I like how the art of the Great Work is a magnificent opera of pipeworking rebuilding an enormous body. Maybe the reconstruction of a glorious body for the limbless (not dead) Urabrask himself?
Also I cannot unsee the pipes as little suspensions from a 3D printer workings.
First of all, the rules of theros ide(i)ntity do not technically exists, the creative team just gives the impression of the rules existing for the sake of lore building. They must be taken with a wide mind, not with strict coherence.
That said, inside said "rules" for deity on theros, MAYBE after the imprisonment of Heliod his believers were beginning to fall down in numbers. I mainly suppose this because a God with lots of believers would free themselves, I suppose... Probably with so few believers it was extremely easy to reach the WHOLE fanbase with glistening oil, that's why it was so quick and it did not take decades. Viral oil + viral fake news maybe got us this HelLiod.
What I find REALLY interesting is that in a place where dreams and needs become gods, with a viral oil that keeps the collective genetic/ancestral memories of past and present Phyrexia... the result is the compleation of an already existing god and not the therosian DEIFICATION OF YAWGMOTH.
But maybe it is like it is because oil does not delete the soul anymore? (If it does so in planeswalkers there is the chance it does so in every living being.) So maybe the soul is why throsian prefer to warp their traditional gods instead of twisting their faith towards phyrexian praetors or godlike beings?
I think you are projecting too much. The "MARVEL ENDGAME Trope" was alive BEFORE it was made obnoxious by MCU. You could retroactively say The Nine Titans was an Endgame. Chill. It's a not-enfranchised trope. You don't need to "brand it" to fabricate a reason why you don't like it, you simply don't like it and it's okay.
Did anyone catch the final image of the redesign of Urabrask?
Nothing in that text points to and actual cure. Only that a suppressed spirit might still be inside somewhere. Their bodies are stripped down and rebuild into a Phyrexian machine. The only thing that would fix that is more time travel which would be a lazy way to go.
Wasn't the whole shtick of Mirrodin the changing of metal into flesh and flesh into metal? If they solve the Mirrodin problem it would just take time and some in-lore jump to revert Phyrexian scraps into flesh.
Wasn't Jeska on Dominaria when she expired? While Gideon is not on the right plane with the right afterlife... Is it explicitly wrote down that it is an allucination of the last sparks of elettricity in Gid's brain?
So... Ral was NOT working directly for Bolas... Then the end of the Amonkhet story is proclaimed retconned?
The book very clearly states Ral WAS working for Bolas, had been for a while, but defected when he realized what Bolas' ends were.
Wasn't Jeska on Dominaria when she expired? While Gideon is not on the right plane with the right afterlife... Is it explicitly wrote down that it is an allucination of the last sparks of elettricity in Gid's brain?
So... Ral was NOT working directly for Bolas... Then the end of the Amonkhet story is proclaimed retconned?
I'll reinsert myself in the discussion, which I see has become more of a critical one...
I'm not happy with how it turned out, this is not compelling as a story for me.
About the whole "purpose" of a character I just want to say that the motif of a character is NOT ONLY its origin, but is always in evolution and in motion, the fact Kaya's purpose was fulfilled, does not mean it is expendable. BUT the same can be said in reverse, for real life at least. Our purpose is all-changing and we might not even reach our ending, we might get on another road, or even change our perspective completely, and I like to think modern writing should improve this hyper-realism... as was done in "Lost" (not everything was explained, but so is in real life... Evasion literature does not mean necessarily that it should atrofy our genius of imagination, we can theorize on the unexplained as we do in real life. I think it's extraordinary that we would be capable of doing that from a simple work of fiction). So when we see a Liliana with mysteries unsolved or Tamiyo with children at home, I like to imagine they could die too, leaving unanswered question that may be even addressed in other ways, not involving the original characters, so... Yes, I was counting on the death of many planeswalkers too, not because killing more equals higher quality, but because it would have meant Bolas is still a threat. Let's face it, they call it the most ancient enemy, the biggest baddest... but we can count how many times he won, and they were always midway wins, not definitive ones. An enemy is a threat as long as it is actually a threat. I don't see him as a threat anymore now.
What could have defined Bolas as a threat is not killing the protagonists, but killing characters we are invested in. For example, Voldemort? Yes, the trio is alive in the end, but we lost Dumbledore, Snape (retroactively loved), some Weasleys or parts of them(I don't care about them actually), Lupin, Sirius, Dobby, Tonks... We got lots of felt deaths.
Killing around 10 planeswalkers we are invested in could have been a wonderful way to show that other than win some side battles (Amonkhet and Ixalan), Bolas is also a freaking monster. Now I see him as a Gargamel, with a bit of drama...
And I am even compliant in this, because I would have preferred a God Bolas winning this entire war.
He was interested in its use, yes, not linked to it though. He has wispered to her since the beginning and will keep on doing that until she finds him (probably her only interest left)...
His soul does not get to Theros apparently (at least as far the card goes). What we see is him disintegrating under the power of a magical contract he never signed nor broke up with anyone, that would have normally just aged him until he reached his real age... And it's already super strange...
EDIT:Ah, wait I get what you mean. That's even worse...
Depends on how the contract is written. Could just be a “you forfeit your life if you renege” deal in it. While she doesn’t want to become a lich would be kind of poor planning on the part of demons/Bolas to not account for that possibility.
Well actually Bolas said she would age hundreds of years ina second, getting to ashes... though if they want to retcon this it wouldn't be that difficult, they might decide the ageing process is not related to the years the individual is actually old, but to a fixed number, just for fun... But frankly the plot is a bit bananas...
Also I cannot unsee the pipes as little suspensions from a 3D printer workings.
That said, inside said "rules" for deity on theros, MAYBE after the imprisonment of Heliod his believers were beginning to fall down in numbers. I mainly suppose this because a God with lots of believers would free themselves, I suppose... Probably with so few believers it was extremely easy to reach the WHOLE fanbase with glistening oil, that's why it was so quick and it did not take decades. Viral oil + viral fake news maybe got us this HelLiod.
What I find REALLY interesting is that in a place where dreams and needs become gods, with a viral oil that keeps the collective genetic/ancestral memories of past and present Phyrexia... the result is the compleation of an already existing god and not the therosian DEIFICATION OF YAWGMOTH.
But maybe it is like it is because oil does not delete the soul anymore? (If it does so in planeswalkers there is the chance it does so in every living being.) So maybe the soul is why throsian prefer to warp their traditional gods instead of twisting their faith towards phyrexian praetors or godlike beings?
Did anyone catch the final image of the redesign of Urabrask?
Wow, they had to introduce Toxic in the set when there is already SO MUCH around here.
Wasn't the whole shtick of Mirrodin the changing of metal into flesh and flesh into metal? If they solve the Mirrodin problem it would just take time and some in-lore jump to revert Phyrexian scraps into flesh.
Okay, I was misled by the "planted idea". Thanks.
So... Ral was NOT working directly for Bolas... Then the end of the Amonkhet story is proclaimed retconned?
I'm not happy with how it turned out, this is not compelling as a story for me.
About the whole "purpose" of a character I just want to say that the motif of a character is NOT ONLY its origin, but is always in evolution and in motion, the fact Kaya's purpose was fulfilled, does not mean it is expendable. BUT the same can be said in reverse, for real life at least. Our purpose is all-changing and we might not even reach our ending, we might get on another road, or even change our perspective completely, and I like to think modern writing should improve this hyper-realism... as was done in "Lost" (not everything was explained, but so is in real life... Evasion literature does not mean necessarily that it should atrofy our genius of imagination, we can theorize on the unexplained as we do in real life. I think it's extraordinary that we would be capable of doing that from a simple work of fiction). So when we see a Liliana with mysteries unsolved or Tamiyo with children at home, I like to imagine they could die too, leaving unanswered question that may be even addressed in other ways, not involving the original characters, so... Yes, I was counting on the death of many planeswalkers too, not because killing more equals higher quality, but because it would have meant Bolas is still a threat. Let's face it, they call it the most ancient enemy, the biggest baddest... but we can count how many times he won, and they were always midway wins, not definitive ones. An enemy is a threat as long as it is actually a threat. I don't see him as a threat anymore now.
What could have defined Bolas as a threat is not killing the protagonists, but killing characters we are invested in. For example, Voldemort? Yes, the trio is alive in the end, but we lost Dumbledore, Snape (retroactively loved), some Weasleys or parts of them(I don't care about them actually), Lupin, Sirius, Dobby, Tonks... We got lots of felt deaths.
Killing around 10 planeswalkers we are invested in could have been a wonderful way to show that other than win some side battles (Amonkhet and Ixalan), Bolas is also a freaking monster. Now I see him as a Gargamel, with a bit of drama...
And I am even compliant in this, because I would have preferred a God Bolas winning this entire war.
EDIT:Ah, wait I get what you mean. That's even worse...
Well actually Bolas said she would age hundreds of years ina second, getting to ashes... though if they want to retcon this it wouldn't be that difficult, they might decide the ageing process is not related to the years the individual is actually old, but to a fixed number, just for fun... But frankly the plot is a bit bananas...