I felt Oko was one of the better villains we've had in quite some time. Makes me want to build a deck around him. The writer protrayed him as far more devious and intelligent than even Bolas in the WAR book. Not genius-level intelligence, but you got the sense in reading about him that he was smarter than anyone else around him, and it made you nervous whenever he was in a scene.
This is interesting because I partly agree but I never actually saw him as intelligent. He easily is smarter than most of the people he interacted with in the story, which isn't saying much as it includes a deranged Garruk, some children(17 is a child) nearly every adult proves to be smarter than him or at least smart enough not to listen to him. He is almost certainly regularly the most knowledgeable person in a room because he is the one running whatever scheme he's got everyone else wrapped up in and by nature of being a walker who is interested in knowing things he's better learned than plane bound people living on planes set in the dark ages where intelligence was a rare trait. Overall no part of his actions or schemes seem intelligent but they are great in their simplicity. Kidnap the king and trick people into killing him to start a war isn't complex and that makes it easy to get behind rather than the multistep rube goldberg machines that other scheming villains build to prove how smart they are.
It could be that intelligent wasn't the most precise word. It's been a long day.
I read the story in scattered bits here or there, but to me it takes intelligence (tactfulness? street smarts?) to be able to study a foreign society for only a small space of time (a day or so?) and immediately come up with a plan that has a high likelihood of plunging the plane into war and chaos. He took all the info Rowan was vomitting out and knew what levers to pull. To us as readers, and to denizens of Eldraine, those levers might be obvious. But he was a brand new arrival, and quickly came to understand intricate relationships and long-simmering resentments. He also successfully played both sides of the possible conflict through understanding of their cultures and motivations. If it was so easy, one of the elves who wanted war for all these generations would have pulled something similar off, I suspect. But it didn't seem that easy to do, and Oko did it all while appearing perfectly relaxed about it. And all without knowing much about the plane before speaking with Rowan.
Some elves were suspicious of his motives, but not all. The human realms had no idea he even existed at all. Some random interloper almost caused a war. That's not something an individual of average intelligence could pull off. He may not be Bolas level genius, but he almost accomplished something Bolas would probably be impressed by. I can't think of a puppet-master in literature I've read who wasn't smarter than most if not all of the people they were manipulating.
Not saying your view is incorrect. Just supplementing my previous post.
I felt Oko was one of the better villains we've had in quite some time. Makes me want to build a deck around him. The writer protrayed him as far more devious and intelligent than even Bolas in the WAR book. Not genius-level intelligence, but you got the sense in reading about him that he was smarter than anyone else around him, and it made you nervous whenever he was in a scene.
I thought the cauldron scene with Garruk was difficult to understand, and I thought it was a bit easy to liberate him, but I'm happy to see rational Garruk again. Many happy returns!
Overall, the author fleshed out a world and gave me some characters I liked in a limited amount of space. A vast improvement on WAR. And I didn't miss the Gatewatch whatsoever. I'm actually far more interested in Garruk and the Kenrith Twins, and Oko, than any member of the Gatewatch. Like, I am fired up to see the adventures of these walkers.
I am content with the money I paid.
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It could be that intelligent wasn't the most precise word. It's been a long day.
I read the story in scattered bits here or there, but to me it takes intelligence (tactfulness? street smarts?) to be able to study a foreign society for only a small space of time (a day or so?) and immediately come up with a plan that has a high likelihood of plunging the plane into war and chaos. He took all the info Rowan was vomitting out and knew what levers to pull. To us as readers, and to denizens of Eldraine, those levers might be obvious. But he was a brand new arrival, and quickly came to understand intricate relationships and long-simmering resentments. He also successfully played both sides of the possible conflict through understanding of their cultures and motivations. If it was so easy, one of the elves who wanted war for all these generations would have pulled something similar off, I suspect. But it didn't seem that easy to do, and Oko did it all while appearing perfectly relaxed about it. And all without knowing much about the plane before speaking with Rowan.
Some elves were suspicious of his motives, but not all. The human realms had no idea he even existed at all. Some random interloper almost caused a war. That's not something an individual of average intelligence could pull off. He may not be Bolas level genius, but he almost accomplished something Bolas would probably be impressed by. I can't think of a puppet-master in literature I've read who wasn't smarter than most if not all of the people they were manipulating.
Not saying your view is incorrect. Just supplementing my previous post.
I thought the cauldron scene with Garruk was difficult to understand, and I thought it was a bit easy to liberate him, but I'm happy to see rational Garruk again. Many happy returns!
Overall, the author fleshed out a world and gave me some characters I liked in a limited amount of space. A vast improvement on WAR. And I didn't miss the Gatewatch whatsoever. I'm actually far more interested in Garruk and the Kenrith Twins, and Oko, than any member of the Gatewatch. Like, I am fired up to see the adventures of these walkers.
I am content with the money I paid.