Say she came back in Vanilla era wow, with her full powers and her staff Atiesh. Could she solve all the problems the players dealt with from then until BfA, including Legion?
Lets focus on the raids, since i’d argue she could likely easily solo every dungeon ever. Could she deal with everything that ever happened from Zul’Gurub all the way up until recent times like Tomb of Sargeras and onward to Argus?
The problems posed in WoW are skewed, solved by faceless avatars with no set array of skills or ability in lore, and hardly able to be deemed solvable or unsolvable by a single person - especially one who’s dead.
I don’t see how our “avatars” have no set skills or abilities, they are canonically the heads of the order halls, and thus likely have the skills such a leader would poses.
They are and they aren’t. It’s a problem I’ve had for a long while with the idea of our characters having prominence in the lore with no real representation aside what we play in the game.
I personally prefer actual characters taking up the reins when it comes to the story/lore. I know a lot of people disagree with this, but it’s just simply how I feel.
Blizzard seems to push in that direction when it comes specifically with the Orderhalls, as the “secondary orderhall leaders” show up to form Legionfall, and also to drain the powers of the Sword of Sargeras when the artifacts were deactivated.
A lot of the things ‘credited’ to players were done with help, many of the most powerful threats were canonically dealt with not only by a full team of strong champions, but by NPCs as well that are quite powerful, far more so than the players, Order Hall leaders or not. It’s also important to remember that just because a threat was in a later expansion, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s stronger lorewise than a boss in a prior expansion.
All of the threats in Vanilla WoW she could have taken down, yes. The strongest thing we fought in Vanilla, lorewise, was probably the mostly dead C’thun, which Aegwynn at the height of her powers could safely nuke. The mental image of Kel’thuzzad trying to fight her is actually pretty hilarious.
Burning Crusade, again, she’d be able to handle herself. Both Kil’jaeden and Illidan were defeated with outside help/interventions, and Illidan, while powerful, wouldn’t be able to contend with her, neither would any of the other bosses in the prior tiers.
Wrath is a bit trickier. Obviously the first tier would be doable, Malygos is the most powerful boss of that tier and he was defeated with help/intervention from the Red Dragonflight. Yogg was beaten with the help of the Keepers (all of them giving their blessings is probably the canon version, otherwise you wouldn’t need to free them at all). Arthas is an interesting beast, because the champions didn’t actually beat him either, they stood no chance and it was literally divine intervention. At worst, it would play out the same way.
I don’t see any issues with the Cataclysm era bosses being defeatable by her, only Deathwing is the real massive threat, and we had help taking him down as well. Arguably that’s the fight where the champions did the least to actually save the day.
All of MoP wouldn’t be an issue. Thunder King would be the toughest fight but she’d be able to take him down.
WoD is interesting because the standout fight is… Archimonde, at the end. It would be a tough battle, but given what we know of the Guardians, as well as Aegwynn’s experience and power at her prime, she’d win.
Getting to Legion, all of the final battles/boss fights we have help, and thus so would she. Gul’dan we have the Eye and Khadgar’s help, plus Aegwynn would be able to beat Gul’dan normally anyway. Avatar of Sargeras is a husk and not nearly at full power, beatable. Kil’jaeden is a tough fight, but isn’t fought alone either. And Argus is fought with the help of literal gods.
BfA’s threats also all have outside help and interventions, though we can probably discount Siege of Dazar’alor, as I doubt she’d participate. And if she did, it would be a cakewalk for her. Azshara would be an interesting fight, but with Aegwynn, Lore’themar, Thalyssra, and Jaina all together? It would be a win. 8.3 raids would probably play out the same, though Aegwynn would probably gank Azshara after freeing her.
So yeah, things would play out the same, she could do it all. Medivh basically nuked a massive army of trolls to the point of breaking the power of their tribes… by accident. Aegwynn with centuries of experience is beyond even most lore characters we know now.
Except that doesn’t really quantify much. Sure, they’re the leader of the Order Hall, but past that you’re not given much canonical info. How powerful is that leader in terms of a lore scale? Was there just one of them? What did those leaders canonically do - certainly, everything in game wasn’t accomplished by just ONE character.
Even when you factor in their leadership, all that does is tell us where they stand amidst others of their class. That doesn’t tell us anything about how powerful they are, or how they would match up to Aegwynn or any other character.
I would say the Sha of Pride would be a tough battle. Even with Norushen “cleansing” us before the fight, we could still be corrupted by our pride. And Aegwynn’s pride was strong.
I mostly agree, except the WoD Archimonde fight, without much outside help, Aegwynn might struggle on that one, I mean Archimonde did one shot Dalaran, a city full of mages and archmages, back in WC3.
Yeah that one time he uses his weird voodoo sand-doll magic and never does anything similar ever again.
Strong mojo like that probably has a very, very long cooldown.
You mean he destroyed Dalaran after the majority of the inhabitants were either slain or evacuated by the Scourge forward troops. That is neither a one-shot, nor was it a city full of mages and archmages anymore.
There is no evidence of that, during the WC3 mission, Arthas is defending the altar Kel’Thuzad is trying to summon Archimonde from, and its not inside the city, which means the Kirin tor pushed him back, the city was neither taken, nor scoured of inhabitants and defenders. When Arthas broke into the city and killed Antonidas, it seems like it was more of a assassination mission rather than the occupation of the city.
Well, not quite. He went in there for the Book of Medivh which was required for the ritual of summoning Archimonde. it wasn’t some assassination mission, but an actual siege that had the entire city defending against, aside from those that fled.
A false assumption. The ritual required Kel’Thuzad’s focus on summoning Archimonde. They couldn’t do that while still under attack so they picked a more secure location. Arthas wasn’t in Dalaran to conquer the city, but to summon Archimonde.
I understand that Arthas and Kel’Thuzad needed the book of Medivh, when I say assassination mission, I mean they were just there to get the book and get out, clearly the entire city was neither occupied nor cleared of inhabitants like Grandpaladin claimed it was, as we see the Kirin tor still having bases and troops inside the city, launching attacks against where Arthas and Kel’Thuzad were.
And what happened to all those people, Rivendel?
They died. To the Scourge. In WC3.
Which is what I told you.
Look, I get it, anything to discredit the human kingdoms to sate your unquenchable hungering elf fetish, but you can’t pick and choose what happens.
The last scourge mission ends with Arthas barely defending that Altar where the summoning is taking place, meanwhile the Kirin tor have still functioning bases inside the city, launching attacks on Arthas.
The city was still inhabited and guarded when Archimonde destroyed it, which is probably why he destroyed it, if the city was empty, he would have just left, the legion was there to kill people, not tear down empty buildings.
And I dont even see how this “discredits human kingdoms” as Dalaran was neither a kingdom, nor solely human in composition. Furthermore, id argue it taking Archimonde to take down the city is a better position than your claim that they call got killed by Arthas, who is far weaker than a demon lord.
So then all of that would prove that, in effect, the attack was not a “one shot,” no?
You’ve made my point for me.
Archimonde destroyed Dalaran in one motion, ergo a one shot. Arthas going in there and killing Dalarani people didnt make it any easier, Archimonde would have brought the city down no matter how many inhabitants are in there.
Psst. being a contrarian is so 2016.
I seem to remember a lot of dwarven units during that mission, tanks, gryphon riders. So I guess the full might of the Wild Hammer and Ironforge Dwarves showed up too.
You have to be able to separate a mission being hard, because it’s the last mission, from the narrative. Dalaran was desperately throwing everything they had left in a futile effort to spot the summoning, which they fail to do.
Personally, I like how Final Fantasy 14 handles this. Your character is the Warrior of Light and has a basic personality (that of a somewhat basic and classical hero: You help out the weak, you fight for good, you love adventuring etc.). It’s basic, yes, but it works and integrates your character into the story as you form friendships with other lore-characters, all the while said characters ask about your opinion in certain matters. (That can be anything: From combat tactics all the way up to personal matters.)
Meaning the character you play in FF14 is an integral part of the story. Without you several evils could have not been defeated as “easily”. You are not just a walking camera: You are an actual character within the story of the game. (Even other players are acknowledged as they are essentially friends, companions or simply fellow adventures of your character.)
In WoW this is not the case. We are a walking camera. We are just there to watch certain events unfolding. Darkshore being a prime example in BfA. Our presence there did not matter at all.
Funnily, enough there were a few moments in WoW where you felt like you were a part of the world. One being in Classic, after clearing the Deadmines, and Gyran shouting through the zone, the other ones being in Legion in the Paladin-storyline. Once when you pick up the Ashbringer and you are able to break free from the mind control, the other moment being then you knight Delas Moonfang. In that moment you important in the world. You are the one granting her the title of Knight of the Silver Hand.