Meta Monday: The Sabin Train Suplex becomes an MTG card...

I just have a quick nod to something interestingly meta for today's post.  There's actually a LOT worth rambling about with this, as it comes at a sort of inflection point for Magic: The Gathering...which is morphing from a franchise obsessively restricted to its own universe into a brand that devotes about half of its efforts to mixing in other brands.  As you might imagine, there are plenty of people who don't like the fact that Spider-Man will soon be battling it out at Friday Night Magic against MTG's elves, angels, and dragons.

My thoughts are still developing on this.  In the meantime, though, I find it interesting that connecting all of these universes from different types of original media may provide for some interesting twists in reality.  I don't know that this is the best example of it, but it's the one that really got me thinking...

This is card is from an upcoming MTG set based upon the Final Fantasy franchise.  Apparently this reference is instantly recognizable to FF fans, as there have been all sorts of articles the past few days about "Final Fantasy's biggest meme" being turned into a Magic card.  (I'll admit that I wasn't familiar with it, but you can check out its Know Your Meme page here if you want to get a little more info.)  Briefly...in Final Fantasy VI, the monk character Sabin has an ability called Suplex...which does what it sounds like it should do...and for some reason, he can use this move on a train...

So now this ability is a card that can either damage a creature (nail 'em with the wrestling move) OR get rid of a train (or any other artifact).  I'm having a really hard time even articulating in my own head why this is an interesting meta twist to me.  I guess it just seems like such a video game moment.  So if we follow the trail of...

1.  There's a game about summoning fantasy creatures to battle for you. (MTG)

2.  When playing a game about summoning fantasy creatures to battle for you, some people are able to tap (haha) into that magic for real, casting spells and bringing other beings into our reality. (Duel Masters)

3.  Because some of the magic that can be accessed is based upon a narrative originating in a video game, there are spells that follow the strange physics of 16-bit computing as practiced in a certain time and place. (FF in MTG)

Hmm.

Well, I think there's something cool here.  Maybe at some point I'll figure out how to express it in such a way that others find it cool too...[shrug emoji]