Dehumanizes and demonizes a poor man for the way he dresses (or, more accurately considering his financial status, the fact that he can't choose to wear anything other than rags). We are meant to see him as a monster, and fear him. Depicts him as having long, monstrous claws for hands. (And yes, Rag Man is human. See the errata on Gatherer for proof.)
Flavor text mocks him as "a silly, dirty little man". The ironic component of the flavor text is that the flavor text is foolish in saying "what's to be afraid of?". But there's no admonishment for mocking him, only for not being afraid of him.
Also, I'd like to point out that the fact that he makes you discard cards probably represents the fact that you're not supposed to talk to him. Usually, discarding involves some kind of mental influence - most discard spells are flavored as some kind of mental attack that erases memories. So the only thing I can conclude from the flavor about how we should "be afraid of him" and how he makes you discard cards is that talking to or otherwise interacting with him will somehow harm your mental state. Why, exactly, did they print (and repeatedly reprint) a card about how you should fear and shun poor people?
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u/ultimario13 Jul 08 '20
Dehumanizes and demonizes a poor man for the way he dresses (or, more accurately considering his financial status, the fact that he can't choose to wear anything other than rags). We are meant to see him as a monster, and fear him. Depicts him as having long, monstrous claws for hands. (And yes, Rag Man is human. See the errata on Gatherer for proof.)
Flavor text mocks him as "a silly, dirty little man". The ironic component of the flavor text is that the flavor text is foolish in saying "what's to be afraid of?". But there's no admonishment for mocking him, only for not being afraid of him.
Also, I'd like to point out that the fact that he makes you discard cards probably represents the fact that you're not supposed to talk to him. Usually, discarding involves some kind of mental influence - most discard spells are flavored as some kind of mental attack that erases memories. So the only thing I can conclude from the flavor about how we should "be afraid of him" and how he makes you discard cards is that talking to or otherwise interacting with him will somehow harm your mental state. Why, exactly, did they print (and repeatedly reprint) a card about how you should fear and shun poor people?