Blue Dragonflight questline needs to be the standard moving forward

Lore Story Forum
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I’m not sure if something entirely similar has been posted here yet, but the Blue Dragonflight questline needs to be the standard for storytelling in WoW moving forward. I am finding it hard to believe that the same team that did the Shadowlands story (pretty bad) and even the Dragonflight leveling story (just OK) is the same team that came up with the Blue Dragonflight questline. Who knew that they were capable of putting together a big, ambitious story that is head and shoulders above whatever they’ve been feeding the playerbase for the last few expansions. Dare I say that this particular questline can lay claim to best in the entire game.

So thank you to the writers who worked on this questline – this must be the benchmark Steve Danuser and his team need to hold themselves to moving forward. The writing is just better, and the story develops in a natural and organic fashion. Kalecgos, for example, was given far more characterization in this story than even when he was being built up as major character in the Sunwell arc.

The lines characters say make sense and give insight to who they are. And the voice acting in this quest chain is unlike any other in the game. Whoever did the voice direction here was able to get the voice actors to talk like real people. Sometimes a lot of the voice acting in WoW seems overly dramatic or too heavy on the pauses which feels very forced. From familiar faces like Senegos and Revilgaz, Azuregos and Kirygosa, to new ones like the shifty Zeros and the guarded Surigosa, the voice actors gave us characters to fall in love with. Tying up loose ends with Lanigosa would not have been as enchanting without the perfection her voice actor brought to the role. Nor would Haleh have come across as so charming had we only been reading text.

For the first time in a long time, this questline allowed Azeroth to become a living world. It reminded us of the unchanging beauty of the Jade Forest, and reassured us that the world is still ever-changing in Theramore. It was the little things – gravestones, bailing out dragons in debt. And it was the big things – a satisfying send-off for Malygos and Sindragosa in a truly epic finale that never felt heavy handed.

This is the way.

16 Likes
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I just played through the questline and giving this post a heart wasn’t enough. This questline is the gold standard as far as I’m concerned.

The grave markers, with some names (and deaths) the player could recognize, and so many more unknown ones whose fates were used to illustrate the extent of Neltharion’s betrayal, the Nexus War, even the battle with the Legion, were great. They gave insight into the blue’s history and struggles by showing rather than telling how terrible it was, in a dramatic but not melodramatic style, with good dialogue and voice acting, and without taking up much time for players who wanted to blitz through the quest.

Similarly, the dialogue presented with the memories of Sindragosa’s and Malygos’ deaths were great. I love that kind of detail about their thoughts, their impressions, their opinions, that for so long has been left only for players to theorize about, and here is given in a succinct and emotional moment.

From the dialogue in multiple places in this questline, and the poetry questline in Camp Antonidas, Sindragosa and Malygos feel like an actual couple - as compared to official couples like Tyrande and Malfurion who never seemed to have an actual spark between them.

Fetching the other blue dragons took the player around the old familiar world, providing snippets of how they have changed in the intervening years, and gave insight into what the blue dragons do - study and undo irresponsible uses of magic, chase rogue wizards (and they were portrayed very well, in my opinion), researching magical anomalies, and a few younger dragons off doing personal stuff.

And I love all the references to previous minor characters. Haleh in Winterspring, Awbee from Blackrock, Zeros from Aszuna - this kind of small-scale continuity really builds the game into a world.

It gives me a lot of hope for future stories - heck, even just future setting ambiance - if they can be written like this. Cultures expressed, a wide variety of characters represented, realistic character roles and portrayals and relationships… I congratulate whatever devs were involved in this questline. It’s wonderful.

I hope that Blizzard does a lot more like this. This is the stuff I play this game for. I’d love to see this level of detail and care be used for the playable races’ cultures.

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I was watching a Bellular video and he made a good point. Blizzard has really stepped their game up with the smaller side content stories.

But remain absolute dog water with their main ones.

This quest line and the Tyr one in randomly found today were great.

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Exactly, well said. The level of detail in this questline is off the charts and the characters do not sound fake.

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This questline felt so good, beginning to end. The Characters and traveling the old world really made the world feel alive. Just like how the cataclysm classic revamp introduced so much more story and lore to the world, quests like this show us the world of Azeroth IS moving forward. It brings the excitement of a new expansion, not just to a new continent and adventure, but to the rest of Azeroth as well. I grew up with WoW and seeing it grow too makes me love the game so much more.
Not much had to change in the zones for these quests to happen is actually great for feeling like its the same zone and not a total revamp. This gives us new the new lore and story in old zones like the cata revamp, without loosing access to what was there before(the bronze dragons who can send you back are okay, but it doesn’t feel the way it did before).

Also Runas and Senegos being the most heartwrenching deaths in wow. runas was the perfect tragic character who was well written and voice acted and it hurt we couldnt save him then we learned how after he died. We did save Senegos back in the day and have visited him on a few quests. We loved him and his family, emmigosa even went on adventures with us as a companion pet. Him passing of old age after he was sure he wasn’t leaving his family alone is so beautiful. its something a lot of people wish they could do, and its something Runas didn’t get to do.

This quest is the perfect example of everything I love in wow. The characters, the worldbuilding, the beauty of the zones, and all the stories happening in the world. This felt like the peak of a role playing game. There are whole games with worse endings than this was and I cant be more proud of the WoW and its team for pulling this on a Side Quest.

Also while I was still busy being sad about Senegos, Kalecgos asks me to help him let Tarecgosa move on, A LEGENDARY I GOT SEVEN YEARS AGO! And then she has the gall to tell me she’s so happy she got to go on all those adventures with me!!!

This questline and its follow up are peak world of warcraft and peak gaming.

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I hope we get to see more from our Blue Dragonflight friends and they aren’t forgotten for 4 expansions after this questline.

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Loved the questline, every character has a distinct relatable personality, felt like a big family reuniting ,the voice acting and the flow of the quests were very smooth.
I have the Tarecgosa Staff and the addendum was very emotional!

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