellin looking for oko and then this like finally actually yeah we're finally getting the payoff right right yeah that was the prize we were all expecting
00:20:43
Speaker
deadbeat dad. It's not deadbeat of the most deadbeat of death. Not even just deadbeat. This is flat out like, how can I use the fact that this kid likes me? It's beyond deadbeat. It's like, how can I make a tool out of my kid? Which is monstrous, I must say.
00:21:06
Speaker
I haven't read the story but I hope it's being shown in the way in like the horror that's just horrible. Yeah, it is. I think it is very clear that we are being told like, this is not good. Like, yeah, there's an idealism about
00:21:23
Speaker
Kellen that has been present anyway, but there's an idealism about Kellen and that is becoming more and more apparent, but it is sad. It is sad as we're watching.
Parenting Reflections and Gaming Metaphors
00:21:34
Speaker
Yeah. Like we're watching Kellen be the golden his golden retriever self and just, you know, like be the golden retriever for the worst possible. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. But I think we've actually got
00:21:54
Speaker
Parents getting to just be parents. Yeah, which is what you know, I think as you say in Michelle, instead of it just being like legacy or having to be a story, like, we're getting parents to get to be parents. I mean, there's a reason the ones that we named, you know, whereas to fairies a little bit different, you know, just because he was around prior, but his fatherhood wasn't his fatherhood wasn't part of the story until much, much later.
00:22:22
Speaker
But everybody we chose is much more recent examples. And they are people, you know, like, I mean, Angrath sticks out for a lot of dads that I've talked to. You know, there's people that found this show that it flat out told me they found it because of the Angrath episode, right? Like it was just, there is an identification with that. It is- Well, everybody wants to be the big beefy dad anyways, right? I mean, in many ways it feels like,
00:22:52
Speaker
Like being a parent is a lot more realistic. Like there are people who are also parents. They're not like parents with a capital P in a way that determines a big arc of this narrative. Yes. You like the house of tradies.
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, that's it, right? It's funny, because we don't, there are times we don't get that with, you know, we talk about like magic is often about like conflict. I was having this discussion with people recently, again, what's like the whole idea about like, why we don't get just stories about like sports or planeswalkers who spark because of joy.
00:23:26
Speaker
You know, like, we don't get that because Marie Kondo the Planeswalker. I mean, like, with Tamio, we did this determine basically we're gonna be getting her spark is around like finding a scroll, right? I mean, there's some instances of it. But in general, like, story narrative is that
00:23:47
Speaker
People don't spark from that and story, story doesn't work when it's not about conflict. And so we haven't had a lot of room for parents to just be parents and be part of it, be just be part of it because the storytelling relies on needing conflict in these big things and just being a parent doesn't tend to go well with that. I would say it's the hard part, right? Or I don't know if I trust them because the last time we finally get to see somebody be a parent, they set up a parent just in time to then kill her.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yes, I'm still talking about Tamio, because I'm still not okay with it. We have feelings. Yeah, we got lots when it comes to Tamio for me. Yeah, and also just how much do they need to traumatize poor Nashi? First they wipe out his entire village. Yeah. And then they kill off his adoptive mom. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Poor little girl. We have feelings. Is the way we would address it.
00:24:48
Speaker
But yeah, it's very much an ongoing theme that helps flush out these characters. It gives them different aspects to discover as they find more intimacy with, or not, or lack of intimacy, I suppose, in the case of, like, say, Oko, with these other individuals who were in their care or otherwise related to them.
00:25:14
Speaker
And I think it touches on what it is to be a parent. It really unlocks this part of ourselves that could not have been unlocked, I think, any other way. The way I was describing it to a friend of mine was, if you've ever played Hades, it's this awesome roguelite game where you can control how difficult it is by adding heat. I like to say that being a parent
00:25:41
Speaker
It just means you roll onto a different on-ramp and now you're on almost maximum heat. It's so much more difficult. It's a different level of game of life that you're playing now as a person who's in charge of a tiny person that needs constant care and affection.
00:26:02
Speaker
So, yeah, it's it really just you're forced to kind of go through this experience that forever changes you as a person. And the aspect that I show of myself, I show to my daughter is not going to be the same as the aspect I bring here, for example. So it really does when you choose to make a character a parent.
00:26:33
Speaker
bring a lot of depth in a way that it helps explain some things or like it brings more color in a way that maybe someone who isn't a parent would expect necessarily. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah, I, it's wild to see the whole legacy, the idea of legacy versus the idea of being just apparent, right? Like it not needing to be a story driven thing. I'm struck so much by coming back to that idea since of the father piece to it.
00:27:10
Speaker
Yeah, because, I mean, when we see Teperi and his daughter, Niami, Niami's like, she's off doing her own thing. She's like a doctor. She's helping refugees, you know, and you can clearly see like this influence of, you know, her parents and her upbringing, the decisions that she makes, but they don't define who she is and they aren't central to our identity in the same way that, let's say, Karn and Ursa were, you know?
00:27:39
Speaker
But I think there's also just a question about trauma and the question of trauma and how much of old lore really relied on parental relationships to be a source of that as opposed to what we see kind of nowadays with a lot of these parent planeswalkers.
00:27:59
Speaker
I can't think of, besides maybe Oko, in the near future, a parental relationship like that that kind of falls apart quite that terribly. We still don't know what happened when Angraff got home. There could have been a lot of anger.
00:28:24
Speaker
Where is the family business? Yeah, you were supposed to be working the forges. Yeah
00:28:31
Speaker
And if we're talking about non planeswalker parents as well, we do have the Queen Linden and King, oh, what's his name? More parents that they've killed off, you know. Yeah, no, we're very, we're still very, I'm very salty about that. And love killing off parents, you know, killed off Shondra's dad. They kill off the King and Queen of
00:29:00
Speaker
Arden Vale. Arden Vale, yeah. I knew why they were such a good couple. That's why. King Henryth, Henryth and Linden, they were just the best pair. They had a really good blended family dynamic. So rare. So they had to go.
00:29:18
Speaker
still so so upset about that. Linda was such a badass. I actually have a niece named Linda and we gave her the magic card with her on it. Oh, that's cool. She she she's kept it and she loves talking about it all the time. Oh, yeah. But yeah, it's. But even then, you know, like we still see
00:29:42
Speaker
It doesn't define the twins life quite that way, precisely, I guess maybe in Rowan's case, but I don't know. I would say that Rowan is taking a very different path and car. But yeah. Yeah, Rowan is just having some heels. Oh, she's a mess. She's a hot mess.
00:30:07
Speaker
And that's okay. You know, some people need to go through some stuff to process. She lost this whole like thing that made her special. You know, there's a lot going on.
00:30:22
Speaker
She's lost who she is as a person. She has lost her foundation as like an identity. Like she doesn't know who she is anymore. And she's mainly trying to find any way to bring it back. Any semblance of anything back to what she thought was her bedrock in life. And yeah, that's hard. I get it.
00:30:46
Speaker
She just needs to go spend a year hanging out with the Rakdos, get it out of her system. I think she needs to pull a Chandra. She just needs to go and shoot Lightning from a mountain for a little while. She just needs to go to Carol Keep. Speaking of not actual parents, but parental figures that we also had to kill. Oh, yeah. Sorry. God's damn it.
00:31:16
Speaker
You know, I begin to think I don't want to be a parent in magic, actually. Like. Well, we're not in the lore, so it's like we don't like randomly show up in one of these. I mean, you know, looking at it like this, Wizards is almost as good at killing parents as Disney is. Oh, God.
00:31:39
Speaker
Why? Can't we just have a happy family? Like, that would be so refreshing. That's why we love the freaking Kenrith so much. So upset. That's why they had to do it. No! Anyway.
00:32:02
Speaker
But yeah, it's parenting, it's a theme, and I think as times have changed and the role of literature within this game has changed and what has influenced literature, so has our perception of parenting and what drives a story. So yeah, it's just more of a character shader slash fleshing out thing than
00:32:29
Speaker
I don't know, we have to figure out how this is like a part of the patriarchy and colonialism. And now my great grandson is a sandworm and it's super awkward. I don't know what else to think about. I keep going back to Dune because it's like the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of like big novels, that big science fiction fantasy series that have just like this sort of ongoing
00:32:55
Speaker
I was like, did you just watch this? I am. Well, I'm also just very I've read all of like, dude, so OK, even the bad ones that his son did. So I'm also very familiar with dude. OK, gotcha. I was like, where does the topical though? Right. I know this cheekbones. Yeah, that was the topical part, right? That's yeah. Mm hmm.
00:33:25
Speaker
One thing that I've thought of, right, like I know that early on, the reason I thought, well, this stemmed from a conversation on Twitter. I think Michelle, it was just very offhand that we had talked about, like we were talking about being parents and what that kind of looks like. You and I have had, we had some chance to talk about this. I know a little bit in Minneapolis when you were staying with me, but just that idea of
00:33:51
Speaker
How much more difficult it becomes to even do something like go to an event now? Oh, yes. Like the difference that this makes with our relationship with kind of the game.
00:34:07
Speaker
Yeah, I guess for me, I think being the most recent parent in this group, my girls 14 months now, what happened? I don't understand. She was a potato. She was a sweet potato and now she's like a child.
00:34:29
Speaker
I got development for humans is so logarithmic like this early in life. It's so ridiculous. I can't even put my head around it. Anyway, it really, it changes a lot of things because you have to build out so much space for someone in your life who needs a lot of care.
00:34:55
Speaker
And, and that's just the beyond and all of it. I mean, if you. Introduce any kind of presence in your life that requires this sort of help attention and care, whether it be a dog or a particularly difficult plant or fish. Look, some plants are very finicky. Yes, they are. And I think the, the.
00:35:25
Speaker
me leaving for a weekend. Yeah. Yeah. It's very different if that plant doesn't make it. Exactly. Or if someone comes and steals that plant, there's like a real, there's like a whole like black market plant situation like on Instagram is wild anyway. That's neither here nor there. But yeah, it's it's really just
00:35:51
Speaker
You're going through this trial by fire where you love this being so much and they need so much from you because they can't do it on their own. And it's that bond of love that makes you willing to set aside so much of yourself in order to take care of them and help them grow into people who are
00:36:17
Speaker
cool and awesome and not murderers, hopefully maybe. That's what I'm aiming for. Yeah, I'm just like, could you not be a serial killer? Or if you are, then at least we were so good at it that I never find out.
00:36:36
Speaker
Like, this is sort of my baseline. Listen, if you're gonna do this, I'm only asking one thing. If you're gonna do something, I need you to be good at it, alright? Like, really good at it too. If you're going to do it, just target billionaires. Should be easy, just get into their ketamine supply.
00:37:00
Speaker
But yeah, because of this new presence in your life, in order to make sure that you can go anywhere or do anything on your own, you have to make certain that there is a support network for that presence so that way you can step away. Imagine you're literally holding a very beautiful, delicate piece of porcelain.
00:37:28
Speaker
And you have to hold this thing because no one else is going to hold it unless you make arrangements for someone else to hold this beautiful little fragile thing.
00:37:38
Speaker
And once you can, then you can walk away, but then you have to come back. I hope that makes sense. Parenting is wild. You just don't have time.
Integrating Magic into Parenting
00:37:51
Speaker
I mean, my relationship with magic has dwindled so much from being someone who was able to write articles and do stuff on the regular and be able to collaborate with people on the regular.
00:38:05
Speaker
I routinely get pre-release packs from my old local game store in San Francisco and I open the packs. Sometimes I build a deck and that's about it. That's about the extent I open a collector booster. I go, oh, okay. That was, that was nothing. And then I move on with my life.
00:38:29
Speaker
And then occasionally I talk to people on Twitter and in person about it. That's it. It's kind of on hiatus for now because I've got someone who's super cute and needs me right now way more than magic does. It becomes a restructuring of priorities.
00:38:51
Speaker
So it's a lot of compromising. It's a lot of just figuring out how to strike that balance between who you are so low and who you are with this new person. I can clarify any of that if I need to. No, I don't think I was like, I don't think there's a need to clarify. I mean, that
00:39:17
Speaker
It's funny, right? Like we do this, we do this show. The show started before I had a kid.
00:39:27
Speaker
like almost a full year before we had a kid. I mean, so I was used to kind of doing this and then having one was like, okay, you know, that's a lot easier to just feel that like my wife can handle, she can manage. I will say that the move to two has really even shifted that for me.
00:39:50
Speaker
know, like I got I got asked quite a bit about, you know, Chicago, for instance, like I did not go to Chicago. And it was like, we really go to Vegas. Well, yes, I was because I have in laws that happen to live nearby. And they live in Arizona during the winter time, because they are smarter than we are. So they could get away from the coal. But I mean, so like that, that was kind of that
00:40:15
Speaker
I, you know, it's just this weird thing that I now am at a point where I have a lot of people, a lot more, I feel like than I used to that I would totally love to see. Like that's always been a thing where I, but I, I, with it being these whole idea of like command fest now, where they really are like conventions. This would be like the time that I would want to go to more events. Right. And I just can't.
00:40:42
Speaker
It's just, it's funny, right? It's like, at first it was the, I finally have enough big boy money to afford it. Great. But I don't have the time. And now it's like, I have both the time and the money and I also am a parent and I have to make those decisions on what I'm going to do. Oh yeah, I couldn't go to Chicago at all because the day I was supposed to leave literally three hours before my flight.
00:41:10
Speaker
I wake up and everyone in my household has norovirus. I'm the only one left standing. Yeah, I mean, you said you you did what you could to even have have the you know, the support network to allow for it, right? Yeah.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah, my in-laws were coming in. Everyone was all set. We were primed and ready to go. And then a plague upon my house. It was terrible. A plague upon you. A plague. I don't know who wishes upon me, but.
00:41:51
Speaker
some Shakespearean villain. Yeah, that was a real bummer. You know, I... Yeah. Although I wish Chicago was a hmm. I missed Chicago because I was still recovering from surgery. And I was almost tempted to go last minute because I was finally starting to feel better. And I was like, can I make a last minute run at this? And then I had to travel not last week, but the week before, which was two weeks after Chicago. And I barely made it. So I'm like, I'm glad I did not try to make that trip to Chicago.
00:42:22
Speaker
Oh, but yeah, it just being part of this unit. Now you're like, when you have a family, it's very much like you're, you're on a team. You're one of the legs in this tiny little, at least in my case, it's like, you're one of the legs in this little tripod and like,
00:42:41
Speaker
If one of you goes down and the ship starts sinking and you're like, nah, nah, we got to keep this going. It's both two people are down like, okay, I got to go. All hands on deck, namely my hands. These are the only hands left and they are now on deck. These two hands. I got to go out on Friday night, but it was kind of a
00:43:04
Speaker
all day long, I was telling the people in this court, like, it's going to depend, right?
Future of Magic with Children and Closing Reflections
00:43:10
Speaker
Like, this is going to depend on what happens when, you know, my wife get home. This is going to happen with when the kids get home from daycare. Yeah, there's just there's different elements to even just playing. Like, it's hard for me to play anymore. Like, I don't I it's funny. I like this. I still am very engaged online. I'm still I talk about magic all the time.
00:43:35
Speaker
I've played a handful of games this entire year so far. Yeah, that's about the same for me. For me, it doesn't have anything to do with kids anymore because mine is old enough to be self-maintaining, self-aware,
00:43:50
Speaker
able to play. Well, yeah, he's been playing essentially almost as long as I've been back to playing magic. He pretty much learned to read playing magic. He's been playing almost since age five. So we've played together a lot through pretty much the whole time he was growing up. That's amazing. I
00:44:15
Speaker
I handed my daughter a token the other day and she tried to eat it. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. The tokens in my house basically get handed off to me. Yeah. I know it's a food token, but it's not literally. I can literally get some instruments. The nutritional value is not as good as you think it is.
00:44:38
Speaker
I mean, I think the common theme here is just magic takes a backseat and it doesn't mean it's gone, but any kind of like scheduled event, anything where we have to be somewhere, it's like, it's tough.
00:44:53
Speaker
asynchronous communication a lot easier. Like I'll get to it when I can get to it between like, oh, my kid is now preoccupied with a really cool looking saline bottle. I'm going to go ahead and just respond to something on Twitter.
00:45:12
Speaker
But yeah, it is a whole journey just to make sure someone's, you know, there to help take care of this child, not just anyone, someone you trust can take care of your kid. So yeah, that you can go out and do the things. It's, it's rough and it's worth it, at least for me. I can't speak to all other parents because everyone's journey is individual.
00:45:41
Speaker
But, you know, there are times where I try to integrate magic into my life in weird ways, the same way I try to integrate like a D&D in weird ways where I remember the very early parts of my parenting experience, like thinking, okay, what would be the DC for me to sneak into my daughter's nursery and be able to like grab something and get out? Like I would have to roll, like, I don't know.
00:46:08
Speaker
A 90. What is my stealth modifier? And there are times where I'm like, what is my daughter's color identity? And then I've resolved that I've decided it's just black. It's just red. It's just red. It's just pure cake. Yeah. I think that's true for all infants and toddlers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just right on the screen. Just red. Maybe that's why I like kids. Everything is impulse. There is, there's no deliberation.
00:46:38
Speaker
When they get closer to two to three, you might start having Rakdos because there's deliberation behind. And they can lie. Yes. And they can lie to you. Oh, I love that she can't lie to me. She doesn't know what lying is. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. But also means that when she's earnest and happy and she shows me she loves me, it's like, it's real. It's real. This is real.
00:47:06
Speaker
Mainly because you don't know better. No. Like you were saying earlier with just like the full trust of what I'm handed to you. I'm just feeding this. This could be anything in this model. You're just feeding. You're just drinking it. Yeah.
00:47:23
Speaker
Which, but yeah, I still, it's all my mind. It's not like magic is gone forever. It's such an intrinsic part of like who I am as a person. It's not going away. It's changed. My relationship with the game has taken a bit of a backseat, but it's still there.
00:47:40
Speaker
Like I, you know, I look at my kid and I'm like, you know, I can't wait until I sit down with her and show her how to play. I wonder if she's going to be, you know, a Timmy like Doug or she's going to be a Vorthos like me, or is she going to be a Spike? Who knows? Like it'll be really cool to see what happens as she like figures herself out in this world. Mm hmm.
00:48:07
Speaker
And, you know, I'll try my best. Or maybe maybe she'll just want to play Yu-Gi-Oh instead. You know, it's okay. Yeah. I mean, I was I was thinking about that. That right. Like my kids have shown some interest in some of the cards, some of the art like my daughter loves.
00:48:28
Speaker
You know, it's really funny, you know, I got the photos back from Vegas of me dressed as a goblin. And somebody sent me one that they had taken of me like printed out large and my daughter wanted it in her room, like right away. Oh, you know, so like, there's some of that. But like her interest definitely, so far, the older has not tended to lie towards
00:48:52
Speaker
fantasy or even nerdy stuff, which is kind of funny given both me and my wife that I'm like, you know, what if, what if that is the route she goes, she really does stick with Disney princesses forever. Which is what Lorcan is for. I don't know. It's just been that interesting thing to think about what my relationship is going to be with magic as I continue on. Yeah. Is it going to be just your thing or is it going to be a shared thing? Yeah. Yeah.
00:49:20
Speaker
I mean, it's automatically mildly uncool because you like it. So I just hope you're prepared for that. Well, it's funny, because like right now it is almost like I said, she she she loves the fact that I like have this goblin photo or that, you know, that daddy does goblin stuff or that daddy plays magic. She likes that. So. For now, for now, for now.
00:49:48
Speaker
She's fine. Don't take this from me yet. I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. I'm just taking, I'm just looking at it. Just thinking to myself, not going to be Ursa. I'm not going to be Ursa. We're okay. I can do better than that. Everybody can do better than that. I think even Oko is doing better than Ursa. That's fair.
00:50:09
Speaker
Like the, I mean, unless you're going to come to me and be like, Hey, Michelle, so I've been thinking about this whole eugenics thing and you know, it seems pretty neat. So dad, I was just curious. Now let's say it's an, it's a, it's a, you know, the ends justify the mean sort of situation, dad. Hey, Michelle, have you heard, I was just thinking, you and I should totally invest in some really good calipers.
00:50:37
Speaker
Hahahaha!
00:50:42
Speaker
things I hope to never hear out of my kid's mouth. I wouldn't say that. Just like lots of reason. Dad, can I measure your head? Oh, it's less small than I thought it would be. Write that down. Sorry. No, your daughter will not become you, Genesis. I'm very sorry. I won't get
00:51:14
Speaker
I don't really know where to go from here in life now, like with this episode, right? Now that you just said the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me with your daughter probably won't become a eugenicist. You know, we're friends. I feel like it's my responsibility to make sure that you feel good about yourself. And statistically, it's accurate.
00:51:40
Speaker
But yeah, no, it's, it's just evolving and, you know, we're just, we're just part of that big, simic breeding pool now, you know? And that's our show for today. You can find all of the hosts on Twitter for now. Hobbs can be found at HobbsQ, Tay can be found at Tayatransense, and Alex can be found at Mel underscore Chronicler.
00:52:02
Speaker
Feel free to send us any questions, comments, thoughts, hopes, and dreams to the Goblin Lord Pod on Twitter or email us at goblinlordpodcast at gmail.com.
00:52:12
Speaker
If you would like to support your friendly neighborhood Gob's Hugs, our link tree can be found on our Twitter account and in the description of today's show. This has everything from various discount codes to the link for our Patreon. The music for today's show was by Wintergotten, who can be found at vintergotten at bandcamp.com. The art was done by Steven Raphael, who can be found at Steve Ruffle on Twitter. Gob and Lore is proud to be presented by Hipsters of the Coast as part of their growing forthos content.
00:52:39
Speaker
Check them out on Twitter at Hipsters MTG or online at hipstersofthecoast.com. Thank you for listening and remember goblins like snowflakes are only dangerous in numbers.