As I thought. There was no way Bolas could have created a whole plane post-mending, and there was no way he had done so pre-mending.
I'm curious to see why there are three fewer Gods. The five remaining appear to not be loyal to whatever Bolas' intentions are, simply having their memories wiped and forced to believe what he left behind. So were the other three immune to mind magic, or perhaps simply killed in his initial invasion before he started corrupting? Either way, I'm still on board with him trying to use Amonkhet as a planeswalker farm.
Also, I'd really like for them to stop hinting that Chandra is gay unless they're going to give her girlfriend. She just looks like a lonely puppy otherwise and it's fairly annoying.
April 12, 2017 11:59 a.m.
DeathChant17 says... #5
I don't think Chandra is gay, especially since she has shown attraction to Gideon. I think it's simply that Chandra and Nissa are both very socially awkward. Nissa not having much for companionship and Chandra just simply never having close friends, plus the effed up life she's had. It's new to both of them.
April 12, 2017 12:25 p.m.
kanokarob, Honestly, he could have created the plane. Planeswalkers were most certainly capable of that pre-mending. Hell, Karn created Mirrodin. It turns out that he didn't in this case, but he was definitely capable of it.
As far as the gods having no memory, I think this gives some clues as to why:
"An elite ceremony metastasized into a mandatory life sentence. Thousands of infant orphans fathering three generations of a people with no past. He came and killed but did not stay and left an entire culture with a crude outline of whatever existed before"
Remember on Theros how Kruphix was talking about how the gods were entities of pure belief, shaped by mortals' ideas of them, and that even if he wasn't the oldest god he wouldn't know, because no one on the plane remembers it? The same rules might apply here. If Bolas came to the plane, slaughtered everyone expect infants, and left the dead to raise a the next generation, then everyone that grew up would only know what Bolas left for them to know, and then the gods would only know what their orphaned people believed, because they're reflections of their devotion.
The bit about an elite ceremony also seems super relevant. In ancient Egypt typically only the pharaohs and priests were mummified for the afterlife. Maybe on Amonkhet the Trial of the Five (or Eight) Gods was something that only a select few were supposed to undertake and be embalmed / become undead afterwards, but Bolas took it and twisted it into something that everybody had to go though. Maybe they weren't even supposed to die at the end, but Bolas killed the gods that came after Hazoret so he could keep them stuck as undead soldiers.
April 12, 2017 12:37 p.m.
but i mean "so... friendship?" was pretty clear that chandra wanted something more. but i still like gideon + chandra better, and with nissa moving into an enemy color...
April 12, 2017 1 p.m.
sonnet666: Notice I didn't say Bolas couldn't have done it pre-mending, I said that he hadn't. We knew he hadn't before this revelation, because he had no need for creating a plane pre-mending. He had all the power he needed or wanted and could rule over whatever he felt like.
April 12, 2017 1:40 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #9
I think the tension between Chandra and her two friends has more to do with her past and a lack of relationship models in her teen years. That and she's red, which makes her very aware of her feelings, and tingly caring feelings could be misplaced as love/attraction. Hell its possible she'd be a little promiscuous even as a well-nurtured/rounded red mage. I think it's an interesting subtext with possible story-telling implications. In my head canon Nissa might go for it if it feels natural (so far it doesn't for her,) and Gideon would also go for it because he's a beefcake with a strong sense of attachment. They've been through a lot together. Go red mages!
On to the main story; Bolas corrupting the plane seems so much more sensical. He needs something, so he's farming it. He's also got Tezz running around on errands and who knows who else from the veritable rogues gallery of baddies that are roaming the multiverse. I want to know, doesn't that mean the story telling is good?
April 12, 2017 1:49 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #10
Might make sense as to why the whole area is barren of life outside of the city. Bolas harvested everything around the city; and now he is raising an army to be deployed across the multiverse
April 12, 2017 2:07 p.m.
pizzagod13 says... #11
I'm guessing that the card that was spoiled in the article is the women they are looking for.
April 12, 2017 2:43 p.m.
Homura_Akemi says... #12
Chandra may be bi too, or Jace could pull a Jean Grey to Iceman on Chandra.
April 12, 2017 3:39 p.m.
My guess is that Samut's going to be a Naya walker in Hour. Her dissent seems to point that way.
ex. Chandra being a fugitive, Jace being a pariah, Narset having extraordinary potential, etc.
April 12, 2017 4:01 p.m.
RicketyEng says... #14
One thought that occurred to me about the identities of the other three gods was the eldrazi. However it would take some very careful hand waving and explanations to explain how they could have been on Amonkhet, so while the idea is intriguing I strongly think it unlikely.
To me, the eldrazi would only fit for the following reasons:
the plane is old and dying and that is what we've been led to believe the eldrazi were actually purposed for dealing with. This doesn't fully line up with Nissa's statement that the plane's pain is new.
the timing of their disappearance would have to line up with the events of their imprisonment on Zendikar.
April 12, 2017 4:09 p.m.
MindAblaze says... #15
Hmm...the Eldrazi were drawn away from the plane they were presumably devouring, and summoned to Zendikar. The sand is different from the Wastes left behind by Ulamog and Kozilek, but that could be explained away I'm sure. I like it, but definitely ripe for plot holes. If Emrakul wasn't allowed to reshape the plane then it kind of works for Bolas to come in conveniently and rebuild. But considering the Plane seems to be telling Nissa "he" did it. It's a stretch. Somehow Bolas' plan involves the Eldrazi, but we don't know how yet.
April 12, 2017 4:27 p.m.
I wonder if the Eldrazi were but a distraction for Bolas to work on his grander schemes?
April 12, 2017 4:28 p.m.
RicketyEng says... #17
I agree that there would be a lot of plot holes to fill so I doubt it actually works. It was an intriguing idea all the same though.
I actually still think Bolas is building an undead army from the Worthy. It would suggest a possible use for the planar bridge he commissioned. I also like that similar idea that he's using the trials to find new planeswalkers. We have yet to see a new planeswalker as evidence of that though.
I was trying to think of the creative reasons behind Nissa's colour shift. I wonder if the blue represents her seeking the truth of the plane's past. It could also be partially a result of the weak green mana leylines. She has been unable to use her green magic so maybe she resorts to dabbling elsewhere.
April 12, 2017 6:07 p.m.
AgentGreen says... #18
Nissa's shift to blue might be explained because the strongest source of green mana is the Luxa, and for her to tap into the green, she has to dab into the blue as well
April 12, 2017 6:55 p.m.
OneItsStarted says... #19
I was so dissapointed in this last story. In my opinion, the writing has finally reached its worst possible point.
One of my compaints is the large amount of unessicary situations which add nothing to the story. For instance, the Gatewatch's quest to find information from a sphinx results is built up through cliffhanger in the last story, only for all possible excitment to deflate with the simple explanation of "they can't talk", at which point the Gatewatch completely forgets about their urgent need for information and explores random stuff.
Another of my complaints is the uselessness of the "joke". I am putting joke in quotation marks because it wasn't even a joke. Why would sphinxes getting laryngitus be funny or even resemble a joke? It is realistic and holds no ironic set up. Furthermore, this joke is one of the few pieces of character description we will ever get about Hapatra, so to use a self-described "bad joke" to make her seem rather carefree and then have her spew a bunch of relevant information formally wastes any possible character development.
While some of you here may not agree with this as you have written in the above comments, my last complaint is about the plot point of Nicol Bolas suddenly taking over Amonkhet, rather than having created it himself. I am sure the sudden memory wipe stuff will be explained later, however it is entirely out of Nicol Bolas' character as the careful planner and manipulator to execute such a devastating action himself. Regardless, the plot point of a deceptive dictatorship is EXTREMELY OVERUSED in Magic story writing and MAKES THE HEROES HAVE NO MORAL STRUGGLES for which excitment and character developemnt could be built around. Already we have seen deceptive dictators such as Tezzeret and Heliod in recent Magic history. The entirety of this block's story is simply a repeat of Kaladesh, with a revolt and dictator decieving the citizens and such. As seen with Kaladesh, the removal of a lying dictator is a simple task, seeing as the people can just be shown the truth and then everyone will join the good guys and all will be fine after the dictator is overthrown and the law of the land is rebuilt. The Gatewatch gained ZERO developments in the story besides suggestions of Bolas' plans (no, Chandra is no different than how headstrong and confident she was before, she just had a breakdown at the start of Kaladesh). The rehashing of this same lazy and easily solved plotline immediately after an occurance similar to it is the truly the worst piece of story writing I have read.
TDLR: I think the story has gone drastically downhill with half of the plot and character developemnts being useless and the entirety of the story following the same plot as Kaladesh
April 12, 2017 9:04 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #20
I really liked the twist in this story that Bolas did not create the plane of Amonkhet, he merely corrupted it, and I am especially eager to learn about the three forgotten gods, although I hope that they are actually revealed, unlike the fifth legendary angel from Innistrad, who was mentioned, but never appeared.
Why did the article show a card for a character who did not even appear in the story, and why was it at the beginning, rather than the end? Nevertheless, I am very eager for the story of this block to progress.
April 12, 2017 10:52 p.m.
My theory is Bolas wants to become a god, when he returns to Amonkhet he will bring with him the missing 3 gods. This will be revealed in the next set.
Bolas and the 3 gods will be tri-coloured. Personally I hope for all of them to contain black:
- Grixis
- Esper
- Jund
- Sultai
Black mana alignment would make the 3 gods be in agreement with Bolas's plans for power, thus they will follow his rule. Finally this will lead to a fight between gods; mono-coloured gods vs the tri-coloured gods, with the Gatewatch saving the cities from destruction and aiding with the fight.
Epic.
:D
sonnet666 says... #2
In which we get a glimpse of Amonket's soul.
And might I say that this was a NICE touch: Show
April 12, 2017 11:40 a.m.