Avoiding the PW debate, on the one hand, I'm super happy to see Hazoret make it out of this alive. After Avacyn and the devastation of Innistrad, I was really nervous we'd see nothing survice of Amonkhet. At least with Hazoret leading a seeming-exodus into the desert based on the cards, the people and faith in some form will survive. They have at least one god still protecting them. Then again, between Sigarda and Hazoret, at least the devastated planes have some basis upon which to renew their faiths.
Hazoret is by far my favorite deity character in the game. Yichao nailed her combat descriptions today. I've always enjoyed descriptions of combat as an art-form of sorts (probably a bad romanticism of war, but if I can't enjoy it in fantasy writing, I don't know where else I could. Maybe I'm just a bad person), and the descriptions of her dance of combat to protect the people alongside her haste card-ability being represented by her flashes across the city and behind Bontu in combat really convey how her particular combat style plays out. It made sense visually and wasn't too bogged down in descriptor-language to confuse the reader. I've noticed over a few years that combat is NOT EASY to write well, but Yichao seemed to nail it today. All props to him.
Bontu actually became more compelling to me today as a character. Echoing above thoughts, it's sort of a tragic story of thinking you're placing yourself in the best position for survival, only for the walls to come crumbling down when you're betrayed. By the end, though, she did her best to make something right by freeing Hazoret from the tar. She gave the plane a chance, which shows a level of remorse and fear in her character that adds some context to her actions. Betrayal is what she'll be associated with, but in her mind, it was the best chance for her own survival. But Bolas is Bolas. Which surprised me a bit then that he didn't just end Hazoret too. But I guess she was too weak in his mind to worry about, nor did she affect his plans.
Two big takeaways. One, Hazoret shows and is described as being FAR more benevolent and caring than any other god we've seen in the game in awhile. At least in the accessible story, moreso than any of the Therosian gods via the story describing her protections of the people from Bolas, the horrors and mid-battle focusing on the people versus Bontu, regardless of her own safety. Whether or not she cares any more or less than other deities, it FEELS as though she does, which makes her survival all the more satisfying. Compared to Sigarda in Innistrad - who mind you, I'm a fan of - we know how much she cares and why the people still respect, trust and worship her. It makes more sense and was flushed out far better. Second, it's really eerie to see a god have their faith in a higher power shattered. We've seen it from the Theros, Zendikar, and Innistrad citizen perspectives and also from Gideon this block. But we've never seen the perspective from a god themselves, which I thought was unique and interesting. I wish Hazoret, Samut, Djeru and Gideon had more time now to discuss theology, but obviously Bolas comes first.
All in all, fantastic and thought-provoking story. Big props to Yichao.
Vorthos-player with way too much time on his hands and a love of thematic decks.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
Agree with your entire analysis ^^ Especially re: the combat writing. Hazoret is a total badass and I need her cards now, that's how magic's story should make me feel.
Re: Bontu, and the other gods really, I think it isn't the first time that they've directly been described as extensions of the plane's mana/leylines. Which makes me wonder if they cannot just be reincarnated in some fashion with the help of, idk, Nissa? I feel like all of Nissa's revelations and interaction with Kefnet will serve a greater purpose than setting up the Bolas-is-behind-everything revelation. I don't think all the gods, or any really, will be reincarnated. But I do think something can be done to preserve their presence/effect on the world and its society. Then again, maybe not. Everyone's been clamoring for a consequential ass-whooping. They'll probably give us that.
Bontu actually became more compelling to me today as a character. Echoing above thoughts, it's sort of a tragic story of thinking you're placing yourself in the best position for survival, only for the walls to come crumbling down when you're betrayed. By the end, though, she did her best to make something right by freeing Hazoret from the tar. She gave the plane a chance, which shows a level of remorse and fear in her character that adds some context to her actions. Betrayal is what she'll be associated with, but in her mind, it was the best chance for her own survival. But Bolas is Bolas. Which surprised me a bit then that he didn't just end Hazoret too. But I guess she was too weak in his mind to worry about, nor did she affect his plans.
Bontu laughed, a rasping, grating sound. To the mortals who heard, it sounded cruel and confident, but to Hazoret, she heard the desperation tinged with sadness. "Have you forgotten who I am, sister? I am ambition incarnate. Bolas destroyed all who resisted. I chose to join with his power instead. I chose survival."
From the story, it's fairly clear Bontu choose to serve Bolas because that's the only chance at survival she saw.
Bontu was a coward. She betrayed her family and her very world to a foreign enemy in the hopes of preserving herself. Only in the end, the only thing she preserved was the knowledge of what would transpire as the only being capable of opposing it, having never tried. She died betrayed herself, knowing that truth. Her story is just another example of why it never pays to be a coward. Even as a Black character, she was better off dying for higher virtues than what she died for here. Nothing.
Bontu was a coward. She betrayed her family and her very world to a foreign enemy in the hopes of preserving herself. Only in the end, the only thing she preserved was the knowledge of what would transpire as the only being capable of opposing it, having never tried. She died betrayed herself, knowing that truth. Her story is just another example of why it never pays to be a coward. Even as a Black character, she was better off dying for higher virtues than what she died for here. Nothing.
Courage and Cowardice are White terms applied to colors that dont believe in such things. For Black, the same where there is no good or evil only what one can do and what one cannot, there is no courage or cowardice only survival and power. Bontu saw Bolas and tbought the best route to survival, maybe even for the entire plane was for her to cozy up to him. On top of that her ambition got the best of her. Bolas could certainly offer her more power than she could have otherwise acquired. She didnt know that she was going to be dead either way. She made what she thought was the best decision with the information she had.
I find Bontu's actions perfectly understandable for who she is, in all honesty.
I do wonder what she would have done if, hypothetically, she learned about the Mending and its effects on Bolas. I also wonder how things might have turned out if she (assuming she's capable of it) undid the leyline corruption of her siblings and shared the truth with everyone within the 60 years of Bolas's absence.
Because he's a jerk. If I had to speculate though, Bolas has had a history of his subordinates betraying him, and Bontu is the type of entity to betray him at the first visible opportunity (it's his power that keeps her in line, after all). Also, considering he seems to be done with Amonkhet now that he's getting his army, and Bontu presumably can't leave the plane considering the nature of the gods, her services are no longer required, and he can just shatter her hopes and dreams for giggles.
Bontu was a coward. She betrayed her family and her very world to a foreign enemy in the hopes of preserving herself. Only in the end, the only thing she preserved was the knowledge of what would transpire as the only being capable of opposing it, having never tried. She died betrayed herself, knowing that truth. Her story is just another example of why it never pays to be a coward. Even as a Black character, she was better off dying for higher virtues than what she died for here. Nothing.
Courage and Cowardice are White terms applied to colors that dont believe in such things. For Black, the same where there is no good or evil only what one can do and what one cannot, there is no courage or cowardice only survival and power. Bontu saw Bolas and tbought the best route to survival, maybe even for the entire plane was for her to cozy up to him. On top of that her ambition got the best of her. Bolas could certainly offer her more power than she could have otherwise acquired. She didnt know that she was going to be dead either way. She made what she thought was the best decision with the information she had.
Article describes her desperation and sadness. While you raise a good point, there was a chance for survival on either side. She chose what she thought was the easier victory by betraying. She could have been a god on Amonkhet instead of Bolas's pawn. This wasn't about power for her. Amonkhet gods are not like Theros gods and genuinely care for Amonkhet. But for Bontu, she really was a coward. She's just the only one incapable of having seen that.
Bontu was a coward. She betrayed her family and her very world to a foreign enemy in the hopes of preserving herself. Only in the end, the only thing she preserved was the knowledge of what would transpire as the only being capable of opposing it, having never tried. She died betrayed herself, knowing that truth. Her story is just another example of why it never pays to be a coward. Even as a Black character, she was better off dying for higher virtues than what she died for here. Nothing.
Courage and Cowardice are White terms applied to colors that dont believe in such things. For Black, the same where there is no good or evil only what one can do and what one cannot, there is no courage or cowardice only survival and power. Bontu saw Bolas and tbought the best route to survival, maybe even for the entire plane was for her to cozy up to him. On top of that her ambition got the best of her. Bolas could certainly offer her more power than she could have otherwise acquired. She didnt know that she was going to be dead either way. She made what she thought was the best decision with the information she had.
Article describes her desperation and sadness. While you raise a good point, there was a chance for survival on either side. She chose what she thought was the easier victory by betraying. She could have been a god on Amonkhet instead of Bolas's pawn. This wasn't about power for her. Amonkhet gods are not like Theros gods and genuinely care for Amonkhet. But for Bontu, she really was a coward. She's just the only one incapable of having seen that.
The decision, in her mind, was either try to stand up to Bolas (pre-Mending level, because it can't be stressed enough that Bontu probably isn't aware of this power difference) and most certainly die or worse, OR submit to him and hopefully not die. Even in his current state, Bolas made quick work of her.
If she had thought about it some more, she could have secretly unraveled his plans while he was away, but she was too fearful of his perceived power to do so.
Article describes her desperation and sadness. While you raise a good point, there was a chance for survival on either side. She chose what she thought was the easier victory by betraying. She could have been a god on Amonkhet instead of Bolas's pawn. This wasn't about power for her. Amonkhet gods are not like Theros gods and genuinely care for Amonkhet. But for Bontu, she really was a coward. She's just the only one incapable of having seen that.
Easier is the same thing as more likely to succeed. Theres no value in being valorous in the face of an entity like Bolas. When youre opponent is that far beyond you in power there cannot be any room for standing up and being a "good" person. And again. It was a bit about power for her. She is ambition incarnate. While, probably first in her mind was her own, and her siblings and maybe the people of the planes, survival she would honestly have thought that Bolas could bring her power. Apparently the art book mentions Bontu not being happy with her position of only being over embalming so she would have been all too happy to try and stand with Bolas if it got her more power.
You throw around coward like it really means something but its really just a fancy word. In the thick of things, when it comes down to it, courage is often overrated and is often meaningless. I mean of she had stood up to Bolas she just would have died sooner, or been totally brainwashed like the others and been killed by Scorpy. Either way shes dead. But if she goes along she lives, she can do what she can to protect her siblings and the mortals, and maybe come out on top in the end. In any other way that this plays out its probably markedly worse for everyone. Hazoret would probably have died too and then who would protect the mortal survivors out in the desert for the next fourty years? But bravery? Bravery grts her killed for literal nothing. That's what I hate about the noble sacrifice trope. So often the reality is that that sacrifice would be meaningless and the thing you died to protect would probably die anyway. Better to be ruthless and pragmatic and take the route with the best poasible outcome, even if it is "cowardly."
I agree with most of what you said and definitely that Hazzoret feels like that but also that i would like p argue that Avacyn, robotic as she was, she did care a lot for the humans and angels on innistrad. All to say that Avacyn could be another example of a God truly caring for her people.
I agree with most of what you said and definitely that Hazzoret feels like that but also that i would like p argue that Avacyn, robotic as she was, she did care a lot for the humans and angels on innistrad. All to say that Avacyn could be another example of a God truly caring for her people.
She definitely was. She was even learning to be more angel and human-like, such as smiling to inspire comfort. Avacyn was essentially the god of Innistrad right down to hearing prayers. And her loss too can be traced back to…
I agree with most of what you said and definitely that Hazzoret feels like that but also that i would like p argue that Avacyn, robotic as she was, she did care a lot for the humans and angels on innistrad. All to say that Avacyn could be another example of a God truly caring for her people.
She definitely was. She was even learning to be more angel and human-like, such as smiling to inspire comfort. Avacyn was essentially the god of Innistrad right down to hearing prayers. And her loss too can be traced back to…
Bolas.
While Bolas was to blame for the Eldrazi being loose, Nahiri was still the direct culprit of what went down in Innistrad, and unless Bolas's plans run that deeply, it wasn't his idea to sic Emrakul on Sorin's homeplane out of vengeance or twist the leylines with lithomancy.
I agree with most of what you said and definitely that Hazzoret feels like that but also that i would like p argue that Avacyn, robotic as she was, she did care a lot for the humans and angels on innistrad. All to say that Avacyn could be another example of a God truly caring for her people.
She definitely was. She was even learning to be more angel and human-like, such as smiling to inspire comfort. Avacyn was essentially the god of Innistrad right down to hearing prayers. And her loss too can be traced back to…
Bolas.
While Bolas was to blame for the Eldrazi being loose, Nahiri was still the direct culprit of what went down in Innistrad, and unless Bolas's plans run that deeply, it wasn't his idea to sic Emrakul on Sorin's homeplane out of vengeance or twist the leylines with lithomancy.
And had Nahiri not steered Emrakul to Innistrad, the titan would have done the same damage to Zendikar, before moving with her brothers on to another plane to do the same. Gatewatch would have lost to all 3 at once, so it was a guarantee that more planes would falter to them (with or without the GW in the equation). Nahiri didn't change much but hit two birds with one stone really.
Bolas did ask Bontu to kill Hazoret, which she did not. Only cast a spell that weakened her to appear dead only to free her from it. She had also anticipated the fight itself, presumably planning to spare Hazoret all the while, but feigning loyalty as a means to survive. Perhaps she felt if Bolas could take enough from the world, if enough of his plan for it was fulfilled, at least she and the god Bontu would come to spare in their fight would survive?
I agree with most of what you said and definitely that Hazzoret feels like that but also that i would like p argue that Avacyn, robotic as she was, she did care a lot for the humans and angels on innistrad. All to say that Avacyn could be another example of a God truly caring for her people.
She definitely was. She was even learning to be more angel and human-like, such as smiling to inspire comfort. Avacyn was essentially the god of Innistrad right down to hearing prayers. And her loss too can be traced back to…
Bolas.
While Bolas was to blame for the Eldrazi being loose, Nahiri was still the direct culprit of what went down in Innistrad, and unless Bolas's plans run that deeply, it wasn't his idea to sic Emrakul on Sorin's homeplane out of vengeance or twist the leylines with lithomancy.
Actually, if you want to trace it all the way back, it would be Ugin's fault. The whole Eldrazi fiasco started because he was curious to see what would happen without the Eldrazi (but without killing them). I'm very convinced at this time the whole "for the good of the multiverse" and "there's no way to defeat the Eldrazi" were just convenient excuses he used to convince a naive Nahiri back then (he could probably just use pure force which he probably demonstrated once to Sorin, but it'll be less convenient in the long run, he did need their co-operation for the plan and he can't kill Sorin because of that so he couldn't pick Innistrad for sure - yes I know Sorin chose to abandon Innistrad ultimately, but he had some bargaining power being part of the plan and he certainly preferred Innistrad untouched.) Considering how he doesn't really care about Tarkir's internal state of affairs, I doubt he cared about Sorin and Nahiri's internal conflicts (and what he engineered of it unknowingly but he doesn't care anyway) and his "experiment" is all he cares about and like Bolas, it's because he's powerful enough to ignore any consequences that would hit him (the only consequence that could be powerful enough to hit him was the Eldrazi dying and that wasn't part of his plan).
Bolas doesn't know enough about Sorin and Nahiri to engineer anything (unless they backtrack on that) and if the Eldrazi were never sealed, he would have probably picked some other plane to lure the Eldrazi directly (probably Ravnica) if his plan with the Eldrazi were to see if "goody-planeswalkers" like Jace would band up together (or just watch from a naturally-eldrazi-chosen plane, considering location selection wasn't any priority of his to begin with).
As for Bontu, it was never about the "easiest route to victory", there was no victory the moment the 8 of them lost, it was always a "higher chance of survival". Sure, it turned out to be 0% either way, but considering what little they knew about Bolas in that mere few days back then, as a being of ambition it not illogical to assume there's a slightly higher chance of survival the siding with him, especially when what honor is there in choosing the lower chance of survival against a being capable of silencing sphinxes and erasing history (including said self-honor from your own mind)?
Bolas did ask Bontu to kill Hazoret, which she did not. Only cast a spell that weakened her to appear dead only to free her from it. She had also anticipated the fight itself, presumably planning to spare Hazoret all the while, but feigning loyalty as a means to survive. Perhaps she felt if Bolas could take enough from the world, if enough of his plan for it was fulfilled, at least she and the god Bontu would come to spare in their fight would survive?
The spell was going to kill Hazoret. It was just a slow death, as opposed to a fast one. "Hazoret struggled weakly, but Bontu's magic drained her life force at a slow, relentless pace." Releasing her was most likely a last ditch revenge effort on Bolas.
I agree with most of what you said and definitely that Hazzoret feels like that but also that i would like p argue that Avacyn, robotic as she was, she did care a lot for the humans and angels on innistrad. All to say that Avacyn could be another example of a God truly caring for her people.
She definitely was. She was even learning to be more angel and human-like, such as smiling to inspire comfort. Avacyn was essentially the god of Innistrad right down to hearing prayers. And her loss too can be traced back to…
Bolas.
Sorry, not to sidetrack back a minute, but Avacyn is my wheelhouse and super-personal to me. Tiro is dead-on, and agreed Peacemaker20. Avacyn was....distant, but hardly the robotic entity she was made out to be. When given the chance for characterization, Avacyn was childlike, but that didn't make her simply a blank slate. True, she never was able to share the intimacy with the people that Sigarda could, but she felt as much love and devotion to those in her care before her manipulation and corruption as an artificial nigh-omnipotent guardian could. She didn't blankly recognize Sorin as her creator; as the fight progressed, she saw him as the monster of a father he kind of is, and felt a great sense of sorrow that he rejected her and wanted to reset her. That isn't robotic; that's fear and disappointment for feeling her father was abandoning her. She felt connected to children and their innocence as like them, she didn't know the true nature of her own existence.
When her last thoughts were a prayer for forgiveness and for the people to know she only wanted to protect them, even as a recitation of her purpose as endowed by Sorin, that was gut-wrenching. She failed, she knew it, and she regretted it dearly.
The main difference is Hazoret gets a chance to right the wrongs And save her people. Sigarda got a chance to save the people from the existential threat after she failed to fight for her 3rd sister years before. Avacyn never was given a chance to restore herself and save her flock. It can be argued as to whether she was too far gone or not to be saved, but it's tragic regardless.
Thing is, for those of us who believe in something greater than ourselves in real life, those kind of deaths hurt the worst. It's one thing to see a character be killed off or even corrupted. It's another to see that in what is meant to be a religious figure when you see elements of your own faith in those characters. Family is Irish Catholic. The flaws of my mom's church mirror a lot of the lore and inspiration for the Church of Avacyn. But like I find elements of the real faith that help me get by, the same could be said of characters who saw Avacyn as more than her church. But we don't see Jesus, Buddha or other religious figures fall from grace and attack their devotees. That's what hurt about Avacyn; it inverted a clear allegory for a real faith and hit home to a section of the playerbase. Hazoret we saw an inverse of the inverse; we see a misaligned religious figure gian clarity and work to correct their mistakes. The foil of Avacyn and Hazoret, in addition to the Amonkhet vs Theros gods are both reasons why I found this story today and the lore of the world overall so compelling.
I'm just happy Hazoret survived, so there's hope for the world, and unlike with Sigarda, we get to see the remaining hope play a pivotal role in saving the people, instead of just being told about it, which was my biggest issue with Eldritch Moon's resolution. Also, yay Jackal goddess. I'm also a canine lover, and we don't get too much love in the game. : p
Vorthos-player with way too much time on his hands and a love of thematic decks.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
I am usually a big fan of villains, and Bolas is one of my favorite MtG characters. But I just don't get his characterization lately.
Just a couple of stories ago, we were shown his conquest of Amonkhet. He was still in possession of godlike power, but knew that he was losing it, so he put forth the minimum effort to accomplish his goals. He was efficient, taking swift, decisive action. We are even told that he doesn't usually resort to destruction, but it is a necessary tool at times.
Now, he has returned. He's still strong, but weaker than before due to the Mending. Yet he fires off pointless spells to kill random fleeing citizens? He kills his allies when they are still willing and able to serve? He's being wasteful. The first rule of writing a good villain: Evil does not mean dumb.
Would have made more sense if the gods had managed to break free of his control before he arrived. When he appears, they and the Gatewatch confront him. Angered, his red side takes over for a second, and THAT'S when he decides to destroy Amonkhet. Makes more sense than, "he planned to do it all along, cuz he's EVIL."
Given how each time a god dies, they refernece the lay lines snapping. So I think Bolas has to kill the gods, so the plane's mana will become unstable and he can use it, either like the Conflux to boost his power or to transport the Eternals.
Stories like Amonkhet (and to a lesser extent Zendikar) make me wish we would -every once in a while- get a set dedicated to some important event in the Multiverse's past that was not portrayed in the cards yet. Like Bolas' invasion of Amonkhet, the original defeat of the Eldrazi, the collapse of the thran empire etc.
Too bad that's not reconcilable with continuity of normal expansions and supplementary sets like Commander and Conspiracy don't have enough new cards to make it work. :/
They did that with the Urza block, going back thousands of years to the Brother's War.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I am usually a big fan of villains, and Bolas is one of my favorite MtG characters. But I just don't get his characterization lately.
Just a couple of stories ago, we were shown his conquest of Amonkhet. He was still in possession of godlike power, but knew that he was losing it, so he put forth the minimum effort to accomplish his goals. He was efficient, taking swift, decisive action. We are even told that he doesn't usually resort to destruction, but it is a necessary tool at times.
Now, he has returned. He's still strong, but weaker than before due to the Mending. Yet he fires off pointless spells to kill random fleeing citizens? He kills his allies when they are still willing and able to serve? He's being wasteful. The first rule of writing a good villain: Evil does not mean dumb.
Would have made more sense if the gods had managed to break free of his control before he arrived. When he appears, they and the Gatewatch confront him. Angered, his red side takes over for a second, and THAT'S when he decides to destroy Amonkhet. Makes more sense than, "he planned to do it all along, cuz he's EVIL."
This exact point has been debated for weeks on this forum. I don't see why it is so hard to understand that Bolas is just doing it, because that's what he does. Amonkhet can give him nothing more. Sure, he could just leave, but if you just got your playtoy you waited for 60 years, don't you want to try it out?
People always judge Nicol's actions from a human perspective, but he's not a human, he's a millenia old formerly omnipotent dragon planeswalker.
Are his acts evil? Eh, "evil" is such a loaded term, it doesn't even mean anything anymore. Am I evil because I step on a bug? From the bug's perspective yes, but not from most humans' perspective. Nicol doesn't care about humans (or you know, other races). Does that make him evil? To humans yes, but then again, that makes him evil per definition.
Nicol has always done what he wanted. And right now he feels like flexing his muscles and destroy Amonkhet, because why the hell not.
They did that with the Urza block, going back thousands of years to the Brother's War.
It's almost like the way stories are being told in Magic have changed in the intervening 18 years.
The way things are set up now, it would be jarring to go back in time without a planeswalker to accompany (cough Sarkhan cough) not to mention that it would be very confusing for people who don't follow the story that closely.
Then again, maybe WotC finds a way to still do it eventually.
Then again, maybe WotC finds a way to still do it eventually.
I think they already found a way, if they are using the new coreset right, we could get all the "old stuff that never got cards and don't fit into a normal set" things.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
.
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hazoret is by far my favorite deity character in the game. Yichao nailed her combat descriptions today. I've always enjoyed descriptions of combat as an art-form of sorts (probably a bad romanticism of war, but if I can't enjoy it in fantasy writing, I don't know where else I could. Maybe I'm just a bad person), and the descriptions of her dance of combat to protect the people alongside her haste card-ability being represented by her flashes across the city and behind Bontu in combat really convey how her particular combat style plays out. It made sense visually and wasn't too bogged down in descriptor-language to confuse the reader. I've noticed over a few years that combat is NOT EASY to write well, but Yichao seemed to nail it today. All props to him.
Bontu actually became more compelling to me today as a character. Echoing above thoughts, it's sort of a tragic story of thinking you're placing yourself in the best position for survival, only for the walls to come crumbling down when you're betrayed. By the end, though, she did her best to make something right by freeing Hazoret from the tar. She gave the plane a chance, which shows a level of remorse and fear in her character that adds some context to her actions. Betrayal is what she'll be associated with, but in her mind, it was the best chance for her own survival. But Bolas is Bolas. Which surprised me a bit then that he didn't just end Hazoret too. But I guess she was too weak in his mind to worry about, nor did she affect his plans.
Two big takeaways. One, Hazoret shows and is described as being FAR more benevolent and caring than any other god we've seen in the game in awhile. At least in the accessible story, moreso than any of the Therosian gods via the story describing her protections of the people from Bolas, the horrors and mid-battle focusing on the people versus Bontu, regardless of her own safety. Whether or not she cares any more or less than other deities, it FEELS as though she does, which makes her survival all the more satisfying. Compared to Sigarda in Innistrad - who mind you, I'm a fan of - we know how much she cares and why the people still respect, trust and worship her. It makes more sense and was flushed out far better. Second, it's really eerie to see a god have their faith in a higher power shattered. We've seen it from the Theros, Zendikar, and Innistrad citizen perspectives and also from Gideon this block. But we've never seen the perspective from a god themselves, which I thought was unique and interesting. I wish Hazoret, Samut, Djeru and Gideon had more time now to discuss theology, but obviously Bolas comes first.
All in all, fantastic and thought-provoking story. Big props to Yichao.
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief B - Fear of the Dark
WG Sigarda, Heron's Grace WG - Strength in Numbers
RG Xenagos, God of Revels RG - Fullmoon (It's werewolves)
RW Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier RW - The End is Nigh
60 Card Kitchen Table Decks
WUB Avacyn, Spirit Ferrier
RG Arlinn Kord's Howlpack
Re: Bontu, and the other gods really, I think it isn't the first time that they've directly been described as extensions of the plane's mana/leylines. Which makes me wonder if they cannot just be reincarnated in some fashion with the help of, idk, Nissa? I feel like all of Nissa's revelations and interaction with Kefnet will serve a greater purpose than setting up the Bolas-is-behind-everything revelation. I don't think all the gods, or any really, will be reincarnated. But I do think something can be done to preserve their presence/effect on the world and its society. Then again, maybe not. Everyone's been clamoring for a consequential ass-whooping. They'll probably give us that.
From the story, it's fairly clear Bontu choose to serve Bolas because that's the only chance at survival she saw.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Courage and Cowardice are White terms applied to colors that dont believe in such things. For Black, the same where there is no good or evil only what one can do and what one cannot, there is no courage or cowardice only survival and power. Bontu saw Bolas and tbought the best route to survival, maybe even for the entire plane was for her to cozy up to him. On top of that her ambition got the best of her. Bolas could certainly offer her more power than she could have otherwise acquired. She didnt know that she was going to be dead either way. She made what she thought was the best decision with the information she had.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
I do wonder what she would have done if, hypothetically, she learned about the Mending and its effects on Bolas. I also wonder how things might have turned out if she (assuming she's capable of it) undid the leyline corruption of her siblings and shared the truth with everyone within the 60 years of Bolas's absence.
Because he's a jerk. If I had to speculate though, Bolas has had a history of his subordinates betraying him, and Bontu is the type of entity to betray him at the first visible opportunity (it's his power that keeps her in line, after all). Also, considering he seems to be done with Amonkhet now that he's getting his army, and Bontu presumably can't leave the plane considering the nature of the gods, her services are no longer required, and he can just shatter her hopes and dreams for giggles.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
The decision, in her mind, was either try to stand up to Bolas (pre-Mending level, because it can't be stressed enough that Bontu probably isn't aware of this power difference) and most certainly die or worse, OR submit to him and hopefully not die. Even in his current state, Bolas made quick work of her.
If she had thought about it some more, she could have secretly unraveled his plans while he was away, but she was too fearful of his perceived power to do so.
Easier is the same thing as more likely to succeed. Theres no value in being valorous in the face of an entity like Bolas. When youre opponent is that far beyond you in power there cannot be any room for standing up and being a "good" person. And again. It was a bit about power for her. She is ambition incarnate. While, probably first in her mind was her own, and her siblings and maybe the people of the planes, survival she would honestly have thought that Bolas could bring her power. Apparently the art book mentions Bontu not being happy with her position of only being over embalming so she would have been all too happy to try and stand with Bolas if it got her more power.
You throw around coward like it really means something but its really just a fancy word. In the thick of things, when it comes down to it, courage is often overrated and is often meaningless. I mean of she had stood up to Bolas she just would have died sooner, or been totally brainwashed like the others and been killed by Scorpy. Either way shes dead. But if she goes along she lives, she can do what she can to protect her siblings and the mortals, and maybe come out on top in the end. In any other way that this plays out its probably markedly worse for everyone. Hazoret would probably have died too and then who would protect the mortal survivors out in the desert for the next fourty years? But bravery? Bravery grts her killed for literal nothing. That's what I hate about the noble sacrifice trope. So often the reality is that that sacrifice would be meaningless and the thing you died to protect would probably die anyway. Better to be ruthless and pragmatic and take the route with the best poasible outcome, even if it is "cowardly."
Bolas.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
While Bolas was to blame for the Eldrazi being loose, Nahiri was still the direct culprit of what went down in Innistrad, and unless Bolas's plans run that deeply, it wasn't his idea to sic Emrakul on Sorin's homeplane out of vengeance or twist the leylines with lithomancy.
Bolas did ask Bontu to kill Hazoret, which she did not. Only cast a spell that weakened her to appear dead only to free her from it. She had also anticipated the fight itself, presumably planning to spare Hazoret all the while, but feigning loyalty as a means to survive. Perhaps she felt if Bolas could take enough from the world, if enough of his plan for it was fulfilled, at least she and the god Bontu would come to spare in their fight would survive?
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Actually, if you want to trace it all the way back, it would be Ugin's fault. The whole Eldrazi fiasco started because he was curious to see what would happen without the Eldrazi (but without killing them). I'm very convinced at this time the whole "for the good of the multiverse" and "there's no way to defeat the Eldrazi" were just convenient excuses he used to convince a naive Nahiri back then (he could probably just use pure force which he probably demonstrated once to Sorin, but it'll be less convenient in the long run, he did need their co-operation for the plan and he can't kill Sorin because of that so he couldn't pick Innistrad for sure - yes I know Sorin chose to abandon Innistrad ultimately, but he had some bargaining power being part of the plan and he certainly preferred Innistrad untouched.) Considering how he doesn't really care about Tarkir's internal state of affairs, I doubt he cared about Sorin and Nahiri's internal conflicts (and what he engineered of it unknowingly but he doesn't care anyway) and his "experiment" is all he cares about and like Bolas, it's because he's powerful enough to ignore any consequences that would hit him (the only consequence that could be powerful enough to hit him was the Eldrazi dying and that wasn't part of his plan).
Bolas doesn't know enough about Sorin and Nahiri to engineer anything (unless they backtrack on that) and if the Eldrazi were never sealed, he would have probably picked some other plane to lure the Eldrazi directly (probably Ravnica) if his plan with the Eldrazi were to see if "goody-planeswalkers" like Jace would band up together (or just watch from a naturally-eldrazi-chosen plane, considering location selection wasn't any priority of his to begin with).
As for Bontu, it was never about the "easiest route to victory", there was no victory the moment the 8 of them lost, it was always a "higher chance of survival". Sure, it turned out to be 0% either way, but considering what little they knew about Bolas in that mere few days back then, as a being of ambition it not illogical to assume there's a slightly higher chance of survival the siding with him, especially when what honor is there in choosing the lower chance of survival against a being capable of silencing sphinxes and erasing history (including said self-honor from your own mind)?
The spell was going to kill Hazoret. It was just a slow death, as opposed to a fast one. "Hazoret struggled weakly, but Bontu's magic drained her life force at a slow, relentless pace." Releasing her was most likely a last ditch revenge effort on Bolas.
Sorry, not to sidetrack back a minute, but Avacyn is my wheelhouse and super-personal to me. Tiro is dead-on, and agreed Peacemaker20. Avacyn was....distant, but hardly the robotic entity she was made out to be. When given the chance for characterization, Avacyn was childlike, but that didn't make her simply a blank slate. True, she never was able to share the intimacy with the people that Sigarda could, but she felt as much love and devotion to those in her care before her manipulation and corruption as an artificial nigh-omnipotent guardian could. She didn't blankly recognize Sorin as her creator; as the fight progressed, she saw him as the monster of a father he kind of is, and felt a great sense of sorrow that he rejected her and wanted to reset her. That isn't robotic; that's fear and disappointment for feeling her father was abandoning her. She felt connected to children and their innocence as like them, she didn't know the true nature of her own existence.
When her last thoughts were a prayer for forgiveness and for the people to know she only wanted to protect them, even as a recitation of her purpose as endowed by Sorin, that was gut-wrenching. She failed, she knew it, and she regretted it dearly.
The main difference is Hazoret gets a chance to right the wrongs And save her people. Sigarda got a chance to save the people from the existential threat after she failed to fight for her 3rd sister years before. Avacyn never was given a chance to restore herself and save her flock. It can be argued as to whether she was too far gone or not to be saved, but it's tragic regardless.
Thing is, for those of us who believe in something greater than ourselves in real life, those kind of deaths hurt the worst. It's one thing to see a character be killed off or even corrupted. It's another to see that in what is meant to be a religious figure when you see elements of your own faith in those characters. Family is Irish Catholic. The flaws of my mom's church mirror a lot of the lore and inspiration for the Church of Avacyn. But like I find elements of the real faith that help me get by, the same could be said of characters who saw Avacyn as more than her church. But we don't see Jesus, Buddha or other religious figures fall from grace and attack their devotees. That's what hurt about Avacyn; it inverted a clear allegory for a real faith and hit home to a section of the playerbase. Hazoret we saw an inverse of the inverse; we see a misaligned religious figure gian clarity and work to correct their mistakes. The foil of Avacyn and Hazoret, in addition to the Amonkhet vs Theros gods are both reasons why I found this story today and the lore of the world overall so compelling.
I'm just happy Hazoret survived, so there's hope for the world, and unlike with Sigarda, we get to see the remaining hope play a pivotal role in saving the people, instead of just being told about it, which was my biggest issue with Eldritch Moon's resolution. Also, yay Jackal goddess. I'm also a canine lover, and we don't get too much love in the game. : p
EDH - Yes, Each One is Named After a Song. I love tying music to my decks.
B Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief B - Fear of the Dark
WG Sigarda, Heron's Grace WG - Strength in Numbers
RG Xenagos, God of Revels RG - Fullmoon (It's werewolves)
RW Archangel Avacyn // Avacyn, the Purifier RW - The End is Nigh
60 Card Kitchen Table Decks
WUB Avacyn, Spirit Ferrier
RG Arlinn Kord's Howlpack
Just a couple of stories ago, we were shown his conquest of Amonkhet. He was still in possession of godlike power, but knew that he was losing it, so he put forth the minimum effort to accomplish his goals. He was efficient, taking swift, decisive action. We are even told that he doesn't usually resort to destruction, but it is a necessary tool at times.
Now, he has returned. He's still strong, but weaker than before due to the Mending. Yet he fires off pointless spells to kill random fleeing citizens? He kills his allies when they are still willing and able to serve? He's being wasteful. The first rule of writing a good villain: Evil does not mean dumb.
Would have made more sense if the gods had managed to break free of his control before he arrived. When he appears, they and the Gatewatch confront him. Angered, his red side takes over for a second, and THAT'S when he decides to destroy Amonkhet. Makes more sense than, "he planned to do it all along, cuz he's EVIL."
They did that with the Urza block, going back thousands of years to the Brother's War.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
This exact point has been debated for weeks on this forum. I don't see why it is so hard to understand that Bolas is just doing it, because that's what he does. Amonkhet can give him nothing more. Sure, he could just leave, but if you just got your playtoy you waited for 60 years, don't you want to try it out?
People always judge Nicol's actions from a human perspective, but he's not a human, he's a millenia old formerly omnipotent dragon planeswalker.
Are his acts evil? Eh, "evil" is such a loaded term, it doesn't even mean anything anymore. Am I evil because I step on a bug? From the bug's perspective yes, but not from most humans' perspective. Nicol doesn't care about humans (or you know, other races). Does that make him evil? To humans yes, but then again, that makes him evil per definition.
Nicol has always done what he wanted. And right now he feels like flexing his muscles and destroy Amonkhet, because why the hell not.
It's almost like the way stories are being told in Magic have changed in the intervening 18 years.
The way things are set up now, it would be jarring to go back in time without a planeswalker to accompany (cough Sarkhan cough) not to mention that it would be very confusing for people who don't follow the story that closely.
Then again, maybe WotC finds a way to still do it eventually.
I think they already found a way, if they are using the new coreset right, we could get all the "old stuff that never got cards and don't fit into a normal set" things.
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.