As I've been chewing over this story, I surprisingly found myself not liking baby Ugin, and liking baby Bolas more. Bolas seems to show more of a kinship with the attacked dragon. He's ready to face death to save her. But Ugin keeps shutting him up and taking his time to free Bolas, and doesn't seem as interested. As the descriptions of the horrible wounds flew past my eyes, I felt like baby Bolas, and I was annoyed with baby Ugin.
Which leads me to think about Ugin generally, and some other things people brought up so far in this thread. My impression of Ugin is that his interests and goals take precedence over any others (duh, dragon!). Bolas is pinned and ready to die for his sister anyway. Ugin isn't. Sorin and Nahiri want to stop the Eldrazi forever; Ugin doesn't. Ugin has Azor seal his spark away for Ugin's plan. Ugin introduces dragonstorms on Tarkir, terrorizing non-dragons for who knows how long. Ugin just doesn't really care. Didn't he even set up Jace as a trap to get Bolas on Ixalan?
Which leads me to something someone asked about Yasova. Maybe Bolas went to her and told her the dragons hunting her people was a result of Ugin. Ugin was to blame for all that suffering. And so, she worked with Bolas to take down Ugin. And it worked: All the dragons were wiped out, until Sarkhan undid it. And now it's even worse for people on Tarkir, and Ugin is alive again! Not liking him even more now! And functionally, is Bolas' impact on Amonkhet worse than Ugin's impact on Tarkir? Something to think on.
And the dragonstorms on Tarkir are very similar to the description of the ur-dragon and the generation of the first elder dragons, as others have pointed out. Is Ugin trying to become a new ur-dragon of Dominia(not Dominaria)? Would his study of the Eldrazi have assisted in his goal of becoming godlike over all planes?
Speculation, but fun speculation. Bolas is a bad dude, but I don't see Ugin as a boy scout either. He'd be an interesting next 'big bad.'
Excited for next week!
I felt the same exact way. The cold disinterest of Ugin, the selfishness, and the cowardice. Bolas is a young nationalist, a loyalist, who turns darker because his first memory is of watching his sister die? I like it, nuance!
Interesting, being born with full sentience and knowledge, being aware of your own nascent consciousness.