It’s admittedly wonky, but reading the stories with Elesh and Elspeth lately, it feels a bit like a ‘They’re two halves of one person’ trope. Like Elesh is Elspeth’s Tyler Durden (or Vice versa?), but made ‘real’ somehow.
When Nissa described the warm, itchy blood of the Phyrexia covering her hand, I got worried. But I dunno if Gaea would let her vessel fall so soon after choosing her…right…?
As for Elspeth, I think she’ll set off the Cylex at the last second, with Elesh Norn there and about to strike Elspeth down, but through some kind of shenanigans, it’ll be revealed as the Cylex erupts that she and Elesh Norn - who fears Elspeth on a visceral, instinctual level because some part of Norn remembers this - were once one person who was artificially sundered and thought dead: a beloved Oldwalker named Serra, who will be reborn in the aftermath of the devastation of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia the way Bolas was HOPING to be on Ravnica…
I’m gonna call it: Tamiyo’s instrumental role in sealing Emrakul into Innistrad’s moon is going to come into play again before this is over, but not in a ‘Phyrexia Compleats Emrakul and we get Phyrexiam Eldrazi’ way. Instead, I think Emrakul and the Eldrazi will be vital to ending the threat of Phyrexia once and for all.
Their purpose is to scour planes and allow something new to grow, a la Galactus, yeah? Well, if ANYTHING deserves to be scoured from the Multiverse, it’s Phyrexia. Emrakul ALLOWED (and perhaps even aided in) the Gatewatch and Tamiyo sealing ‘her’ away for reasons no one has been able to suss out yet. Perhaps Emrakul, being a cosmic horror entity of immense power, was AWARE that being sealed away was important to not only ‘her’ continued work, but to the continued existence of the Multiverse she feeds on/cleanses.
When facing an unstoppable evil which has taken and rewritten your friends and allies into enemies…it helps to have some reality-warping, planar-scouring ‘sealed evil in a can’ as your ‘Omega 13’, your ace in the hole to turn loose at a time of greatest, most desperate need. After all…if Phyrexia is winning and it seems all hope of resistance is lost…why NOT unleash Omega Cthulhu 13??
Better to embrace the oblivion ‘she’ brings than accept the eternal, living horror that Phyrexia would make of the Multiverse…
So, yeah. I think Emrakul will end up being the key, and ‘her’ being released may be the thing that ‘wakes’ Tamiyo up. Alternately, CompleaTamiyo decides to go to Innistrad to try and infect Emrakul and just gets eaten/obliterated for her troubles, revealing that Eldrazi are not only immune to the Oil, but that it attracts their attention way more effectively than Nahiri’s makeshift rituals.
And I don’t hate it…if they pull it off.
As for Elspeth, I think she’ll set off the Cylex at the last second, with Elesh Norn there and about to strike Elspeth down, but through some kind of shenanigans, it’ll be revealed as the Cylex erupts that she and Elesh Norn - who fears Elspeth on a visceral, instinctual level because some part of Norn remembers this - were once one person who was artificially sundered and thought dead: a beloved Oldwalker named Serra, who will be reborn in the aftermath of the devastation of Mirrodin/New Phyrexia the way Bolas was HOPING to be on Ravnica…
that’s my random shot in the dark theory!
Their purpose is to scour planes and allow something new to grow, a la Galactus, yeah? Well, if ANYTHING deserves to be scoured from the Multiverse, it’s Phyrexia. Emrakul ALLOWED (and perhaps even aided in) the Gatewatch and Tamiyo sealing ‘her’ away for reasons no one has been able to suss out yet. Perhaps Emrakul, being a cosmic horror entity of immense power, was AWARE that being sealed away was important to not only ‘her’ continued work, but to the continued existence of the Multiverse she feeds on/cleanses.
When facing an unstoppable evil which has taken and rewritten your friends and allies into enemies…it helps to have some reality-warping, planar-scouring ‘sealed evil in a can’ as your ‘Omega 13’, your ace in the hole to turn loose at a time of greatest, most desperate need. After all…if Phyrexia is winning and it seems all hope of resistance is lost…why NOT unleash Omega Cthulhu 13??
Better to embrace the oblivion ‘she’ brings than accept the eternal, living horror that Phyrexia would make of the Multiverse…
So, yeah. I think Emrakul will end up being the key, and ‘her’ being released may be the thing that ‘wakes’ Tamiyo up. Alternately, CompleaTamiyo decides to go to Innistrad to try and infect Emrakul and just gets eaten/obliterated for her troubles, revealing that Eldrazi are not only immune to the Oil, but that it attracts their attention way more effectively than Nahiri’s makeshift rituals.