I see what you are saying and some of Nissa's stories didn't seem particularly relevant but knowing Kiora is on Theros and heading to the same place as Gideon and Drana, I think is pretty important. I would be lying if I also said I didn't enjoy learning Kiora's Origin story too....
- I honestly don't understand what is so great about this UR of Kiora that everyone is talking about. Maybe I'm out of context since I haven't read previous stories with her, but it just didn't feel great. Yenai could have been anyone, he was just there to oppose her, her use of Thassa's Bident was nothing very impressive, and nothing really happened in the story. The telling of how she ignited her spark was nowhere near interesting and I think they could have done it better, the only think I nod my head in approval was the explanation of Kiora's relationship with the previous Gods from Zendikar, that now are the Eldrazi Titans. It was good to see more characterization of the Eldrazis as Gods and Kiora's point of view of them. That was it.
- Some of the URs are not looking great to me. I tried to think about why and I think one of the main reasons is the random Eldrazi fights. The Eldrazi just aren't interesting anymore if all they do is attack, dry the land and then some planeswalkers show up to smash, slice or crunch them. That is just boring, the fighting just happens in the same repetitive way! The eldrazi were suppose to be alien powerful creatures, and I don't get this vibe at all in these random eldrazi fights. Why not making something different? Some eldrazi that can actually touch your mind and make you go insane? Or some eldrazi that is parasitic of a person's body, or, I don't know, just something different than the old slash and corrupt! I refuse to believe that if you met Void Winnower in the field of battle the only thing it would do to you is try to crush you or fight you. But that is the only thing that they do! We've seen so many different fights and they are all the same, the eldrazi's shape changes, but what they can do does not. I am utterly bored by this alien invasion, and I think if that is all the eldrazi are capable of doing then they shouldn't even focus on the fights anymore, and just report them as a journal: "good morning, today I've fought some eldrazis. I lived. It was a good day.". There. Much better than wasting my time reading the same battles over and over.
I honestly don't understand why your not understanding why we liked this and other stories should have anything to do with our liking them.
Different things please different people. I enjoyed the extra background into Kiora's past, family and mindset and to be honest, Life doesn't happen in grandiose "movies" in reality. In this way, these slow-moving episodes are more real because there is a slow progression, and maybe the big moments will be all the sweeter or dark because of that gradual build up.
I didn't mind this story or Nissa. I'm Abzan (I think?) in my mindset so I can also kind of relate. There's something sacred about the relationship between one's home and one's identity so I can see her snide reactions as a part of the trauma she's experiencing. Oh, and by the way, the Planeswalker profiles have been updated. As you can imagine, some character qualities we have previously known in the characters now essentially don't exist.
We know that the Eldrazi were based upon Cthulhu mythos but that doesn't mean that Wizards has to follow all the rules entailed therein, which means that the Eldrazi can as you say serve a definitive and comprehensible role in the multiverse such as fixing mana/plane problems. It's like the whole Theros/Greek scenario. Theros was based on Greek mythos yet the set doesn't follow into every trope therein (such as heroes being bastard offspring of the gods).
"Chalky white stuff" would be okay if they did it like it was in the alt All is Dust, where you always see the death toll and lightning cascading off the surface. It's a scene of complete annihilation (see wut i did thar?), instead of just "oh, pretty white structures."
As for "what's not there" I was thinking you look at any random card from BFZ with the white stuff, then replace that white stuff with the Nyx starfield, but remove all the pretty colors from it. That's visually striking and weird, because you'd see these dark blotches of nothing intermingling with actual landscapes and such. That would mean the Eldrazi literally spread void—nothingness.
Of course, I'm not the art director, and my suggestion might be complete crap for others. That's irrelevant. What is relevant is anything other than what they have now would probably be better.
I don't know. The thing is, on the art side, when it comes to reproduction, the freaky colors and variation in the Nyx starfield make the image pop and are easily visible on the reduced size of the cards. I'm not certain that black would have had the same effect. The kind of chalky desication thing is a strong visual signifyer of something being used up. Think about what happens when you suck the flavoring out of a slushy. I don't see those structures as pretty... I see it as being a very strong and clear signifyer of something that's been drained away.
I like the slushy metaphor for it describes what is the heart of the problem. We know that eldrazi eats planes and starting with the known primary world of such a plane is not a bad start. Perhaps with the three of them the titans could dissolve a plane in one go but in this case Ulamog's sucking Zendikar dry is a slower process then we are used to seeing.
However when I eat a slushy I eat the entire thing but not until after I have drained away the more succulent juices. Maybe Ulamog would eat the husked Zendikar and more metaphysical elements of the plane (and other cosmological features therin) after it eats the juicy part
As much as I hate the Zendikari winning this early into the story, I kinda liked this UR. I guess partly because it wasn't filler. The most interesting part to me was how the story both answered and raised new questions at the same time.
Also the "cleansing the broken" part sounds a bit to me like the Eldrazi are indeed feeding on damaged and/or dying planes. Though I also find the idea of trying to bring the multiverse back to a state where everything is part of an urplane interesting as well. Maybe the Eldrazi actively fight the natural detoriation process of the multiverse? Similar to how black holes concentrate matter and in a way 'fight' the heat death of the universe of having all the matter spread out too much, maybe the Eldrazi are fighting the process of the multiverse splitting and splintering into more and more planes (cough Alara cough) to keep it coherent. I don't know, but damn do I love speculating and musing about stuff like this.
Boy did this story raise questions. I seriously want to know the deal with the Zendikari vampires. Maybe Sorin created them to learn about the Eldrazi or maybe as a way to get Eldrazi power for himself in a way related to how Drana did? Maybe he feels shame for those ambitions? There's so much hinted at. I just wonder how much of it we're going to learn and how soon.
I am also curious as this story was really the first peak of whatever their new plan for Zendikar vampires is. It has to be significant enough that they felt they needed to retcon old material and we can suspect it may tie into whatever happened between Nahiri and Sorin. Unless Drana is Nahiri LOL! Ok, I don't really believe that but this story brings more questions than it has answers
Yaay Gideon! I definitely however agree with some that it may have been more prudent to get the heck outta there but that's probably cuz we (unlike Gideon) know that 'ole Ulamog is heading there way. I recognize and understand that we won't be seeing any major plot points until the prerelease at least.
I honestly don't understand why your not understanding why we liked this and other stories should have anything to do with our liking them.
Different things please different people. I enjoyed the extra background into Kiora's past, family and mindset and to be honest, Life doesn't happen in grandiose "movies" in reality. In this way, these slow-moving episodes are more real because there is a slow progression, and maybe the big moments will be all the sweeter or dark because of that gradual build up.
I like the slushy metaphor for it describes what is the heart of the problem. We know that eldrazi eats planes and starting with the known primary world of such a plane is not a bad start. Perhaps with the three of them the titans could dissolve a plane in one go but in this case Ulamog's sucking Zendikar dry is a slower process then we are used to seeing.
However when I eat a slushy I eat the entire thing but not until after I have drained away the more succulent juices. Maybe Ulamog would eat the husked Zendikar and more metaphysical elements of the plane (and other cosmological features therin) after it eats the juicy part
I am also curious as this story was really the first peak of whatever their new plan for Zendikar vampires is. It has to be significant enough that they felt they needed to retcon old material and we can suspect it may tie into whatever happened between Nahiri and Sorin. Unless Drana is Nahiri LOL! Ok, I don't really believe that but this story brings more questions than it has answers
I think.
I think they're trolling us. Kozi is totally still there.