Thoughts on Eternal Palace ending *Spoilers*

[Naramag]

I think she looks so scared because she realized she has fucked up and things will definitely not go her way anymore.

My money is still on N'zoth winning without Azeroth being destroyed. The black empire will rise again.

Speculation: The other old gods are dead, are they in the realm of death? Does Sylvanas maybe has a secret agenda to "recruit" forces for the realm of death to keep the old gods in there? Maybe N'zoth tries to free them or absorb them or something and succeeds in the end? And in the next Expansion we have to fight the old gods with help from death himself?

[Kumorii]

As usual the cinematic are great. Love the facial expression on Azshara. Conveys desperation and shock really well as she goes from holding power N'zoth and now lost that and realise she will become a puppet instead of being the puppeteer.

When it comes to the story its decent. Bit underwhelming since nothing that we want to get answered got answered.

[SaneOstrich]

Where's the big twist?

https://www.wowhead.com/news=291015/...ass-diversity-

At this point Im convinced that due to the way MMO storytelling works it's impossible to deliver a 'big twist'. Good luck making a grand reveal after your audience has had months to nitpick every detail and come up with every possible outcome a dozen times over.
It's either going to be; a reveal players have already come up with as a one of the myriad of possible outcomes, or it's a complete ass-pull.

I prefer the former, at least then it sorta makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

[Syegfryed]

At this point Im convinced that due to the way MMO storytelling works it's impossible to deliver a 'big twist'. Good luck making a grand reveal after your audience has had months to nitpick every detail and come up with every possible outcome a dozen times over..

tbf, they aren't giving us too much possible outcomes, and they tend to do the most obvious for a while.

[Ophenia]

At this point Im convinced that due to the way MMO storytelling works it's impossible to deliver a 'big twist'. Good luck making a grand reveal after your audience has had months to nitpick every detail and come up with every possible outcome a dozen times over.
It's either going to be; a reveal players have already come up with as a one of the myriad of possible outcomes, or it's a complete ass-pull.

I prefer the former, at least then it sorta makes sense in the grand scheme of things.

I think their laziness to test out their own stuff prevents them from having big reveals. You literally can't hide stuff for long when you allow people to test your game for months before it's released. And that ruins absolutely everything. We have access to the codex, we see the encounters, we have all the dialogues and quests, we're only missing 0.2% of the lore (usually a cinematic or a secret phase which doesn't make sense anyway).

Nothing can "wow" you anymore. The Silithus Wound and the Burning of Teldrassil should have been "wow" moments, but as we knew them months before they occurred, how can we care ?

PTRs and Dataminings are really destroying all the hype you can build for anything. Gamers want to see everything before it's live, and they get disappointed when there is nothing new on Day 1. Yeah no joke.

At this point Blizzard should trust themselves as if they were a multi-billion company and throw on PTR basic stuff. They don't need to test "pick up 10 xxx" quests, we all know it works. They don't need to test whether Azshara's dialogues work during the encounter, they will. They don't even need US to test whether the boss' animations are correct. Actually they could throw the Raid Testing with random skeletons and generic names to not spoil anything. All dialogues should never be shown in the PTR.

[Cizr]

To lure the champion into the Eternal Palace and use the Heart of Azeroth to free N'zoth.

Thank you sir

[Sarrgoth]

still people think Azshara is above Demonlords

Doesn’t really matter what people think, when it is stated that Mannoroth believed Azshara to be equally powerful to Kil’jaeden and Archimonde, before her transformation. Now that is basically a soft confirm to her power. Your opinion on it is not canon.

[pewpmeiser]

Very cool. Excited to where this will lead!

[Enan1981]

This is when Blizzard is still too keen on wanting to keep us in suspense and not to give any further spoilers or details. Seriously.

[Vladier]

Where's the big twist?

https://www.wowhead.com/news=291015/...ass-diversity-

I suppose the big twist is that Azshara is actually the first villain in the history of WoW to succeed as so many people wanted. She had a plan, set it in motion, and unlike literally everyone else she wasn't ultimately stopped in a raid. And she didn't even die (for any considerable amount of time) or get imprisoned or betrayed by her master (at least, as far as we know; N'Zoth might well keep his part of the deal and make her the puppet queen of his empire). Actually, I can't think of a boss in WoW who had died before their plan worked regardless of their death, so she kind of skipped a step there even. The only thing she probably wanted that didn't happen was to gloat during the release of N'Zoth.

[Ophenia]

Actually, I can't think of a boss in WoW who had died before their plan worked regardless of their death, so she kind of skipped a step there even.

Technically, a lot of them did the same thing tbh. Gul'dan died but the Legion still arrived on Azeroth. Xavius died but as a pawn of N'zoth, he can still be considered victorious so far as all he did ultimately led to N'zoth being freed...

To be fair, we can consider that Azshara did the EXACT SAME THING as Zul (with Mythrax and the destruction of Dazar'alor's Seal). And she will probably live through the exact same fate, an anticlimatic second death in the next raid as Penultimate revived/enhanced boss you slay unceremoniously.

[Vladier]

Technically, a lot of them did the same thing tbh. Gul'dan died but the Legion still arrived on Azeroth. Xavius died but as a pawn of N'zoth, he can still be considered victorious so far as all he did ultimately led to N'zoth being freed...

To be fair, we can consider that Azshara did the EXACT SAME THING as Zul (with Mythrax and the destruction of Dazar'alor's Seal). And she will probably live through the exact same fate, an anticlimatic second death in the next raid as Penultimate revived/enhanced boss you slay unceremoniously.

Yes, but those weren't the results of their actions. And in the case of Gul'Dan it was actually more of a success for Archimonde who sent him through the portal and in so doing ensured the Legion's arrival on Azeroth... about a year or so after his death.

And I was talking specifically about raid bosses, although I admit I wasn't clear. If we include every raid boss that succeded in a quest line preceding their raid, there would be far more examples. Like, say, Cho'Gall who managed to forge the Hammer of Twilight... for all the good it did to him in the raid after which it was wielded by Holy paladins.

I actually doubt that Azshara will be a raid boss twice in the same expansion, and she is too powerful to be a dungeon boss after being restored to what looks like her usual level of strength (unlike Kael'thas who was resurrected weakened and insane). So maybe she get to live to the next one at least.

[DarkBlade6]

Lord have mercy on the poor souls who enlisted for 6 months.

care to elaborate ?
these people will runs dungeons (M+), Raid the Eternal Palace, do WQs, some world PvP and BGs... you know, play the game?
Do you REALLY need a more complicated story then -> there' s a bad guy here, go kill him

[LazarusLong]

I mean they just realized that everything they did was planned by azshara and they played right into her hands. They where rightfully cautious as this might have been another part of her plan or another trap.

All in all a good cinematic, but it fails to give even one answer to open questions.

Yep, during the last phase, Azshara explains that this is a trap and you can't leave.

- - - Updated - - -

Anybody feels bad with how Azshara was treated in this raid? For years, if you wanted to describe why is Azshara a threat in one sentence, you would most likely say "she is the most powerful mage". However, it can be felt AT ALL during her encounter.

Look at Thunder King. That was THE BOSS. His attacks felt so powerful. And when he was charging the whole room with his energy... so impactful. But Azshara? Meeleing for most of the fight. Does some RP. Summons adds. There are wards on the ground that charge and discharge and do stuff. Appearently she casts SOME spells during fight, but there are simple and do not do much. Hell, JAINA felt 1000x more of a mage in her fight. She was supposed to be so powerful but the only powerful thing she does happens when you /spit on her. LUL

That's because he needed us to power up the seals, genius.

- - - Updated - - -

I suppose the big twist is that Azshara is actually the first villain in the history of WoW to succeed as so many people wanted. She had a plan, set it in motion, and unlike literally everyone else she wasn't ultimately stopped in a raid. And she didn't even die (for any considerable amount of time) or get imprisoned or betrayed by her master (at least, as far as we know; N'Zoth might well keep his part of the deal and make her the puppet queen of his empire). Actually, I can't think of a boss in WoW who had died before their plan worked regardless of their death, so she kind of skipped a step there even. The only thing she probably wanted that didn't happen was to gloat during the release of N'Zoth.

She did not succeed, N'zoth did. His tested us and decided that we will be powerful enough to defeat Azshara while freeing him.

[Varodoc]

I suppose the big twist is that Azshara is actually the first villain in the history of WoW to succeed as so many people wanted. She had a plan, set it in motion, and unlike literally everyone else she wasn't ultimately stopped in a raid. And she didn't even die (for any considerable amount of time) or get imprisoned or betrayed by her master (at least, as far as we know; N'Zoth might well keep his part of the deal and make her the puppet queen of his empire). Actually, I can't think of a boss in WoW who had died before their plan worked regardless of their death, so she kind of skipped a step there even. The only thing she probably wanted that didn't happen was to gloat during the release of N'Zoth.

But she did lose. Her plan was to usher in the return of the Black Empire and rule as its queen, clearly she isn't the queen of anybody now.

[Aucald]

But she did lose. Her plan was to usher in the return of the Black Empire and rule as its queen, clearly she isn't the queen of anybody now.

Kind of hinges on what N'Zoth's plans for her are, ultimately. I also doubt she's going to wind up as queen of anything given how she teased N'Zoth in the 8.2 intro cut-scene, but who really knows the mind of an Old God?

[SaneOstrich]

*snip*

Amen to that.

I understand they want patch day to go as smooth as possible, but it sure kills the fun.

Imagine that up till patch release we had no idea we'd be heading to Nazjatar and Mechagon.

[Houle]

Holy hell how...lame. This was the release of n'zoth players have been waiting for since cata lmao. How blizz manages to make the release of an old eldritch lovecraftian god THAT underwhelming is beyond me.
But i guess azsharah really is the gul'dan of this and the next addon, what happened to her is pretty much the same thing that happened to gul'dan at the end of WoD.

Kind of hinges on what N'Zoth's plans for her are, ultimately. I also doubt she's going to wind up as queen of anything given how she teased N'Zoth in the 8.2 intro cut-scene, but who really knows the mind of an Old God?

my bet, shell end up somewhat like ashvane, n'zoth saved her just to corrupt her further into some even uglier "more powerful" creature, uses her for his means and then when we kill her again, hes like "youve failed me for the last time azshara blah blah" and shes dead.

[Vladier]

But she did lose. Her plan was to usher in the return of the Black Empire and rule as its queen, clearly she isn't the queen of anybody now.

Nothing is clear at all in that regard. In fact, considering how N'Zoth and Azshara already gestate children together (Azshara by claiming eggs in her hatchery as her own, despite the fact that probably none of them were laid by her; N'Zoth by having Orgozoa, who is probably an autonomous part of him like all initial Old God servants, tend to them) and how carefully N'Zoth picked up her body, it's entirely possible that theirs is perhaps the most unhealthy marital relationship ever thought up. Even more unhealthy than what Azshara wanted between herself and Sargeras.

After all, if he isn't going to honor his deal, why bother with resurrecting and saving her? It's doubtful that N'Zoth would go to such lengths just to torture her. And she is still the adored queen of his largest known force on Azeroth.

[Varodoc]

Nothing is clear at all in that regard. In fact, considering how N'Zoth and Azshara already gestate children together (Azshara by claiming eggs in her hatchery as her own, despite the fact that probably none of them were laid by her; N'Zoth by having Orgozoa, who is probably an autonomous part of him like all initial Old God servants, tend to them) and how carefully N'Zoth picked up her body, it's entirely possible that theirs is perhaps the most unhealthy marital relationship ever thought up. Even more unhealthy than what Azshara wanted between herself and Sargeras.

After all, if he isn't going to honor his deal, why bother with resurrecting and saving her? It's doubtful that N'Zoth would go to such lengths just to torture her. And she is still the adored queen of his largest known force on Azeroth.

Given how the Naga military was crippled in this patch and that they were never shown as stronger/more numerous than the Faceless armies, N'Zoth does not need the Naga anymore.

Why bother with resurrecting and saving her? You answered your own question. To turn her into her servant and humiliate her. If you think that N'Zoth is the kind of God who shares power (if they even exist), you haven't been paying attention at all.