Originally Posted by
Destinas
There are a bunch of other themes they could have touched on in BfA that wouldn't have felt the same. Even between G'huun and N'Zoth, things were designed a bit differently (as far as what their corruption looks like, their followers, and the Old Gods themselves).
8.3 could have been (and should have been) the ultimate Old God experience.
-Aside from Aqir and Mantid, there are also Nerubians, Silithids, and Qiraji that could have allied with N'Zoth (especially since they made new Silithid models, the Qiraji are next door to Uldum, and we saw Nerubians in Island Expeditions).
-When we last went to Ulduar at the beginning of Legion, we learned that Yogg-Saron was still somewhat active, with Saronite vapors and Faceless minions still spawning there. The most we heard in 8.3 was that Mimiron closed communications with Ulduar.
-We could have seen Blood Trolls, who were still active after Uldir before the Battle of Dazar'alor. Likewise, there are likely still creatures related to G'huun (ticks, crawgs, G'huun's faceless, blood beasts, etc), which are nowhere to be seen.
-The Void Elves generally seem mostly unaffected by the Void ripping Azeroth a new one, which could have been a nice addition to their lore in 8.3, and could have covered the generic purple Void stuff that we've seen.
-Despite the fact that the Sha were still active in Pandaria in Legion, they're nowhere to be found in 8.3. The powers and looks of the Sha were quite different from most other Old Gods, looking inky instead of the typical Void stuff.
-The Emerald Nightmare isn't entirely gone, from what we saw of Thros and the Green Dragonflight quest in BfA. Yet, despite it being extremely connected to N'Zoth, we haven't seen any Nightmare dragons or other aesthetics from it in 8.3.
-The Twilight Dragonflight was active again in Legion with the Shaman Order Hall, and they showed up in Island Expeditions, yet we're seeing "Void Dragons" in 8.3 instead.
-Likewise, the Black Dragonflight showed up in Islands, but they're nowhere to be found in 8.3 (aside from Wrathion and Ebonhorn).
-The Infinite Dragonflight got some of their powers from the Old Gods, but we aren't seeing that happen in 8.3.
-We've seen plenty of mortals allied with the Old Gods/Void (as part of the Twilight's Hammer or another allied group), which are quite limited in number in 8.3. In the past we've seen Vrykul, Drogbar, Dark Irons (allied with Ragnaros still), etc.
-They could have also written in any number of other Void-corrupted beings from other places if they wanted to, since they could simply use Void portals to bring them there. Think the Pale Orcs, Void-Scarred Krokul, Arakkoa, and Void Ethereals.
Considering this is the last huge push from the Old Gods on Azeroth (for the time being), and with Ny'alotha bleeding into Azeroth, I'm a slight bit surprised they didn't use more of these storylines they had set up from the past. Instead we're fighting just N'Zoth's immediate forces, and Tol'vir whose story goes all the way back to...Island Expeditions.