The bad boy of Magic: The Gathering is (probably) back, and no, I’m not talking about Nicol Bolas (who is also back, by the way). Jace Beleren, the telepathic planeswalker with no concern for privacy and boundaries, the darling of blue players (which says it all, really), is not as dead as fans thought he would be.
The second episode of the Lorwyn Eclipsed story sees the return of some familiar faces. Professor Onyx, aka Liliana Vess, is doing her usual brooding in her office at the Stryxhaven campus, when an old, furry acquaintance comes knocking. Ajani brings Liliana up to speed with the events of the Tarkir: Dragonstorm set, which culminated in someone messing up while trying to play with fate and the multiverse. Guess who! Yes. It was Jace. However, Liliana drops the most obvious piece of foreshadowing in the history of fiction: “There was no body. He’s not dead. Jace Beleren wouldn’t die without leaving a body.”
It would have been more correct to say that Jace will not die as long as he keeps making money for Wizards of the Coast, just like every other major MTG character. First appearing in the original Lorwyn (more foreshadowing?) set in 2007, Jace was MTG‘s attempt to create a character that the game’s player base could identify with. The average MTG player does not exactly look like Gideon (who is, coincidentally, the only member of the Gatewatch currently dead), and, despite the great progress made in recent years, this hobby remains male-dominated. Enter the emo boy with a troubled past who solves problems with brains over brawn, and has a love story with the stunning goth necromancer chick.
Over the years, Jace showed a certain obtuse attitude toward focusing too much on his goals and on whatever he thought was the “greater good,” no matter the consequences. His latest mess was trying to channel the power of the Meditation Plane to rewrite the multiverse and undo the final war with New Phyrexia that bled countless worlds and made himself and his new lover Vraska “compleated.” (Even if they were later saved by…Jace’s mum. Awkward.) Obviously, the whole thing backfired and Jace lost control of the spell, apparently getting unraveled from reality in the process — and freeing the Elder Dragon God Nicol Bolas in the process, but we know that Jace doesn’t bother with the details. If that’s not a villain, I don’t know what is.
I wish that Wizards of the Coast would truly step away from these overused characters to tell new, compelling stories. It’s not that they don’t know how to do it: Edge of Eternities was an amazing set, lore-wise. A completely new setting, complex and rich world-building, and only one old face returning in a secondary role. Even the episodes of the story were told with an experimental tone that made them stand out as true pieces of literature rather than filler. And yet, a couple of months later, the Edge was already forgotten.
Fans had to survive months of Universes Beyond pastiches to come back to Lorwyn, a beloved, nostalgic setting. However, even in the midst of exploring a plane that MTG had let dormant for almost two decades, Liliana and Ajani had to come back, and of course, Jace had to be name-dropped, teasing his future return. I get that some of these characters have built a strong connection with the fans, but it’s clear that the creative well has run dry. Was anyone particularly impressed with Jace and Vraska playing family with MTG‘s failed attempt at creating a mascot, Loot?
The only hope I have left is that, when Jace returns (likely in the Reality Fracture set), MTG will fully embrace his role as a villain. Or at least, he will finally be over his emo phase.
