So this is admittedly something I’m not really the type to generally care about, because fantasy is fantasy.
But there is a particular quest on PTR that I kind of feel like went under the radar and it’s uncomfortable enough that even I was taken a bit back by it.
Part of the 10.1.5 patch quest lines is side quests to go fix the timeline and do the work of Bronze Dragons.
One of those quests has us go back in time and find the Dragon Soul and give it back to the Dragonmaw orcs because they lost it and Alexstraza would escape.
We go back, find the Soul, and “fix” the timeline. The fix, of course, involving the player character sentencing one of the major female characters to SA and forced breeding by the Orcs.
Which is bad enough.
And then Alexstraza shows up at the end of the quest in modern times, and justifies it. She’s angry, obviously, but the end note of “Yeah, sentencing me to being raped over to give kids was actually a good thing” is just not something I can see Blizzard approving.
Which is bad enough.
Except the quest text from Chromie is presented as a semi-comedic “hehe we shouldn’t tell her about this” type quest.
I cannot see a world where this made it through Blizzard, so I’m just posting here to hope it gets seen and addressed. No harm, no foul. PTR is PTR.
This might be better suited in the PTR forums? I havent a clue about the quest itself, so no opinion here… but the PTR testing forums is a bit more geared towards this sort of stuff before it makes it into the live game.
One one hand- I sympathize with people who don’t want to experience this kind of stuff, as it can be an uncomfortable reminder or just plainly uncomfortable.
On the other hand- Storied worlds like WoW are invested in the first place, because they have bits and pieces of some really dark stuff. Characters behave in ways that make them believable and real, whether for good or for ill, and that helps build the game world.
FF14 had a few quests where you had to kill some pirates that were taking advantage of the local women, they have no problem shying away from that kind of stuff. But the world felt better for it- it felt somewhat realistic. There were good people, and bad ones.
Just keep in mind, these are characters, not real people. You can feel bad for them, but at the end of the day, they (Alexstrazsa) never existed. Feel bad for real people instead.
I WILL say, it’s kinda morbid that it’s Blizzard choosing to implement this quest, given their past lol. Like, that’s a bit too close to the edge, lmao.
We’re mass murderers that have killed millions. This same questline has us murder Amber Kearnen, a beloved Alliance character who just got wordlessly merked off screen in Legion.
It’s all about showing the bad side of timekeeping. I don’t see the issue.
I will say though, I despise the roll of the bronze flight. It really doesn’t make much sense in this much broader scope they’re applying to their job.
They should have only existed to address major tampering by outside forces. Things being able to just become misplaced or screwed up in some way, and it being their job to be the janitors that deal with these innumerable issues, is just stupid and honestly doesn’t make sense. What would even constitute a screw up vs. just causality leading to a new temporary AU? The whole AU system seems to address nonsense like you deal with in this quest, anyway.
Bronze flight’s entire deal is maintaining the sanctity of the timeline, even when atrocities happen. Prevents butterfly effects that would end up destroying the world and all that.
I mean, the Bronze have literally asked us to make sure Medivh didnt die so that the Horde can go on a genocidal crusade. Hell, they are going to make us personal kill Amber.
Its a “good thing” in the sense that it has to happen or we end up unravelling time/likely having Azeroth be destroyed.
This has been in the game since… forever, and only now you’re complaining about it?
It’s a terrible thing, I agree, but would you rather the timeline be screwed up because she wasn’t captured? For example, what if the horde won if she hadn’t been captured?
Knowing old orcs there would have been many, many more examples of raping happening.
the bronze dragonflight are the most hypocritical things in the game
you’d think they’d be neutral and not invested in anything to do with mortals but they superbuffed the nightelves for no real reason
i assume they’re talking about the quest text where chromie makes a cheese joke and after you turn it in, her attitude is sort of lighthearted and jokey about it. it’s not “serious” enough for them
i don’t have any issue with any of it personally. they’re optional side quests to boot, so anyone uncomfortable with it can not do them
Thank you for bringing it up - that’s definitely gotta change. Like…I mean gods. Why on earth would we be made to do that? That’s so…specific. There are so many morally gray things to reference in WoW but that’s sincerely just one of the more horrifying. And aye, lorewise, that would be part of the Bronze dragon’s prime timeline if thats what they’re stickin to - but that just makes me wanna side with the infinite even more.
Even if we had to do it - tone and execution are important. The only person who’s got authority to make light of it in this case is Alexstrasza, and as somebody who’s been through an admittedly toned down version of what she has,
I don’t joke about it. If I could have my Justice, my vengeance, I would. If I could’ve gone back and changed it - I would.
If it’s a case of like - it has to happen because butterfly effect - yeah. But just…gods
People using “What about this quest from years ago?” to defend this are totally missing the point, and aren’t willing to realize just how rotten a lot of the game’s story is.
It’s got a lotta bad chunks. There’s no saving the tree but a new seed could be grown. WoW’s got a lot of potential - it’s why I’m here - but codsarnit if it ain’t absolutely clear the kinda folks who wrote some of this.
This wasn’t a good idea that’s for sure. I’m sure it will either get removed or reworked. I see they wanted to show us time keeping sucks sometimes but this wasn’t it.
