What Villains/Themes Do You Think Could Have Carried An Entire Expansion?

Community General Discussion
1

Farming MOP Remix World Bosses & bored during the wait, so I’d like to hear peoples thoughts.

Which villains, themes or continents do you think could have carried an entire expansion?
For me personally, I’ll say:

Emerald Dream:
Personally, I am a little annoyed that the Emerald Dream was so heavily underutilized and more or less wrapped up in Legion. I have always felt like that could have been its own expansion.

I know the common line is that “Verdant Green forests are kind of boring, and don’t give enough zone diversity!” However, I don’t agree with this criticism and I don’t even think it applies here.

Ultimately, I think expansions which deliver “zone diversity” to such a degree that they feel like a mismatched theme park (Cata, Legion) feel weak, I think organic continents with natural zone flow are more enjoyable (Northrend). Speaking of Northrend, plenty of people assumed that would be all snow and ice; however, it still had plenty of zone diversity.

I think the Emerald Dream could have been handled similarly. Two or three variations of lush forests, a Nightmare-corrupted zone for the Rift of Aln, a Drustvar-esque zone given Thros’ connection to the Emerald Dream (Which could have had some great Over the Garden Wall tie-ins), etc.

Azshara

Honestly, I never bought into the hype too much around Azshara & South Seas expansions, because I primarily viewed those as a given. Now that the dust has cleared, I am a little shocked that they chose not to have Azshara lead an expansion. She’s a memorable villain, Naga are thematically distinct, & despite the controversy over Underwater Zones (deserved, I hated Vashj’ir), there were plenty of ideas to work around that. Blizzard ended up going that route, Golden Yak from MMO-Champion (notable person in the fan expansion idea community) proposed Azshara raising Nazjatar from the ocean, etc.

I think an expansion featuring Azshara as its main villain, with a dash of pirate themes and fighting Sea Monsters would have been very fun & memorable.

Other notable contenders that I think could have carried an expansion, but am not hyped enough to write anything for:
-N’zoth & a physical Ny’alotha
-Zul & the Zandalari rebels.
-Non-Azshara South Seas expansion (Pirates, Tel’Abim, Plunder Isle, Possibly Kezan)
-The Old “What’s under Tirisfal??” storyline that was resolved in Legion, with the option for a better Sylvanas villain arc.
-Shattered Remains of K’aresh + Ethereals (Not into this idea at all, but I think it could have worked)

What about you? Any thoughts before we hop into the World Soul trilogy of storylines, themes or villains who could have had an entire expansion dedicated to them?

2

I feel like Shadowlands missed a massive opportunity to bring back our previous galleries of rogues and unite them together against us the champions of Azeroth specifically.

3

Of all the bizarre storytelling decisions that went into Shadowlands, bringing back less than a dozen familiar names and faces for an entire expansion set in the Warcraft afterlife is one of the most stunning.

4

Putting Demon Hunters back in jail!

I would pay double the money for half the Raid Tiers just to see that happen :smiley:

5

The fact that the Black Empire wasn’t a full expansion was a tragedy.

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6

Denathrius was incredibly well written and one of the best parts of shadowlands. He should’ve been the main antoganist and Zaval or w/e his name shouldn’t have existed at all or revealed to just be a red herring/scape goat.

7

You forgot Argus.

8

I used to think the Emerald Dream would make a great expansion, but now I mostly agree with the “too much green” idea.

I do not think that story is resolved, however. And Dragonflight has proven that new stories that include the Dream as well.

I would like to see an Argus style multi-subzone version of the Emerald Dream used in the future. I think that’s the ideal version. There are some key points of interest in the Dream that are not explored.

Thankfully, I think Azshara and the Black Empire are still in the table as well. That’s the big “what could have been?” I think was a miss.

And it’s cheating to say this now, but Quel’thalas and Zul’Aman could totally carry a whole expansion. I’m excited they get a real shot at it.

9

The Iron Horde.

10

I feel like one theme for a whole expansion is expecting a bit too much of that theme. I much prefer when there are like 5 main things going on that are tied together in a cool way (which is why I loved Legion storyline).

11

Shadowlands? What Shadowlands?

That was a fever dream, never existed.

12

The problem with the emerald dream is that it having life in it is already a retcon.

It is or was a titan contruction that was the world before aninals inhabited it. I think now its tied to the shadowlands though?

13

the alliance would be the perfect villain.

14

It is tied to Ardenweald. Nature spirits (like the Wild Gods) apparently go to Ardenweald when they die and then go to the Emerald Dream and then return to Reality or something like that.

The Emerald Dream feels like the thing in Warcraft lore that has been retconned the most while simultaneously still being a confusing mess that no one understands.

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15

Bringing back too many characters at once can be confusing. For example, Khadgar is not in every expansion, Jaina is not in every expansion, Alexstrasza is not in every expansion or often if a major NPC does show up they might have a small part.

We did see Helya and Kel’Thuzad and some feel Garrosh Hellscream is a villain. We probably would have seen Arthas if they hadn’t cut short the expansion by dropping a season.