Meh. Atsuki 2.0 was a waste of a plotline anyway.

Erm, wasn't the Scorpion Gozoku leader Bayushi Atsuki?

Not the first time. The first time, ICly, Tadaka thought he was doing everyone a favor by opening the Black Scrolls, and then the stronghold was rewritten to show how Phoenix shugenja were dabbling in corruption (and initially, weren't losing honor for using the Shadowlands clause on the stronghold). The players went along with it because the game was new, and didn't realize they were playing into Fu Leng's hands. The game was still new. The impact of players was still something that Wick and AEG were working on, and it essentially wasn't until the Crab players as a whole refused to play corrupt (and got rewarded for it) that anyone knew it was possible for the players to affect the story without winning a story tournament. And then, as the Crab threw off their alliance with the Shadowlands, the Phoenix players kept at it because they thought the downside was the Obsidian era stronghold MRP that removed the honor gains for corrupting a shugenja to bring it into play. Then a little later, the Day of Thunder kicked the Phoenix over.

As someone who took a critical eye toward the end of the prior storyline, I've a slightly different perspective. Part of the problem was that the final iteration of the story team inherited a massive problem of unfulfilled story team promises and storyline wins, in some cases a decade long. This got mishandled in a variety of ways, from ill-considered posts from team members to players to "be patient" for these long-delayed outcomes, to repeated signs of business-as-usual behaviors despite promises to the contrary (clans -- looking at Mantis, Phoenix, and Unicorn especially -- getting ridiculously bad story support in the lead up to Onyx). From what I can tell, a lot of it was how AEG's dev team straightjacketed them (an absolutely awful 20th anniversary "celebration" of unceremoniously putting players' favorite clan themes up for grabs in minor tournaments, Spider being given a favored place in Onyx story after assurances to the contrary). We're not seeing anywhere near as much negativity right now due in no small part to there not being anywhere near as much reason for it. If it takes ten years for Crane's Emerald Champion to pop up, though, and he spends most of his time killing other Crane, yeah, people are going to get upset.

I don't know why, he's not even worth one koku anymore... Edit: Additionally, bear in mind that if the reboot is similar to how things were prior to the coup in the original storyline, the Shadowlands has been quiet for some time. The other clans' dismissal of Crab claims of danger from the Shadowlands was pretty much the norm -- excepting the Maw's rise and the corruption of the Moto, most of the other clans' interactions with the Shadowlands was through internal betrayal by maho-tsukai, not overt military action from south of the Wall. Given the other clans' inexperience dealing with the Shadowlands on top of the Shadowlands going quiet, the rest of Rokugan very likely thinks the Crab are just blustering right now. I mean, if that's all true, sure, everyone else is about to pay for thinking Kisada of all people is just talk...

More specifically, it'd be wonderful to avoid the pitfalls of the last go-round. Kisada needn't sell out everything he believes in over a long weekend. Crane don't need to be responsible for "culture." Togashi doesn't have to be a parasitic knock-off of Shiba. Lion don't need to pratfall like they're Jerry Lewis. Mantis don't need to have the writers pretend they had some sort of identity crisis, ever. Phoenix don't need to choose between sitting on the sidelines or calling upon dark magic every time they part their hair. Unicorn don't have to be someone's patsies. And Daigotsu and the Spider don't have to eclipse everyone. Let Daigotsu have actual character flaws and shortcomings. Let the Spider have a reason to want to get along with others, and others have a reason to get on with them. Don't have them knock over the setting's underpinnings, then do whatever they want and get away with it.

This. I don't think even the most anti-Spider player would want Daigotsu and the Spider introduced as minor, forgettable characters part of another, far greater faction of Jade-loving hippies. I like the Naga, but agree with those who say they don't quite fit as a core game faction. I'd rather not see them at all than see them as everything they weren't.

Even when the Scorpion do have the "right" motivations, bear in mind that the Spider, at their worst, do evil because they don't respect good, are doing it to gain power, or find it fun to be cruel, or don't see any reason to spare people without need. In contrast, the Scorpion Clan may poison your children, drive your wife mad, and frame you for murdering your lord, all because the Scorpion sincerely believe it's the right thing to do.

Historically, AEG's been hesitant to share forums they've removed from public view. Some of that reasoning makes sense -- they're not doing anything with L5R right now, and it's not unreasonable to expect it'd be a lot of traffic to L5R forums they'd be hosting but not profiting from. Some of it, sad to say, is also a matter of publicity, since much of why old L5R died was plain as day on those forums -- broken promises, hopes offered but unrealized, etc. If AEG wanted a clean break from that, I can't exactly blame them.

"Not misunderstood, just evil" was an old, informal motto the Scorpion had written on the official baseball caps. I'd also point out that there's a difference between doing distasteful things while willingly being a scapegoat, and being evil -- and the line's pretty blurry. The best example, IMO, is from Jimen's win at the Emerald Championship, where he privately threatened Noritoshi with a mix of blackmail, extortion, and murder, which got Noritoshi to concede the Emerald Championship. These are, objectively, evil acts. They're not baby-eating evil, and from a Scorpion perspective, they were necessary -- if Noritoshi blinked at a Scorpion doing this, he'd blink at the Kolat or Shadowlands doing the same -- but you don't hold a knife to a child's throat, even without intent to use it, without crossing a moral line. The Scorpion are a different kind of evil than the Spider, and one of the biggest weaknesses with the old story is that AEG never got round to underlining that point.

Not misunderstood. Just evil.

And at this point in the story, Yoritomo hadn't even been namedropped yet. It would be years before piracy would get tied to the Mantis -- they were originally mercenaries, and Yoritomo was the greatest warrior in Rokugan's history, but not especially associated with boats. FFG is not obligated to hew to any element in the prior storyline, but simultaneously, using the character names from before does raise expectations. Shahai was only ever a Unicorn in name only, after all, and while I'd like to see a loyal Junzo this time around, the same's true with him, too. While I don't know that we've got Daigotsu on our hands in the story, I'd be very surprised if the second son isn't him or a completely redesigned Iuchiban.

...they keep emphasizing seven honorable clans.

I'd recommend asking again next week -- right now, several areas are being evacuated, so people are AFK.

FFG has namedropped Yoritomo and Shahai. They've raised expectations accordingly.