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the-mjolnir-owner · 5 years

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Here comes the post™ about the movie™ no one asked for

I’ve been postponing this due to spoilers, but I think it’s time now.

Those of you who already know me and who I speak to daily already know my opinion about EG and maybe I was expecting it to to change in some weeks, but it didn’t.

It’s not a surprise to anyone that Thor’s my favorite character who I’ve been playing for at least seven years. He brought me joy, helped me to find friends for life and gave me strength when I was down.

It’s not a surprise that I feel betrayed and disappointed by how his story was dealt in this last movie and I’m willing to ignore parts of it and replace it with my own canon. It’s not that I had faith in the production to begin with, but still I was let down with all of this disrespect.

Don’t read it if you haven’t watched the movie, heavy spoilers ahead.

My thoughts:

- Thor didn’t get anyone back. I wasn’t expecting those who were killed to return, but maybe those who got dusted could include Sif at least, but they’re not known to respect women at all. He fought for everyone’s else happy ending but his, and although this is in character, it’s still sad

- There was no satisfactory ending to Thor/Loki relationship. Everyone who bothered to watch Thor’s movies know that Thor and Loki share a deep, complicated bond. It’s a love/hate relationship and they were working to mend it when Loki had one of the most gruesome, unnecessary deaths I’ve ever seen on screen. They never shared a hug on screen and they didn’t use Tom/Loki’s popularity for anything. The death of a character who struggled their whole life by the hands of their abuser? No thank you, you can keep it

- Thor went back to Asgard and didn’t even visit Loki. I didn’t understand their time travel rules but I know they were confusing. Thor normally doesn’t play by human’s laws and I wished his approach to Loki was different. That was the last time he was seeing his brother and I understand him losing it when he meets Frigga, maybe one of the best scenes he has in the entire shitshow

- Thor’s love life sucks. Everybody had their happy dance, their happy marriage with kids, but Thor, who was left with no family at all. I don’t ship Thor/Jane but it’s clear he loves her deeply, she was an important person in his life who opened his eyes and taught him to be less arrogant, selfish and more human. I don’t want them to be a couple anymore, but they could at least respect this relationship. They did them dirty since TDW but that’s another subject. I don’t want Thor/Jane anymore when we have a whole Thorkyrie meal waiting to happen, but they could at least address this subject and show that Thor/Jane can still be friends

- They really said fuck asgardian lives. I wasn’t expecting anyone to return, but have Steve going back in time to have his happy ending was a bit selfish imo, considering Thor was left to live his own reality where everybody is dead but him. They didn’t have to save Asgard or prevent the elves from attacking, but they could have changed Thanos’ attack to their deteriorated ship and the massacre that followed. I thought Thor could meet his sister somehow and bring back the fallen asgardians. That would be better. He could have used the gauntlet himself to fix this shit, but Thor was a second rate character in EG

- I was told there was a Thorkyrie kiss scene in Ragnarok and now I understand why it was cut. Valkyrie could have a pivotal role in not allowing Thor to succumb in a spiral of self hatred and lethargy, sharing the burden of leading a collapsed civilization and helping Thor out of his drunk state, in the same way he helped her, brought her home and gave her life a new purpose. It was a conscious decision to take everything from Thor, especially his development.

If I was mad they let Valkyrie be King instead of Thor, who was grown to rule? Not at all. He wouldn’t be able to do anything considering his mental state, trauma and self image, he needs to recover and heal and it takes time.

He was king for about 8 hours and he had to witness his family, his friends and his people being slaughtered in front of him and we know he carries this blame like an anchor. Valkyrie at least managed to lead the escape pods to Earth and probably lead them while Thor was fighting in IW. She’s the only one left he can count on, and their scenes together were disappointing

- Talking about trauma. I knew he wouldn’t be ok considering what happened to him in the recent movies. He lost his mom, his brother, his lover, his father, all of his friends, his eye, his hammer, his hair, his sister, his planet, his army, his people, his battle. We know since AoU that his worst fear was losing them all and he had to witness all of this foreshowed carnificina (remember they weren’t snapped, a quick and painless death, no, they were all butchered one by one in front of Thor) without getting a break or some time to react or grieve or anything in response to it.

I’ve read before he’s a safe choice when it comes to trauma, nothing should affect him because he’s a god. But it does, he may be a god but he’s still made of flesh and bones and a beating heart that is way too big and too soft.

We watched his desperate attempts to make things right in IW, his desperate attempts to end his own life. We watched him ready to die by Loki’s side when the ship was about to explode. We watched him taking the full blast of a star, forging an ax by the cost of his own life. Bless Hemsworth for all of Thor’s emotional scenes, every time he cried I cried as well because I could understand and relate to his struggle of trying to remain fine for his friends’ sake while his heart was shattered

- That trauma reflected on his self image. He couldn’t go through all of this unscatched, and it’s ok. I understand his recluse, his effort to shut down the world outside and deal with things by the only way he knows how to deal with any inner turmoil: drowning his sorrow in alcohol. He’s always been a heavy drinker and it’s a normal, accepted asgardian behavior to drink entire casks of ale (see Valkyrie). You know what’s not ok? Using his problems as a fucking three hours joke.

- He’s the only character whose pain isn’t treated like a real problem. As if he’s being dramatic when he can’t say a name or tell a story without losing it or going through a panic attack. Skinny characters are worthy compassion, thicc characters aren’t and I see your fatphobia, @marvel

- Fucking three hour joke. I’ve seen someone point on twitter that there are two stances to weight in EG: Tiny gets stranded in space for weeks, when he returns to earth he’s malnourished, thin, sick. People immediately tend to him, he’s hospitalized, it’s heartbreaking to see him like this and it’s obvious he has been through too much. All the characters involved react to him with sympathy. The same can’t be told about Thor. He has a weight problem too, he’s dissociating and he doesn’t care what he looks like anymore. I know people who went through the same ordeal.

Thor’s punishing himself for feeling like a failure and it reflects on his body. Yet, we are lead to feel sorry for one of them (Tiny) and laugh at the other (Thor). The audience is lead to have compassion by one character going through a difficult phase and being grossed out/amused by another character who is going through the same thing, if not worse.

- It’s not woke nor progressive to have a fit man wearing a badly made fat suit to badly portray a fat person. It was literally made to entertain, to be a comic relief, not to raise awareness of how mental health problems can cause physical problems as well and it’s a missed opportunity to have an approach to it, on how men are supposed to be fit all the time, on how superhero bodies can be in all shapes and sizes. It’s all about fat-shaming and fatphobia.

I love and appreciate Thor in all shapes and forms, but what they did to him wasn’t a body positive view and if they mean to keep fat Thor in their next projects, they better hire an actual plus size actor. The sole purpose of chubby Thor was to degrade the character and strip him of sympathy because he “did that to himself”

- This mockery comes from other superheroes. What are we teaching young audiences when they watch the Avengers making fun of a debilitated person? That it’s ok to laugh at a fat, depressed person who has panic attacks? Thor gets mocked, teased and fat shamed by people who are dear to him, by the only “friends” he has left - friends whom he knows for at least 6+ years - friends he defended and saved countless times before. By his own mother to some degree.

They don’t show him the same sympathy and just like Odin, Thor’s only seen worthy by how hard he can strike, by how powerful he can be. A weapon, not a person, and when said weapon loses its sharpness, it’s not worthy fixing anymore. Thor’s a war hound and that’s the only aspect the Avengers value in him.

It’s important to remember Thor treated the Hulk differently, like a person, and supported Bruce when he didn’t want to turn into the Hulk. He treated Valkyrie differently, too, when he realized she had alcohol problems and carried an immense grief. Thor’s often betrayed by people whom he loves and trusts, but this is too much of an insult to people going through the same problems in the audience. It’s sad to see all the other characters (except Bruce/Hulk) denying emphathy and compassion to Thor, knowing Thor would never deny emphathy and compassion to anyone else

- Thor isn’t lazily eating/drinking after a broke up, no. He was traumatized from seeing everyone he had ever loved die in front of him then being blamed for not stopping Thanos, or going to the head. He hopes that by chopping Thanos’ head off he’d feel better, but he doesn’t. Thor lost more people than any of the others and Cap goes to group theraphy sessions (never bothers to invite Thor), Tiny gets hospitalized but Thor doesn’t have a fit boy anymore, he doesn’t deserve simpathy, he’s lazy for letting it happen to him and that’s how they want us to feel. Amused by Thor’s pain that’s less important now because he lost his 8 pack

- He died to forge a weapon and it wasn’t enough. He did an herculean job to make a weapon strong enough to kill Thanos, not only did he fail but he also survived to tell. If he had died trying, then his ticket to Valhalla would be granted, but he lost it as well.

Not only he carries a huge survivor guilt, but the certainty he isn’t worthy anything anymore, not even the golden halls of Valhalla wait for him. And he tries time and time again to live a glorious death that doesn’t come

- His drunkenness is ooc. They contradicted their own canon by claiming that Thor can get drunk on weak midgardian ale. He can’t. He could really drink that amount of beer, but it wouldn’t affect him. Not even physically. Thor has a fast metabolism and it would take him some hundred years to become that chubby on weak beer or other beverages. They ignored their own canon to insist in this joke, that had greenlight from everybody involved

- Marvel’s efforts to hide chubby Thor. In the trailers, in the posters, in the action figures and promotional images, we see the usual Thor, fit. It’s supposed to be a big surprise to see Thor like this, people told me. I think it’s all about sending a message that chubby heroes don’t sell and they hid this information purposely. There’s no action figures of fat Thor. He isn’t made to promote the movie, awareness or sell anything. Because a fat person serves only for fun, they think, not to sell, his role in this movie is to be mocked. But it’s on them, because in this house we love and respect chubby Thor and I can’t wait to buy his fluffly plush doll

- Thor’s weakened. Stormbreaker is used as a bottle opener and they seem to forget how powerful it was. Everything that Taika did, the Russos undid. The whole point of Ragnarok (the best Thor movie imo) was showing Thor and the audience he doesn’t need a weapon to be powerful. In IW he gets his eye back and makes an ax, forgetting all of this, and in EG he has his hammer back. Not only one, but he’s wielding two magical weapons and is still beaten? No way. I can’t believe I paid actual money to watch it. Thor could have used the gauntlet and he’d still be fine and alive, it would be so much better imo

- He is back to using a weapon to tell him he has value. He was over mjolnir’s standards on what’s worthy anymore and he’s finally free of its magical whims. Now he trusts in the hammer judgment of him again because what else does he have? Who else does he have?

- They never wanted us to feel bad about Thor. They mixed Thor’s sadness with shots of his body to entertain from the fact that he’s dead inside. His arc is made for laughs. We’re lead to think it’s funny. If they wanted us to feel bad about fat Thor, they would make him thin like Tiny who got all the sympathy he deserved. Bless Chris for the emotion he conveyed though

- Thor leaving with the Guardians was a conflicting point. I’d love to see Thor with the GoTG and I love the previous GoTG movies. But it won’t solve his problems. I wanted him to heal, and if the Guardians will help him with it, instead of the Avengers, then it’s ok. He should accept there are things he can’t change and it’s not his fault, he should try and change the things he can and look forward to something, anything, that would give him hope again

- In the end, at least, everybody was rooting for him to recover and it was good. He wasn’t magically made thin again and all the time I was waiting for a Rocky Balboa sequence with Thor lifting weight or jogging, but it didn’t happen, and at least it served to show us that he’s still worthy, a hero and himself in spite of how he looks or how much he weighs

- It hurts to see an optimistic, caring character losing it. I know he wouldn’t leave unscatched, but it’s sad to lose my ray of sunshine Thor, who always had hope and fought for what was right. Seeing my favorite character lethargic, apathetic and not being the protagonist of his own life is very hard. Thor always brought me inspiration and he instills the best in people: he supports Sif when she wants to be a warrior, he shows Jane she’s right in her researches, shows Valkyrie she’s not her failure, helps Bruce out of panic attacks in an alien planet, tries to reach for Loki time and time again, he trusts the Avengers and works with them in order to save a world that isn’t even his. He saved the world at least four times.

And they all let him down. It’s not a satisfactory conclusion, but I didn’t hope they’d make it differently. I still hope I’ll see my Thor again and even if I don’t, I’ll write him with faithful friends I met along the way. He deserves it and I won’t let him down

Any positive points after miles of salt?

Thor chopping off Thanos’ head and probably using it as a mug was nice.

I liked his Viking looks with braids in his hair and beard and how he weilded two magical weapons.

Sharing them with Cap, who is one of his best friends, is great too.

Having Thor leaving with the Guardians was a nice choice because I like the Guardians and I know Thor will return better after this vacation to assume his throne.

Leaving the throne for Valkyrie means she’s his Queen in his eyes and you’ll have to pry Thorkyrie from my cold, dead hands.

There’s a bitter taste, yeah, but things can be better in the future when the sun will shine on us again.

#ooc #endgame spoilers #spoilers #long post #endgame negativity #you don't have to agree with me but if you don't #make your own post with your own thoughts instead of adding them to mine thank you

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loreleywrites · 7 years

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Raiders of the Lost Arcs

Marvel didn’t start with The Avengers. Instead, they gave Iron Man, Hulk, Thor, and Captain America their own films to set foundations for their characters before showing how they interacted. Every development from these four superheroes since is still rooted in those original films. Tony Stark is still striving to improve the world with technology. Bruce Banner just wants to be left alone.

Wizards of the Coast didn’t start with the Gatewatch either. Instead, Magic Origins provided us with the backstories of the five pivotal Planeswalkers in this group. Chandra, Nissa, Gideon, Liliana, and Jace were born at different times and on different planes. They each have their own stories, only coming together as one fighting force to confront some of the deadliest foes in the Multiverse.

Like the members of the Avengers, the members of the Gatewatch are still defined by their origin stories. In fact, many of those stories set up conflicts that are still playing out in Magic years later. Today’s article is going to go through each Planeswalker’s origin story and trace where those first conflicts stand in today’s lore.

Chandra

Story art by Lius Lasahido

Chandra Nalaar’s origin is told in “Fire Logic.” She was born in the city of Ghirapur on the plane of Kaladesh. Aether is refined and distributed by a governing body known as the Consulate. While this organization is intended to benefit all citizens of Ghirapur, a handful of corrupt officials have perverted it for a profit.

Aether is strictly regulated, much to the chagrin of many brilliant inventors. Mages are outlawed, as their powers are wild and unpredictable. Unfortunately for Chandra, she is a pyromancer and daughter of two aether smugglers. This pits her against an icon of the Consulate, bad cop Dhiren Baral. He murders Chandra’s father, captures her mother, and is set to personally execute the pyromancer. This is when Chandra’s spark ignites, bathing Baral in a blaze.

Of course, we know what happens to this story arc. In Kaladesh and Aether Revolt, Chandra returns home for the first time in eleven years. She rescues her mother, defeats Baral, and helps the renegade forces extricate the corrupt Consuls.

It doesn’t go so easy, however, and we end up getting insight into Chandra’s personal demons. We learn that she’s internalized Baral’s words branding her as a monster, that she’s reckless and a danger to everyone around her. And for Chandra, that’s difficult to deny. She’s killed people, innocent people, and she never really comes to terms with it. In “Burn,” she almost lets it get the best of her:

“I’m not a monster. But I can be.”

Nissa’s intervention convinces Chandra that despite Baral’s taunts, she is a loved part of many people’s lives.

Chandra has closure on her initial external conflict; Baral is rotting in prison for the rest of his life. What is still to be seen is how she reconciles her past recklessness. As a Red character, personal responsibility is not her strong suit. She’s also only twenty-three. Good intentions and destructive magic make for a volatile life. Shouldering this is her next step into adulthood.

Nissa

Nissa’s Revelation by Izzy

In “Home,” Nissa forges an animist’s connection with Zendikar as it conscripts her in the fight against the still-trapped eldrazi titans. It leads Nissa to Akoum, where her mind is attacked by the dormant Emrakul. She is whisked away into the Blind Eternities, awakening as a Planeswalker.

From there on out, Nissa’s conflicts continually put her at odds with the eldrazi. She ends up releasing the titans themselves in The Teeth of Akoum, hoping they would flee Zendikar for another plane. The next two years involved her failing to stop Ulamog’s relentless assault.

Nissa spent almost forty years living alone with Zendikar, so she didn’t quite understand what was at stake in her fight. It’s not until “Nissa, Worldwaker” that she realizes there are other people who she can ally with. Other people who have lost loved ones. Other people who have fled their ancestral homes. And when Gideon, Jace, and Chandra show up; other people who bear the shameful responsibility of unleashing the eldrazi.

Defeating Ulamog and Kozilek requires Nissa to play well with others. Her skill manipulating leylines is only one part of the puzzle. Chandra’s harnessing of a plane’s worth of mana into one spell is the other.

Emrakul still loomed on Innistrad, however. Emrakul, the titan who flung Nissa into the Blind Eternities in the first place. The Gatewatch helped Nissa realize that she has the power to help planes other than Zendikar, and this was her opportunity for closure against the eldrazi.

But did she win? Was there closure?

Nissa tries to use a similar technique to try to destroy Emrakul, but Innistrad’s mana does not cooperate. In addition, Emrakul manipulates Tamiyo into merely binding her in the moon. “The Promised End” depicts just that, an end. Victory? I’d say not.

Nissa’s core internal conflict is trust. Kaladesh block had her warm up to Chandra, while Amonkhet broadened her perspective with access to Blue mana. Her social skills are new, but growing. The question remains if Nissa herself is trustworthy.

“The Hand That Moves” gives us some horrifying clues for the future. Nissa has a vision of what she interpreted as Emrakul, who utters:

“I can do anything I want. Anything at all.”

A corrupted version of Nissa also said these words to Jace in his vision in “The Promised End.” The Emrakul inside Nissa’s trance also asks if she’s a pawn or a queen. This ties back to the game of chess Jace played with the titan. Remember, that ended with one of Jace’s pawns stabbing his queen.

We don’t know exactly what this Nissa-Emrakul connection means, but calling it foreboding is an understatement.

Gideon

Tragic Arrogance by Winona Nelson

I didn’t used to be much of a Gideon fan, but he’s grown on me a lot in the past two years. His arc is an internal struggle.

He wasn’t always called Gideon Jura, as we learned in his origin story. “Kytheon Iora of Akros” chronicles Gideon’s youth as an orphan, prisoner, and Sun’s Champion. Kytheon and his buddies are petty thieves, landing them in jail. The warden, Hixus, sees Kytheon’s potential as a hieromancer, a law mage. He trains Kytheon in such magic and instills in him a sense of justice. Kytheon ends up using his power of indestructibility to help defend Akros from monsters and feels pretty good about doing a good thing.

Heliod, God of the Sun, later tasks him with killing a giant sent by Erebos, God of the Dead. Kytheon is given a glowing spear, which easily slays the menace. But hubris drives him to take aim at Erebos himself. The god reverses the spear’s trajectory, killing all of Kytheon’s friends. Kytheon survives, flung off to Bant (before the Conflux that reunited Alara). The knight who finds him mishears “Kytheon Iora” as “Gideon Jura,” and the Planeswalker adopts this new identity.

Why?

It’s a complicated question. Gideon spends the rest of his life defending the weak, putting his own life on the line for others. He carries regret and blames himself for the death of his friends. But he also still carries the tragic arrogance that killed them. This parallel is directly echoed in “The Liberation of Sea Gate” during the Battle for Zendikar story. Gideon falters in finding his purpose. Is he a figure for others to rally around? Is he a one-man army?

These questions get more profound during the rebellion on Kaladesh. In the appropriately named “Quiet Moments,” Gideon ponders the role of the Gatewatch on the plane:

“Jace and Liliana's alarm at Tezzeret's presence seemed genuine, but both had been scant in the details of the specific threat he poses. Yes, Tezzeret inserting himself into the politics and leadership of Kaladesh certainly caused Gideon concern and was reason enough for the Gatewatch to investigate. But Tezzeret's entanglement with Kaladeshi forces, along with the relationship between the Consulate and the renegades made things...complicated. Cutting down Eldrazi and the threat they posed to Zendikar and Innistrad left little room for questions. His sural slicing through whirring gears of Kaladeshi-forged automatons, battling Consulate forces that were just trying to defend the laws of the land...

Far more complicated.”

Amonkhet doesn’t make anything easier for Gideon. He leads the charge into Nicol Bolas’s hell-plane…only to find gods that are actually nice to the people. It’s sunny. Folks work hard and are well cared for. The gods even call Gideon by his old name, Kytheon Iora. He does eventually find out the cruel intent of the trials in “Brazen,” but not without Bontu, God of Ambition (metaphorically) slicing right into Gideon’s heart:

“Such a long quest for faith, Kytheon Iora, and still you know nothing of it. Of course they doubt. Doubt is the necessary shadow to the light of faith, Kytheon. The stronger the faith, the deeper the shadows of uncertainty. Yet still, their ambitions drive them to shine brighter, reach higher, unsatisfied by complacent divinity. When will you be able to say the same for yourself?”

Gideon is waffling on what he believes, what ideals he defends, whose benefit he’s fighting for. Who is Gideon? So far, all he’s figured out is, “Not Kytheon Iora.” I think Gideon so readily accepted a new name because he wanted to leave Kytheon Iora dead on Theros.

How perfectly tragic that the soldier who wishes to die protecting his friends is cursed with indestructibility. We’ll see if Gideon’s wish ever gets granted.

Liliana

Story art by Victor Adame Minguez

Holy moly does Liliana have a lot going on. She’s a pre-Mending Planeswalker, which means she first ascended when Planeswalkers were immortal, god-like beings. The Mending stopped the collapse of the Multiverse, but made Planeswalkers normal mages again. Live for 200 years like Liliana and you get wrapped up in a lot of drama. So let’s focus on her narrative through-line: cheating death.

“The Fourth Pact” is Liliana’s origin story, but hers is not the first life she tries to save. That belongs to her brother, Josu, fatally injured in war. Liliana was a healer who dabbled in necromancy, and was tricked into turning Josu into an undead monster by the mysterious Raven Man. Emotional trauma! Liliana ascends.

After the Mending, Liliana begins to age again. Near death, Nicol Bolas arranges meetings with four demons for her. They each offer Liliana power and youth in exchange for her services whenever they call.

Death is averted, for now, but it doesn’t take long for the demon Kothophed to task Liliana with bringing him an artifact known as the Chain Veil (told in the webcomics “The Hunter and the Veil” and “The Veil’s Curse”). She retrieves the vexing and hexing item, but uses it to kill Kothophed instead of handing it over. She has found a way out of her pacts! Except the Veil fills her mind with the droning of ghostly ogres, threatening to kill her to bring about some new calamity. I’ve written a lot about the Chain Veil and the Onakke Ogres and the Raven Man already, so I’ll just refer you to my past article about them instead of explaining more here.

In case “The Promised End” wasn’t meaty enough already, it’s also the story where Liliana joins the Gatewatch. The Chain Veil is killing her, so it’s time for her to avoid death once again and find a new source of power. Her oath says it all:

"I see that together we're more powerful than we are alone. If that means I can do what needs to be done without relying on the Chain Veil, then I'll keep watch. Happy now?"

Currently, she’s relying on the Gatewatch to help kill her third demon, Razaketh, on Amonkhet (She killed Griselbrand with the Veil back on Innistrad.) But we also know Razaketh serves Bolas. Liliana has woven a complicated web of relationships, ripe for drama. I told you she was wrapped up in a lot of drama.

Liliana’s story is still developing (as it has slowly been doing since before Innistrad), but where does it end up? She has two demons left to kill. The Onakke want out of the Chain Veil. The Raven Man’s mysterious plans for her are still blooming. And, most importantly to Liliana, she still hasn’t found a way to save her brother:

“Only one thing, in those days, had seemed beyond the reach of her magic: undoing what she had done to Josu.”

The ending of Aether Revolt strongly hinted at a return to Dominaria, Liliana’s home plane. Expect big things from Magic’s most ambitious necromancer as her life spins out of control.

Jace

Story art by Ryan Barger

And that brings us to Jace. This poor boy from Vryn is just outright lost. He was bullied for being a telepath. A sphinx named Alhammarret recognized his talent, however, and trained him in the mental arts. Then Jace found out Alhammarret was using him to steal military secrets and prolong the plane’s civil war, wiping the boy’s memory after each mission. Jace confronted Alhammarret and engaged in a telepathy battle. Jace wins, but “Absent Minds” ends with him waking up on Ravnica with no idea who he is, where he’s from, or what he’s doing.

As you can imagine, this makes it difficult for Jace to continue his origin story’s arc. We know Jace’s family is still on Vryn. The war might even still be raging. But without an external impetus to go there, Jace won’t find his way back on his own.

That isn’t to say he hasn’t kept himself busy. Jace is naturally curious, and that’s what has defined his story since ascension. He’s gotten his hands into Bolas plots, Tezzeret plots, Liliana plots, Garruk plots, Chandra plots, eldrazi plots, Ob Nixilis plots, and is the highest-ranking government official on Ravnica. Not that he sticks around much.

You know what happens when you keep jumping from project to project? You don’t follow up with the consequences of your actions. “Keeping busy” becomes a way of avoiding your problems. Jace lacks responsibility.

This passage from The Secretist is a perfect indication of the lengths Jace goes to not deal with things. He has just wiped the memories of Kavin, a vedalken who was helping him investigate the Implicit Maze, because he thought they were going to get in trouble. Emmara, his elf friend, is witnessing the event and begs Jace to stop:

“It’s not about watching you do it. It’s not even about you choosing not to help me, or about being present while you destroy part of yourself. It’s about the mistake you’re making. That’s what [sic] impossible to watch.

He wondered if their friendship was breaking apart, but decided it was worth it to protect her.

“I can’t help you.”

“You have to. Just think about it for a moment.”

“I have,” he said. “Please stay.” And then he cast a spell he never thought he would use on himself.

Not only does Jace stay busy to avoid dealing his problems, but he’s still wiping his own mind too. To be fair to Jace, we’ve seen a little growth in this regard. He runs off with Gideon to Zendikar to own his role in releasing the eldrazi. Jace never wiped his memories of his relationship with Liliana, which of course means he’s still wallowing in that toxicity.

Jace may not remember his past, but his story has been one of a child becoming an adult, making difficult decisions, and dealing with problems in healthy ways. He’s not there yet, but the Gatewatch sure is giving him opportunities to mature and finally take responsibility for his actions.

A Storied Future

Feel free to dismiss any complaints that the Gatewatch members aren’t developed as characters. While Chandra’s origin story has come full circle, we’re still witnessing repercussions of events deep in the past of the other four members. Nissa’s battle with Emrakul doesn’t seem over, Gideon still hasn’t figured out what he stands for, Liliana’s flight from death keeps running right back into it, and Jace’s lost memories have left him a powerful yet immature person thrust into adult situations.

During a panel at Momocon, Kelly Digges confirmed that Hour of Devastation is going to represent a major shift in Magic’s story. The Gatewatch is heading into a battle that will fundamentally change them. Will Liliana’s loyalties be tested? Will Jace finally step up and take responsibility for his shady past? Will Gideon finally die the heroic death he thinks he deserves?

Hold on tight, Planeswalkers, for there is so much more Magic story to tell.

#Magic The Gathering #MTG #Magic Story #Vorthos #Chandra #Nissa #Gideon #Liliana #Jace

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