This is my critical review of the deaths in War of the Spark - in general and in the way they were written. Im not fan of the novel, some things here they got right others they did not. Memorialize these fallen Planeswalkers, and use them as examples to never write like this.
@@zachariahpoltergeist4516 During the book, the author wasn't allowed to kill anyone so he made up a viashino planeswalker to appear in the beginnings of the elder spell to be killed by an eternal. We only knew him for one sentence
I would've liked to see Domri as a Naya Planeswalker, since that was the plane that he went to when he activated his Spark and would be a nice change and opportunity for growth. From hot headed misguided youth to a protector of the freedom that comes with the Gruul domain(Even if that meant allying with the city you hate), it would be more interesting than a random death. Hell, I'm all for killing characters, but they need to be characters first, not random jobbers.
@@ghosttowncrypt agreed and like I commented originally about those uncommon walkers the ones they introduced in this set I highly doubt they will expand upon so why keep them? They should have been there for cannon fodder nothing more of course I kinda wanted atleast a couple key players to die
autobotjazz1972 I thought the same, and I expected many more to actually die as well. Killing off numerous planeswalkers would have put an end to several stories and opened the doors for new stories. Instead, WOTC just played it safe and wants to give already established characters even more stories rather than be original any more. Things need to get changed up more. There's only so much you can get out of particular characters before you start wishing for something new to happen.
Personally, I wanted Teferi to die. How I imagined his death was him straining his body and sacrificing himself to freeze Bolas in time for a short time, therefore, letting everyone have enough time to attack Bolas.
@@SomeGuy-cn5vm Only problem is that people that lean towards the Left want more "inclusivity" in everything. Hell, they kinda forced Wizards to make Ral gay! If they killed off Teferi the Left-leaning people would riot about racism, even if they had Kaya join. Watch, next thing you know, Wizards make Koth or another notable planeswalker trans or nonbinary or some other outrageous thing to make them happy. Sad that politics keep leaking into all forms of entertainment, really.
I’m not sure if Domri was truly evil. In my opinion he was a rowdy meat-head who trusted the wrong guy. Was he responsible for some of the damage? Of course! But in the end, he was more of a pawn than a true villain.
He was responsible for a large amount of destruction and random mass murder in his crusade to destroy the city. Not as much as what the Eternal Army did but many died at his hands.
Bryansk Scion and LtdEcho, I get what your saying, but he grew up to believe that the city was bad and, in his eyes, he was serving justice. His entire life he was trying to make things right, in his own way.
totally agree. A war without real losses (ie the deaths and mourning of several loved characters) is not a war, it's just a lame action movie. The War of the Spark should have had some real costs associated with it, just as any other war conflict.
WhatIsAMeme No, Dorian’s thirst shows the beginning of the battle. Notice how the God-pharaoh statue is intact in Sorin’s Thirst and breaking in Single Combat. It was left unclear who won.
They fought for awhile but at the finale storm of the citadel they stopped fighting to join the fight, it said Nahiri made the ground into spikes and stabbed threw 3 or 4 at a time, while Sorin was ripping the heads off any he could get his hands on
FlyingFlamingFlamingos actually I heard that too now that you mention it. Still begs the question where do they stand with each other now that the war is over.
Dack was always a character that deserved more lore in the main line, the comics he got were good and made me rly want him to be more involved with the main story
I can’t believe she lived through everything. I was sure Vivien was introduced to be the new (and more boring) Nissa, especially after Nissa left the Gatewatch on Dominaria.
I'm really annoyed at the incredibly low body count, and at the specific characters they chose for that low death toll. I also severely hate the entire Gatewatch BS, especially since at this point it's readily apparent they're just plot-armored saturday morning cartoon tier good guys. This was supposed to be a total war - a giant plane-wide battle between an unknown high number of planeswalkers and Bolas' forces. What we actually got was the Jacetice League saving the day and winning with only one loss, and external confirmation that "nearly all the sparks Bolas harvested were from unnamed unknown faceless other planeswalkers elsewhere on Ravnica." Not to mention that all the actually named deaths were straight white human men. Teferi's pretty much past his prime and has had more than enough lore over the 25 years, why not give him a proper send off? Liliana betrayed Bolas, which he perfectly knew she would, so why not let her actually take the consequences? Why does Kaya get off scott free for killing the entire leadership and disrupting the entire business of Orzhov, especially with Teysa standing right there? Why didn't Teysa try to end Kaya for destroying all Teysa had worked for her whole life? Dovin represents all Chandra hates, and was the main cause behind her father's death, why didn't she outright kill him? This was a perfect opportunity to cull the planeswalker numbers, to reduce how many walkers there were in certain colors and free up design space for new walkers (since Wizards has said they like to keep certain mechanics to certain walkers, like Lili is the necromancer and Zombie maker, Saheeli is the Servo / artifact clone maker, Nissa fetches and animates lands, etc).
Well kaya has the weight of the entire orzhov deals placed on her making it harder for her to fight so she didn’t get of scott free, and dovin planeswalked away after they shut the immortal sun off.
Ugin will hopefully be out of the story for a while, he "merged" with the Meditation Relm to seal it off so Nicol could never leave or regain power. Once Nicol passes away for the third and final time Ugin is free to unmerge and leave to focus on the Eldrazi. Source = mtg.gamepedia.com/Ugin#The_End
Imma be real, Bolas is a flaccid and patheticly written character who I'm glad is gone forever. If only they would do the same for all the other similarly written planeswalkers we have galavanting around.
Nissa or Vivian should have also died. Liliana or Ob as well. They really needed to narrow down these planeswalker numbers. The story literally has Bolas make a big entrance, kills a few minor people, and then Gideon's sacrifice lets Liliana finish Bolas. War of the Spark in a nutshell.
Honestly was severely disappointed about Ob Nixilis. He's a premending walker, whom was a Plane conquering Warlord, why's he so terrible? You telling me cause he didn't predict a impulsive pyromancer, he sucks now? Hell this guy almost had the original gate watch peeps dead, til Chandra arrived. HOW does one going from this powerful, to being pathetically disappointing?
Vivien has no reason to live, now. She was obsessed with killing Bolas, and she wasn't even given the pleasure of a killing blow. She honestly should have died in WAR.
I wish we could get a wrap up on Dack's story leading up to WAR. He honestly deserved better; a more satisfying death at least. Domri... Domri. Domri's introduction in Gatecrash felt like the kindly of a young, new and adventurous character. He got shelved, pulled out to act as a plot devise and discarded. Where Dack was a waste of a great character, Domri was a waste of great potential. Gideon got a predicted but satisfying death. I wonder if he'll be mentioned when we next see Elspeth. The two both lived on Bant for a time, possibly around the same time. They might have known eachother.
This ought to have been the fitting end/reset button for the mtg lore. (How I would of ended it): Jace dies, exhausting his mind connecting everyone together and leading them through out the entire battle. Thus he lives up to his title of Living Guild Pact. In addition, he rescues Domri, via his own rhetoric and charisma, as well as showing the devastation Bolas has done in the past. Chandra dies because of her insane lack of control. Since she never learned to control her self, then she over steps her bounds, in burning the majority of Bola's army, along with harming Dovin and some of her allies. The ragging fires burn through her, and turn her to ash. Nissa turns into the land, and becomes more elemental than living creature. Thus she sacrifices herself to prevent another plane from being burn and help spur its regrowth and defense. Liliana dies for the final time. Thus all her plots, and schemes come crashing down, and she finally pays for all the blood on her hands. (I mean, unless you plan on making her a morally good character after Gideon's death, then you have to kill off Liliana. Because I highly doubt Wizards of the Coast could write a redemption story.) Gideon turns himself into a living bulwark against Bolas, and sacrifices his life and his spark to cast one final spell: a protection spell that solidifies a person's soul to the body, and strengthens the bodies defense. Thus his spark, is the only spark lost during the war. Bolas dies due to Ugin and Nivmiz breaking him. (Unlike last time Bolas lost a battle, and was trapped in his meditation realm. Cough, cough, how Tetsuo Umezawa beat him.) In the end, the escalating violence stops the feuding planeswalkers long enough, to help mop up the mess after Bola's true death. Ajani and Teferi lead the funeral ritual for the Gatewatch and the rest of the fallen. Kaya and Sorin guide their souls to the afterlife, while Nahiri over sees Sorin. Nahiri and Sorin come to a tense ceasefire, till each has made peace on their planes, due to the mess the eldrazi made. Domri decides to follow in Jace's example and attempts his first reasonable argument with Nivmiz and asks for help to unite Ravnica; the dragon laughs and gently guides the brute forward. Dack, and the other surviving planeswalkers meet up with Ajani, Teferi, and Ugin after and decide to continue on the will of the Gatewatch, and collectively, figure out the who, the what, and the how of the Eldrazi titans. In the shadows, Tezzeret communicates with his remaining allies. They decide to hire a mercenary to hunt down the new Gatewatch and to solidify his position as head of the Syndicate. Using a device, he contacts another man. The man sits in a dark cave, and stares back at Tezzeret with blood shot eyes. With a swift flick of his wrist, Tezzeret shows images of each of member of the Gatewatch, and says, "I will give you what you want. I just need you to hunt some worthy prey, Garruk."
Garruk, the two pws from battlebond, Daretti, the blue chinese walker, Xeanagos?, Elspeth, Koth, the bant colours pw from cmndr 2018, and Aminatu...Those are all the pws i could think of that werent present on ravnica ? Beside Xeanagos because im not entirely sure whats going on with that character anymore. Is he still a theros god, still alive, or back to being a planeswalker?...
kinda sad, i wanted to see more deaths, like the magc verion of Infinity war. It would have opened up more opportunities to add a wave of new planeswalkers.
I agree with you, the story was very lackluster and didn't deliver on the hype. Dack and Domri were rather obscure characters we never really got to know or care about, while Gideon was just so predictable (and might I say, good riddance to him. I wish he could have taken more of the Gatewatch with him). What makes me more mad is the blatant favoritism Liliana is constantly shown in one form or another (if I could play MTG I'd still play with a Liliana card if it could help me win. I'm not stupid enough to not use a good card just because I hate the character). However I do call BS that she could actually defeat Nicol Bolas though, I just don't think it happens. She definitely has power to oppose him, but I still think one on one, Bolas wins every time. It took many planeswalkers to finally do it, with none other than Ugin being his jailer (which I kinda expected, it's very fitting really, being defeate/banished by another dragon). I'm sure I'm probably in the minority about Liliana, but whatever. We all get to have our own opinions. Maybe Garruk (who never appeared in War of the Spark) will finally have his revenge and kill her, or maybe Kaya sent by Niv-Mizzet, as she is basically a wanted war criminal despite turning against Bolas. Idc that she is greatly saddened that Gideon sacrificed himself for her and grieves for him (this act does strength Gideon's own story arc but cheapens Liliana's), she still did some questionable things that make her untrustworthy and unlikable (in the story anyway). I ranted longer than I intended, and I'm sorry about that, but I just cannot stand Liliana and this blatant favoritism towards her in recent years.
Yeah, she's basically the female posterchild for MTG. I think they're onyl doing m20 to give Chandra some love. Hopefully, with Liliana's days numbered with Garruk and Kaya, and damn near the rest of the multiverse's planeswalkers after her, they're trying to raise Chandra to the plate of new female poster child. Just ditch the Captain Marvel take of her, and make her more wild than controlled (she can have control selectively, and more of it because of Jaya's tutelage, but she's still Chandra) but a good character.
Kyle Dayton well the point of this is that she’s not really evil, just incredibly self centered, which she has potential to overcome. Unless Kaya assassinates her first.
I'm more pissed that WotC devaluated Planeswalkers from near godlike to neowalkers (which was fine from a narrative perspective) to redshirts with 100+ unnamed PW's dying barely in the background. I remember introduction booklets included with magic precon decks stating "YOU ARE A PLANESWALKER" So that has basically lost all meaning from a Vorthos standpoint...
To be fair, there's still an entire Multiverse with God knows how many planes. So, while planeswalkers are still technically rare and special, the existence of the Multiverse means there's untold numbers of planes spawning untold numbers of planeswalkers.
Pretty sure Dack stole one artifact too many from the development team. There is just no reason why he would be killed off in such a stupid way. I dont think many are upset about character deaths. Like at all. But not by some mindless horde. Okay, ppl would be pissed if Lili died before resolving her issues with the raven man. In short i fully agree: Dacks death was pointless. Noone cared about Domri. Only Gideons sacrifice was a perfect end to his story arc. All in all we really need a more mature approach to the MTG stories. Magic is rooted in dark fantasy. They kinda lost touch with that in recent sets. Well, the art is getting better again, which is a big relieve.
100% agreeing with you. Why not give a card for Dack since they chose to put him in the trailer. Gideon death ok but expected. They should had killed at least 5 more pw to make the end of that story arc impactful. They introduced new ones anyway. And Bolas killed no pw exepted the one on is side, Domri, Nice!
The cards were designed ahead of the story, so at the time of their making, there was no definitive plan to include Dack, let alone have him play a role in the story.
The novel left out a ton of things that could’ve happened Where were Sarkhan’s Dragons? His card has an ability to literally turn other planeswalkers into dragons Imagine Chandra getting turned into a dragon for a little bit Where were Huatli’s Dinosaurs? She’s depicted at least with her Raptor, but there’s no sign of *any* dinos
It stinks that Dack never had a War of the Spark card. Though to be fair, from an interview I read, it was because the cards were planned out first before the story and the writer decided to make Dack a big character after the fact.
They literally claimed that Bolas is the most intelligent and powerful planeswalker alive and he gets ganked by someone he puts in the perfect position to merc him. And this is only a few years after he gets his scaly buns handed to him by a brand new planeswalker on Alara. "Lord Bolas" my ass.
@@elijahdavila3684 It's because they don't know how to write him. If they had him win, they would need to have him destroy Ravnica and the Gatewatch who are their most marketable characters. If he lost clean, they would have thrown away years of buildup. So they took a safe option and basically made him defeat himself.
@@ajh22895 Yeah, they went with the trendy route of storytelling. Ignoring consistency and logic in favor of result oriented storytelling. Its a bit sad really. They really underestimate the potential of their universe and chase popular trends instead.
And I still before as the war of the spark set spoils many planeswalker will arrived and Hyped that Dack Fayden will beat the hell out of Ashiok from his nightmare mayhem back Theros :(
WHERE IS ASHIOK?! His art puts him in the Prison Realm, but there is absolutely NO mention of him!!! And if Ugin sealed the Prison Realm off from everyone, Ashiok would either be dead because Ugin killed him, or he can't get onto the plane! They should've replaced Ashiok with Dack in the cards.
Before knowing the story of War of the Spark, I expected that all or most of the Uncommon Planeswalkers would be the ones to bite the dust. Along side a few major planeswalkers.
In all technicalities, Bolas and Ugin can be considered dead, seeing as they’re both off on a separate, disconnected plane that only Ugin and Jace know about, with no known way of summoning Bolas; unless someone summons Ugin and lets Bolas stay unprotected and with his own devices, we can consider them both dead. Bolas also doesn’t have a spark anymore, so he’d have to find some way to be summoned out of the plane. RIP Team Nicky B
“You know damn well that some no names Planeswalker ain’t never gonna matter.” Now I feel personally challenged to write a story of an unnamed Planeswalker who just got their spark being thrust into this conflict.
In the Book War of The Spark, the Black Blade’s a ruse created by Nicol Bolas a very -Very long time ago cuz he knew and planned that others would look for it as a means to try to kill him with it. It was a way to waste the time of those that wanted him dead. Spoiler heavy content here: So in other words- it is a very powerful sword, created by Nicol Bolas, but he’s indestructible against his own creations. He laughed when he saw Gideon lunging towards him in the air with it. The story goes everybody held their breathe as Gideon dove at Bolas with the Black Blade and were then silenced when it shattered on impact of Bolas’s armor and hide. Which was why Gideon gave his life to Liliana, she gave redemption to herself and the Gatewatch. Though, when she planeswalked out of Ravinca after Bolas’s death, she pretty much put an even bigger mark on her arrest that I’m sure Garruk will be happy to bring her in In a separate storyline- IN pieces of course lol... they sent another planeswalker to go after her I think from Ravinca cuz she didn’t stay to explain her side of the story for the slaughtering of thousands for Nicol Bolas (even though she’s the one to end it). Ravinca sent others to capture and find Dovin Ban as well, as he planeswalked away at the last minute when he was almost dead (after Chandra and her crew Deactivated the immortal sun. But, I’m sure Garruk will be the one to cross her path since WOTC said Garruk is a main character again. Ps- Nicol Bolas never did die at the end of the story due to Ugin and Jace creating an Illusion Of Bolas dying, they knew Bolas would find another way to be revived as he has been killed multiple times before and found a way back. As soon as Ugin destroyed Bolas’s trinket that held the Sparks for godhood- and Liliana used the Eternals oketra and bontas to “despark” Bolas further, as Niv Mizzet begins to plunge the long forked staff from Amonket into Bolas’s chest- however, at that same time, (Jace created an illusion of Bolas dying with Ravinca watching and thinking Bolas had died... then...) Ugin/Jace yanked Bolas to the world that nobody could planeswalk in or out of (cuz there is no longer any energy connecting to that world no more). Imprisoning Bolas forever. For now.
8:50 »A hero's gonna do what a hero's gonna do. This was the best end of any character [...], as expected as it was. Out of all the named deaths, [...] Gideon's was the most well-written and impactful to me personally.« David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, take notes. Consistency over shock value.
(Also, on that note, they are on the other extreme when it comes to character deahts. While War of the Spark didn't have enough deaths to make it believable and impactful, they enjoy killing more characters than necessary as long as it's considered unexpected.)
@@LinkEX Agreed, they pulled a TLJ on us. Subversion for the sake of subversion. What ppl want is consistent story telling. A story being predictable isnt bad at all, if its well written that is. And most importantly, a story needs to make sense. The premise is secondary at best, can be as simple as killing the dog of the main character. The execution is what makes a story great.
Directly after 10:35, he you started to talk about how all the unnamed planeswalkers died, and as soon as you said that I thought, unless they’re too young, all the new planeswalkers in the coming sets had probably been to Ravnica
I agree, they had this whole "It'll be Avengers versus Thanos, but with Magic" thing built up and hardly anyone bit the big one. They should have killed off ten or so Planeswalkers, replacing them with a bunch of new ones in upcoming sets.
@@johnnyscifi Because lore wise he's ACTUALLY a competent threat. He got to Ravnica and immediately recruited every devil he could find, and left once the Sun was turned off instead of risking his life unnecessarily.
I wonder if Gideon is down for the account if he's on Theros in the underworld there. Kaya's now a part of the Gatewatch as is Ajani so there's already a friend who's been betrayed by a God in the underworld there. Will we see him aside Elspeth eventually if we return to Theros?
It would take away the impact of their deaths if three Planeswalkers escaped from the Theros underworld and started getting involved in stories again. It would also take away the suspense of future debts because people would then just assume that dead characters could return later on.
Here’s the thing however: Gideon isn’t in the underground. Theros has two separate death options (i don’t precisely recall the source here, wish i could find it right now but…). Those who die with regrets go to the underworld, and can return (which is a potential situation for Elspeth). Those without regrets (such as Kytheon) get to live in a different, much brighter afterlife from which there is no need to return.
I still believe Domri was so dumb, that when he saw some unnamed plainswalker spark being harvested, he went for a high-five with a zombie and that's how he lost his spark
Happy to see him go. As he has just become a cliché. His purifying fire character is completely different than this dumb modern incarnation. They even changed his backstory.
I hoped that Jace, Gideon, Nissa, Tibalt, Nahiri, Domri, Tezzeret, and Karn were gonna die, and maybe have all their deaths kick off a chain of events that brings back Urza!!!
If not Urza then Jeska. I miss Jeska...:( And turn Radha of Keld into the red/green planeswalker that we are gonna need, now that Domri is out, and both Sarkhan and Xeanagos are either no longer those colours, or no longer alive...I feel like she got screwed out of her pw spark during time spiral...:p
James P I am aware...he was found on dominaria digging up a golgothian sylex 2.0 or something...regardless, dealing with (new) phyrexia is a task that could easily be taken up by Urza. It doesnt have to be Karn...
Jace should've gone "god-mode" as the guildpact seen his life flash before his eyes and died against Bolas... so he would no longer be a part of the lore going forward. But they could still use him in like past/memory sets. It could've been cool to have like an entire set as a flashback of Jace's mind, and I hate Jace xD I know Ugin destroyed the Gem of Becoming which nerfed Bolas, but Liliana beating Bolas even with the chain-veil is just really stupid. Jace and Lily working together only for Jace to die would've been much better, just cause Jace always had the crush on her or whatever.
Any company does that, you find the biggest fan-faves and emphasize them to reel in more Timmys... same goes for skins and buffs for videogame characters.
They need to focus on character development of other Planeswalkers outside of the Gatewatch, Ugin, Tez, Sarkan, Sorin, and Bolas. There are tons of great ones with a lot of potential, but they just get used brainlessly.
@@Aramythr They were so eager to return to Innistrad because it was a very successful set that attracted a lot of new players. They were trying to setup the next big baddie after Bolas dies, and Lovecraftian Horror was the theme they were trying out that time, but the way they treated the heroes was a big no no to so many lore fans. In fact, mother ship lore masters have always been like that ever since Urza. They were trying to create complex characters just for the sake of complex characters and in times of great odds, the strong traits that made those characters great suddenly disappears: and they either do a 180 degree reversal or dies insignificantly. It's good if they do it once or the first time, but if it's the same thing over and over again, then it means that they don't know how to write good, charismatic, and engaging heroes. Anyway it's a card game, so I just stick to the game nowadays and treats lore as something unimportant and just there. They already killed the best and most interesting character they have recently created that would've made a great story for a movie: Elspeth. They have turned the most interesting black/white planeswalker Sorin into a dumbass, and utterly destroyed the most epic scene in the first Innistrad lore (the return of Avacyn) with Return to Innistrad turning her into a dumbass as well. They are pushing for Liliana (which I think they should) but I'm pretty sure they'll kill her again. And the fact that Jace is still being pushed as the main guy just shows how clueless they are in charismatic and lovable character department. That dude is boring af, only his cards are great. And now they killed Gideon, a generic Captain America/Superman character but oddly enough, the most charismatic of all the GateWatch members, this alone showcases just how pale and uninteresting MTG characters/heroes are. They should just focus on the villains if this is the route they are going to. Just do a DC where the villains outshine the heroes in most story arc. Warhammer did it: idiotic heroes versus the equally dumb but a little bit smarter CHAOS gods!
@@martinblake2278 I did feel that Eldritch Moon was bad. Felt way to soon for Eldrazi to be over with, like rushed for no reason. I see what they tried for, and I did enjoy some of the article stories about denizens not important to the story( Gitrog Frog one mainly) but overall...it sucked
If they had actually killed more than three planeswalkers they could have introduced a lot of cool new ones to take their places in the coming years and sets. Really dissapointed with how War ended, especially because Dack didnt even get a card.
Now we need a new Dack Fayden type character, master thief sort of thing. If anyone has played any Elder Scrolls games, like the Gray Fox. Doesn't have to be a walker this time though just a legendary creature would be fine.
I hope not. The Wanderer is the most interesting of the new Walkers we got and I'm kinda hoping that the crack theory of "The Wanderer is Emrakul" that's floating around is the right one. The Wanderer just being Serra would be laaaaaame.
@@Stray7 maybe, but having a big ol planes Walker war where only three named characters die is lame too. That said, anyone noting that "Davriel" is an anagram of "Ravidel," who called himself "the shadow mage"?
I agree. they had the chance to really shake up story line. instead the played it safe and lame and we end up with a water downed story arc that makes sure to not offend or upset any snowflakes that play
It makes economic sense to preserve characters so they don’t have to spend resources developing a new character when they can pull an existing one into the story instead. I doubt thus had anything to do with not offending players since they had no problem killing Gideon.
It's a card game. Killing off characters is bad for business. It lowers the pool of available planeswalkers to include in sets without having to design new planeswalkers from scratch that the customers might not care about.
Maybe nico bolas did kill more planeswalkers then we realized, and that those depicted on cards in wots ( excluding gideon, domri, and dack) are the only survivors.
The only thing I hope they don't do going forward with this is taking other planeswalkers we haven't heard much from, ones that they probably just dont want to write anymore and just writing them off like "yeah they died in the war." Like Koth and Garruk, or the Kennireths.
Garruk is said to be in an upcoming storyline. Koth on the other hand seems to be the kind of planeswalker who would have resisted the call of the Planar Beacon and thus not travelled to Ravnica. “If there can be no victory, I will fight forever.” is a Koth quote (on Darksteel Plate), implying that he is still on New Phyrexia, still fighting. And a return there seems rather plausible in the near future.
I wanted Liliana, Jace, Sorin, and 7 others to be the only survivors of Bolas's apocalyptic attack. Truly showing his Godlike power!!.. but no.. only 3 died.. meh.. Bolas ain't that strong it turns out..
3 named PW characters died during WotS, which is the same ammount that died during during years of Mtg history before WotS (Elspeth, Venser and Xenagos). So in one set we got the same "body count" that in decades, not sure if the term "low" is fair (To be clear, I'm talking about characters that were depicted as PW in a PW card)
It's not the amount, it's the significance. We lost two walkers with little to no development and Gideon sacrificed himself. The deaths dont really effect anyone still alive, it's not like when Hanna died back in the invasion storyline, causing Gerrard to willingly behead Urza to get her back. Before Gideon died Lily was trying to kill bolas, after Gideon died she was trying to kill him but angrier this time.
@@bradleyprimeau8663 You're totally right, I was just addressing the "low body count" commentary. But I will have to disagree with the Gideon part, maybe it didn't affect that much to the story, but It was a nice closure to his arc, so the significance is not minor
So basically Invasion which took less centuries with Urza vs the Phyrexians had a bigger body count than something an Ancient God Dragon took millenias to plan out? xD
Yeah, a Dragon God who, mind u, is so much more powerful in scale to the other planeswalkers its ridiculous. I think Lili, Sorin, Tamiyo (kind of a cheat because of her scrolls) and Ugin are probably the only characters that can fight reasonably well with him.
I was hoping all five of the staple planeswalkers would have died. Would have been a good chance to start fresh with a new story. I guess wizards wanted to take the safest route for the sake of their stockholders.
This is my critical review of the deaths in War of the Spark - in general and in the way they were written. Im not fan of the novel, some things here they got right others they did not. Memorialize these fallen Planeswalkers, and use them as examples to never write like this.
I'll tell you Gideon's Redemption made me shed my first tears for a Magic character, though.
You just wanted jace, ,, and tefari to die ? Admit it lol
Did you want it to be more like apocalypse back in early 2001?
Uhhh of course! Lol
3....just 3 deaths....woooowwwwww that was super lame. XD
Dack deserved a new card. He decided to stay.😭
And he stayed, in our hearts.
Caught red handed :P
i agree man
@DrSpaceTrain Kaya went "Nah, fuck that shit!" and all the spirits got released.
#dicksoutforDackFayden
you forget one plansewalker. "lime-green Viashino" who was harvested by the dreadhorde. Always in our hearts lime-green Viashino we barely knew you.
Wait, who? What? I love viashinos! Please explain!
@@zachariahpoltergeist4516 During the book, the author wasn't allowed to kill anyone so he made up a viashino planeswalker to appear in the beginnings of the elder spell to be killed by an eternal. We only knew him for one sentence
@@CosmicElder this dude needs a card. The viashino are my favorite race. I would LOVE a Planeswalker card of one!
Yes but he's unnamed. And dead
@@lamronjr8785 don't gimme dat bulllllllllllll shizzle- I want a lizard-person Planeswizzle!
I would've liked to see Domri as a Naya Planeswalker, since that was the plane that he went to when he activated his Spark and would be a nice change and opportunity for growth. From hot headed misguided youth to a protector of the freedom that comes with the Gruul domain(Even if that meant allying with the city you hate), it would be more interesting than a random death. Hell, I'm all for killing characters, but they need to be characters first, not random jobbers.
as much as I liked war of the spark I find the not delivering on the death thing was dissapointing
Considering that in the cinematic Bolas was getting around 1 spark every 10 seconds. I guess that war lasted only the said video clip.
Dack deserved his own cards. He was just as brave as Gideon for going back to help.
He still could. Core sets and anthology sets like Origins happen frequently enough, after all
Why couldnt it be a few of those uncommon planeswalkers that just got introduced and not our boy...
@@mattwcook9127 the only worry there is that it could feel more out of place. It'd be nice to see but hopefully wouldn't feel forced.
@@aaronbozack830 They really had to hit us where it hurts.
@@ghosttowncrypt agreed and like I commented originally about those uncommon walkers the ones they introduced in this set I highly doubt they will expand upon so why keep them? They should have been there for cannon fodder nothing more of course I kinda wanted atleast a couple key players to die
2:53 silly Dack. You need Infinity Gems to make the gauntlet work.
8:47 Centuries of planning and apparently Bolas never expected the righteous, honorable knight to do that...righttt..... >.>
So we’re just gonna skip over that Pegasus that got got by Oketra’s arrow? Okay lol
Dack has 1 of the best stories in the whole war and they dont even give him a new card...smh
I'll admit when i first heard about War of the Spark i expected most if not all of the gate watch sacrificing themselves to stop Bolas.
autobotjazz1972 I thought the same, and I expected many more to actually die as well. Killing off numerous planeswalkers would have put an end to several stories and opened the doors for new stories. Instead, WOTC just played it safe and wants to give already established characters even more stories rather than be original any more. Things need to get changed up more. There's only so much you can get out of particular characters before you start wishing for something new to happen.
This whole arc was a joke compared to Urza 's entire story line. Characters actually died.
Hell, damn near every member of the original Weatherlight crew died stopping Yawgmoth, including Urza himself.
It was actually interesting too...
Personally, I wanted Teferi to die. How I imagined his death was him straining his body and sacrificing himself to freeze Bolas in time for a short time, therefore, letting everyone have enough time to attack Bolas.
Yeah I mean other than that city that is frozen in Time his storyline is concluded. He doesn't have any loose ends.
Cant give Tefiri a good send off they need him their to be the token black guy.
D Rezz you’ve still got Kaya, and it’s never too late to bring back Koth.
@@SomeGuy-cn5vm Only problem is that people that lean towards the Left want more "inclusivity" in everything. Hell, they kinda forced Wizards to make Ral gay! If they killed off Teferi the Left-leaning people would riot about racism, even if they had Kaya join. Watch, next thing you know, Wizards make Koth or another notable planeswalker trans or nonbinary or some other outrageous thing to make them happy. Sad that politics keep leaking into all forms of entertainment, really.
I’m not sure if Domri was truly evil. In my opinion he was a rowdy meat-head who trusted the wrong guy. Was he responsible for some of the damage? Of course! But in the end, he was more of a pawn than a true villain.
He was responsible for a large amount of destruction and random mass murder in his crusade to destroy the city. Not as much as what the Eternal Army did but many died at his hands.
Not sure if anyone cared about him at all. He was kinda only there to be a bratty brat. Its hard to like such a meat headed character.
Bryansk Scion and LtdEcho, I get what your saying, but he grew up to believe that the city was bad and, in his eyes, he was serving justice. His entire life he was trying to make things right, in his own way.
Just an edgy anarchist emo teenager. Nothing of value was lost.
He is a white guy therefore he needs to be replaced by a more diverse option
totally agree. A war without real losses (ie the deaths and mourning of several loved characters) is not a war, it's just a lame action movie. The War of the Spark should have had some real costs associated with it, just as any other war conflict.
It wasn't even a war, just a battle that took place over a day or so.
Battle of the Spark.
@@MonsterTeegs i mean a day is a long time for nonstop fighting
@@MonsterTeegs hi
Waiting to hear the outcome of sorin vs nahiri
I mean, doesn't Sorin's Thirst basically show it already?
WhatIsAMeme No, Dorian’s thirst shows the beginning of the battle. Notice how the God-pharaoh statue is intact in Sorin’s Thirst and breaking in Single Combat. It was left unclear who won.
They fought for awhile but at the finale storm of the citadel they stopped fighting to join the fight, it said Nahiri made the ground into spikes and stabbed threw 3 or 4 at a time, while Sorin was ripping the heads off any he could get his hands on
I heard from the mtg wiki that in the war of the spark they worked together and defeat the eternals.
FlyingFlamingFlamingos actually I heard that too now that you mention it. Still begs the question where do they stand with each other now that the war is over.
Story is so lame, even Bolas allowed himself to be exiled to end it.
Dack was always a character that deserved more lore in the main line, the comics he got were good and made me rly want him to be more involved with the main story
In the book when Nissa almost gets grabbed I thought I was about to lose my favorite character in MTG
I can’t believe she lived through everything. I was sure Vivien was introduced to be the new (and more boring) Nissa, especially after Nissa left the Gatewatch on Dominaria.
Thank god for Davriel Cane.
I'm really annoyed at the incredibly low body count, and at the specific characters they chose for that low death toll. I also severely hate the entire Gatewatch BS, especially since at this point it's readily apparent they're just plot-armored saturday morning cartoon tier good guys.
This was supposed to be a total war - a giant plane-wide battle between an unknown high number of planeswalkers and Bolas' forces. What we actually got was the Jacetice League saving the day and winning with only one loss, and external confirmation that "nearly all the sparks Bolas harvested were from unnamed unknown faceless other planeswalkers elsewhere on Ravnica."
Not to mention that all the actually named deaths were straight white human men. Teferi's pretty much past his prime and has had more than enough lore over the 25 years, why not give him a proper send off? Liliana betrayed Bolas, which he perfectly knew she would, so why not let her actually take the consequences? Why does Kaya get off scott free for killing the entire leadership and disrupting the entire business of Orzhov, especially with Teysa standing right there? Why didn't Teysa try to end Kaya for destroying all Teysa had worked for her whole life? Dovin represents all Chandra hates, and was the main cause behind her father's death, why didn't she outright kill him?
This was a perfect opportunity to cull the planeswalker numbers, to reduce how many walkers there were in certain colors and free up design space for new walkers (since Wizards has said they like to keep certain mechanics to certain walkers, like Lili is the necromancer and Zombie maker, Saheeli is the Servo / artifact clone maker, Nissa fetches and animates lands, etc).
Well kaya has the weight of the entire orzhov deals placed on her making it harder for her to fight so she didn’t get of scott free, and dovin planeswalked away after they shut the immortal sun off.
We lost Ugin and bolas technically too
Ugin will hopefully be out of the story for a while, he "merged" with the Meditation Relm to seal it off so Nicol could never leave or regain power. Once Nicol passes away for the third and final time Ugin is free to unmerge and leave to focus on the Eldrazi.
Source = mtg.gamepedia.com/Ugin#The_End
I'm so glad they removed my favorite character for the plat without even giving him a satisfying death. I'm talking about Bolas, Ugin was kinda dumb.
Netherin5 Ugin > bolas
@@Cha0sSp3arLying to win arguments, are we?
Imma be real, Bolas is a flaccid and patheticly written character who I'm glad is gone forever. If only they would do the same for all the other similarly written planeswalkers we have galavanting around.
Nissa or Vivian should have also died. Liliana or Ob as well. They really needed to narrow down these planeswalker numbers. The story literally has Bolas make a big entrance, kills a few minor people, and then Gideon's sacrifice lets Liliana finish Bolas. War of the Spark in a nutshell.
Honestly was severely disappointed about Ob Nixilis. He's a premending walker, whom was a Plane conquering Warlord, why's he so terrible? You telling me cause he didn't predict a impulsive pyromancer, he sucks now? Hell this guy almost had the original gate watch peeps dead, til Chandra arrived. HOW does one going from this powerful, to being pathetically disappointing?
Vivien has no reason to live, now. She was obsessed with killing Bolas, and she wasn't even given the pleasure of a killing blow. She honestly should have died in WAR.
Domri is a "dumb evil" character based on the allignment matrix. Nothing about this character made sense, including his physical appearance.
Okay what is wrong with his phsycial appearence
As I recall Time Spiral Block had a bigger body count.
I wish we could get a wrap up on Dack's story leading up to WAR. He honestly deserved better; a more satisfying death at least.
Domri... Domri. Domri's introduction in Gatecrash felt like the kindly of a young, new and adventurous character. He got shelved, pulled out to act as a plot devise and discarded. Where Dack was a waste of a great character, Domri was a waste of great potential.
Gideon got a predicted but satisfying death. I wonder if he'll be mentioned when we next see Elspeth. The two both lived on Bant for a time, possibly around the same time. They might have known eachother.
Odds are she will somehow absorb all his powers and they will praise her as superior to Gideon because she has tits
This ought to have been the fitting end/reset button for the mtg lore.
(How I would of ended it):
Jace dies, exhausting his mind connecting everyone together and leading them through out the entire battle. Thus he lives up to his title of Living Guild Pact. In addition, he rescues Domri, via his own rhetoric and charisma, as well as showing the devastation Bolas has done in the past.
Chandra dies because of her insane lack of control. Since she never learned to control her self, then she over steps her bounds, in burning the majority of Bola's army, along with harming Dovin and some of her allies. The ragging fires burn through her, and turn her to ash.
Nissa turns into the land, and becomes more elemental than living creature. Thus she sacrifices herself to prevent another plane from being burn and help spur its regrowth and defense.
Liliana dies for the final time. Thus all her plots, and schemes come crashing down, and she finally pays for all the blood on her hands.
(I mean, unless you plan on making her a morally good character after Gideon's death, then you have to kill off Liliana. Because I highly doubt Wizards of the Coast could write a redemption story.)
Gideon turns himself into a living bulwark against Bolas, and sacrifices his life and his spark to cast one final spell: a protection spell that solidifies a person's soul to the body, and strengthens the bodies defense. Thus his spark, is the only spark lost during the war.
Bolas dies due to Ugin and Nivmiz breaking him.
(Unlike last time Bolas lost a battle, and was trapped in his meditation realm. Cough, cough, how Tetsuo Umezawa beat him.)
In the end, the escalating violence stops the feuding planeswalkers long enough, to help mop up the mess after Bola's true death. Ajani and Teferi lead the funeral ritual for the Gatewatch and the rest of the fallen. Kaya and Sorin guide their souls to the afterlife, while Nahiri over sees Sorin. Nahiri and Sorin come to a tense ceasefire, till each has made peace on their planes, due to the mess the eldrazi made. Domri decides to follow in Jace's example and attempts his first reasonable argument with Nivmiz and asks for help to unite Ravnica; the dragon laughs and gently guides the brute forward. Dack, and the other surviving planeswalkers meet up with Ajani, Teferi, and Ugin after and decide to continue on the will of the Gatewatch, and collectively, figure out the who, the what, and the how of the Eldrazi titans.
In the shadows, Tezzeret communicates with his remaining allies. They decide to hire a mercenary to hunt down the new Gatewatch and to solidify his position as head of the Syndicate. Using a device, he contacts another man. The man sits in a dark cave, and stares back at Tezzeret with blood shot eyes. With a swift flick of his wrist, Tezzeret shows images of each of member of the Gatewatch, and says, "I will give you what you want. I just need you to hunt some worthy prey, Garruk."
The only hero I lost was garruk.
Well it means he can get an entire block to himself instead of being cramped in war of the spark.
Garruk, the two pws from battlebond, Daretti, the blue chinese walker, Xeanagos?, Elspeth, Koth, the bant colours pw from cmndr 2018, and Aminatu...Those are all the pws i could think of that werent present on ravnica
? Beside Xeanagos because im not entirely sure whats going on with that character anymore. Is he still a theros god, still alive, or back to being a planeswalker?...
@@johnnyscifi Xenagos is dead, Elspeth also dead, Garruk will appear as a main character confirmed by Wotc
johnnyscifi Karn took a break from destroying the Phyrexians to fight on Ravnica, what was Koth doing?
@@SomeGuy-cn5vm Koth is still in New Phyrexia in their coliseums shown with Conspiracy: Take the Crown's art of Phyrexian Arena
kinda sad, i wanted to see more deaths, like the magc verion of Infinity war. It would have opened up more opportunities to add a wave of new planeswalkers.
I was associating WAR with Infinity War, I was kinda expecting more characters to die, too. Wouldn't really have minded Ob dying
They would all be pan sexual diversity check list planks with no personality desperately trying to out Mary Sue each other.
Sad about my man Domri dying. I became a gruul player because of him
Same. I even won the allegiance weekend using a Gruul deck and won the Domri playmat. I'm so disappointed with his death
Honestly I was hoping that most if not the entire Gatewatch were going to be killed. I'm so tired of the story revolving around the Gatewatch.
*gets to Gideon*
Huh, that was quick, I wonder who else is dying?
*Video ends.*
Wait, what???
F to pay respects for the unnamed planeswalkers who died in the dreadhorde invasion
I agree with you, the story was very lackluster and didn't deliver on the hype. Dack and Domri were rather obscure characters we never really got to know or care about, while Gideon was just so predictable (and might I say, good riddance to him. I wish he could have taken more of the Gatewatch with him).
What makes me more mad is the blatant favoritism Liliana is constantly shown in one form or another (if I could play MTG I'd still play with a Liliana card if it could help me win. I'm not stupid enough to not use a good card just because I hate the character). However I do call BS that she could actually defeat Nicol Bolas though, I just don't think it happens. She definitely has power to oppose him, but I still think one on one, Bolas wins every time. It took many planeswalkers to finally do it, with none other than Ugin being his jailer (which I kinda expected, it's very fitting really, being defeate/banished by another dragon). I'm sure I'm probably in the minority about Liliana, but whatever. We all get to have our own opinions. Maybe Garruk (who never appeared in War of the Spark) will finally have his revenge and kill her, or maybe Kaya sent by Niv-Mizzet, as she is basically a wanted war criminal despite turning against Bolas. Idc that she is greatly saddened that Gideon sacrificed himself for her and grieves for him (this act does strength Gideon's own story arc but cheapens Liliana's), she still did some questionable things that make her untrustworthy and unlikable (in the story anyway). I ranted longer than I intended, and I'm sorry about that, but I just cannot stand Liliana and this blatant favoritism towards her in recent years.
Yeah, she's basically the female posterchild for MTG. I think they're onyl doing m20 to give Chandra some love. Hopefully, with Liliana's days numbered with Garruk and Kaya, and damn near the rest of the multiverse's planeswalkers after her, they're trying to raise Chandra to the plate of new female poster child. Just ditch the Captain Marvel take of her, and make her more wild than controlled (she can have control selectively, and more of it because of Jaya's tutelage, but she's still Chandra) but a good character.
Wait so is Liliana an indestructible 2/2 human cleric now?!
Levi Ackerman No, Gideon’s invulnerable left Liliana at the end of the battle
@@crystalgriffith5863 because... reasons
Levi Ackerman nah, chad died, flipping lilli.
@@crystalgriffith5863 Well thats good... because a evil necromancer gaining invincibility is a terrifying prospect
Kyle Dayton well the point of this is that she’s not really evil, just incredibly self centered, which she has potential to overcome. Unless Kaya assassinates her first.
I'm more pissed that WotC devaluated Planeswalkers from near godlike to neowalkers (which was fine from a narrative perspective) to redshirts with 100+ unnamed PW's dying barely in the background. I remember introduction booklets included with magic precon decks stating "YOU ARE A PLANESWALKER"
So that has basically lost all meaning from a Vorthos standpoint...
To be fair, there's still an entire Multiverse with God knows how many planes. So, while planeswalkers are still technically rare and special, the existence of the Multiverse means there's untold numbers of planes spawning untold numbers of planeswalkers.
@@Belberith Yeah, but it doesn't mean anything. A Planeswalker is nothing more than a regular mage, that has airplane tickets.
Most of the problems of lack of wrap up can be blamed on the author of that book lol.
Pretty sure Dack stole one artifact too many from the development team. There is just no reason why he would be killed off in such a stupid way. I dont think many are upset about character deaths. Like at all. But not by some mindless horde. Okay, ppl would be pissed if Lili died before resolving her issues with the raven man.
In short i fully agree:
Dacks death was pointless. Noone cared about Domri. Only Gideons sacrifice was a perfect end to his story arc.
All in all we really need a more mature approach to the MTG stories. Magic is rooted in dark fantasy. They kinda lost touch with that in recent sets. Well, the art is getting better again, which is a big relieve.
LtdEcho
Dack stole his own Planeswalker card from the dev team, which is why we didn’t get it and they needed to kill him.
Bro was a thief to the end.
100% agreeing with you. Why not give a card for Dack since they chose to put him in the trailer. Gideon death ok but expected. They should had killed at least 5 more pw to make the end of that story arc impactful. They introduced new ones anyway. And Bolas killed no pw exepted the one on is side, Domri, Nice!
The cards were designed ahead of the story, so at the time of their making, there was no definitive plan to include Dack, let alone have him play a role in the story.
I literally started cackling as you began," You know damn well..." I love the channel, love your content thanks for the work that you do !!!!
Seiben makes a Eulogy: Didn't Include Garruk
Garruk: Am I a JOKE to you????
Garruk isnt dead, ya turkey!!!
@@johnnyscifi Exactly. What the hell is the OP talking about? Lol
Gideon, Captain America of MTG.
I was expecting a "bring me thanos" moment with garruk planeswalking to start his own slaughter
The novel left out a ton of things that could’ve happened
Where were Sarkhan’s Dragons?
His card has an ability to literally turn other planeswalkers into dragons
Imagine Chandra getting turned into a dragon for a little bit
Where were Huatli’s Dinosaurs? She’s depicted at least with her Raptor, but there’s no sign of *any* dinos
I was WAITING for Huatli to summon a dino in the novel!!! Not even Vivien shot one out of her bow! THAT is criminal
Salvador Toscano bruh same
So glad domri is dead. Now I don't have to see his horrible design pop up again
One does not simply wield Blackblade and live.
They did my man dack dirty. Fave Planeswalker and they do him like this. Smh
Ob Nix is still out there.
Why did he go to Ravnica?
Drowning indestructible Chads in puddles of water and punching know it all dorks in the nose.
Like your name
It stinks that Dack never had a War of the Spark card. Though to be fair, from an interview I read, it was because the cards were planned out first before the story and the writer decided to make Dack a big character after the fact.
So, Bolas's main plan was to put Liliana, the one most likely to betray anyone in charge of the Dreadhorde, the most important part of it.
They literally claimed that Bolas is the most intelligent and powerful planeswalker alive and he gets ganked by someone he puts in the perfect position to merc him. And this is only a few years after he gets his scaly buns handed to him by a brand new planeswalker on Alara. "Lord Bolas" my ass.
@@elijahdavila3684 It's because they don't know how to write him. If they had him win, they would need to have him destroy Ravnica and the Gatewatch who are their most marketable characters. If he lost clean, they would have thrown away years of buildup. So they took a safe option and basically made him defeat himself.
@@ajh22895 Yeah, they went with the trendy route of storytelling. Ignoring consistency and logic in favor of result oriented storytelling. Its a bit sad really. They really underestimate the potential of their universe and chase popular trends instead.
To be fair, he probably wasn't expecting her to throw away her life just to oppose him
I was thinking the same thing
for an ancient dragon hes not vary wise is he.
I didn't know how much I cared about Gideon until I saw Gideon's Sacrifice.
And I still before as the war of the spark set spoils many planeswalker will arrived and Hyped that Dack Fayden will beat the hell out of Ashiok from his nightmare mayhem back Theros :(
WHERE IS ASHIOK?! His art puts him in the Prison Realm, but there is absolutely NO mention of him!!! And if Ugin sealed the Prison Realm off from everyone, Ashiok would either be dead because Ugin killed him, or he can't get onto the plane! They should've replaced Ashiok with Dack in the cards.
Before knowing the story of War of the Spark, I expected that all or most of the Uncommon Planeswalkers would be the ones to bite the dust. Along side a few major planeswalkers.
So as a hardcore Gideon fan I would love it if you did another video on Gideon updating his story up to his death.
And you just know its because of how much money the A list planeswalkers make
They did Dack dirty. Domri, Gruul isn't My cup of Tea. Gideon.... You've been valiant to the End.
In all technicalities, Bolas and Ugin can be considered dead, seeing as they’re both off on a separate, disconnected plane that only Ugin and Jace know about, with no known way of summoning Bolas; unless someone summons Ugin and lets Bolas stay unprotected and with his own devices, we can consider them both dead. Bolas also doesn’t have a spark anymore, so he’d have to find some way to be summoned out of the plane. RIP Team Nicky B
“You know damn well that some no names Planeswalker ain’t never gonna matter.”
Now I feel personally challenged to write a story of an unnamed Planeswalker who just got their spark being thrust into this conflict.
I too agree that the apex of a decade long story should have been better. Perhaps, the writers were under pressure for time.
If gideon comes back to life the first thing I am going to say is "black blades back alright!"
Blackblade shattered before Gideon died...
@@johnnyscifi It was reforged once already.
In the Book War of The Spark, the Black Blade’s a ruse created by Nicol Bolas a very -Very long time ago cuz he knew and planned that others would look for it as a means to try to kill him with it. It was a way to waste the time of those that wanted him dead.
Spoiler heavy content here:
So in other words- it is a very powerful sword, created by Nicol Bolas, but he’s indestructible against his own creations. He laughed when he saw Gideon lunging towards him in the air with it. The story goes everybody held their breathe as Gideon dove at Bolas with the Black Blade and were then silenced when it shattered on impact of Bolas’s armor and hide. Which was why Gideon gave his life to Liliana, she gave redemption to herself and the Gatewatch. Though, when she planeswalked out of Ravinca after Bolas’s death, she pretty much put an even bigger mark on her arrest that I’m sure Garruk will be happy to bring her in In a separate storyline- IN pieces of course lol... they sent another planeswalker to go after her I think from Ravinca cuz she didn’t stay to explain her side of the story for the slaughtering of thousands for Nicol Bolas (even though she’s the one to end it). Ravinca sent others to capture and find Dovin Ban as well, as he planeswalked away at the last minute when he was almost dead (after Chandra and her crew Deactivated the immortal sun. But, I’m sure Garruk will be the one to cross her path since WOTC said Garruk is a main character again.
Ps- Nicol Bolas never did die at the end of the story due to Ugin and Jace creating an Illusion Of Bolas dying, they knew Bolas would find another way to be revived as he has been killed multiple times before and found a way back. As soon as Ugin destroyed Bolas’s trinket that held the Sparks for godhood- and Liliana used the Eternals oketra and bontas to “despark” Bolas further, as Niv Mizzet begins to plunge the long forked staff from Amonket into Bolas’s chest- however, at that same time, (Jace created an illusion of Bolas dying with Ravinca watching and thinking Bolas had died... then...) Ugin/Jace yanked Bolas to the world that nobody could planeswalk in or out of (cuz there is no longer any energy connecting to that world no more). Imprisoning Bolas forever. For now.
@@keikialanifrazee8892 so we lost ugin too?
kanevivi Technically. He’s watching over Bolas in the meditation realm, making sure that the oversized gecko doesn’t get up to much funny business.
8:50 »A hero's gonna do what a hero's gonna do. This was the best end of any character [...], as expected as it was. Out of all the named deaths, [...] Gideon's was the most well-written and impactful to me personally.«
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, take notes. Consistency over shock value.
(Also, on that note, they are on the other extreme when it comes to character deahts. While War of the Spark didn't have enough deaths to make it believable and impactful, they enjoy killing more characters than necessary as long as it's considered unexpected.)
@@LinkEX Agreed, they pulled a TLJ on us. Subversion for the sake of subversion. What ppl want is consistent story telling. A story being predictable isnt bad at all, if its well written that is. And most importantly, a story needs to make sense. The premise is secondary at best, can be as simple as killing the dog of the main character. The execution is what makes a story great.
Directly after 10:35, he you started to talk about how all the unnamed planeswalkers died, and as soon as you said that I thought, unless they’re too young, all the new planeswalkers in the coming sets had probably been to Ravnica
I agree, they had this whole "It'll be Avengers versus Thanos, but with Magic" thing built up and hardly anyone bit the big one. They should have killed off ten or so Planeswalkers, replacing them with a bunch of new ones in upcoming sets.
The story was really disappointing.
I hated Domri rade, I’m glad his spark got harvested.
How did Tibalt not die...
@@johnnyscifi Because lore wise he's ACTUALLY a competent threat. He got to Ravnica and immediately recruited every devil he could find, and left once the Sun was turned off instead of risking his life unnecessarily.
I wonder if Gideon is down for the account if he's on Theros in the underworld there. Kaya's now a part of the Gatewatch as is Ajani so there's already a friend who's been betrayed by a God in the underworld there. Will we see him aside Elspeth eventually if we return to Theros?
Theros underworld...the dumping ground for undesirable white planeswalkers...:p
It would take away the impact of their deaths if three Planeswalkers escaped from the Theros underworld and started getting involved in stories again. It would also take away the suspense of future debts because people would then just assume that dead characters could return later on.
Here’s the thing however:
Gideon isn’t in the underground. Theros has two separate death options (i don’t precisely recall the source here, wish i could find it right now but…). Those who die with regrets go to the underworld, and can return (which is a potential situation for Elspeth). Those without regrets (such as Kytheon) get to live in a different, much brighter afterlife from which there is no need to return.
Gedion is in Valhalla now :)
Jay Morales He did, but his soul lives on a Theros afterlife - evident by the presence of his childhood friends, the Irregulars there.
I still believe Domri was so dumb, that when he saw some unnamed plainswalker spark being harvested, he went for a high-five with a zombie and that's how he lost his spark
I thought dovin baan dies to chandra?
Nah, just gets blinded then yeets off plane
Nope, just took shurikens to the eyes...
Meh he used to be a Planeswalker like you but than he took an arrow to the knee...i meant Eyes
Goodbye Gideon Jura, MTG lore will not be as fun without you.
F
Happy to see him go. As he has just become a cliché. His purifying fire character is completely different than this dumb modern incarnation. They even changed his backstory.
I wonder what non planeswalker legends died?
Jaces secretary bodyguard spy person was mind-controlled buy Nickel boy and killed the Emissarys of a lot of gilds.
They should have taken Jace too. An additional group that would have been pretty good is Ajani, kiora, jaya, and possibly nissa
I hoped that Jace, Gideon, Nissa, Tibalt, Nahiri, Domri, Tezzeret, and Karn were gonna die, and maybe have all their deaths kick off a chain of events that brings back Urza!!!
If not Urza then Jeska. I miss Jeska...:(
And turn Radha of Keld into the red/green planeswalker that we are gonna need, now that Domri is out, and both Sarkhan and Xeanagos are either no longer those colours, or no longer alive...I feel like she got screwed out of her pw spark during time spiral...:p
James P
I am aware...he was found on dominaria digging up a golgothian sylex 2.0 or something...regardless, dealing with (new) phyrexia is a task that could easily be taken up by Urza. It doesnt have to be Karn...
So, can I expect a rescue Elspeth and ressurect Gideon by Ajani in the future?
Gedion is in Valhalla now. For Elspeth she's still stuck in underworld of Theros.
I liked the novel and even though they didn't kill major characters other then gids they make the threat real.
they could at least make Ob Nixilis a sparkless demon again.
Jace should've gone "god-mode" as the guildpact seen his life flash before his eyes and died against Bolas... so he would no longer be a part of the lore going forward. But they could still use him in like past/memory sets. It could've been cool to have like an entire set as a flashback of Jace's mind, and I hate Jace xD
I know Ugin destroyed the Gem of Becoming which nerfed Bolas, but Liliana beating Bolas even with the chain-veil is just really stupid. Jace and Lily working together only for Jace to die would've been much better, just cause Jace always had the crush on her or whatever.
Daniel Palmer amen to that. Agree with you 100%. I have suspicion that WOTC blatantly shows favoritism to Liliana in particular in recent years.
Any company does that, you find the biggest fan-faves and emphasize them to reel in more Timmys... same goes for skins and buffs for videogame characters.
Ok... we have reminded everyone who Karn, Tefiri, Sisay, and Urza are... Can we PLEASE get back to the real threat now?
They need to focus on character development of other Planeswalkers outside of the Gatewatch, Ugin, Tez, Sarkan, Sorin, and Bolas. There are tons of great ones with a lot of potential, but they just get used brainlessly.
If yawgmoth doesn't show up and summon marit lage i will quit magic after 25+ years of playing.
He can bring Lim Dul along for the ride as well!
Yes!
I gave up on the entire story when they've ruined Innistrad. Already sold my last copy of MTG lore materials.
What did they ruin about Innistrad? SoI and ED were p much the only blocks I read everything of.
@@Aramythr They were so eager to return to Innistrad because it was a very successful set that attracted a lot of new players. They were trying to setup the next big baddie after Bolas dies, and Lovecraftian Horror was the theme they were trying out that time, but the way they treated the heroes was a big no no to so many lore fans. In fact, mother ship lore masters have always been like that ever since Urza. They were trying to create complex characters just for the sake of complex characters and in times of great odds, the strong traits that made those characters great suddenly disappears: and they either do a 180 degree reversal or dies insignificantly. It's good if they do it once or the first time, but if it's the same thing over and over again, then it means that they don't know how to write good, charismatic, and engaging heroes. Anyway it's a card game, so I just stick to the game nowadays and treats lore as something unimportant and just there. They already killed the best and most interesting character they have recently created that would've made a great story for a movie: Elspeth. They have turned the most interesting black/white planeswalker Sorin into a dumbass, and utterly destroyed the most epic scene in the first Innistrad lore (the return of Avacyn) with Return to Innistrad turning her into a dumbass as well. They are pushing for Liliana (which I think they should) but I'm pretty sure they'll kill her again. And the fact that Jace is still being pushed as the main guy just shows how clueless they are in charismatic and lovable character department. That dude is boring af, only his cards are great. And now they killed Gideon, a generic Captain America/Superman character but oddly enough, the most charismatic of all the GateWatch members, this alone showcases just how pale and uninteresting MTG characters/heroes are. They should just focus on the villains if this is the route they are going to. Just do a DC where the villains outshine the heroes in most story arc. Warhammer did it: idiotic heroes versus the equally dumb but a little bit smarter CHAOS gods!
@@martinblake2278 I did feel that Eldritch Moon was bad. Felt way to soon for Eldrazi to be over with, like rushed for no reason. I see what they tried for, and I did enjoy some of the article stories about denizens not important to the story( Gitrog Frog one mainly) but overall...it sucked
Dam Donmri had better hopes for you kid hope you come back as something better yeeeeeeah I like that.😎 I'll be waiting for you Majin Dormi!!!!
If they had actually killed more than three planeswalkers they could have introduced a lot of cool new ones to take their places in the coming years and sets. Really dissapointed with how War ended, especially because Dack didnt even get a card.
Now we need a new Dack Fayden type character, master thief sort of thing. If anyone has played any Elder Scrolls games, like the Gray Fox. Doesn't have to be a walker this time though just a legendary creature would be fine.
Love when he goes all hood at the end lol
Rest In Peace Gideon. You were annoying as fuck in Battle For Zendikar Standard, But still a valiant hero. Weenie Warriors forever ❤️❤️❤️
Oh, and also at least one planeswalker brought from the dead.
100% sure "The Wanderer" is just Serra, pulling an "Urza is the Blind Seer" schtick.
I hope not. The Wanderer is the most interesting of the new Walkers we got and I'm kinda hoping that the crack theory of "The Wanderer is Emrakul" that's floating around is the right one. The Wanderer just being Serra would be laaaaaame.
@@Stray7 maybe, but having a big ol planes Walker war where only three named characters die is lame too.
That said, anyone noting that "Davriel" is an anagram of "Ravidel," who called himself "the shadow mage"?
Liliana will become black/white and maybe mono white in the future. This is my prediction.
I agree. they had the chance to really shake up story line. instead the played it safe and lame and we end up with a water downed story arc that makes sure to not offend or upset any snowflakes that play
It makes economic sense to preserve characters so they don’t have to spend resources developing a new character when they can pull an existing one into the story instead. I doubt thus had anything to do with not offending players since they had no problem killing Gideon.
10 years huh. Was this more satisfying than Game of Thrones season 8?
Tough call but id take the over-careful wots ending over the character ruining in got
It's a card game. Killing off characters is bad for business. It lowers the pool of available planeswalkers to include in sets without having to design new planeswalkers from scratch that the customers might not care about.
Maybe nico bolas did kill more planeswalkers then we realized, and that those depicted on cards in wots ( excluding gideon, domri, and dack) are the only survivors.
Savage review! More please!
The only thing I hope they don't do going forward with this is taking other planeswalkers we haven't heard much from, ones that they probably just dont want to write anymore and just writing them off like "yeah they died in the war." Like Koth and Garruk, or the Kennireths.
Garruk is said to be in an upcoming storyline. Koth on the other hand seems to be the kind of planeswalker who would have resisted the call of the Planar Beacon and thus not travelled to Ravnica. “If there can be no victory, I will fight forever.” is a Koth quote (on Darksteel Plate), implying that he is still on New Phyrexia, still fighting. And a return there seems rather plausible in the near future.
I wanted Liliana, Jace, Sorin, and 7 others to be the only survivors of Bolas's apocalyptic attack. Truly showing his Godlike power!!.. but no.. only 3 died.. meh.. Bolas ain't that strong it turns out..
It's not that he isn't, it's that the writer's were lazy, seeking a quick way to get it over with
3 named PW characters died during WotS, which is the same ammount that died during during years of Mtg history before WotS (Elspeth, Venser and Xenagos). So in one set we got the same "body count" that in decades, not sure if the term "low" is fair
(To be clear, I'm talking about characters that were depicted as PW in a PW card)
It's not the amount, it's the significance. We lost two walkers with little to no development and Gideon sacrificed himself. The deaths dont really effect anyone still alive, it's not like when Hanna died back in the invasion storyline, causing Gerrard to willingly behead Urza to get her back. Before Gideon died Lily was trying to kill bolas, after Gideon died she was trying to kill him but angrier this time.
@@bradleyprimeau8663 You're totally right, I was just addressing the "low body count" commentary. But I will have to disagree with the Gideon part, maybe it didn't affect that much to the story, but It was a nice closure to his arc, so the significance is not minor
No one is talking about how bolas was the one who started the black blade legend that could beat him, basically just a cool looking tooth pick
So basically Invasion which took less centuries with Urza vs the Phyrexians had a bigger body count than something an Ancient God Dragon took millenias to plan out? xD
Yeah, a Dragon God who, mind u, is so much more powerful in scale to the other planeswalkers its ridiculous. I think Lili, Sorin, Tamiyo (kind of a cheat because of her scrolls) and Ugin are probably the only characters that can fight reasonably well with him.
My favorite unnamed plane Walker was Samuel penguin. From the plane Sequim
What about Bolas, he technically died when God-Eternal Bontu ripped his soul out.
I was hoping all five of the staple planeswalkers would have died. Would have been a good chance to start fresh with a new story. I guess wizards wanted to take the safest route for the sake of their stockholders.
OH CRAP! I didn't realize that was Dack who died in the trailer.
Also this sad music...WHY!!!???
Im still upset Fayden died. And just as i finished my Fayden costume