Bolas took over 20,000 years to find Ugin (Either that, or he took 20,000 years to find out Ugin exists). Does that mean the Elder Dragon War was smaller than we thought it was, in terms of number of participants?
Bolas took over 20,000 years to find Ugin (Either that, or he took 20,000 years to find out Ugin exists). Does that mean the Elder Dragon War was smaller than we thought it was, in terms of number of participants?
No, because Doug was pretty clear that Ugin isn't a capital E, Elder Dragon at this point.
They haven't reach any conclusion about it, so at the moment, he is JUST a spirit dragon.
Eh, in terms of 'gray area' characters, have you paid attention to Theros block?
The best example is Xenagos. What he did was purely because he was upset with the balance of the world, felt deceived because the Gods are not omnipotent. They instead hold dominion only over the world of Theros when there is so much more. This made them fallible to him, and being a Satyr, anyone in a position of power who can be challenged should be challenged.
Xenagos wasn't exactly a morally gray character though.
He tried to murder his mother, repeatedly, as a child, and was very much in it for personal gain as to prove a point.
He murdered people for the hell of it, orchestrated wars with a smile on his face, and wasn't too concerned with the repercussions of his schemes.
He was, without doubt, an evil character.
An evil character with an understandable, and perhaps even noble goal... doing it for entirely the wrong reasons.
But it wasn't just Xenagos who was causing the unrest on the plane. It was also all of the other gods who in their anger at what happened decided to lash out against the mortals, feeling that Xenagos's actions was a sign of betrayal from all of them. Heliod was the worst of them all, being the white god, citing himself as 'the greatest of them all' and then stabbing Elspeth in the back after she does his bidding.
Not disagreeing with any of this though.
The only fault I can find with it is how they did try to portray Xenagos as a bit too evil, with that extremely silly murderous childhood of his. That was completely unnecessary. The rebellion against the gods is a very Red/Green thing.
Eh, the problem was, we didn't need to sympathize too much with Xenagos since he was the antagonist. Many of the gods had it coming, but they needed you to sympathize with Ellie, not Xenagos.
Heliod was the worst of them all, being the white god, citing himself as 'the greatest of them all' and then stabbing Elspeth in the back after she does his bidding.
He actually stabbed her in the front.
He didn't murder her because he set out to betray her. He killed her because he realized she was a Planeswalker and was worried she would try to usurp his authority the way Xenagos did.
Superficially, Theros looks like classic good and evil, but in fact they turned that around. They have meshed the biggest grey-area plane of them all, where players were found to sympathise with Erebos throughout, have mixed feelings over Xenagos and where we saw Heliod become the actual villain.
I found that the moral grayness of the whole thing made the characters more nuanced and interesting.
The gods are all arrogant manifestations of emotion who are too singular to become a completely benevolent Bruce Wayne.
Not all of them. Some of them have received so little screen time (Iroas, Karametra, Keranos, and Pharika never appear in the books) and Kruphix was portrayed as a benevolent, likeable character who genuinely has Theros best interest in mind.
The only fault I can find with it is how they did try to portray Xenagos as a bit too evil, with that extremely silly murderous childhood of his. That was completely unnecessary. The rebellion against the gods is a very Red/Green thing.
Xenagos was never meant to be heroic. That story reinforced what we have been told about Theros' satyrs as a whole, that they are completely devoid of a sense of empathy. They as a whole can not understand the emotions of others.
Back to Ugin, is there any story behind the way he looks? Because I can't help by feel that his head is the shape of a cobra. And some art depictions of him having a goatie that looks like a snake's slithery tongue.
Back to Ugin, is there any story behind the way he looks?
Nothing made public at least.
Is there any relation to the Nagas on Tarkir?
Again, nothing we know of.
For what it's worth, the Nagas in Khans of Tarkir time claimed lineage from dragons. Which was likely untrue, but propaganda told to people to make the naga seem more impressive and worthy of rule.
I reexamined my post from before and realized that I basically wanted the Ugin Bolas thing to be Dumbledore vs Grindlewald but with the bad guy winning >.< I now feel kind of horrible lol.
From what I've read so far I haven't see mention of the fact the in the lore Ugin is referred to as timeless, or that he is as old as time itself. Ugin is known to have created the dragons of Tarkir, and there were 2 generations (unknown credibility I got this information from an older thread) before the 5 elder dragons that survived the dragon war. This is speculation, but could ugin be one of the dragons from the 1st or 2nd generations (now in spirit form), or have even created them?
No, because Doug was pretty clear that Ugin isn't a capital E, Elder Dragon at this point.
They haven't reach any conclusion about it, so at the moment, he is JUST a spirit dragon.
http://dougbeyermtg.tumblr.com/post/108287169989/i-noticed-that-in-the-planeswalkers-guide-to-fate
(and for clarity sake, it took Bolas about 23,920 years to kill Ugin, but we don't know how much overlap there is.)
He tried to murder his mother, repeatedly, as a child, and was very much in it for personal gain as to prove a point.
He murdered people for the hell of it, orchestrated wars with a smile on his face, and wasn't too concerned with the repercussions of his schemes.
He was, without doubt, an evil character.
An evil character with an understandable, and perhaps even noble goal... doing it for entirely the wrong reasons.
Not disagreeing with any of this though.
Eh, the problem was, we didn't need to sympathize too much with Xenagos since he was the antagonist. Many of the gods had it coming, but they needed you to sympathize with Ellie, not Xenagos.
He actually stabbed her in the front.
He didn't murder her because he set out to betray her. He killed her because he realized she was a Planeswalker and was worried she would try to usurp his authority the way Xenagos did.
I found that the moral grayness of the whole thing made the characters more nuanced and interesting.
Not all of them. Some of them have received so little screen time (Iroas, Karametra, Keranos, and Pharika never appear in the books) and Kruphix was portrayed as a benevolent, likeable character who genuinely has Theros best interest in mind.
Xenagos was never meant to be heroic. That story reinforced what we have been told about Theros' satyrs as a whole, that they are completely devoid of a sense of empathy. They as a whole can not understand the emotions of others.
Level 1 Judge
I write flavor articles for RoxieCards.
I play and judge at Giga Bites Cafein Marietta, Georgia.
Is there any relation to the Nagas on Tarkir?
Cue Altar of the Brood and some of the pics in this link. http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/art-ugins-fate-2015-01-20
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
Again, nothing we know of.
For what it's worth, the Nagas in Khans of Tarkir time claimed lineage from dragons. Which was likely untrue, but propaganda told to people to make the naga seem more impressive and worthy of rule.
Level 1 Judge
I write flavor articles for RoxieCards.
I play and judge at Giga Bites Cafein Marietta, Georgia.