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the-foxwolf · 7 years

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The Gatewatch as Representatives of The Color Wheel

Yesterday I was tagged in a post by @shorewall. That post can be found -->here<-- . To summarize it, the way I understood the piece was that @shorewall believed Jace, Chandra, and Liliana to be “iconic representatives of their colors. ( @shorewall)” Additionally, I understood that post to express @shorewall‘s thoughts that Gideon and Nissa are not good icons of their color representation.

Interestingly enough, those are the two least popular members of the Gatewatch (”least” popular does not mean unpopular). While it may not seem anyhow correlated to @shorewall‘s argument, as a Psychology Student, I will have to argue that there is indeed some influence between the “least popular” nature and the idea that they don’t represent their color. However. I will be talking about this but not dwelling on this as I want to focus on @shorewall‘s actual argument.

The “least popular nature” of Nissa and Gideon stems from the fact that their personalities aren’t as crystalline, as discernible, as the other three. Gideon suffers from the “True Lawful Paladin” misidentification. Nissa suffers simply because she’s isn’t that big of a talker. But Gideon is far more than what he seems. Just because he doesn’t vocalize his struggles doesn’t mean he’s not a fully developed person. Nissa doesn’t need to chat. Introverts and shy people are people too.

While this post may have originated as a response piece, I will use it to help address many of the stereotypes about the Gatewatch members. The questions you presented, @shorewall, will be answered. But this article isn’t intended solely for that purpose. I want to educate and entertain everyone as well discuss with you.

So. Let’s talk about the members of the Gatewatch as icons their color pie slice.

Gather ‘Round! It’s Story Telling Time!

Jace

Jace’s primary abilities are mind manipulation and illusions. We have seen him do a little telekinesis and some counter magic in the lore. But he can’t do much and they both wear him out quickly. However, there is a lot of Blue’s color suite we don’t see in him. I’ll mention some off the top of my head with the clarification that these in no way comprise the totality of what Blue can do.

Counter spells (not just a little), like Baraal

Ice, like Vronos

Water, like Thassa

Time Manipulation, like Teferi

Teleportation, like Venser

Artifacts, like Tezzeret

Polymorphing, like Jalira

For the purposes of this article, I’ll be only noting about 7 other abilities that the planeswalker doesn’t have. These 7, of course, do not encompass the entirety of the color slice.

As we will see further down this article, the planeswalker cards that are supposed to represent the Gatewatch do a poor job of capturing their actual powers. Usually, Wizards goes for flavor. But the reality is that sometimes the planeswalkers need some help staying on the battlefield, regardless of what their actual abilities in the lore are.

His planeswalker card show his mind mage abilities through milling. But they have yet to create a Jace card that emphasizes his Illusions. They give him unsummoning abilities and knowledge magic, neither of which he has ever shown in lore.

His personality also doesn’t perfectly fit with all of Blue. Jace has an obsession with learning new things, that’s for certain. (We will define “learning new things” and Knowledge Seeking by explaining that difference between curiosity and research) He’s got the obsession with commanding and controlling other people too. But there are a lot of things he simply doesn’t care for that are part of Blue philosophy.

Knowledge Seeking, like Tamiyo

Personal Perfection Seeking, like Pre-Bolas Tezzeret

Sharing Knowledge, like Master Hisoka and Barrin

Scientific Experimentation, like Geralf

Exploration, like Thad Adel

For the purposes of this article, I’ll present 5 major personality differences between the planeswalker and personalities they don’t have.

Liliana

Liliana’s primary abilities are necromancy. Both the Necromantic-Decay Force and the Zombie Raising stuff. But, like Jace, she simply doesn’t have the full suite either.

Thought Ruin, like Greel and Croag

External Blood Magic, like Sorin

Anti-Life Magic, like Ob Nixilis

Life Drain, like Drana and Yaheeni

Huge Summoning, like Chainer and Braids

Internal Blood Magic, like Toshiro Umezawa

Small Summoning, like Endrek Sar and Marrow-Gnawer

We’ve seen her do huge summoning, like when she created an angel to fight the ooze on Ravnica. But that cost her dearly and exhausted her. But that’s about the extend of her dabbling in other magics. Her planeswalker cards have represented her necromantic energy and necromantic summoning fairly well. However, they too give her abilities she has never once shown to have in the lore. Like Thought Ruining and Sacrifice magic. Or the one no one talks about... “Liliana of the Dark Realms”. Wizard’s most embarrassing mistake ever...

Personality wise, Liliana is all about the self-preservation, ambition for power, and manipulation. This, however, does not embody all of Black’s personality profile. In fact, we’ve even see her go directly against Black’s ideals. Often. To the point that she starts dipping her toes into White! But that’s not a conversation in this article. Back to the point. These following characteristics are things she doesn’t have.

Enjoying the suffering of others, like Crovax

Spite, like Chainer and Gisa

Murder for the Thrill, like Ink-Eyes

Ambition for Fame, like Kiku and Braids

“Leave Me Alone and Keep Your Problems Away From Me”, like Toshiro

Not all personality facets are here. And sure, she’s exhibited at least a tiny bit of these at some point. But that’s trivial. Those moments are not defining attributes of her character.

Chandra

Her main magic is fire...that’s it. Fire. But obviously that’s not all of the color wheel.

Artifacts Recycling, like Daretti

Object Replication magic, like Kiki-Jiki

Creature Summoning, like Rakka-Mar

Magic Replication, like Zada

Geomancy, like Koth

Pain Magic, like Tibalt

Emotion Excitement, like Grenzo

We haven't seen her do anything else, in my memory, other than fire. Her planeswalker cards have shown her doing replication magic and fire magic. Her spell related cards show her summoning phoenixes. But never once have we seen her summon or replicate in the lore. Just another example of having to prioritize game-play over flavor. Which isn't a bad thing. I’d rather them do that than make less planeswalkers, or worse ones.

Personality wise, Chandra is also not completely representative of the color wheel. We have seen her impulsive nature, her loving side, and her angry side. We’ve even see her...well... best for for it is innocence, though the word “genuineness” would apply equally.

Thrill Seeking, like Kari Zev

Challenge Seeking, like Kamahl

Vengeance Seeking, like Grenzo

Chaos Seeking, like Krenko

Fervent Passion, like her parents

Nissa

Nissa has Animist magic, the ability to manipulate land and plants and summon elementals. We’ve also seen her use short bursts of personal strength boosting, though it’s uncommon. But like everyone else, her magic doesn’t encompass much else that’s available.

Targeted Power Boosting, like Thriss

Team Healing Magic, like Ezuri

Self-Healing Magic, like Isao

Team Power Boosting, like Dwynen

Creature Summoning (elemental summoning is totally different), like Garruk

Resource Allocation/Reallocation like Azusa and Rishkar and Selvala

Warding Magic, like Melira

We’ve seen a little bit of Mana Pooling, but it was a very unique instance we haven’t seen again. Her planeswalker cards actually do some justice to her abilities for a change. Except for “Nissa Revane”...that was is weird. The Joraga Elves exiled her and wanted nothing to do with her. And Nissa doesn’t summon elves...so. I guess “Nissa Revane” is the equivalent of “Liliana of the Dark Realms”

Nissa’s Personality is interesting. We have seen in her, primarily, the idea of inner calm and peace- of personal harmony. We see in her the love of nature. We see her love and concern for others. But there are many aspects we also don’t see.

The Obsession with Evolution, like with Vorinclex and a little bit of Garruk

The Obsession with the Hunt, like Garruk and Surrak

Fierce Territorial Defense, like Rofellos and Freylaise

Fierce Advocacy of Nature, like Selvala

Nurturing, like Multani and Oviya Pashiri

Desire for Isolation and Introspection, like Khamal and Iwamori

We see Nissa show some of her nurturing side with Nissa as she tries to help teach Chandra to calm her inner self. But that trait isn’t a defining feature of Nissa’s. We’ve only seen it there, indicating that it’s more of a trait brought about by a specific individual, not because it’s definitive of her nature. We’ve seen her territorial defense on Zendikar, but her defense of her team isn’t ferocious. It’s more out of love than out of benign possessiveness.

Gideon

The last member of this assessment is Gideon. Magic wise, we know he specializes in Detention Magic and Protection Magic. But, like everyone else, he simply doesn’t have the full suite.

Reinforcement Magic, like Elesh Norn and Jazal

Healing Magic, like Oriss and Ajani

Small Summoning Magic, like Darien and Elspeth

Prevention Magic, like Iona and Thalia

Destruction Magic, like Mageta the Lion and Elesh Norn

Reanimation Magic, like Reya Dawnbringer

Lithomancy, like Nahiri

His cards also fail to properly show him. Just like everyone else, they give him powers on the cards that are never hinted at in the lore. For example, summoning. We’ve never seen Gideon summon, or even pretend to summon. Yet half of his cards do that. Champion of Justice exiles and Ally of Zendikar boosts allies. Also stuff we’ve never seen him do in the lore.

As usual, Gideon’s personality isn’t all encompassing. We seen him with the desire to help those who can’t help themselves. His “I have to save everyone” complex is pretty blatantly defining. We’ve seen his ability to lead and inspire as well. But we haven’t seen these characteristics in him:

Forcibly imposing ideals upon others, like Order of Heliud

Obeying the law for the sake of the law, like Sram and Pre-EDM Odric

Obsession with control, as seen with the Consulate

Self-Righteousness (the ideal that I can do no wrong and everything I do is for the greater good so you can’t disagree with me), as we see in Konda.

Prejudice and Hatred, like we see with The Order of Dominaria and Elspeth

We have seen Gideon dabble in many of these characteristics and the other White characteristics, but he’s moved away from them once he actually found them.

Throughout this article, I’ve discussed the power suite available to the Gatewatch and how they are specialized. I’ve discussed the Gatewatch’s representation on the cards, and how unreliable those representations are. I have also discussed their personalities and provided proof that none of these people have everything that their color normally has.

So why did I do all this? To prove a point. That no one in the Gatewatch perfectly represents their color pie slice as a whole. However, I have also shown that what we do see of their color pie representation is accurate, if incomplete. I have provided evidence that all of them are at least equally representative of their color pie. The word choice there was “representative”. Not “Iconic”.

Jace:

Ally Color Pairs White-Blue: Jace doesn’t have much interaction with White mana people yet Blue-Black: Jace and Liliana have their thing going on

Enemy Color Pairs

Green-Blue: Jace and Nissa have a some level of intimacy. Jace is also apparently friends with Garruk. Red-Blue: Jace has had a rough history with Chandra.

Liliana:

Ally Color Pairs: Blue-Black: She and Jace have that thing going on Red-Black: Liliana actually enjoys Chandra’s company

Enemy Color Pairs: White-Black: "I hate angels” - Quote Green-Black: Liliana has dealt with Garruk and found Green distasteful

Chandra:

Ally Color Pairs: Red-Green: Chandra and Nissa have their intimacy together Red-Black: Chandra either doesn’t see or, more likely, doesn’t care about Liliana’s ambitions. She just enjoys Liliana’s company.

Enemy Color Pairs: White-Red: Chandra and the Consulate have never gotten along. Not to mention The Order of Heliud. Blue-Red: Baraal and Chandra. Enough said.

Nissa:

Ally Color Pairs: White-Green: I can’t see much of a relationship here. Red-Green: Chandra and Nissa have their intimacy

Enemy Color Pairs: Blue-Green: Nissa has her own level of intimacy with Jace Black-Green: Nissa has a history of being betrayed by Black mana. I.E. Sorin.

So where does that leave us? There is certainly some level of relationships going on that make sense. But the reality of the matter is that people are people. Not color pie slices. And people can get along or can not get along. Their lives and personality should not be restricted by their color slice. Influenced? Yes. Defined and restricted by? No. That’s just weak storytelling.

The color wheel exists for a variety of purposes. Pay attention to this. This is important:

“The Color Wheel Exists To Provide Definition, Not Limitation” - @the-foxwolf

People cannot be stereotyped into a box. We do not fit into neat little categories. That’s human nature. You may have a first impression or a surface appearance, but that will never tell you who they really are. Those of you who are in a minority group in whatever location you’re in can attest to this reality. Let me put this another way.

I am a American Citizen of Hispanic Origin. I was raised in a Mexican Cultural Environment. BUT. I am not defined by my ethnicity. Listen to that again. Just because I am Hispanic does not restrict me to only being Hispanic.

I am allowed to have attributes of other cultures just as I am allowed to not have attributes of my own.

My identity is still valid even if I am not a perfect example of my culture.

This exact idea is what applies to the Color Wheel.

Liliana being at her core a Black character doesn’t mean she can’t have some White. When taking on Tezzeret, she should have just killed all his guards and summoned a zombie army.

Nissa is a Green character. But she left Zendikar to explore herself, to develop herself as a person- to stop being a force of nature.

Jace is Blue. As such, what happened on Zendikar with the release of the Eldrazi has nothing to do with Blue. A pure Blue character would have gone to Zendikar to watch. They wouldn’t have apologized for being a part of releasing the Eldrazi. And they especially wouldn’t have helped stop them. He showed some White.

Gideon is White. But he’s been working with some Green. He’s trying to harmonize with his team. That’s beyond just working well with them. Beyond just leading them. He’s trying to build a culture among the Gatewatch where people trust one another and like each other. Not an easy task. But pure White wouldn’t require that. It would be satisfied with them being able to work well and be at peace with one another. It wouldn’t care about the personal experience of each member and how to best include them into the group.

Chandra’s got a lot of Blue in her. She’s constantly striving to become a better person, to overcome her flaws. A pure Red character would come to love themselves as they are and not care about their faults. But Chandra wants to change. That shows that she’s got some Blue in her.

What I’m getting at is that the color wheel should help flesh these characters out, not limit them. From a story-telling perspective, forcing the enemy-ally relationships on the Gatewatch would not only feel forced, but it would add WAY too much unnecessary stereotyping to the characters. It would shove them into their color and not let them be the people they really are.

Conclusion

If you take nothing else away from this article, take this with you:

“The Color Wheel Exists To Provide Definition, Not Limitation” - @the-foxwolf

This applies to personalities. It also applies to powers. I do not need have every single aspect of my Mexican heritage to be a Mexican. I, for one, don’t like Mexican fashion. Especially traditional stuff. But just because I do not have that aspect, that Mexican fashion, as a part of my life, does not mean I am not of Mexican heritage. The same applies to the powers of the Gatewatch. Just because they can’t do everything doesn’t mean they’re not still good examples of their color pie slice.

Thank you for reading. If you liked what you read, hit that “Reblog” or that “Like” button. For more Story Telling Time, where I talk about character personality assessments and story telling techniques, press that “Follow” button.

Thanks!

#gatewatch #mtg #magic story #storytellingtime #story telling time

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