Eh, I don't agree with any of that. Killing off Bolas wouldn't really be all that great, both from a narrative sense and a moral sense being imprisoned without power is a better end. And he in general has always been a weak villain, acting like this is somehow a new thing is rather silly. They just were trying to make the most of a bad character.
And they failed. Miserably. They made the most of him in Amonkhet. He was mustache twirlingly over the top, but he was effective. They did a terrible job before that, and they did a terrible job this set. There were flashes where they did well, with him brushing Gideon aside and shattering the blackblade, but overall he just failed and looked like a chump. And while imprisoning him without power is a better punishment, it's really stupid to do, as it leaves him a window to come back. It's also not what they actually did. They imprisoned him without a spark, so he can't planeswalkers and he has less power, but he's still Nicol Bolas Elder Dragon. He still is nigh immortal and graced with magnificent powers. He had basically all his powers before sparking. It's just such a clear case of a story decision being made for meta reasons over what's right for the story. What's right for the story would have been ending the threat he poses to the multiverse. They didn't. And we've already seen lesser beings get their spark back, so Bolas, an immortal genius and one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, is almost assured to do so narratively, and absolutely going to do so when wizards decides its time.
Did you not finish the novel? Because your comments on his power read like you did t finish but were just told what happened. Bolas is indeed completely without power he couldn't even muster the simplest of healing spells. Should they have killed him? Honestly no and for the exact reason they gave in the novel he died once before and came back killing him with anything less than a soul destroying method would be more pointless than imprisonment.
Thing is, we were told outside the lore that Bolas is a scheming mastermind genius. He was always intended to be one. This whole thing isn't on Bolas (as much as it can be for a fictional character anyway) but on creative/WotC mishandling the character.
Arlinn is still human unless in werewolf form. Sorin Markov is a human whose spark ignited upon being transformed into a vampire.
Here and the user commenting about dwarfs I think is really splitting hairs. Almost all of these races are based in existing fantasy lore and myth. We would except a werewolf to have a human and wolf form, we except dwarfs to just be short and often beard humans, we except elves are tall humans with pointy ears, we except a vampire to have once been human. Would it be better for Sorin to have once been an elf?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
Arlinn is still human unless in werewolf form. Sorin Markov is a human whose spark ignited upon being transformed into a vampire.
Here and the user commenting about dwarfs I think is really splitting hairs. Almost all of these races are based in existing fantasy lore and myth. We would except a werewolf to have a human and wolf form, we except dwarfs to just be short and often beard humans, we except elves are tall humans with pointy ears, we except a vampire to have once been human. Would it be better for Sorin to have once been an elf?
You mean of the 20 supposed "non-human" walkers, 6 or 30% or close to 1/3rd of them are/were/maybe human? Really does sting don't it.
Also I really hope you aren't using that "any fantasy race can be a human if you deconstruct it hard enough" argument. Because thats a game you will lose.
Arlinn is still human unless in werewolf form. Sorin Markov is a human whose spark ignited upon being transformed into a vampire.
Here and the user commenting about dwarfs I think is really splitting hairs. Almost all of these races are based in existing fantasy lore and myth. We would except a werewolf to have a human and wolf form, we except dwarfs to just be short and often beard humans, we except elves are tall humans with pointy ears, we except a vampire to have once been human. Would it be better for Sorin to have once been an elf?
You mean of the 20 supposed "non-human" walkers, 6 or 30% or close to 1/3rd of them are/were/maybe human? Really does sting don't it.
Well again Arlinn and Sorin are playing into what most people think of in terms of their races. Vampires are transformed humans. Werewolves humans who can go into a wolf form.
As for characters like Ob and Tibalt they are humans who where transformed into races that can't naturally hold a spark. Again would it have been better for them to have been non-humans before? Not being snarky I'm really wondering. Or would it have been better to have a Karn deal where a a demon or devil gotten a spark from someone else? I could see that for a demon but I don't think devils are really intelligent enough to pass for what they want in a walker. For Ob's case they never did plan to make him a walker card, he was a side character who got popular.
Also the unknown I think is Ashiok not the Wanderer and we can't really say what Ashiok since they have been twisted by their own nightmare magic from their originally form.
Also I really hope you aren't using that "any fantasy race can be a human if you deconstruct it hard enough" argument. Because thats a game you will lose.
Nope thats what I was saying the other user was saying. I don't see Nissa and think "she's too human" because well when looking at classic fantasy she looks what an elf should be. Said thing when we get a dwarf planeswlaker. While they appear human like, another factor is how they are as a species. Elves tend to live longer and have a connection to nature, dwarfs seems better at building things and are harder than most ect.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
Eh, I don't agree with any of that. Killing off Bolas wouldn't really be all that great, both from a narrative sense and a moral sense being imprisoned without power is a better end. And he in general has always been a weak villain, acting like this is somehow a new thing is rather silly. They just were trying to make the most of a bad character.
And they failed. Miserably. They made the most of him in Amonkhet. He was mustache twirlingly over the top, but he was effective. They did a terrible job before that, and they did a terrible job this set. There were flashes where they did well, with him brushing Gideon aside and shattering the blackblade, but overall he just failed and looked like a chump. And while imprisoning him without power is a better punishment, it's really stupid to do, as it leaves him a window to come back. It's also not what they actually did. They imprisoned him without a spark, so he can't planeswalkers and he has less power, but he's still Nicol Bolas Elder Dragon. He still is nigh immortal and graced with magnificent powers. He had basically all his powers before sparking. It's just such a clear case of a story decision being made for meta reasons over what's right for the story. What's right for the story would have been ending the threat he poses to the multiverse. They didn't. And we've already seen lesser beings get their spark back, so Bolas, an immortal genius and one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, is almost assured to do so narratively, and absolutely going to do so when wizards decides its time.
Did you not finish the novel? Because your comments on his power read like you did t finish but were just told what happened. Bolas is indeed completely without power he couldn't even muster the simplest of healing spells. Should they have killed him? Honestly no and for the exact reason they gave in the novel he died once before and came back killing him with anything less than a soul destroying method would be more pointless than imprisonment.
I'm choosing to believe that he was temporarily weakened from the shock of losing his spark and being depleted after casting the elder spell, because the alternative explanation is stupid. Bolas did not derive his power from his spark, nor did it increase his longevity. The post mending spark only grants the ability to planeswalk, unlike the oldwalker spark. That was the entire point of all of Bolas plans. We see all the other harvested walkers die, and Bolas become severely weakened, so it seems likely that being harvested is a shock to the system that kills most people, but Bolas being an elder dragon let's him live. He will eventually recover. It's possible, of course, that they've decided to retcons the nature of the spark for no reason, but that would be stupid.
And you need to go back and check out why Bolas was able to come back last time. Umezawa tricked him to have an out of body experience and follow him to the meditation realm so he could trap his spirit there by killing his body. Bolas' spirit didn't escape to the meditation realm, his spirit went there to kill Umezawa and this was what allowed Umezawa to kill his body. We have zero evidence that killing Bolas while his spirit is in his body would fail to kill his spirit. All it proves is that if Bolas' spirit is in the meditation realm, you can kill his body and trap him there.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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!
Eh, I don't agree with any of that. Killing off Bolas wouldn't really be all that great, both from a narrative sense and a moral sense being imprisoned without power is a better end. And he in general has always been a weak villain, acting like this is somehow a new thing is rather silly. They just were trying to make the most of a bad character.
And they failed. Miserably. They made the most of him in Amonkhet. He was mustache twirlingly over the top, but he was effective. They did a terrible job before that, and they did a terrible job this set. There were flashes where they did well, with him brushing Gideon aside and shattering the blackblade, but overall he just failed and looked like a chump. And while imprisoning him without power is a better punishment, it's really stupid to do, as it leaves him a window to come back. It's also not what they actually did. They imprisoned him without a spark, so he can't planeswalkers and he has less power, but he's still Nicol Bolas Elder Dragon. He still is nigh immortal and graced with magnificent powers. He had basically all his powers before sparking. It's just such a clear case of a story decision being made for meta reasons over what's right for the story. What's right for the story would have been ending the threat he poses to the multiverse. They didn't. And we've already seen lesser beings get their spark back, so Bolas, an immortal genius and one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, is almost assured to do so narratively, and absolutely going to do so when wizards decides its time.
Did you not finish the novel? Because your comments on his power read like you did t finish but were just told what happened. Bolas is indeed completely without power he couldn't even muster the simplest of healing spells. Should they have killed him? Honestly no and for the exact reason they gave in the novel he died once before and came back killing him with anything less than a soul destroying method would be more pointless than imprisonment.
I'm choosing to believe that he was temporarily weakened from the shock of losing his spark and being depleted after casting the elder spell, because the alternative explanation is stupid. Bolas did not derive his power from his spark, nor did it increase his longevity. The post mending spark only grants the ability to planeswalk, unlike the oldwalker spark. That was the entire point of all of Bolas plans. We see all the other harvested walkers die, and Bolas become severely weakened, so it seems likely that being harvested is a shock to the system that kills most people, but Bolas being an elder dragon let's him live. He will eventually recover. It's possible, of course, that they've decided to retcons the nature of the spark for no reason, but that would be stupid.
Bolas magically revived his body during Alara. The story opens up with hitting us on the head with Bolas having started to feel the burden of age on his body since the mending strip him of oldwlaker power. I'd guess the his spark being harvested, being semi exposed to the blind eternities and/or Ugin stripping him of his magic, made Bolas loose the boost in power from the maelstrom mana.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
Fair enough, I am just also illustrating the point that the amount of non-humans is smaller than what is actually illustrated. Not that it goes the audience's expectations. Also just me thinking about it in how easily 5 of those 6 are humans turned into something less human, 1 was just born that way. Assuming anyway Ashiok was, not is, human prior to becoming what they are.
Eh, I don't agree with any of that. Killing off Bolas wouldn't really be all that great, both from a narrative sense and a moral sense being imprisoned without power is a better end. And he in general has always been a weak villain, acting like this is somehow a new thing is rather silly. They just were trying to make the most of a bad character.
And they failed. Miserably. They made the most of him in Amonkhet. He was mustache twirlingly over the top, but he was effective. They did a terrible job before that, and they did a terrible job this set. There were flashes where they did well, with him brushing Gideon aside and shattering the blackblade, but overall he just failed and looked like a chump. And while imprisoning him without power is a better punishment, it's really stupid to do, as it leaves him a window to come back. It's also not what they actually did. They imprisoned him without a spark, so he can't planeswalkers and he has less power, but he's still Nicol Bolas Elder Dragon. He still is nigh immortal and graced with magnificent powers. He had basically all his powers before sparking. It's just such a clear case of a story decision being made for meta reasons over what's right for the story. What's right for the story would have been ending the threat he poses to the multiverse. They didn't. And we've already seen lesser beings get their spark back, so Bolas, an immortal genius and one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, is almost assured to do so narratively, and absolutely going to do so when wizards decides its time.
Did you not finish the novel? Because your comments on his power read like you did t finish but were just told what happened. Bolas is indeed completely without power he couldn't even muster the simplest of healing spells. Should they have killed him? Honestly no and for the exact reason they gave in the novel he died once before and came back killing him with anything less than a soul destroying method would be more pointless than imprisonment.
I'm choosing to believe that he was temporarily weakened from the shock of losing his spark and being depleted after casting the elder spell, because the alternative explanation is stupid. Bolas did not derive his power from his spark, nor did it increase his longevity. The post mending spark only grants the ability to planeswalk, unlike the oldwalker spark. That was the entire point of all of Bolas plans. We see all the other harvested walkers die, and Bolas become severely weakened, so it seems likely that being harvested is a shock to the system that kills most people, but Bolas being an elder dragon let's him live. He will eventually recover. It's possible, of course, that they've decided to retcons the nature of the spark for no reason, but that would be stupid.
And you need to go back and check out why Bolas was able to come back last time. Umezawa tricked him to have an out of body experience and follow him to the meditation realm so he could trap his spirit there by killing his body. Bolas' spirit didn't escape to the meditation realm, his spirit went there to kill Umezawa and this was what allowed Umezawa to kill his body. We have zero evidence that killing Bolas while his spirit is in his body would fail to kill his spirit. All it proves is that if Bolas' spirit is in the meditation realm, you can kill his body and trap him there.
Why is the alternative explination of Ugin seal/stealing his powers stupid? If you meant to stupid idea of it being tied to his spark I can see why you would think its stupid, but as that isn't what was implied at all by the fact that he was stil casting spells after his spark was gone but not after Ugin did whatever he did to him it makes no sense to assume the spark connection.
I can't find the exact source but it seems that Bolas' body was destoryed while he was in the meditation realm and he was defeated in the meditation realm. If this is the case then 100% killing him doesn't work. If not the I still have questions about what exactly happened but in story we saw a dragon survive the destruction of its body and then be reborn. This dragon wasn't even an elder dragon and Ugin strongly hints that as an elder dragon Bolas wouldn't need the same convoluted plots Niv used and could pull it off with completely different convoluted plots. Even flat out saying he could have come back as a Spirit Dragon like Ugin.
If you want to choose to believe something completely outside, or even contradictory to what we are told in lore you need a much better argument than "Doing the thing they said was a bad idea, for reasons, would have been a much better idea than what they actually did."
I don't see Nissa and think "she's too human" because well when looking at classic fantasy she looks what an elf should be. Said thing when we get a dwarf planeswlaker.
She does look like an elf should, but that doesn't mean elves themselves aren't "too human" for those of us who want more interesting nonhumans.
Here's one way to think of it. Take one a human character - let's say Liliana. Keep her exactly as she is, but say "She's not actually a human, she's actually a Namuh, a race that happens to look exactly like humans!". Yeah, it shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not particularly satisfying to people who want more nonhumans. Now do the same thing - take Liliana exactly as she is, but with one minor tweak - let's say, she has slit pupils like a cat. "There you go! Funny looking eyes! Now she's totally not human!". Yeah, again, shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not exactly something we're after when we say we want more nonhumans.
Satisfying nonhumans need to be significantly different from actual humans. And yes, everyone will have a different "line" as to just how different is significant enough to count, but surely it's not hard to understand why things like "pointy ears", "off colour skin" or "unusually short" isn't going to hit that line for a lot of us.
While they appear human like, another factor is how they are as a species. Elves tend to live longer and have a connection to nature, dwarfs seems better at building things and are harder than most ect.
Here's my answer to that - why does it not go both ways? People would look at the human characters differently if they weren't human. People would perceive Chandra differently if she were a goblin, they'd look at Gideon differently if he were a centaur. Even if nothing else about the characters changed, people would perceive them differently. If that's the case, which I absolutely believe it is, then it's not unreasonable to say that having so many "non"humans who look almost exactly like humans doesn't really satisfy those of us who want actual nonhumans.
...going off topic a little, but man this is something I'm passionate about.
I mean I can see the point but I find the fact we have only so few walkers that are even essentially near humans (elves, dwarves, gnomes, vampires, kor, etc) pretty damning. If we cannot get characters that are basically humans what chance do more monster like walkers even have. Not very much if you ask me. I mean Vivian and the Kenriths for instance could easily be Elves.
I mean Maro says nonhumans aren't popular but our resident Vampire seems pretty popular. So does Ugin but dragons, angels and demons are kinda exceptions popularity wise.
I mean I can see the point but I find the fact we have only so few walkers that are even essentially near humans (elves, dwarves, gnomes, vampires, kor, etc) pretty damning. If we cannot get characters that are basically humans what chance do more monster like walkers even have. Not very much if you ask me. I mean Vivian and the Kenriths for instance could easily be Elves.
I mean Maro says nonhumans aren't popular but our resident Vampire seems pretty popular. So does Ugin but dragons, angels and demons are kinda exceptions popularity wise.
Its not that nonhumans aren't popular look around and its obvious they are. Its that Humans are MORE popular/liked. While a minority is always unhappy because the majority is being favored, in this instance they are trying to be as reasonable as possible. They make nonhumans 'sometimes' but the majority are humans because the majority like humans better than nonhumans. They've heard the cry of the minority and are trying to accommodate them but as seen right here even what constitutes nonhuman among the players that want nonhumans varies.
I really wonder what the actual line is for nonhuman humanoids. On the topic of claiming Liliana was a nonhuman, you missed the point quite a bit because every nonhuman human like character has a fairly distinguishing trait to show their non-humanness. As was pointed out Elfs have pointy ears, dwarfs are short and stout, Merfolk(are merfolk considered too human?) have fins, ect. However I can help here. You take Lily exactly as is as you said, but now instead of her tattoos being a mark of magic or of her demon contracts they are a racial trait, every member of her race, the majin, have these tattoos. Then you randomly insert other traits that aren't visible but people can mention, the majin are long lived and naturally talented with magic and their entire purpose in live is to wipe out nonmagic races because they view them as unworthy of life. There now you've made what can pass as a fake magic race for Lily but she still looks exactly the same so we can say you wouldn't call her a nonhuman, though honestly speaking if such a race existed I would except them as nonhuman and would look forward to meeting more of them.
I really wonder what the actual line is for nonhuman humanoids. On the topic of claiming Liliana was a nonhuman, you missed the point quite a bit because every nonhuman human like character has a fairly distinguishing trait to show their non-humanness. As was pointed out Elfs have pointy ears, dwarfs are short and stout, Merfolk(are merfolk considered too human?) have fins, ect.
I didn't miss the point, I was making one of my own - that nonhumans need to have a somewhat sufficiently different and nonhuman trait to really be satisfying as nonhumans (and for the record, I'm talking purely physical, visible traits here). Like I mentioned, having one very minor difference (like I said, giving her slit pupils) is hardly enough to be satisfying to those of us who want more nonhumans. Yes, elves have pointy ears, but is that really enough? If all a character needs to do to appear human is put on a hat, is that really sufficiently nonhuman? Not to me.
However I can help here. You take Lily exactly as is as you said, but now instead of her tattoos being a mark of magic or of her demon contracts they are a racial trait, every member of her race, the majin, have these tattoos. Then you randomly insert other traits that aren't visible but people can mention, the majin are long lived and naturally talented with magic and their entire purpose in live is to wipe out nonmagic races because they view them as unworthy of life. There now you've made what can pass as a fake magic race for Lily but she still looks exactly the same so we can say you wouldn't call her a nonhuman, though honestly speaking if such a race existed I would except them as nonhuman and would look forward to meeting more of them.
Like I said in my above post, everyone will have a different line as to just how nonhuman they need to appear, which does make it difficult. All I mean is that it's hardly unreasonable to say that such minor differences like elves, kor, dwarves etc have isn't different enough. You may disagree, and that's fine, but you must at least understand where someone who believes otherwise is coming from. I, for one, am never going to look at, for example, Nahiri, and think "Yeah, this pasty-skinned human sure satisfies my desire for more nonhumans".
Chandra could probably make a more convincing half-human or even non-human based on her on-fire appearance than a lot of others. Perhaps shes a half-breed like half-efreet or half-flamekin, or maybe shes an entirely new race that simply resembles a human if they also had their hair on fire all the time. That is just me spitballing a couple ideas in a couple minutes of thinking about it not too deeply.
Speaking of the two examples, can we get an efreet and/or flamekin planeswalker? Pretty sure Ashling is still alive and is no longer a cinder.
Its not that nonhumans aren't popular look around and its obvious they are. Its that Humans are MORE popular/liked. While a minority is always unhappy because the majority is being favored, in this instance they are trying to be as reasonable as possible. They make nonhumans 'sometimes' but the majority are humans because the majority like humans better than nonhumans. They've heard the cry of the minority and are trying to accommodate them but as seen right here even what constitutes nonhuman among the players that want nonhumans varies.
I would argue that that's not even true. Humans in Magic are more popular because they get more screentime and all. Non-human characters are usually relegated to the sidelines or are one-offs. It's a positive feedback loop thing. Give character A more exposure -> character A becomes more popular -> fans ask for more of A.
Humans aren't inherently more liked or popular, it all depends on how the cast is presented. Take Pokemon for example. Nobody really cares about the humans in the games (or movies). People care about the real stars, the pokemon. Or even Alien, even the most popular human character in the franchise does not even come close to the popularity of the Xenomorph.
Its not that nonhumans aren't popular look around and its obvious they are. Its that Humans are MORE popular/liked. While a minority is always unhappy because the majority is being favored, in this instance they are trying to be as reasonable as possible. They make nonhumans 'sometimes' but the majority are humans because the majority like humans better than nonhumans. They've heard the cry of the minority and are trying to accommodate them but as seen right here even what constitutes nonhuman among the players that want nonhumans varies.
I would argue that that's not even true. Humans in Magic are more popular because they get more screentime and all. Non-human characters are usually relegated to the sidelines or are one-offs. It's a positive feedback loop thing. Give character A more exposure -> character A becomes more popular -> fans ask for more of A.
Humans aren't inherently more liked or popular, it all depends on how the cast is presented. Take Pokemon for example. Nobody really cares about the humans in the games (or movies). People care about the real stars, the pokemon. Or even Alien, even the most popular human character in the franchise does not even come close to the popularity of the Xenomorph.
A positive feedback loop still relies on the initial starting point. It's not like we had a dearth of nonhuman characters prior to humans being popular.
You're also arguing based on your own personal opinion against the research WotC has done on the matter, while comparing two rather wildly different franchises to try and make the point. Pokemon and Alien are both named after the non human entities, they're clearly the focus. That doesn't mean that generally humans aren't more popular (bear in mind that none of those franchises are devoid of humans) or even that in the specific case of MtG that non humans are more popular.
Also the unknown I think is Ashiok not the Wanderer and we can't really say what Ashiok since they have been twisted by their own nightmare magic from their originally form.
Yes, I was thinking of Ashiok. I believe that the Wanderer is simply another human but obviously I could be wrong.
On the half-human and "hybrid": I was trying to enlight more the difference than the similarity.
About dead PWs: I simply considered carded characters, but to be more precise, 1 elf, 1 cat warrior and 1 satyr are dead (together with at least 7 humans: Serra, Urza, Venser, Elspeth (sort of) and the 3 casualties of WAR)
Reading the names of the dead PW makes me say: planeswalkers of the multiverse, don't choose white as your color, is bad for your life!
You're also arguing based on your own personal opinion against the research WotC has done on the matter, while comparing two rather wildly different franchises to try and make the point. Pokemon and Alien are both named after the non human entities, they're clearly the focus. That doesn't mean that generally humans aren't more popular (bear in mind that none of those franchises are devoid of humans) or even that in the specific case of MtG that non humans are more popular.
I'm not arguing from personal opinion. I'm arguing from observations across multiple franchises. There is a slight trend towards liking humans more, but it's nowhere, nowhere near as strong as people claim it is. Humans are able to empathize with cubes for crying out loud.
Jace become popular because he was the posterchild since his inception and shoved down everyones throats since the start. The gatewatch rose in popularity (though most members were chosen by popularity in the first place) because they featured extensively in the storyline. The pattern repeats itself time and time again.
I mean, you're still attempting to use anecdotal evidence as an argument and not providing anything stronger to back it up.
And you say that, but Maro says that Jace was most popular out of the Lorwyn Five from the beginning. It's a positive feedback loop yes, you're just acting like they were unpopular to begin with and only made that way over time, as though WotC would arbitrarily decide to promote unpopular characters for no reason.
Eh, I don't agree with any of that. Killing off Bolas wouldn't really be all that great, both from a narrative sense and a moral sense being imprisoned without power is a better end. And he in general has always been a weak villain, acting like this is somehow a new thing is rather silly. They just were trying to make the most of a bad character.
And they failed. Miserably. They made the most of him in Amonkhet. He was mustache twirlingly over the top, but he was effective. They did a terrible job before that, and they did a terrible job this set. There were flashes where they did well, with him brushing Gideon aside and shattering the blackblade, but overall he just failed and looked like a chump. And while imprisoning him without power is a better punishment, it's really stupid to do, as it leaves him a window to come back. It's also not what they actually did. They imprisoned him without a spark, so he can't planeswalkers and he has less power, but he's still Nicol Bolas Elder Dragon. He still is nigh immortal and graced with magnificent powers. He had basically all his powers before sparking. It's just such a clear case of a story decision being made for meta reasons over what's right for the story. What's right for the story would have been ending the threat he poses to the multiverse. They didn't. And we've already seen lesser beings get their spark back, so Bolas, an immortal genius and one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse, is almost assured to do so narratively, and absolutely going to do so when wizards decides its time.
Did you not finish the novel? Because your comments on his power read like you did t finish but were just told what happened. Bolas is indeed completely without power he couldn't even muster the simplest of healing spells. Should they have killed him? Honestly no and for the exact reason they gave in the novel he died once before and came back killing him with anything less than a soul destroying method would be more pointless than imprisonment.
I'm choosing to believe that he was temporarily weakened from the shock of losing his spark and being depleted after casting the elder spell, because the alternative explanation is stupid. Bolas did not derive his power from his spark, nor did it increase his longevity. The post mending spark only grants the ability to planeswalk, unlike the oldwalker spark. That was the entire point of all of Bolas plans. We see all the other harvested walkers die, and Bolas become severely weakened, so it seems likely that being harvested is a shock to the system that kills most people, but Bolas being an elder dragon let's him live. He will eventually recover. It's possible, of course, that they've decided to retcons the nature of the spark for no reason, but that would be stupid.
And you need to go back and check out why Bolas was able to come back last time. Umezawa tricked him to have an out of body experience and follow him to the meditation realm so he could trap his spirit there by killing his body. Bolas' spirit didn't escape to the meditation realm, his spirit went there to kill Umezawa and this was what allowed Umezawa to kill his body. We have zero evidence that killing Bolas while his spirit is in his body would fail to kill his spirit. All it proves is that if Bolas' spirit is in the meditation realm, you can kill his body and trap him there.
Why is the alternative explination of Ugin seal/stealing his powers stupid? If you meant to stupid idea of it being tied to his spark I can see why you would think its stupid, but as that isn't what was implied at all by the fact that he was stil casting spells after his spark was gone but not after Ugin did whatever he did to him it makes no sense to assume the spark connection.
I can't find the exact source but it seems that Bolas' body was destoryed while he was in the meditation realm and he was defeated in the meditation realm. If this is the case then 100% killing him doesn't work. If not the I still have questions about what exactly happened but in story we saw a dragon survive the destruction of its body and then be reborn. This dragon wasn't even an elder dragon and Ugin strongly hints that as an elder dragon Bolas wouldn't need the same convoluted plots Niv used and could pull it off with completely different convoluted plots. Even flat out saying he could have come back as a Spirit Dragon like Ugin.
If you want to choose to believe something completely outside, or even contradictory to what we are told in lore you need a much better argument than "Doing the thing they said was a bad idea, for reasons, would have been a much better idea than what they actually did."
Umezawa told Bolas he was going to kill him, killed his second in command, said he was going to the meditation realm, and vanished. Bolas, perfectly healthy, separated his own spirit from his body to go to the meditation realm to pursue him. Umezawa had not yet left and took the opportunity to blow up Bolas citadel to kill his body, then went to the meditation realm to kill his spirit. He owns spirit Bolas and thinks he's killed him. He is able to do so because Bolas cannot planeswalk after his body has been killed and his Mana has been severed. Flash forward to Time Spiral and we find out that a trace amount of Bolas Spirit manage to survive because of the Madaran time rift. The growth of the rift enabled his spirit to take on a weak human form. He then used Vensers spark to gain more power, and pulled his sleeping body through the time rift before umezawa kills it in the past. His resurrection relied entirely on the time rift. First, it kept him from being totally destroyed. Second, it's growth enabled him to become more than a harmless shadow of a spirit. Third, it enabled him to retrieve his body from the past. Characters present in this story had knowledge of this (Karn, and especially Teferi).
So we know Ugin is full of *****, because if Bolas' had a way to restore himself he would have done so without having to rely on events outside of his control and every bit as convoluted as Nivs. He didn't even plan the first step, he got lucky that the rift saved enough of his spirit, and then got lucky again that enough plane wrecking disasters happened to cause the time rift crisis and grow the rifts thus causing his spirit to grow. And he'd have certainly done it much, much earlier. The evidence is clear, Ugin is wrong. That's why I said it's stupid. Characters present in this story should know this, Teferi especially as he ******* witnessed it. That's either one of two things, an intentional retcon created solely so that they could have a reason not to kill Bolas (a major retcon for the character btw, that changes fairly recent history), or the author/creative making a huge plot mistake. The former is cynical and the latter is stupid. Neither are good narrative reasons for this happening.
Had they killed Bolas after he desparked, he'd have been dead. Even had he managed to somehow, at the last minute, decouple his spirit from his body and send it to the meditation plane, we would at worst be in the same spot we are now, Bolas trapped on the meditation plane, except he'd just be a spirit instead of alive. If his spirit stayed on Ravnica, Kaya was on hand to finish the job.
They went out of their way to come up with a reason not to kill Bolas, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Maybe Ugin is just lying and is taking a risk solely because he doesn't want to kill his brother, but why anyone would go along with that is a mystery. There is no evidence that Bolas is permanently neutered and will not recover, so this plan relies on Ugin staying on the meditation realm and keeping Bolas weak. What happens when Ugin is inevitably required to leave to face a major threat? Bolas recovers. And Bolas on Alara was a planar threat before he powered up a bit off the maelstrom.
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!
You're also arguing based on your own personal opinion against the research WotC has done on the matter, while comparing two rather wildly different franchises to try and make the point. Pokemon and Alien are both named after the non human entities, they're clearly the focus. That doesn't mean that generally humans aren't more popular (bear in mind that none of those franchises are devoid of humans) or even that in the specific case of MtG that non humans are more popular.
I'm not arguing from personal opinion. I'm arguing from observations across multiple franchises. There is a slight trend towards liking humans more, but it's nowhere, nowhere near as strong as people claim it is. Humans are able to empathize with cubes for crying out loud.
Jace become popular because he was the posterchild since his inception and shoved down everyones throats since the start. The gatewatch rose in popularity (though most members were chosen by popularity in the first place) because they featured extensively in the storyline. The pattern repeats itself time and time again.
On this feedback loop. Whether you choose to believe this or not we've been told this is false. A major point on their humans are better liked cones from people who have never been exposed to either characters and they consistantly rate humans higher. So while you are welcome to your own tinfoil hat theory it's been explicitly stated as wrong and the only reason to disbelieve them is more tinfoil hat theorys about wizards pushing some kind of human supremacist agenda.
A feedback loop makes a lot more sense for the franchises you mention. They are explicitly selling the monsters as they are the stars so they HAVE to force the normally unpopular monsters down everyone's throats until people get used to them and like them.
You're also arguing based on your own personal opinion against the research WotC has done on the matter, while comparing two rather wildly different franchises to try and make the point. Pokemon and Alien are both named after the non human entities, they're clearly the focus. That doesn't mean that generally humans aren't more popular (bear in mind that none of those franchises are devoid of humans) or even that in the specific case of MtG that non humans are more popular.
I'm not arguing from personal opinion. I'm arguing from observations across multiple franchises. There is a slight trend towards liking humans more, but it's nowhere, nowhere near as strong as people claim it is. Humans are able to empathize with cubes for crying out loud.
Jace become popular because he was the posterchild since his inception and shoved down everyones throats since the start. The gatewatch rose in popularity (though most members were chosen by popularity in the first place) because they featured extensively in the storyline. The pattern repeats itself time and time again.
On this feedback loop. Whether you choose to believe this or not we've been told this is false. A major point on their humans are better liked cones from people who have never been exposed to either characters and they consistantly rate humans higher. So while you are welcome to your own tinfoil hat theory it's been explicitly stated as wrong and the only reason to disbelieve them is more tinfoil hat theorys about wizards pushing some kind of human supremacist agenda.
A feedback loop makes a lot more sense for the franchises you mention. They are explicitly selling the monsters as they are the stars so they HAVE to force the normally unpopular monsters down everyone's throats until people get used to them and like them.
Dude... Nobody said anything about Wizards doing this on purpose. I actually assume they are not even aware of this problem. Way to miss the mark.
You're also arguing based on your own personal opinion against the research WotC has done on the matter, while comparing two rather wildly different franchises to try and make the point. Pokemon and Alien are both named after the non human entities, they're clearly the focus. That doesn't mean that generally humans aren't more popular (bear in mind that none of those franchises are devoid of humans) or even that in the specific case of MtG that non humans are more popular.
I'm not arguing from personal opinion. I'm arguing from observations across multiple franchises. There is a slight trend towards liking humans more, but it's nowhere, nowhere near as strong as people claim it is. Humans are able to empathize with cubes for crying out loud.
Jace become popular because he was the posterchild since his inception and shoved down everyones throats since the start. The gatewatch rose in popularity (though most members were chosen by popularity in the first place) because they featured extensively in the storyline. The pattern repeats itself time and time again.
On this feedback loop. Whether you choose to believe this or not we've been told this is false. A major point on their humans are better liked cones from people who have never been exposed to either characters and they consistantly rate humans higher. So while you are welcome to your own tinfoil hat theory it's been explicitly stated as wrong and the only reason to disbelieve them is more tinfoil hat theorys about wizards pushing some kind of human supremacist agenda.
A feedback loop makes a lot more sense for the franchises you mention. They are explicitly selling the monsters as they are the stars so they HAVE to force the normally unpopular monsters down everyone's throats until people get used to them and like them.
Dude... Nobody said anything about Wizards doing this on purpose. I actually assume they are not even aware of this problem. Way to miss the mark.
The thing is they are aware that it isn't the problem. They have data on people who aren't invested in characters and the humans perform better than non humans. Unless your point is that society as a whole is involved in a feedback loop where because we constantly see and interact with other humans we are conditioned to like them more. In which case...that's exactly what the point was, people like humans more because they are in fact humans themselves. I'm not sure what you are trying to say by bring up a feedback loop that either doesn't exist or is omnipresent.
The book was an utter disaster. Who thought it was a good idea to spoil the story on cards and then start the novel halfway through the story?
The writer was left in a difficult spot. But his writing was also just awful. The biggest issue, by far, was pacing. The emergence of the God-Eternals was treated with less emphasis than the characters’ descent to Rix Maadi. In fact, more words were dedicated to the THIRD time that Rat’s dad struggled to see her than to the emergence of the gods.
Here’s a gem: “Bolas barely managed to obliterate Oketra, but...” This is the main villain OBLITERATING a freaking GOD (arguably the most significant god because of Gideon) and it gets half a sentence. Half a sentence. Less time than Chandra thinks about Gideon’s abs. Less time than a description of one of Teo’s shields.
Vitu-Ghazi’s rise, fighting, and defeat lasts just a few paragraphs. Tezzeret’s defeat just a few sentences. But we certainly got a good description of the Demon’s Vestibule.
WotC are just very lucky that a majority of players don’t care about the lore beyond the major story points and the major characters. The major plot points we see on the cards and the major characters are all good. In fact, the author’s new characters, Teo and Rat, are actually pretty good. I thought at first that Rat would be really cringey but by the end I liked her. And the author did a great job with Dack. Clearly characterization is his strength and clearly pacing is not.
In terms of the broad story, it is mostly good. Although I don’t think Bolas’ downfall was totally satisfying. I wish the causes of his defeat were more deserved. I feel like his downfall should be caused by a combination of overconfidence in his intellect and overreliance on minions that aren’t truly loyal. I wish there was more outsmarting going on between Ugin, Niv, and Bolas. Bolas is selfish and doesn’t work well with others, and though he may have millennia of planning, he’s not smarter than Niv and Ugin put together, and I wish there was more with them outsmarting him and unraveling his plans, aside from Ugin imprisoning him after he had already lost. Liliana’s turning on Bolas was good, but I wish Dovin and Tezzeret would have as well. All three minions had the tools to screw over Bolas, and that’s why I expected them to turn on him but they really don’t. Dovin’s Veto flavor text set up a good story but they didn’t follow through. There could have been a moment where Chandra is fighting Dovin and realizes that he sees Bolas as a force of destruction and chaos and he has been planning on betraying him ever since he saw Tezzeret’s true personality and his true master, and Chandra struggles to have the self-control to let him live despite his crimes. Bolas gives Dovin the signal to turn off the Sun when Bolas needs to flee when he is going to lose his spark, and Dovin just refuses and that’s all he would have to do. Meanwhile Ugin could send Sarkhan to bring a message to Tezzeret, and when Bolas’ defeat is at hand and he tries to flee through the bridge to Amonkhet, Tezzeret just shuts it off. Tezz already hates Bolas so it fits.
From my number crunch 52 (53 if you count Urza which I don't personally) walkers have gotten a card, 14-20 (depending on how you split hairs) non-human walkers is ~26%-38% of total walkers which means roughly 1/3 of walkers who have gotten card is a non-human. IMO seems like a pretty decent number.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“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"
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Thing is, we were told outside the lore that Bolas is a scheming mastermind genius. He was always intended to be one. This whole thing isn't on Bolas (as much as it can be for a fictional character anyway) but on creative/WotC mishandling the character.
Here and the user commenting about dwarfs I think is really splitting hairs. Almost all of these races are based in existing fantasy lore and myth. We would except a werewolf to have a human and wolf form, we except dwarfs to just be short and often beard humans, we except elves are tall humans with pointy ears, we except a vampire to have once been human. Would it be better for Sorin to have once been an elf?
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Also I really hope you aren't using that "any fantasy race can be a human if you deconstruct it hard enough" argument. Because thats a game you will lose.
Well again Arlinn and Sorin are playing into what most people think of in terms of their races. Vampires are transformed humans. Werewolves humans who can go into a wolf form.
As for characters like Ob and Tibalt they are humans who where transformed into races that can't naturally hold a spark. Again would it have been better for them to have been non-humans before? Not being snarky I'm really wondering. Or would it have been better to have a Karn deal where a a demon or devil gotten a spark from someone else? I could see that for a demon but I don't think devils are really intelligent enough to pass for what they want in a walker. For Ob's case they never did plan to make him a walker card, he was a side character who got popular.
Also the unknown I think is Ashiok not the Wanderer and we can't really say what Ashiok since they have been twisted by their own nightmare magic from their originally form.
Nope thats what I was saying the other user was saying. I don't see Nissa and think "she's too human" because well when looking at classic fantasy she looks what an elf should be. Said thing when we get a dwarf planeswlaker. While they appear human like, another factor is how they are as a species. Elves tend to live longer and have a connection to nature, dwarfs seems better at building things and are harder than most ect.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I'm choosing to believe that he was temporarily weakened from the shock of losing his spark and being depleted after casting the elder spell, because the alternative explanation is stupid. Bolas did not derive his power from his spark, nor did it increase his longevity. The post mending spark only grants the ability to planeswalk, unlike the oldwalker spark. That was the entire point of all of Bolas plans. We see all the other harvested walkers die, and Bolas become severely weakened, so it seems likely that being harvested is a shock to the system that kills most people, but Bolas being an elder dragon let's him live. He will eventually recover. It's possible, of course, that they've decided to retcons the nature of the spark for no reason, but that would be stupid.
And you need to go back and check out why Bolas was able to come back last time. Umezawa tricked him to have an out of body experience and follow him to the meditation realm so he could trap his spirit there by killing his body. Bolas' spirit didn't escape to the meditation realm, his spirit went there to kill Umezawa and this was what allowed Umezawa to kill his body. We have zero evidence that killing Bolas while his spirit is in his body would fail to kill his spirit. All it proves is that if Bolas' spirit is in the meditation realm, you can kill his body and trap him there.
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!
Bolas magically revived his body during Alara. The story opens up with hitting us on the head with Bolas having started to feel the burden of age on his body since the mending strip him of oldwlaker power. I'd guess the his spark being harvested, being semi exposed to the blind eternities and/or Ugin stripping him of his magic, made Bolas loose the boost in power from the maelstrom mana.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I can't find the exact source but it seems that Bolas' body was destoryed while he was in the meditation realm and he was defeated in the meditation realm. If this is the case then 100% killing him doesn't work. If not the I still have questions about what exactly happened but in story we saw a dragon survive the destruction of its body and then be reborn. This dragon wasn't even an elder dragon and Ugin strongly hints that as an elder dragon Bolas wouldn't need the same convoluted plots Niv used and could pull it off with completely different convoluted plots. Even flat out saying he could have come back as a Spirit Dragon like Ugin.
If you want to choose to believe something completely outside, or even contradictory to what we are told in lore you need a much better argument than "Doing the thing they said was a bad idea, for reasons, would have been a much better idea than what they actually did."
Here's one way to think of it. Take one a human character - let's say Liliana. Keep her exactly as she is, but say "She's not actually a human, she's actually a Namuh, a race that happens to look exactly like humans!". Yeah, it shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not particularly satisfying to people who want more nonhumans. Now do the same thing - take Liliana exactly as she is, but with one minor tweak - let's say, she has slit pupils like a cat. "There you go! Funny looking eyes! Now she's totally not human!". Yeah, again, shouldn't be hard to understand why that's not exactly something we're after when we say we want more nonhumans.
Satisfying nonhumans need to be significantly different from actual humans. And yes, everyone will have a different "line" as to just how different is significant enough to count, but surely it's not hard to understand why things like "pointy ears", "off colour skin" or "unusually short" isn't going to hit that line for a lot of us.
Here's my answer to that - why does it not go both ways? People would look at the human characters differently if they weren't human. People would perceive Chandra differently if she were a goblin, they'd look at Gideon differently if he were a centaur. Even if nothing else about the characters changed, people would perceive them differently. If that's the case, which I absolutely believe it is, then it's not unreasonable to say that having so many "non"humans who look almost exactly like humans doesn't really satisfy those of us who want actual nonhumans.
...going off topic a little, but man this is something I'm passionate about.
I mean Maro says nonhumans aren't popular but our resident Vampire seems pretty popular. So does Ugin but dragons, angels and demons are kinda exceptions popularity wise.
I really wonder what the actual line is for nonhuman humanoids. On the topic of claiming Liliana was a nonhuman, you missed the point quite a bit because every nonhuman human like character has a fairly distinguishing trait to show their non-humanness. As was pointed out Elfs have pointy ears, dwarfs are short and stout, Merfolk(are merfolk considered too human?) have fins, ect. However I can help here. You take Lily exactly as is as you said, but now instead of her tattoos being a mark of magic or of her demon contracts they are a racial trait, every member of her race, the majin, have these tattoos. Then you randomly insert other traits that aren't visible but people can mention, the majin are long lived and naturally talented with magic and their entire purpose in live is to wipe out nonmagic races because they view them as unworthy of life. There now you've made what can pass as a fake magic race for Lily but she still looks exactly the same so we can say you wouldn't call her a nonhuman, though honestly speaking if such a race existed I would except them as nonhuman and would look forward to meeting more of them.
Like I said in my above post, everyone will have a different line as to just how nonhuman they need to appear, which does make it difficult. All I mean is that it's hardly unreasonable to say that such minor differences like elves, kor, dwarves etc have isn't different enough. You may disagree, and that's fine, but you must at least understand where someone who believes otherwise is coming from. I, for one, am never going to look at, for example, Nahiri, and think "Yeah, this pasty-skinned human sure satisfies my desire for more nonhumans".
Speaking of the two examples, can we get an efreet and/or flamekin planeswalker? Pretty sure Ashling is still alive and is no longer a cinder.
I would argue that that's not even true. Humans in Magic are more popular because they get more screentime and all. Non-human characters are usually relegated to the sidelines or are one-offs. It's a positive feedback loop thing. Give character A more exposure -> character A becomes more popular -> fans ask for more of A.
Humans aren't inherently more liked or popular, it all depends on how the cast is presented. Take Pokemon for example. Nobody really cares about the humans in the games (or movies). People care about the real stars, the pokemon. Or even Alien, even the most popular human character in the franchise does not even come close to the popularity of the Xenomorph.
A positive feedback loop still relies on the initial starting point. It's not like we had a dearth of nonhuman characters prior to humans being popular.
You're also arguing based on your own personal opinion against the research WotC has done on the matter, while comparing two rather wildly different franchises to try and make the point. Pokemon and Alien are both named after the non human entities, they're clearly the focus. That doesn't mean that generally humans aren't more popular (bear in mind that none of those franchises are devoid of humans) or even that in the specific case of MtG that non humans are more popular.
Yes, I was thinking of Ashiok. I believe that the Wanderer is simply another human but obviously I could be wrong.
On the half-human and "hybrid": I was trying to enlight more the difference than the similarity.
About dead PWs: I simply considered carded characters, but to be more precise, 1 elf, 1 cat warrior and 1 satyr are dead (together with at least 7 humans: Serra, Urza, Venser, Elspeth (sort of) and the 3 casualties of WAR)
Reading the names of the dead PW makes me say: planeswalkers of the multiverse, don't choose white as your color, is bad for your life!
I'm not arguing from personal opinion. I'm arguing from observations across multiple franchises. There is a slight trend towards liking humans more, but it's nowhere, nowhere near as strong as people claim it is. Humans are able to empathize with cubes for crying out loud.
Jace become popular because he was the posterchild since his inception and shoved down everyones throats since the start. The gatewatch rose in popularity (though most members were chosen by popularity in the first place) because they featured extensively in the storyline. The pattern repeats itself time and time again.
White lives matter.And you say that, but Maro says that Jace was most popular out of the Lorwyn Five from the beginning. It's a positive feedback loop yes, you're just acting like they were unpopular to begin with and only made that way over time, as though WotC would arbitrarily decide to promote unpopular characters for no reason.
Umezawa told Bolas he was going to kill him, killed his second in command, said he was going to the meditation realm, and vanished. Bolas, perfectly healthy, separated his own spirit from his body to go to the meditation realm to pursue him. Umezawa had not yet left and took the opportunity to blow up Bolas citadel to kill his body, then went to the meditation realm to kill his spirit. He owns spirit Bolas and thinks he's killed him. He is able to do so because Bolas cannot planeswalk after his body has been killed and his Mana has been severed. Flash forward to Time Spiral and we find out that a trace amount of Bolas Spirit manage to survive because of the Madaran time rift. The growth of the rift enabled his spirit to take on a weak human form. He then used Vensers spark to gain more power, and pulled his sleeping body through the time rift before umezawa kills it in the past. His resurrection relied entirely on the time rift. First, it kept him from being totally destroyed. Second, it's growth enabled him to become more than a harmless shadow of a spirit. Third, it enabled him to retrieve his body from the past. Characters present in this story had knowledge of this (Karn, and especially Teferi).
So we know Ugin is full of *****, because if Bolas' had a way to restore himself he would have done so without having to rely on events outside of his control and every bit as convoluted as Nivs. He didn't even plan the first step, he got lucky that the rift saved enough of his spirit, and then got lucky again that enough plane wrecking disasters happened to cause the time rift crisis and grow the rifts thus causing his spirit to grow. And he'd have certainly done it much, much earlier. The evidence is clear, Ugin is wrong. That's why I said it's stupid. Characters present in this story should know this, Teferi especially as he ******* witnessed it. That's either one of two things, an intentional retcon created solely so that they could have a reason not to kill Bolas (a major retcon for the character btw, that changes fairly recent history), or the author/creative making a huge plot mistake. The former is cynical and the latter is stupid. Neither are good narrative reasons for this happening.
Had they killed Bolas after he desparked, he'd have been dead. Even had he managed to somehow, at the last minute, decouple his spirit from his body and send it to the meditation plane, we would at worst be in the same spot we are now, Bolas trapped on the meditation plane, except he'd just be a spirit instead of alive. If his spirit stayed on Ravnica, Kaya was on hand to finish the job.
They went out of their way to come up with a reason not to kill Bolas, and it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Maybe Ugin is just lying and is taking a risk solely because he doesn't want to kill his brother, but why anyone would go along with that is a mystery. There is no evidence that Bolas is permanently neutered and will not recover, so this plan relies on Ugin staying on the meditation realm and keeping Bolas weak. What happens when Ugin is inevitably required to leave to face a major threat? Bolas recovers. And Bolas on Alara was a planar threat before he powered up a bit off the maelstrom.
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!
A feedback loop makes a lot more sense for the franchises you mention. They are explicitly selling the monsters as they are the stars so they HAVE to force the normally unpopular monsters down everyone's throats until people get used to them and like them.
Dude... Nobody said anything about Wizards doing this on purpose. I actually assume they are not even aware of this problem. Way to miss the mark.
The writer was left in a difficult spot. But his writing was also just awful. The biggest issue, by far, was pacing. The emergence of the God-Eternals was treated with less emphasis than the characters’ descent to Rix Maadi. In fact, more words were dedicated to the THIRD time that Rat’s dad struggled to see her than to the emergence of the gods.
Here’s a gem: “Bolas barely managed to obliterate Oketra, but...” This is the main villain OBLITERATING a freaking GOD (arguably the most significant god because of Gideon) and it gets half a sentence. Half a sentence. Less time than Chandra thinks about Gideon’s abs. Less time than a description of one of Teo’s shields.
Vitu-Ghazi’s rise, fighting, and defeat lasts just a few paragraphs. Tezzeret’s defeat just a few sentences. But we certainly got a good description of the Demon’s Vestibule.
WotC are just very lucky that a majority of players don’t care about the lore beyond the major story points and the major characters. The major plot points we see on the cards and the major characters are all good. In fact, the author’s new characters, Teo and Rat, are actually pretty good. I thought at first that Rat would be really cringey but by the end I liked her. And the author did a great job with Dack. Clearly characterization is his strength and clearly pacing is not.
In terms of the broad story, it is mostly good. Although I don’t think Bolas’ downfall was totally satisfying. I wish the causes of his defeat were more deserved. I feel like his downfall should be caused by a combination of overconfidence in his intellect and overreliance on minions that aren’t truly loyal. I wish there was more outsmarting going on between Ugin, Niv, and Bolas. Bolas is selfish and doesn’t work well with others, and though he may have millennia of planning, he’s not smarter than Niv and Ugin put together, and I wish there was more with them outsmarting him and unraveling his plans, aside from Ugin imprisoning him after he had already lost. Liliana’s turning on Bolas was good, but I wish Dovin and Tezzeret would have as well. All three minions had the tools to screw over Bolas, and that’s why I expected them to turn on him but they really don’t. Dovin’s Veto flavor text set up a good story but they didn’t follow through. There could have been a moment where Chandra is fighting Dovin and realizes that he sees Bolas as a force of destruction and chaos and he has been planning on betraying him ever since he saw Tezzeret’s true personality and his true master, and Chandra struggles to have the self-control to let him live despite his crimes. Bolas gives Dovin the signal to turn off the Sun when Bolas needs to flee when he is going to lose his spark, and Dovin just refuses and that’s all he would have to do. Meanwhile Ugin could send Sarkhan to bring a message to Tezzeret, and when Bolas’ defeat is at hand and he tries to flee through the bridge to Amonkhet, Tezzeret just shuts it off. Tezz already hates Bolas so it fits.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"