violet hold 
Just read the spoilers for the “great” sacrifice. God, just let them both stay in Ardenweald. Ysera could incarnate into a nelf and be the new mary-sue leader. Let her daughter be the dragon leader.
Gosh, this and #6 are the greatest insults imo. The Gilneas flag was cool. You can chalk most worgen losses to Blizzard having limited time/resources/creativity but it takes an active choice to make the worgen flag a Stormwind flag. Like someone told an artist to make that their new flag, it wasn’t just some placeholder thing.
And, of course, the heritage quest line is a complete disaster to the identity of the whole race. If someone wants to be a human they’ll roll a human. People play worgen to be feral werewolf murder dogs. How hard is it to embrace that and have it become a fundamental part of Gilnean culture? Imagine Gilneas becoming the occult nation, with haunted forests, ritual worgen conversion, witches, and stuff like that. Much better way to give them a new identity than assimilating them with Stormwind.
Of course, the best set of actions is to get them their own home, which brings me to another thing…
Ysera should not just get to come back. It’s hollow, and sacrificing Malfurion doesn’t feel like it’s “earning” her return, it just feels like the writers knew people wanted her return to be “earned” so they arbitrarily killed off someone from the expendable race they weren’t worried they’d want to write about later and called it a “sacrifice”.
So, like, here’s the thing. I don’t much care about Malfurion. His story has been kind of stagnant ever since probably Legion. In fact Legion toyed with the idea of killing him then and there. So Malfurion making a sacrifice and being killed off wouldn’t be the end of the world. It’s the unceremonious way he’s just dropped off like a kid at daycare in exchange for Ysera walking out. That is not how you end the story of the first mortal druid, leader of the Cenarion Circle, and co-leader of the Kaldorei.
His sacrifice needs to be more than just giving us big green dragon momma back. It should reflect his entire life and values. Also it feels like a massive waste to build Merithra up as the next green aspect only to have Ysera come back and steal her thunder. So, my alternative story beat goes like this:
Ysera is forever bound to Ardenweald, Persephone style. Yet there is provided a way to work around that. Remember that seed empowered by both the Winter Queen and Elune? Know that big empty bay in the Dragon Isles people keep saying they’ll plant a new world tree at?
The seed is a manifestation of the Dream and the Weald. It serves as a unique connecting point between birth, death, and rebirth. The world tree that grows from it will allow Ysera to step into the mortal plane, but only within the confines of the world tree. But what power in the world could make such a seed grow? It is neither alive nor dead. That’s where Malfurion’s sacrifice comes in.
He gives his all to the seed. He becomes the world tree itself. And from his sacrifice, he allows Ysera to enter the world, limited as it may be, to guide Merithra as she takes the reins and manages the safety of the Emerald Dream. Malfurion’s sacrifice, however, is not just for the dragons, or even the balance of nature itself. Who better to dwell on this sacred world tree and protect the balance of nature it represents than the Kaldorei?
Malfurion’s sacrifice makes for them a promised land. Alongside their ancient friends, the dragons, and under the blessed light of Elune the world tree glows with, the night elves finally have a new home to rest and heal within. I believe that honors the sacrifices they’ve endured for the last few expansions, and makes Malfurion’s sacrifice feel more ultimate. Plus with such a conclusive end, the night elves can finally take a back seat in the story for a while. Which they need. They’re my favorite race and even I am tired of them.
And if it’s too much work to do a whole world tree zone for 10.0 then they can make a 2D tree with an invisible wall around it so people can’t fly up to it then add it in another patch. Or save this storyline for another patch entirely.
Bam. Night elves can finally catch a break, night elf fatigue is addressed, and Ysera’s death+Merithra’s rise isn’t tarnished. Oh and death doesn’t feel as cheap.
Imagine if Malfurion just flies to Oribos and walks out the portal into Stormwind. What a hilarious disaster death is now.
8 Likes
Yep. I loved the Gilnean flag it looks so freaking cool. So for Blizzard to just go, “Well Genn is licking Anduin’s boots already and they are homeless in Stormwind we might as well just give them a Stormwind flag with darker colors because they are part of Stormwind now.” Is just a kick in the face and very disheartening.
Then they double down on beating up Worgen with the Heritage Quest. As you said, if I wanted to play a Human I would have rolled a Human. I want to play a Worgen, the fact that they are from Gilneas is just a bonus because I their culture and overall aesthetic way more than Stormwind.
“How hard is it to embrace that and have it become a fundamental part of Gilnean culture? Imagine Gilneas becoming the occult nation, with haunted forests, ritual worgen conversion, witches, and stuff like that. Much better way to give them a new identity than assimilating them with Stormwind.”
I love this part because this is EXACTLY what I have wanted Gilneans to be since they were introduced. That’s what they SHOULD have been. Monsters who have “tamed” their curse and use it to hunt other monsters. But nah, Blizzard said “LOLOLOLOLOL we are gonna give that motif to the Kul Tirans with Drustvar. Go back to living in the streets you filthy worgen pests.”
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It’s just begging for them to do a San’layn vs worgen plotline. That’d be lit. Imagine Gilneans show up to Gilneas and some San’layn have already moved in and started cursing the land, causing all sorts of monsters to spring up. So Gilneas becomes a sort of Witcher land with Gilneans/worgen hunting monsters to keep people safe, while occasionally springing to kill a San’layn which are like the elite monsters of the zone and a big deal when they’re killed.
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If only blizz would get rid of their writing staff and hire us instead. sigh Imagine how great the game story would be with writers who aren’t fixated on keeping favourite-of-the-year lore character around.
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That would be awesome! It would really play on that Werewolf vs Vampire theme. I love this idea and would be 100% down for it.
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I agree with everything you wrote up until this. In another version of the game, perhaps I would like this, but not in the story and game that WoW has set up. I think that, while it fixes most problems with the Malfurion scenario, it also reinforces some of the current problems with the night elves:
- It reinforces the druids=night elves and night elves=druids theme, by having the new incarnation and holy site of nature be a) created by a night elf and b) become the new home/purpose of the night elf people. Either non-elf druidic themes would be excluded, or night elf themes would be reduced in their own allegedly ‘home’ territory - not fun for either party involved.
- It overwrites the Green Dragonflight homeland with night elves and Elune - this is the green dragons’ story, their territory, their expansion. I’d like Malfurion and druids (and some non-druid night elves, too) to be involved in the story, certainly, but I don’t want them to be so important that the green dragon story gets subsumed by the night elf story.
I love the Persephone reference for how to treat Ysera’s Ardenweald connection, and I’d rather lean into that. Perhaps Malfurion and some other druids (and include some non-night elf druids, too!) choose to enter the Emerald Dream to both grow the seed and to allow Ysera to manifest outside of Ardenweald during spring/summer - it’s still a sacrifice, but not a permanent one, and it’s one that the other druids could be part of instead of just making it a night elf-centric plot (where the night elves bear the sole loss and thus also the sole credit for bringing back Ysera).
Edit: This last comment is at Blizzard and the current datamined plotline, not at your theory. I just realized it could be read that way.
And I dunno, but it feels pretty cheap to me to have the previous night elf plotline teach the moral “you should stop pursuing destruction and look to renewal instead”, only for it to immediately lead into a plotline of “but before you can get any renewal, you have to allow us to destroy you a bit more”. It’s just tone-deaf.
7 Likes
Oh no Malfurion.
Anyway, did anyone see the cosmetic hats you can get from the Tuskarr!!
I love them! I know I’ll be putting effort into becoming BFFs with the Tuskarr!
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Leave us out of it
paging Norman
the shoulder pads with the spikes on them are good 
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ayo! cosmetic hats!
I’ve been digging through DF database for both cosmetic and armor-specific items, not seeing much yet but will keep an eye on it. Found these though:
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Love this. Love everything about it.
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just noticed the “stocking caps” make the model bald and also take their ears.
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Honestly I agree with what you’re saying as well. Blizzard has the bad habit of reducing and Flanderizing races down to certain basic traits (see the worgen discussion for instance). And this has been one I’ve thought about with the night elves too. They stopped being a race with wings of society that work to form a nation and just became druids. Even the priestesses of Elune.
Elune too. I hate that the new lore made her a nature goddess. I always saw her as a divine being of light (not necessarily Light with a capital L) that represented balance, in the way that the moon and ocean spirits in the Last Airbender represented balance: a stabilizing force to the world. Which does have nature ties, of course, but it’s not just trees and flowers like what the First One lore is beginning to push her towards.
Of course, I hate the idea that every divine/godly being must fall directly under one Harry Potter house within the cosmic chart but that’s another rant. I like leaning further into Persephone themes as well and I wouldn’t mind seeing that be a replacement to the current thing.
That said, I feel like the night elves need something strong to finish with that defines where their society will land. Especially if Malfurion is getting axed this expansion. We’re told they went home to Hyjal, but we were told they won Darkshore too and none of that means crap if we can’t see it reflected in the game. Growing a new Teldrassil to live in fits the Blizzard standard of only caring about something if it relates to their shiny new eplxpansion. Plus imagine what modern WoW artists/technology could do to make a world tree zone 
Happy to see this accomplished in other forms, though. Like perhaps… World revamp? 
But who are we kidding. They don’t rewrite or revise. What we see from alpha is what we get in release, and writing seems to be their exception to “trying to listen to feedback”.
All we can do is take shelter in our headcanons and fascinating "what-if"s as we RP and try to weather this next storm. Or not. All this mediocre writing is getting so exhausting.
7 Likes
Blizz has proven one thing over the years, that “tonedeaf” is their hallmark.
Honestly, if there was a game that was as good mechanically as this one, I’d drop wow so fast their bank account would hear my money leaving. 
There’s been many games that were leagues better story-wise, but fell flat mechanically for one reason or another, or they got sidetracked by a 
cash shop infestation (like ESO).
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tuskar stuff looks alright but seeing the new sets reminded me how… little modeling armor-sets changed over the years, still the same painted over stuff since cata with some other expansions adding doo-dads on things, including pieced of armor that HAVE to match the tops they came from since it completes the cut-off portion of a shirt or vest or whatever which makes me wonder- ‘Why they don’t just have that piece apart of the top?’
Like some masking job with pieces of armor so the bottom part shows properly over the pants portion. idk, not too sure of the logistics of making it happen but id love to hear the reasoning’s over why its so doofy.
5 Likes
I’m glad I am not the only one who is bothered by this. they did this with the Gilnean heritage armor and the leather armor in the Castle Nathria raid. Where the bottom of the coat is tied to the pants armor… why? Why can’t they just attach it to the top piece so we can wear any pants option we want?
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They did that a lot in BFA too and it’s really annoying.
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You may think you know what pants you want to wear, but you don’t.
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