Have any of you met a 25,000 year old elder dragon? Who's the oldest person you know? 105 years old, tops? And why do they start acting different? Encroaching death. Not one of us knows how a being that old would behave. We've seen other works of fiction with beings as old as Bolas, but they've been just that, works of fiction. To take into account those instances of ancient beings as evidence of how Bolas would act is just silly. Also, anyone else ever met an elderly person who acts like a child? I know I have.
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.
Has Gideon returned to Theros? Has Gideon gotten over his guilt over getting his Irregulars killed? Has Gideon's hidden desire that he shouted at Erebos that we didn't hear during Jace's mental struggle against Emrakul come to light yet? Is Ajani (post-Theros) or his Oath mono-white?
If you've answered "No" to all of these questions, I want to know how you drew your conclusions. I've said it before, but I can't understand how anyone who's been following the story expects Gideon to die here.
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...
Probably because Ral being an agent of Bolas is completely unexpected. Jay noted that there were signs, which is a good thing, but it was still pretty surprising.
I'm not a big defender of the story/writing or anything, but man, some people on here really like to find fault in everything Wizards puts out. Like others have already said, not every 25,000 year old being has to talk or act the same or in the way you want it to (and Bolas has shown similar behavior in the past). Also, I seriously think that people are expecting too much. Sure, it's understandable that you want the story to be as good as possible. But this isn't a novel that was carefully planned and written years in advance, nor will it ever be. It's more close to a fantasy comic in text form. It's a supplement that's supposed to be sufficiently thought through and entertaining, but not much more than that. BFZ-levels of writing were admittedly unbearable, but the story has become decent enough lately that you can read it on the side and feel like you didn't 100% waste your time. That's enough for me at least.
I have to agree with 5colors up there. After I read the story, I hypothesized that the place Bolas would have her meet him would be somewhere familiar to both of them, i.e. Dominaria.
The thing is, Ajani went to Dominaria to regroup, and gather more planeswalkers to help strategize against Bolas. How interesting would it be for, of the Gatewatch, only Liliana to show up and have to explain what happened? That would be her lowest point, I think. I have to believe that Ajani would be gentle with her.
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.
Has Gideon returned to Theros? Has Gideon gotten over his guilt over getting his Irregulars killed? Has Gideon's hidden desire that he shouted at Erebos that we didn't hear during Jace's mental struggle against Emrakul come to light yet? Is Ajani (post-Theros) or his Oath mono-white?
If you've answered "No" to all of these questions, I want to know how you drew your conclusions. I've said it before, but I can't understand how anyone who's been following the story expects Gideon to die here.
Couldn´t that be said about Elspeth too? I´m sure there were a lot of unanswered questions too before she died.
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.
Has Gideon returned to Theros? Has Gideon gotten over his guilt over getting his Irregulars killed? Has Gideon's hidden desire that he shouted at Erebos that we didn't hear during Jace's mental struggle against Emrakul come to light yet? Is Ajani (post-Theros) or his Oath mono-white?
If you've answered "No" to all of these questions, I want to know how you drew your conclusions. I've said it before, but I can't understand how anyone who's been following the story expects Gideon to die here.
Couldn´t that be said about Elspeth too? I´m sure there were a lot of unanswered questions too before she died.
Except that Elspeth's death isn't absolute, and never has been, because of where she died.
If Gideon died on Amonkhet, he would have died for good, and then be raised by the Curse of Wandering.
The people who want or expect any Gatewatch member to die are literally stupid. I went back and read a lot of BFZ stories and they're pretty solid, aside from Kreines having difficulty with Nissa (she is indeed better with analytical rather than emotional writing, which showed in SOI/EMN). The GW has been a welcome consistency in the lore, them losing has been interesting, their early and untimely deaths are absurd expectations that should be ignored, and will be.
I did not read anything during the Return to Ravnica block because the story was trash. Did Ral Zarek conspire to help Jace become the guildpact, or try to stop him from doing so? Knowing he was an agent of Bolas makes me wonder what his intentions were.
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.
His primary motivation is to get back to Oldwalker status. The rest of how he acts is just personality traits. He's a comic book supervillan. That's his role. He's like a Lex Luthor or Rick Sanchez character. That's all good.
I'm not a big defender of the story/writing or anything, but man, some people on here really like to find fault in everything Wizards puts out. Like others have already said, not every 25,000 year old being has to talk or act the same or in the way you want it to (and Bolas has shown similar behavior in the past). Also, I seriously think that people are expecting too much. Sure, it's understandable that you want the story to be as good as possible. But this isn't a novel that was carefully planned and written years in advance, nor will it ever be. It's more close to a fantasy comic in text form. It's a supplement that's supposed to be sufficiently thought through and entertaining, but not much more than that. BFZ-levels of writing were admittedly unbearable, but the story has become decent enough lately that you can read it on the side and feel like you didn't 100% waste your time. That's enough for me at least.
I agree, no story ever can stand up to the critiscism level of this forum.
I did not read anything during the Return to Ravnica block because the story was trash. Did Ral Zarek conspire to help Jace become the guildpact, or try to stop him from doing so? Knowing he was an agent of Bolas makes me wonder what his intentions were.
Ral tried to kill Jace in the Implicit Maze, so it'd be extremely odd if he had any intention of Jace becoming the Living Guildpact.
Return to Return to Ravnica now has at least four potential plot threads to follow:
1.) The Kraul's attempted coup of the Golgari in favour of Vraska.
2.) Teysa's attempt to bring down the Obzedat.
3.) The chaos that is likely going to ensue due to Jace's prolonged absence.
4.) Ral being an agent of Bolas.
I'm not a big defender of the story/writing or anything, but man, some people on here really like to find fault in everything Wizards puts out. Like others have already said, not every 25,000 year old being has to talk or act the same or in the way you want it to (and Bolas has shown similar behavior in the past). Also, I seriously think that people are expecting too much. Sure, it's understandable that you want the story to be as good as possible. But this isn't a novel that was carefully planned and written years in advance, nor will it ever be. It's more close to a fantasy comic in text form. It's a supplement that's supposed to be sufficiently thought through and entertaining, but not much more than that. BFZ-levels of writing were admittedly unbearable, but the story has become decent enough lately that you can read it on the side and feel like you didn't 100% waste your time. That's enough for me at least.
I agree, no story ever can stand up to the critiscism level of this forum.
I have to believe that Ajani would be gentle with her.
There's so many jokes I want to make right now but I'm afraid they'd only get me warnings
I wrote one out, with some witty line about Lilliana being female and Ajani being a cat (you know where I went with that) but let's be honest here, given my warning and ban history, gonna have to pass this time lmao
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.
Went back and reread the Project Lightning Bug story. Its interesting that story opens with Ral in the Undercity and he seems pretty knowledgeable about the the tunnels and pathways. Now that we know he is working for Bolas that makes more sesne -- the Undercity is a UB area and isn't a place you'd expect to find too many "good guys" lurking around. Ral also expresses a lot of dislike for Jace particularly because Jace is an outsider. Ral comes of pretty xenophobic so its totally conceivable that Bolas promised to help him get Jace off Rav or Ral's anger about Jace and general xenophobia made Bolas an appealing master.
I did not read anything during the Return to Ravnica block because the story was trash. Did Ral Zarek conspire to help Jace become the guildpact, or try to stop him from doing so? Knowing he was an agent of Bolas makes me wonder what his intentions were.
Ral tried to kill Jace in the Implicit Maze, so it'd be extremely odd if he had any intention of Jace becoming the Living Guildpact.
Return to Return to Ravnica now has at least four potential plot threads to follow:
1.) The Kraul's attempted coup of the Golgari in favour of Vraska.
2.) Teysa's attempt to bring down the Obzedat.
3.) The chaos that is likely going to ensue due to Jace's prolonged absence.
4.) Ral being an agent of Bolas.
If anything, I think Jace becoming the Living Guildpact was the last thing Ral wanted.
Those plot threads could be easily tied together, much in the way the original Ravnica block's story consisted of seemingly unrelated plot threads at first.
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Considering his attitude change towards Jace after the RtR story, he could have joined up around then with Bolas.
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As someone who loves Bolas but has hated the way he has been depicted since late Alara, I have to say I love this story and its depiction because it brought me back to the Bolas I remember from the Future sight book. Compare how he talked to the gatewatch to how he taunted Leshrac; he toyed with both of them and crushed their hope because he found it fun.
Normally I love Ken Troop's writing, but this was a mess--it's frustrating because I know he's so much better than this. And I know Bolas is a dragon, but can't they at least make him feel ancient, powerful, and wise? We keep getting told that he's all these things, but every time we see him he exhibits no more complexity than a Power Rangers villain. Yawgmoth, Konda, Phage, and Heliod are all excellent villains, but Bolas? The biggest, baddest living menace in the multiverse? A fourteen-year-old could write him.
"Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
This is possibly the single most cringe-inducing quote ever delivered by any Magic character. It wasn't clever, it wasn't funny, and had no place in the mouth of an ancient all-knowing ex-god. I groaned out loud and nearly slammed my laptop shut without reading further.
This is Bolas? No one in the multiverse is older, wiser, or more powerful than this clown?
Give Yawgmoth 9,000 years, and he becomes a truly awe-inspiring, darkly majestic deity who speaks and thinks like a mad, ancient god. Give Bolas 25,000 years, and he's still a cackling cartoon villain. When you factor in how long he's been around, he's really not all that impressive. I liked him best in Future Sight, when he displayed arrogance and a touch of mockery balanced with the right amount of wisdom, age, and vastness. His taunts were measured and didn't feel so... childish.
I thought it could have been written a bit better, the pacing seemed a little rough in places, but it was good fun.
Bolas's taunting dialogue was just fine with me. He was having a good time while also intentionally leaving a very particular impression on the defeated Gatewatch.
I think a part of the problem here is we're all projecting what we want/expect/idealize about Bolas and characters of his archetype onto the character himself.
So, we're going to have differing opinions about how he should act, and how disappointed/satisfied we are when he does.
Story was fine. But it sure as hell was no corroded skull with a spine attached plane jumping chase scene that at the last second regenerates and stabs a dude through the heart who then gets flung into a time rift.
Well, this pretty much went as I imagined. Gatewatch gets curbstomped, doesn't actually die.
But seriously, "as if the multiverse had gates, and they needed to be watched". What is he, some sort of snarky YouTuber?
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
"Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"
This is possibly the single most cringe-inducing quote ever delivered by any Magic character. It wasn't clever, it wasn't funny, and had no place in the mouth of an ancient all-knowing ex-god. I groaned out loud and nearly slammed my laptop shut without reading further.
Counterpoint: It was an amazing line. The timing was perfect. The written delivery was amazing. I laughed for a good 10 seconds. I described this particular scene to my wife - who couldn't give two *****s about Magic - and even she giggled.
Let's not forget, he did nothing like this cat-and-mouse stuff with the Amonkhet gods in the flashback story. He showed up, kicked ass, and got to work. And as was mentioned earlier, once the Gatewatch was done and gone, he got right back to business.
If he wants to reward himself for decades of patience coming to fruition by having fun bashing Gideon around like a soccer ball (which was freaking hilarious) for 10 minutes just to emasculate him, then I think he's earned the reprieve.
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Heads up that once you hit Archmage Overlord, you can change the future:
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?
There's probably a way to do 'gloating' without going 'snarky' with it. That's all I'm saying. Snarky doesn't really work.
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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.
Exactly this.
You see the same problem in the flavor texts of the five defeat cards too. (Yep, all five.) If they read weirdly to you, this is why. Either call them 'Beleren', 'Vess', etc or just leave their names out altogether. Using a name is a sign of respect which makes very little sense for Bolas.
It's not that I think Bolas can't have a sense of flair or even enjoy himself a bit..gloat..all of that's fine. I guess I just think ought to dial it back a bit and make him a bit more scary like the Phyrexians feel. Whatever--maybe Magic is big enough to have different types of villains.
1) There's a lot more in this story than people realize, I think, or at least they're commenting on. Ral Zarek is about 4th on this list. Let's go through them.
A) The Gatewatch is NB's creation and tool.
NB clearly believes--and in most cases can back up--the idea that the Gatewatch is his creation and tool. It is discovered that Jace has been relatively surrounded by his agents in his PW 'life'. Tezzeret, Ral Zarek, and Liliana all qualify, and before the Gatewatch, are the PWs that Jace met and interacted with. Chandra and Nissa were manipulated into releasing the Eldrazi. Liliana's dealings with NB are well known. Gideon's is the least well known, but Gideon's forays in Bant give a clear ability for NB to manipulate him and learn about him.
More importantly than this, defeating the Gatewatch is an accomplishment the equal of obtaining the Planar Bridge and the Eternals in NB's mind. He describes the Gatewatch as 'loose in the Multiverse'. Not 'scattered', not 'lost', not 'not a threat'. He makes clear at the beginning that 'kill the Gatewatch' was an acceptable but not preferred outcome of the situation. He wants the Gatewatch as the Gatewatch around. Why?
B) Ugin (and perhaps Jace) may have a much longer plan.
Jace runs into NB's mind, and encounters something that reminds him of another mind. I (and most) thought it was Alhammeret, but then someone pointed out that it was a verbatim description of Ugin's mind. And... why would Jace not only not remember something like that, but it seems that Jace himself erased the memory. Why? When have Jace and Ugin met? Only twice; at the Eye when Ugin lectures him and after the defeat of the Titans when Ugin berates the Gatewatch. So... what was there to forget? Only the meeting at the Eye was one-on-one. Perhaps Ugin and Jace discussed more than the story revealed? Perhaps NB? Perhaps a plan? The point is not that I know what's going on. It's that there's clearly a gap in Jace's mind regarding Ugin and we know of no reason for there to be one. It should be noted here that 'creating a plan and then wiping it from your own mind' is a known plan for dealing with a mind mage. There's also the fact that Jace is known to be able to survive his mind being fractured... given that he's been doing so for most if not all of his life.
The other option is that this indeed is Alhammeret's mind and not Ugin's and they recycled the text for... little to no gain.
C) Ral Zarek is an agent of NB.
I think Jay said everything appropriate here, but I might point out that there is some discussion that Ral may have become an agent of Bolas because of Jace becoming the Guildpact or something similar. The opposite may be much more compelling: Ral was trying to become the Guildpact as a way to get out of being an agent of Bolas. Tezzeret and Liliana both make clear that working for Bolas royally sucks. Ral might have been searching for a way out of that tyranny. He tried to kill Jace in the Maze because Jace was going to win.
Also realize that if Ral is an agent of Bolas, maybe his report of Vraska PWing to 'nowhere' was simply a lie. We have only his word for it. Alternately, a very long plan of NB would be for him to say that to Jace so that when Jace fled on Amonkhet his mind would take him to the first plane it attached to... being Ral's reference to nowhere. IOW, some form of (nonmagical) hypnotic suggestion.
2) Liliana didn't betray the Gatewatch.
Why does anyone believe that? She first pleaded with them to run away and then ran away herself. She did whatever she had to do to get away. Where is there any indication that she plans to uphold her end of the 'bargain' with NB? There is none. Now, NB played it for all it was worth (see below) and Liliana was forced to go along--the alternative being death--but her entire arc is regaining her self-control and not being beholden to anyone for anything. She may have taken (another) step back here, but she is slowly learning that part of her self-control is not being self-reliant. So yeah.
3) NB's personality is fine.
Who's going to tell him how he should behave? Who can compel him otherwise? He's a classic example of an internet persona. He says what he wants and does what he wants because there can be no consequences for those actions. So sure, he's a dick. (He has other reasons as well.) He's a ham. What are you going to do, kill him? Pssh. As if.
4) His plan for taking out the Gatewatch was precise and subtle.
Ignore the banter and taunting that was just surface glitter on the plan. He took the Gatewatch out like dominos, one falling after another, and each fall causing the next. I'm guessing the only reason 'falling like dominos' wasn't explicitly used was because dominos aren't around or easily referenced in Magic.
A) Target #1: Jace. Why Jace first? He's the weakest, for one; for two, his weakness is his own mind. He is his own greatest weakness. You start dominos falling with a domino that is already unbalanced, and Jace is certainly that.
B) Target #2: Liliana. Jace makes Liliana fall. He is her pressure point, particularly within the Gatewatch. (Note also that Chandra is becoming one.) The only reason Liliana was still around was because Jace was there. As soon as he vanished, the scales tilted towards 'getting out of here'. And then things unfolded as discussed above.
C) Target #3: Chandra. Liliana wasn't Chandra's pressure point, per se, but she would definitely take betrayal that way. Particularly after the sisterly escapades in Kaladesh and regaining her family, loyalty has become important to her, and she falls because she can't deal with Liliana's (very rational) response to a terrible situation.
D) Target #4: Nissa. Chandra's fall then leads to Nissa. This mainly hearkens back to Kaladesh and the fact Gideon had to be last. Also, NB had to know how long it would take for Nissa to use her animistic powers, so she could be pushed back in the list. Finally, it should be noted that Nissa was the most effective member of the Gatewatch here.
E) Target #5: Gideon. Gideon thinks he's strong when he doesn't have to worry about his friends. He's wrong. He needs his friends. For a purpose if nothing else. A very appropriate weakness for a White character in Magic is an external locus of control; he defines himself by his friends. And so he is left alone.
5) NB is lying about being able to control the Chain Veil. If he isn't, and he can use the Veil safely, why didn't he take it? There wasn't anything preventing him, as far as I could tell. The only way he isn't lying is if he believes that it serves him better for Liliana to have it. And how would that work out?
Anyway, it was very interesting and, appropriately, left more questions. The biggest question in my mind is what is Ral doing that NB wants and why is he late? What timetable is NB working from, and are there consequences (for NB) for not meeting it?
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Has Gideon returned to Theros? Has Gideon gotten over his guilt over getting his Irregulars killed? Has Gideon's hidden desire that he shouted at Erebos that we didn't hear during Jace's mental struggle against Emrakul come to light yet? Is Ajani (post-Theros) or his Oath mono-white?
If you've answered "No" to all of these questions, I want to know how you drew your conclusions. I've said it before, but I can't understand how anyone who's been following the story expects Gideon to die here.
Probably because Ral being an agent of Bolas is completely unexpected. Jay noted that there were signs, which is a good thing, but it was still pretty surprising.
The thing is, Ajani went to Dominaria to regroup, and gather more planeswalkers to help strategize against Bolas. How interesting would it be for, of the Gatewatch, only Liliana to show up and have to explain what happened? That would be her lowest point, I think. I have to believe that Ajani would be gentle with her.
Couldn´t that be said about Elspeth too? I´m sure there were a lot of unanswered questions too before she died.
Except that Elspeth's death isn't absolute, and never has been, because of where she died.
If Gideon died on Amonkhet, he would have died for good, and then be raised by the Curse of Wandering.
|| 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 ||
His primary motivation is to get back to Oldwalker status. The rest of how he acts is just personality traits. He's a comic book supervillan. That's his role. He's like a Lex Luthor or Rick Sanchez character. That's all good.
There's so many jokes I want to make right now but I'm afraid they'd only get me warnings
If my post has no tags, then i posted from my phone.
Ral tried to kill Jace in the Implicit Maze, so it'd be extremely odd if he had any intention of Jace becoming the Living Guildpact.
Return to Return to Ravnica now has at least four potential plot threads to follow:
1.) The Kraul's attempted coup of the Golgari in favour of Vraska.
2.) Teysa's attempt to bring down the Obzedat.
3.) The chaos that is likely going to ensue due to Jace's prolonged absence.
4.) Ral being an agent of 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 ||
I agree with this 110%!!
If anything, I think Jace becoming the Living Guildpact was the last thing Ral wanted.
Those plot threads could be easily tied together, much in the way the original Ravnica block's story consisted of seemingly unrelated plot threads at first.
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This is possibly the single most cringe-inducing quote ever delivered by any Magic character. It wasn't clever, it wasn't funny, and had no place in the mouth of an ancient all-knowing ex-god. I groaned out loud and nearly slammed my laptop shut without reading further.
This is Bolas? No one in the multiverse is older, wiser, or more powerful than this clown?
Give Yawgmoth 9,000 years, and he becomes a truly awe-inspiring, darkly majestic deity who speaks and thinks like a mad, ancient god. Give Bolas 25,000 years, and he's still a cackling cartoon villain. When you factor in how long he's been around, he's really not all that impressive. I liked him best in Future Sight, when he displayed arrogance and a touch of mockery balanced with the right amount of wisdom, age, and vastness. His taunts were measured and didn't feel so... childish.
Bolas's taunting dialogue was just fine with me. He was having a good time while also intentionally leaving a very particular impression on the defeated Gatewatch.
So, we're going to have differing opinions about how he should act, and how disappointed/satisfied we are when he does.
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But seriously, "as if the multiverse had gates, and they needed to be watched". What is he, some sort of snarky YouTuber?
On phasing:
Counterpoint: It was an amazing line. The timing was perfect. The written delivery was amazing. I laughed for a good 10 seconds. I described this particular scene to my wife - who couldn't give two *****s about Magic - and even she giggled.
If he wants to reward himself for decades of patience coming to fruition by having fun bashing Gideon around like a soccer ball (which was freaking hilarious) for 10 minutes just to emasculate him, then I think he's earned the reprieve.
There's probably a way to do 'gloating' without going 'snarky' with it. That's all I'm saying. Snarky doesn't really work.
Exactly this.
You see the same problem in the flavor texts of the five defeat cards too. (Yep, all five.) If they read weirdly to you, this is why. Either call them 'Beleren', 'Vess', etc or just leave their names out altogether. Using a name is a sign of respect which makes very little sense for Bolas.
It's not that I think Bolas can't have a sense of flair or even enjoy himself a bit..gloat..all of that's fine. I guess I just think ought to dial it back a bit and make him a bit more scary like the Phyrexians feel. Whatever--maybe Magic is big enough to have different types of villains.
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1) There's a lot more in this story than people realize, I think, or at least they're commenting on. Ral Zarek is about 4th on this list. Let's go through them.
A) The Gatewatch is NB's creation and tool.
NB clearly believes--and in most cases can back up--the idea that the Gatewatch is his creation and tool. It is discovered that Jace has been relatively surrounded by his agents in his PW 'life'. Tezzeret, Ral Zarek, and Liliana all qualify, and before the Gatewatch, are the PWs that Jace met and interacted with. Chandra and Nissa were manipulated into releasing the Eldrazi. Liliana's dealings with NB are well known. Gideon's is the least well known, but Gideon's forays in Bant give a clear ability for NB to manipulate him and learn about him.
More importantly than this, defeating the Gatewatch is an accomplishment the equal of obtaining the Planar Bridge and the Eternals in NB's mind. He describes the Gatewatch as 'loose in the Multiverse'. Not 'scattered', not 'lost', not 'not a threat'. He makes clear at the beginning that 'kill the Gatewatch' was an acceptable but not preferred outcome of the situation. He wants the Gatewatch as the Gatewatch around. Why?
B) Ugin (and perhaps Jace) may have a much longer plan.
Jace runs into NB's mind, and encounters something that reminds him of another mind. I (and most) thought it was Alhammeret, but then someone pointed out that it was a verbatim description of Ugin's mind. And... why would Jace not only not remember something like that, but it seems that Jace himself erased the memory. Why? When have Jace and Ugin met? Only twice; at the Eye when Ugin lectures him and after the defeat of the Titans when Ugin berates the Gatewatch. So... what was there to forget? Only the meeting at the Eye was one-on-one. Perhaps Ugin and Jace discussed more than the story revealed? Perhaps NB? Perhaps a plan? The point is not that I know what's going on. It's that there's clearly a gap in Jace's mind regarding Ugin and we know of no reason for there to be one. It should be noted here that 'creating a plan and then wiping it from your own mind' is a known plan for dealing with a mind mage. There's also the fact that Jace is known to be able to survive his mind being fractured... given that he's been doing so for most if not all of his life.
The other option is that this indeed is Alhammeret's mind and not Ugin's and they recycled the text for... little to no gain.
C) Ral Zarek is an agent of NB.
I think Jay said everything appropriate here, but I might point out that there is some discussion that Ral may have become an agent of Bolas because of Jace becoming the Guildpact or something similar. The opposite may be much more compelling: Ral was trying to become the Guildpact as a way to get out of being an agent of Bolas. Tezzeret and Liliana both make clear that working for Bolas royally sucks. Ral might have been searching for a way out of that tyranny. He tried to kill Jace in the Maze because Jace was going to win.
Also realize that if Ral is an agent of Bolas, maybe his report of Vraska PWing to 'nowhere' was simply a lie. We have only his word for it. Alternately, a very long plan of NB would be for him to say that to Jace so that when Jace fled on Amonkhet his mind would take him to the first plane it attached to... being Ral's reference to nowhere. IOW, some form of (nonmagical) hypnotic suggestion.
2) Liliana didn't betray the Gatewatch.
Why does anyone believe that? She first pleaded with them to run away and then ran away herself. She did whatever she had to do to get away. Where is there any indication that she plans to uphold her end of the 'bargain' with NB? There is none. Now, NB played it for all it was worth (see below) and Liliana was forced to go along--the alternative being death--but her entire arc is regaining her self-control and not being beholden to anyone for anything. She may have taken (another) step back here, but she is slowly learning that part of her self-control is not being self-reliant. So yeah.
3) NB's personality is fine.
Who's going to tell him how he should behave? Who can compel him otherwise? He's a classic example of an internet persona. He says what he wants and does what he wants because there can be no consequences for those actions. So sure, he's a dick. (He has other reasons as well.) He's a ham. What are you going to do, kill him? Pssh. As if.
4) His plan for taking out the Gatewatch was precise and subtle.
Ignore the banter and taunting that was just surface glitter on the plan. He took the Gatewatch out like dominos, one falling after another, and each fall causing the next. I'm guessing the only reason 'falling like dominos' wasn't explicitly used was because dominos aren't around or easily referenced in Magic.
A) Target #1: Jace. Why Jace first? He's the weakest, for one; for two, his weakness is his own mind. He is his own greatest weakness. You start dominos falling with a domino that is already unbalanced, and Jace is certainly that.
B) Target #2: Liliana. Jace makes Liliana fall. He is her pressure point, particularly within the Gatewatch. (Note also that Chandra is becoming one.) The only reason Liliana was still around was because Jace was there. As soon as he vanished, the scales tilted towards 'getting out of here'. And then things unfolded as discussed above.
C) Target #3: Chandra. Liliana wasn't Chandra's pressure point, per se, but she would definitely take betrayal that way. Particularly after the sisterly escapades in Kaladesh and regaining her family, loyalty has become important to her, and she falls because she can't deal with Liliana's (very rational) response to a terrible situation.
D) Target #4: Nissa. Chandra's fall then leads to Nissa. This mainly hearkens back to Kaladesh and the fact Gideon had to be last. Also, NB had to know how long it would take for Nissa to use her animistic powers, so she could be pushed back in the list. Finally, it should be noted that Nissa was the most effective member of the Gatewatch here.
E) Target #5: Gideon. Gideon thinks he's strong when he doesn't have to worry about his friends. He's wrong. He needs his friends. For a purpose if nothing else. A very appropriate weakness for a White character in Magic is an external locus of control; he defines himself by his friends. And so he is left alone.
5) NB is lying about being able to control the Chain Veil. If he isn't, and he can use the Veil safely, why didn't he take it? There wasn't anything preventing him, as far as I could tell. The only way he isn't lying is if he believes that it serves him better for Liliana to have it. And how would that work out?
Anyway, it was very interesting and, appropriately, left more questions. The biggest question in my mind is what is Ral doing that NB wants and why is he late? What timetable is NB working from, and are there consequences (for NB) for not meeting it?