Some interesting implications for the story in that card.
I don't think so. I bet Huatli, Kumena, Angrath, and Vraska are getting Ascend cards, too. It could easily be a cycle.
Even that would be a twist by my perception, as most of the insinuations up until now indicated that one person would wield whatever Orazca has to offer. If it gives that blessing to everyone around it, I would be surprised (rightly or otherwise; I haven't paid as close attention to these stories as with other sets).
On-topic: I'm not sure whether or not to root for Vona if she decides to get payback against Huatli. On one hand, Vona is a savage, but on the other hand, Huatli is...Huatli.
There is always, they fight their way into triggering a trap and both get crushed by a giant boulder.
On-topic: I'm not sure whether or not to root for Vona if she decides to get payback against Huatli. On one hand, Vona is a savage, but on the other hand, Huatli is...Huatli.
There is always, they fight their way into triggering a trap and both get crushed by a giant boulder.
Yeah that's not happening, and it would be too anti-climactic for me.
Despite all the bad that comes with Vampires and their colonialism I still feel very loyal to my Orzhov faction in this block.
The Immortal Sun was ours once! It shall be again!!
Although as many have said, the Sun will likely be taken by planeswalkers anyways so...
If Vampires can't have the City, then I'm also okay with the Merfolk getting the place, provided that somebody kicks Kumena's sneaky, blue finned butt! I'm actually loving the Villiany of the guy, he's relate-able and detestable at the same time!
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Wizards. listen. The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
On-topic: I'm not sure whether or not to root for Vona if she decides to get payback against Huatli. On one hand, Vona is a savage, but on the other hand, Huatli is...Huatli.
There is always, they fight their way into triggering a trap and both get crushed by a giant boulder.
Yeah that's not happening, and it would be too anti-climactic for me.
I dunno, two minor and boring characters getting offed in a paragraph is quite climatic enough. It gives us more time for the interesting stuff.
On-topic: I'm not sure whether or not to root for Vona if she decides to get payback against Huatli. On one hand, Vona is a savage, but on the other hand, Huatli is...Huatli.
There is always, they fight their way into triggering a trap and both get crushed by a giant boulder.
Yeah that's not happening, and it would be too anti-climactic for me.
I dunno, two minor and boring characters getting offed in a paragraph is quite climatic enough. It gives us more time for the interesting stuff.
Vona isn't so much boring as she didn't have enough screentime to herself.
Also it being anticlimactic has nothing to do with how interesting the characters involved are, but has to do with how the event is built up to. If they just get trampled by a boulder out of nowhere, despite the story building them up (or at least Huatli) to be important, that is anti-climactic. Either of them going down swinging against Angrath/Kumena/Vraska/each other in Orazca in their effort to get at The Immortal Sun is climactic.
Please please stay away from Rome, destroy everything else but leave her be.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
Please please stay away from Rome, destroy everything else but leave her be.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
I very much doubt we’ll see Vona get revenge on Huatli. I’m a big fan of the stories magic puts out but these days we’ll never see a pw being killed or seriously injured by a non-pw character. (Chandra getting f-d up by Baral being a big exception).
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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"
Please please stay away from Rome, destroy everything else but leave her be.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
What's your point? Why does it even matter? Rome had way more ethnicities and cultures under their wing than many countries today or in their whole history. Can you name a culture at the time that was not xhenophobic and what this even means?
Please please stay away from Rome, destroy everything else but leave her be.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
What's your point? Why does it even matter? Rome had way more ethnicities and cultures under their wing than many countries today or in their whole history. Can you name a culture at the time that was not xhenophobic and what this even means?
The fact that they forged an empire that would last over a thousand years and become the basis of western civilization is considered a downside.
Please please stay away from Rome, destroy everything else but leave her be.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
What's your point? Why does it even matter? Rome had way more ethnicities and cultures under their wing than many countries today or in their whole history. Can you name a culture at the time that was not xhenophobic and what this even means?
It's a pretty simple point really, Paladin said that he believed Wizards wouldn't be able to respectfully depict the Romans therefore he did not wished to see a Roman plane, so i pointed out the fact that Rome was not a complex empire i did so by mentioning 3 of Rome's most important feats, than i mentioned why despite all of that Rome is not that hard to depict based on the fact that 1st: They were extremely xenophobic (im talking ISIS level here) to the point where they would go to a country simply to abolish it's religion(and that is a easy trope to follow you can see that with the vampires of Ixalan or the elves of Fyndhorn), 2nd: they thought they were better than everyone else, which is clearly seen in the fact that they could lesses civilization barbarians (civilizations who did not had a complex language system such as rome) or even slaves (many romans regarded the people of egypt as "slaves"). Again an easy trope to follow, and you can see some of it's traits in the Legion of Dusk (Ixalan), Nicol Bolas, Elves of Lorwyn.
TL:DR Rome did amazing things, but they were not a complex people, therefore they are pretty easy to depict in MTG.
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BWG
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
What's your point? Why does it even matter? Rome had way more ethnicities and cultures under their wing than many countries today or in their whole history. Can you name a culture at the time that was not xhenophobic and what this even means?
It's a pretty simple point really, Paladin said that he believed Wizards wouldn't be able to respectfully depict the Romans therefore he did not wished to see a Roman plane, so i pointed out the fact that Rome was not a complex empire i did so by mentioning 3 of Rome's most important feats, than i mentioned why despite all of that Rome is not that hard to depict based on the fact that 1st: They were extremely xenophobic (im talking ISIS level here) to the point where they would go to a country simply to abolish it's religion(and that is a easy trope to follow you can see that with the vampires of Ixalan or the elves of Fyndhorn), 2nd: they thought they were better than everyone else, which is clearly seen in the fact that they could lesses civilization barbarians (civilizations who did not had a complex language system such as rome) or even slaves (many romans regarded the people of egypt as "slaves"). Again an easy trope to follow, and you can see some of it's traits in the Legion of Dusk (Ixalan), Nicol Bolas, Elves of Lorwyn.
TL:DR Rome did amazing things, but they were not a complex people, therefore they are pretty easy to depict in MTG.
No they really werent xenophobic, they let conquered people lived as they pleased and worshiped as they pleased as long as they didnt revolt.
Gauls and other barbarians were integrated into the empire.
They had trade and peace deals with their neighbors.
Despite all the bad that comes with Vampires and their colonialism I still feel very loyal to my Orzhov faction in this block.
The Immortal Sun was ours once! It shall be again!!
Although as many have said, the Sun will likely be taken by planeswalkers anyways so...
If Vampires can't have the City, then I'm also okay with the Merfolk getting the place, provided that somebody kicks Kumena's sneaky, blue finned butt! I'm actually loving the Villiany of the guy, he's relate-able and detestable at the same time!
Those are always the best villains, IMO.
The ones where you as the reader can put yourself in their place and fully understand and appreciate HOW they got to where they are. Where you can look at the situation and say "Yes, in his/her place, I might have done those things as well." The ones who really make you think about their actions and their viewpoint instead of just being "evil fur teh lulz."
I think we have far too many of the latter in most forms of media, and not enough of the former.
It's a pretty simple point really, Paladin said that he believed Wizards wouldn't be able to respectfully depict the Romans therefore he did not wished to see a Roman plane, so i pointed out the fact that Rome was not a complex empire i did so by mentioning 3 of Rome's most important feats, than i mentioned why despite all of that Rome is not that hard to depict based on the fact that 1st: They were extremely xenophobic (im talking ISIS level here) to the point where they would go to a country simply to abolish it's religion(and that is a easy trope to follow you can see that with the vampires of Ixalan or the elves of Fyndhorn), 2nd: they thought they were better than everyone else, which is clearly seen in the fact that they could lesses civilization barbarians (civilizations who did not had a complex language system such as rome) or even slaves (many romans regarded the people of egypt as "slaves"). Again an easy trope to follow, and you can see some of it's traits in the Legion of Dusk (Ixalan), Nicol Bolas, Elves of Lorwyn.
TL:DR Rome did amazing things, but they were not a complex people, therefore they are pretty easy to depict in MTG.
Yeah I'm gonna go with you dont actually know a whole lot about Rome. Rome actually had a habit of absorbing gods of other cultures into their own pantheon. Now maybe you're coming from a Judeochristian perspective in which case I can understand how you might see it the way you do but you have to understand that to the Romans Jesus wasn't a religious figure. They heard king of the Jews and saw him as a political figure. But basically everywhere else Rome just wanted you to pay taxes and stay peaceful. I mean we're talking about a civilization that stretched from modern day Turkey to Spain. That in and of itself means that it CAN'T be a simple thing to depict. Hell even if we kept it to just Rome the city were talking incredible(for the time) advances in engineering, architecture, science, and art. And their political system is ridiculously deep. The Roman republic is the foundation of modern western civilization for a reason. As for thinking they're better than the rest of the world... well what expansionist empire doesn't? Hell most Americans still think that. They called groups like the Gauls and the Goths barbarians because that's what they sounded like to the Romans(barbabarbar).
Personlly I think the only thing standing between us and a Roman plane is the public view of its religious system. Popularly its a rip off of the Greek pantheon. But if the set focused on the political side of the empire I think it'd be really cool.
Vona isn't so much boring as she didn't have enough screentime to herself.
Vona is *atrociously* boring. She has appeared in two fictions, and has had about as much screentime as either Emperor Apatzec or Kumena--both of whom are far more interesting (Apatzec because he hints at being more than he first appears, and Kumena because he's simply a good villain -- coming back to that in a moment). With Vona, we have a cutout psychopath who lacks any scrap of the moral nuance the vampires are supposed to have, and her first real effort to present herself as a threat ended with her getting swatted aside by Huatli. Her role so far is to either say or do whatever happens to be most blandly evil at the moment; almost every sentence with her name in it serves just to drive home what a lunatic she is, a wanton whose only motivation is causing pain to chuckle at.
But it's not too late to save her character, of course. The writers could add a new dimension to her by perhaps:
--Giving her some sort of inferiority complex within the Legion, or
--Giving her one thing in her past or present that she feels awful about, and which she thinks securing the Immortal Sun will fix for her, or
--Some sort of inner conviction that she feels the Immortal Sun will help her realize, or
--Some other quality to show us *why* she matters and what her personal stake is, and makes us feel something about her at a human level. As it is, she's too bland (and frankly ridiculous) to even be loathsome.
If Vampires can't have the City, then I'm also okay with the Merfolk getting the place, provided that somebody kicks Kumena's sneaky, blue finned butt! I'm actually loving the Villiany of the guy, he's relate-able and detestable at the same time!
Those are always the best villains, IMO.
The ones where you as the reader can put yourself in their place and fully understand and appreciate HOW they got to where they are. Where you can look at the situation and say "Yes, in his/her place, I might have done those things as well." The ones who really make you think about their actions and their viewpoint instead of just being "evil fur teh lulz."
Here's a villain that I'm actually rooting for. And not because it would be fun to see him trounce the main cast (like Bolas), but because he's full of traits I actually admire. Kumena is willful, bold, and decisive. He takes the path that *he* believes is right, even if no one else stands with him. He's a merman of action, with personal ambition mixed in with a desire to serve the greater good. In his own mind, he's the hero of this story, the only one of his people willing to do what needs to be done.
Even if he ends up becoming more overtly evil as the story goes on, his character is still built on motivations I can understand and sympathize with.
Vona isn't so much boring as she didn't have enough screentime to herself.
Vona is *atrociously* boring. She has appeared in two fictions, and has had about as much screentime as either Emperor Apatzec or Kumena--both of whom are far more interesting (Apatzec because he hints at being more than he first appears, and Kumena because he's simply a good villain -- coming back to that in a moment). With Vona, we have a cutout psychopath who lacks any scrap of nuance the vampires are supposed to have, and her first real effort to present herself as a threat ended with her getting swatted aside by Huatli. Her role so far is to either say or do whatever happens to be most blandly evil at the moment. Almost every sentence with her name in it serves just to drive home what a cartoon lunatic she is, a wanton whose only motivation is causing pain to chuckle at.
But it's not too late to save her character, of course. The writers could add a new dimension to her by perhaps:
--Giving her some sort of inferiority complex within the Legion, or
--Giving her one thing in her past or present that she perhaps feels awful about, and which she thinks securing the Immortal Sun will solve for her, or
--Some sort of inner conviction that she feels the Immortal Sun will help her realize, or
--Some other quality to show us *why* she matters and what her personal stake is, and makes us *feel* something about her at a human level. As it is, she's too bland even to be loathsome.
That's a fair point, but I suppose I'm one of those people who believes that not every villain needs to have a deep or complex motive for what they do to be "interesting". Sometimes, they do what they do just because they like doing it, and that makes for some of the more dangerous villains in fiction as it's generally harder to convince them to reform. As long as this trope isn't overused, I have no issue with it.
I have a bigger problem with Huatli's execution, because Huatli just seems to go along with whatever she's told.
If I were in her place (I will be using first-person to illustrate this), I would be questioning why I had to go through so much trouble to become Warrior-Poet? Everyone else already thinks I am or treats me as such, and if my background is anything to go by, I have more than proven myself worthy of the title. So why this hassle? Why is the Emperor tasking me with this monumental quest that frankly has a ridiculously high chance of failure to get this title that the past Poets likely didn't have to do to obtain it? Is he just using me? I may be a knight, and I'm therefore used to being used like a tool, but is that all he sees me as after all this time of faithful servitude?
Maybe I'm being too harsh (especially because she's basically been brainwashed to be utterly devoted to the cause of the Sun Empire and its leader due to being a knight), but I feel they didn't put as much effort in making Huatli compelling as they have with Vraska or Jace. This is a problem I've seen with the native female walkers since Shadows over Innistrad. Arlinn was an interesting character IMO (don't get me wrong about that), but she didn't play any significant role in the actual plot of that block. Saheeli was eh, but Rashmi and Dovin Baan were far more crucial to what was happening, and more interesting to read about. Samut was actually important to Amonkhet's story, but Djeru was generally more interesting as an individual because of the huge internal conflict he had (the two working together was a neat little dynamic though IMO).
Kumena doesn't seem like a villain to me, his argument for taking the Sun is a pretty good one really, every faction that has taken possesion of the sun thus far has usedd it in very stupid ways, the River Heralds on the other hand, even though they didn't necessarily had the Sun they knew where it was, and yet they didn't use it unwisely like the other factions did, even if Kumena uses it to wipe out the Sun Empire or the Legion of Dusk, he would be doing Ixalan a favor, considering that if Huatli get's to the Sun, she will give it to her Emperor who let's face it, is probably going to use it just like the prior emperors.
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Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
Kumena doesn't seem like a villain to me, his argument for taking the Sun is a pretty good one really, every faction that has taken possesion of the sun thus far has usedd it in very stupid ways, the River Heralds on the other hand, even though they didn't necessarily had the Sun they knew where it was, and yet they didn't use it unwisely like the other factions did, even if Kumena uses it to wipe out the Sun Empire or the Legion of Dusk, he would be doing Ixalan a favor, considering that if Huatli get's to the Sun, she will give it to her Emperor who let's face it, is probably going to use it just like the prior emperors.
What makes Kumena a "villain" here isn't that his rationale isn't sound. It in fact is quite understandable. There have been quite a few villains in fiction who you could agree with in terms of their reasoning for why they do what they do.
The problem is that Kumena himself comes across as someone who would be tempted to abuse that power, and very likely would.
The only "ancient civilization" plane I remember that was actually destroyed was Amonkhet. Kamigawa and Theros are still very much thriving in the story.
I have zero faith in Wizards of the Coasts doing a respectful job of paying homage to Roman society.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
What's your point? Why does it even matter? Rome had way more ethnicities and cultures under their wing than many countries today or in their whole history. Can you name a culture at the time that was not xhenophobic and what this even means?
It's a pretty simple point really, Paladin said that he believed Wizards wouldn't be able to respectfully depict the Romans therefore he did not wished to see a Roman plane, so i pointed out the fact that Rome was not a complex empire i did so by mentioning 3 of Rome's most important feats, than i mentioned why despite all of that Rome is not that hard to depict based on the fact that 1st: They were extremely xenophobic (im talking ISIS level here) to the point where they would go to a country simply to abolish it's religion(and that is a easy trope to follow you can see that with the vampires of Ixalan or the elves of Fyndhorn), 2nd: they thought they were better than everyone else, which is clearly seen in the fact that they could lesses civilization barbarians (civilizations who did not had a complex language system such as rome) or even slaves (many romans regarded the people of egypt as "slaves"). Again an easy trope to follow, and you can see some of it's traits in the Legion of Dusk (Ixalan), Nicol Bolas, Elves of Lorwyn.
TL:DR Rome did amazing things, but they were not a complex people, therefore they are pretty easy to depict in MTG.
TLDR; You are an indoctrinated baboon that has no idea what he is talking about.
I want to see more of Mavren Fein in this set. Perhaps he and whatever group of soldiers he brought along would run into Vona. I really want to see how his more pious persona clashes with Vona's bloodthirst and likely blasphemy.
I hope Vona and Elenda (thats her name right?) run into each other, it will be interesting to see what Saint Elenda thinks about the new Legion of Dusk.
Also her interactions with Fein would be hilarious.
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Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
1. Azor is the Sphinx, was a walker and he created the Immortal Sun by imbuing it with his own spark, trapping himself on the plane in the process. It also turns out that the walker trap is the true purpose of the artifact, with the other things it can do being side benefits (which might explain why the other 3 abilities feel tacked on).
2. Jace gets his memories back, including his memories of Vryn (which finally opens the door for visiting that plane), and he explains the situation with Bolas to Vraska, particularly why letting him have any influence with Ravnica would be a terrible idea.
3. Vraska asks Jace to wipe her memories to prevent Bolas from learning what she's discovered after meeting Jace. She would then call up Tezzeret to take the Sun unfortunately.
4. Elenda is confirmed to be the vampire lady.
5. The giant cerberus Dino is named Zacama, Primal Calamity.
Even that would be a twist by my perception, as most of the insinuations up until now indicated that one person would wield whatever Orazca has to offer. If it gives that blessing to everyone around it, I would be surprised (rightly or otherwise; I haven't paid as close attention to these stories as with other sets).
There is always, they fight their way into triggering a trap and both get crushed by a giant boulder.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Yeah that's not happening, and it would be too anti-climactic for me.
The Immortal Sun was ours once! It shall be again!!
Although as many have said, the Sun will likely be taken by planeswalkers anyways so...
If Vampires can't have the City, then I'm also okay with the Merfolk getting the place, provided that somebody kicks Kumena's sneaky, blue finned butt! I'm actually loving the Villiany of the guy, he's relate-able and detestable at the same time!
The Vorthos community will await the consequences of the Eldrazi Titans' deaths/sealing. We will keep the watch.
“The wind whispers, ‘come home,’ but I cannot.”
— Teferi
I dunno, two minor and boring characters getting offed in a paragraph is quite climatic enough. It gives us more time for the interesting stuff.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Vona isn't so much boring as she didn't have enough screentime to herself.
Also it being anticlimactic has nothing to do with how interesting the characters involved are, but has to do with how the event is built up to. If they just get trampled by a boulder out of nowhere, despite the story building them up (or at least Huatli) to be important, that is anti-climactic. Either of them going down swinging against Angrath/Kumena/Vraska/each other in Orazca in their effort to get at The Immortal Sun is climactic.
It isn't really that hard, Romans did a lot of good things, specially in the art, architecture and political departaments, but other than that, they were basically xenophobic people who thought they were better than everyone else.
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
And there it is.
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"
What's your point? Why does it even matter? Rome had way more ethnicities and cultures under their wing than many countries today or in their whole history. Can you name a culture at the time that was not xhenophobic and what this even means?
The fact that they forged an empire that would last over a thousand years and become the basis of western civilization is considered a downside.
It's a pretty simple point really, Paladin said that he believed Wizards wouldn't be able to respectfully depict the Romans therefore he did not wished to see a Roman plane, so i pointed out the fact that Rome was not a complex empire i did so by mentioning 3 of Rome's most important feats, than i mentioned why despite all of that Rome is not that hard to depict based on the fact that 1st: They were extremely xenophobic (im talking ISIS level here) to the point where they would go to a country simply to abolish it's religion(and that is a easy trope to follow you can see that with the vampires of Ixalan or the elves of Fyndhorn), 2nd: they thought they were better than everyone else, which is clearly seen in the fact that they could lesses civilization barbarians (civilizations who did not had a complex language system such as rome) or even slaves (many romans regarded the people of egypt as "slaves"). Again an easy trope to follow, and you can see some of it's traits in the Legion of Dusk (Ixalan), Nicol Bolas, Elves of Lorwyn.
TL:DR Rome did amazing things, but they were not a complex people, therefore they are pretty easy to depict in MTG.
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
No they really werent xenophobic, they let conquered people lived as they pleased and worshiped as they pleased as long as they didnt revolt.
Gauls and other barbarians were integrated into the empire.
They had trade and peace deals with their neighbors.
Those are always the best villains, IMO.
The ones where you as the reader can put yourself in their place and fully understand and appreciate HOW they got to where they are. Where you can look at the situation and say "Yes, in his/her place, I might have done those things as well." The ones who really make you think about their actions and their viewpoint instead of just being "evil fur teh lulz."
I think we have far too many of the latter in most forms of media, and not enough of the former.
Yeah I'm gonna go with you dont actually know a whole lot about Rome. Rome actually had a habit of absorbing gods of other cultures into their own pantheon. Now maybe you're coming from a Judeochristian perspective in which case I can understand how you might see it the way you do but you have to understand that to the Romans Jesus wasn't a religious figure. They heard king of the Jews and saw him as a political figure. But basically everywhere else Rome just wanted you to pay taxes and stay peaceful. I mean we're talking about a civilization that stretched from modern day Turkey to Spain. That in and of itself means that it CAN'T be a simple thing to depict. Hell even if we kept it to just Rome the city were talking incredible(for the time) advances in engineering, architecture, science, and art. And their political system is ridiculously deep. The Roman republic is the foundation of modern western civilization for a reason. As for thinking they're better than the rest of the world... well what expansionist empire doesn't? Hell most Americans still think that. They called groups like the Gauls and the Goths barbarians because that's what they sounded like to the Romans(barbabarbar).
Personlly I think the only thing standing between us and a Roman plane is the public view of its religious system. Popularly its a rip off of the Greek pantheon. But if the set focused on the political side of the empire I think it'd be really cool.
Vona is *atrociously* boring. She has appeared in two fictions, and has had about as much screentime as either Emperor Apatzec or Kumena--both of whom are far more interesting (Apatzec because he hints at being more than he first appears, and Kumena because he's simply a good villain -- coming back to that in a moment). With Vona, we have a cutout psychopath who lacks any scrap of the moral nuance the vampires are supposed to have, and her first real effort to present herself as a threat ended with her getting swatted aside by Huatli. Her role so far is to either say or do whatever happens to be most blandly evil at the moment; almost every sentence with her name in it serves just to drive home what a lunatic she is, a wanton whose only motivation is causing pain to chuckle at.
But it's not too late to save her character, of course. The writers could add a new dimension to her by perhaps:
--Giving her some sort of inferiority complex within the Legion, or
--Giving her one thing in her past or present that she feels awful about, and which she thinks securing the Immortal Sun will fix for her, or
--Some sort of inner conviction that she feels the Immortal Sun will help her realize, or
--Some other quality to show us *why* she matters and what her personal stake is, and makes us feel something about her at a human level. As it is, she's too bland (and frankly ridiculous) to even be loathsome.
Here's a villain that I'm actually rooting for. And not because it would be fun to see him trounce the main cast (like Bolas), but because he's full of traits I actually admire. Kumena is willful, bold, and decisive. He takes the path that *he* believes is right, even if no one else stands with him. He's a merman of action, with personal ambition mixed in with a desire to serve the greater good. In his own mind, he's the hero of this story, the only one of his people willing to do what needs to be done.
Even if he ends up becoming more overtly evil as the story goes on, his character is still built on motivations I can understand and sympathize with.
That's a fair point, but I suppose I'm one of those people who believes that not every villain needs to have a deep or complex motive for what they do to be "interesting". Sometimes, they do what they do just because they like doing it, and that makes for some of the more dangerous villains in fiction as it's generally harder to convince them to reform. As long as this trope isn't overused, I have no issue with it.
I have a bigger problem with Huatli's execution, because Huatli just seems to go along with whatever she's told.
If I were in her place (I will be using first-person to illustrate this), I would be questioning why I had to go through so much trouble to become Warrior-Poet? Everyone else already thinks I am or treats me as such, and if my background is anything to go by, I have more than proven myself worthy of the title. So why this hassle? Why is the Emperor tasking me with this monumental quest that frankly has a ridiculously high chance of failure to get this title that the past Poets likely didn't have to do to obtain it? Is he just using me? I may be a knight, and I'm therefore used to being used like a tool, but is that all he sees me as after all this time of faithful servitude?
Maybe I'm being too harsh (especially because she's basically been brainwashed to be utterly devoted to the cause of the Sun Empire and its leader due to being a knight), but I feel they didn't put as much effort in making Huatli compelling as they have with Vraska or Jace. This is a problem I've seen with the native female walkers since Shadows over Innistrad. Arlinn was an interesting character IMO (don't get me wrong about that), but she didn't play any significant role in the actual plot of that block. Saheeli was eh, but Rashmi and Dovin Baan were far more crucial to what was happening, and more interesting to read about. Samut was actually important to Amonkhet's story, but Djeru was generally more interesting as an individual because of the huge internal conflict he had (the two working together was a neat little dynamic though IMO).
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
What makes Kumena a "villain" here isn't that his rationale isn't sound. It in fact is quite understandable. There have been quite a few villains in fiction who you could agree with in terms of their reasoning for why they do what they do.
The problem is that Kumena himself comes across as someone who would be tempted to abuse that power, and very likely would.
TLDR; You are an indoctrinated baboon that has no idea what he is talking about.
TerribleBad at Magic since 1998.A Vorthos Guide to Magic Story | Twitter | Tumblr
[Primer] Krenko | Azor | Kess | Zacama | Kumena | Sram | The Ur-Dragon | Edgar Markov | Daretti | Marath
Also her interactions with Fein would be hilarious.
Art student, EDH lover and a strong believer that Delver has the best design in all of MTG.
Parts of the Ixalan art book.
Some key points:
1. Azor is the Sphinx, was a walker and he created the Immortal Sun by imbuing it with his own spark, trapping himself on the plane in the process. It also turns out that the walker trap is the true purpose of the artifact, with the other things it can do being side benefits (which might explain why the other 3 abilities feel tacked on).
2. Jace gets his memories back, including his memories of Vryn (which finally opens the door for visiting that plane), and he explains the situation with Bolas to Vraska, particularly why letting him have any influence with Ravnica would be a terrible idea.
3. Vraska asks Jace to wipe her memories to prevent Bolas from learning what she's discovered after meeting Jace. She would then call up Tezzeret to take the Sun unfortunately.
4. Elenda is confirmed to be the vampire lady.
5. The giant cerberus Dino is named Zacama, Primal Calamity.