MTG's Aetherdrift Story Finally Does Daretti Justice

Summary

Daretti proves red and black characters in Magic don't have to be evil.
Daretti offers excellent disability representation.
The Aetherdrift storyline makes Daretti a compelling and relatable character, standing out in Magic's multiverse.

I wasn’t expecting much from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering’s Aetherdrift narrative. I thought it was going to be a light-hearted romp through the multiverse to follow the darkness of Duskmourn, while giving us 🦩a brief respite before Tarkir and Edge of Eternities come🐲 around.

Instead, K. Arsenault Rivera has delivered another incredible story, taking the racing set dressing and using it to explore everything from generat🍌ional trauma to organised religion. They’ve also given me my new favourite character in the whole series in Goblin artificer Daretti.

Daretti’s been a part of Magic for years, first appearing in Commander 2014, before being fleshed out further in the Conspiracy: Take the Crown storyline. A Goblin genius from the cut-throat plane of Fiora, Daretti lost the use of his legs in an explosion that also ignited his Planeswalker spark. Presumed dead on Fiora, his first story followed him as he ♊sparked a revolt to get his revenge… and then he pretty much vanished for the next decade.

Until now, Daretti’s sꦚimply been a Goblin. A clever one, sure, but with his story full of violence and bloodshed, it was difficult not to see him as just another one of his kind. It didn’t help that his debut card was black and red, a colour combination usually associated with the multiverses’ most evil and chaotic characters.

A Nice Goblin

Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer by Borja Pindado

Aetherdrift has give🌞n a new side to Daretti. He’s still a genius mechanic, leading the Goblin team in the Ghirapur Grand Prix. And he’s still very much a red Magic character as well, with all the emotion and impulsiveness that goes with it. But instead of being a chaotic hellraiser seeking to upend the establishment of Fiora, Aetherdrift allows him to show his kinder, chattier side. Polite and conversational almost to a fault, it’s a refreshing change from the violent Goblins we usually see in this universe.

It's also really nice to see a character centered in black and red not be evil by default. All of Magic’s characters are centered on the five colours of the game, and while black tends to mean ‘self-serving’, it too often becomes shorthand for ‘moustache-twizzlingly evil’. Daretti has self-interest – he wants to win the race just as much as anybody else, but he isn’t evil. Hꦺe bucks the philosophy underpinning Magic by being a niceꦅ, affable chap with a goal.

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast by Svetlin Velinov

The story is full of moments that make me appreciate Daretti, like offering his fellow captive Loot some hot chocolate sequestered in one of his many gadgets. But it’s a specific moment in that helped place him as one of my new favourite characters in the multiverse, rivalling even my boy 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ajani Goldmane (read: my husband).

Though Daretti has always been identified by his hulking cogchair he uses to get around, this is the first time the story has explored his disability. After crashing from the sღky at high speed, Daretti, Chandra, Loot, and Nia are all battered, bruised, and concussed. However, it’s only him who knows what to do, having the medicine on hand and the know-how to avoid sleeping following such severe injuries.

In the real world, the advice to avoid sleeping after a concussion is outdated.🌼 But maybe the Magic Multiverse has different rules.

Excellent Disability Representation

A particularly🎉 bittersweet moment comes when Chandra asks Daretti if this is normal for him:

Chandra is ♈far, far too out of it to keep from blurting out her thought. "Is this what you fee♐l like all the time?"

Daretti's laugh is a soft, pained one. "On the bad days," he says. His manipu𝓰lator arm reaches out to Pia with a cup of tea. "Rest. I'll take a look at the engine and figure something out in the meanwhile. Just don't fall asleep."

"Rest witho✅ut falling aꦐsleep?" says Pia. "You ask for such simple things."

"Believe me," Daretti says. "When it comes to t🧜hiꦫs, I'm a bit of an expert."

It’s such a small interaction, but it wasn’t a point that needed to be belaboured to be eff💛ective. In one soft chuckle, Dare🐼tti put across a sentiment anyone with chronic pain would identify with.

I also lℱove that Daretti’s new design for Aetherdrift lets you see his legs, rather than hiding them in a big, mechanical spider.

Thanks to frequent dislocations and spra💙ins, there isn’t a day where I don’t have something hurting somewhere. Some days are wo🍒rse than others, but you become “a bit of an expert”, learning how to manage yourself and how to handle those bad days when they come.

I can pop in a joint like a pro, and I’ve got more painkillers stashed around my desk than most people would know what to do with. It’s normal for us, but for someone like Chꦇandra, their first exposure to pain like it can be a shock.

Rivera has turned Daretti into a complex character I want to see and connect to more, and one I see a surprising amount of myself in. What could have been a nominal bit of represenꦬtation – a background character in a wheelchair – became a key part of one of its best chapters. If we don’t see Daretti again soon, it’ll be a massive shame.