YMMV / The Brothers' War

• Cry for the Devil: Mishra becomes a retroactive case of this if one considers his Fate Worse than Death in the much later Planeshift book to have been real and not a Yawgmoth illusion. But even within the confines of just the book itself it is hard not to pity him, as he is Made a Slave by the Fallaji and becomes what he becomes by years of adapting to their harsh culture out of necessity.
• Evil Is Cool: Mishra and Ashnod have garnered more fan interest over the years than their heroic (for the lack of a better word) counterparts Urza and Tawnos thanks to the general efficacy of Mishra's cards over his brother's (his lands are particularly useful and valuable cards even in 2018's game) and Ashnod's attractiveness.
• Game-Breaker: The Dragon Engine that Mishra steals from Phyrexia is leagues more advanced than any of the other war machines on Terisiare and gives the Fallaji the definitive Bigger Stick during the early years of the war. Even after the Engine is damaged beyond the ability to function Mishra proves unable of replicating it perfectly, instead having to make do with a series of inferior successors.
• Jerkass Woobie: Urza has No Social Skills, is a neglectful husband and an at-best absentee father, but he genuinely loves his wife, child, and even the brother he wastes his life feuding with.
• Misblamed: In-universe example: Urza and Mishra each blame the other for the continuing escalation of hostilities between them, when in truth the demon Gix is Playing Both Sides.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • The Warlord of Kroog at first seems to be just a Cool Old Guy with hawkish tendencies, but when he makes the first strike against the Fallaji and sets off the decades-long war it's hard not to feel like he deserves the immediate death he gets after.
  • Mishra earns his well-deserves sobriquet "the Destroyer" from his brutal sack of the city of Kroog.
  • Urza himself when he pillages Sardia and comits genocide on its dwarves simply for war resources, showing he's not better than his brother at all.
• Rooting for the Empire: Much as in the movie Avatar, readers inclined to say Screw You, Elves! will not be sorry to see Mishra's forces toast Argoth into a self-righteous cinder.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: Ashnod and Urza are both subjected to this for the sake of the plot, with Urza being lured off on a wild goose chase so the Sack of Kroog can happen without him and Ashnod spending years wandering around torturing random people (such as the scholar Loran) after being banished from Mishra's court.

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