I don’t understand your question. It’s worded oddly.
Good, it’ll make you think more.
There’s great umbrage to be taken with those quests as well (and again, I have said in the past that the Bronze Dragonflight are not our friends). Blizzard has a horrible track record of confusing outright villainy for ‘hard heroic work’. There needed to be a lot more groundwork laid by the Bronze Dragonflight beyond the ‘trust me bro’ they ultimately settled on.
In regards to the Dark Portal, the orcs were on the verge of dying. There was no food, no means of survival, and the very land was crumbling into nether and void. Without the portal, the Orcs go extinct. Preventing the extinction of a sapient race, even at such a horrifying cost, is still a heroic act. The orcs were victims of corruption and desperation, and we needed to make sure they had their chance to grow and change.
With regard to the Culling, Stratholme was beyond help. The Scourge’s damage was done, and infestation was everywhere. There’s a legitimate cause to argue that Arthas was doing the right thing while Uther wallowed in despair and inaction. Bringing those people out of the city would only spread the sickness. Quarantine would doom them to undeath, a fate worse than death. So swift execution was honestly the best option on the table.
Alexstraza’s fate does not notably ‘change’ the character Alexstraza, nor the world at large outside of introducing an Infinite paradox at that point in the timeline, the effects of it being anomalous and ill-understood. All it does is inflict more suffering on a character that had already seen quite a deal of pain. It doesn’t save a people from starvation, it doesn’t grant a mercy from an unlife of hell, all it does is force an (as far as we can discern) innocent creature to suffer.
The best way to write this quest is to obfuscate it. The NPC tells the PC that ‘the Infinites have started a timeline anomaly and we need to find out where the source is’. They don’t inform the PC of what the source is, nor the event that transpires from it, because both of those are known. All the PC needs to know is they need to find the location of the anomaly, in this case the Dragon Soul. Upon finding it, the PC could be offered a choice by the Bronze, either choosing to comply with their orders and surrender it to the Dragonmaw, or resist, get za warudo’d, and the Dragon Soul is taken from them and given to the Dragonmaw. Both options result in the same end, the timeline being repaired, but at least you’re not forced into actively complying with this act.
2 Likes
I can’t think about something that is worded in such a way that it’s unintelligible.
If you’d like to reword it or explain, I’d appreciate it.
1 Like
remember the game spec ops the line with that one mission
no matter how hard you try do it ammo you have to use white phosphorus
no matter what we do that type of power is out of our hands
If you mean that if Alex wasn’t captured and forced it wouldn’t make a difference… you are absolutely wrong. What happened to her and to the Orcs in that part of history absolutely shaped the red of history in a very poignant way.
This give a good question,we were told be with the Horde by what medivh said,How did he know this unless he went through time. The same affect Maligos happen to him, you can see this relationship.Something in the timeline affected all of them.
It’s not so much that the quest happened in the first place, it’s the attitude about it from Chromie and the fact that of all the things we need to ensure happens, why this? There are tons of other things blizzard could have gone with that don’t make the player complicit in SA. They could also have Chromie treat it with more care instead of having her talk about the timeline being like cheese. tasty and full of holes. What even is with that comment?
Also those of you who have dealt with SA in your life who aren’t upset by this, that’s great for you, but it doesn’t overrule those who have dealt with SA who aren’t at all fine with this. You don’t speak for all survivors and they aren’t obligated to be fine with it just because you are.
7 Likes
It gave the Orcs dragons and a means to answer the Alliance’s Gryphons. Hell, without Alex, they still have Deathwing for dragons.
This is literally ‘lets make this character needlessly suffer’ and somehow calling it heroism. We may not see the act or do the act, but the act doesn’t happen without us handing what the Dragonmaw need over. And given that we’re informed of what happens should the Dragonmaw get the Dragon Soul, that means we know full well what comes next after we hand that artifact over.
Anomalous and ill-understood. That’s one way of putting it. So, say Alexstrasza escaped earlier. What happens? Oh, Deathwing manages to capture her instead, worse ending achieved.
The suffering happened in the past, the Infinite dragonflight meddling would have lessened the immediate suffering that was ongoing by the hands of the orcs but may have ultimately lead to her doom and even more suffering.
did players forgot
or this npc was not worth it only main NPC are worth the saving the timeline
Then the best (and most interesting) way to handle that is to show us that future. Make it a questline that takes us into the broken timeline, like we experienced with Azmerloth.
Show us the repercussions of an Infinite paradox, and have Alexstraza grant us the OK to set the timeline right again.
3 Likes
No one called it heroism, but it shaped Orc history, it shaped the entire Red Dragonflight, it shaped the entire faction divide.
I’m pretty sure showing us Alexstrasza in a Sinestra half-melted state would cause far more emotional damage than passing the golden M&M off to bad guys. The Bronze usually infer that even though the Infinite’s actions appear morally right on the surface, the end result is nothing good at all, you know, good intentions but poor execution.
Alexstrasza already approves of the importance of setting things right, to experience the horrible alternate future to prove the point would likely be the worst-case scenario.
I would say,if we had permission from Alexstrasza for this undertaking I would but to just drop in a timeline because Chromie say we should doesn’t seem right and respectful.
1 Like
It shaped Orc history for the worse, and it savaged the Red Dragonflight. The faction divide was still well and alive at that point however. Her escaping doesn’t impact the world aside from limiting the amount of dragons the Old Horde would have to spit at the Alliance.
Again, the only ‘threat’ to the world here is an Infinite Paradox, and the timeline’s survived plenty of those already. We don’t even know what one of those would look like outside of the Bronze shouting ‘it’d be really bad tho’.
Why would an escaped Alexstrasza look like Sinestra? The entire point is the Dragonmaw wouldn’t have the means to keep her captive. Again, the only danger from this paradox is the paradox. Plus, we only have to locate the thing, the Bronzes are more than capable of forcing us to surrender it, which is another way to resolve the problem. At least then we wouldn’t have been willing in imprisoning and torturing Alexstrasza.
2 Likes
The timing of her escape was important. It was an opportune moment that she was able to escape in the first place in the original timeline, if she managed to escape before Deathwing attacked, Deathwing would have likely been able to capture her easier. If Deathwing had his way, she would have ended up like Sinestra.
Short-sightedness to consequence is the major flaw of the Infinite dragonflight. Players knowing what’s best in a timeline if they could undo a wrongdoing proves that a lot of players share that same flaw if you present a potentially complicated scenario.
1 Like
Hmm ,that’s a different take.
Which, again, could be shown in the alternate timeline created by the paradox. Which could then serve as justification to comply with the Bronze at Alexstrasza’s urging.
Just tossing the Dragonmaw the means to restrain an innocent being and making her into a broodmare slave with no inquiry or fanfare, and then joking about it behind said being’s back…
1 Like
People also read fiction for fun.
Things like Dead Space: Martyr, A Song of Ice and Fire, The Eternal Champion, and so on, wherein characters justify violent insanity, perform horrific violations of personal bodily autonomy, have to murder those they love, and are forced by fate to experience spiritual cuckoldry.
Fun is entirely subjective. And before you say it, no, that isn’t in any way, shape or form me saying that what we abet through the quest is fun; the fun is not there, it is in seeing how the characters handle it, grow and move on. To presume otherwise of me is to admit bad faith.
5 Likes