What it comes to is the introduction of the First Ones. Blizzard is copying Assassin’s Creed’s Precursors, who try to reformat Earth the same way Zovaal is trying to reformat the universe. The machine used in that game is called the Animus. Danuser probably couldn’t think of an original idea for a story expansion so he used the Shadowlands setting to put his favorite character Sylvanas at the forefront then fit in another franchise’s concept. We should be prepared now for the next expansion to steal from another franchise too.
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From day one the Warcraft Franchise has heavily borrowed from others. Often it has shamelessly stolen from them—They freely admit such.
There are for sure some Isu vibes going on in Zereth Mortis. I get some SG1 Ancients/Alteran vibes too.
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From beta.
None of the Cosmology fit in with what we knew about death.
The second Danuser said the ancestors aren’t actually ancestors but echoes, unless they’re trapped in the veil because magic or religion for unclear reasons, it was a wrap. Writing was on the wall.
The second we saw all of the Shadowlands threw the cultural theology on death out the window instead of building upon it, it was a wrap.
Out of the frying pan and into the oven.
Perhaps out of Teldrassil and into the Maw Soulforge.
And Marvel Celestials
Arguably AC cosmology also borrows from Marvel
The theft was fairly balanced.
DC, Marvel, European myth, African myth, Amerindigenous myth, Asian myth, etc
Can’t say the same anymore.
The Other Side was designed from a gameplay perspective, not a narrative world building one, for example.
It doesn’t even make sense for a Bwon mask to give us the quest in the dungeon if bwon is being held by Muehzala before us, should’ve been Rastakhan’s spirit telling us how to help Bwonsamdi 
And just, lol @ Shadowlands as a whole
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It certainly feels like Shadowlands was written by two different people with different objectives in mind.
I have not seen Marvel’s Eternals yet.
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Well, it was. The story team and quest team dont really interlock so well from what it seems. On top of that the they work in small groups which dont seem to communicate very well.
And well… they have a stupidly excessive reliance on the Rule of Cool, and difference to gameplay first.
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From the second 8.1 was released (along with its interviews) I knew how this whole thing was going to end. To be fair, I didn’t expect it to be this bad because I was hoping the Night Elves would atleast get a nice afterlife instead of being tortured and obliterated in the maw.
Firim’s accent is a little different from most Brokers’ accents, I think.
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I just want the Thanos snap with Sylvanas erased from history and to wake up after we have imprisoned Sargeras and forget what happened in BFA and SL.
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The awkward moment when you realize the Horde built your new house out of trees they took while strip-mining Ashenvale, and the food is meat poached from the same place.
sad Native American tear
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No I meant like Zereth Mortis, specifically.
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How did you figure out how Shadowlands was going to end from The Battle of Dazar’alor raid patch? Shadowlands wasn’t even announced at that point.
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Zereth Mortis specifically? No.
But one month into SL, knowing they’d forgotten the Scourge architecture was borrowed from Nerubians and decided it was actually borrowed from Maldraxxus for reasons? Playing through Ardenweald’s Night Fae covenant and learning more about the Night Warrior than the actual Night Fae? Seeing from datamining that by the end of Castle Nathria we still hadn’t heard a single NPC past the starting experience wonder what had knocked the Arbiter offline and no covenants were trying to boot it back up? Nothing even hinting at why the Drust and Devourers were attacking other than “they are attacking, because probably Jailer”? Having seen and heard nothing about who Zovaal is beyond “siblings betrayed me”, let alone why his convoluted plan exists? With no hints from Sylvanas about her own goals beyond “fixing the broken system”? Being told some bullcrap about alt-universe souls getting squished together with MU souls, without once acknowledging how many more questions that brings up while answering nothing?
I wouldn’t have expected the finale taking place in the 3D Printer Factory of Death, but I certainly did expect it all to make no real sense.
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Danuser’s story centers around Nathrezim and the Night Warrior it seems. No surprise in regards to the Nathrezim as Denathrius is a favored Character of his.
One telling thing about Maldraxxus’s story arc: The 9.1 Story is about killing Vyraz and getting rid of Helya. All in the Maw itself. Whatever plan Afrasiabi planned for them was scrapped utterly!
Afrasiabi was in charge when Shadowlands was announced and it shows! Ardenweald which was the last Zone worked on had it’s Covenant Campaign be about the Night Warrior and removal of the Drust Menace with no look into Night Fae Lore as Danuser had no interest in it when he took over.
Bastion’s Story was replaced after the Demo showcased during Blizzcon following Shadowlands’ announcement was shown to the public. Probably Danuser’s attempts to appease the Public Outcry caused by Afrasiabi’s creation.
I’m quite certain the Hand of Purity’s Statements on the Necessity of Removing Memories were probably one of the few lines that weren’t replaced following Afrasiabi’s firing and even they were contradicted in 9.1!
If you’re a paladin who’s played through the Legion class order hall, then technically they’ve already tried to replace you, they just failed. Dreadlords often kill or capture their targets that they want to impersonate in order to reduce suspicion; Mal’Ganis has evidently realized that he can skip that step entirely if all he needs to do is cause some short-term chaos.
I’m sure the fact that Afrasiabi wasn’t fired until 9.0 was well into its development didn’t help things. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but as I understand it, he was the top narrative person as Senior Creative Director at the time of his firing. I’m under the impression that the dev team is not necessarily feeling that they are bound to follow whatever grand plans he had for the expansion, and to be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t blame them for that in the slightest if that’s the case considering the awful things he did to his coworkers, never mind the narrative quality of whatever those plans were. That’s not to say that I find no fault in the quality of the story that we’ve gotten since he left, quite the opposite. I’m just inclined to think that such a sudden and drastic (and desperately needed) change in the top narrative position partway through development is almost certainly a factor in how strange the story flow feels.
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Easy. Just assumed the absolute worst for the Night Elves (Tyrande losing her powers, Sylvanas getting away, Night Elves getting even more tragedy or nothing at all) and I foresaw the entirety of Shadowlands.
The only thing I didn’t foresee was the night elf souls getting tortured and obliterated, back then I didn’t think Blizzard would go that far with their hatred but now I know better.
Eh they have done that before points at Mathais Shaw
I actually think it would be cool to see Sylvanas forgive Arthas. He was just as much a puppet as Sylvanas was. It would be a powerful story moment to see the person Sylvanas hated the most fight the jailer with her, with Arthas wearing the full LK armor of course.
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I forgot that, and it only happens if you do the Ashbringer quest chain.
True and I’m still surprised Detheroc didn’t kill Shaw and wear his corpse/take his appearance like Balnazzar did with the Scarlet Crusade leader.
He is the spy master. Unlike Saidan he would probably have alot of information they would want.
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I think you had to do all three weapon acquisition quests at the time in order to complete the campaign, not sure if you still do now. My Blood Knight is retribution spec, so I would have played through it regardless. I did love that it was specifically Balnazzar that we had to deal with, attempting to reuse the same strategy that he did with Saidan Dathrohan, and that it was the power of the Ashbringer, which has so much history tied up with Balnazzar, that broke us free when we first encountered him.
Agreed. It also seems to me that impersonating Shaw was just Detheroc taking advantage of an opportunity, rather than something he had planned ahead of time. Shaw and Kearnen got captured because they got caught while they were spying on the Legion, not because Detheroc sought Shaw out as a specific target. I suspect Detheroc’s main objective was to interrogate them first, before he quickly realized that by having Shaw as a captive he had an incredible opportunity to take his place. Balnazzar by comparison was lying in wait for whoever came to claim the Ashbringer. Detheroc also had somewhere to put Shaw while he was a prisoner, since the Legion had camps all over the Broken Isles. Balnazzar didn’t have anywhere to keep Dathrohan prisoner when he encountered him, since Balnazzar was just hiding in Scrouge-infested Stratholme by himself, avoiding detection and awaiting an opportunity to get out without raising awareness of his presence. That’s probably why he possessed Dathrohan’s corpse too, rather than just taking his shape; a body left behind might either be discovered by the paladins or raised by the Scourge, and it would have blown Balnazzar’s cover if Dathrohan had shown up as a death knight.
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