it’s hard to articulate just how much of a let down the entire shadowlands story has been. every plot point, every character decision, has been one confusing and frustrating disappointment after another, all to be topped off by the most lukewarm climax possible. 20 years of lore and characterization flushed away, and for what? truly for what? what did anyone gain from any of this
the moral of the story seems to be: “nothing in life, nor the afterlife, matters and you’re stupid for asking questions” and idk it just.. feels like the wrong message in 2022
llBeing someone who has had the uh … Benefit? Privilege? Happenstance? of being on the “side line” of all of Shadowlands i can safely say that it, and honestly BFA should NEVER have happened.
At all.
To explain/further my point, literally nothing has been resolved after both Shadowlands and Battle for Azeroth. It’s all been a vague finger wiggle of “stuff happened, but there is more stuff on the way~” sort of shit storm. And honestly it all began with the concept and idea of tying a storyline to an action of a supposed “main character” of sorts. Where Mists of Pandaria managed to pull it off by having it be more-so a player driven action (While Garrosh did order it, the Players were the ones to put the pieces in place and in essence “pull the trigger”) where as with Battle for Azeroth it just was kinda done.
Though that sort of ties into the pants on head stupidity that seems to keep happening with the writers constantly painting the Horde as “bad” or “evil”.
In fact, you know what, fuck it. Varian and Vol’Jin shouldn’t have died. Or at least they shouldn’t have until like close to the END of Legion or so on.
Having those two characters die when they did only created more story problems than it solved. Because it’s one of the things that kinda gets put into the “Ah yes, the Jailer is a fuckin’ 5D chess champion and planned this shit from the get-go” playbook. Which is stupid. And while i won’t say it’s the “only” reason why they came up with such a stupid-ass character to begin with, it’s one of very MANY reasons why they did. Killing off those two characters created such a limbo/vacuum that i think the writers had a problem getting themselves out of that hole.
Because they never thought of the characters outside of the main faction leaders. Or at least this group of writers never did. I mean if you sit and think about it, how many of the characters outside of a select few have been butchered for the sake of “story” reasons? Sure, Tyrande was starting to go off the rails during Mists of Pandaria (for some reason) but didn’t go too hard into “my vision is red, i want nothing but revenge” sort of character writing. They also did Jaina pretty fuckin’ dirty in Pandaria, but it wasn’t something they couldn’t have fixed up a little. I never played the Alliance side story of BFA but i honestly think it did more harm to Jaina’s character than any good. Or rather made it more contrived than anything. But boy oh BOY did they do poor Baine dirty.
Our poor beefcake got the shortest end of the short stick and got beaten to shit with it.
I’m not even going to touch the absolute Schizoid job that is Sylvannas’ character, or literally A N Y of the Windrunners, cause they’re all a complete fuckin’ joke now. Even Magni is well … poor bastard has been reamed up the ass story-wise. So pretty much BFA and fucking Shadowlands are absolute 100% mistakes. Like the only thing BFA gave us that was a weird blessing in disguise were the trailers. And maybe Zappy boi, but that’s a bit of an “eh” area.
In fact i’ma go on a bit of a ramble now. If i had the reigns of control on the story, this is pretty much what i’d do. Now most of Legion is pretty well “okay” storywise. If anything i’d make it to where Varian and Vol’Jin retreated or were dragged away from the battlefield after being put out of commission for a bit and have the rest of Legion up to Argus play out as normal. With Argus i’d have it to where Varian and Vol’Jin tag along and help out as best they can. Hell i’d have them come back during the Broken Shore and have them just redo their initial push. Make it more to where the players and both forces are fighting for ground in a more prolonged fashion and state with help from the rest of the Broken Isles. Give it a nice bit of “payback” before getting to the Argus plotline. Now as far as Argus goes? Again they’d be doing their thing, helping out as best as they can, really puttin’ in work and showing why they are complete badasses. And at some point close to the end, the two would probably fight off waves of enemies in order to buy the players some time. This would lead into Varian nearly getting killed but is saved by Vol’Jin and the two actually fighting almost as though they were one person.
I’m not sure on keeping Azeroth being stabbed. That’s a bit of an “iffy” territory on my end. But i would have it to where they both pretty much bite it. Probably have it to where Vol’Jin gets stabbed first, followed by Varian, and then they both get “saved” by Alleria and Turalyon. Both witnessing their fight and both getting them out of there in time. So pretty much the Legion gets its’ shit kicked in, Sargeras is put into baby jail, and everyone goes home but both Varian and Vol’Jin are dying. Pretty much a pseudo “Optimus Prime funeral” sort of thing. That sort of faint glimmer of hope that is just precariously there. And of course they die but that’s where things go a little sideways.
Instead of Vol’Jin outright naming Sylvannas, she names herself and tries to rally the Horde into a state of “perseverance”. That yes, the Legion are gone, but Vol’Jin died on the watch of the Alliance. Meanwhile you have Anduin vouching more for peace and unity with the Horde but you’d have Genn Greymane or someone else on the side of going to war with the Horde. I’m not going to say Tyrande or Jaina. Sure they’d be absolutely wary, but they’d be more willing to “broach” the idea. Essentially i’d rather have the Alliance start to fracture into smaller factions again.
Which would lead into the next expansion, of which we’re going to call … “The Darkened Seas”. Instead of the Burning of Teldrassil, i’d have it to where the expansion starts with the wound of Azeroth and Azerite. That’d be the focus of the expansion. How the wound is seeping out the “blood” of the world and how that blood could be used as a weapon. Magni would be more of a “middle” man. Trying to convince both factions to go to the places where the wounds are the most severe and try to plug them before they get worse. So the first place they go would create more tensions between the two. Where both sides would be gathering as much Azerite as possible and also testing out how to turn it into a weapon. So instead of a world tree burning, i’d imagine that by accident they trigger a chain reaction and pretty much destroy the island, creating a Cold War scenario. So the players would be going around, trying to heal the wounds, and make friends. But on the side the factions are starting to fall apart. The Alliance is starting to drift further and further apart, and the Horde would have the side that is for Azerite Armnament and another against it. Which would all come to a head when Nazjatar rises from the sea. There’d be a lot more Old God/Naga shenanigans in the background and instead of a full out “war”, there’d be more small scale conflicts on the various places we go to. Which of course would be Kezan, Zandalar, Kul’Tiras, and maybe even the Dragon Isles thrown in there, or several small islands. But this would all culminate into what i believe would be a beautiful moment. Both sides are about to throw down, the tensions have been rising and they’re about to pull another Pandaria. But then the Naga fully enter into the picture and right as they’re about to hit the Alliance, the Horde step in and take the blow (i’m imagining a Naval battle situation, but it could be a land battle one). So both sides decide to say “fuck it” to the ones trying to create the rift between them and decide to fully storm Nazjatar and take on the Naga. But i’d have it END when they fight queen Azshara. Like it wouldn’t matter if they win or lose (i’d even go as far to say that it’d be a “both” situation), but the plan all along would be to bring both sides to the table and get all that juicy Azerite into one place. Which would trigger the next expansion.
“Gardens of Nyalotha”
That’s right. I’d go full HAM on an Old God Expansion. Literally create a whole new continent, pull out the “what is on the backside of the world?” bit. Make it to where the players have to enter into the darkest and creepiest expansion yet. Just full out Lovecraftian/Gigeresque nightmare fuel. Like the starting part would be this foul forest of sorts, just trees of flesh and bone and tentacles, and all that jazz, and have zones based on all of the Old Gods. Hell i’d even bring all of them BACK in some way. Make it to where we have to go in and make sure they actually DIE this time. Maybe work in a story about how the Old Gods havn’t so much been “planning” for this to happen like some sort of chess game, but have subtly been nudging things here and there. Just small actions that have a much wider range of “possibilities” for them. And weave in a story about how both factions become witness to these horrors and how they have to support each other. Make it to where in order to survive, they have to come TOGETHER for a change.
What happens after that? Well i’d probably make it to where we do “sort of” win against the Old Gods. But not entirely. And we still have a sword sized problem to deal with. So the next Expansion would be focused on how to deal with that. In short “Stargate” the expansion. Just take a page from the Burning Legion and create a portal to go to other worlds. Hell just take the one big-ass portal we have and make it go to other places. I think that’d be cool and expand the scope of things.
Like i don’t know about anyone else. But all of this sounds far more exciting/better/more Warcraft like than whatever the hell we fuckin’ got. Right?
