I think you guys are making the mistake of trying to argue continuity where they never intended any.
That's an incredibly poor excuse. They may well have intended the original Ravnica block as a one off, fine, but that has no bearing whatsoever on what came after. Getting rid of the ghost quarter because of the mending or whatever wasn't necessary, it was a decision based off of them wanting to clean up the plane and have less going. That's fine, but that means the way they decided to deal with it was entirely within their control and they could have picked a way that had fewer inconsistencies (or they could have just left the ghost quarter in).
After the original block, when they decided they were coming back to Ravnica, it was abundantly clear that they intended there to be a continuity. The entire point of the mending was to set it up so that we could follow the neo walkers around on adventures in a serial format rather than just jumping from plane to unrelated plane. Continuity was intended, and they new this when the PW novels featuring Ravnica were being written, when we returned to Ravnica the first time, and now. They screwed up the continuity because they had some bad ideas that didn't work out along the way and either actively retconned them or hand waved them away.
The whole point of a continuing story is that there is continuity. If they weren't concerned about continuity, they should have stuck to doing blocks with their own self contained stories.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
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The handling of Jarad and Feather character was completely a failure imho.
I complained about Azor before, but at least i can see why they did that character the way they did.
The butchering of Feather was completely unecessary. They had to put in this gateless thing, which was pretty dumb and ended with nothing happening because suddenly the set after is all about the maze.
So you had to introduce a tyrant guil leader for nothing... what do you do? You retcon her to be more like Feather. Suddenly Aurelia is nice and Tajic is the totalitarian/xenophobic/whatever dude.... why?
Jarad butchering was a little more necessary but still sad. I hope they'll introduce the character of Mic to "avenge" his father.
Do we know if Jarad is actually dead dead, or just run off? Not all the sisters of stone death died, and we still don't know what went down between Vraska waking up zombies with the Kraul and Vraska running the guild with the Devkarin still on top otherwise, and it really doesn't seem like a real war was fought for control.
Tajic becoming more zealous actually makes sense. He was screwed over by the Orzhov cheating the guildpact. It makes sense for him to lose faith in an institution that failed him and that he saw fail firsthand. He values order and justice, and learned that the Obzedat, who are essentially the antithesis of justice, have been able to get around it for thousands of years. Instead, he looks at his own guild and decides that it's the only thing that can bring justice to the plane. He's seen law magic fail, and so puts his faith in the force of the legion to force the other guilds to comply.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
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Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
I can get why Tajic become more zealous, what i don't get is why Aurelia become more soft, since not being soft was the point of all her character
She hasn't gotten soft, she just questioned her own war-oriented motives after the whole Maze-situation and her interactions with Gideon (he did criticize her mostly in flavor texts as far as I remember, but most likely his actions moved her more than his criticisms anyway). You might say that's not an explanation, but I could see her slowly coming around and realizing that it's more important to help the people instead of making their lifes worse through constant warfare. But that's just my opinion.
I can get why Tajic become more zealous, what i don't get is why Aurelia become more soft, since not being soft was the point of all her character
She hasn't gotten soft, she just questioned her own war-oriented motives after the whole Maze-situation and her interactions with Gideon (he did criticize her mostly in flavor texts as far as I remember, but most likely his actions moved her more than his criticisms anyway). You might say that's not an explanation, but I could see her slowly coming around and realizing that it's more important to help the people instead of making their lifes worse through constant warfare. But that's just my opinion.
This. Though, as others have said, that does kind of defeat the purpose of getting rid of Feather and replacing her with Aurelia. Aurelia's entire character arc from zealous crusader angel to reasonable protector of the innocent might as well be Feather but with less of a sense of humor has happened entirely off screen and served no narrative purpose. It seems like there was a narrative thread that they were going to follow that involved Aurelia's extremism and the Gateless being at odds, as seen through the way Gideon interacted with the guild, that required dumping Feather for Aurelia, and that thread has been abandoned for one that requires Aurelia to be Feather and would have been more satisfying with Feather. It appears sloppy and lazy in equal measure, which jives with exactly what we know about the story team from that era. In my view, while there are problems with the current story, almost all of them are rooted in the mistakes made by creative years ago. The only thing that I have a problem with on this trip to Ravnica is Jarad getting pushed aside off screen, and even then I understand why he was pushed aside and acknowledge that they had a legitimate narrative reason for doing so, I just think it was handled poorly. The Feather situation, the RTR storyline, the fallen second Guildpact, the flanderization of guilds, all that crap was set 6 years ago (or more likely 7, as they work on the story ahead of time).
The problems with the Bolas storyline mostly resulted from how poorly it was handled from Alara until a couple years ago, in which he had a confusing plan that pretty much just seemed like trolling the multiverse. As of right now, the only things he has done of significance since Alara ended that actually makes sense as a way to forward his goals are 1) stealing the planar bridge and 2) Amonkhet and 3) stealin the immortal sun, and those are all really recent happenings. The Eldrazi and messing around on New Phyrexia still seem kinda dumb, and until he pulls them out to trump the Gatewatch on Ravnica ("lol, I secretly absorbed Ulamog and Kozilek, thanks for helping me noobs", or "let me win or I press this button and New Phyrexia get the planar bridge) then they remain dumb flailing.
Honestly, I thought that the story was pretty much garbage from Alara on and didn't start to improve until Innistrad 2.0. It has indeed improved significantly in my eyes, with Ixalan being a set back in terms of telling the world's story while being a step forward in telling the walkers story, and Dominaria suffering from being cut from 2 sets to 1, yet still being significantly better cut in half than BFZ was being cut by a 3rd (and still seeming way too long).
Alara: sucked, but it wasn't the author's fault. He had literally never written a book before and had no training at all as a writer, and was tasked with condensing what should have been three books worth of material into one short book. The fact that he turned out something half competent is something he should be proud of, and I give him props for dealing with an impossible situation.
Zendikar: Sucked worse than Alara, and the author was a professional so he had no excuse.
The Planeswalker novels: Purifying Fire was good and the Secretist was passable, though the latter screwed with Ravnica enough to be a problem. Test of Metal is best forgotten.
Quest for Karn: Hot garbage poorly written that messed with canon in very bad ways. It wasn't worth the retcon to make this tripe possible.
Innistrad: N/A. The story, such as it was, was world building told through gimmicks that ended up being kind of cool. Liliana came, cursed Garruk more, and released all the demons and Avacyn so she could kill Grisle Bristle. It was basically the spark notes of a story that got canceled (not a joke).
RTR: A stupid story full of poor narrative choices and stupid retcons, told with enough competence to make it not total garbage to read, but total garbage in what it did to the story of the plane.
Theros: Ok, the high point of this era of story telling when it comes to the featured stories. Enjoyable enough and doesn't screw up things.
Khans of Tarkir: Really cool in the Khans era, really crappy otherwise. Magic was one of the few properties that handled time travel well, and they threw that away to tell a bad time travel story. The only thing worthwhile after the first set was Khanfall. Also, retconning Elder Dragons in the laziest possible way, then openly admitting it was a lazy attempt to generate excitement, which was doubly stupid because it was an opportunity to expand on the lore of Elder Dragons and actually give an explanation for how the 5 Tarkir Dragonlords ascended to Elder status that would have been satisfying, rather than saying "just cause lol" (they finally got around to righting this in M19 btw, by showing the original Elders be born in a similar magical way to the Tarkir Dragons).
BFZ: Nissa is aimless and Gideon whips his sural back and forth. Tazri gets one really good story, every thing else is super dumb and super tedious.
Innistrad 2: Part 1 was a competently cobbled together detective story that was born out of the change in block structure. Part two was the only story involving the Eldrazi to actually be worthwhile and make me not hate the Eldrazi.
Kaladesh: Wherein they both world build well and create an interesting and well done story that doesn't require the world to be ending and uses its retcons sparingly and smartly. The main cast is the most tolerable to enjoyable they've ever been, there are some neat local characters, and it moves the over arching plot forward in a satisfying way.
Amonkhet: Bolas being Bolas in a satisfying way for the first time since the 90's, a cool apocalypse well executed, a cool world, gate watch was ok and got what was coming to them for their stupid plan. Well done.
Ixalan and Dominaria were mixed bags, the latter paying for the change in block structure but doing a better job than BFZ or Innistrad 2. M19 was quite satisfying. It retconned a poorly attested era in a way that wasn't totally satisfying but added some neat details, and acquitted itself well. Might as well say Vivian's story didn't happen because it doesn't matter.
This Ravnica: Pretty swell so far, everything wrong with it is sins of the past.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
The handling of Jarad and Feather character was completely a failure imho.
I complained about Azor before, but at least i can see why they did that character the way they did.
The butchering of Feather was completely unecessary. They had to put in this gateless thing, which was pretty dumb and ended with nothing happening because suddenly the set after is all about the maze.
So you had to introduce a tyrant guil leader for nothing... what do you do? You retcon her to be more like Feather. Suddenly Aurelia is nice and Tajic is the totalitarian/xenophobic/whatever dude.... why?
Jarad butchering was a little more necessary but still sad. I hope they'll introduce the character of Mic to "avenge" his father.
Do we know if Jarad is actually dead dead, or just run off? Not all the sisters of stone death died, and we still don't know what went down between Vraska waking up zombies with the Kraul and Vraska running the guild with the Devkarin still on top otherwise, and it really doesn't seem like a real war was fought for control.
We have yet to see a body. And now a days for a major characters deaths (Avacyn, the eldrzi titans, Amonkhet gods, Isperia) they like to have a card(s) showing it so makes me wonder on what his status is, unless Vraska, Golgari Queen is counted.
Theory time; Maybe since Vraska is poetic instead of killing Jared she imprisoned him someone (somewhere deep and in the dark in a similar way she and the other gorgons where treated and only as a head ala Svogthir) and thus could come back for Ravnica 4.
Khans of Tarkir: Really cool in the Khans era, really crappy otherwise. Magic was one of the few properties that handled time travel well, and they threw that away to tell a bad time travel story. The only thing worthwhile after the first set was Khanfall. Also, retconning Elder Dragons in the laziest possible way, then openly admitting it was a lazy attempt to generate excitement, which was doubly stupid because it was an opportunity to expand on the lore of Elder Dragons and actually give an explanation for how the 5 Tarkir Dragonlords ascended to Elder status that would have been satisfying, rather than saying "just cause lol" (they finally got around to righting this in M19 btw, by showing the original Elders be born in a similar magical way to the Tarkir Dragons).
During Ixalan they explained Elders a bit better. An Elder creature, now, isn't just old but also has a connection to the primal essence of their lesser kin as well as seeming being a blue print for what those lesser kin will be like.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Alara: sucked, but it wasn't the author's fault. He had literally never written a book before and had no training at all as a writer, and was tasked with condensing what should have been three books worth of material into one short book. The fact that he turned out something half competent is something he should be proud of, and I give him props for dealing with an impossible situation.
Here's what I'll give the Alara book, though: the highlight of the novel was Bolas's speech to Ajani at the end, which made the whole novel 100% worth it just to get to that part. I don't think I've ever, in all my years of reading, encountered such spectacular, delightfully evil villainous boasting--not even in Hour of Devastation. I remember laughing and then going back to read those passages out loud, just to experience how deliciously, theatrically wicked they felt on my tongue.
Edit: Here's Bolas's speech, in all its scenery-chewing glory, while he curbstomps Ajani in the Maelstrom:
"What now? What's the next link in this chain, little walker? Will you get your revenge? Will you--kill me? Put your dead brother's axe in my guts, and wiggle the handle till I'm dead? Stop me from fulfilling my goals here on your beloved worlds? And after that, what, march home a champion? I'm sorry; I don't mean to be flip. It is very important to you, I know. But you can't see. You can't see how painfully trite you are. There will be no pathos in your death, Ajani Goldmane, no grand nobility. Only the shabby banality of a thousand indistinguishable upstarts."
With that, Bolas flicked his claw and blasted Ajani back with the force of a meteor. Ajani slammed backward into the slope of the gorge and slumped limp.
"I've lived hundreds of your lifetimes," continued Bolas. "I've survived more apocalypses than you've had chest colds. I've experienced more of this cosmos than any being there has ever been. And you think you're going to stand in my way, matchstick? You think you're the one to finally take me down? I can tell you now, if Nicol Bolas is to fall, it won't be because of the likes of you."
Ajani elbowed his way off his back into a sitting position. With his weight on one arm and blood dripping from his mouth, he spoke. "For being so old, you throw a tantrum like a child."
Bolas snarled and snapped his arm back in the other direction. Ajani flew bodily across the gorge, slamming sideways into the ground again.
Ajani groaned and coughed blood onto the walls of the gorge. He searched his mouth with his tongue and felt two teeth loose, but clenched them into place with his jaw.
Bolas approached. "Again, you're centuries too late to play the insolent, devil-may-care hero. It's been done far too many times, and by better beings than you. It's played out. You don't have a million-to-one chance, little walker. This isn't your once-in-a-lifetime shot at the hero's triumph. This is you, flyswatted."
Alara: sucked, but it wasn't the author's fault. He had literally never written a book before and had no training at all as a writer, and was tasked with condensing what should have been three books worth of material into one short book. The fact that he turned out something half competent is something he should be proud of, and I give him props for dealing with an impossible situation.
Here's what I'll give the Alara book, though: the highlight of the novel was Bolas's speech to Ajani at the end, which made the whole novel 100% worth it just to get to that part. I don't think I've ever, in all my years of reading, encountered such spectacular, delightfully evil villainous boasting--not even in Hour of Devastation. I remember laughing and then going back to read those passages out loud, just to experience how deliciously, theatrically wicked they felt on my tongue.
Edit: Here's Bolas's speech, in all its scenery-chewing glory, while he curbstomps Ajani in the Maelstrom:
"What now? What's the next link in this chain, little walker? Will you get your revenge? Will you--kill me? Put your dead brother's axe in my guts, and wiggle the handle till I'm dead? Stop me from fulfilling my goals here on your beloved worlds? And after that, what, march home a champion? I'm sorry; I don't mean to be flip. It is very important to you, I know. But you can't see. You can't see how painfully trite you are. There will be no pathos in your death, Ajani Goldmane, no grand nobility. Only the shabby banality of a thousand indistinguishable upstarts."
With that, Bolas flicked his claw and blasted Ajani back with the force of a meteor. Ajani slammed backward into the slope of the gorge and slumped limp.
"I've lived hundreds of your lifetimes," continued Bolas. "I've survived more apocalypses than you've had chest colds. I've experienced more of this cosmos than any being there has ever been. And you think you're going to stand in my way, matchstick? You think you're the one to finally take me down? I can tell you now, if Nicol Bolas is to fall, it won't be because of the likes of you."
Ajani elbowed his way off his back into a sitting position. With his weight on one arm and blood dripping from his mouth, he spoke. "For being so old, you throw a tantrum like a child."
Bolas snarled and snapped his arm back in the other direction. Ajani flew bodily across the gorge, slamming sideways into the ground again.
Ajani groaned and coughed blood onto the walls of the gorge. He searched his mouth with his tongue and felt two teeth loose, but clenched them into place with his jaw.
Bolas approached. "Again, you're centuries too late to play the insolent, devil-may-care hero. It's been done far too many times, and by better beings than you. It's played out. You don't have a million-to-one chance, little walker. This isn't your once-in-a-lifetime shot at the hero's triumph. This is you, flyswatted."
That's a prime example of what I mean. It's cringe worthy from a technical perspective, but it captures the essence of Bolas fantastically. It's so cheesey and over the top, so magnificently campy. This isnt just an immortal villainous Mastermind dragon, it's a drunk Jeremy Irons playing a drag queen playing an immortal villainous Mastermind dragon.
He called Ajani a matchstick. He's at such a high level of monologuing he doesn't even care if his insults make sense.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
He called Ajani a matchstick. He's at such a high level of monologuing he doesn't even care if his insults make sense.
He’s small, fragile, and burns only for a moment, oh and he has a big fluffy mane. From the perspective of Bolas the only person more apt to be called matchstick is Chandra.
He called Ajani a matchstick. He's at such a high level of monologuing he doesn't even care if his insults make sense.
He’s small, fragile, and burns only for a moment, oh and he has a big fluffy mane. From the perspective of Bolas the only person more apt to be called matchstick is Chandra.
Its still just so odd, so out of left field. That's actually what makes it work, it's like Ajani is so. insignificant to him that he doesn't even warrant the top shelf insults. It's like Bolas is trying out some new material to see if it works, or throwing out just anything off the cuff because he wants to save up the good stuff for someone a little more challenging. "This is you, flyswatted" is so clunky and out of place that he's really saying "you aren't even worth the effort of a proper insult before I kill you"
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Reminds me of Webcomic where the Big Bad also likes to monologue and he makes a bad joke during a monologue and lampshades it by saying has to save the good material for the PCs (Player Characters). So seems similar for Bolas got to save the good material for noteworthy threats.
My hope is that Rakdos will Have Tibalt. Not an unusable one, a good one. He seems to be right up Rakdos's alley and we dont know where he is. (At least I don't)
My hope is that Rakdos will Have Tibalt. Not an unusable one, a good one. He seems to be right up Rakdos's alley and we dont know where he is. (At least I don't)
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The question is in which direction will she steer the guild? Unlike Dovin Baan she does not seem to fit into the guild she is taking over.
"Kaya is a firm believer that life is for the living. The living should make the most of their lives and pursue what they want while they've still got time, and find their own peace before death. If you die with unfinished business, well, that's probably your fault. And if it's not...perhaps she could help you...for a price." - From the Mothership
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Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
The question is in which direction will she steer the guild? Unlike Dovin Baan she does not seem to fit into the guild she is taking over.
"Kaya is a firm believer that life is for the living. The living should make the most of their lives and pursue what they want while they've still got time, and find their own peace before death. If you die with unfinished business, well, that's probably your fault. And if it's not...perhaps she could help you...for a price." - From the Mothership
I think Bolas just paid her to get rid of the Ghost Council (which fits her perfectly), then take over. She does seem to like money (even if she has to do morally questionable stuff to get it), and the Orzhov guild in the end is all about gathering as much money and power as possible via any means necessary. So I do see her fitting nicely... after a small change in the guilds leadership.
Well, the Orzhov is pretty directly intertwined with spirits, both in leadership and, as Nicky Drayden's Selesnya story showed, in labor. Bolas might not have had to say more than: "There's a powerful group on this plane that keeps tons of spirits tied to the realm of the living, and has a system in place to continue creating more spirits indefinitely: if you take out their ghost leadership, I can put you in a position to dismantle that system and ensure that spirits are allowed to pass on to the afterlife. Oh, and also they're absurdly rich, so you'll get hella paid for your trouble. Sound good?"
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"The true measure of all heroes is not what they achieve, but who they inspire." —Triumph of Gerrard
As far as the story itself goes... are we going to have to wait until spring to get anything... substantial? I was super hyped for what looked like a dramatic GRN story, but Wizards published nothing really beyond the 5 Guild-focused stories, none of which advanced the plot much or tied into the actual events of the corresponding set... and I have a feeling that's what we're going to get again for RNA. I realize that we're getting 2 novels (and you can bet I'm excited for them), but are we really going to have to wait until April to actually explore what's been going on in the story? That's a long time to go without real plot. Isperia died in last October's set--when are we going to actually see it?
Well, the Orzhov is pretty directly intertwined with spirits, both in leadership and, as Nicky Drayden's Selesnya story showed, in labor. Bolas might not have had to say more than: "There's a powerful group on this plane that keeps tons of spirits tied to the realm of the living, and has a system in place to continue creating more spirits indefinitely: if you take out their ghost leadership, I can put you in a position to dismantle that system and ensure that spirits are allowed to pass on to the afterlife. Oh, and also they're absurdly rich, so you'll get hella paid for your trouble. Sound good?"
While that's good and all, what is always forgotten in all this is that the guilds by all means shouldn't just be agency-less bystanders. Why would someone like Kaya, who has ZERO ties to the established Orzhov nobility be allowed to take the mantle? Yes sure, Bolas might make room for her, but honestly, what's he gonna do? Wipe out half the guild? What's left to lead at that point. Not to mention that from a narrative standpoint you're effectively changing a core identity of the Orzhov if you get rid of ghosts entirely. Normally I'd welcome evolving worldbuilding, but only if it's a natural product of the plot.
I have similar reservations with the Azorius. Overall I feel it would have been better if they had created new characters or used not-very-fleshed-out ones like Ramaz. It'd also make Bolas feel even more imposing, seemingly able to pull minions out of his sleeves.
But no, we need to plaster the existing planeswalkers over everything like cheap bumper stickers, because the dependencies between branding and the product has shifted into the reverse of what it should be.
I have similar reservations with the Azorius. Overall I feel it would have been better if they had created new characters or used not-very-fleshed-out ones like Ramaz. It'd also make Bolas feel even more imposing, seemingly able to pull minions out of his sleeves.
But no, we need to plaster the existing planeswalkers over everything like cheap bumper stickers, because the dependencies between branding and the product has shifted into the reverse of what it should be.
All the walkers known so far, except Vraska, also one had one card and one appearance before and this year alone we gotten 8 new planeswlakers plus whatever the deal with geometry mage. While new characters are cool, I like that we are fleshing out characters who haven't gotten the spotlight in while.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I think more of what makes it weird is Bolas is doing this all subtle. It be one thing for Bolas to obviously show up takeover and put his own people in charge with him simply appointing Kaya and Dovin outright. But since he is suppose to be subtle it seems weird he is bringing in ringers from off Plane and just putting them in charge. No one is asking questions about where these ringers came from? Especially Azorius and Orzhov if any groups kept detailed membership roles you expect it be them. I buy someone showing up out of nowhere and taking control of say the Rakdos, Gruul or Dimir but these two guilds way more of a stretch.
Honestly, I think WOTC simply got infatuated with the idea of each Bolas Guild being led with Walkers and just ran for it even if didn't make much sense. I am sure marketing ties into as well. I just hope we see good justifications for why Dovin and Kaya sign up for Bolas. Dovin didn't seem especially evil to me unless the argument is he doesn't know but I mean Bolas didn't really hide it with Vraska and Dovin is suppose to smart. For Kaya, some I have read had argued Marchesa tricked but how many shady tyrants can one be tricked by before one simply is purely motivated by hating Ghosts and liking gold.
I am saying assume he can. If Bolas showed up smacked down all the Paruns and took direct control and then handpicked some Walkers to run the guilds for him then I buy Kaya and Dovin easily taking control. But with Bolas doing this by being subtle then it doesnt make sense to me for some randoms to show up and jump straight to Guild Leader especially for the Azorius and Orzhov. I mean Gruul it work cause they operate on might makes right and the strongest takes control and probably don't have detailed records for membership but Orzhov and Azorius don't seem like guilds where a no one can show up and easily climb to the top.
Still maybe will see some beefing from the Orzhov, they don't look all that happy behind Kaya granted they normally don't look happy but that is not a council I trust if I was Kaya based on the body language.
I am saying assume he can. If Bolas showed up smacked down all the Paruns and took direct control and then handpicked some Walkers to run the guilds for him then I buy Kaya and Dovin easily taking control. But with Bolas doing this by being subtle then it doesnt make sense to me for some randoms to show up and jump straight to Guild Leader especially for the Azorius and Orzhov. I mean Gruul it work cause they operate on might makes right and the strongest takes control and probably don't have detailed records for membership but Orzhov and Azorius don't seem like guilds where a no one can show up and easily climb to the top.
Still maybe will see some beefing from the Orzhov, they don't look all that happy behind Kaya granted they normally don't look happy but that is not a council I trust if I was Kaya based on the body language.
I'm running with the folowing assumption:
After the golgari petrified Isperia, the azorious guild falls to semi chaos cause not only did the leader fall to an attack from another guild, but it doesn't look like the boros can pin it on the golgari, (since the lich in the golgari story was trying to set her up). I think it's an easy bridge to tap that a scared and shaken guild would turn to a figure of power - like a planeswalker - to protect them. Dovin is incredibly smart and meticulous, he could fill the role with slight ramp up time. His role on kld was similar. He gets in and writes laws that assist Kaya with not only taking control of the orzhov - but maintaining it against the factions wishes. I doubt Teysa is going to die off, but why would she let someone usurp her dream job that she has been working on for so long? Got to be a reason and we know she is well versed in the law.
Bolas knows that azor was a law mage and has had plenty of time to figure out just how powerful the law magic on rav is (Jace was able to bind a Parun on another island...granted it makes sense he would be susceptible to his own spell but yeh). He just has to set things in motion. Dovin can actually figure out the details.
I'm interested in how the general populace is going to survive the eternals tbh. Aside from a few large creatures with the selesnya and maybe some big bugs with golgari - the rest of the plane is full of common folk essentially. I don't see how they fight the most highly trained and undead army in the multiverse.
I'm interested in how the general populace is going to survive the eternals tbh. Aside from a few large creatures with the selesnya and maybe some big bugs with golgari - the rest of the plane is full of common folk essentially. I don't see how they fight the most highly trained and undead army in the multiverse.
Furthermore it should be noted that Amonkhet was a plane full of people specifically trained in the martial arts, specifically the ones the eternals employ. And Amonkhet kinda folded like a house of cards. Ravnica will be a slaughter that will make Battle for Zendikar look like a balanced fight, which could make the Boros' role that much more important. Maybe we'll see some true shift in values in some guilds in the aftermath.
That's an incredibly poor excuse. They may well have intended the original Ravnica block as a one off, fine, but that has no bearing whatsoever on what came after. Getting rid of the ghost quarter because of the mending or whatever wasn't necessary, it was a decision based off of them wanting to clean up the plane and have less going. That's fine, but that means the way they decided to deal with it was entirely within their control and they could have picked a way that had fewer inconsistencies (or they could have just left the ghost quarter in).
After the original block, when they decided they were coming back to Ravnica, it was abundantly clear that they intended there to be a continuity. The entire point of the mending was to set it up so that we could follow the neo walkers around on adventures in a serial format rather than just jumping from plane to unrelated plane. Continuity was intended, and they new this when the PW novels featuring Ravnica were being written, when we returned to Ravnica the first time, and now. They screwed up the continuity because they had some bad ideas that didn't work out along the way and either actively retconned them or hand waved them away.
The whole point of a continuing story is that there is continuity. If they weren't concerned about continuity, they should have stuck to doing blocks with their own self contained stories.
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Do we know if Jarad is actually dead dead, or just run off? Not all the sisters of stone death died, and we still don't know what went down between Vraska waking up zombies with the Kraul and Vraska running the guild with the Devkarin still on top otherwise, and it really doesn't seem like a real war was fought for control.
Tajic becoming more zealous actually makes sense. He was screwed over by the Orzhov cheating the guildpact. It makes sense for him to lose faith in an institution that failed him and that he saw fail firsthand. He values order and justice, and learned that the Obzedat, who are essentially the antithesis of justice, have been able to get around it for thousands of years. Instead, he looks at his own guild and decides that it's the only thing that can bring justice to the plane. He's seen law magic fail, and so puts his faith in the force of the legion to force the other guilds to comply.
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She hasn't gotten soft, she just questioned her own war-oriented motives after the whole Maze-situation and her interactions with Gideon (he did criticize her mostly in flavor texts as far as I remember, but most likely his actions moved her more than his criticisms anyway). You might say that's not an explanation, but I could see her slowly coming around and realizing that it's more important to help the people instead of making their lifes worse through constant warfare. But that's just my opinion.
This. Though, as others have said, that does kind of defeat the purpose of getting rid of Feather and replacing her with Aurelia. Aurelia's entire character arc from zealous crusader angel to reasonable protector of the innocent might as well be Feather but with less of a sense of humor has happened entirely off screen and served no narrative purpose. It seems like there was a narrative thread that they were going to follow that involved Aurelia's extremism and the Gateless being at odds, as seen through the way Gideon interacted with the guild, that required dumping Feather for Aurelia, and that thread has been abandoned for one that requires Aurelia to be Feather and would have been more satisfying with Feather. It appears sloppy and lazy in equal measure, which jives with exactly what we know about the story team from that era. In my view, while there are problems with the current story, almost all of them are rooted in the mistakes made by creative years ago. The only thing that I have a problem with on this trip to Ravnica is Jarad getting pushed aside off screen, and even then I understand why he was pushed aside and acknowledge that they had a legitimate narrative reason for doing so, I just think it was handled poorly. The Feather situation, the RTR storyline, the fallen second Guildpact, the flanderization of guilds, all that crap was set 6 years ago (or more likely 7, as they work on the story ahead of time).
The problems with the Bolas storyline mostly resulted from how poorly it was handled from Alara until a couple years ago, in which he had a confusing plan that pretty much just seemed like trolling the multiverse. As of right now, the only things he has done of significance since Alara ended that actually makes sense as a way to forward his goals are 1) stealing the planar bridge and 2) Amonkhet and 3) stealin the immortal sun, and those are all really recent happenings. The Eldrazi and messing around on New Phyrexia still seem kinda dumb, and until he pulls them out to trump the Gatewatch on Ravnica ("lol, I secretly absorbed Ulamog and Kozilek, thanks for helping me noobs", or "let me win or I press this button and New Phyrexia get the planar bridge) then they remain dumb flailing.
Honestly, I thought that the story was pretty much garbage from Alara on and didn't start to improve until Innistrad 2.0. It has indeed improved significantly in my eyes, with Ixalan being a set back in terms of telling the world's story while being a step forward in telling the walkers story, and Dominaria suffering from being cut from 2 sets to 1, yet still being significantly better cut in half than BFZ was being cut by a 3rd (and still seeming way too long).
Alara: sucked, but it wasn't the author's fault. He had literally never written a book before and had no training at all as a writer, and was tasked with condensing what should have been three books worth of material into one short book. The fact that he turned out something half competent is something he should be proud of, and I give him props for dealing with an impossible situation.
Zendikar: Sucked worse than Alara, and the author was a professional so he had no excuse.
The Planeswalker novels: Purifying Fire was good and the Secretist was passable, though the latter screwed with Ravnica enough to be a problem. Test of Metal is best forgotten.
Quest for Karn: Hot garbage poorly written that messed with canon in very bad ways. It wasn't worth the retcon to make this tripe possible.
Innistrad: N/A. The story, such as it was, was world building told through gimmicks that ended up being kind of cool. Liliana came, cursed Garruk more, and released all the demons and Avacyn so she could kill Grisle Bristle. It was basically the spark notes of a story that got canceled (not a joke).
RTR: A stupid story full of poor narrative choices and stupid retcons, told with enough competence to make it not total garbage to read, but total garbage in what it did to the story of the plane.
Theros: Ok, the high point of this era of story telling when it comes to the featured stories. Enjoyable enough and doesn't screw up things.
Khans of Tarkir: Really cool in the Khans era, really crappy otherwise. Magic was one of the few properties that handled time travel well, and they threw that away to tell a bad time travel story. The only thing worthwhile after the first set was Khanfall. Also, retconning Elder Dragons in the laziest possible way, then openly admitting it was a lazy attempt to generate excitement, which was doubly stupid because it was an opportunity to expand on the lore of Elder Dragons and actually give an explanation for how the 5 Tarkir Dragonlords ascended to Elder status that would have been satisfying, rather than saying "just cause lol" (they finally got around to righting this in M19 btw, by showing the original Elders be born in a similar magical way to the Tarkir Dragons).
BFZ: Nissa is aimless and Gideon whips his sural back and forth. Tazri gets one really good story, every thing else is super dumb and super tedious.
Innistrad 2: Part 1 was a competently cobbled together detective story that was born out of the change in block structure. Part two was the only story involving the Eldrazi to actually be worthwhile and make me not hate the Eldrazi.
Kaladesh: Wherein they both world build well and create an interesting and well done story that doesn't require the world to be ending and uses its retcons sparingly and smartly. The main cast is the most tolerable to enjoyable they've ever been, there are some neat local characters, and it moves the over arching plot forward in a satisfying way.
Amonkhet: Bolas being Bolas in a satisfying way for the first time since the 90's, a cool apocalypse well executed, a cool world, gate watch was ok and got what was coming to them for their stupid plan. Well done.
Ixalan and Dominaria were mixed bags, the latter paying for the change in block structure but doing a better job than BFZ or Innistrad 2. M19 was quite satisfying. It retconned a poorly attested era in a way that wasn't totally satisfying but added some neat details, and acquitted itself well. Might as well say Vivian's story didn't happen because it doesn't matter.
This Ravnica: Pretty swell so far, everything wrong with it is sins of the past.
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We have yet to see a body. And now a days for a major characters deaths (Avacyn, the eldrzi titans, Amonkhet gods, Isperia) they like to have a card(s) showing it so makes me wonder on what his status is, unless Vraska, Golgari Queen is counted.
Theory time; Maybe since Vraska is poetic instead of killing Jared she imprisoned him someone (somewhere deep and in the dark in a similar way she and the other gorgons where treated and only as a head ala Svogthir) and thus could come back for Ravnica 4.
During Ixalan they explained Elders a bit better. An Elder creature, now, isn't just old but also has a connection to the primal essence of their lesser kin as well as seeming being a blue print for what those lesser kin will be like.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Here's what I'll give the Alara book, though: the highlight of the novel was Bolas's speech to Ajani at the end, which made the whole novel 100% worth it just to get to that part. I don't think I've ever, in all my years of reading, encountered such spectacular, delightfully evil villainous boasting--not even in Hour of Devastation. I remember laughing and then going back to read those passages out loud, just to experience how deliciously, theatrically wicked they felt on my tongue.
Edit: Here's Bolas's speech, in all its scenery-chewing glory, while he curbstomps Ajani in the Maelstrom:
That's a prime example of what I mean. It's cringe worthy from a technical perspective, but it captures the essence of Bolas fantastically. It's so cheesey and over the top, so magnificently campy. This isnt just an immortal villainous Mastermind dragon, it's a drunk Jeremy Irons playing a drag queen playing an immortal villainous Mastermind dragon.
He called Ajani a matchstick. He's at such a high level of monologuing he doesn't even care if his insults make sense.
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He’s small, fragile, and burns only for a moment, oh and he has a big fluffy mane. From the perspective of Bolas the only person more apt to be called matchstick is Chandra.
Its still just so odd, so out of left field. That's actually what makes it work, it's like Ajani is so. insignificant to him that he doesn't even warrant the top shelf insults. It's like Bolas is trying out some new material to see if it works, or throwing out just anything off the cuff because he wants to save up the good stuff for someone a little more challenging. "This is you, flyswatted" is so clunky and out of place that he's really saying "you aren't even worth the effort of a proper insult before I kill you"
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He will be showing up as an antagonist in the Chandra comic;
https://www.comixology.com/Magic-The-Gathering-Chandra-3/digital-comic/731236
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/802091-rna-pro-tour-playmat
The question is in which direction will she steer the guild? Unlike Dovin Baan she does not seem to fit into the guild she is taking over.
"Kaya is a firm believer that life is for the living. The living should make the most of their lives and pursue what they want while they've still got time, and find their own peace before death. If you die with unfinished business, well, that's probably your fault. And if it's not...perhaps she could help you...for a price." - From the Mothership
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
I think Bolas just paid her to get rid of the Ghost Council (which fits her perfectly), then take over. She does seem to like money (even if she has to do morally questionable stuff to get it), and the Orzhov guild in the end is all about gathering as much money and power as possible via any means necessary. So I do see her fitting nicely... after a small change in the guilds leadership.
While that's good and all, what is always forgotten in all this is that the guilds by all means shouldn't just be agency-less bystanders. Why would someone like Kaya, who has ZERO ties to the established Orzhov nobility be allowed to take the mantle? Yes sure, Bolas might make room for her, but honestly, what's he gonna do? Wipe out half the guild? What's left to lead at that point. Not to mention that from a narrative standpoint you're effectively changing a core identity of the Orzhov if you get rid of ghosts entirely. Normally I'd welcome evolving worldbuilding, but only if it's a natural product of the plot.
I have similar reservations with the Azorius. Overall I feel it would have been better if they had created new characters or used not-very-fleshed-out ones like Ramaz. It'd also make Bolas feel even more imposing, seemingly able to pull minions out of his sleeves.
But no, we need to plaster the existing planeswalkers over everything like cheap bumper stickers, because the dependencies between branding and the product has shifted into the reverse of what it should be.
All the walkers known so far, except Vraska, also one had one card and one appearance before and this year alone we gotten 8 new planeswlakers plus whatever the deal with geometry mage. While new characters are cool, I like that we are fleshing out characters who haven't gotten the spotlight in while.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Honestly, I think WOTC simply got infatuated with the idea of each Bolas Guild being led with Walkers and just ran for it even if didn't make much sense. I am sure marketing ties into as well. I just hope we see good justifications for why Dovin and Kaya sign up for Bolas. Dovin didn't seem especially evil to me unless the argument is he doesn't know but I mean Bolas didn't really hide it with Vraska and Dovin is suppose to smart. For Kaya, some I have read had argued Marchesa tricked but how many shady tyrants can one be tricked by before one simply is purely motivated by hating Ghosts and liking gold.
On the positive side the art is nice.
Still maybe will see some beefing from the Orzhov, they don't look all that happy behind Kaya granted they normally don't look happy but that is not a council I trust if I was Kaya based on the body language.
I'm running with the folowing assumption:
After the golgari petrified Isperia, the azorious guild falls to semi chaos cause not only did the leader fall to an attack from another guild, but it doesn't look like the boros can pin it on the golgari, (since the lich in the golgari story was trying to set her up). I think it's an easy bridge to tap that a scared and shaken guild would turn to a figure of power - like a planeswalker - to protect them. Dovin is incredibly smart and meticulous, he could fill the role with slight ramp up time. His role on kld was similar. He gets in and writes laws that assist Kaya with not only taking control of the orzhov - but maintaining it against the factions wishes. I doubt Teysa is going to die off, but why would she let someone usurp her dream job that she has been working on for so long? Got to be a reason and we know she is well versed in the law.
Bolas knows that azor was a law mage and has had plenty of time to figure out just how powerful the law magic on rav is (Jace was able to bind a Parun on another island...granted it makes sense he would be susceptible to his own spell but yeh). He just has to set things in motion. Dovin can actually figure out the details.
I'm interested in how the general populace is going to survive the eternals tbh. Aside from a few large creatures with the selesnya and maybe some big bugs with golgari - the rest of the plane is full of common folk essentially. I don't see how they fight the most highly trained and undead army in the multiverse.
Edit for spelling.
Furthermore it should be noted that Amonkhet was a plane full of people specifically trained in the martial arts, specifically the ones the eternals employ. And Amonkhet kinda folded like a house of cards. Ravnica will be a slaughter that will make Battle for Zendikar look like a balanced fight, which could make the Boros' role that much more important. Maybe we'll see some true shift in values in some guilds in the aftermath.