There should be more examples of races crossing faction lines. Humans living in Orgrimmar or Orcs that found a home in Stormwind, villages near ever-changing borders that end up with mixed populations etc… It would help make the animosity between factions more based in their competing politics and philosophies rather then having everything boil down into implied genocidal race wars.
God I miss TBC Blood Elves especially the Blood Knights. Now they’re just generic paladin.
Not even a warm take, but had BFA not taken it 100 steps too far and decided to repeat mops storyline, Faction conflict wouldn’t be narrative poison for the fanbase rn
Yeah. The Cosmic War is about the only thing I actually consider worse than the Horde vs Alliance conflict. I don’t like either, but my least favorite expansions are typically the ones where we go off world. I just want to be on Azeroth.
My favorite conflicts were always the domestic threats. I loved Suramar. Legion lost me when we went to Argus. Give me more villains like Elisande, Onyxia, the Thunder King, Azshara, Zul, Ashvane, etc. A corrupt tyrant is on a scale adventurers are equipped to deal with. Fixing the afterlife? We solve problems by swinging swords and axes, and it’s weird that that still works to fix the Shadowlands. We’re fighting literal gods and winning, and that just makes the gods in this setting look pathetic to me. They should be worshiping us at this point.
And I’ve said it before, but the larger scale the story gets, the smaller the world looks, and the less I care. If you want me to be invested, scale it down and let me see the world up close. Even closer than making the faction leaders the ones driving the story. I don’t want to follow Thrall around anymore. Let him actually govern for a change and let’s go on adventures with Zekhan.
This isnt exactly a lore hot take, but a presentation and setting one.
With how many modern rpgs are filled with mature content, be it super gory or violent content or be it boderline explicit sexual content, I’m glad that WoW is generally more tame in its themes, It doesn’t make the story or the lore less serious, but I’m glad there isnt a character every corner trying to get into our pants. Of course I know wow has an adult rp scene, but that is entirely a player thing. You dont need excessive gore and blood to convey good action (and my favorite videogame is the ninja gaiden series, which gets there) and you don’t need everyone horny for a good story either.
Never thought of it that way. Good point.
I dont know about anyone else, but my issues with her was Xe’ra being an Illidan fan girl and shaming us for oppoosing and killing him.
As for my own hot takes.
- Bwonsamdi having more success in saving trolls from the Maw, than Elune with the Night Elves, makes perfect sense. The loa is tied with the Shadowlands.
- Jaina is overrated and a hypocrite. As Theramore’s leader, she agreed when Rhonin stated she was Theramore. However as the leader of Dalaran and the Kirin Tor, she aided the Alliance war effort in securing the Divine Bell, then acted high and mighty when Sunreavers did the same, and acted as if they solely broke the neutrality of the Kirin Tor.
- Baine isn’t that bad of a character. He’s made mistakes, but isn’t a lost cause.
The Gilgoblins and Drogbar are more of Mimron’s creations. And we will eventually find his genetic emgineering lab in a future expansion.
Class/race restrictions are a good thing to better illustrate each race’s culture, theme, and differences.
High elves/blood elves should have went to the alliance and ogres to horde in burning crusade
Night elves and Forsaken should be their own faction outside the Horde and Alliance
I would be okay if certain factions and characters stayed evil. Certain people (like me) enjoy playing the villains. I think it’s hard believing forsaken and man’ari can be true heroes.
Sylvanas should’ve blighted, nor burned a city/tree.
It should’ve been the Naaru spaceship to make a better BFA.
I never thought this would be considered a hot take, but due to current forum sentiments I kinda do now.
Azeroth is a Titan.
The butchering of the lore truely began with giving paladins to the horde and shamans to the alliance.
Furthermore, player insistence on quality of life and playing their perfect donut steel oc vulpera paladin or whatnot is detrimental because eventually in the slow march unto entropy blizzard actually listens and finally caves.
Ironic that some of Xe’ra’s most vocal haters are Illidan fanboys and fangirls themselves.
And your hot takes are as spicy as mine!
Right on, friend. Shadowlands is a masterpiece of atmosphere, lore building, and cosmic intrigue. The best expansion to Warcraft lore in its entire history. It was ruined only by a lack of more known lore characters to blend into the story to make it more relatable.
Here’s the winner of the thread, game over, everyone. Just, woah, wow! I’m truly at a loss for words. I’m obsessed with lore to an unhealthy degree, and I read not a single word of quest text in the Plains.
Elune should have been a non-evil Old God.
- She reshaped an Azerothian race into her own image, like C’thun made the Aqir and Y’shaarj made the mantid.
- She accepts blood sacrifice, as seen most notably in Desolace.
- Xal’atath, the void-aligned something-or-other, derisively called her an “upstart goddess”, which could be her dismissive way of referring to former kin who attempted to walk another path.
- She does not act omnipotently in the world, but only by her power being called upon by her followers, like the Old Gods had to when they were weakened/imprisoned.
- Too much of her power (the Night Warrior ritual) physically and mentally warps the infused adherent, like so many Old God gifts.
I would have found it far cooler to have Elune be an Old God who, at some point, decided she liked the little fleshy Azerothians and thus didn’t want to corrupt the world soul anymore.
The night elves get to be her special people/children in a much closer way and Elune isn’t made into some uber-deity that other races/factions have to deal with, and this even gives reason for those other races/factions to be rather creeped out by Elune and the night elves’ reverence of her. And a deity of peace being empowered using the blood of her enemies is a pretty neat dichotomy to me, fitting nicely with the night elves’ own (onetime) dual feral/sage theme.
Bonus points if she is an old god that infested the moon.
Yall want the hottest take yet in this thread? Here it is.
Anduin should have died and never come back. The Wrynn family should be completely eradicated from the story as they are narrative blackholes.
Oh man, the holy hell that would be raised if we get to the moon and we find out that Elune is in fact a giant benevolent planet tumor.
Blizzard would spend the next 30 expansions planting world trees before the night elves would stop screaching.
Nearly as much as if they had gone through with the idea she was effectively a Naaru with delusions of grandeur.
Out’ve curiosity, what are some of your favorite characters from other stories?