It’s a hard line to walk, yes, but I think it can be done right.
It’s been a whole expansion since I’ve had to save Tyrande’s butt while she’s nasty and spiteful to me. That’s 1 expansion too long, my friend.
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Why would the forsaken even WANT to associate with Maldraxxus? If they’re meant to resemble the scourge in design and architecture so much, you’d think that would be the one thing in the world they’d want to avoid. That sort of theme is what screwed them over in the first place. I’d imagine most of them would rather flip the bird to the whole zone before wanting to identify with it in any way.
Maldraxxus is where the magic and architecture the Lich King stole came from, but it is not like the Scourge insofar as a vast army of undead mind controlled minions. They are free willed just as the Forsaken are.
As such, it is a representation of how they might be able to organize their culture so that they can function as free willed undead in a world without a singular revered leader dictating their every act. As of right now their culture has basically imploded, and will have to be rebuilt from the ground up as it was… well… a cult of personality around Sylvanas, really.
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To an extent, I must concur. I mean, SL really is kinda moving very far away from most familiar WC themes to go focus on literal random beings we didn’t even know existed. If they weren’t bringing back a few of the dead WC characters, I’d be made to think this was a completely different game. Nothing about SL so far screams “Warcraft”. Just feels kinda out of the blue with a bunch of random new things that have very little connection to the established world and there really isn’t enough stuff tethering it to make SL feel like it’s still within WC universe aside from, like, maybe Maldraxxus with it’s emphasis on Scourge themes.
Idk, man, but I am starting to see some big holes here and I don’t like it.
(Commentary): This seems almost hypocritical of the Forsaken if it’s the view they take. They blame the Alliance and the living for presuming they’re just like the Scourge based on looks alone, but they’d turn around and judge an entire culture and race by the same exact standards? If anything, the Forsaken should be the one race most open to looking at Maldraxxus as not being the Scourge.
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I don’t see how. To me, it’s not about the forsaken blaming anybody. The forsaken were victims of the scourge as well, in the sense that they were warped and mentally press-ganged into being part of it. I would have thought being associated with Maldraxxus would be repellent.
I’m not convinced that Shadowlands is anything more than an NPC recycling expansion.
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This.
BFA was the last nail in the coffin for me when it came to the game’s story. Shadowlands has absolutely nothing of interest for me, and I don’t trust the WoW story team enough anymore to spend money on anything until long after it comes out.
I’ll wait six months and see just how awful the story is before I make a decision to purchase.
Going into various realms of the afterlife is pretty common fantasy fair. They’re established areas in D&D and this has been a trope since at least Greco-Roman myth. So conceptually nothing about this strikes me as outlandish.
Why I am interested is
A. I think we absolutely need a break from the Horde and Alliance narrative
And
B. So far the zones look gorgeous. Bastion didn’t interest me on paper but my tune changed the second I saw the alpha footage. Seriously, every frame’s a painting. I can’t wait to go explore around there.
While I did and will sing praises to BFA’s visual design - none of it was really new. While all the areas had a unique story spin that made them feel fresh the reality is we’ve done haunted swamps, spooky forests, scorched deserts and mountain valleys before.
This is an opportunity to do something real different. Blizzard can create zones that do not have to heed the basic laws of nature. Whatever they imagine is totally fair game and doesn’t have to be believably attached to more mundane parts of Azeroth.
And so far it seems like they’re really doing some strange and gorgeous stuff witn the SL setting so I’m game.
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Pick your poison. It’s either that, ruin existing characters, or develop new ones that are rarely seen again.
To add to this point, we have Jastor Gallywix. Gallywix enslaves his own people escaping an exploding island then immediately tries to kill them and Thrall after that. Thrall then appoints him as the leader of the Cartel without consulting anyone. Gallywix’s trail of suffering and carnage is on Thrall too.
Edit: Responding to the Thrall discussion. The guy sucked at personnel decisions.
I agree with the OP that the premise of this expansion is completely uninteresting to me, and I don’t think it makes any story sense. But I agree with you that once again Blizzard’s art department are the MVPs.
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Feels as much as part of World of Warcraft as any other fantasy genre franchise trying to explore its own cosmology. D&D is no different in this and the Shadowlands has a lot of similarities to the Shadowfell (D&D).
I mean, couple years back I’d’ve told you I had zero interest in quests involving the Loa. Blizz’s previous attempts at deity characters had fell flat for me. I certainly don’t have real fond memories of interactions with Naaru or Titans - they’re all pretty bland.
But Bwomsamdi, Kragwa, Jani - these were my favorite characters in BFA and are just a treat to interact with. So clearly I don’t really know what I want. Memorable experiences with intriguing characters in fascinating environments, I guess, and I don’t really think one concept necessarily works better than another as a vehicle to deliver that.
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I’d rather wait for when it launches first. I don t feel confortable judging something without knowing the final product first
I’m a fan of D&D’s Planescape setting, so the idea of exploring the afterlives isn’t a problem for me, I just hate what was done that led up to it. I’m not uninterested in the potential story before us so much as wary that it can be pulled off given the story behind us.
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I think the entire playerbase would benefit from a story and setting that is largely removed from current Azeroth. We need time to cool off in an area with little personal stakes.
Think of Shadowlands like a time out for us.
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That’s similar to my feelings on the matter. It may not have been a good idea to put so many eggs in the SL basket. Most of BFA was a prologue for it. So now SL has to both do it’s own thing and be the end of most of BFA’s story as well.
I’d certainly want to stretch before I tried to lift that much.
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“hey lets put garrosh on the warchief seat, even when cairne or garrosh himself tell me its not a good idea! what could go wrong?”
Horrible judge of character.
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