Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Midareyukki]

If Ajani doesn't end up back to normal or at least back in control of himself, I will be done. This man survived a solo encounter with Nicol Bolas (aka the most powerful and evil planeswalker of them all). He has been one of the faces of MtG for over a decade, I will not accept anything less than him being saved.

He flayed himself and replaced his skin with porcelain armour to emulate Elesh Norn's orthodoxy. And in the same chapter, Luxior is used on Jace and it doesn't fully work; he's in pain, phyresis is slowly going into his brain. Even if Ajani is cured with Halo, he's now literally a walking flayed body. If he gets it, depending on how they write it, it could kill him.

I think it was you who told me he was used for childrens' organizations o: And the fact that in the latest chapters Elspeth just knocks him unconscious while Tyvar outright stabs Tibalt in the heart makes me think that Wizards doesn't want Ajani to die.

But jeez... It's not just that he's a big lion boy. It's the character itself. I mean, I'm on the camp that I don't care for the Gatewatch. I don't hate them, but I also feel like they don't have much going for them anymore as characters. But past that they don't have much. Meanwhile they've been setting up Elspeth for so long. Ajani has been a huge presence in her arc, and has an unresolved past in Alara. And he's super charming too. He's such a cool character, and they're just offing him in such a daft way that completely mangles and violates his character. The Ajani they're writing is disgusting. And sure, "mind control", and it's intended to be portrayed as though this was an evil version of the character we've always known. But it's really hard to like it when it's a character you had expectations to be more heroic in the end. And not this.

Ironically I feel like I'd be enjoying this story a bit more if Ajani weren't a part of it like this.

I never got into Magic but my roommates love it. One of them has a Mermaid deck.

Oh jeez, Merfolk is literally one of my biggest fears in MtG Arena!! I play pretty annoying decks (I even loved Teferi Time Raveller, and the fact that I'm saying this makes MtG Arena players want to wring my neck xD), but Merfolk is legit my kryptonite!!

[RyuDragnier]

He flayed himself and replaced his skin with porcelain armour to emulate Elesh Norn's orthodoxy. And in the same chapter, Luxior is used on Jace and it doesn't fully work; he's in pain, phyresis is slowly going into his brain. Even if Ajani is cured with Halo, he's now literally a walking flayed body. If he gets it, depending on how they write it, it could kill him.

I think it was you who told me he was used for childrens' organizations o: And the fact that in the latest chapters Elspeth just knocks him unconscious while Tyvar outright stabs Tibalt in the heart makes me think that Wizards doesn't want Ajani to die.

But jeez... It's not just that he's a big lion boy. It's the character itself. I mean, I'm on the camp that I don't care for the Gatewatch. I don't hate them, but I also feel like they don't have much going for them anymore as characters. But past that they don't have much. Meanwhile they've been setting up Elspeth for so long. Ajani has been a huge presence in her arc, and has an unresolved past in Alara. And he's super charming too. He's such a cool character, and they're just offing him in such a daft way that completely mangles and violates his character. The Ajani they're writing is disgusting. And sure, "mind control", and it's intended to be portrayed as though this was an evil version of the character we've always known. But it's really hard to like it when it's a character you had expectations to be more heroic in the end. And not this.

Ironically I feel like I'd be enjoying this story a bit more if Ajani weren't a part of it like this.

I think that's how it is for a lot of people. Ajani has always been the one character you don't just touch, and is pretty much an Ensemble Darkhorse to the fandom. If it had been anybody but Ajani, people would have liked the story a lot more.

[Midareyukki]

I think that's how it is for a lot of people. Ajani has always been the one character you don't just touch, and is pretty much an Ensemble Darkhorse to the fandom. If it had been anybody but Ajani, people would have liked the story a lot more.

Really? xD I'm glad I'm not the only one who views it this way. I've seen some comments on youtube about how cool Sleeper Agent Ajani was, but overall most people don't really talk about the lore or the characters themselves. Sure, this goes for virtually every card game, but I don't think I've ever seen people discuss the lore much. Not outside of comments like "Gatewatch suuuuuck!!!" or "wow Forsaken was poorly written to hell and back"

It's not even the first time they kill major characters, nor the first time they kill Planeswalkers.
Gideon was a major planeswalker, Dack Fayden had an entire book series dedicated to him. And Domri Rade existed I guess '-'
Same for the Mending sacrificing all their cool Planeswalkers then to stop Dominaria from going haywire.

It's really just this one character that they've established as cool, who went through a character growth that really contrasts that of normal planeswalkers we've come to know, and has since grown into his own. He was the mentor of heroes, the one character who symbolized the absolute best a Planeswalker could aspire to be. Generous, kind, fatherly, meddled when he had to, but encouraged others to fight for themselves. As opposed to "We're here, we're the Gatewatch, we're going to bust some heads".
He deserved better than this. He deserved better than an off-screen compleation, murdering people for the sake of evil (through underhanded methods, by the way) and then flaying himself. Hell he wouldn't even use ridiculous speeches to break his opponent. As much of a pragmatic Phyrexian he may be now, his speeches are corny. Ajani wouldn't have needed bark-that-he-couldn't-back-up-with-bite, because every time this guy talks, he always gets his arse handed to him immediately after. If I were in charge, I'd keep the chivalrous Ajani who fought in the name of a family he now had. Still the same speech and patterns, but applied in to the wrong thing. And have him properly win fights and earn his kills, not... this.

I get people like the cool look and the edge. Nothing wrong with an edgy evil Ajani. I could have grown to like him a bit better. If I weren't so worried for his survival, and if I didn't feel like he came out of nowhere. AND if I didn't feel like his writing was shoddy.

And especially not when he's been used for kids associations -._.- like. That's low.