I dunno, this flatness/stoicness to his character and being all Justice-y but with hints of caring and not being too much like a stereotypical stern MTG Angel gets my attention to him, he reminds me of Thor. (Add to that that beyond Garruk and Koth, who are currently in Neowalker Limbo, he is the most built and has some meat shown here and there.)
Can we please get some shirtless Gideon though. And a little waist? I like my men objectified and I am not even playing.
As much as I want this SO MUCH (heck, even just with his full arms shown, ala young-Gideon's art) with them covering up Garruk and Liliana actually not showing cleavage this set? (And she was always my counter argument for this, if they can objectify Liliana, then they should objectify a male neowalker too!) I think the objectification is being pushed to legends or random creatures nowadays. I think someone in WOTC is CHRIS CROCKERing the Neowalker arts at the moment, because they have built up this reputation that they are on an art direction where they're moving away from blatant objectification.
wtf does Heiromancy even mean? What does Law Magic do? Can he rewrite the laws of reality? get legislation passed in office in meer days?
You know what, this got me thinking too... For the most part, he's just Superman-ing his way in battles he's been featured in. Going by Salvation's wiki's description of Heiromancy... has he shown to surpress abilities of others and stuff? Or has Hieromancy's description changed post-Origins retcon?
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Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
I'm not really attracted to men, so I can't speak to whether he's "eye candy" or not, but I do find him to be the least interesting member of the Gatewatch. I don't find him particularly compelling, since there's not much to his character beyond simply being a generic warrior hero. He's just too much of a pure good guy. Jace, Nissa, Chandra, and especially Liliana all have shades of grey to them, they've all done questionable things in the past and they all display some degree of selfishness at times (or most of the time, in Lili's case). I think that makes for more intriguing, well-rounded, and three-dimensional characters than someone like Gideon who has no real flaws.
Someone compared him to Thor from the Marvel movies, but there's more to Thor's character than just being a warrior and a superhero. He can be arrogant and overly impulsive, he has a bad habit of attacking first and asking questions later, he's conflicted about how to deal with his overbearing father and his treacherous brother, he's not particularly adaptable when faced with new and unexpected situations. Gideon has none of those problems, which is why he feels like much less of a character.
You know what, this got me thinking too... For the most part, he's just Superman-ing his way in battles he's been featured in. Going by Salvation's wiki's description of Heiromancy... has he shown to surpress abilities of others and stuff? Or has Hieromancy's description changed post-Origins retcon?
Hieromancy basically boils down to manipulating order as a concept, which is surprisingly useful for supression and detainment. This is actually acknowledged in the Magic Origins tale, where Hixus goes a bit about how universal a concept it is.
For the most part, however, Gideon in modern Magic does NOT make use of hieromancy, he just flashes his sural and is invincible.
The problem is we don't get enough interaction with him. He has little dialog and frankly the BFZ story, which was horrible on so many levels for the most part (with notable exceptions) deflated any potential that Magic Origins built up for him as a character. He literally was represented as: boring muscle man whips sural back and forth.
The scene of him whipping sural back and forth to hold back Ulamog was perhaps the lowest point in storytelling Magic has ever experienced. Ever.
This would bee a true superpower. It would actually accomplish the impossible.
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Vorthos Cartography - Check out my completed maps of Zendikar and Innistrad!
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
I really want him to be more than just the dedicated hunk of the group. Was so disappointing seeing the others doing epic stuff to kill the Titans while he was flailing around his shiny weapon. Even the art for Fall of the Titans couldn't make him look good :/
Like, I don't know, give him some awesome shield power like White's spell shields, a way to shield others too instead of only himself or something.
Gideon is a character with a lot of potential, but they're not really doing anything with him. He had a really interesting characterization in the Purifying Fire, and we left him in that book as he was conflicted with the concept of what is 'lawful' not always being 'good', and meeting Chandra had altered his perception of the world and its' values. And then this is never brought up again. It ends up feeling almost like Creative hasn't even read The Purifying Fire, there are so few elements of that Gideon in the Gideon we have here.
And then in the story leading into BFZ, we saw that he had a hero complex to a dangerously self-destructive degree, and he was literally working himself to death trying to save two worlds by himself. That's compelling, and a really interesting character flaw. And then all traces of that vanished too.
He just exists to be a leader and a rallying point, but a lot of the reason for that is just us being told by other characters that he is. I haven't been convinced yet, though the Gideon we saw in the aforementioned two stories could definitely provide a reason to follow him.
Gideon and Nissa are the Gatewatch characters with the least depth, and I hope that changes soon, though I'm not optimistic. BFZ was more about them than the other two Gatewatch members that were present, and we got jack in terms of character development from them there. Eldritch Moon did a world of good for Jace and Liliana's characters, so hopefully another set does for Gideon what EMN did for Jace/Liliana.
To address every topic in the thread logically:
I don't think Gideon is an interesting character, but I do agree that he could be with a little effort.
Gideon is definitely veryverygoodlooking but not nearly as much as Venser *heartbeat quickens*
However, I tend to like Gideon's PW cards regardless of how good they are, I think the creaturewalker mechanic is a fun one
As much as I want this SO MUCH (heck, even just with his full arms shown, ala young-Gideon's art) with them covering up Garruk and Liliana actually not showing cleavage this set? (And she was always my counter argument for this, if they can objectify Liliana, then they should objectify a male neowalker too!) I think the objectification is being pushed to legends or random creatures nowadays. I think someone in WOTC is CHRIS CROCKERing the Neowalker arts at the moment, because they have built up this reputation that they are on an art direction where they're moving away from blatant objectification.
You know what, this got me thinking too... For the most part, he's just Superman-ing his way in battles he's been featured in. Going by Salvation's wiki's description of Heiromancy... has he shown to surpress abilities of others and stuff? Or has Hieromancy's description changed post-Origins retcon?
Serra Stan - Angel Enthusiast - Garruk and Tyvar thirsty follower - Flavor and Art Enthusiast
Someone compared him to Thor from the Marvel movies, but there's more to Thor's character than just being a warrior and a superhero. He can be arrogant and overly impulsive, he has a bad habit of attacking first and asking questions later, he's conflicted about how to deal with his overbearing father and his treacherous brother, he's not particularly adaptable when faced with new and unexpected situations. Gideon has none of those problems, which is why he feels like much less of a character.
Hieromancy basically boils down to manipulating order as a concept, which is surprisingly useful for supression and detainment. This is actually acknowledged in the Magic Origins tale, where Hixus goes a bit about how universal a concept it is.
For the most part, however, Gideon in modern Magic does NOT make use of hieromancy, he just flashes his sural and is invincible.
The scene of him whipping sural back and forth to hold back Ulamog was perhaps the lowest point in storytelling Magic has ever experienced. Ever.
|| 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 ||
This would bee a true superpower. It would actually accomplish the impossible.
"You say 'learn from history,' but that does not mean 'learn the same bull***** the people in history learned alongside phrenology and alchemy.'" - The Blinking Spirit
They seem to have transitioned him from "place restriction on others" to "organize groups to be more effective".
so, he's really good at project management?
Like, I don't know, give him some awesome shield power like White's spell shields, a way to shield others too instead of only himself or something.
And then in the story leading into BFZ, we saw that he had a hero complex to a dangerously self-destructive degree, and he was literally working himself to death trying to save two worlds by himself. That's compelling, and a really interesting character flaw. And then all traces of that vanished too.
He just exists to be a leader and a rallying point, but a lot of the reason for that is just us being told by other characters that he is. I haven't been convinced yet, though the Gideon we saw in the aforementioned two stories could definitely provide a reason to follow him.
Gideon and Nissa are the Gatewatch characters with the least depth, and I hope that changes soon, though I'm not optimistic. BFZ was more about them than the other two Gatewatch members that were present, and we got jack in terms of character development from them there. Eldritch Moon did a world of good for Jace and Liliana's characters, so hopefully another set does for Gideon what EMN did for Jace/Liliana.
I don't think Gideon is an interesting character, but I do agree that he could be with a little effort.
Gideon is definitely veryverygoodlooking but not nearly as much as Venser *heartbeat quickens*
However, I tend to like Gideon's PW cards regardless of how good they are, I think the creaturewalker mechanic is a fun one
Art is life itself.
It's not so much a "human concept" as a natural force, in the context of hieromancy.