Shadowlands Update: Bastion and the Kyrian Covenant

[Kyphael]

Is this World of Warcraft ?

No, it's Hello Kitty: Island Adventure

[Cosmic Janitor]

No, it's Hello Kitty: Island Adventure

That means the wrinting is finally going to improve?

[Nerovar]

See above...this "shit" was indeed apparently already made up on the fly somewhere in the 1990s

Making up things on the fly isn't inherently bad. You have to start somewhere after all. It just seems weird to me that they would so easily disregard the older parts of their own creation out of laziness or ignorance. It's not incredibly hard to have some degree of consistency. It's not a new phenomenon though. Blizzard has retconned so many ridiculous, unnecessary things ever since TBC hit the shelves.

I don't know what the reasoning is. Maybe they think telling "interesting" stories is more valuable than internal consistency but to me the lack of a solid canonical framework that remains untouched by retcons simply devalues all the possible stories they could make out of this. You can't build your house on sand after all.

[Kyphael]

That means the wrinting is finally going to improve?

I wouldn't bet on it with Danuser in charge.

[Josyel]

This looks like a fanfic of a new writer that never played any of the previous games or expansions and dont have the passion of reading all of the backstory of hundred of old quests and just retcon everything to make a shiny new HOLY LIGHT BLUE and RED DARK SPIKE zones.

Oh, hello Cristie Golden.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Making up things on the fly isn't inherently bad. You have to start somewhere after all. It just seems weird to me that they would so easily disregard the older parts of their own creation out of laziness or ignorance. It's not incredibly hard to have some degree of consistency. It's not a new phenomenon though. Blizzard has retconned so many ridiculous, unnecessary things ever since TBC hit the shelves.

I don't know what the reasoning is. Maybe they think telling "interesting" stories is more valuable than internal consistency but to me the lack of a solid canonical framework that remains untouched by retcons simply devalues all the possible stories they could make out of this. You can't build your house on sand after all.

Well even back then they couldn't be consistent, see the draenei retcons in TBC. Today we have the added effect of the original writers no longer being around and the general mindset of the new garde in most popculture jobs is that they can't do no wrong and they own the place now. Respect for the canon and the work of their seniors is pretty much no longer a thing these days.

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I wouldn't bet on it with Danuser in charge.

Oh no, he writes for Hello Kitty as well now?

[Varodoc]

ugh....i dunno....i went from my grandma to my parents' appartment when i was 8 and stumbled upon my brother loading Warcraft 2 on our first ever computer
it was the classic image of a Human Footman facing an Orc Grunt

now i'm going to fight the spirits in the afterlife and Sylvanas....again....again....

not really feeling it

So you think a franchise shouldn't explore new themes in 25 years? Lmao.

[Redroniksre]

It absolutely was fleshed out. There are a lot of quests that had you entering the Shadowlands. This expansion retcons the fuck out of so much lore and has made me lose all faith in the writers.

I am pretty sure it is -not- fleshed out. Though if you count quests where you "phase" into a Shadowlands version as what content -you- want for it, then sure. I mean they did the same with Emerald dream, remember entering that with a green border around your screen? I am sure you wouldn't want that instead of what we got in Legion.

[Nerovar]

I am pretty sure it is -not- fleshed out. Though if you count quests where you "phase" into a Shadowlands version as what content -you- want for it, then sure. I mean they did the same with Emerald dream, remember entering that with a green border around your screen? I am sure you wouldn't want that instead of what we got in Legion.

I mean, if it's not fleshed out then they shouldn't struggle so hard with not retconning things, right?

[Michael Jackson]

So you think a franchise shouldn't explore new themes in 25 years? Lmao.

it's working great for Warhammer 40k, LOTR, ESO, etc

[TheRevenantHero]

I am pretty sure it is -not- fleshed out. Though if you count quests where you "phase" into a Shadowlands version as what content -you- want for it, then sure. I mean they did the same with Emerald dream, remember entering that with a green border around your screen? I am sure you wouldn't want that instead of what we got in Legion.

Except the Emerald Dream was a placeholder but in lore it was much more fleshed out. The Shadowlands, in lore, was always described as just a shadowy grey version of whatever world you were on. It wasn't a whole big new place like the emerald Dream.

[Redroniksre]

Except the Emerald Dream was a placeholder but in lore it was much more fleshed out. The Shadowlands, in lore, was always described as just a shadowy grey version of whatever world you were on. It wasn't a whole big new place like the emerald Dream.

Right, and you can't make interesting zones doing that, so they took liberties. Otherwise we would be doing just like we were before, brief glimpses. But we didn't know much else, other than Helya and the Valkyr which aren't being retconned with Bastion.

[Magicon]

Yeah, is this even wow anymore? Why do you spoil and showcase as much as you can, so it gets boring to most people when it finally arrives?

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Yeah, is this even wow anymore? Why do you spoil and showcase as much as you can, so it gets boring to most people when it finally arrives? Looks boring btw : )

[TheRevenantHero]

Right, and you can't make interesting zones doing that, so they took liberties. Otherwise we would be doing just like we were before, brief glimpses. But we didn't know much else, other than Helya and the Valkyr which aren't being retconned with Bastion.

Or....Blizzard could have had a creative idea for once instead of royally fucking their own god damned lore. Sure, you can't make interesting zones out of how they had established the shadowlands. So instead of taking a dump on your own lore, you come up with -something else-.

[LuminaL]

Right, again no characters said anything because there was nothing to say. They never fleshed out the afterlife before Shadowlands, only hints here and there. So, as i see it, they have complete creative freedom to do what they want, because there are no rules and no toes to step on when creating it.



Specifics will certainly get retconned, mainly thinking of the time difference, i can bet they will forget all about that. They threw in base stories for all the other "zones" in Azeroth, like the Emerald Dream, because they weren't really going to touch them. Now we have reached the point where we have been everywhere, so they have to dig up these old bones and give them new life so its actually interesting (since a mirror reality would kinda be boring, though Torghast mirrors ICC)

the argument of time skip is silly at best, time passed differently on AU draenor as well but we didn't get a time skip. why should we get a time skip here? and btw there is no mention of time passing differently in shadowlands