Hello I am Azgosa a blue dragon and scholarly mage. I am looking into inconsistencies in histories and trying to figure out if my siblings in the bronze are responsible or another group or entity all together!
What was the biggest temporal flux from the war between the orcs and human to the return of the dragonflights to their homeland?
Gestures in Shadowlandsā general direction.
Biggest retcon, would probably be Shadowlands, and the Jailer taking credit for everything as far back as Warcraft 2-3. Apparently heās the reason for the Lich King/Scourge, and the Burning Legion, apparently.
Close seconds, Iād say, would be bringing Illidan Stormrage back from the dead (We definitely killed him as a final boss back in The Burning Crusade, in Black Temple) and recycling him for Legion and playable Demon Hunters.
Also, bringing back Gulādan, from an alternate universe, because he was a decent villain, and Blizzard regretted having him killed offscreen in Warcraft 3. WoD was certainly a mistake, as well.
The existence of the jailer and him sticking his sticky fingers in everything is indeed a retcon as he was certainly not in mind when stories were being wrote back in wc3.
Eh thatās not a retcon. Thatād be if blizzard claimed we never killed him. We did kill him. Heās just a demon so he respawned in the twisting nether which is established lore.
Weird story direction but technically none of it is a retcon as it involved an alternate universe version of the past.
Anything involving Nazrathim.
My question to you is, since both Gulādans died in our reality, are there two Gulādan souls in the Shadowlands?
What happens to that alternate timelinesā souls when they die? Do they go to Shadowlands in our universe, or AU Shadowlands? Does Shadowlands span all realities?
See, this is why they shouldnāt have done that, lmfao.
In the beginning, before time, before Tik Tok and Leeroy, there was God, Heaven and Hell in Warcraft.
Now itās holy light, twisting Nether, second breakfasts and fourth deaths (ask Sylvanas)
I donāt recall the details about how this happened lore wise.
And I donāt really care - Illidan was an amazing antihero in Legion. I sometimes go back just to watch his cutscenes, because theyāre all so good.
And omg that theme song.
Basically, after we ākilledā him, I guess in his comatose state, Maiev had him imprisoned in some kind of giant fel soul-stone thingy, in the Vault of the Wardens.
It wasnāt the worst retcon, just a strange one.
Like, she was defined as a character by her hatred of Illidan, it consumed her, and quite obviously she wanted him dead, then for some reason, she kept him alive just in case.
Bruh itās because the hunter is nothing without the hunt, obviously.
Shadowlands can work due to a lack of knowledge of what is going on in the afterlife. Illidan works because we established resurrection as possible in this universe. Basically nothing you listed was a retcon.
If we are talking actual retcons you basically just look at Vanilla. We kill Onyxia. Oh wait nm that was now Varian after getting free. We fight the bosses in Naxxramas in Vanilla. Oh wait no we didnt that actually never happened. Blizzard liked basically undoing all the story of Vanilla as it seems like at the time it was not well thought out.
After that there are some small ones involving minor characters but Vanilla lore is where you find most of the big retcons.
I understand the small retcon bits like Onyxia coming back, thatās moreso for gameplay reasons.
I remember turning in her lvl 80 (instead of lvl 60) head, again, and the quest turn-in guy is like āWTF? You know what, letās just not ask any more questions about this.ā and just gives you your reward.
It was pretty funny.
I just feel like Shadowlands, and lots of the other stuff going forward, requires HUGE suspension of disbelief. Like, more than weāve ever had in the WoW universe before, lol.
Itās leaning way too hard into the fantasy aspect of things, than Iām sure people really wanted, it to be. The mystery of death itself has been reduced to, well, thereās just more worlds when you die. You turn into a blue human and help ferry other souls, itās just kinda weird, and I donāt think people enjoyed it. I thought it was a step too far, personally.
That, or I just wasnāt a fan of any of the afterlives WoW characters go to.
Folks enjoy some semi-realism in their fantasy, a reason for stuff to make some kind of sense.
Draenei/Eredar
In the original lore. The Eredar were powerful demon lords who corrupted the pure titan Sargeras. They had no connection to the Draenei who were a race native to Draenor the orc homeland that got destroyed and became outland. Illidan met and befriended them and helped save them including Akama. Originally these two races has no connection what-so-ever.
Illiden was whiny edgelord who was completely useless in legion.
In the original lore the Draenei were barely a footnote; they were dead and even garona didnāt see the point in discussing them.
verb
verb: retcon; 3rd person present: retcons; past tense: retconned; past participle: retconned; gerund or present participle: retconning; verb: ret-con; 3rd person present: ret-cons; past tense: ret-conned; past participle: ret-conned; gerund or present participle: ret-conning
The Jailer was never a thing before Shadowlands. Therefore, saying heās responsible for everything as far back as Arthas, is indeed a retcon lol.
It also ruins Arthas a bit as a character, because the Jailer was just pulling the strings- same deal with Sylvanas. They didnāt have their own agency, someone more evil was just telling them what to do.
Compared with how we used to view them- as their own respective leaders. Now they are just pawns in a bigger game.
Also, they didnāt remove what happened to Alexstrasza, they just removed the Chromie quest where we went back in time to ensure that thing happened. Weāre no longer going back in time for that particular quest, as it was removed, but the event still happened as before. So, thatās not a true retcon. It never even made it to the live version of the game before being removed, anyway.
Several off the top of my head:
Original High elves of Silvermoon worshipped the moon as well and had Druids. That was later scrapped and made into the Night elf theme.
Illidan was originally based around the idea of power and self-determination. He even accepted Kilājaedanās demands, twice, and sought to do his tasks. Later they made him more of a sacrificial doomsayer. The Modern illidan would have never accepted to do Kilājaedanās dirty work and would have preferred fighting to the death. (Apparently he also never really went crazy at the defeat from Arthasā¦)
The Draenei situation. Gosh what a mess that was. I still donāt understand how Metzen said he completely forget his own entire genesis origin stories andā¦let it happen. Surely there is more to it.
Titans. Titans anything. Elune also. God thatās spiral of messy.
Iād say Meādan. As badly as he was written, he was an extremely prominent / important characterā¦ perhaps the most important in terms of what his purpose and role was. Then he was completely erased from existence. Not a trace of him left.
I mean Iām glad they did it but that was probably the biggest retcon from my perspective.
Outside of everything Shadowlands related, i would say WoD. As that was basically an in-universe retcon.
āNer ner nerrrr, threads in a rope, etc.ā --Steve Danauser, 2020
Or, in other words, the souls combine from all timelines and alternate versions in the Shadowlands. Something that could have been interesting if explored, but was 100% handwaved in the game. Does that mean that timelines where Garrosh was innocent had their dudes combined with Condemned Garrosh and they all got disenchanted for something that only some versions of him had done?
YEP.
Did they obviously forget that some characters that we regularly encounter are actually AU versions, and some of the MU versions did some things, and the AU versions did other things?
ALSO YEP.
Overall, theyād just like us to look over there at that very interesting thing! As they Zoidberg-scuttle off, sidelong, and just not think about it that hard going forward.