Sorry if this thread has been already made, but as someone who quit the game for a little bit, then came back, one thing really jumped out at me: bad prose/bad writing.
I don’t mean the overall direction of the story (that’s a well trodden topic), but the actual writing itself. It is very poorly written - unrealistic, hammy, laughable.
WoW’s never been high brow, but at least the dialog has been memorable, charming and on the rare occasion, poignant. At its worst, it’s been infuriating, melodramatic and grating, such as “Hush Tyrande”. But even in the bad examples, prior to BFA, one can always make a case for the situation (Malfurion is a jerk).
But in the Darkshore scenerio and WF, however, it just yanks me right out of the story. The way Nathanos addresses Tyrande is not how an enemy general would address their opponent. It is more akin to schoolyard behavior.
I don’t even wanna touch the “For The Hordes”, “Crush Bashal Aran” etc of the undead wardens.
What do you guys feel about this issue?
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Honestly, the line writing seems to have stepped up a bit. Most of the BfA stuff is a cut above legion, which was literally just deep-voice men grumbling “FOOLISH MORTALS” over and over and over.
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I feel like Activision fired all the highly paid competent people, and let interns who spend their free time posting slash fiction on Tumblr write BFA.
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Don’t you think that was appropriate for the content though? Only the demons behaved that way. You had Nightborn, Vallajar, night elves, Feltotem, etc who weren’t that way.
Nathanos does seem like a Coldsteelesque character.
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It’s appropriate for Nathanos, he’s a snarky disrespectful bastard 100% of the time he’s not talking to his waifu.
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That would explain it. It just felt so… Forced. When you had Sylvanas and Varian trash talking each other at the Broken Front, it felt natural. I’m not sure why, tbh.
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the bad writing has been heavy in bfa, but in the horde side feels like they are purposely trying to ruin the entire horde and their characters.
i feel like the pinnacle of that is the darkshore stuff,all of it.
the tyrande/nathanos confrontation even empowered by 2 valykrs is stupid as hell “haha queen of the tree elves”
“i failed to protect my people but i will avenge them” (sounds like a line from avengers the movie)
fails again*
not even speaking of sira… just… uhg.
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Nathanos is an edgelord who’s trying too hard. Probably trying to compensate for not being an elf.
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That line specifically confirmed that I needed to inquire about it tbh. It was just so grating.
More likely trying to compensate for his height.
Delaryn:"we have nothing left, we are forsakens ¯ \ _(ツ) _/¯ "
sira: "we have our reasons but now is not important ¯ \ _(ツ) _/¯ "
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I avoided 8.1 details as much as I could until release but I knew of the “reasons” line so J expected it. Still didn’t take away from how bad it was though. Ugh.
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Honestly it’s pretty much always been like this.
Really, though, the writing isn’t as bad as everyone claims it to be. You have people surfing these forums 24/7 just to get a post out and their opinion brought forth. These people are the ones you see complaining about it profusely. Yet, they seem to be the ones that are most interested in the story… hmmm.
You mean…the people who care about the story are the ones who care when the story is badly written? SHOCKING.
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If you don’t necessarily like it you are free to quit at your leisure, or you can sit here and complain 24/7 and pretend that the writers are reading what you’re saying.
Anyway, some of what is said can be relevant to all expansions.
I’m not a fan of it, to put it simply and straight forward.
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I agree. I am a fan of the themes so far, but the actual word usage is a bit clumsy.
I mean, that’s ok. It just seems either rushed, unedited, or rooted in some other “frenzy” I can only imagine.
As I said, I am enjoying the storylines so far. Darkshore is fun and Sira is charming.
But when Maiev tells Sira: “You are a Warden no longer.” I can’t help but think:
Her name is still Sira Moonwarden.
They could have changed her name to Sira Moonblighter or Sira Groveburner. Undead often change their names - or not have Maiev say that line at all.
It irked me.