Definitely Not An Alien Space Wizard

"If it blocks our path, it blocks our victory. Take care of it!" - Far Fortune

"See! The Boostgod protects me! He smiles upon my victory!" - Natro, Rocketeer

"I want what Ragavan wants, and Ragavan wants what's in your ship"

Racers on Muraganda soon became familiar with Warble, the oozefolk with a taste for high-octane aether.

So, in "Cathartic Reunion", Nissa's offer to Chandra - to join Phyrexia - is described as potential flight from responsibility.

Chandra rejects it, naturally, but is briefly tempted.

A life without fear. A life without the others second-guessing every decision she's ever made. A life free of loneliness and pain. Even if they stop Phyrexians here, won't something else take its place? Bolas, the Eldrazi, Elesh Norn—there was always a tyrant. But if she takes that hand right now, that story could end. It'd be like running away together. Running away from their problems, and their responsibilities, and everyone who'd sacrificed everything to get them here.

This is, due to the linear nature of time, obviously not inspired by the events of November 2024, but it is still representative of a way of thinking about it, and not one I've otherwise seen in my (limited) diet of fiction.

It's only something I've read previously in non-fiction though: specifically, some of what Hannah Arendt wrote about in The Origins of Totalitarianism. (I would say this is a coincidence, but, from what I've seen, K. Arsenault Rivera would absolutely deliberately put in a reference to Arendt in the parts of her story dealing with fascism.[1])

In particular, there's a whole section on Imperialism - which is otherwise more Urabrasks deal - where Arendt dwells on how the sense of irresponsibility and impunity of colonisers kind of broke their brains (NB: I kind of, uh, ditched my copy like a year ago, I'm writing from memory here).

The impact of that brain breakage - well more general action without reaction - has also been posited in the scramble to explain "no, seriously, how did people vote for this guy" (though not by reference to Arendt).

Also, y'know, Trump did openly say that if he won you wouldn't have to worry about elections any more.

Meanwhile, there's a second, more sinister, offer from the big Machine Mommy herself in the climax (emphasis mine).

"Why must you struggle so?" Norn asks. "You've always struggled against us. What is it you desire? If you have longed for a home, find home with us. If you have need of friends or lovers, there are numberless legions of them among our ranks. You can still join us, if you submit."

On the one hand, this is not the same as the responsibility thing, but on the other hand, that pseudofriendship is the promise of the MAGA cult - of any cult (Phyrexia is also a metaphoric and literal cult).

And that last offer, of lovers... there's at least a whiff of "Your body, my choice", there, isn't there?

Anyway, see the picture up-top for Elspeth's ultimate response.

Ajani and Vivien I think are most likely for Tarkir: Dragonstorm.

Ajani is on a quest for redemption on a multiplanar scale, the Dragonstorms are tearing up the multiverse, there's probably enough "Elspeth" in "Archangel Elspeth" to ensure she lets him know about said Dragonstorms, Narset is on Tarkir and was part of the story circle... There's a surprising amount of plot for him there.

Vivien, meanwhile, would presumably just vibe with the sheer variety of Tarkir dragons. She could go for Space Opera, instead, with the variety of alien fauna, but the focus there seems to be more on sapients (if Lorwyn-Shadowmoor counts, she'd be my pick for that because man Lorwyn-Shadowmoor elementals are wild).

That leaves Liliana and Kaito for the Edge of Eternities.

Honestly, I just can't see Wizards passing up "Kaito and the Wanderer in space" (plus, they have History with Tezzeret, who I think has to be desparked for colour balance reasons), and the space stuff seems likely to be tied to the coin empire, which Strixhaven has an interest in. I think Liliana could swap into Tarkir (so she can learn how far Jace has fallen) if Vivien ends up doing space fauna stuff, though. Just "Could" because "Oh yeah, Ugin, maybe they were counting Lorwyn-Shadowmoor". As for the non-walkers: Giada is presumably Dragonstorm? There's that Elspeth connection there, too. Tinybones, I'd say Space set. Because tonally he'd not fit in either, but Space set seems more likely to have, uh, space for him. Possibly could be Lorwyn-Shadowmoor instead, as the least human of the remaining non-Loot legendary creatures? (Loot could well be on Lorwyn, too, of course) Kellan wants to be Helpful, and so could easily end up on some interplanar plan to stop the Dragonstorms on those grounds. (he is half-faerie, but fae vary pretty widely between planes, and Oko doesn't seem to be a Lorwyn-Shadowmoor faerie - that plot thread seems reasonably resolved, or else more likely to lead Kellan to the edge of the Blind Eternities)

[1] Modulo the transphobia. Granted, I could see current Jace being one of those "okay, sure it sucks that he said this stuff about trans people, but have you seen how much he hates NIMBYs?" 2024 Labour voters, even though I vibe with the interpretation that Jace is trans people. (granted, I think it's more likely he voted for Rishi Sunak's Tories out of accelerationism, on account of not having twigged how stupid the Labour government would be and thus the accelerationism being unnecessary) [2] Jace is, I think, less sincere, but also, like, his utopian visions are straight up "Thanos after he realised that The Snap wouldn't actually leave behind a grateful universe", and I think the 'order' side of authoritarianism is increasingly his thing.