It’s no secret WoW’s story is kind of all over the place, that’s only to be expected with literally dozens of writers working on it over the years. Naturally, with new writers coming in, time constraints, etc, not everything is going to get a satisfying resolution or explanation.
What were some things cut short that you wanted to see a pay off for?
For me I have two.
In BC, the Belves’ starting zone had as a major factor in our changing allegiance Alliance spies and saboteurs. Ironforge of all places sent an ambassador who was secretly spying and Darnassus for some reason sent a team of spies who were hostile to us and sabotaged an arcane sanctum or two.
It has never once been explained Horde-side why they did this. As far as I am aware it wasn’t even mentioned Alliance-side. Why did the Alliance work to provoke the still recovering Belves? Why did Ironforge of all Alliance states send an ambassador over? Why not Stormwind or Dalaran. What was Darnassus hoping to accomplish?
At the end of Cataclysm Theramore goes down, but prior to that we learn Baine betrayed the Horde to warn them of the attack. Why? I know we all joke/rant about Baine being an Alliance character but this one really never made sense to me. Just a few months prior to this, troops based out of Theramore wiped out a Tauren town and killed most of it’s civilians.
When Baine warned Jaina he didn’t even know about the mana bomb, as far as he knew it was just Garrosh looking to conquer the nearest Alliance threat. Did Baine know something else about the attack? Was there a deeper reason for him not caring about his people’s villages? I really wanted an explanation for that but MoP never adressed it.
Vindicator Saruan on Bloodmyst Isle is a character who was mentioned, but never appeared. It was said he was captured and transformed into a monstrosity by the eredar Sironas, but we never actually saw him. He was recently mentioned again in the Paladin Legiondary, Saruan’s Resolve. With the addition of Eredar Brutes, they could add a conclusion to that storyline.
Also Murozond. I’d like the conclusion of the Infinite Dragonflight plotline to show us how Nozdormu turns to the dark.
I agree with your first point. The Night Elves have been absurdly antagonistic and hostile toward the Blood Elves from the beginning. That’s not really surprising given their history; back in the day Night Elves were portrayed as much more xenophobic and had an extreme anti-magic sentiment; they saw the Blood Elves as the successors of the Highborne and a dangerously magic-addicted race. The dwarf, on the other hand, makes no sense to me. The Humans, Dwarves, and High Elves were allies for centuries. The Elves fought alongside the Alliance in WC3. Sending a spy to sabotage them makes no sense.
As for your second point, I think Baine is just a badly written character. They want him to be this conscientious objector type of character but he comes off as a traitor and enemy sympathizer 90% of the time because he only ever protests the actions taken by his own side.
For me, the plot thread I’d like the see resolved is the Neptulon storyline from Cataclysm. Given the theme of the next patch, that may be coming.
It pretty much already was resolved. We saw him released. I mean, the least I could think would be where Ozumat is, but he was actually cut from the Shaman Class Campaign (he appeared before Neptulon, the Tidelord had mastered the beast). Overall, I’d say the Neptulon plotline from Vashj’ir is concluded, and any plotlines involving him are either new or a “sequel” to that.
Kael’thas had the potential to blossom into an amazing Horde leader, and even be a serious choice for Warchief in the modern day. But instead, we beat him up for a phoenix mount.
It’s not a specific instance, but generally the Draenei had several quest hubs revolving around getting new outposts and settlements up and running as (at the time) they’d only recently arrived on Azeroth.
These were scattered across Azuremyst, Ashenvale, and even one in Pandaria, I believe.
I’d just like them to have more of a presence on Azeroth including an updated city around the Exodar.
IIRC the Exodar is up and running as of Cataclysm, they have just never stated exactly where it is right now. I like to imagine it’s floating up in orbit with the Vindicaar, both unused and abandoned.
It’s not really an “abandoned” plot line, more just something I’d like to see explained and I am sure many would agree, is why exactly the Night Elves joined the Alliance? Like what were the official causes, how did Tyrande come about making the decision, was there an official ceremony or something, all that stuff.
They seemed to have actually cannibalized the Exodar to make the Vindicaar, so the Exodar can’t actually fly anymore, though certainly it looks different lorewise now than it does in game.
On topic, there are too many night elf ones to count, and the main draenei ones have already been mentioned, so I’m going to go with the Council of Three Hammers actually being a thing. It was an interesting concept in Cata that’s been completely unexplored beyond the original introduction. Moira seems to operate with little to no counterweight from the other two reps.
Not to mention her son is also a major plot point as well, just by existing. But again… hasn’t been mentioned much at all.
This is actually something I’ve been wondering about since Vanilla… who even started the process of inducting the Night Elves? I don’t think it’s ever mentioned.
Ironically, from what little we know, Fandral was the one who pushed to bring the nelves into the Alliance. I view him as being very similar to Garrosh in terms of how he was treated, in all honesty. A character that in retrospect was able to bring some internal conflict and nuance to the night elves, but ultimately was villain batted because people loved to hate him.
Even with him as a villain his turn to being evil is one of the more justifiable ones, his son dying in a war that would have been over far more quickly if the Dragonflights and other kaldorei allies had joined the fight sooner, coupled with literal centuries of him resisting, unknowingly, Old God corruption.
Now see I really agree that Fandral had a lot of wasted potential who brought a lot to the table for Night Elf lore… but I am also reeaally getting tired of Nathanos’ snark.