I dunno man, him going back in time and stunting on Illidan in the art of magic as a character who had up to that point only existed in Knaack’s books was something that rubbed me wrong. He just felt like an author’s pet character to me, even before the WOTA books too.
I legitimately liked him being turbonuked in Theramore.
Didn’t Vereesa solely exist to be his trophy waifu?
In terms of intent, probably. Though that would be understating her import to Day of the Dragon, and kind of overstating her existence currently outside Knaak’s writing.
Turning into another “emotional traumatized woman committing horrific crimes” doesn’t really help her image in that regard.
Happened after Afrasiabi or Kosak sentenced Rhonin to death so the change in personality is Afrasiabi or Kosak’s idea.
She should be brought to dignity and reason!
Rhonin being a Mary Sue of course means he should not be brought back. Krasus and Anveena on the other hand…
Zul and Korthek should be revived too. This is the Shadowlands Expansion after all so fixing Afrasiabi’s mistakes through the Shadowlands should be Blizzard’s first priority.
This seems like the only way Blizzard knows how to write women lately.
I wonder why.
Those expecting any kind of accountability from the story (like retconning major events or bringing back previously killed off characters) are letting their obsession with the game outpace their grip on reality.
This will be addressed as minimally by Blizzard as possible so as to maintain plausible deniability and to try and keep the cash cow as untainted as possible. They’ll be throwing employees under the bus left right and center, and there will likely be some lip service along the lines of them promising to ‘do better’ but retroactive changes to the game are extremely unlikely.
Now, the better question is, what (if anything) will this change going forward? Even if somehow they are acquitted of all charges, Blizz is going to be walking on eggshells for sometime after this. Will that be reflected in the story telling? Or will they just outsource the work like they did with Warcraft 3 reforged?
The other peculiar element is the way it is also used to then go “but don’t judge them too much!”, where it then becomes “they are simply too emotional to hold accountable for their actions”.
With this, its also a sprinkling of overly defining women by male relationships, which Elves get more issues with because of they are special (exotic but still superficially white) and with the “special magic being” reasons given for their super model beauty.
From your lips to Blizzard’s ears, but I am not as confident. So much of the retconning and other machinations of WoW’s recent lore has been misogynistic, how could they replace it all. (Although the earlier suggestion of old god fever dream has some merit.) Helya is treated like crap by Odin, her stepfather, and it’s Helya that’s the problem? Tyrande, the Nightelves? Sylvanas … well, that’s longer than this post needs to be, but she was dealt a shi.!t hand. (I can’t say "sh!t???)
I would love if Blizzard takes this seriously, fires anyone complicit, and then apologizes and fixes what they can. I will take the first three as something they MUST do, the 4th I can only hope for.
IIRC, the quoted tweet was in response to a question from someone who loved the cinematic asking whether it was her work.
And Calia.
Honestly? A ton of work is required no matter what direction you go into.
Warcraft has become incredibly toxic, for a lot of reasons. That toxicity is reflected in how its audience behaves and treats itself. Whether you take things back or pledge to move forward in a responsible manner, that’s not something that they’ll be able to do overnight, or without significant expense.
This, yes this!
1st: they must extract Sylvanas’s Banshee Queen side from the Ranger General and have Tyrande interrogate her in a way that brings about Sylvanas’s demise while allowing the Ranger General side to heal.
2nd: there must be reports of the Horde sending the heads of 1000(the amount of Night Elves killed in Teldrassil) Troll & Orc Warmongers to Mount Hyjal.
3rd: Odyn must be killed off in an ironic way(preferably being thrown to the mercy of Helya who beats him to death with her tentacles).
4th: Characters we did not want to die should be brought back: Krasus, Anveena, Eranikus, Emperor Korthek and Zul.
Oh Christie? Calia? Well I didnt’ mind Calia until she was put in charge of the Forsaken and then OMG, what a crappy idea.
I’m not ready to condemn a freelance writer who came in from the cold and who really isn’t making that much for story decisions that are made at a higher level than hers.
I also I understand the tweet she made today in which she states her support for the victims and mentions that as an older woman you’re not generally part of the “frat boy” conversations. I can attest to this. I hope that my faith in her is not misplaced.
Even before this incident resolved, I’ve been so fatigued over the factional sniping over WoW classic changes.
Just constant toxicity 24/7 over things that shouldn’t really be major issues. Posters being insanely smug and nasty towards the other faction and getting tons of likes for it.
It’s depressing. It’s not something I’ll miss when my sub lapses
One thing that does seem to be tied to Afrasiabi (by his own admission, in interviews) is that he believed that part of his job was to keep faction tensions high by muddying the waters as much as possible and denying moral clarity as much as possible in terms of faction content (specifically, with Sylvanas)
If he didn’t do any work on Shadowlands then I’m already noticing something that could be construed as an impact of his departure, which is that inter-faction sniping seems to have died down quite a bit as a narrative force. Even in the case of Tyrande, the subject of her vengeance seems to be Sylvanas herself. She snapped at the Horde once at the Frozen Throne but seems to not really care about folks like Thrall and Baine one way or the other.
Also Arthas was right to purge Azeroth of the foul Fra. Saibi products, if you’re looking for an upside.
And ironically their “Alliance war council” in BfA was predominately white humans.
Ironic.
Thank God you aren’t involved in the narrative. My God I thought the current stuff was bad.