It's worth noting that a whole lot of things make more sense if Ral is working for Bolas. The whole 'he created the Gatewatch' thing from the art book makes sense when you realize Ral (attempted to have) led Jace to Gideon in Project Lightning Bug, and also appears In This Very Arena where Liliana reveals they found Tezzeret and are all heading to Kaladesh.
Can you explain this a little further, please? There are a lot of things here I don't know/understand.
It connects a lot of dots.
In the artbook, Bolas' reason for releasing the Eldrazi is to see how planeswalkers would react. He also takes credit for the Gatewatch. That's more interesting when you realize that Jace and Gideon become aware of each other in Project Lightning Bugbecause of Ral Zarek.
During In This Very Area, Jace and Ral are having a meeting when Liliana shows up. She blurts out that they're heading to Kaladesh and they found Tezzeret. Ral is also the one who points Jace to Vraska in that story... and where do we see Vraska next? Ixalan, alongside Jace.
Plus, it's possible the mystery project of Ral's is that the Planar Bridge need Project Lightning Bug (which can track planeswalkers from plane to plane) as a kind of Navigation unit. Rashmi was able to use it to teleport on the same plane, but when she ducks her head into it there's a ton of different planes it cycles through all at once. That would explain why the Eternals weren't moved off-plane during the story. Bolas is still waiting on a final component, and Ral has only had the last two days to work on it.
Vraska also seems to be in Bolas's employ, or at least has some sort of arrangement with him in regards to Ixalan, based on the (decipherable) flavortext for one of the Story Spotlight cards, River's Rebuke:
"Carefully following the ??? [compass?] Bolas had given her, Vraska ??? ??? [made?] the River [Name] ???."
I'm not 100% sure that that's Vraska's name, but it starts with a V and the penultimate letter is a K, so I'm pretty confident. Bolas's name is clearly visible, though. If it is Vraska following Bolas's instructions, that means that two of the three known Ravnican walkers have a direct connection to him. Not sure if that means anything, but it's interesting.
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"The true measure of all heroes is not what they achieve, but who they inspire." —Triumph of Gerrard
I liked it. I thought they could have made Nicol Bolas a bit more 'inscrutable and acient' and far less passive aggressive and, well, petty. It was all a bit much.
"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
First off, great 'voice' here. Is he 20,000 years old or 20? This endless taunting..he sounds more like he's 20. I'm also pretty sure there's no such things as jobs, or application processes, in the Magic multiverse. WTF, author?
"Enough, foolish child." SEE? THIS IS BETTER.
His voice was just wrong for most of the article.
Surprised Gideon survived, but then again, who's going to replace him anytime soon? They replaced Ajani for a reason.
This wasn't my favorite of the stories but it's nice to see it finished all the same. Great storyline this block!
Seriously, that is my problem with everything in Bolas's voice in this block (story, flavor text, etc). He acts like a f****ng child. 25,000 years' experience has yielded you this kind of perspective? That of a 26 year-old man-child living in his parents' basement? Taunting a 10 year-old through his wireless headset with whom he's playing Call of Duty?
Ugin was always way more believable as having the perspective of a being who has lived for dozens of millennia.
I liked it. I thought they could have made Nicol Bolas a bit more 'inscrutable and acient' and far less passive aggressive and, well, petty. It was all a bit much.
"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
First off, great 'voice' here. Is he 20,000 years old or 20? This endless taunting..he sounds more like he's 20. I'm also pretty sure there's no such things as jobs, or application processes, in the Magic multiverse. WTF, author?
"Enough, foolish child." SEE? THIS IS BETTER.
His voice was just wrong for most of the article.
Surprised Gideon survived, but then again, who's going to replace him anytime soon? They replaced Ajani for a reason.
This wasn't my favorite of the stories but it's nice to see it finished all the same. Great storyline this block!
Seriously, that is my problem with everything in Bolas's voice in this block (story, flavor text, etc). He acts like a f****ng child. 25,000 years' experience has yielded you this kind of perspective? That of a 26 year-old man-child living in his parents' basement? Taunting a 10 year-old through his wireless headset with whom he's playing Call of Duty?
Ugin was always way more believable as having the perspective of a being who has lived for dozens of millennia.
Seriously, Creative needs to get better writers.
I get what you're saying, but I'm not entirely convinced millenia of existence necessarily prevents the use of overly snarky dialogue or "childish" behaviour, especially since that still didn't get in the way of Bolas curbstomping them or his getting his Eternal army and the Planar Bridge. Also, Ugin and Bolas are two very different beings, and therefore it would be reasonable to expect that while one would act like the stereotypical age-old entity, the other's enormous lifespan and experience made him even more hammy.
The part that bothers me about Bolas, in all honesty, is that they tried to be too complex with his schemes, and when the time comes to put all the pieces together, it may end up falling flat.
What's wrong with Bolas taunting the Gatewatch? Does being a 25,000 yr old dragon mean you can't have fun or that you have to speak like an English professor at all times? Also, I'm pretty sure jobs and applications exist in the Multiverse. The Azorius is literally the bureaucracy guild. Kaladesh would need grants for its inventors to do stuff. Not everyone in MTG is a soldier, mage, planeswalker, etc. There are also normal people.
Taunting is a valid tactic in a battle. He knows when to be serious and when to talk *****. I'm glad that Creative's image of Bolas includes hamming it up. Niv's personality is pretty random (Ral walked in on Niv eating a guy in the e-books) and I'm sure Ugin isn't above that as well. They just haven't gotten to him yet. Let dragons be dragons, damn.
The only part of the story where Bolas sounded like a believable super villain with 25K years of experience was this:
"Later. Go and tell Ral Zarek to come to me. His progress is too slow." Tezzeret hated being used as an errand runner, which was part of why Bolas enjoyed doing it so much. An unbalanced Tezzeret was an effective Tezzeret. Every time he found satisfaction he quickly became useless. "Go. Now."
Liliana, God of Ambition! I really enjoyed the symmetry of Liliana's "betrayal" the gatewatch and Bontu's towards her fellow gods. She even justified it in the same way to Chandra 'you know who I am" as Bontu did with Hazoret. Even if Liliana only said it in her mind.
You guys have already covered most of my thoughts on this story, but I will say this. Bolas' portrayal here strikes me as being similar to a much smarter Frieza (from DBZ) in his gleeful smack talk backed up by overwhelming power. This is a good thing.
I liked it. I thought they could have made Nicol Bolas a bit more 'inscrutable and acient' and far less passive aggressive and, well, petty. It was all a bit much.
"And then there were three. I didn't want to annoy your dear departed necromancer, but between us, I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
First off, great 'voice' here. Is he 20,000 years old or 20? This endless taunting..he sounds more like he's 20. I'm also pretty sure there's no such things as jobs, or application processes, in the Magic multiverse. WTF, author?
"Enough, foolish child." SEE? THIS IS BETTER.
His voice was just wrong for most of the article.
Surprised Gideon survived, but then again, who's going to replace him anytime soon? They replaced Ajani for a reason.
This wasn't my favorite of the stories but it's nice to see it finished all the same. Great storyline this block!
Really? Seriously? This is how Bolas has ALWAYS been. He has never been inscrutable, like literally never. Even in the early 90s his personality and motivations were the same. He wants power, lots of it, and he's a prick that likes to lord over people, taunt, threaten, and humiliate enemies and subordinates alike. He also knows what jobs and application processes are, as he had those as part of his beauracracy in Madara. Like, he literally had jobs with application processes as a way to delegate power to subordinates.
You may not like this style of villain, that's fine, but Bolas has been this kind of villain for over 20 years, the author has nothing to do with it.
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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!
It's worth noting that a whole lot of things make more sense if Ral is working for Bolas. The whole 'he created the Gatewatch' thing from the art book makes sense when you realize Ral (attempted to have) led Jace to Gideon in Project Lightning Bug, and also appears In This Very Arena where Liliana reveals they found Tezzeret and are all heading to Kaladesh.
Can you explain this a little further, please? There are a lot of things here I don't know/understand.
It connects a lot of dots.
In the artbook, Bolas' reason for releasing the Eldrazi is to see how planeswalkers would react. He also takes credit for the Gatewatch. That's more interesting when you realize that Jace and Gideon become aware of each other in Project Lightning Bugbecause of Ral Zarek.
During In This Very Area, Jace and Ral are having a meeting when Liliana shows up. She blurts out that they're heading to Kaladesh and they found Tezzeret. Ral is also the one who points Jace to Vraska in that story... and where do we see Vraska next? Ixalan, alongside Jace.
Plus, it's possible the mystery project of Ral's is that the Planar Bridge need Project Lightning Bug (which can track planeswalkers from plane to plane) as a kind of Navigation unit. Rashmi was able to use it to teleport on the same plane, but when she ducks her head into it there's a ton of different planes it cycles through all at once. That would explain why the Eternals weren't moved off-plane during the story. Bolas is still waiting on a final component, and Ral has only had the last two days to work on it.
Vraska also seems to be in Bolas's employ, or at least has some sort of arrangement with him in regards to Ixalan, based on the (decipherable) flavortext for one of the Story Spotlight cards, River's Rebuke:
"Carefully following the ??? [compass?] Bolas had given her, Vraska ??? ??? [made?] the River [Name] ???."
I'm not 100% sure that that's Vraska's name, but it starts with a V and the penultimate letter is a K, so I'm pretty confident. Bolas's name is clearly visible, though. If it is Vraska following Bolas's instructions, that means that two of the three known Ravnican walkers have a direct connection to him. Not sure if that means anything, but it's interesting.
I love all the subtle dots in past chapters, Bolas's web of scheme stretched further than we first imagined.
Of course he could have a little fun after all that scheming. What are the Gatewatch but his (self-made) toy?
The only part of the story where Bolas sounded like a believable super villain with 25K years of experience was this:
"Later. Go and tell Ral Zarek to come to me. His progress is too slow." Tezzeret hated being used as an errand runner, which was part of why Bolas enjoyed
doing it so much. An unbalanced Tezzeret was an effective Tezzeret. Every time he found satisfaction he quickly became useless. "Go. Now."
The only part you say? So that entire section with Bolas talking Liliana into submission, or the part where he lectured Gideon about tactics, or even the part where he had his mental defenses up against Jace, but deliberately let Jace in anyway to ravage Jace's mind, those don't count?
Also, why are we stereotyping 25,000 year old dragons so hard? Bolas isn't a perfectly written character by any means, but I'm having trouble understanding why any of Bolas's displayed traits are so impossible for his age and experience.
I really enjoyed today's story, thought it was great, and probably the thing I liked most was how well the Author showed how much Bolas was enjoying himself. Throughout the entire story you really get a sense that this is someone who's been waiting for something for a very long time and now that it's here he's going to bask in every moment. I don't really mind Bolas being hammy because 1) as others have said this has always been his character, and 2)from the beginning of the story it is made very clear Bolas is not taking this fight seriously, whatever it may mean to the GW, to Bolas this is just a bit of fun, so he's going to play with his food and put on a show. There's nothing wrong with having villains who are "evil cuz it's fun" mustache twirlers as long as they're done well, and in this case I think it was.
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My Decks:
UG Merfolk RG 8-Whack BWG Abzan midrange GRB Living End UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin" RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!" BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
I find it funny how people claim to know what a 25,000 year old dragon oldwalker would sound like.
As others have said, this was Bolas as he has always been.
Another thing to mention: He may sound like a bond villain, but the difference between him and bond vaillains is that Bolas doesn't fail. Yes, he is cocky, but he can back it up.
The only part of the story where Bolas sounded like a believable super villain with 25K years of experience was this:
"Later. Go and tell Ral Zarek to come to me. His progress is too slow." Tezzeret hated being used as an errand runner, which was part of why Bolas enjoyed doing it so much. An unbalanced Tezzeret was an effective Tezzeret. Every time he found satisfaction he quickly became useless. "Go. Now."
Interestingly that part was also after the "fight" and thus no theatrics were needed.
It's almost as if the author knew what he was doing...
No one complained about the theatrics. It was the nature of the dialogue that was embarrassing for someone with Bolas's intellect and of his age. Phoned in is the best way to describe it.
No one complained about the theatrics. It was the nature of the dialogue that was embarrassing for someone with Bolas's intellect and of his age. Phoned in is the best way to describe it.
As others have alrady asked before: Why is it so impossible to believe that Bolas is just having fun? And why are you always ignoring every single argument against your opinion? You also didn't say why you think that this story misrepresents Bolas when it characterizes him exactly like he always was, even as emperor of Madara?
The story makes it clear that he puts up a show for his enjoyment before the Gatewatch. He likes being hammy. Simple as that. He didn't even make any obvious mistakes in dealing with them, so his experience clearly shows.
I loved the story and I despise Bolas, yet at the same time I had to laugh with him at the hubris of the gatewatch. Amonkhet looks bleaker now though then at the end of the last story, since it seems that Bolas doesn't really plan to leave yet.
I'm also intrigued by the obvious apokalypse that must have happened on that plane before he showed up.
Seriously, that is my problem with everything in Bolas's voice in this block (story, flavor text, etc). He acts like a f****ng child. 25,000 years' experience has yielded you this kind of perspective? That of a 26 year-old man-child living in his parents' basement? Taunting a 10 year-old through his wireless headset with whom he's playing Call of Duty?
25,000 years of experience being in his own words. "A god." He is all the "Bad" parts of the Grixis colors, He is an arrogant self-centered jerk who above all else is bored. He talks down to the Gatewatch to prove how smart he is because the only Jollies he can really get is laughing to himself about how much "better." he is than those little idiots who can't even think of a good name for themselves.
Yes he has no motivation beyond. "For the Lulz and I am bored." He isn't a 26 year old Man-child living in his parent's basement. He is a 26 year old Man-Child with a middle management position who proceeds to take out his frustrations that he has a pointless, meaningless job on random people on the internet by acting like an edge lord.
Though the best part that intrigues me is Ral Zarek. Curious what this will mean in the future; Bolas invading Ravnica now that that Guildpact is absent?
Besides already knowing where Jace went do I wonder where the rest of the gatewatch end up. Considering after Ixalan we get Dominaria we might have Liliana going to lick her wounds there.
I also wonder how Hazoret being alive, the scorpion god being killed or Samut as a walker and all that might intel will factor now in Bolas plans.
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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"
Besides already knowing where Jace went do I wonder where the rest of the gatewatch end up. Considering after Ixalan we get Dominaria we might have Liliana going to lick her wounds there.
I also wonder how Hazoret being alive, the scorpion god being killed or Samut as a walker and all that might intel will factor now in Bolas plans.
I bet one at least will have gone to Ravnica, I would bet on Gideon. Chandra probably hopped back to Kaladesh or The Monk Keep, Nissa likely bolted to Zendikar, Liliana? Innistrad Perhaps as it is her main haunt. That or all but Liliana went back to Ravnica as that is the Gatewatch's home base..but at this point with Jace MindBooped (which I sorta called by the way, He didn't get the bad touch but Jace was the logical one to get Mind Wiped) somebody is going to have to explain why the Guildpact is missing.
I really hope that them planeswalking away to their own places will mean that the story will now focus on one Planeswalker at the time, instead of having the whole Gatewatch together all the time.
I´m especially interested in finding out what will happend to Jace and his mind on Ixalan.
And complaining about jobs and applications, really? That's not a new thing we just invented during the last decade.
It has been a thing in our world for several hundred years.
I'd be suprised if it's not a very common thing in... Ravnica for example.
Yeah what if that totally Boros dude who volunteered to guard the booze is a Rakdos cultist and you don't check his references? Now the booze is missing and theres a drunk demon fist-fighting the statue on the corner of Kos St and 500th, and an Izzet Geomancer's betting 1000 zino on the statue to win it. And the statue will win, because this Geomancer is controlling the thing like she's playing Punch Out.
All because the Boros don't have a formal system of job applications.
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“Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are.” Esmeralda Santiago Art is life itself.
I really expected Gideon to die. It was pretty clear Wizards intended us to believe so with Ajani joining the Gatewatch, Bontu showing Gideon his mortality, finding such strong faith in Oketra and losing her, and all his buddies porting away while he stayed. I figured it would be Gideon or Nissa as Gideon would be the first of the Gatewatch to give his life if needed to and Nissa has experienced a massive character growth.
Now that Liliana has bailed, maybe we can find ourselves a new Black member for the Gatewatch. Then maybe Garruk would consider joining them?
4. The big shock of the story, of course, is that Ral Zarek is working with Bolas. Which does NOT have good implications, given this pretty much means that Bolas is at least somewhat connected to Project Lightning Bug. That seems bad. On a side note, could you imagine Niv-Mizzets reaction to finding out about all this?
I think Niv will be more shocked about the fact that beings exist that are even smarter than he is.
In short, everything Gatewatch has accomplished, even their victory on Kaladesh, is within the perimeter of Bolas's plan, no matter what they do it'd end up benefiting Bolas in some way. Bolas also mentioned other "heroes" in multiverse whom he's aware, he most definitely also anticipated all of them joining hands also, and serve him one way or another.
So far this seems true though I hope this ends soon. There's only so much even an age old masterplotters with way too much power on his hands can plot out and if this continues even more he will start to feel more like some deus ex machina plot device than an actual villain. Which would be a shame, because I really love the character and would love to read more story from his point of view.
Also, I find it ironic that we finally get the finale of the Amonkhet storyline with the return of Magic's premiere villain in action and all people talk about is Ral Zarek because he is name dropped in one sentence at the end...
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The secret to enjoyable Commander games is not winning first, but losing last.
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"Carefully following the ??? [compass?] Bolas had given her, Vraska ??? ??? [made?] the River [Name] ???."
I'm not 100% sure that that's Vraska's name, but it starts with a V and the penultimate letter is a K, so I'm pretty confident. Bolas's name is clearly visible, though. If it is Vraska following Bolas's instructions, that means that two of the three known Ravnican walkers have a direct connection to him. Not sure if that means anything, but it's interesting.
Seriously, that is my problem with everything in Bolas's voice in this block (story, flavor text, etc). He acts like a f****ng child. 25,000 years' experience has yielded you this kind of perspective? That of a 26 year-old man-child living in his parents' basement? Taunting a 10 year-old through his wireless headset with whom he's playing Call of Duty?
Ugin was always way more believable as having the perspective of a being who has lived for dozens of millennia.
Seriously, Creative needs to get better writers.
I get what you're saying, but I'm not entirely convinced millenia of existence necessarily prevents the use of overly snarky dialogue or "childish" behaviour, especially since that still didn't get in the way of Bolas curbstomping them or his getting his Eternal army and the Planar Bridge. Also, Ugin and Bolas are two very different beings, and therefore it would be reasonable to expect that while one would act like the stereotypical age-old entity, the other's enormous lifespan and experience made him even more hammy.
The part that bothers me about Bolas, in all honesty, is that they tried to be too complex with his schemes, and when the time comes to put all the pieces together, it may end up falling flat.
Taunting is a valid tactic in a battle. He knows when to be serious and when to talk *****. I'm glad that Creative's image of Bolas includes hamming it up. Niv's personality is pretty random (Ral walked in on Niv eating a guy in the e-books) and I'm sure Ugin isn't above that as well. They just haven't gotten to him yet. Let dragons be dragons, damn.
"Kiora is the Aquaman of planeswalkers."
"Useless and everyone pretends to like her?"
"Later. Go and tell Ral Zarek to come to me. His progress is too slow." Tezzeret hated being used as an errand runner, which was part of why Bolas enjoyed doing it so much. An unbalanced Tezzeret was an effective Tezzeret. Every time he found satisfaction he quickly became useless. "Go. Now."
|| 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 ||
Really? Seriously? This is how Bolas has ALWAYS been. He has never been inscrutable, like literally never. Even in the early 90s his personality and motivations were the same. He wants power, lots of it, and he's a prick that likes to lord over people, taunt, threaten, and humiliate enemies and subordinates alike. He also knows what jobs and application processes are, as he had those as part of his beauracracy in Madara. Like, he literally had jobs with application processes as a way to delegate power to subordinates.
You may not like this style of villain, that's fine, but Bolas has been this kind of villain for over 20 years, the author has nothing to do with it.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
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 love all the subtle dots in past chapters, Bolas's web of scheme stretched further than we first imagined.
Of course he could have a little fun after all that scheming. What are the Gatewatch but his (self-made) toy?
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
The only part you say? So that entire section with Bolas talking Liliana into submission, or the part where he lectured Gideon about tactics, or even the part where he had his mental defenses up against Jace, but deliberately let Jace in anyway to ravage Jace's mind, those don't count?
Also, why are we stereotyping 25,000 year old dragons so hard? Bolas isn't a perfectly written character by any means, but I'm having trouble understanding why any of Bolas's displayed traits are so impossible for his age and experience.
RG 8-Whack
BWG Abzan midrange
GRB Living End
UWB Spirit Control
GU Kruphix's "Hug Assassin"
RW Kalemne's "Play Fatties and Hope for the Best!"
BUGW Atraxa's "All counters, all the time"
As others have said, this was Bolas as he has always been.
Another thing to mention: He may sound like a bond villain, but the difference between him and bond vaillains is that Bolas doesn't fail. Yes, he is cocky, but he can back it up.
Interestingly that part was also after the "fight" and thus no theatrics were needed.
It's almost as if the author knew what he was doing...
RGTron
UGInfect
URStorm
WUBRAd Nauseam
BRGrishoalbrand
URGScapeshift
WBGAbzan Company
WUBRGAmulet Titan
BRGLiving End
WGBogles
Tezzeret put the core component in his metal arm before he fought with Liliana.
|| 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 ||
As others have alrady asked before: Why is it so impossible to believe that Bolas is just having fun? And why are you always ignoring every single argument against your opinion? You also didn't say why you think that this story misrepresents Bolas when it characterizes him exactly like he always was, even as emperor of Madara?
The story makes it clear that he puts up a show for his enjoyment before the Gatewatch. He likes being hammy. Simple as that. He didn't even make any obvious mistakes in dealing with them, so his experience clearly shows.
I loved the story and I despise Bolas, yet at the same time I had to laugh with him at the hubris of the gatewatch. Amonkhet looks bleaker now though then at the end of the last story, since it seems that Bolas doesn't really plan to leave yet.
I'm also intrigued by the obvious apokalypse that must have happened on that plane before he showed up.
25,000 years of experience being in his own words. "A god." He is all the "Bad" parts of the Grixis colors, He is an arrogant self-centered jerk who above all else is bored. He talks down to the Gatewatch to prove how smart he is because the only Jollies he can really get is laughing to himself about how much "better." he is than those little idiots who can't even think of a good name for themselves.
Yes he has no motivation beyond. "For the Lulz and I am bored." He isn't a 26 year old Man-child living in his parent's basement. He is a 26 year old Man-Child with a middle management position who proceeds to take out his frustrations that he has a pointless, meaningless job on random people on the internet by acting like an edge lord.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Though the best part that intrigues me is Ral Zarek. Curious what this will mean in the future; Bolas invading Ravnica now that that Guildpact is absent?
I also wonder how Hazoret being alive, the scorpion god being killed or Samut as a walker and all that might intel will factor now in Bolas plans.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I bet one at least will have gone to Ravnica, I would bet on Gideon. Chandra probably hopped back to Kaladesh or The Monk Keep, Nissa likely bolted to Zendikar, Liliana? Innistrad Perhaps as it is her main haunt. That or all but Liliana went back to Ravnica as that is the Gatewatch's home base..but at this point with Jace MindBooped (which I sorta called by the way, He didn't get the bad touch but Jace was the logical one to get Mind Wiped) somebody is going to have to explain why the Guildpact is missing.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
I´m especially interested in finding out what will happend to Jace and his mind on Ixalan.
All because the Boros don't have a formal system of job applications.
Art is life itself.
Now that Liliana has bailed, maybe we can find ourselves a new Black member for the Gatewatch. Then maybe Garruk would consider joining them?
So far this seems true though I hope this ends soon. There's only so much even an age old masterplotters with way too much power on his hands can plot out and if this continues even more he will start to feel more like some deus ex machina plot device than an actual villain. Which would be a shame, because I really love the character and would love to read more story from his point of view.
Also, I find it ironic that we finally get the finale of the Amonkhet storyline with the return of Magic's premiere villain in action and all people talk about is Ral Zarek because he is name dropped in one sentence at the end...
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.