Nice to see Gideon finally getting some degree of perspective on things. He still seem to think he can fight the Eldrazi but at least he gets that there's more to it than the handful of people living on the rock with him.
What are you people even talking about?
He's known the bigger picture since the start of this plotline. He's just not been able to do anything.
No, Gideon really hasn't. He neglected an entire world in favour of some petty squabble on Ravnica. Ironically, the one time where he felt guilty about splitting his resources was when he actually did something to stop the Eldrazi in the long run, namely finding Jace.
If he would have seen the bigger picture he wouldn't have wasted his time a) fighting a dozen eldrazi while thousands are busy devouring the plane all over the globe and b) solving some minor conflict that would have led to fewer casualties in total than there are on Zendikar every minute. Instead, he would have gone immediately to find people who can do more than just whip their sural back and forth.
A whole world is dying and he thinks he can save it by hand to hand combat. That is not seeing the bigger picture.
That's cool. Here's the issue:
What can he do?
The whole reason he left Zendikar was because he saw Emrakul and realized he can't save that world on his own. Left for Ravnica, since it had the Infinite Consortium, which is an organization that had planeswalkers. When he arrives, it's already been destroyed and the guilds are now at war with each other.
So let's catch up here: Gids is on Ravnica where he knew Planeswalkers frequented. The Consortium is gone, so he has no way of tracking any walkers that show up. Meanwhile, guild conflicts threaten the Gateless and Zendikar is dying.
He's at an impasse. Going to fight on Zendikar essentially accomplishes nothing; fighting on Ravnica actually makes a difference. He splits his time between both planes because there's nothing else he can do.
Remember, apart from being able to whip things and make himself hard, Gideon's just a normal guy. Every other walker has extraordinary abilities while his are pretty mundane. He's been locked in his position because there's quite literally nothing he can do.
You can blame Creative for setting the circumstances such that he was forced to be locked into that role for so long, but it sure wasn't because he lacked perspective. He knows he's fighting a losing battle and he knows he makes no real difference on Zendikar, but being there and saving what lives he can means more to him than just going "Haha, those Zendikari are boned," while he sits on his ass in Sunhome.
As a man who has built a Drana EDH deck that he plays at every chance, has argued with his other Vampire EDH friend about why Drana is better than Olivia Voldaren and who has been waiting for any shred of Drana story having only gotten into Magic during Dark Ascension and finding nothing about her storywise online, where did you find that story preview? Because I need this story and a new legendary version of her in my life SOOOO badly. I mean, my avatar is my extended art foil EDH copy of her, for crying out loud! I don't need much in my life; just more Drana and Nahiri.
Right here good sir. The title of the Episode this summary is from is called, Memories of Blood, and it will come out next week.
He could have helped Jace. Both Jace and Jori pointed out that they're not fighters and could easily die or be delayed on the trip the The Eye of Ugin. We know that Jace is a main character and is going to succeed but Gideon doesn't.
He could have started building an army sooner. Even if he doesn't think they can win Gideon could at least give them a chance to fight, which is what he's doing now.
He could have helped Jace. Both Jace and Jori pointed out that they're not fighters and could easily die or be delayed on the trip the The Eye of Ugin. We know that Jace is a main character and is going to succeed but Gideon doesn't.
He could have started building an army sooner. Even if he doesn't think they can win Gideon could at least give them a chance to fight, which is what he's doing now.
1. Exactly. We know Jace is a main character, but Gideon doesn't.
As far as he's concerned, they're just chasing hunches while he's trying to keep these people alive. Here's a fact: the longer he keeps them alive, the higher the chance of victory (whether it moves from 0% to 0.1% or from 0% to 100%, it's still better than 0). The more people you have, the more possibilities you have. Keeping the tangible around is more important than sacrificing it for a "may/could be".
2. Except Gideon knows a direct army would only be a stall tactic. That's why he went to Ravnica in the first place. All he could do is fight battles and leave since he was looking for allies that could actually win.
I would never thought that "moving to two blocks per year, one of reasons being intensification of storytelling" would still mean we're stuck on discussion of what Gideon should and shouldn't do for more than a month now! Great way to speed up, Wizards.
I can't even read yesterday's story. I really hate the writer's writing style.
Survival on this plane, in this time, in the face of these monsters, demanded patrols, fortifications, weapons, healing balms, food, water, shelter, warmth. The list went on.
So Gideon was taking it one step at a time.
Right now, it was the water that he was working on.
With help from the kor Abeena, he was in the process of repositioning the nearest floating rock waterfall so that its precious stream of life-giving water would rain down onto the far end of the hedron camp where the survivors could safely and easily access it.
Her writing doesn't feel like it's taking the situation seriously, is the simplest way to put it.
I would never thought that "moving to two blocks per year, one of reasons being intensification of storytelling" would still mean we're stuck on discussion of what Gideon should and shouldn't do for more than a month now! Great way to speed up, Wizards.
There are currently what, 5 planeswalkers on Zendikar right now? We have no idea what's going on with Kiora or Ob Nixilis, but I'm so happy to see Gideon's fight scenes and debate this all month.
No excuses. This is all filler crap and I'm sick of it. We already saw the ending of this story spoiled with the Gatewatch art. There is no reason not to advance this story before the pre-release.
As far as he's concerned, they're just chasing hunches while he's trying to keep these people alive. Here's a fact: the longer he keeps them alive, the higher the chance of victory (whether it moves from 0% to 0.1% or from 0% to 100%, it's still better than 0).
Which, again, is a completely ridiculous way of looking at things.
He knows perfectly well that the only hope anyone on Zendikar has is for Jace to succeed (or someone else but Gideon himself clearly thinks Jace and Jori are the only ones with a chance). The best case scenario for Gideon defending Vorik's people to the exclusion of everything else is that he saves maybe two dozen people but that only happens if someone else saves Zendikar. Leaving Vorik's people to help Jace puts them at risk, sure, but it improves the chances of everyone else on the plane. That's probably still thousands of people.
Gideon is helpless in the face of the Eldrazi not because there's nothing he can do but because he chose to do nothing.
Her writing doesn't feel like it's taking the situation seriously, is the simplest way to put it.
Worked for Hemmingway.
Actually this makes me wonder if there are guidelines for the writers about how to approach writing each character. Like: Gideon is straight to the point. Sarkhan is rapturous and emotional. And so on.
Which, again, is a completely ridiculous way of looking at things.
He knows perfectly well that the only hope anyone on Zendikar has is for Jace to succeed (or someone else but Gideon himself clearly thinks Jace and Jori are the only ones with a chance). The best case scenario for Gideon defending Vorik's people to the exclusion of everything else is that he saves maybe two dozen people but that only happens if someone else saves Zendikar. Leaving Vorik's people to help Jace puts them at risk, sure, but it improves the chances of everyone else on the plane. That's probably still thousands of people.
Gideon is helpless in the face of the Eldrazi not because there's nothing he can do but because he chose to do nothing.
It's not at all reasonable to give up what is sure for what is unsure. He can't risk their lives on something he isn't sure about. He would eventually embark on the quest, but not before he could do so without risking everyone's lives.
Gideon bristled. He hadn't lost. He wanted Jace to solve the puzzle of the hedrons; he might have preferred that Jace had waited to go to the Eye of Ugin until things were more stable here, but he had agreed with the general plan.
Seriously, it's not hard to fathom. He'd been fighting on Zendikar for a long ass time, then jace comes along and is basically telling him to abandon these people and go with him adventuring.
What if Jace hadn't found anything at the Eye? What if Gideon's caution was warranted? They'd be where they are right now, but with way more dead bodies, a lost "headquarters" and would be totally incapable of continuing. As readers, it's easy to ignore a character's rationale by using out-of-universe knowledge, but only really bad writers do such things. Given all that's going on around him, and his character, it was the right decision.
Indeed, it's easy to blame a leader for not going to action with the ragtag group of heroes, but a leader has to think about the people that follow him. This is the most wide appeal example I can think of on the fly:
In Gurren Lagann, Rossiu kind of becomes a massive tool in the second season, but thats only because he's using the tools he has at hand to keep the maximum number of people alive, while the main character wants to shoot from the hip and be adventurous or whatever. In the end, his method proves to be the right one because it's an idyllic story, but he acknowledges Rossiu wasn't wrong.
I don't fully believe in that example because Rossiu knew that the story he was in was an idyllic one, so he should've known his approach was wrong. Gideon, on the other hand, has only been on losing fronts since Rise of the Eldrazi, so his caution is super warranted.
Worked for Hemmingway.
Actually this makes me wonder if there are guidelines for the writers about how to approach writing each character. Like: Gideon is straight to the point. Sarkhan is rapturous and emotional. And so on.
I'm sure we can agree that none of these writers is Hemmingway.
Seriously, it's not hard to fathom. He'd been fighting on Zendikar for a long ass time, then jace comes along and is basically telling him to abandon these people and go with him adventuring.
Jace didn't pop in on a whim. Gideon brought Jace to Zendikar specifically in order to to help Jori.
I'm trying to think of a way that Jace could makes things worse than "unstoppable monsters slaughter everything in their path until, mercifully, Zendikar itself collapses into nothingness" and not coming up with anything.
The reason Gideon didn't want to go with Jace and Jori En to the Eye was because the last time he had been separated from his group, they lost Sea Gate and their commander. While you could argue whether it was logically correct to let them go on their own, I think he made an appropriate emotional decision in the context. I think it's fine that he wouldn't want to leave the people on Sky Rock to fend for themselves with their general on his deathbed. In other words, I don't think it's unreasonable that he did what he did.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
Background: Ob Nixilis spent millennia robbed of his ability to planeswalk and trapped on Zendikar. He has just regained his planeswalker spark by REDACTED.
But at least we have a new planeswalking villain
Lets see what he will do. Hope for next week?
Here's the way I would have done it:
The reason Ulamog is still here and the other titans left is that Ob is holding him here and channelling all the mana Ulamog eats into himself. This solves some of the story issues:
1. Why would ulamog stay on the "prison" plane waiting to be reshackled?
2. How are our heroes going to defeat ulamog? (break Ob's connection and ulamog will take off, maybe?)
3. What is Ob doing that is worthy of all the mystery, anyway?
It would also set up a cool Sisyphean fate for Ob where Ulamog shows up wherever Ob planeswalks trying to eat him for screwing with the titan.
As far as "what can Gideon do?" I guess steal a nuke from an advanced plane and thopter it onto ulamog's head?
Here's the way I would have done it:
The reason Ulamog is still here and the other titans left is that Ob is holding him here and channelling all the mana Ulamog eats into himself. This solves some of the story issues:
1. Why would ulamog stay on the "prison" plane waiting to be reshackled?
2. How are our heroes going to defeat ulamog? (break Ob's connection and ulamog will take off, maybe?)
3. What is Ob doing that is worthy of all the mystery, anyway?
It would also set up a cool Sisyphean fate for Ob where Ulamog shows up wherever Ob planeswalks trying to eat him for screwing with the titan.
As far as "what can Gideon do?" I guess steal a nuke from an advanced plane and thopter it onto ulamog's head?
Where the devil do you get the idea that Ob has that kind of power? Ulamog is still there because Zendikar is tasty. From what we have of OGW and the fact that we know Ugin and Jace are going to meet up at some point members of the Gatewatch are going to find another way of sealing Ulamog.
- The conversation with Tazri in the beggining was very intense. I like this sort of conflict where two people are arguing what is the most reasonable course of action and, honestly, both could be right.
- The conversation at the end with Commander Vorik that led to the decision of retaking Sea Gate. Both were very interesting conversations.
Things that I didn't give a dam*:
- The description of how they turned the waterfall for everyone to drink was too long (even though it was short in comparison to the UR, it was long for such a boring event).
- Gideon fighting another eldrazi (could have been skipped completely, just by describing that he fought and won, without getting into detail, or by having the refugees get into the camp with nothing tailing them). Enough with useless eldrazi fights.
On another note. New cards being spoiled are, well, spoiling the future of the story in a really bad way. The new Hedron Network card showing Ulamog imprisioned by Hedrons is just crazy! Why would they spoil so strongly in a card what will happen in the story? Now we know how Ulamog will be dealt with (or at least momentarily stopped).
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Would you like to read Commander stories? Check my latest stories, coming from Lorwyn and Innistrad: Ghoulcaller Gisa and Doran, The Siege Tower! If you like my writing, ask me to write something for your commander as well!
I kind of like that idea, actually. It's not unbelievably improbable that Nixilis could do such a thing, since he's been studying the hedrons for the millennia he's been trapped on Zendikar and he at least believes that he understands them better than anyone but their creator. Perhaps he figured out some way to use them to prevent Ulamog from leaving the plane but still allow it to devour mana unhindered? Using them to funnel that mana back to himself is a bit more of a stretch, but at this point the hedrons are basically being used as magical rocks that can do anything the story needs them to do, so why not? And that certainly seems like something that could reignite someone's spark.
What I don't understand, personally, if why the hell Gideon thinks retaking Sea Gate is a good tactical move. He says it's a defensible position with large stores of food, weapons, and water ... but it already fell to the Eldrazi once already with all those advantages! And after being thoroughly drained no one even knows if the supplies would still be usable, or even if the walls of Sea Gate are still stable. I can understand that it would be a major symbolic victory, but that doesn't mean much if they have to expend enormous amounts of energy and probably lose a lot of lives to do it. Especially when it might very well be lost again shortly afterward.
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Xantcha, Phyrexian Reject
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Tovolar, Howlpack Alpha
Pivlic, Orzhov Informant
Crixizix, Master Engineer
Feather, Boros Peacekeeper
Marisi Coilbreaker
O-Kagachi
Gix, Phyrexian Praetor
Karn, Father of Machines
Yawgmoth, Father of Machines
Serra, Mother of All Angels
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Leshrac the Nightwalker
Jeska, the Thrice-Touched
Elspeth Returned
Crucius the Mad
Taysir the Infinite
Urza's Head (Unglued!)
why the hell Gideon thinks retaking Sea Gate is a good tactical move. He says it's a defensible position with large stores of food, weapons, and water ... but it already fell to the Eldrazi once already with all those advantages! And after being thoroughly drained no one even knows if the supplies would still be usable, or even if the walls of Sea Gate are still stable. I can understand that it would be a major symbolic victory, but that doesn't mean much if they have to expend enormous amounts of energy and probably lose a lot of lives to do it. Especially when it might very well be lost again shortly afterward.
While I do think it's strange that he wants to take back Sea Gate, I don't think it's because it already fell once, or at least I don't think it would be strange to him. He (and definitely Tazri and maybe Vorik even) feels that it was his fault it was overrun in the first place, since it happened during the trip to Ravnica when he finally picked up Jace and took some time to recover. He felt it was taken over specifically because he wasn't there, but now he is dedicated to remaining on Zendikar to fight with Jace looking for a solution.
I still think it's weird that he would want to take back a place that's already been taken over and presumably drained by the Eldrazi. Like I said before, I can buy that no one has ever tried to do it before, but I assumed that was just because once the Eldrazi got to some place it was done. But I guess that's not really the case.
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They didn't care that he was the savior of Fort Keff, the great hunter of Ondu, the champion of Kabira. To them, he was just another piece of flesh, a thing with life to be drained away.
On another note. New cards being spoiled are, well, spoiling the future of the story in a really bad way. The new Hedron Network card showing Ulamog imprisioned by Hedrons is just crazy! Why would they spoil so strongly in a card what will happen in the story? Now we know how Ulamog will be dealt with (or at least momentarily stopped).
Get used to it. There are going to be 5 cards every set that depict important story moments. This is because, of the total player base, the portion that goes the the mothership religiously and reads the URs is pretty damn small.
What irritates me is that despite overwhelming majority of storyline fans check spoilered cards, progress in UR storylines lags so goddamn much behind. It's so much pleasure to find shocking stuff in cards, promotional materials and Maro's posts, then go to check the next UR and find another round of Gideon whipping sural back and forth. For example, to this time it's already known that
Kiora returns with Dekella
Ob Nixilis regained his spark
Ugin will appear, and will talk to Jace
Chandra also returns; it might be next set's stuff, though
there are two new legendaries not included in storyline at all
Kalitas is enthralled to Eldrazi
and worst of all, we already know how this story will end. No, I'm not asking to finish it in storyline articles right naow, but it makes spoonfeeding the plot all more irritating
I only hope that for the time it will be allowed to reveal big stuff in UR there will be enough space for that, and no important stuff will be reduced to one line summary.
Jace didn't pop in on a whim. Gideon brought Jace to Zendikar specifically in order to to help Jori.
Okay?
I never said Jace popped up or that Gideon didn't bring him there.
Jace knows way less and is far less invested than Gideon when it comes to Zendikar and its troubles. Gideon can't drop everything and go with him at a drop of a hat.
I'm trying to think of a way that Jace could makes things worse than "unstoppable monsters slaughter everything in their path until, mercifully, Zendikar itself collapses into nothingness" and not coming up with anything.
Let me help you.
Because Gideon left the people to their own devices, they get massacred, he and Jace find nothing and now they have less resources to work with and Zendikar is still doomed. All worse than just Zendikar being doomed.
What irritates me is that despite overwhelming majority of storyline fans check spoilered cards, progress in UR storylines lags so goddamn much behind. It's so much pleasure to find shocking stuff in cards, promotional materials and Maro's posts, then go to check the next UR and find another round of Gideon whipping sural back and forth. For example, to this time it's already known that
Kiora returns with Dekella
Ob Nixilis regained his spark
Ugin will appear, and will talk to Jace
Chandra also returns; it might be next set's stuff, though
there are two new legendaries not included in storyline at all
Kalitas is enthralled to Eldrazi
and worst of all, we already know how this story will end. No, I'm not asking to finish it in storyline articles right naow, but it makes spoonfeeding the plot all more irritating
I only hope that for the time it will be allowed to reveal big stuff in UR there will be enough space for that, and no important stuff will be reduced to one line summary.
I don't post here very often but I do read everything that gets posted and I just have to fully agree with Ashiok, mineralica and Jenrik. It's very annoying to be reading the Uncharted Realms stories every week, only to have major plot points spoiled before the set comes out. I don't mind things like Hedron Archive, which just lets us know that two characters meet at some point, but the Hedron Network spoiler is over the top for me.
I understand that we are in the minority that read UR, and that for this reason it is necessary to have major story moments depicted on cards. Obviously this is an issue due to the nature of spoiler season, but I think there's a couple things that could be done better.
1) Don't spoil the major story cards until the full set is revealed. This at least delays the conclusion of the plot for the readers and allows the UR to catch up more.
2) Move the story in the UR articles along faster. As mineralica pointed out, there are many details about the story that we already know from spoilers, yet seem very far away from being seen in UR - we haven't seen 2 of the 3 BfZ planeswalkers yet.
I don't know what the solution is but the current model doesn't work for me because I am now just taken completely out of the story. Reading these filler UR stories feels pointless because we already know what happens in the end, yet we don't seem to be moving to that conclusion any time soon. If they want to tell the story through the cards and then use UR to supplement this, then so be it. But it feels like we're being shafted because at this rate it will take months to reach the climax that we already know about. There's just no suspense.
If the ending of a set's storyline is going to be explicitly stated on a card, then perhaps the storyline needs to wrapped up by release day/prerelease, or even when the full set spoiler is released. I'm not sure if this would work but it would give us an exciting build up to the set at least, and it satisfies both parties. Those of us that avidly follow the story don't get things spoiled for us, and those who don't still see what's going on through the cards. An issue with this would be that Wizards wouldn't want to detract attention/hype from the latest set by writing stories about the next, and the storyline doesn't really flow from block to block very well.
I'm curious to hear what others think. Does it not bother you knowing the ending of the story? And if it does, how could it be done differently?
Ya know I usually don't mind spoilers. But this is the first time in memory that I have had to deal with spoilers of something that's not out and available to the public yet. I don't mind someone telling me something about a movie or tv show that's been out for a while. But I do mind this. With OGW they've shown a trailer for the sequel to a movie that hasn't even come out yet. With the Hedron Network, Ob being a planeswalker, them telling us at PAX that Chandra will show up, ETC, ETC. I feel like there's almost no reason to read the stories now.
However I don't really see a reasonable solution. Wrapping up the major story by the time the set is spoiled isn't reasonable because that means you basically have to start as soon as the previous set comes out. Now granted they kinda did this with putting out stories that were part of the "Origins" story but were clearly setup for BFZ. However it may be that since they're setting up for a larger story arc that once we get into the midst of the story we wont notice this as much but that's something I doubt because the story is still going to bounce around a bit.
I don't post here very often but I do read everything that gets posted and I just have to fully agree with Ashiok, mineralica and Jenrik. It's very annoying to be reading the Uncharted Realms stories every week, only to have major plot points spoiled before the set comes out. I don't mind things like Hedron Archive, which just lets us know that two characters meet at some point, but the Hedron Network spoiler is over the top for me.
I understand that we are in the minority that read UR, and that for this reason it is necessary to have major story moments depicted on cards. Obviously this is an issue due to the nature of spoiler season, but I think there's a couple things that could be done better.
1) Don't spoil the major story cards until the full set is revealed. This at least delays the conclusion of the plot for the readers and allows the UR to catch up more.
2) Move the story in the UR articles along faster. As mineralica pointed out, there are many details about the story that we already know from spoilers, yet seem very far away from being seen in UR - we haven't seen 2 of the 3 BfZ planeswalkers yet.
I don't know what the solution is but the current model doesn't work for me because I am now just taken completely out of the story. Reading these filler UR stories feels pointless because we already know what happens in the end, yet we don't seem to be moving to that conclusion any time soon. If they want to tell the story through the cards and then use UR to supplement this, then so be it. But it feels like we're being shafted because at this rate it will take months to reach the climax that we already know about. There's just no suspense.
If the ending of a set's storyline is going to be explicitly stated on a card, then perhaps the storyline needs to wrapped up by release day/prerelease, or even when the full set spoiler is released. I'm not sure if this would work but it would give us an exciting build up to the set at least, and it satisfies both parties. Those of us that avidly follow the story don't get things spoiled for us, and those who don't still see what's going on through the cards. An issue with this would be that Wizards wouldn't want to detract attention/hype from the latest set by writing stories about the next, and the storyline doesn't really flow from block to block very well.
I'm curious to hear what others think. Does it not bother you knowing the ending of the story? And if it does, how could it be done differently?
Another post that hits the nail on the head.
Bascially, we read the URs just to catch up on filler? I'm all for the cards telling pivotal points in the story - it even upset me that the art of Heliod murdering Elspeth didn't make it on a card for that very reason. But not when the story, through the URs, languishes in limbo for ages and leaves foolishly spoiled cards to steal its thunder. WOTC can't tactfully spoil cards? But the root of the problem isn't even what cards are spoiled when, at this rate.
The real issue is how hashed with useless nonsense these stories are for the sake of length, it would seem, rather than fleshing out the actual plot with legitimate material. At this rate I'd sooner see the writers run out of story and get to the interesting information than linger in oblivion for weeks on end while we learn everything from cards. Who wants to read novel length filler spanning months when flavor text does it better? Did the Eldrazi leave their corruption all over the Creative team? Because their recent efforts have looked about as promising as Doug Beyer's blog quite frankly. Which we all know is where Emakrul always ends up anyway, and fittingly so.
Each week I check expecting to see what Kiora is up to, what becomes of Nissa's connection to Zendikar, how Ob obtains his spark again and what he's scheming, etc. You mean to tell me all these things can't fathomably be focus points to flesh out instead of War: The Gathering scenes? At least *introduce* these plot points and revisit them later. Let's check in with some of these characters. Show Kiora on another plane with Dekella and introduce us to her plans and first attempts at trying to use it. Drop a note on Ob Nixilis.
Well I can't tell you how much I care about Gideon killing individual Eldrazi drones with a sural while Ulamog devours entire continents, a demon planeswalker just re-sparked and might undo the plane himself, a woken Ugin who once sealed the Eldrazi and co-mastered the Hedrons is heading back with Oldwalker Eldrazi knowledge, a kraken-weilding native Merfolk returns commanding an ocean-bending, sea monster humbling off-world god-weapon once owned by Thassa herself, Jace who became guidpact on Ravnica by completing the maze finding some knowledge in ancient alien ruins, Nahiri the Zendikar guardian, Lithomancer and original member of the three MIA this entire time and in a spat with Sorin himself over unknown reasons still being absent from this all, Sorin looking for her out there in a multiverse...
But oh, why bother giving any of those their own stories, or two? A casual mention will do. I can just imagine these URs wallowing around in a pit of nothingness and just have these characters randomly pop in as an afterthought "then a powerful Kor showed up who commands Hedrons, and FIGHTING! A merfolk carrying a two-pronged spear! ATTACK!" This is like Yugioh-level lore with more words. It's insulting after the likes of Scott McGough and Jenna's Godsend, or anything by Kelly Digges. I begin to question how much spotlight any relevant points of interest will have that's wasted on all this. Seeing Nissa become Pocahontas for two weeks is the highlight of this block.
I want a premium foil Arixmethes card mailed to my house with a apology letter from Mark Rosewater and Doug Beyer for these transgressions. JK but seriously, get with it.
Remember when they promised Uncharted Realms would still focus on Joe Everyman doing this thing while the planeswalkers do theirs?
I remember that. I would've preferred random oneshot stories of other people on Zendikar conducting their own futile battles. Not only does that give us truer scope, but it allows for filler that's less egregious than Gideon finding a random Eldrazi every story to whip.
I've actually been enjoying the stories but I agree with you guys that they're really dragging things out. If we had more stories from the POV of random Zendakari it might make things more interesting and provide more scope and perspective to what the eldrazi are doing to Zendikar. I know we're getting a Drana story next week so hopefully that will give us a bit of that. I'm also really beginning to wonder if Kozilek is still on Zendikar, like the planeswalkers will trap Ulamog with the Hedron Network (thanks for the spoiler alert Wizards) and then Kozilek and its' brood will come out from underground to finish Zendikar off. Could the Oath of the Gatewatch be a promise to never let another world fall the same way Zendikar did? If so it would really up the ante of the eldrazi plotline, and provide interesting new directions for character development in Gideon, as he dealt with his failure, and Kiora and Nissa, as they dealt with the loss of their world.
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
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That's cool. Here's the issue:
What can he do?
The whole reason he left Zendikar was because he saw Emrakul and realized he can't save that world on his own. Left for Ravnica, since it had the Infinite Consortium, which is an organization that had planeswalkers. When he arrives, it's already been destroyed and the guilds are now at war with each other.
So let's catch up here: Gids is on Ravnica where he knew Planeswalkers frequented. The Consortium is gone, so he has no way of tracking any walkers that show up. Meanwhile, guild conflicts threaten the Gateless and Zendikar is dying.
He's at an impasse. Going to fight on Zendikar essentially accomplishes nothing; fighting on Ravnica actually makes a difference. He splits his time between both planes because there's nothing else he can do.
Remember, apart from being able to whip things and make himself hard, Gideon's just a normal guy. Every other walker has extraordinary abilities while his are pretty mundane. He's been locked in his position because there's quite literally nothing he can do.
You can blame Creative for setting the circumstances such that he was forced to be locked into that role for so long, but it sure wasn't because he lacked perspective. He knows he's fighting a losing battle and he knows he makes no real difference on Zendikar, but being there and saving what lives he can means more to him than just going "Haha, those Zendikari are boned," while he sits on his ass in Sunhome.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Right here good sir. The title of the Episode this summary is from is called, Memories of Blood, and it will come out next week.
He could have helped Jace. Both Jace and Jori pointed out that they're not fighters and could easily die or be delayed on the trip the The Eye of Ugin. We know that Jace is a main character and is going to succeed but Gideon doesn't.
He could have started building an army sooner. Even if he doesn't think they can win Gideon could at least give them a chance to fight, which is what he's doing now.
1. Exactly. We know Jace is a main character, but Gideon doesn't.
As far as he's concerned, they're just chasing hunches while he's trying to keep these people alive. Here's a fact: the longer he keeps them alive, the higher the chance of victory (whether it moves from 0% to 0.1% or from 0% to 100%, it's still better than 0). The more people you have, the more possibilities you have. Keeping the tangible around is more important than sacrificing it for a "may/could be".
2. Except Gideon knows a direct army would only be a stall tactic. That's why he went to Ravnica in the first place. All he could do is fight battles and leave since he was looking for allies that could actually win.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Her writing doesn't feel like it's taking the situation seriously, is the simplest way to put it.
Your mods are terrified of me.
There are currently what, 5 planeswalkers on Zendikar right now? We have no idea what's going on with Kiora or Ob Nixilis, but I'm so happy to see Gideon's fight scenes and debate this all month.
No excuses. This is all filler crap and I'm sick of it. We already saw the ending of this story spoiled with the Gatewatch art. There is no reason not to advance this story before the pre-release.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Which, again, is a completely ridiculous way of looking at things.
He knows perfectly well that the only hope anyone on Zendikar has is for Jace to succeed (or someone else but Gideon himself clearly thinks Jace and Jori are the only ones with a chance). The best case scenario for Gideon defending Vorik's people to the exclusion of everything else is that he saves maybe two dozen people but that only happens if someone else saves Zendikar. Leaving Vorik's people to help Jace puts them at risk, sure, but it improves the chances of everyone else on the plane. That's probably still thousands of people.
Gideon is helpless in the face of the Eldrazi not because there's nothing he can do but because he chose to do nothing.
Worked for Hemmingway.
Actually this makes me wonder if there are guidelines for the writers about how to approach writing each character. Like: Gideon is straight to the point. Sarkhan is rapturous and emotional. And so on.
It's not at all reasonable to give up what is sure for what is unsure. He can't risk their lives on something he isn't sure about. He would eventually embark on the quest, but not before he could do so without risking everyone's lives.
Seriously, it's not hard to fathom. He'd been fighting on Zendikar for a long ass time, then jace comes along and is basically telling him to abandon these people and go with him adventuring.
What if Jace hadn't found anything at the Eye? What if Gideon's caution was warranted? They'd be where they are right now, but with way more dead bodies, a lost "headquarters" and would be totally incapable of continuing. As readers, it's easy to ignore a character's rationale by using out-of-universe knowledge, but only really bad writers do such things. Given all that's going on around him, and his character, it was the right decision.
Indeed, it's easy to blame a leader for not going to action with the ragtag group of heroes, but a leader has to think about the people that follow him. This is the most wide appeal example I can think of on the fly:
I don't fully believe in that example because Rossiu knew that the story he was in was an idyllic one, so he should've known his approach was wrong. Gideon, on the other hand, has only been on losing fronts since Rise of the Eldrazi, so his caution is super warranted.
I'm sure we can agree that none of these writers is Hemmingway.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Jace didn't pop in on a whim. Gideon brought Jace to Zendikar specifically in order to to help Jori.
I'm trying to think of a way that Jace could makes things worse than "unstoppable monsters slaughter everything in their path until, mercifully, Zendikar itself collapses into nothingness" and not coming up with anything.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
Here's the way I would have done it:
The reason Ulamog is still here and the other titans left is that Ob is holding him here and channelling all the mana Ulamog eats into himself. This solves some of the story issues:
1. Why would ulamog stay on the "prison" plane waiting to be reshackled?
2. How are our heroes going to defeat ulamog? (break Ob's connection and ulamog will take off, maybe?)
3. What is Ob doing that is worthy of all the mystery, anyway?
It would also set up a cool Sisyphean fate for Ob where Ulamog shows up wherever Ob planeswalks trying to eat him for screwing with the titan.
As far as "what can Gideon do?" I guess steal a nuke from an advanced plane and thopter it onto ulamog's head?
Where the devil do you get the idea that Ob has that kind of power? Ulamog is still there because Zendikar is tasty. From what we have of OGW and the fact that we know Ugin and Jace are going to meet up at some point members of the Gatewatch are going to find another way of sealing Ulamog.
- The conversation with Tazri in the beggining was very intense. I like this sort of conflict where two people are arguing what is the most reasonable course of action and, honestly, both could be right.
- The conversation at the end with Commander Vorik that led to the decision of retaking Sea Gate. Both were very interesting conversations.
Things that I didn't give a dam*:
- The description of how they turned the waterfall for everyone to drink was too long (even though it was short in comparison to the UR, it was long for such a boring event).
- Gideon fighting another eldrazi (could have been skipped completely, just by describing that he fought and won, without getting into detail, or by having the refugees get into the camp with nothing tailing them). Enough with useless eldrazi fights.
On another note. New cards being spoiled are, well, spoiling the future of the story in a really bad way. The new Hedron Network card showing Ulamog imprisioned by Hedrons is just crazy! Why would they spoil so strongly in a card what will happen in the story? Now we know how Ulamog will be dealt with (or at least momentarily stopped).
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
What I don't understand, personally, if why the hell Gideon thinks retaking Sea Gate is a good tactical move. He says it's a defensible position with large stores of food, weapons, and water ... but it already fell to the Eldrazi once already with all those advantages! And after being thoroughly drained no one even knows if the supplies would still be usable, or even if the walls of Sea Gate are still stable. I can understand that it would be a major symbolic victory, but that doesn't mean much if they have to expend enormous amounts of energy and probably lose a lot of lives to do it. Especially when it might very well be lost again shortly afterward.
Xantcha, Phyrexian Reject
Jodah, Archmage Eternal
Tovolar, Howlpack Alpha
Pivlic, Orzhov Informant
Crixizix, Master Engineer
Feather, Boros Peacekeeper
Marisi Coilbreaker
O-Kagachi
Gix, Phyrexian Praetor
Karn, Father of Machines
Yawgmoth, Father of Machines
Serra, Mother of All Angels
Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools
Leshrac the Nightwalker
Jeska, the Thrice-Touched
Elspeth Returned
Crucius the Mad
Taysir the Infinite
Urza's Head (Unglued!)
While I do think it's strange that he wants to take back Sea Gate, I don't think it's because it already fell once, or at least I don't think it would be strange to him. He (and definitely Tazri and maybe Vorik even) feels that it was his fault it was overrun in the first place, since it happened during the trip to Ravnica when he finally picked up Jace and took some time to recover. He felt it was taken over specifically because he wasn't there, but now he is dedicated to remaining on Zendikar to fight with Jace looking for a solution.
I still think it's weird that he would want to take back a place that's already been taken over and presumably drained by the Eldrazi. Like I said before, I can buy that no one has ever tried to do it before, but I assumed that was just because once the Eldrazi got to some place it was done. But I guess that's not really the case.
But the people behind the barrier knew.
Get used to it. There are going to be 5 cards every set that depict important story moments. This is because, of the total player base, the portion that goes the the mothership religiously and reads the URs is pretty damn small.
Kiora returns with Dekella
Ob Nixilis regained his spark
Ugin will appear, and will talk to Jace
Chandra also returns; it might be next set's stuff, though
there are two new legendaries not included in storyline at all
Kalitas is enthralled to Eldrazi
and worst of all, we already know how this story will end. No, I'm not asking to finish it in storyline articles right naow, but it makes spoonfeeding the plot all more irritating
Okay?
I never said Jace popped up or that Gideon didn't bring him there.
Jace knows way less and is far less invested than Gideon when it comes to Zendikar and its troubles. Gideon can't drop everything and go with him at a drop of a hat.
Let me help you.
Because Gideon left the people to their own devices, they get massacred, he and Jace find nothing and now they have less resources to work with and Zendikar is still doomed. All worse than just Zendikar being doomed.
Your mods are terrified of me.
Finally, someone who understands my frustration.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I understand that we are in the minority that read UR, and that for this reason it is necessary to have major story moments depicted on cards. Obviously this is an issue due to the nature of spoiler season, but I think there's a couple things that could be done better.
1) Don't spoil the major story cards until the full set is revealed. This at least delays the conclusion of the plot for the readers and allows the UR to catch up more.
2) Move the story in the UR articles along faster. As mineralica pointed out, there are many details about the story that we already know from spoilers, yet seem very far away from being seen in UR - we haven't seen 2 of the 3 BfZ planeswalkers yet.
I don't know what the solution is but the current model doesn't work for me because I am now just taken completely out of the story. Reading these filler UR stories feels pointless because we already know what happens in the end, yet we don't seem to be moving to that conclusion any time soon. If they want to tell the story through the cards and then use UR to supplement this, then so be it. But it feels like we're being shafted because at this rate it will take months to reach the climax that we already know about. There's just no suspense.
If the ending of a set's storyline is going to be explicitly stated on a card, then perhaps the storyline needs to wrapped up by release day/prerelease, or even when the full set spoiler is released. I'm not sure if this would work but it would give us an exciting build up to the set at least, and it satisfies both parties. Those of us that avidly follow the story don't get things spoiled for us, and those who don't still see what's going on through the cards. An issue with this would be that Wizards wouldn't want to detract attention/hype from the latest set by writing stories about the next, and the storyline doesn't really flow from block to block very well.
I'm curious to hear what others think. Does it not bother you knowing the ending of the story? And if it does, how could it be done differently?
However I don't really see a reasonable solution. Wrapping up the major story by the time the set is spoiled isn't reasonable because that means you basically have to start as soon as the previous set comes out. Now granted they kinda did this with putting out stories that were part of the "Origins" story but were clearly setup for BFZ. However it may be that since they're setting up for a larger story arc that once we get into the midst of the story we wont notice this as much but that's something I doubt because the story is still going to bounce around a bit.
Another post that hits the nail on the head.
Bascially, we read the URs just to catch up on filler? I'm all for the cards telling pivotal points in the story - it even upset me that the art of Heliod murdering Elspeth didn't make it on a card for that very reason. But not when the story, through the URs, languishes in limbo for ages and leaves foolishly spoiled cards to steal its thunder. WOTC can't tactfully spoil cards? But the root of the problem isn't even what cards are spoiled when, at this rate.
The real issue is how hashed with useless nonsense these stories are for the sake of length, it would seem, rather than fleshing out the actual plot with legitimate material. At this rate I'd sooner see the writers run out of story and get to the interesting information than linger in oblivion for weeks on end while we learn everything from cards. Who wants to read novel length filler spanning months when flavor text does it better? Did the Eldrazi leave their corruption all over the Creative team? Because their recent efforts have looked about as promising as Doug Beyer's blog quite frankly. Which we all know is where Emakrul always ends up anyway, and fittingly so.
Each week I check expecting to see what Kiora is up to, what becomes of Nissa's connection to Zendikar, how Ob obtains his spark again and what he's scheming, etc. You mean to tell me all these things can't fathomably be focus points to flesh out instead of War: The Gathering scenes? At least *introduce* these plot points and revisit them later. Let's check in with some of these characters. Show Kiora on another plane with Dekella and introduce us to her plans and first attempts at trying to use it. Drop a note on Ob Nixilis.
Well I can't tell you how much I care about Gideon killing individual Eldrazi drones with a sural while Ulamog devours entire continents, a demon planeswalker just re-sparked and might undo the plane himself, a woken Ugin who once sealed the Eldrazi and co-mastered the Hedrons is heading back with Oldwalker Eldrazi knowledge, a kraken-weilding native Merfolk returns commanding an ocean-bending, sea monster humbling off-world god-weapon once owned by Thassa herself, Jace who became guidpact on Ravnica by completing the maze finding some knowledge in ancient alien ruins, Nahiri the Zendikar guardian, Lithomancer and original member of the three MIA this entire time and in a spat with Sorin himself over unknown reasons still being absent from this all, Sorin looking for her out there in a multiverse...
But oh, why bother giving any of those their own stories, or two? A casual mention will do. I can just imagine these URs wallowing around in a pit of nothingness and just have these characters randomly pop in as an afterthought "then a powerful Kor showed up who commands Hedrons, and FIGHTING! A merfolk carrying a two-pronged spear! ATTACK!" This is like Yugioh-level lore with more words. It's insulting after the likes of Scott McGough and Jenna's Godsend, or anything by Kelly Digges. I begin to question how much spotlight any relevant points of interest will have that's wasted on all this. Seeing Nissa become Pocahontas for two weeks is the highlight of this block.
I want a premium foil Arixmethes card mailed to my house with a apology letter from Mark Rosewater and Doug Beyer for these transgressions. JK but seriously, get with it.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
I remember that. I would've preferred random oneshot stories of other people on Zendikar conducting their own futile battles. Not only does that give us truer scope, but it allows for filler that's less egregious than Gideon finding a random Eldrazi every story to whip.
Your mods are terrified of me.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"