Lots of people have wildly different opinions on the lore that never really come up, that said, unpopular opinions are some of the most interesting, since it shows that someone got something out of the story that most didn’t.
That said, curious to see what some hot-takes people have are. Just a casual thread to toss out some of your more unpopular opinions on the story.
I’ll go first:
The Jailer was unironically a great villain.
Gallywix is a top-tier character and I’m glad he survived BfA and Shadowlands.
Sylvanas was always overrated, even prior to BfA and Shadowlands.
Chronicles being from the Titan’s perspective is a good thing.
Cosmic lore is better than Horde vs Alliance has ever been.
The First Ones are a genuinely interesting piece of world-building that expands the mysteries of the Warcraft universe far beyond “The Titan’s did it”.
Shadowlands in general had a great story limited by rough gameplay systems, and I’d be genuinely excited for another expansion where we visit another cosmic realm.
Random npc deaths don’t matter as much to players because there’s always infinite elves and orcs. So the destruction of the tree is a big deal to players. But canonically speaking it was made by arrogant druids a few decades ago. There’s multiple world trees in the lore now too. So Teldrassil isn’t all that, honestly. The loss of life should be the bigger deal but race numbers have no meaning to players.
I hate how true this is tbh and it effectively always has been, the only time that may not be the case was MoP which was building off a story that was started in Cata.
I disagree a lot with that one. Cosmic lore makes no sense to me. Everything cosmic is just a sparkling light show with no meaning to me. We have red skin draenei paladins, Calia the light undead and other nonsense. Pew pew light and lasers and dark spooky void… like a movie with too much cgi.
Trying to limit this purely to my most radical positions on the lore, ones that I haven’t seen get a lot of support.
Tirion Fordring was ruined when they made him the loud leader of the Argent Crusade.
ICC in general was a narrative joke with entirely predictable consequences for the story in every major beat performed.
Khadgar has added nothing good to WoW and should never come back in any important role. Cheap dad jokes aren’t hard to find a voice for.
Malfurion has added nothing good to WoW and shouldn’t have been brought back or displaced Fandral but removing him now is nearly impossible.
Illidan has added… okay, I may have a theme here.
Heck Naralex in particular, THE BARRENS IS AN ECOSYSTEM WORTH CHERISHING ON ITS OWN.
The Kalimdor Centaur Tribes and Quilboar aren’t respected enough and I’d rather learn more about them than keep digging up the big plots from WC2/3 or this cosmic crap (okay that last part isn’t unpopular)
The Aspects add nothing to the story and shouldn’t have been re-empowered. The Bronze Flight in particular is playing with fire. Lorewalkers would offer the “Caverns of Time” gameplay idea fine, like the MoP dungeon you get narrated through.
Not sure if it’s meaningfully possible to save the Darkspear narratively after everything the story has done to them.
Most of the post-launch races should never have been added because they strain an already tight narrative pool and spotlight.
The Scarlet Crusade were good villains in Vanilla when they were vaguely Alliance aligned, letting them act as a good enemy for the Horde. Not necessarily openly supported, but they had recruiters in Stormwind the Alliance were happy to let go about their business. Acting as an outlet for the Alliance’s worst racists and imperialist tendencies that they try to downplay.
Trying to turn them into universal punching bags for both factions does not really use their themes and lore well.
Something that most people would disagree with, or you haven’t seen discussed much.
Sometimes it feels like “hot takes” depend on the audience. Also, it can be more about bias than the actual take itself.
If some Alliance Paladin posted : “My hot take is that the Alliance should have Lordaeron back”… that isn’t really a hot take is it? Horde fans would disagree, and many in the Alliance are fine with the Forsaken keeping Lordaeron. A small vocal minority of the fan base never shuts up about it. It is an old debate. The “heat” from the “takes” seems to die down over time.
Sorry, I get swept up in the rules of the games and forget to play…. my attempt at a hot take :
“I didn’t like Bwonsamdi in BfA. The fact that everyone else loved him almost felt like the Twilight Zone, as if everyone loved Jar Jar Binks and I was the only one who hated him. I really hoped we would kill him. I was bummed out that we actually were going kill him, it was all planned out… but “fan reception” helped spare him. Talk about a let down. Rezan was a better Loa for the Zandalari to follow. Can’t believe we traded a LiteBrite TRex for Shadow JarJar”
That’s surprising to hear you say, since you and I have butted heads over a few. Read my comment above and there’s probably something you’d consider a hot-take.
By my stringent definition, I don’t see many “hot takes” here in the thread. They seem like stuff many have posted about, and have some general support. Or they are tired arguments as old as time.
I feel like my honest view about Bwonsamdi counts because I almost never see any criticism about him.
Everyone else is like “amg he jokes when I die, he has little skulls, and he talks funny. So cool!”
The fact that my opinion isn’t seen often, and is contrary to most, seems like a “fresh hot take out of the oven” to me.
Oh come now? You call that a hot take? I think that almost qualifies as a universal truth.
That seems more of a bias thing. Alleria was around in the lore before. Alliance fans would likely agree. Doesn’t seem that hot a take.
Most people probably agree, and the major objections seem to be that the old fashioned Centaur we knew before were ignored and supplanted.
But this might qualify as a Hot Take, since it is recent, not argued to death, and seems many folks disagree :
I was just commenting on the “hot takiness” of the statements because you said to take a look. Not really on the substance of the positions.
I don’t mind, you can say there’s a few hot-takes in my comment, especially where a certain naaru is concerned.
From the slightly opposite side (as I just considered her wasted potential, not a favorite), now you know what it was like for me regarding Xe’ra and fan reactions.
I would’ve thought my bias for Alleria over Sylvanas would be a hot take, though.
You are right that Bwonsamdi-hate probably gets as much discussion as Xera-fandom does = close to zero. Sort of opposite edges of the fan/hate scale.
livin on the edge.
That doesn’t seem that radical of a notion.
I believe Alleria was introduced into the lore first. Sylvanas is literally the little sister added later. I could see Alleria having a solid fan base.
when making a thread whose goal is to spotlight minority views, whether or not something is a hot take is prob. a question best directed at the self besides very obvious ones, and even those I hesitate to call out. Unpopular opinion threads in other contexts often become argument threads which mostly magnify “popular opinion with some loud detractors” imx.
I did remove some of my own takes after consideration that I felt were leaning more into “popular-with-large-segment-but-controversial-to-whole” rather than wholly unpopular.
For me, while I occasionally liked Xe’ra in Legion, it was wasted potential mainly. The fact that everyone else hated her almost felt like the Twlight Zone, as if everyone hated Yoda and I was the only one who liked him. Plus, I think she got more hate than her actions deserved (mainly due to rabid Illidan fanboying and fangirling). I hoped through her, we’d learn more about the Light and cosmology, maybe see cosmic beings from different forces interact with each other. I was bummed out that she was sacrificed to prop up Illidan. Talk about a letdown. Can’t believe we’re expected to not trust an ancient being who can see the future about destiny, but instead trust a younger, blind, loose cannon junkie who spent most of his life in an underground cell.
True, though I don’t know how much of a fandom Alleria has. And even then there’s double standards. WoW fans when Xe’ra locks up Alleria: “Evil windchime!” WoW fans when Sylvanas tries to kill Alleria: “For the Dark Lady!”
While I thank you for your kindness, I know a few of my stances are quite the hot-takes on these forums (and I’ve gotten enough insults to prove it). And I’ve made my point about that naaru, so I won’t clog this thread with any more of that (unless someone else has something to add).
I will amend my comment to focus on genuine hot-takes (though keep the ones that may not be hot-takes).