- Tiro of Meletis
- Registered User
-
Member for 10 years, 6 months, and 9 days
Last active Wed, Mar, 20 2024 19:02:07
- 2 Followers
- 5,414 Total Posts
- 2260 Thanks
-
Aug 21, 2018Tiro of Meletis posted a message on The World of TherosGreat article. Spelling is Dekella, not Dikella, though.Posted in: Articles
-
Nov 30, 2017Tiro of Meletis posted a message on If You Can't Take Criticism of Jeremy Hambly, You're Part of the ProblemActually, this article is the entire problem. Neo-Nazis? Really? Way to buy into propaganda. And the Trump reference about "locker room talk" - way to push your political agendas on a card game forum and assume your opinions are the status quo, and the only right way to think. That's why everyone is sick of liberals and SJWs. Arrogance and ignorance. No one gives a damn bro, we're here for card games. Get over yourselves and off your righteous soapbox.Posted in: Articles
-
Oct 11, 2017Tiro of Meletis posted a message on The World of KamigawaNice! I love me some Kamigawa!Posted in: Articles
- To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I understand people are judging the motive behind saving Zendikar. That the authors alone and not market research should influence how the story should progress. But we also can't judge the journey by the outcome. Think of the authors being commissioned to write a story the same way artists are to paint an image from a description from a world guide. WOTC establishes a bare bones example of what they want, but the artists work within those descriptions and their challenges to create something worth appreciating.
If it were up to me at this point, Zendikar would be destroyed. But that's just me.
Thank you. And everyone who read as well. I wouldn't say I hate Kiora, but I will say her behavior on Theros and especially since Theros warranted this outcome for her. She wasn't altruistic about Zendikar so much as being defiant and a victim of her own hubris, especially when she planeswalked away with the Bident thinking she did anything but set herself up for repercussions. Kiora may be bitter (and rightfully so) regarding her faith being revealed as a sham, but that's simply Zendikar's truth, not that of all planes, or Theros. She became so self reliant, in fact, that she cast herself as a false god without realizing it. On Theros she took advantage of Thassa's absence and on Zendikar she styled herself as Cosi in her own deluded stories. So in reality, she told herself the same lie. Her using a blood-stained Bident was a nice artistic touch that's an insightful way or showing the legacy of loss Kiora has left behind with the object of all her arrogance. But what's sad about her is, where should her trust be, then? If not with gods, and not exclusively in herself, then what? That's her journey now.
I loved the scene of Ulamog and Kozilek converging before the attack on Lorthos. It further highlights the theme of natural vs. alien, plane vs. blind eternities. And it demonstrates how unique the spark is, to allow an individual to transverse a realm harsher than even tempestuous Zendikar.
For Lorthos, I believe he is dead. Summoning copies from the aether off other planes works, but I believe she cast the one and only original Lorthos off the same plane when the Bident allowed her to gather his essence. The idea that she didn't even dare or bother trying to command Lorthos before owning the Bident seems to confirm to me my theory that the reason she failed to make a bond with Arixmethes and control her own sea monsters (even those from foreign planes) against Thassa was because the Bident's influence on ocean animals is simply too powerful to overcome. The fact the Bident works on Zendikar at all confirms magic is essentially universal, which it would be.
As badly as I wanted an Arixmethes card ASAP, even to the point of hoping Kiora bonded with him just to see a card from the kraken in BFZ, I am beyond delighted that did not happen. The absolute last thing I would have wanted to see is my favorite creature get shredded by Kozilek.
At this rate just destroy Zendikar. What was once my favorite plane next to Theros is clearly trashed and never going to be what it once was. It can't be Adventure World when its monsters are toast and its continents are wrecked. The treasures an explorer might seek are gone. Just end the place and let's move on. The Eldrazi will be respected and we won't need to deal with a half-assed plane. Sad what's been done to such a vibrant setting. I maintain planes can stand on their own without conflict, but that's not my call. No wonder I can't stand BFZ. Half the set is a trashed world.
The UR - very well done, as expected of Kelly Digges, and a highlight in the BFZ lineup of URs and even of all recent URs in general, really.
Lorthos was truly a moment of excitement for me. His summoning, the idea he still exists after all this time and after such an extensive Eldrazi assault. His limited yet alluring lore made Lorthos a mysterious force of nature - and the mightiest creature of Zendikar's oceans. But most importantly, a familiar face that links us to the nostalgia of the adventure world we all grew to love. A time when natural Zendikari threats like Lorthos of Murasa were the greatest primordial forces of the true, virgin Zendikar before the Eldrazi release. Here we see this familiar legend join the battle, but the most significant thing about Lorthos isn't that he made Kozilek look like a threat - but that Lorthos in a way embodies Zendikar itself. Lorthos is the mightiest natural force Zendikar's oceans have to represent them - that was all of Zendikar's oceans doing the most they could, and like the plane itself, the Eldrazi tore it apart like nothing. This was the most tragic thing about Lorthos's loss... Great ancient legendaries we remember with awe from the original wild and tempestuous world of Zendikar are proving meaningless. If the greatest of creatures that thrive as legends on a harsh plane like Zendikar can't last a moment, what hope is left?
Kiora watching Lorthos die was truly tragic. This was the greatest creature of her home world. There was a time she'd have feared or even revered him as they had Cosi. He was the tidebringer, worthy of myths. Instead weilding him in battle and having his trust meant nothing. His loss is a sign of Zendikar's sealed fate.
So finally the theft of Thassa's bident is avenged with the punishment of Kiora's hubris and her lesson in humility. In a strange way I found that equally heartbreaking. Kiora shares this fate with Gideon. She wields the weapon of a Theros god, turns it on another god in a moment of hubris, and fells all her loved ones with her trust in it while they had their trust in her. In the end, Kiora destroyed herself. I love how the Greek mythology theme of Theros and the downfall of the hero carried over to Zendikar and to Kiora from Theros, through the Bident. As expected, even the mighty Dekella, the greatest artifact on all of Zendikar and a god weapon, was nothing. And Kiora learned an even more scathing lesson here - even when she convinced herself that she had defeated Thassa, she lost. Stealing the Bident gave her the confidence that ended Kiora. Thassa is a true god, a thinking, feeling being. Kiora could pique Thassa's curiosity with talk of foreign oceans or tempt her with flattery and a good show in exchange for devotion. Thassa is capable of having interests. But Kozilek cannot be understood or reasoned with. He cannot be stalled or bribed or intrigued. I bet she'd have rather died on Theros under the Bident now than ever having stolen it and learned this lesson. If she has survived, she will be a very different character for it.
About time.
I wonder what became of the Bident. Seeing it in action is always a favorite moment of mine, but if one of the titans cross over it, no doubt the weapon is dust. Perhaps Gideon will retrieve it. Perhaps Kiora will have an epiphany in the depths and seek it again with a newfound sense of purpose. Or that her sister will come upon it and show more responsibility with the weapon, which Kiora leaves to her. Many possibilities, but the contras between Thassa and Kozilek just shows what sort of threat the Eldrazi truly are. I loved how Kozilek was portrayed. Leave it to Digges to know how to finally give us the villains these titans were always meant to be.
And Ulamog IS intimidating and a horror. It's just Krienes that was more frightening and she overshadowed Ulamog.
Most powerful line in the UR: "...Kiora saw where she had gone wrong"
Yeah Jenrik wasn't as prominent, so I can forgive that. It's why I removed him from my list of wanted character cards a while ago. Honestly if I get Arixmethes as a card I'll drop this crusade.
With the last line I mean like it's difficult for me to get as excited about new sets when I'm still hung up about wanting certain things from past sets. Like why be excited about Tarkir when the most exciting thing for me is getting a card for Arixmethes and Callaphe from Theros? Something I want in SOI is a card for Jenrik, which may not happen. I'd rather be excited for sets because of the sets and new planes, not because I'm anticipating something that didn't or may not finally happen. I'd rather enjoy the normal pace of Magic sets and new planes than being impatient about return sets to accomplish what I wished had happened the first time around.
Granted not all legends or named characters are deserving of cards. But some have been very alluring and been strangely absent. Taigam, the most popular cardless character of all, per MaRo's Blogatog poll (a character I don't care for in the slightest, but still) is a glaring example.
I hope we follow up on Daxos's mother as well. After all, Elspeth and Daxos do attempt to journey into the underworld themselves in order to attempt saving her, and fail. But that's also where Elspeth first learns of The Returned, and the flower Asphodel. I still wonder if the lovers had something up their sleeve for Erebos all along, especially Elspeth.
I mean, I'm trying to control myself from commenting on how horribly Ulamog has been handled ENTIRELY. Where is the ominous, haunting, humbling experiencing of seeing the approach of one of the greatest threats in the Multiverse tranverse the ocean and arrive on the horizon, silencing life from the whole of the world by merely existing? Where is the fear? The sense of for boding? Ulamog's massive frame slowly taking shape, his features slowly beginning to resolve with the breaching distance between the heroes and the monster? The terror that whether they succeed or not, Ulamog will soon be upon them?
Thassa herself gave me goosebumps when she approached Kiora for example, changing into guises of a great eye, a flock of seabirds, a waterspout and finally a triton of Nyx carrying the legendary Bident, hell-bent on wrecking her opponent. Oh wait, that's a Digges story of course. Here it's like "oh, we're constructing a ring of hedrons, and that over there looming black on the Horizon taller than any structure, natrual or built, on Zendikar is just a plane devouring entity that cannot be understood approaching to end us all, so uh heave up this hedron, k?"
The URs are too focused on checklist logistics of battle scenes and hedron assembly and introducing different character "perspectives" and don't set a mood or tone, don't establish emotion... But Ob waking Kozilek I will admit is a highlight. Still.
Such an amazing UR
But what created the titans? Think about it, Theros is based off Greek mythology, where humans invented a pantheon of gods that govern certain domains of the natural world, and belief in these beings was carried on through oral tradition - storytelling by bards and poets. Where heroes aspired to virtual immortality through these methods as well. Where embellishment and emphasis of oral tradition enhances a story of a real war between Ancient Greece and a Turkish city, for example, into the Trojan war that involves various gods warring alongside mortals, or taking sides. Where a precisely timed event or phenomenon scientifically inexplicable at the time might be attributed to divine intervention that is incorporated into a growing myth. Theros highlights this specific aspect of Greek belief. People largely don't worship the ancient Greek pantheon anymore, but there was a time when mythology and belief made them very real to people. Theros is emulating that idea - few on Theros are aware that their beliefs created the gods, but just as in Greek mythology the world simply is, and the gods are reinforced by the nature of the culture there. I think too many people are looking at the Theros gods from the perspective of either modern real-world faiths or with the knowledge that the Theros gods are not phenomenons elsewhere in the multiverse.
That is not the point.
The point is, on Theros, where the cultures and traditions of ancient Greece exist on a world that is modeled physically after how the ancient Greeks perceived the universe to be (right down to being flat rather than a sphere), this is how things work. Judge the Theros gods within the scope of the setting we're in - Theros as MTG ancient Greece - and not by modern or Multiverse standards.
First let me say that I don't think people have the right idea about the Theros gods here. They may be manifestations of mortal belief, but they're very much physically real, and extremely powerful beings with vast potential. They're not omnipotent, but the Greek pantheon that the Theros gods are based off of is polythestic, where each god has a domain, but are a complete master of that domain. Greek gods weren't omnipotent either, as their interplays with each other is what shapes things in the universe. Collectively, they would be, but each is an individual personification of their domain, with very human emotion and actions guiding great power. They're the greatest magical beings alongside the defeated titans.
There is too much emphasis here on the "shaped by belief" aspect. That's how the gods were created, and is only relevant because Xenagos tried to usurp the natural order (and was still illegitimate). Even his example had no impact on worship with no question as to their divine origins. Their creation isn't something people know about, as it surprised even the oracle of Kruphix, arguably the wisest oracles of all who saw more than any other mortal from Kruphix's temple. It's actually poor writing that Kiora figures this out with such ease really... Regardless, just because the gods were created from belief is no reason to discredit their power, or claim it might wax or wane. Xenagos sets up magical barriers in Skola valley and scoffs at the gods, but Keranos sure enough throws a lightning bolt that hammers through all of them and into the ground in an instant, shocking the satyr all the while. Sure the gods are meaningless outside Theros, but so what? When you planeswalk to Theros, it's irrelevant what's meaningful on other planes. You're on Theros and one man commands the SUN. One woman commands the entire OCEAN.
That said, the Theros gods, like Avacyn to Innistrad for example, are the major hitters of their respective plane, and legitimate gods there. I'm irked with seeing planeswalkers accomplish such remarkable feats against powerful plane-bound beings and then have WOTC and creative claim the spark does not confer anything but the ability to planes walk now, making a planeswalker essentially a traveling mage but not enhanced any other way. Sure they can learn diverse magic this way, and gain much experience, but I feel the big hitters of planes need to be respected and need to be vastly powerful, more so than any non-Bolas planeswalker as you said. I can excuse Kiora because she was utterly defeated and humiliated, and managed a last-second ditch effort by piquing Thassa's curiosity (Thassa could easily have had the Bident impale her instead, for example). I can excuse Lilliana one-shotting Griselbrand considering she had The Chain Veil, even though that still seems too OP.
Regardless, these plane-bound entities may not be able to travel, but they're still worshipped on these planes, even by people that eventually become planeswalkers themselves. I find it absurd that someone becomes a planes walker, gets written with Oldwalker blasé attitude about the most supreme beings of every world and astounding abilities, then get told they're just normal mortal mages that can happen to walk between worlds? I'm fine with a team of PWs taking down the Eldrazi. But when Elspeth fends off Heliod with a spell I'm like... seriously? If the strongest Legendaries are diminished in power by Creative in favor of planeswalkers, it makes planes as a whole into a joke. Why should we care about the Greek mythology feel of Theros if an average mortal neo-walker can just waltz in and treat its gods like pushovers? It's not just inconsistent with what is confirmed about PWs and Theros gods, it cheapens appreciation for the setting and for Legendaries in general. Why should we respect Avacyn, the supreme Legend of Innistrad if her close equal, Griselbrand, can be one-shotted? So a PW can just one-shot an entire plane's greatest being? Absurd.
And frankly there are many Legendary creatures that I find significantly cooler than most, if not all Planeswalkers. Sure Jace and Venser are cool, but Thassa and Avacyn to me are far more interesting and are terrifying threats to any non-Bolas planeswalker. These people aren't Urza anymore, and that should make them more interesting if written right. I PREFER post-mending PWs that learn, and grow in their travels, and RESPECT the big bads of planes they've visited as superior beings.