4.3 end cinematic explained for qq'ers

[dubbz]

It's nice Thrall gets to be a father, but the age of mortals -cliché pisses me off somewhat. I felt they were going this route, I just didn't want to believe it. Not as bad as "There must always be a Lich King", but lame nonetheless.

Eh, it is cliché, but at the same time, it's Blizzard, like I said. I've come to expect it at this point lol. And as for the Thrall being a father. In the cinematic, when you see his face and smile when Alex hints at Aggra's pregnancy, it brought a warm feeling to me. I like Happy Thrall.

What's TL;DR?

Too Long; Didn't Read

Actually, we knew even earlier. Blizzcon 2010, they said Thrall would be making brown babies.

Well yeah, but I left out the telling hints at that happening from outside game sources (Blizzcon/The Shattering) because not everybody watches/reads those. The 4.2 quest line was the first promised hint at it IN-GAME. But yes, you are right.

[Deleted]

I really want to go hunt those whispers about the city of dreams in the depths. made something new for the emerald dream and an amazing underwater city

[Deleted]

I don't know why they lost their powers still. Their role wasn't to kill Deathwing so why when he dies they loose their powers? I mean they were charged with protecting Azeroth, Alexstrasza guarding life, Malygos magic, Nozdormu time you all know this shit, together they protected the planet. Azeorth is now safe from Deathwing but the legion, the old gods and Azshara are still knocking about. I r confused.

[datboi448]

I thought they might try to tie the cinematic into the next expansion by somehow relating to the, what we have been told, boiling conflict between horde and alliance.

[Providence]

snip

1. it makes no sense

2. its contrived

3. its contrived

4. it sucks

all of the major problems can effectively be summed up as such.

ps. i didnt bother reading like half your shit.

[wakenbake]

I think they were forced to use all their powers to take Deathwing down. And after seeing all that we(adventurers) can do,
the aspects realized they left the world in good hands and know we can take on whatever is thrown at us next. (Bad mood spirits in pandaland)

[Derah]

blech, while I can't say I "liked" the cataclysm ending, I still believe it was an improvement over the WOTLK ending.

For a start, we get a happy ending. Ya know, I dunno why people are so obsessed with emo-gloomy-dark-downer-bittersweet endings that leave a sour taste in your throat after you see it.

The world is a sad enough place as it is, having for a change a happy ending feels like a welcome change.

then we get to B trololollololololore.

on WOTLK out of nowhere blizz pulled that shit of "there must always be a lich king" which completely defies the laws of logic. Undead minions are not infinite, they are finite, wouldn't it be more easy to slay the necromancers raising them, and then just obliterate the undead minions? that would had ensured no lich king would be needed, but noooooo blizz just wanted an excuse to bring back the lich king later, and so they made the most stupid lololololore move ever and added the most gigantic ass-pull in the history of ass-pulls.

And finnaly, we get to C: Attention whores.

WOTLK ending was all about Tirion.

ya know, I dunno why people have QQd so much about Thrall humping the lightspot when Tirion was much worst in his expansion. Thrall only showed up on the goblin starting zone, 1 teeny-tiny quest in hyjal, and one VERY SMALL cameo on the maelstrom which we only visit once (and again in a nightmare). Then he shows up in 1 5man, and 1 raid, and 1 trailer, and 1 cinematic.

Tirion on the other hand, showed up on the DK starting zone, on howling fjord, multiple times on icecrown (to be accurate 5 times, in important quest-chains and one-shoting scourge left and right without even getting a scratch) on the argent tourney, on 1 5man and 2 raids (Trial of the champion, trial of the crusader and ICC) 1 trailer and 1 cinematic, and on top of that, he gets a giant statue made of solid gold in the middle of the main capital of the expansion.

The ending cinematic of WOTLK was all about Tirion, no sylvannas, no jaina, no muradin, no Darion, nada, people who had MORE REASONS THAN HIM to be present at the lich king's demise.

At least on the cata ending, Thrall shares the spotlight with the dragon aspects, and semi-reasonable excuses are given for their depowering, since they invested all they had on the dragon soul to kill deathwing.

And here is the kicker:

WE'VE SEEN THAT HAPPEN ALREADY

Remember war of the ancients? each aspect gave a significant amount of their power to the Dragon Soul to empower it and allow deathwing to use it, and what happened to them? they became significantly weaker. On the book Day of the Dragon, all 4 aspects were battling Deathwing and weren't able to do shit to him because they had invested most of their power on the disk. They only remained aspects because they kept a little of their power to themselves the first time they imbued the disk with their energy.

It wasn't until Ronin shattered the disk that they regained their full strength.

Well, now they've done it again, except this time, in order to truly beat deathwing, they've gone ahead and poured ALL their power inside the disk, and now that deathwing is gone, and the disk is gone too, so are their powers.

See? not the most perfect explanation but MILES AHEAD of the bullshit "there must always be a lich king......... because we want him on a future expansion"

[Deleted]

I did not have any problems with the cinematic except for #1.

It seems very counter-intuitive that the Aspects are pretty much doing what the Old Gods wanted; losing their powers.

The old gods wanted the dragons dead

I have one question for the lore fans (not a qq, just a question) It was said that for the hour of twilight all dragon aspects must be dead (that's why the old gods pierced deathwing on Wyrmrest temple) but Nozdormu/Murozond seems pretty alive to me in End Time

[blaqkmagick]

So I'm not comlaining about the cinematic, I actually liked it.
But I have a question:
What does this mean now that the dragon aspects are gone. Will the flights disappear? Without Nozdormu's power will we never see another CoT instance? What was the role of the dragon aspects? Is azeroth vunerable now more than ever to the corruption of the old gods? etc...

Thanks!

[dubbz]

The old gods wanted the dragons dead

I have one question for the lore fans (not a qq, just a question) It was said that for the hour of twilight all dragon aspects must be dead (that's why the old gods pierced deathwing on Wyrmrest temple) but Nozdormu/Murozond seems pretty alive to me in End Time

Well, I'd say this is a contradictory issues to the story as well, I think it'd be pretty easily covered by blizz saying that Murozond is infinite (infinite dragonflight herplol) so destroying him is/was technically impossible, as he exists in all time.

So I'm not comlaining about the cinematic, I actually liked it.
But I have a question:
What does this mean now that the dragon aspects are gone. Will the flights disappear? Without Nozdormu's power will we never see another CoT instance? What was the role of the dragon aspects? Is azeroth vunerable now more than ever to the corruption of the old gods? etc...

Thanks!

Where nobody can be certain what this means for the time-being (it's too fresh of a story arc to know really), I can safely assume that the Flights still exist. In my personal opinion (stress PERSONAL OPINION), I think that they still have powers, in the sense that the bronze has control over time, red over life, green over the dream, and blue over arcane energies, they just aren't immortal anymore (the aspects).

I'm completely miffed on why nobody's brought up the fact that if they were Immortal, how were we able to kill Malygos, but pffft, that's not a question I care to ask/research lol.

[Deleted]

4)What about all the plot holes? Lore's dead. QQ

The only plothole I see is Med'an.

The Aspects losing their power and putting the defense of the world in mortal hands is exactly in line with what Medivh said at the end of Warcraft III. If Blizzard actually stayed with that idea, it would've made sense. But along the way they changed their minds countless times.

Why did they create some kind of godlike character with Med'an? He's the new Guardian of Tirisfal with the powers of a Paladin, Shaman, Mage and more.... but apparently us mortals are enough to save the world? It doesn't make sense. It's kinda contradicting.

And why did they appoint Kalecgos to be the new Aspects of Magic when we don't need Aspects anymore?

Yeah, this new ending cinematic is underwhelming and has some plotholes just like WotlK's ending. But I have no problem with Thrall's baby, we all knew it would happen sometime.

[MrHappy]

I agree with everything you said...however...why bother to explain shit to QQ'ers? just ignore them...it's actually the ONLY problem that will go away when it is ignored...let people cry for attention like 3yearolds do...honestly trying to reason with them is pointless and waste of your attention.

[Cairhiin]

With a big competitor about to release their MMO, and with loss of nearly 2 million subs, you'd expect something better from Blizzard than the cinematics they've come up with. Hardly a wonder people are disappointed.

[Huntaer]

I just wonder, if they lost their powers, how are they going to contain the old gods? I mean there's still 1 or 2 out there, who will make a new plot.
Is it all up to us now ?

---------- Post added 2011-12-01 at 06:16 PM ----------

Also, if Nozdormu loses his power, how will he become Murozond in the future ?

[cbeefman]

for me im just saddened by it all
i have always revered the aspects and placed them on pedestal so high above me. To see them step down from that pedestal made my heart sink a little
I know that "all things come to an end" butI just cant shake the feeling of sadness. And poor Kalec, he JUST ascended to the highest rank possible for him and he loses it all so soon
That said, I will repeat what I have said to many people when they complain about where the game/lore is going. This game and story would be CRAP without changes, if all things stayed the same, if the answer was always the same. If the story never changed then all we would end up with is what i call the Dragonball Z effect (just scream louder and change your hair colour to defeat the next enemy)

[Adam Jensen]

You know whats funny?

I just heard Alex's last phrase: " the age of mortals has just begun". That along with the "you're the guardians of this world now" deal... and what happens next? Yes.... in MoP.... we're gonna start blowing each other to pieces \o/

Mortals are stupid.

And Alexstrasza just put them in charge.

GG.

I mean, look at real life. How long will it be until someone says "fuck it" and launches a nuke? Mortals are just as stupid in game as they are IRL.

---------- Post added 2011-12-01 at 11:21 AM ----------

Also, if Nozdormu loses his power, how will he become Murozond in the future ?

What? Logic in Blizz lore? A wizard did it.

[jimlow]

TL;DR - You don't get a TL;DR. I typed this whole thing from my phone, so you can read all of it.

Damn dude you must have either been stuck in some real serious traffic or your in a really boring meeting/class.

[Ershiin]

My problem with it had less to do with the specifics and more to do with how it basically crammed every single "happy ending" scenario (cliché) into like 3 minutes..
It was like watching a youtube compilation of romantic comedy/fantasy movie endings set with WoW characters.
Not to mention the level of cheese in the deliveries would make Monterey Jack's (that fat mouse from Disney's Rescue Rangers) head explode from sheer exposure.

I could have gone with the cheesy speech, OR the Aggra preggo highlight, OR the aspects losing their power. But all of them at the same time just made it silly.
Add in Thrall blasting Deathwing with a Kamehameha and WoW has pretty much "jumped the shark" in just about every definition of the term.

Cast Changes:

- A popular character is removed from the show, or even killed off. Especially true if the method of removal is unsatisfying or mean-spirited... Cairne?

- The writers pen a replacement character who isn't as compelling as the one who left... Thrall as Warchief -> Garrosh as Warchief.. Cairne -> Baine..

- A new character is introduced who earns the hatred of the fandom for whatever reason... Varian and Garrosh are both pretty much perfect examples of this.. As a sidenote I actually do like them. (Doesnt change the "fact" that they ARE largely hated by the average player with average interest in the lore.. I.E. People who generally wont bother trudging through the quest text outside of the more special questlines and definitely arent gonna buy the books.)


Character Development:

- The Scrappy is given more spotlight and screentime, which sometimes exonerates him through character development, but more often turns him into a Creator's Pet. - Some people would argue that Garrosh and Varian fits here too. I'm not one of them.. Personally I think Blizz managed the former with those two and actually turned them from the horrible "Scrappy" characters they started as, into some of the most complex and well rounded characters since Wacraft turned MMO. (I used to hate Garrosh with a feiry passion, then The Shattering and Cataclysm 1-60 happened and now he's my fav Orc since Doomhammer.)

- An existing character evolves in a way that flattens rather than enriches him, or which contradicts prior depictions of the character. This can have the effect of alienating fans... Thrall is a definite case of this in my eyes. I'm sure there are those who would also point like to point at the Illidan trio. I'm not gonna, but I'm sure there are plenty who will.

- The Official Couple resolves their UST too early and shippers start to lose interest in the show... I'm just gonna go on a limb a call the Alliance and Horde "the official couple" and say this is definitely not the case.


Plot Development:

- The show's premise is radically altered, such as having the characters change careers or move to a new location.
Conversely, the show (which is supposedly based on a coherent story arc rather than a series of episodic events) drags on too long without any sort of progress or resolution. May be the result of too much filler or overreliance on Failure Is the Only Option... WoW is an MMO, pointing cases of this out is kinda unfair.

- If the plot is based on a Myth Arc, dragging it out too long or piling plot thread upon plot thread without resolution may lead to fans getting the impression that the writers are just making it up as they go along and subsequently tuning out... "It was merely a setback!" j/k.

- The show experiences Mood Whiplash in an unbelievable manner - typically a result of Executive Meddling wanting to make the show Darker and Edgier or Lighter and Softer... Well I guess this is the main gripe "QQers" have with the cinematic that this thread is about.

- A jarring rise in the Sliding Scale of Villain Threat, unless it is written well and\or used for comedic purposes. For example, a Big Bad trying to take over the local 7-11 is usurped by one bent on destroying the galaxy... This really isnt an issue. We did fight Old Gods a good 5 or 6 years ago aswell.

- One of the writers puts too much of himself into the show, to its detriment. He may use it as a pulpit to preach his personal beliefs in a heavy-handed manner, or to display personal kinks which Squick the audience out. Common results include Author Filibuster, drastically increased sightings of Strawman Politicals, and Going Cosmic... Well, Thrall kinda is Metzen's baby. And it has shown.

- A baby is added to an otherwise-adult show where ill-suited addition of childish themes and endless babytalk from characters who were once-intelligent speaking adults fatally alters the character dynamic... Another one of those things "QQed" about in the cinematic in question.

- The plot is resolved with one too many plot twists which are inconsistent with the overall narrative, poorly executed, or are just plain stupid, turning the audience away... Pretty much the main complaint about the whole Dragonsoul thing.

- A show's Crowning Moment of Awesome—in the sense that the show never lives up to said moment again, despite trying... Thrall friggin blasts Deathwing from the sky with a Kamehameha! If that isnt the crowning moment of awesome, I dont know what is.

[Diabeetus]

I honestly thought this ending was significantly less plot-hole-ish than the "there must always be a lich king!, oh and we're not going to even MENTION Ner'zhul this expansion more than once despite or perhaps because of the fact that he was the real, original lich king!".

It didn't give much of an "epic" feel compared to the Wotlk ending, and especially the WC3 and TFT endings, but I'm assuming they saved all of that for the fight itself.

[GennGreymane]

good post man