Also about Liliana. She can change and be less psycho. Rememnber during Karladash when she spared a group of soldiers. I really hope that she will change more and even after defeating the final demon she still have atachment to the group, afetr all they went through together.
Eh, that was just because the tone they were going for in Kaladesh was like an 80's GI Joe cartoon, nobody really died. So they had to dial Lili back in ways that (to me) weren't very believable. I'm enjoying this revelation of her real personality to her supposed comrades.
Silly of them to judge Liliana for overkill of a freaking demon.
Yeah, I agree. I mean, what exactly were they expecting? Maybe Jace will start to really understand that his gal pal is a horrifying mass-murdering villain. Sociopath, Psychopath -- finding the right label doesn't really matter as much as her actual behavior, and the fact that she truly enjoys murdering the crap out of anyone who gets in her way.
And I agree that her extremely inhuman moral outlook fits the pattern of the other ex-Oldwalkers we've met. None of them seem to have a healthy regard for the value of non-planeswalker life, even Ugin (who seems so committed to his cosmic/neutral perspective that he doesn't really care about what happens to people on Zendikar or Tarkir).
Structurally, I think this story is doing a great job setting up for the Bolas showdown. This shows them triumphing over a powerful foe through teamwork, but not without strains from their clashing personalities. It was very similar to the teamwork scenes as they fought the Eldrazi, though obviously on a smaller scale. The difference here, though, is that Razaketh was just a miniboss, and Bolas is in an entirely different tier. The buildup for this arc continues to be delicious.
I'm super excited for this. I suspected ever since they mentioned that Ajani was going to Dominaria to recruit allies. I will very likely buy a ton of this set. I hope we check in on lots of different parts of the world: Sarpadia, Otaria, Jamuraa, the remains of Tolaria, Benalia, Keld...yes, I'm jazzed.
This looks like a good expression of popular desire. It will be more interesting to me to see how the new core sets (or kinda core sets?) work into the story.
Yes, I realized that after going back to reread some old Liliana stories that she was upfront about having visited the plane after Bolas dominated it. She just hadn't gone to the city or seen the Hekma. I do wonder about the relationship between Bolas and Razaketh, though; it seems most likely that Razaketh is a native to Amonkhet whom Bolas sort of put in charge of part of the plan. Or I suppose Bolas might have created him, though I doubt that.
I suspect that it was Bolas who caused the plane's previous devastation. He would have to have already visited it extensively to know that it suited his purposes. I suspect that he engineered a long-term death spiral for the plane, possibly by disrupting the cycle of life and death so that everything that dies gets reanimated, so that he could eventually use it for whatever his purpose was (planar battery, giant undead interplanar invasion army, whatever). Or maybe he already got most of what he was after, and was content to just let the survivors struggle on with their sad little gods. Then the Mending caused him to massively accelerate the plan, or else to decide that his little leave-behind project could serve a bigger purpose.
As of this week's story, it now seems clear that Bolas plane-screwed Amonkhet immediately before the Mending. It's interesting that there's no particular indication of how Razaketh played into that process. The timeline seems wonky, though, since Liliana made her pacts after the Mending, so the plane would already have been under Bolas's control then...hmmm...
EDIT Reading back over some of the old stories, it's clear that Liliana did know that Bolas had already pwned the plane when she met Razaketh. Apparently she didn't go to the city, though; presumable she walked in, met Razaketh somewhere out in the wastes, did her business, and left without much fanfare.
Great story. Yes, the vase seems to be a Theros reference, and the origami cranes seem to be Kamigawa. I can't place the banner as clearly, but Tarkir seems like a likely place (there were a lotta banners there, though I guess Sultai Banner probably doesn't technically exist in the timeline now?).
I would be okay with "Ravnica 3: Never Put a Planeswalker In Charge of Your Government" coming next year -- but only if we can get "Return to Dominaria" first.
Plotholes bother me too, but I enjoyed the Q&A. Don't know why certain people expect Creative to use a Q&A podcast to put on a sackcloth-and-ashes repentance session.
There were some helpful clarifications. The timing of the Mending was good to hear, and the connection of it to the Kaladesh Aether boom was an interesting tidbit.
I appreciate that they acknowledge the oddity of the Gatewatch's experience on Amonkhet, and do their best to justify it (though again, why Nicol Bolas wouldn't have programmed Oketra to kill trespassers instead of welcoming them...).
Overall, it was a pleasant light Q&A. It's fun to see how the story creators enjoy fan theories. Hope someday I can make that "They were right!" file.
I'm starting to wonder if there was some kind of screw-up with the schedule for Uncharted Realms; some of the later chapters in the Amonkhet block have felt awfully rushed in places. The transition from Samut getting captured, to being freed by the Gatewatch, to the latter all getting captured by the Gods and brought to the Trials felt like it was written by someone who was only given an hour to bridge two separate scenes.
I'm starting to wonder if there was some kind of screw-up with the schedule for Uncharted Realms; some of the later chapters in the Amonkhet block have felt awfully rushed in places. The transition from Samut getting captured, to being freed by the Gatewatch, to the latter all getting captured by the Gods and brought to the Trials felt like it was written by someone who was only given an hour to bridge two separate scenes.
They certainly indicate a lack of copy editing. The tense and person shifts are pretty ugly in a lot of places. They definitely read as though they were written in a rush and/or hastily revised. It severely weakens what is, to me, a fairly enjoyable set of stories. The fundamental content is pretty good (well, except for the Gatewatch's idiot plotting in showing up with no plan), but the flaws in the execution significantly impedes its effectiveness.
I doubt Creative will ever give us an insider account of the production process, but there's something in the pipeline that isn't working right, either from lack of time or lack of personnel.
The more I read the stories, the more implausible it seems that Bolas would want Amonkhet to spit him out a walker. There are just too many unknowns with a planeswalker's first walk. The risk involved, for Bolas, would be way too much.
Yeah, I think he mostly just wants a gigantic undead army, whether to use to conquer other planes or to suck up its necromantic life force, we'll see.
Pretty good story. It still suffers from some of the editing problems that the others have had -- that third-person section during the Gatewatch's rescue of Samut from the sarcophagus was pretty clunky -- but I found the emotions of the whole piece quite effective throughout. For Samut to make such a trusting and honest appeal to Hazoret and get shut down -- that was a crushing scene, especially as it followed her rejection by Djeru.
I liked the drama of the final combat scene, though some of the details were a little awkwardly written. Gideon beginning to feel his mortality was a fine touch.
I don't think Gideon is going to die on Amonkhet. That foreshadowing reads as being for the more distant future, probably for the return to Theros. But we're all set up for the big payoff of Hour of Devastation, now. They have built the supervillain hype up for Bolas real high...and the GW still have no real plan for how to beat him.
Great write-up. I've been an advocate of the Lim-Dul theory for a long time, but this is far more evidence than I've ever seen before for it. I'm really hoping that the Dominaria set gives us the big reveal. It would be a fabulous payoff for all of us old-time Vorthoses.
I'm especially intrigued by the possible connection between Lim-Dul and Nicol Bolas's army of Eternals. I could certainly see Bolas making a deal with Lim-Dul to open the way for him to dominate his host in exchange for the promise of service as a general. And Bolas was brokering those demonic pacts fairly soon after he first set up his plan for Amonkhet, too...
Do we know the time period for Liliana's initial meeting with the Raven Man and planeswalker ascension? Could it have been during or immediately after the last time Lim-Dul was known to be active on Dominaria?
Eh, that was just because the tone they were going for in Kaladesh was like an 80's GI Joe cartoon, nobody really died. So they had to dial Lili back in ways that (to me) weren't very believable. I'm enjoying this revelation of her real personality to her supposed comrades.
Old Fogey reprint incoming? I hadn't realized that they'd never really done Dinosaur as a creature type yet. I'll bet they'll update some old friends!
Yeah, I agree. I mean, what exactly were they expecting? Maybe Jace will start to really understand that his gal pal is a horrifying mass-murdering villain. Sociopath, Psychopath -- finding the right label doesn't really matter as much as her actual behavior, and the fact that she truly enjoys murdering the crap out of anyone who gets in her way.
And I agree that her extremely inhuman moral outlook fits the pattern of the other ex-Oldwalkers we've met. None of them seem to have a healthy regard for the value of non-planeswalker life, even Ugin (who seems so committed to his cosmic/neutral perspective that he doesn't really care about what happens to people on Zendikar or Tarkir).
Structurally, I think this story is doing a great job setting up for the Bolas showdown. This shows them triumphing over a powerful foe through teamwork, but not without strains from their clashing personalities. It was very similar to the teamwork scenes as they fought the Eldrazi, though obviously on a smaller scale. The difference here, though, is that Razaketh was just a miniboss, and Bolas is in an entirely different tier. The buildup for this arc continues to be delicious.
EDIT Reading back over some of the old stories, it's clear that Liliana did know that Bolas had already pwned the plane when she met Razaketh. Apparently she didn't go to the city, though; presumable she walked in, met Razaketh somewhere out in the wastes, did her business, and left without much fanfare.
I would be okay with "Ravnica 3: Never Put a Planeswalker In Charge of Your Government" coming next year -- but only if we can get "Return to Dominaria" first.
There were some helpful clarifications. The timing of the Mending was good to hear, and the connection of it to the Kaladesh Aether boom was an interesting tidbit.
I appreciate that they acknowledge the oddity of the Gatewatch's experience on Amonkhet, and do their best to justify it (though again, why Nicol Bolas wouldn't have programmed Oketra to kill trespassers instead of welcoming them...).
Overall, it was a pleasant light Q&A. It's fun to see how the story creators enjoy fan theories. Hope someday I can make that "They were right!" file.
They certainly indicate a lack of copy editing. The tense and person shifts are pretty ugly in a lot of places. They definitely read as though they were written in a rush and/or hastily revised. It severely weakens what is, to me, a fairly enjoyable set of stories. The fundamental content is pretty good (well, except for the Gatewatch's idiot plotting in showing up with no plan), but the flaws in the execution significantly impedes its effectiveness.
I doubt Creative will ever give us an insider account of the production process, but there's something in the pipeline that isn't working right, either from lack of time or lack of personnel.
Yeah, I think he mostly just wants a gigantic undead army, whether to use to conquer other planes or to suck up its necromantic life force, we'll see.
I liked the drama of the final combat scene, though some of the details were a little awkwardly written. Gideon beginning to feel his mortality was a fine touch.
I don't think Gideon is going to die on Amonkhet. That foreshadowing reads as being for the more distant future, probably for the return to Theros. But we're all set up for the big payoff of Hour of Devastation, now. They have built the supervillain hype up for Bolas real high...and the GW still have no real plan for how to beat him.