Shadowlands Pre-Expansion Patch Cinematic

[Sanguinerd]

He didn't know she was working with the jailor.

Better safe than sorry, which is what he's feeling right now I'm sure.

Plenty of powerful corpses around to help him out just in case.

[pepine]

Another poor cinematic from another poor team of writers.

Quality of story/lore in WoW has been dropping heavily since Cata. It's like they don't know where they want to go with this. The recent books haven't been much better either.

Not to mention Danuser fanboying over Sylvanas is getting pretty cringeworthy now.

[Jastall]

The Anduin kidnapping was sloppy at best. Right after a giant war the High King has no bodyguards whatsoever? No gryphons nearby? Fine, OK, it's Anduin and he also likes to moonlight as a peasant, I can accept that. But Genn just standing there like an idiot was pretty bad, he didn't even shapeshift. The kidnapping is a fine example of the writers thinking of a plot point (important characters being dragged to the Maw) then hastily figuring out how it happens afterwards.

Plus, if Bolvar knew she'd come, why not have, I dunno, his most powerful Death Knights at his side when she does? You know, those he went out of his way to have the Ebon Blade raised in Legion presumably for just such a contingency? But again, they thought of Sylvanas waltzing in, humiliating Bolvar and destroying the Helmet first, and thought of such things a distant second if they ever did.

[therealbowser]

Another poor cinematic from another poor team of writers.

Quality of story/lore in WoW has been dropping heavily since Cata. It's like they don't know where they want to go with this. The recent books haven't been much better either.

Not to mention Danuser fanboying over Sylvanas is getting pretty cringeworthy now.

The cutscene was poor but the expansion doesn't seem that bad. When Blizzard develops new lore instead of reusing the old lore, they tend to do well. They really burned out most of the lore in the first two expansions and everything after that was largely the worst scraps left.

The only exception was Warlords of Draenor, that was partially new lore (in a sense) but they still managed to make the biggest load of trash with that expansion anyone had ever seen. It was so bad they didn't even have a complete expansion, and ended it a raid tier early with no benefits.

Cataclysm and BFA both tried to 'check off the boxes' of all the lore that hadn't been tied up and due to that they ended up being pretty boring and fairly badly designed, at least for their endgame. Deathwing and N'zoth were by far the worst villains (unless we count Archimonde from WoD simply because he literally existed for about 5 minutes total of the story and we killed him like nothing).

Mists of Pandaria was completely fresh lore, instead of trying to build off of the relatively bad ideas they had in earlier Warcraft that was mainly fueled by easter eggs, they developed entirely new lore for the entire continent and it turned out to be fairly excellent. Even Siege of Orgrimmar felt good; despite how bad the faction story part was they did not focus on it as heavily as they could have.

The Broken Isles' stories in Legion--especially Suramar--was excellent and they did a very good job. With the exception that Suramar was vaguely referenced, almost all of the lore in the Broken Isles was brand new and the stories were excellent. Of course, Blizzard also pulled out all the stops to make the story as 'epic' as possible and revisited tons of old content to make the entire expansion feel like a nostalgia trip. It worked, though.

Even BFA's Kul Tiras and Zandalar continents were excellent--it was the awful faction war story that was so bad. The story for Legion's leveling content areas were all very top notch and the story felt new and fresh, only hints at what had come previously. Now not everything was great, and they made a few mistakes on the way, but I doubt you are going to find anyone that feels like, for instance, Drustvar was a bad and boring zone.

Fast forward to my point in all of this: Shadowlands is full of brand new, fresh lore. This is one of the main reasons I'm hopeful, and even a bit excited about the expansion's story. This one cutscene isn't going to define the expansion for me, but yeah, they could have done a hell of a lot better with Anduin's abduction. But there are no more checkboxes of lore Blizzard needs to finish off (aside from Sylvanas at this point, but this is story from one expansion ago). Blizzard can go all out and write whatever they want and it means the game has a tremendous potential for growth moving forward.

I know you weren't looking for an insightful response, you just want to randomly trash this cutscene (which to be fair, deserved it), but I'll still take this opportunity to make this post and talk about the future of this game's story. As Blizzard showed us when they had Illidan kill Xe'ra in Legion, they are still capable of writing excellent stories. Will Shadowlands be good? I don't know, but I hope so. It has the potential to be excellent, unlike BFA's war story which never had a chance (let alone the nonsense with N'zoth).

[Venziir]

I have no clue about Shadowlands lore, but there isn't any clear indication that this is from Sylvanas.

Aside from the fact that Bolvar mentions her and her motives quite clearly, and the fact that anyone who has paid attention to Sylvanas since Cataclysm knows she has valkyr serving her.

[Aliven]

He didn't know she was working with the jailor.

- - - Updated - - -



"He woulda worgend up and attacked"

I didn't know worgen could fly mate.

They can jump really, really high, are very strong and have fast reflexes. Unless plot armor. Then old man screams at clouds.

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The Anduin kidnapping was sloppy at best. Right after a giant war the High King has no bodyguards whatsoever? No gryphons nearby? Fine, OK, it's Anduin and he also likes to moonlight as a peasant, I can accept that. But Genn just standing there like an idiot was pretty bad, he didn't even shapeshift. The kidnapping is a fine example of the writers thinking of a plot point (important characters being dragged to the Maw) then hastily figuring out how it happens afterwards.

Plus, if Bolvar knew she'd come, why not have, I dunno, his most powerful Death Knights at his side when she does? You know, those he went out of his way to have the Ebon Blade raised in Legion presumably for just such a contingency? But again, they thought of Sylvanas waltzing in, humiliating Bolvar and destroying the Helmet first, and thought of such things a distant second if they ever did.

Problem with "rule of cool" is when the writer sense of cool is actually cringe.

[Unholyground]

The four horsemen. Nazgrim/Whitemane/Darion/Trollbane are Bolvars most powerful and loyal Deathknights. If you did the Death Knight class order hall you would know why they are there. Blizz should have shown the other two standing at each side of the chair or something though.

Darion is a big part of the early Shadowlands story too so it will make more sense when the expansion is out.

[keldarepewpew]

They can jump really, really high, are very strong and have fast reflexes. Unless plot armor. Then old man screams at clouds.

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Problem with "rule of cool" is when the writer sense of cool is actually cringe.

those mawsworn didnt even have pathfinder rank 2 unlocked i feel cheated tbh.

[Ophenia]

and the fact that anyone who has paid attention to Sylvanas since Cataclysm knows she has valkyr serving her.

Would be quite common to see flying stuff being used by some factions in Shadowlands I guess.
But yeah Valkyr = Sylvanas. Next Orc attack on Stormwind will definitely be Garrosh's fault

[FelPlague]

They can jump really, really high, are very strong and have fast reflexes. Unless plot armor. Then old man screams at clouds.

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Problem with "rule of cool" is when the writer sense of cool is actually cringe.

you got a source on how they can jump really really high? Ive seen em jump far but not high

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Next Orc attack on Stormwind will definitely be Garrosh's fault

yeah, if a ton of orcs attacked stormwind, i garun fucking tee you we would assume it was the horde and not go "MAN I WONDER WHERE THESE ORCS COVERED IN RED ARMOR CAME FROM, MAYBE SOME EXTRA FORCE AND TOTALLY NOT THE HORDE!"

[Venziir]

Would be quite common to see flying stuff being used by some factions in Shadowlands I guess.
But yeah Valkyr = Sylvanas. Next Orc attack on Stormwind will definitely be Garrosh's fault

Yeah evil valkyr using the same shadowy chains that Sylvanas used against Bolvar = Sylvanas.

[Chapel]

My question, this late afterwards, where is this cutscene in-game?