I can’t be the only one who thinks it’s odd they already sent Ysera back to the Shadowlands… I was looking forward to her having a story this expansion even if she wasn’t coming back as an aspect.
I mean it just doesn’t make sense on multiple levels. She is on the loading screen, had a pin in the collector’s edition and got two new models (dragon and visage) which do not replace her old model in legacy content (such as Alexstrasza’s does) or even the Tyr silver scale flashback.
They likely heard all the fan feedback about how little sense is made for Ysera’s character (as a being depicted as adherent to the flow of nature even if it requires sacrifice or acceptance on her end) and deprived Merithra from developing very well.
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When they did the whole I can’t be aspect of the dream any more I was hoping they would use it as a way to give her a new role almost like an aspect of death (not the deathwing kind). Sorta in the way that Alexstrasza is empowered with life magic despite being given her powers from the titans. With something like that you would give plenty of room for Merithra to develop while giving Ysera something to do in the expansion. Heck if you go back to Day of the dragon it kinda implied that’s what she was doing back then before the dream got properly defined in lore.
Either way kinda a bummer I hope this is not the last we see of her.
These make it pretty clear to me that they originally intended on Ysera coming back full-time as Aspect. Merithra notably not having these things advertising her or (until only just this patch) a unique model making her look any different from any other green dragons also reinforces the idea. If Merithra was always the plan it would have made more sense to spend those art resources on her first, not Ysera.
(ditto Wrathion as black Aspect instead of Ebyssian, who not only didn’t have art/pin/unique model, but was entirely absent from the launch storyline).
So the theory is they changed their minds and went with Merithra instead, but at that point the cinematic of Ysera’s return was already done so they were stuck with it. Hence why even though she comes back she proceeds to do absolutely nothing at all for the entire expansion.
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They should have just went with Ysera and Wrathion. I legitimately do not care about Merithra as a character and Ebyssian did not deserve that win.
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Yea I’m not to happy about how they did Wrathion either but at least he got a fair amount of exposure over the expansion.
I think their ultimate decisions for Ebonhorn, Wrathion, Sabellian, and Merithra were the correct ones and will give us better stories down the line (especially for the black flight – I think Wrathion has enough resources as a top lieutenant and he’s free from the constraints of Aspecting duty, and having a Tauren-raised Aspect is pretty cool and helps better integrate the Horde with the setting). The questlines altered as a result of that shift suffered a bit from being rushed though, it’s pretty clear.
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Ysera coming back anymore than she did fully violates her core beliefs as a character though. It’s better for her to have an ending than break her main beliefs just to come back.
Robbed Malfurion of a perfect position of relevance in this patch, she did.
But, they sorta off-screened the collection of Azeroth’s Champions so… Oof!
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Ysera was just a contrived excuse to remove Malfurion from the dream patch, possibly because they thought he would be too powerful in the dream or something, but whatever the reason they just wanted to remove him from the thing he would be most tied to. It could be they planned more for Ysera but ended up being too much of a thing where they remove the growth of meridath on her own to make it more about “remeber Ysera!”, they even gave Ysera a new model and mandy barely got updated, so it seems more like a change of course at the last minute rather than something that was properly planned out.
I’m fine with Ebyssian getting the position but not the methods they went through to reach it. Instead of properly propping him up, the Zaralek quests just wrote Sabellian and Wrathion as OOC idiots to make him look better.
I’d also have preferred Ebyssian actually be in the 10.0 questline but thats not quite as egregious since at least he was an existing character.
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No disagreement. I get the rationale people argue about how Wrathion was put on an emotional backfoot, but they went a bit too far.
I hope Malfurion will be back soon.
I’m going to wait and see how stupidly OP Malfurion will be from having spent time in Ardenweald, before concluding that Ysera was dropped due to fan reaction or cut content or anything.
If Malfurion comes back with a significant power boost of some kind or a title like the Prince of Ardenweald or something, then this will feel more like an excuse to give him a power up, moreso than because Ysera was ever considered needed for Dragonflight.
With the aspect passed on to her daughter there literally is no story reason to keep her around It was nothing more than a temporary Hall Pass.
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So that means Malfurion can just come back out through the Emerald Dream now right?
Was I the only one who saw them not acting OOC so much as them being prey for the influence of the Voice beneath the Earth?
Like, the first thing Wrathion says is “do you hear that?” when they get down there, and then suddenly they both start acting weird.
The Peacocking between them makes all the sense in the world if you realize they’re being sweet-nothinged by what they imagine is the voice of their father basically telling them everything they wanted to hear. It wasn’t until they got into the Citadel that they had their “hol up a minute” moment and then Wrathion spotting the eventuakl Viper in their midst.
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I think this as well as Wrathion and Sabellian generally having been on the emotional backfoot to discover that they had rivals at all is probably intended to some degree, but I don’t think it’s executed well in either case.
What I like about Wrathion is that he’s very clever but as often wrong as he is right, it makes his actual successes on the basis of cleverness feel more interesting. But he just… didn’t feel terribly clever at all throughout the chain. It was good to point out that he’s arguably the most compassionate of the three (though Ebonhorn is stiff competition there) but that’s really his only strong point that got highlighted, and again, it’s not a distinguishing competency from Ebonhorn – he may not be as reckless as Wrathion but he’s no coward and he’s not selfish.
Sabellian acquitted himself a little better just by virtue of having more to do; it reads sort of like Wrathion’s part was mostly lifted and given to Ebonhorn.
Some sort of cutscene actually playing up the whispers as more than a general headache would probably have worked. That’s not very subtle, but WoW’s inconsistencies of tone and writing makes subtlety an even riskier approach than it generally is for this genre.
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I know the void whispers were supposed to be the reason but I feel that falls flat when Ebyssian wasn’t shown to be affected by them at all, and it’s not like he wouldn’t have his own insecurities for them to play off of.
Without that, he only existed to chastise the other two for emotions that ultimately weren’t even their own fault.
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So is Wrathion.