..that’s not really what happened. Nor did he defeat Bolas. At least not defeat in the sense that many people seem to convey. Ajani neither kicked Bolas’ ass like a total badass, nor stopped him from getting what he wanted. Since I imagine not all people here read the Alara novel or want to spend money on it, I thought I’d sum up here how it went down, quoting from the book. Hopefully this is at least a bit useful, and helps at least one person get a clearer picture!

First, Bolas slaps Ajani around the mountainside a bit, which means Ajani spent the remainder of this encounter lying about in pain.

“Ajani groaned and coughed blood onto the walls of the gorge. He searched his mouth with his tongue and felt two teeth loose, but clenched them into place with his jaw.”

They banter a bit, and Bolas steps into the maelstrom.

“The maelstrom exploded into a sphere of light, drenching the dragon planeswalker in waves of power. The force of the blast crushed Ajani into the wall of the chasm, feeling like a continuous barrage of electric shocks.” “Unable to cope with complex thought, Ajani’s mind repeated one phrase over and over: He’s done it. He’s done it.”

“The dragon moved within the radiance. Its wings opened; its arms and legs stretched out; its tail uncoiled and spread long and majestic; its head reared up to the empty sky; its mouth opened. It was unmistakably Bolas, but Ajani thought he looked larger than he had been, or somehow more grandiose. He had no scars or wounds, no frayed scales or pinions, no scruffy patches at his joints. He was smooth, sleek, a study in armored scale stretched over lean muscle. He had become everything that his potential allowed him to be: he was a divinity of the Multiverse.”

So, suffice it say, Bolas’ plan worked flawlessly. Ajani utterly failed to stop him from achieving his most important goal.

Here’s where the typical Bolas arrogance sets in though, and a tiny bit of the maelstrom remains “a meek swirl of energy no bigger than Ajani was tall.” This leaves enough Maelstrom for Ajani to power up his spell!

Enjoying his new power, Bolas decides he might as well destroy all Alara now, while Ajani begs him not to. Bolas replies; “Why should I not? It’s a disgrace now, a ruin bereft of value.”

Ajani does not want this to happen, and makes Bolas go away! Here’s how:

“Ajani evoked the essence of Bolas ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).” “As it continued to cohere, detail after detail resolved like a distant image coming into focus until it was a glowing, astral reflection of Bolas himself.”

Bolas then fights his doppelganger: “The two dragons crashed into one another, and they howled, a sonic mirror.” “The Bolases were perfectly matched – each blow was met with a counterblow, each attempt to gain advantage slapped aside with perfect precision.”

“Suddenly the dragons reared back, gazed with pure hatred into one another’s eyes, and then thrust their necks forward and snapped their jaws onto one another. The streaming energy of the maelstrom enveloped the draconic ouroboros, and a flash of thunderous light overwhelmed Ajani’s senses.”

After that, Bolas and the doppelganger are gone, which means that Bolas planeswalked away before he risked hurting himself fighting himself. Looking at ‘Enter the Eldrazi’ we see that Bolas is fine as well, happily doing his evil machinations and standing in evil looking light. Not to mention, in the Hour of Devastation stories, he was described as immaculate and flawless several times, like he had become after the Maelstrom.

So, in summary, Ajani essentially put a band-aid on an arterial bleed. It’s impressive, but the damage was already done.