I mean … I know I’m talking about the elephant in the room here, but seriously. It feels like ever since the conclusion of Legion (which in my opinion was epic) the lore has felt like a giant spin-off fan fic. In truth, that wouldn’t even be so hard to deal with… except it feels like I’m watching The Wiggles whenever I watch cutscenes now.
What happened…
BFA and a very vindictive Alex Afrasiabi leaving his successor a ridiculously convoluted plot as revenge for being booted from the company. Danuser’s inability to really write with any nuance didn’t help the situation either.
SL to —> DF wasn’t enough of a retcon to really fix the situation either, most of BFA and SL’s plot needs to straight up be revised in-universe for anything to really make sense honestly.
The lore has been cheesy forever.
Legion felt like the last time I was invested in retail’s lore and it didn’t make me roll my eyes at how stupid it was, lol.
BfA was very dumb with the war campaign, and the N’zoth laser event.
Shadowlands, nothing needs to be said.
DF, it was a knee-jerk reaction to cosmic storylines, ended up being very dull by the end.
WoW’s story was never really amazing, but it had good parts in it, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen a story that I’ve really gelled with.
Even with WoD, I was invested.
It’s tragic, honestly. Legion feels like the last canonical arc in my eyes. It’s hard for me to see BFA and beyond as more than just a rabbit hole of filler/fanfiction.
Bear in mind that they have stated in Q&A’s that they also work on story often two or more expansions in advance, so if someone REALLY just wanted to throw a wrench in the narrative they could and it would take just as long if not longer to fix than it took to mess up.
I cant remember a single expansion that I didnt think the main story was cheesy.
So, I guess, ol’ Metzen will have to ask Brett Conn to do his magic on the next expansion, 'eh? 
I wonder what lore they will change in Dragonflight.
It’s not even just the writing, though. I admittedly cringe when I hear the voice acting too. It’s rough.
It has been a fanfic from the beginning of Warcraft’s lore.
With all due respect, it feels analogous to an adult writing a book and then handing it off to their kids (who are just old enough to understand what the Wiggles is) to finish it off with a set of crayons. I mean it’s REALLY bad.
Now if it were me… the Nathrezim are key here. They’re the BIGGEST tie in SL to pre-BFA lore, and the most redeemable. Denathrius fits the bill for the 5D chess mastermind SL’s plot needed to work, and it’d be fairly simple a plot twist to make a cutscene or something of Denathrius escaping the sword and corrupting Pelagos and ZM to take over the Shadowlands while using his Dreadlord connections to reassemble the Legion.
Denathrius is a perfect specimen of a show don’t tell villain because of one simple attribute: CHARISMA. We all knew he was too nice in the Revendreth zone intro… most folks immediately thought: “Yeah this fellow is stroking a white cat with a monocle EVIL”… but because of the charm factor you just sort of played along; you WANTED to see how, not if, he would betray you, and it didn’t disappoint.
A good villain is one you love to hate or hate to love.
I mean. Yeah. That pretty much sums up every expansion story for me.
Sounds like WotLK perfectly, for example.
What If Sylvanas Windrunner Time-Traveled to Wrath of the Lich King?
If it wasn’t for the cheese holding it together the lore would’ve fell apart in vanilla.
Well, in that case, the cheese sure has gotten moldy.
I think this might actually be one of the few times a boss or major WoW character lives up to the cinematic hype…
I have no doubt Metzin intended the World Soul Saga to come after Legion. But after he left and Alex sabotaged the narrative, they just didn’t have any idea what to do. From what we’ve seen of TWW so far, it sure seems like it’s picking up right where Legion left off
Expansions are planned ahead so far, that I dont feel it would be possible to just change things like that.
It feels cheesy when it’s more “serious” too. WoW does not have good writing.
The dialogue from Alex-whatever is pretty damned bad in Dragonflight cutscenes though. Way too drawn out all the time to try and make it more dramatic or something, but doesn’t pull it off well at all.