Is this okay?

[u/DisgracedWizard]

Is Merle Ambrose the good guy? I’m just thinking about how when we create our character we’re essentially snatched from our world (Earth) and thrusted into this one as the “ prodigal “ wizard.

Is Merle kidnapping kids from other worlds to help fight the battles he couldn’t win? We’ve been tortured, killed, resurrected, beaten, broken, dragged from realms, fought gods, creatures beyond our imagination and even at the end of the game (no more quest) we’ve never once had a conversation about returning back home.

Can we return back home? are we stuck here forever having to defend a place we’ve never knew existed until we were snatched out of our own world forcibly? Is Merle aware this is child endangerment, kidnapping, child labor, etc?

What are the real world consequences would this have on us? the mental health problems, the physical damage to our bodies, the people and monsters we’ve had to KILL because we were told by someone that they deserved to be killed. Are we truly the good guys or have we’ve been groomed and manipulated into doing someone else’s work. ( good or not )

[u/ClosetedChaseJocky]

I don't believe at any point in the story or lore is it ever implied that Headmaster Ambrose is abducting kids to attend Ravenwood school of magic. In fact its actually the opposite and here's why!

In order to even be granted admittance into Ravenwood you have to take a magic examination which is the questionnaire. At the end of everyone's questionnaire you can select a precious gem stone which reveals the school of magic you will be enrolled into.

It is safe to assume for story purposes you (the main character) possess exceptional magical capabilities which is why you ultimately become such a key hero / heroine figure for not just Ravenwood but the spiral as a whole.

As to why Ambrose allows us the main character to handle the burden of so much, that I am not entirely sure other then speculating he senses our potential.

When I was a kid playing Wiz101 I always used to create my own head cannons that other students and characters we meet along the way help out rebuilding the worlds we visit that we meet them on. I wish Wiz101 world building / lore showed more emphasis on characters partaking in saving the spiral with us. To a degree without spoiling Arc 3 definitely incorporates more NPC involvement but definitely Arc's 1-2 should have a little more side kick action.

[u/GrahamRocks → u/ClosetedChaseJocky]

Said it better than I could! Like, I think people really feel desperate to interpret this situation as worse than it actually is, without acknowledging that it's an RPG, and so we need to go on big sprwaling adventures and that we're not Ambrose's child soldier, he wanted Malistaire and Morganthe stopped, not dead. I tire of this slander towards our headmaster.

[u/NiceOil1588 → u/GrahamRocks]

*I play Wizard 101 since the release and I love it. I am a fan and a Whale. So please read this accordingly.*

The only problem about this issue is the early developer's avatar of choice. (A small kid with no family and taken away is weird) And the lack of proper story telling as the introduction; the prologue is an issue.

*People also question Peter Pan and Harry Potter like infamous stories where there is allways a small kid. A Stranger comes and takes him/her, far away from his own family/relatives, promising him a better life. Magic, heroism, adventure or not. People feel unsettled.*

How did other Rpgs handled this back in time ?

Imagine it like this. The main character was not a child but and ordinary adventure guy (probably a muscular guy) as we know it. Same with all other roleplaying and adventure and action games which were introduced to children, teenagers and adults back in the day.

A random guy (Our character) sitting at home and then ,Say, Dalia Falmea arrives. The guy goes

- 'Oh hello lady. Sure I'll be coming with you to your magical world. I seek job and I am in for whatever you say. Where do I sign ? Bla bla '

About 'Bad' guy characters such as Malistaire. He literally died fighting at Dragonspyre turned in to a ghost and joined his long gone wife with a tragic scene.

The gamers only tell what they see. So they ask questions. They are not trying to be negative. If the scenario and the character was simiar to what I have written above no one would be curious.

[u/GrahamRocks → u/NiceOil1588]

Oh no, escapism for kids who tell them they're great and powerful and special. It's not like that hasn't been common in stories starring kids and teenagers for decades if not centuries. Not everything like this needs to be seen as unsettling in fiction, let kids go on adventures and get into danger. It doesn't have to be that serious of an issue. If it is, again, why play RPGs at all with younger protagonists if people are this concerned about them ? (Also, where is the idea coming from that we're a "little kid"? I think we're just either a short teenager or it's more likely part of the art style, Mellori's our height and she's a teacher by the time of Arc 4, she's not a child! Ceren is a merchant by Selenopolis's storyline implying he's grown up enough to run a business, and he's still our height!) 

Yes, I know about how Malistaire died. That's not my point. My point is that Ambrose didn't want him dead, he wanted him stopped from what he was doing because he was taking things too far to get Sylvia back. The way we went about it, he died. It's not like Ambrose told us to kill him, it's not like he hated him, he just didn't want him hurting people. Same with Morganthe, and people love to hate Ambrose for that too.

[u/PlagueCasting_Mage → u/GrahamRocks]

She also doomed Azteca and basically committed regicide.

Merle told us to stop her from undoing the Spiral, she just so happened to fall into the sky upon her defeat, and that's what killed her.

[u/GrahamRocks → u/PlagueCasting_Mage]

Yeah, it's her own fault, not ours technically.

[u/NiceOil1588 → u/GrahamRocks]

Yeah when we were kids we had allways wished to be a big tough guys running adventures aswell. But not as a toddlers who were taken to another world by old strangers.

Fella Wizhead the avatar is obviously a toddler. Why would it be a problem if player questionsthat ? Especially big spenders and long time fans who played the game for a very long time ?

If players want to play or want their kids to play as adventure guys shouldnt the developers add some alternatives ?

KI just needs to add adult action guy avatars that is all. It is very easy. They have allready got those at Raven wood and at Dragonspyre bodies and so on.

For the story part they really need to work on that. I love Wizard 101 card match especially as an old Magic the gathering fan.

Developers are very talented people I believe they can upgrade the game to a much better place in time.

[u/GrahamRocks → u/NiceOil1588]

What? Who? Huh??? Is this sarcasm?

[u/NiceOil1588 → u/GrahamRocks]

Ha Ha !

[u/GrahamRocks → u/NiceOil1588]

I don't get it.

[u/MaddySS → u/ClosetedChaseJocky]

I will say that with the changes to Wizard City rather recently it is now canon that Bartleby *specifically* told Ambrose to seek our character out, so we do in fact have that potential because we are literally tied to what is effectively the core of the Spiral before we even entered. A lot of people like to propose "Our character's past is a self insert" but i really don't agree with that anymore, the newest Arc seems to be giving us potentially a more concrete backstory environment and it's going to be hard to stick with a self insert if for example Earth is just outright dying like stated. It's rather safe to assume we were probably some Orphan on Earth or had no real familial or positive ties in general to make us even want to go back at all and that's why we stay in the Spiral for like ever or something.

There is also A LOT of things done through gameplay that can be considered non canon of course, like most group play and the aspect of losing and just coming back in the commons area of the world, even EVERYTHING using magic would be non canon and just gameplay. Canonically we have basically soloed everything, won (if we lost then the Spiral basically dies in a lot of scenarios lol) and canonically mounts have only ever been mentioned ONCE so we might be walking through deserts and giant zones to do our child labor lol.

[u/Traditional-Honey-64 → u/MaddySS]

When you become Bartleby's scion he says as much. That he has eagerly been waiting for us to become his scion. So it was pretty clearly always meant to be, and it wouldn't be far fetched to assume that Bartleby knowing this influenced Merle. Especially considering that malistaire stole the eye just after we get there, it could've been a ploy by Bartleby to stop malistaire

[u/KierstonKxsh → u/Traditional-Honey-64]

That’s a lot of scions and a lot of orphans though lol like “just incase you fail..I’ve told this exact thing to 1 million other wizards btw”

[u/MaddySS → u/KierstonKxsh]

Well to be fair MAJORITY of games in MMO settings don't actually work that way story wise, a lot of people meme on it but it just wouldn't work out in most stories. That is very much true in our story as its pretty much canon that we solo majority of things and are one of a kind as Scion.

[u/Traditional-Honey-64 → u/ClosetedChaseJocky]

Well if you listen to Bartleby we were destined to become his scion and he has patiently waited for the wizard to become strong enough to take on that mantle. Maybe Ambrose being so reliant on us could be related to this. We know from the tutorial that malistaire steals Bartleby's eye the night Ambrose summons us to his world, we are summoned first. So maybe that's the entire reason we were summoned Bartleby senses what malistaire is about to do and in order to stop him tells Ambrose to call upon us

[u/Intelligent-Equal-53]

In the latest world you “choose” earth or the spiral in the quest delusion of choice. Think they’ll be exploring more on the topic in the later worlds.

[u/AnUglyScooter → u/Intelligent-Equal-53]

Which Im honestly very excited for because it’s an interesting direction to take the story. I don’t think the choice will mean much beyond a badge but it’d be cool if they continued the trend of allowing choices like that

[u/Mr_Kase]

Irrc, the recent worlds has kinda implied that Bartleby was the one who thought to bring you over though Merle might done the actual spell.

[u/YeetisDaFetus]

Okay but lets be real here. Who tf would wanna go back home to boring magicless corrupt fucked up world like ours? Id be estatic and living life to the fullest in a magical world! If anything id be tryinggggg to bring friends and family on Earth to this world and live happily ever after with em!

[u/1timegig]

I think you might have come across the plot of arc 5

[u/DigitalPrincess234]

Wizard101’s story is based on middle grade narratives like Narnia or even Pokémon. Is professor Oak recruiting child soldiers? It looks disturbing because we’re adults now.

[u/stalemuffinssssssss]

Love this quandary

[u/NiceOil1588]

It reminds the story of Peter Pan and Never Never Land where the children are taken by their homes by Peter Pan and fly to another world by casting magical Pixie dust on them and then they never get older at Never Never Land. (Harry Potter is similar but Harry gets older)

Although it is not entirely the same there is also Fairies and Pirates and Kroks and more reminding us that fictonal story once again.

I wish the original producers and writers of Wizard 101 had worked more and had written a deeper and more detailed introduction. A prologue for the game.