Basically, I do like how the author was able to add (what I believe) her own characters and set up motivation work with the trailer so they don't contradict each other too much.
I do wonder now though if Nahiri purposely killed Zareth since there was friction with them already.
Jace and Nissa where making their way up correct? Hopefully they can catch Akiri, falling from a huge high like that would be a awful death with the waiting for death.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I also think its kind of strange that the core is constantly described as star-like in terms of brilliance, yet Nahiri makes a sedron emit "dark energy". Like the story almost had it with the white villainy but decided to screw with it for some reason.
They should've come up with a better reason for why Nahiri needed a party to go with her. Yeah, here and there it's mentioned that they help each other along the way, but it really seems like Nahiri could've done all this by herself.
I also think its kind of strange that the core is constantly described as star-like in terms of brilliance, yet Nahiri makes a sedron emit "dark energy". Like the story almost had it with the white villainy but decided to screw with it for some reason.
I think its to show the connection to the lithomancy blight but your right that a white and sterile feel is more closer to white villainy (though maybe it was trying to separate them from the Ulamog waste look.
They should've come up with a better reason for why Nahiri needed a party to go with her. Yeah, here and there it's mentioned that they help each other along the way, but it really seems like Nahiri could've done all this by herself.
This one thing I think having more stories might have helped. I feel like this story could be two separate stories (one with them getting to the core and one of them escaping) and could have more time with the "party going through the dungeon" (and add to the Adventure world feel) to show why the skycave wasn't something Nahiri could solo.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I still don't understand why Akiri or anyone else on Zendikar (besides the militant environmentalist Nissa) would NOT want the ROIL to End.
Wouldn't that be a good thing?
They seem to be some assumptions being made that we are not privy too.
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Resigned up after getting lost in the Twitch/MTGS whatever crossover
Been on this forum for 10++ years
Playing since '94
Another thing that continues to annoy me a bit is that we still don't know what Nahiri's vision of the future looks like. She keeps going on about how she hates the roil and that she's going to heal Zendikar, but surely she has an idea of how healed Zendikar will look like, right? Apparently it's all going to go horribly wrong, so it'd be nice to know even the broad strokes of what she has in mind - she's a POV character, come on!
Judging by Zareth's comment in the previous story as well as the whole kor supremacy subtext it'd probably be a repeat of the kor empire.
Which was what Zendikar was before the eldrazi and where Nahiri likely grew up, which would be the Zendikar she knew.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Jace and Nissa where making their way up correct? Hopefully they can catch Akiri, falling from a huge high like that would be a awful death with the waiting for death.
There's also still Kaza and Orah flying below on Kaza's staff. They could probably catch her as well.
Judging by Zareth's comment in the previous story as well as the whole kor supremacy subtext it'd probably be a repeat of the kor empire.
Which was what Zendikar was before the eldrazi and where Nahiri likely grew up, which would be the Zendikar she knew.
I guess... I'd still expect her thoughts on the matter to be a bit more fully formed, since an empire isn't something that just springs into existence once you move a few rocks around. To me, her motivations also don't seem to be of political nature.
I really wish they could be consistent on little details. This story takes place when the kor skyclaves and the kor empire are still a thing. Meaning it is long before the eldrazi. Yet we get multiple mentions of hedrons, which shouldn't exist. Is it really that hard to keep worldbuilding consistent?
The hedrons are not necessarily connected to the Eldrazi only. If I remember correctly, Nahiri had the knowledge of how to create them even before meeting Ugin and Sorin. Ugin learned the lithomancy necessary for it from her and added the draconic symbols to specifically use them as a network for Eldrazi imprisonment, but this implies that hedrons themselves were a thing even before the Eldrazi. Probably used in much lesser capacity by the lithomancy-proficient Kor empire and not used as a Zendikar-spanning network, but still. I don't think there is a direct problem with the worldbuilding here.
In general everything about the skyclaves implies that while the hedron's symbols are indeed Ugin's invention t is clearly meant that the basic concept of stones with alien inscriptions was the norm amidst the kor.
The hedrons are not necessarily connected to the Eldrazi only. If I remember correctly, Nahiri had the knowledge of how to create them even before meeting Ugin and Sorin. Ugin learned the lithomancy necessary for it from her and added the draconic symbols to specifically use them as a network for Eldrazi imprisonment, but this implies that hedrons themselves were a thing even before the Eldrazi. Probably used in much lesser capacity by the lithomancy-proficient Kor empire and not used as a Zendikar-spanning network, but still. I don't think there is a direct problem with the worldbuilding here.
While all of this is possible. That is only if they choose to further retcon established lore. The word Hedron came from Ugin when they were building the prisons.
One by one, she pulled carefully crafted stone shapes out of the earth—hedrons, Ugin had called them, and the name had stuck.
Also the story is clearly referencing the plane spanning network of hedrons integrated into the leylines.
The lace of leylines and the hedrons that channeled them might have been touching his skin, he sensed them so keenly.
I'm fine with them saying "the Kor always used strange cryptic patterns in their stone/art work. I am not fine with them saying "The hedrons were built to trap the Eldrazi, the eldrazi came after the fall of the Kor empire. The kor empire had Hedrons."
On Nahiri and kor nationalism, her Arena quotes pretty much confirm she wants to restore the kor empire.
In potential spoiler territory, if the Arena quotes can be trusted, it seems both Nissa and Nahiri will go too far in their attempts to defend their vision of Zendikar (Nissa embracing her B side, and possibly channeling the blight) and both will regret what they have done.
If this is accurate, this could represent a surprising level of nuance we haven't seen in the story in many years, provided it is handled well. (We've had too many mustache-twirling villains for too long. As story where everyone is somewhat right, somewhat wrong, and blind certainty is the real enemy would be a nice palate cleanser.)
And if it's handled poorly, it will further twist the knife in everyone already angry about Nissa+Chandra and undo what little character development Nissa has actually gotten while presenting a false moral equivalence with someone who effectively attempted to cause a genocide on Innistrad.
But I will give WotC the benefit of the doubt. For now.
This week's side story was kind of eh. Obuun is so far removed from what is happening on Zendikar right now that I found it hard to care (yes I know that he's technically still alive). We didn't really learn anything about the Kor Empire either other than they do typical empire things, forcing people to assimilate and whatnot.
The hedrons are not necessarily connected to the Eldrazi only. If I remember correctly, Nahiri had the knowledge of how to create them even before meeting Ugin and Sorin. Ugin learned the lithomancy necessary for it from her and added the draconic symbols to specifically use them as a network for Eldrazi imprisonment, but this implies that hedrons themselves were a thing even before the Eldrazi. Probably used in much lesser capacity by the lithomancy-proficient Kor empire and not used as a Zendikar-spanning network, but still. I don't think there is a direct problem with the worldbuilding here.
While all of this is possible. That is only if they choose to further retcon established lore. The word Hedron came from Ugin when they were building the prisons.
One by one, she pulled carefully crafted stone shapes out of the earth—hedrons, Ugin had called them, and the name had stuck.
Also the story is clearly referencing the plane spanning network of hedrons integrated into the leylines.
The lace of leylines and the hedrons that channeled them might have been touching his skin, he sensed them so keenly.
I'm fine with them saying "the Kor always used strange cryptic patterns in their stone/art work. I am not fine with them saying "The hedrons were built to trap the Eldrazi, the eldrazi came after the fall of the Kor empire. The kor empire had Hedrons."
A little of both tbh. It looks like it was a over sight in the continuity. That said 1) from the article they said the empire was in decline around when the eldrazi where sealed and 1.5) said the last skycaves was taken down by elrazi tentacle when the eldrazi where lured there and 2) Nahiri took 40 year to make all the hedrons and they where likely popping up all over as she was finishing them. So all these together there is a time, pre-eldrazi where you had the Kor empire having hedrons. Yes its bending over backwards some but those elements and the vague timeline means this story could fit, even if they didn't much plan to do so.
This week's side story was kind of eh. Obuun is so far removed from what is happening on Zendikar right now that I found it hard to care (yes I know that he's technically still alive). We didn't really learn anything about the Kor Empire either other than they do typical empire things, forcing people to assimilate and whatnot.
On Nahiri and kor nationalism, her Arena quotes pretty much confirm she wants to restore the kor empire.
I still wish that aspect would show up in the actual story as well, but I'm going to stop *****ing... for now.
I'm guessing since he's the legend for the commander deck?
But this what they promised, side/filler/slice of life stories that would focus more on the legendary characters who lived on each plane. I believed Draydens Ravnica 3 short stories where what they sited for what they where going for. Personally I'm not into them but outside of Drana and the walkers idc really bout Zendikar but I do look forward to them for world building for kaldheim and strixhaven and for Innistrad which does have legends I really like.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
The hedrons are not necessarily connected to the Eldrazi only. If I remember correctly, Nahiri had the knowledge of how to create them even before meeting Ugin and Sorin. Ugin learned the lithomancy necessary for it from her and added the draconic symbols to specifically use them as a network for Eldrazi imprisonment, but this implies that hedrons themselves were a thing even before the Eldrazi. Probably used in much lesser capacity by the lithomancy-proficient Kor empire and not used as a Zendikar-spanning network, but still. I don't think there is a direct problem with the worldbuilding here.
While all of this is possible. That is only if they choose to further retcon established lore. The word Hedron came from Ugin when they were building the prisons.
One by one, she pulled carefully crafted stone shapes out of the earth—hedrons, Ugin had called them, and the name had stuck.
Also the story is clearly referencing the plane spanning network of hedrons integrated into the leylines.
The lace of leylines and the hedrons that channeled them might have been touching his skin, he sensed them so keenly.
I'm fine with them saying "the Kor always used strange cryptic patterns in their stone/art work. I am not fine with them saying "The hedrons were built to trap the Eldrazi, the eldrazi came after the fall of the Kor empire. The kor empire had Hedrons."
A little of both tbh. It looks like it was a over sight in the continuity. That said 1) from the article they said the empire was in decline around when the eldrazi where sealed and 1.5) said the last skycaves was taken down by elrazi tentacle when the eldrazi where lured there and 2) Nahiri took 40 year to make all the hedrons and they where likely popping up all over as she was finishing them. So all these together there is a time, pre-eldrazi where you had the Kor empire having hedrons. Yes its bending over backwards some but those elements and the vague timeline means this story could fit, even if they didn't much plan to do so.
They don't give us an exact time line but even their vague timelines doesn't agree with them. The empire/skyclaves fell into ruin over the course of a century. Nahiri built the herdrons over forty years. The last skyclave fell to an eldrazi. Meaning that there were hedrons while the empire fell apart. Except we are given the order the skyclaves fell and this story is talking about the skyclave that fell second. You can twist things significantly and say it isn't definitive that six skyclaves fell in about 10 or 20 years. The time in which Nahiri would have made a ***** ton of them but still enough time for the skyclaves to fall separately and not all at once. But that still means that at the end of this story our protag is just a year away from leading a successful uprising. All of these are unreasonable.
It's far more likely that because they designed zendikar from the ground up as having hedrons they never considered a hedronless zendikar. Its disappointingly likely that no one even noticed that the kor empire should find the hedrons strange and alien which explains the similarities between their designs.
Even if the hedrons overlapped with the Skyclaves: As someone mentioned earlier, Nahiri crafted them in 40 years. Which means that even if they had been around for a while during the time of the story, they were still somewhat of a new development. They really shouldn't have been refered to just in passing. They are the icon of Zendikar's change into a prison.
Also, showing a hedron less Zendikar, or indeed a completely different Zendikar (surely the roil must have wreaked some havoc on Zendikar landmarks. Keep the names of the continents but replace the Guum Wilds with a new location that stopped existing due to the Eldrazi devastation or the roil later on. There, massively cheap resemblance of worldbuilding. Urgh.) would have gone a long way to show just how much Zendikar has transformed, which would tie the story thematically into the current story arc, even if it is otherwise completely separate.
Not to mention that even if the hedrons were semi-regular thing at the time (maybe it was year 39 of Nahiri crafting Hedrons), there is some narrative obligation to still call it out and direct some attention to it, given, again, how imortant they are to Zendikar's design and history.
Argh! *rips out hair in frustration*
Otherwise this story didn't do much for me either. What was the point of it again? Obuun connecting with his ancestors? Why is this a noteworthy thing given that that appears to be the norm for the elves there? I was hoping we'd learn why Obuun became the spiritual leader (har har, see what I did there) for the elves, as per his snippet, but no. If this was a no-name "average Joe" character, whose purpose is to introduce us to the culture of the elves, sure, but this is a legendary character whose one-paragraph story snippet is more interesting than the entirety of this story. Uhhh...
I'm also not a fan of the writing style of these Zendikar stories. It's just way too verbose for no need. Like, I get it, not every writer subscribes to the brevity is key philosophy (though they should, don't at me) but at least during action scenes it serves to sell an atmosphere better than flowery verbose language. Instead we spend a paragraph describing what the air smells like and what the ground felt like while Obuun was being thrown around. Ok. It feels too much like the writer wants to flex their vocabulary and sentence crafting ability in the reader's face.
Also, another thing I was annoyed at from Obuun's character snippet, that I hoped this story would address, but wasn't is:
In a world where spirits are a thing and hang around for a long time (like Obuun) and are apparently directly involved in everyday affairs (like Obuun), how can the true identity of the Eldrazi be lost? That makes no sense.
Anyway, despite what I made it sound like, it wasn't a terrible story. It was okay, but like the first one, nothing I'd reread. My frustration mainly stems from the fact how easily you could improve this story substantially. But whatever. I'm just glad the online stories are back, like genuinely. I'm harsh because I care, see. :^)
Nissa's Zendikon lore is revealed Nissa enraged Jace did it again first in researching the core this time she read nahiri mind and Nissa snapped when Jace understood what nahiri wanted to do and Jace had similar thoughts with a ravnica like thing on Zendikar
-I feel like we could have gotta a story from Nissa tracking Nahiri as well
-I like how Akiri was not wanting to help Jace after Nahiri
-In a sad way Akiri is very right that the Zendikar Nahiri is no more and we are seeing more of Nahiri white villain side in that she can't not let that go
-I see Nahiri following into a similar hate that she had with Sorin with Jace.
-Yup so Nahiri want to have a rebirth of the kor empire and from Jace noted wants to turn Zendikar into a Ravnica like city-plane.
-Yup Nahiri isn't gonna be a ally anytime soon
-Jace for being the "smart one" your really really dumb
-And now we are seeing how Nissa's old walker level powers she can have on Zendikar and likely any plane that likes her, though so far it seems all but Kaladesh dislike her funny enough.
-Considering the story moments we gotten so far it looks likely next week will end with Jace being sealed on Zendikar. While I'm not sure wizards would put Jace on a bus for a long time, it might be their way of not having Jace helping out any of the gatewatch in the future similar how none of the avengers seem able to assemble in a solo superhero movie. They already had to put in Jace looking for the other and failing to find them as why none of them are helping with Zendikar.
Please don't, War of the Spark is already pretty pointless.
I'm pretty similar, I know they didn't out right kill in as they did want to have the option to bring him back but I'd rather that be in several (10+) years when we have finished up the current protagonists arcs and/or moved on to the next group of protagonists.
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“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
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"I will bend you to my will"
Nahiri confirmed earthbender... wait...
Basically, I do like how the author was able to add (what I believe) her own characters and set up motivation work with the trailer so they don't contradict each other too much.
I do wonder now though if Nahiri purposely killed Zareth since there was friction with them already.
Jace and Nissa where making their way up correct? Hopefully they can catch Akiri, falling from a huge high like that would be a awful death with the waiting for death.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
I think its to show the connection to the lithomancy blight but your right that a white and sterile feel is more closer to white villainy (though maybe it was trying to separate them from the Ulamog waste look.
This one thing I think having more stories might have helped. I feel like this story could be two separate stories (one with them getting to the core and one of them escaping) and could have more time with the "party going through the dungeon" (and add to the Adventure world feel) to show why the skycave wasn't something Nahiri could solo.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Wouldn't that be a good thing?
They seem to be some assumptions being made that we are not privy too.
Been on this forum for 10++ years
Playing since '94
Which was what Zendikar was before the eldrazi and where Nahiri likely grew up, which would be the Zendikar she knew.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
There's also still Kaza and Orah flying below on Kaza's staff. They could probably catch her as well.
So still no confirm if Akiri died or not Basically there’s a chance someone will be down there to catch her potentially.
Also, there's a new story today:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-story/beneath-riverroot-tree-2020-09-18
Also the story is clearly referencing the plane spanning network of hedrons integrated into the leylines.
I'm fine with them saying "the Kor always used strange cryptic patterns in their stone/art work. I am not fine with them saying "The hedrons were built to trap the Eldrazi, the eldrazi came after the fall of the Kor empire. The kor empire had Hedrons."
In potential spoiler territory, if the Arena quotes can be trusted, it seems both Nissa and Nahiri will go too far in their attempts to defend their vision of Zendikar (Nissa embracing her B side, and possibly channeling the blight) and both will regret what they have done.
If this is accurate, this could represent a surprising level of nuance we haven't seen in the story in many years, provided it is handled well. (We've had too many mustache-twirling villains for too long. As story where everyone is somewhat right, somewhat wrong, and blind certainty is the real enemy would be a nice palate cleanser.)
And if it's handled poorly, it will further twist the knife in everyone already angry about Nissa+Chandra and undo what little character development Nissa has actually gotten while presenting a false moral equivalence with someone who effectively attempted to cause a genocide on Innistrad.
But I will give WotC the benefit of the doubt. For now.
I still wish that aspect would show up in the actual story as well, but I'm going to stop *****ing... for now.
A little of both tbh. It looks like it was a over sight in the continuity. That said 1) from the article they said the empire was in decline around when the eldrazi where sealed and 1.5) said the last skycaves was taken down by elrazi tentacle when the eldrazi where lured there and 2) Nahiri took 40 year to make all the hedrons and they where likely popping up all over as she was finishing them. So all these together there is a time, pre-eldrazi where you had the Kor empire having hedrons. Yes its bending over backwards some but those elements and the vague timeline means this story could fit, even if they didn't much plan to do so.
I'm guessing since he's the legend for the commander deck?
But this what they promised, side/filler/slice of life stories that would focus more on the legendary characters who lived on each plane. I believed Draydens Ravnica 3 short stories where what they sited for what they where going for. Personally I'm not into them but outside of Drana and the walkers idc really bout Zendikar but I do look forward to them for world building for kaldheim and strixhaven and for Innistrad which does have legends I really like.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
They don't give us an exact time line but even their vague timelines doesn't agree with them. The empire/skyclaves fell into ruin over the course of a century. Nahiri built the herdrons over forty years. The last skyclave fell to an eldrazi. Meaning that there were hedrons while the empire fell apart. Except we are given the order the skyclaves fell and this story is talking about the skyclave that fell second. You can twist things significantly and say it isn't definitive that six skyclaves fell in about 10 or 20 years. The time in which Nahiri would have made a ***** ton of them but still enough time for the skyclaves to fall separately and not all at once. But that still means that at the end of this story our protag is just a year away from leading a successful uprising. All of these are unreasonable.
It's far more likely that because they designed zendikar from the ground up as having hedrons they never considered a hedronless zendikar. Its disappointingly likely that no one even noticed that the kor empire should find the hedrons strange and alien which explains the similarities between their designs.
Also, showing a hedron less Zendikar, or indeed a completely different Zendikar (surely the roil must have wreaked some havoc on Zendikar landmarks. Keep the names of the continents but replace the Guum Wilds with a new location that stopped existing due to the Eldrazi devastation or the roil later on. There, massively cheap resemblance of worldbuilding. Urgh.) would have gone a long way to show just how much Zendikar has transformed, which would tie the story thematically into the current story arc, even if it is otherwise completely separate.
Not to mention that even if the hedrons were semi-regular thing at the time (maybe it was year 39 of Nahiri crafting Hedrons), there is some narrative obligation to still call it out and direct some attention to it, given, again, how imortant they are to Zendikar's design and history.
Argh! *rips out hair in frustration*
Otherwise this story didn't do much for me either. What was the point of it again? Obuun connecting with his ancestors? Why is this a noteworthy thing given that that appears to be the norm for the elves there? I was hoping we'd learn why Obuun became the spiritual leader (har har, see what I did there) for the elves, as per his snippet, but no. If this was a no-name "average Joe" character, whose purpose is to introduce us to the culture of the elves, sure, but this is a legendary character whose one-paragraph story snippet is more interesting than the entirety of this story. Uhhh...
I'm also not a fan of the writing style of these Zendikar stories. It's just way too verbose for no need. Like, I get it, not every writer subscribes to the brevity is key philosophy (though they should, don't at me) but at least during action scenes it serves to sell an atmosphere better than flowery verbose language. Instead we spend a paragraph describing what the air smells like and what the ground felt like while Obuun was being thrown around. Ok. It feels too much like the writer wants to flex their vocabulary and sentence crafting ability in the reader's face.
Also, another thing I was annoyed at from Obuun's character snippet, that I hoped this story would address, but wasn't is:
In a world where spirits are a thing and hang around for a long time (like Obuun) and are apparently directly involved in everyday affairs (like Obuun), how can the true identity of the Eldrazi be lost? That makes no sense.
Anyway, despite what I made it sound like, it wasn't a terrible story. It was okay, but like the first one, nothing I'd reread. My frustration mainly stems from the fact how easily you could improve this story substantially. But whatever. I'm just glad the online stories are back, like genuinely. I'm harsh because I care, see. :^)
Please don't, War of the Spark is already pretty pointless.
And villain weirdly switches roles
Nissa's Zendikon lore is revealed Nissa enraged Jace did it again first in researching the core this time she read nahiri mind and Nissa snapped when Jace understood what nahiri wanted to do and Jace had similar thoughts with a ravnica like thing on Zendikar
but here’s an important part....
AKIRI SURVIVED!
Nissa caught her with a tree branch
-I feel like we could have gotta a story from Nissa tracking Nahiri as well
-I like how Akiri was not wanting to help Jace after Nahiri
-In a sad way Akiri is very right that the Zendikar Nahiri is no more and we are seeing more of Nahiri white villain side in that she can't not let that go
-I see Nahiri following into a similar hate that she had with Sorin with Jace.
-Yup so Nahiri want to have a rebirth of the kor empire and from Jace noted wants to turn Zendikar into a Ravnica like city-plane.
-Yup Nahiri isn't gonna be a ally anytime soon
-Jace for being the "smart one" your really really dumb
-And now we are seeing how Nissa's old walker level powers she can have on Zendikar and likely any plane that likes her, though so far it seems all but Kaladesh dislike her funny enough.
-Considering the story moments we gotten so far it looks likely next week will end with Jace being sealed on Zendikar. While I'm not sure wizards would put Jace on a bus for a long time, it might be their way of not having Jace helping out any of the gatewatch in the future similar how none of the avengers seem able to assemble in a solo superhero movie. They already had to put in Jace looking for the other and failing to find them as why none of them are helping with Zendikar.
I'm pretty similar, I know they didn't out right kill in as they did want to have the option to bring him back but I'd rather that be in several (10+) years when we have finished up the current protagonists arcs and/or moved on to the next group of protagonists.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"