Has Gonti been featured in the Kaladesh stories?

Last week It turned up in Yaheeni's thing.

Again, the Consulate hasn't done anything worse than real-world governments in the Western world do routinely. Having a run-down slum caused by an uncaring government isn't even exaggerated evil, it's a completely boring, normal affair in our everyday lives.

Take Star Wars. If the Empire was just a sorta-oppressive government, it would be hard to root for the Rebels, because people are already in the business of rooting for a sorta-oppressive government. They had to blow up Alderaan and prepare to blow up more planets in order to make people realize the impact of the conflict. What was the Consulate's Death Star? I mean, the death of Kiran is a tragedy, but I don't think many people see it as "overthrow a mostly functioning government"-tragedy.

I'm also not sure if the aesthetic of Kaladesh lends itself to stories of openly authoritarian governments, because everything looks very nice. Magic tells a lot of its story trough visuals and the Consulate is still very colorful and pretty.

Not only that, but they pitched things as being a very functional, mostly egalitarian and unoppressive world where everyone does their job well. 90% of the population has no issues. (and I'm being generous)

You could paint a delightfully stark contrast between the pristine beauty of Kaladesh and the brutality of its rebels/the authoritarians.

I'm gonna call it that Tezzeret summoning Bolas is what will unite the rebels and the authoritarians,

Just wanted to point out that, in the novels, the Golgari were willing to sacrifice kidnapped human children as part of an "improve the harvest" ritual. There was also a time they straight up attacked the Wojek/Boros Big Ground Fort (I forget what it was called) and smashed at least one of the massive stone titans. I feel like there was a flavour text indicating that they were willing to hunt people who got lost down there. Plus there's the whole "Fonn got kidnapped and locked in a room under threat of death" thing. So the Golgari may be a little darker than are shown on screen.

I think Bolas wants to use the teleport to move his devoted legions from Amonkhet onto other planes so that he can begin building an empire.

It may also be that Tezz wants to build a giant Planeshifting Titan Engine that he can use to try and kill Bolas so he can get out from under the dragon tyrant's claws. Granted, the art and flavor of Dark Intimations leads me to believe that this doesn't work out so well and that Bolas comes to Kaladesh to call Tezzeret to heel. Kind of an "I applaud you for trying, but you still belong to me....now let's go, you're grounded!" moment.

Okay, but seriously:

1. Tezzeret works for Bolas, successfully steals the Consortium away.
2. m i n d w i p e
3. Tezzeret works for Bolas, tries to steal control of New Phyrexia.
4. reassigned to a new corner of the Multiverse
5. Tezzeret works for Bolas, uses technology from Kaladesh to defeat him?

There is no way Bolas gives him any more freedom than he had before, and certainly not enough to even begin to contest him. I'm not saying he'll go full Dr. Jest wackiness, but I don't anticipate Tezzeret being able to do much more than dream of the day for quite a while.

Which is kind of impressive all things considered, since even the most benevolent factions tend to be overly unpleasant.

This, pretty much. Kaladesh was depicted as such an ideal place that this Consulate nonsense is forced and inorganic. This confiscaton act was pretty clearly the last ditch effort to make the Consulate evil.

I think that all of that is very deliberate.

I think that we are supposed to see the Consulate as mostly good and effective, promoting wide-spread social stability, and trying to carefully manage a massive technological shift for the good of as many as possible, but also see that some of its requirements, regulations, and mandates could be considered heavy-handed or burdensome. I think we are also supposed to see that the Consulate is also very vulnerable to manipulation by outside forces---as Tezzeret (and maybe Bolas) has (have) clearly done---and also blind to the corruption of many of its less noble elements---Captain Baral and Consul Kambal would fit into that category.

On the other hand, I think that we are also supposed to see that the rebels have some legitimate grievances. Baral brutal persecution of Chandra and her family (and the implication that this has been done to other natural-born spellcasters) is horrible. The guy in charge of distributing aether (and maybe other things) is clearly very corrupt. But ultimately, I don't think they come off as instantly and completely sympathetic, beyond the fact that Pia Nalaar is leading them. That might just be bad writing and a too-positive portrayal of pre-revolt Ghirapur.

Do you happen to have a page number on the sacrificing human children thing? I genuinely don't remember that, but it's been a long time since I've read those novels.

I remember that too, pretty sure it was mentioned in the second book. In fairness, Jarad abolished that tradition when he became guildmaster. In fact, it only comes up in the book because one of the priests is about to sacrifice people on the fields anyway before Jarad finds out and is not amused. I'm not entirely sure if it was children specifically or just people in general, though.

Gotcha. Like I said, it's been a long time. Mostly, I just remember the Agrus Kos stuff, some of Teysa's storyline, and the big Nephilim fight near the end.

No, wait, sorry, it was in the third book, the second book doesn't even feature Jarad. But that scene I was talking about definitely happened

Well, Pavor basically said everything I wanted to. I'm not 100% sure it was children but I really feel like it was a bunch of kids.

I don't want to sound like a broken record, but how many people support a violent overthrow of a Western government? Because that will roughly correspond with the number of people that should support the rebels. And I know the US has had a few popular movements recently, but none of them have build an attack helicopter, as far as I can tell.

Jarad actually tried to stomp out the outdated sacrifice traditions in the novels. Good chance that's over with pre Return to Ravnica. I think the offensive against the Boros was orchestrated by the Sisters of Stone Death during their brief reign, so that may not be representative either. Not that they're super awesome people. Getting lost in the undercity seems to make you fair game for trophy hunting. I know the Golgari made cheap/free food, but was that a food subsidy thing or just how they do business?

I remember the Sisters did take down one of those giant Boros titans. I think it was only one.