What was light hearted and whimsical about Krassarang? Kun-lai? Dread Wastes? Townlong? Any of the raids?The MoP races were new and unfamiliar in a setting where everything was mostly presented as being light-hearted and whimsical so it was difficult to really feel any sort of hook.
That was one questline, a short one at that. And it was the Horde and Alliance. Did you not complete the zone? The ending cinematic makes it abundantly clear who is at fault. The entire point was that the newcomers were hurting the Pandaren. Their being there brought forth parasitic creatures and at one point they nearly flat out kill one of the Pandaren gods. It was setting the scene for future zones, and sure enough, all but one largely deal with the repercussions of the alliance and horde coming in where they're not wanted.The Jade Forest was essentially a collection of fairy tales. Who is the enemy? I dunno lol find out because PLOT TWIST it isn't the Horde or Alliance this time - it's that evul witch who is out to turn little pandas into statues of Jade. Well, on to the next zone then.
Yes, the zone was light hearted. That was a bit of the point. Though it also ends with a mantid invasion.The Vale of Eternal Blossom - because nothing says "Warcraft" like agriculture. You will be fighting varmint but do not worry, cool uncle Firepaw will come in to make sure that WoW doesn't slip any lower on the ESRB rating by introducing alcohol to your content...
No by then it was clear you either weren't paying attention or only seeing what you wanted to see. Keep on cherry picking though.... by then it was clear that the MoP storylines were meant to be taken with a grain of salt.
I think you're just ignoring anything to the contrary once you see a bit of silly. Like the crack addict withered in Azsuna, or the hogwarts rip-off in the same zone where you steal ghost clothes. WoW has a lot of silly stuff and always has. It was originally made by heavy metal dads for christs sake.And Highmountain was just as difficult to take with any degree of seriousness precisely because bro jokes seemed to be the main defining characteristic of the Bruul, to the point of overshadowing any other point that the writers may have been trying to make.