I think the only thing that would have made the Dark Heart being damaged better is if Alleria’s shot landed because Khadgar, inside the Heart as energy, held it in place for a crucial moment. It would have been a nice callback to the Sons of Lothar working together, and it would have aligned nicely to contrast Alleria’s need to work alone. She finally gets one over on Xal’atath only because she puts aside the lone wolf thing for a bit.
Also yeah, Drenden ‘returning’ was a bit silly, it would have been better for her to have been disguised as a minor NPC who gets ordered to ‘check on all the defenses’ when we run by that convo. And to have it mixed in with a bunch of others ambience convos during that quest chain.
But she’s still a big improvement over a lot of WoW villains, if you remove nostalgia from a lot of main xpac antagonists, many weren’t exactly fantastic.
Personally, I have never been all that interested in Xalatath. I thought it was sort of cringe worthy that everyone was calling her “knaifu”.
However, I understand that is just my opinion. Overall, I think she has landed with the fanbase well. People love her, they make nick names for her, they talk about her toes …. Look, I don’t get it at all, but I can see that the fanbase has generally received her well. I even hear girls on Discord talking about painting their nails purple because of her.
Especially in comparison to, say, the Jailer. Or even Rastakhan - his appearance was brief, we saw him at his worst as he failed for the last time. As hyped as he had been, and as cool as he acted, his appearance was still a disappointment.
Again, I never have been a fan of Xalatath, I don’t get the hype, other than she is a mean broad with a sultry voice?
And so far, she hasn’t really garnered haters, like the Jailer did early on, or like Sylvanas or Garrosh. She isn’t controversial or provocative. Most people like her, while at worst, some people - like me - just think she is over hyped but not entirely grating.
Jaina and Alleria and Anduin are grating. I am glad there is any character besides them in the Story. So, Xalatath has that working for her… the cast around her makes her look interesting.
I understand finding it cringe, but I just saw it as the community acknowledging the same phenomenon experienced regarding the companion cube in portal. Since the blade talked to the character, the players developed an affection for the blade-npc. A Waifu is a fictional character one feels affection for (not just attraction to) so it makes sense and it’s a clever play on words IMO.
Losing Dalaran is kind of goofy when I have 3 portals that send me to a Dalaran and a 4th that sends me to where a Dalaran used to be.
That being said , I like Xalatath well enough. I like the Earthen (to my own very great surprise), I like the Arathi a lot and I’m surprised how fleshed out their little culture is. The Nerubians are definitely one of the factions of all time. But I think we’re more or less done talking to them.
I’m on board for where this goes next, but it better get there quick.
I still stand by that either we had a questline where we investigate if he was the real deal and Xal’atath left some very convincing evidence that we buy it, or it actually was him and Xal’atath was someone else on the council.
The Argent Crusade set up an investigation into some random black armored knight. But the Kirin Tor were like “hey its you, haven’t seen you in nearly 2 decades, how you been”.
Also the timing of Drendans return happened to be in the exact same patch that reintroduced Xal’atath back into the story. Honestly if Drendan was around at the start of Dragonflight or sometime before patch 10.2.7 I would’ve liked it better. Imagine if “he” was there right next to Khadgar in the celebration that happens after Amidrassil.
It honestly does feel that Blizzard peaked this type of trope with Onyxia. Where you have several interactions with them before the reveal.
It is a cliche when the “twist villain in disguise” shows up shortly before the reveal. One thing I liked about the How to Train your Dragon TV series is that the true overarching antagonist is there from season 1. Acting as a friendly but clumsy traveling merchant. Or Light Hopes antagonistic turn in season 4 of She-ra (2018). The clues were there all the way back in season 1. With Light Hope mainly focused on “getting the planet balanced” instead of stopping the Horde. Which funnily enough, is the reason why Etheria is not balanced. As the Horde denied Scorpia from attuning to her runestone.
I’m so bored and tired of the ‘Oi Champion!’ stuff from prior expansions. DF and what I’ve seen from TWW so far have been refreshing.
Also. Yes. It does seem like everything in TWW has been a misdirection.
The nerubian attacks and the Arathi seem part of a larger plan. Pretty sure her entire purpose behind the nerubians were the Ascended ones forming a personal and loyal army of incredible power.
Between Inridikron “I’m going to punch God” Incarnate, and Xal, I think we do have a good cast of villainous characters with a mysterious endgame.
Though tbh. This is literally the first act in a trio of expansions (Roughly chapter 1 out of 12 if they follow previous models). Let it cook.
Dalaran has been destroyed by archimonde in wc3, and sacked in wc1 by the orcs in a drive by.
It was also knowingly being thrown into what they thought to be an active warzone with the risk of getting destroyed. We knew we couldnt have gotten lucky 3 times in a row.
First was arthas and wotlk. Major advantage of being in the air, only the death knights, frost wyrms, and gargoyles could effectively purposely reach them but he still had plenty of siege weapons and anti magic zones to make dalaran plummet. Absolute miracle dalaran survived wotlk.
Next up was even more dangerous, a threat so massive it just deleted whole worlds, the burning legion. Yet even after a 30 ship armada blasting it to bits. Dalaran still stood.
Xalatath had inside tactics up her sleeve and after a brief scuffle taunted us, stole magic daddy in her gem, and poofed out right before detonating her broken i win button.
Dalaran was absolutely unbeatable from an outside force. So it took a cunning one to finally do it in.
So I fail to see how Dalaran got hit by the Horde during the First War.
Also the Old Horde did not really sack Dalaran. Deathwing, who was allied with the Old Horde had his Black Dragonflight stage an attack on the city so Teron Gorefiend had time to steal the Eye of Dalaran. The Tides of Darkness mission where you do sack Dalaran is non-canon.
WoW antagonists have been hit-and-miss. Blizzard has occasionally written good villains without nostalgia factor, such as The Thunder King in Mists and the Primal Incarnates in Dragonflight (Fyrakk had potential but turned into a generic, power hungry “kill the world” villain. Vyranoth turned good, so she’s not a villain now. I did like Razageth and do like Iridikron).
Sorry Jailer fans, but I’d take Lei Shen, Xal’atath or Iridikron over Zovaal any day.
If the jailer was the jailed and was more like ve’nari, I could have loved him, and Shadowlands.
“Champion, the afterlives are a mess and we don’t know why, but there is this mysterious and possibly sympathetic figure in the Maw that wishes to aid us in fixing the afterlife in exchange for helping them root out the treachery at the cause” and then it turned out he/she was jailed because he was horrible (The Primus being horrible not particularly relevant at this point because we already killed him in a raid). I could have really enjoyed that narrative.
Even if it was like Sylvanas saying “See why I had to do this stuff?” And Voss being like “No. We don’t see, wtf?!” That would still be better.
Actually, just replace him in this narrative with Ve’nari because I could have did the whole expansion being purred at by my ghost mommy.
I’ve enjoyed the headcanon that the Mawsworn Kyrian didn’t actually abduct Baine, he just heard they had Anduin and deliberately tangled himself so hopelessly in their Jailer-chains they couldn’t leave him behind.
I was trying to be a bit considerate. I know I dunk on characters that some people like (especially a certain undead elf lady and a certain blind fel addict), but I’m currently on a self-improvement kick (plus given what I’ve learned about why Sylvanas’ story was the way it was, I don’t hate her like I used to).
I’m still confused on how powerful Xal’atath is and what she can do. Is there a limit to when/where she can appear? Is it only to those heavily connected to the Void? Or can she come and go as she pleases?
For example during the campaign, she appears to Voss and the player and mind-controls the ascended Nerubian double agent. If I remember correctly, Voss also brings the ascended Nerubian back to the Weaver’s lair.
Wouldn’t the whole operation be compromised now? I imagine probing the mind of the double agent would reveal tons of secrets. And how long was Xal’atath watching us? Just within the city limits?
I suppose none of this matters because Xal’atath views the Queen as a means to an end. Yet it does seem foolish on her part to not exploit that weakness. A setback for the rebellion also helps her.
Not entirely sure on where she ranks in the grand scheme of things. Most of what we’ve seen her do in terms of actual power (and not mind manipulation stuff) seems to have been the Dark Heart. I would venture a guess she’s pretty high up there in the pecking order, however.
I do like the theory that she’s the Silver Surfer to Dimensius’ Galactus.
She wants to fill the Black Blood flowing into Beledar with Wrath so that she could filter it into the Dark Heart.
Of course the Dark Heart is now broken and she will throw it in the face of Azshara and throw out the theater of “You promised!” to her in the same way Ansurek did her only for Azshara to reply to her as she herself did to Ansurek then try to consume the Dark Heart’s contents only to lose her eyes and become the Blind Queen with a Scepter of Bone and the Crooked Serpent with no Eyes.
Xal’atath has the last laugh over Azshara as her eyes are fully opened with the loss of those pesky eyeballs that were sealing the eyes’ entrance! She attacks Beledar and brings about the Emerald Dawn.