Afterlives - Maldraxxus

[Chain Chungus]

She's a warrior rogue? Dual classing confirmed!

[Zmagoslav]

What species is Margrave Akarek?

Apparently they are called "Aranakk";

it's a lot like a nerubian, with a more humanoid upper half.
https://wow.gamepedia.com/Aranakk

Seeing how little they achieved with this short I have little hope for the Ardenweald one where we will follow some random fawn person? The last one will be Kael or denathrius, not really sure with the framing, I hope that will at least have some juicy details.

It's gonna be Denathrius; the eyes give it away.
And it's gonna be mainly about his "iron rule"; despicting torture and how he deals with traitors (casting them into the light).

[blobbydan]

This tells me the only zone that had me interested in SL will have Thrall's mommy in it. Great job Blizz. You ruined the one thing that was drawibg me to SL. Out. Again.

[Mojo03]

Sorry to say, after Bastion was great, but this is easily one of the weakest shorts they've ever done, if not THE weakest.

I'm still at a total loss as to how there is a whole zone full of skeletons (how the hell are they skeletons in the afterlife?) playing game of thrones in the afterlife, with one fleshed orc.

Makes zero sense to me.

[GreenJesus]

Again, she was sick and frail and had no training. In the wiki pages, Clefthoof are described as a hunters most prized, and worst nightmare, combined.
Talbuk have been known to gore seasoned warriors to death.
So yeah, I wouldn’t state it’s “just not be dumb,” especially when you take into consideration Draka’s backstory of, to say it again and maybe drive it home, being sick, frail, and having no training to hunt or survive in the wilderness at all.

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That’s the thing, the wiki even states they aren’t easy to kill. The fact she could learn to hunt and kill these things, while surviving in the wild also with no training, is a testament to her being a warrior. She trained herself to do these things. Her own backstory gives credit to her being a warrior that you are just choosing to overlook because...honestly, at this point I have no idea. Maybe just a hate boner for Blizzard. Any little bit of research, and again even in the link you yourself posted, shows she has a right to be considered a warrior.
Now, maybe others should have been showcased, but Blizzard went with her. So be it. Just because your favorite person wasn’t picked doesn’t mean it’s not a decent choice.

lol if those aren't easy to kill lorewise then how the fuck did we beat the Legion? But seriously, comparing her "killed 3 nameless animals" in a comic (are the comics even canon??) to characters like Grom that killed Mannoroth or Varian that killed dozens of Fel guards and the giant thingy. She had no real person-to-person combat experience except dying to an ambush. In Warcraft lore her "accomplishments" are basically non-existent besides giving birth to Jesus and then dying.

[Ophenia]

Disappointing. I don't care this is Draka - in fact, they could have used this short to expand on her personality. But as we don't know
- what the hell is happening in maldraxxus
- what the hell are the houses
- what the hell is maldraxxus' forces fighting against
- who the hell is her "lord"
- how the hell she feels about the fact she died, she never says a word about her previous life rofl
- why the hell is she the only orc in the entire maldraxxus apparently
As there is nothing really personal here (it's just a big quest any unnamed could have done), I have the feeling they could have done the same video without the voice-acting saying "I am Draka", because this information is in no way relevant to the story they deliver.
Just imagine Bastion starting with "I am Uther !" and then you follow his story chopping trees in the forest and sipping tea or whatever.

Plus, the "plot" of this cinematic is totally foggy. We don't know the beginning (there are houses, one has fallen, she has to deliver a message) and the ending is some kind of "hah ! gotcha" moment that just doesn't work. I've sent you... THE KEY ! One warrior ? If she was the key you wouldn't be dead to begin with.

And btw... THERE MIGHT BE SURVIVORS ! Girl, everyone in Shadowlands is already dead. What happens to dead people in shadowlands ? Do they reach the Shadowshadowlands ?

[bowlink]

@Ophenia

Maby shadowlands has Disney's Coco rules I.E.: If you die in the shadowlands you die for real

[GreenJesus]

Disappointing. I don't care this is Draka - in fact, they could have used this short to expand on her personality. But as we don't know
- what the hell is happening in maldraxxus
- what the hell are the houses
- what the hell is maldraxxus' forces fighting against
- who the hell is her "lord"
- how the hell she feels about the fact she died, she never says a word about her previous life rofl
- why the hell is she the only orc in the entire maldraxxus apparently
As there is nothing really personal here (it's just a big quest any unnamed could have done), I have the feeling they could have done the same video without the voice-acting saying "I am Draka", because this information is in no way relevant to the story they deliver.
Just imagine Bastion starting with "I am Uther !" and then you follow his story chopping trees in the forest and sipping tea or whatever.

Plus, the "plot" of this cinematic is totally foggy. We don't know the beginning (there are houses, one has fallen, she has to deliver a message) and the ending is some kind of "hah ! gotcha" moment that just doesn't work. I've sent you... THE KEY ! One warrior ? If she was the key you wouldn't be dead to begin with.

And btw... THERE MIGHT BE SURVIVORS ! Girl, everyone in Shadowlands is already dead. What happens to dead people in shadowlands ? Do they reach the Shadowshadowlands ?

Pretty much all of this. Plus, what exactly is she protecting and why should she or we care? It looks like she is "protecting" a bunch of skeletons and she has no real relation to any of them. Why is Draka the only orc there and why is her warrior/rogue skills "the key".. like how fucking cheesy is that?

[Cavox]

Yeah, I agree with most people here. Boring and about a non-character whose only achievement was to give birth to Thrall. Also re-used assets from Illidan Harbringer trailer. These type of trailers are already extremely lazy, but re-using assets? Come on.

[Ophenia]

@Ophenia

Maby shadowlands has Disney's Coco rules I.E.: If you die in the shadowlands you die for real

That's what I suspect. Like Shadowlands is the "last chance" before being erased entirely, which is weird tbh

Pretty much all of this. Plus, what exactly is she protecting and why should she or we care? It looks like she is "protecting" a bunch of skeletons and she has no real relation to any of them. Why is Draka the only orc there and why is her warrior/rogue skills "the key".. like how fucking cheesy is that?

All the "why" are the main problems with this to be honest. Maybe this will all make sense when Shadowlands will be live, but like that, it's just an elaborate slideshow about one girl doing some quest. I can understand they want to keep mysteries (like the "threat" to the shadowlands), but in the end, if we don't know who is her lord, why should we care about his death ?

All the "key" thing will probably end with Draka being the Savior of the Shadowlands o/
Guess we'll see...

[Zmagoslav]

Sorry to say, after Bastion was great, but this is easily one of the weakest shorts they've ever done, if not THE weakest.

I'm still at a total loss as to how there is a whole zone full of skeletons (how the hell are they skeletons in the afterlife?) playing game of thrones in the afterlife, with one fleshed orc.

Makes zero sense to me.

Well to be fair each of the 5 houses has a different kind of inhabitants;
- house of plagues (judging by the color scheme, probably previously also Vashjj) - no idea, they kind of all exploded
- house of eyes (previously Draka) - spider-people
- house of chosen (Morgaine; now also Draka and Vashjj) - fleshy dead people, called "maldraxxus gladiators"
- house of constructs; abominations and those little dudes who stitch them together
- house of rituals - liches and necromancers

[Chonar]

Rogue/Warrior multiclass confirmed. /s

[Cosmic Janitor]

That's what I suspect. Like Shadowlands is the "last chance" before being erased entirely, which is weird tbh

Who knows. I suspect the same though, they probably break down and get absorbed into the shit realm the arbiter crammed them into, to be "reborn" (well their essence at least) as one of the pathetic natural inhabitants of the place. Maybe demon rules apply, afterall the incorporeal soul of people suddenly is corporeal in the shadowlands for no reason. If they fight in other places with demons they just get back to the SL. There is also a chance that they just have their soul-soul go on to the next level of the afterlife.. We are in the "make it up as we go" territory. For all we know this isn't the final stop yet. We also know that Kyrians can go to the mortal plane and pluck souls from there without anyone seeing it, so who is to say that there aren't infinitely more layers to this nonsense?

[Rootsbum]

I did like it, but it didnt give any new info or give me the "ooh, cant wait to see whats next"
Wish they would touch on why Maldraxxus looks so similar to scourge-stuff. Are they linked somehow?

[Cosmic Janitor]

I did like it, but it didnt give any new info or give me the "ooh, cant wait to see whats next"
Wish they would touch on why Maldraxxus looks so similar to scourge-stuff. Are they linked somehow?

Supposedly the Scourge took inspiration from Maldraxxus because... reasons. In reality it makes little to no sense that stuff like constructs and plague would be there because these are concepts that only make sense among the living, especially if it's the military/warrior afterlife, not a hellscape ment for torment inspired by H.R. Geiger body horror.

[Soulwind]

That's what I suspect. Like Shadowlands is the "last chance" before being erased entirely, which is weird tbh

Or at least until they need to bring back someone we killed there, and they introduce the Shadowshadowlands in another expansion.

[melzas]

Meh, still not interested in Draka really the wrong character they took.
And this is from somebody that really likes the Orc race.

So many other Orcs would put the hype up a lot more, Orgrim, Grom, Garrosh, Ner’zhul heck even Blackhand would had been better.

Yeah but they already had spotlight in WoD and Draka is female, so they probably just wanted female orc for "diversity".

Which sucks because I wasn't interested in Draka or her story, and that short cinematic didn't change that.

[Greengrim]

Compared to Bastion this was pretty boring

This exactly...

[MrLachyG]

This exactly...

they should've done Bastion last. Revendreth second last. cause those 2 are going to be the best cause nostalgia

[Ophenia]

Or at least until they need to bring back someone we killed there, and they introduce the Shadowshadowlands in another expansion.

Would be fun that anyone "killed" in Shadowlands ends up in the living realm, like some kind of nonsense eternal loop, allowing Blizz' to endlessly recycle stuff