Last story for Zendikar 3:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/a ... 2020-09-30
-Jace sealing was a bit of a coup out, though to repeat thing if we gotten more stories would have been a decent way to end a story on a cliff hanger while Nahiri and Nissa fought and freed once Nissa freed the core.
-I do wanna see a proper finish to Sorin vs Nahiri.
-Hey Nahiri how do you like not being able to move as a magic tech orb is taken from you? Not fun is it?
-So it final Nissa is out of the gatewatch fully. While she might rejoin it seems Amonkhet, War of the Spark, the Chandra break up and Gideons death has killed the "blue" side of Nissa who was willing and wanting to learn more about other people and place.
-Oh wait no Jace trying to take over her mind in the final straw.
-The kor core (lol) being powered by a spark of Zendikars soul is very symbolic and I like. Might also explain how it was working, by sucking up more of the world soul which was what was leading to the blight and resulting "tame-ness".
-I do like the black-side of Nissa being her believing in her self more. While I'm annoyed she keeps being used to fill in color balances Im for more positive black aspects shown.
-So they do have a story reason why Zendikar is recovering so fast, as it looks like Nissa returning the piece of world soul renewed the whole plane to the point Bala Ged is regrowing.
-Not sure I like the "lesson" here. While all this could have been solved by everyone listening to each other, no one made any effort to do so besides Nissa listening to the core.
-That said I do like the themed of guilt we saw with the walkers and it ending with how broken people can still be redeemed.
Overall: My biggest critique is I think we could have had another 3-5 stories to flesh thing out more. A lot of moments felt rushed and fasted paced when I think they could have been slown down. The writing itself was decent, not the best we seen, but I didn't dislike it and wouldn't mind if they had the author return. I do give a nod to Greenblatt able to not only novelize the trailer but make it work with her own themes and characters, something that you only can see in this kind of multimedia franchise.
Character: Fine for the most part with Nahiri being the best written. I do like they push all into Nahiri being an old walker like of villain and I think the adding in of the Kor empire helped flesh her out and gives her a bit more to her past actions as being an old walker and a for from that time period instilling in her a "actions justify the means for (my version) of the greater good".
Future (semi-boarderline) speculation
Its been brought up but we might be getting a anti-gatewatch, each of the last few sets has left us with a walker with a grudge to a main character:
Eldraine had Oko with a life debt to Rowan and on Garruks %$#% list
Theros had bot Calix hunting down Elspeth (and Ashiok going off to phyrexia but that feels more for that storyline)
Ikoria had Vivien going to hunt Lukka to make sure he not up to anything bad and the unknow walker*
and now Zendikar 3 with both Nahiri and Nissa not trusting Jace and Nahiri has a long tentacle-sized history of not handling grudges well.
To me Nissa breaking away hasn't been too much of a shock. Ive been noticing she has been slowly phased out of the marketing and replaced with Vivien and Garruk taking up the green slot of stuff. From what we know of the gatewatch history Gideon, Jace, Chandra and Liliana where the most popular walkers in in mono color (who was alive) with Nissa being picked as at the time she was the only green walker and was related to the eldrazi storyline. And since then I don't think she had reached the popularity they liked for a face of the game outside of her and Chandra possibly getting together and now thats all a mess. Just like I'm guessing they picked to bring back Elspeth around Gideon dying to replace him as a face, I got the feeling Ikoria and Eldraine did a similar thing to Vivien (who now is acting more inline with the gatewatch by using her planeswalker-ness to help) and Garruk (now cured, has the twins ground his humanity and Liliana believed dead, no major conflict wit the gatewatch). I don't think thy gonna write off Issa but I think she gonna go back to being a supporting character who we see on Zendikar and/or if we get to another plane with a land theme. I also guessing Oko is the one who was messing around on Ikoira and I think he was on Ravnica for War of the Spark so that might end with a conflict with the gatewach and/or plus Vivien and Garruk.