Dragonflight Alpha/Beta General Discussion

[Zharikov]

I never understand why people think Stonetalon Garrosh is such an outlier.

Up until MoP, all his actions in Stonetalon match with his other actions, yes, even Theramore. Theramore was an actual Alliance outpost that has been planning to raze Razor Hall and most of Durotar. It was a valid target and it's not like he purposefully went after civilians.

And come MoP, obviously his character is slowly drifting away from the Stonetalon Garrosh, because the whole expansion is about him getting megalomaniac and being influenced by his bad traits (and the Shas). It's called character development.

People bitching about Garrosh being "ruined" because he actually had character development makes me excited about them removing stories from the PTR because I'd rather let them write the game than the community.

Because he is an outlier. Afrasiabi was in charge of Stonetalon, and deliberately wrote him differently from a way that the narrative team at the time didn't want as a whole. I will admit I liked Stonetalon Garrosh (even if Afrasiabi is a rapist pos and tried to deliberately tank every female character and anything he didn't like: see Teldrassil), but it did lead to a big disconnect from everywhere else he is presented.

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9.2 was awesome though? We finally got back Sylvanas and honestly, the Zereth Mortis lore is actually quite cool. And! They didn't killed off beloved characters. The only bad thing about Shadowlands was the content draughts and the lack of exploration of Zoovals background. Funnily enough, the ending was implied from the start - Sylvanas always said they are doing this for the bigger good, so no clue why people are suddenly surprised. Yes, the Sepulcher finale was too short and missed an epilogue but we got that with the Judgement of Sylvie and we also had the awesome Anduin cinematic a week before.

Btw, I wouldn't be surprised if Danuser actually saved Aszhara from getting killed off. Afrasiabi seemed to like to kill any cool characters afterall.

Yeah, as far as I can tell 9.2 is basically the new team 'picking up the pieces' of what Afrasiabi tried to ruin. I'm very interested to see what else they can do to try and heal over those wounds, from some of what we've datamined about 9.2.5, and eager to likewise see where Dragonflight goes.

[Hitei]

Garrosh said that. Garrosh.

That's really not an example of a "bad person." Draenei literally enslave their dead in robot bodies. Void Elves & Undead are biologically the same thing. And I've never seen an explanation of how that's somehow worse than what Odyn does. And Calia's about to start making new undead using Saa'ra

Sylvanas literally agreed with him and joked back that the difference between them was that she "served the Horde."

[Nymrohd]

No. None of the points make much sense. Garrosh may be an ass, but that doesn't mean he can't be right about things. Void Elves and Undead are not "biologically the same thing" - most Undead are not Elves. And the magic that animates the Undead doesn't fall under biology anyway, so i'm not sure what the point there is to begin with.

Not sure where the thing about Calia comes from, either, or how she could "use" Saa'ra.

If anything I think the intent (at least originally, who knows after Afrasiabi left) was probably to have Saa'ra be an adversary down the line that probably manipulates Calia. "The Light has struck a bargain with the enemy of all" I thought that meant Death back then but it probably means whatever force (probably whatever existed BEFORE the First Ones built this reality) Zovaal was trying to defeat.

[Three Faced Goddess]

That and well its just coincidence and well, characters don't need to be killed off randomly or that fast. Its a waste of potential. (RIP Son of Saurfang all the way back in Wrath).

RIP The Lich King. He will be missed... by me at the very least.

[Alanar]

Sylvanas literally agreed with him and joked back that the difference between them was that she "served the Horde."

The sarcamse and smirks were all over the place tho .

[Ersula]

Not sure where the thing about Calia comes from, either, or how she could "use" Saa'ra.

Yeah its not like theres an encrypted questline involving Saa'ra & Calia on the PTR or anything.

Your attempt at damage control fails because the Argent Crusade, who are objectively good guys, also thought that the Forsaken were acting like the Scourge.

Citation needed.

Do we have any reason to believe Auchenai constructs are is not created voluntarily?

Undeath is voluntary. Unless the Jailer wants you to work for him. But that's really not a factor anymore.

Sylvanas literally agreed with him and joked back that the difference between them was that she "served the Horde."

So she's a self-aware lich queen?

Face it, back when they were led by Sylvanas, no one liked the Forsaken. The Alliance hated them, the rest of the Horde also hated them and kept them as allies only for strategic value, and pretty much everyone sane and good on Azeroth was either wary of them or wanted them gone.

Blood Elves start at friendly with the Forsaken. That's more liked than the other horde races.

[MyWholeLifeIsThunder]

I think it probably just shows how poor the oversight is when it comes to lore. Compare it to other fantasy fiction franchises and you can see it's problematic.

Basically. It's like everyone writes their own version of the characters without a solid nor consistent editorial oversight. Garrosh's swerve was just one of the most notorious demonstrations of this, until they one upped it with Sylvanas nonsensical characterization from Legion to BfA*

*and this is not a "noo Sylvanas was never evil!!", it's about the misshandled characterization between point A and B, and then the course correction to C. A *sigh* morally grey character like Sylvanas could have always feasibly go either way, but the botched nature of how they went about it was just egregious. It just screams of a lack of cohesive vision when it comes to characterization and arcs.

Also worth noting that according to old interviews, Stonetalon Garrosh was apparently by Afrasiabi, the team had some sort of miscommunication and they then settled on making him more villainous.

That's what bothers me, the fact that such "miscomunications" happened. No one was really in charge make sure his characterization had consistency, almost as if they were just making it up along the way without an overseeing vision or goal.

[huth]

Yeah its not like theres an encrypted questline involving Saa'ra & Calia on the PTR or anything.

You mean the ones that are encrypted so we have no idea what they're about?

[Makorus]

Because he is an outlier. Afrasiabi was in charge of Stonetalon, and deliberately wrote him differently from a way that the narrative team at the time didn't want as a whole. I will admit I liked Stonetalon Garrosh (even if Afrasiabi is a rapist pos and tried to deliberately tank every female character and anything he didn't like: see Teldrassil), but it did lead to a big disconnect from everywhere else he is presented.

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Yeah, as far as I can tell 9.2 is basically the new team 'picking up the pieces' of what Afrasiabi tried to ruin. I'm very interested to see what else they can do to try and heal over those wounds, from some of what we've datamined about 9.2.5, and eager to likewise see where Dragonflight goes.

Except he is not an outlier at all.

Everything that Stonetalon Garrosh stands for is what Cata Garrosh stands for, and it's what Theramore Garrosh stands for. Of course it doesn't match with what MoP Garrosh stands for, but that's called character development and it's literally what all the MoP quests are about.

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RIP The Lich King. He will be missed... by me at the very least.

They should have killed the Lich King off in Wrath instead of having a shitty "haha there must always be a lich king guys xd" plot twist (if you can even call it that).

People give shit to the Shadowlands ending but that was a Million times worse.

[Sondrelk]

Except he is not an outlier at all.

Everything that Stonetalon Garrosh stands for is what Cata Garrosh stands for, and it's what Theramore Garrosh stands for. Of course it doesn't match with what MoP Garrosh stands for, but that's called character development and it's literally what all the MoP quests are about.

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They should have killed the Lich King off in Wrath instead of having a shitty "haha there must always be a lich king guys xd" plot twist (if you can even call it that).

People give shit to the Shadowlands ending but that was a Million times worse.

The "always a lich king" could probably have worked if it was actually a ploy by the Old Gods as was seemingly hinted at by Yogg-Saron, as well as the Old God music sting during that raid cinematic.

[Zharikov]

Except he is not an outlier at all.

Everything that Stonetalon Garrosh stands for is what Cata Garrosh stands for, and it's what Theramore Garrosh stands for. Of course it doesn't match with what MoP Garrosh stands for, but that's called character development and it's literally what all the MoP quests are about.

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They should have killed the Lich King off in Wrath instead of having a shitty "haha there must always be a lich king guys xd" plot twist (if you can even call it that).

People give shit to the Shadowlands ending but that was a Million times worse.

I mean, say what you will, but even 8 years ago they admit that Stonetalon garrosh was written differently from everything else in Cataclysm

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eng...e-azeroth.html

I imagine it's because of the sheer scope of cata and the ridiculous number of quests and arcs they had to write, really, but it was still a disconnect. (honestly, crazy they even did it - compare the number of zone quests they had to do versus how many they typically do in an expansion.)

[Makorus]

I mean, say what you will, but even 8 years ago they admit that Stonetalon garrosh was written differently from everything else in Cataclysm

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eng...e-azeroth.html

I imagine it's because of the sheer scope of cata and the ridiculous number of quests and arcs they had to write, really, but it was still a disconnect. (honestly, crazy they even did it - compare the number of zone quests they had to do versus how many they typically do in an expansion.)

Yeah and Afriasabi also stated that Sylvanas actually was 100% behind Wrathgate. Must be all that drinking-at-work stuff and molesting co-workers clouding his memories.

I don't really care what he says. He is not written differently at all. People constantly mention "Oh, he is sooo different in Stonetalon", when he is really not.

Even the interview is like "Oh, it looks like he was going in a different direction!". Was he? In Stonetalon, his only characterization is "is against nuking civilian druids". Nothing he does in Cata or MoP goes against that lmao.

[Sondrelk]

Yeah and Afriasabi also stated that Sylvanas actually was 100% behind Wrathgate. Must be all that drinking-at-work stuff and molesting co-workers clouding his memories.

I don't really care what he says. He is not written differently at all. People constantly mention "Oh, he is sooo different in Stonetalon", when he is really not.

Even the interview is like "Oh, it looks like he was going in a different direction!". Was he? In Stonetalon, his only characterization is "is against nuking civilian druids". Nothing he does in Cata or MoP goes against that lmao.

It is a direct contradiction of his characterization in the MoP pre-patch where he is entirely okay with using a second mana-bomb on a similar town.

[Makorus]

It is a direct contradiction of his characterization in the MoP pre-patch where he is entirely okay with using a second mana-bomb on a similar town.

Theramore is not just "a town", it's a military outpost right outside the Durotar. Nortwatch Hold who are affiliated with Theramore literally have plans to burn down Orgrimmar, Razor Hill and Sen'jin Village. Theramore forces actively attack the Horde.

Theramore was a valid military target. Random Druids that have Night Elves as part of them are not a valid military target.

[Dracullus]

Warcraft story was a big mess since Vanilla, so belowed Wrath and Legion are just grand finale for two Warcraft III threats. Only really good storylines are side stuff: some from MoP/WoD, but especially Suramar, Zandalar, Jaina stuff from 8.0, Revendreth (Revendreth kinda copied lot of stuff from Suramar though).

In Zandalar, if we ignore war stuff, Horde experience on BfA launch was amazing, really cohesive, interesting and down to earth (for fantasy) story and introduction to first raid. I really hope 10.0 will be exactly like that, solid story without "champion world is ending" bullshit.

[Sondrelk]

Warcraft story was a big mess since Vanilla, so belowed Wrath and Legion are just grand finale for two Warcraft III threats. Only really good storylines are side stuff: some from MoP/WoD, but especially Suramar, Zandalar, Jaina stuff from 8.0, Revendreth (Revendreth kinda copied lot of stuff from Suramar though).

In Zandalar, if we ignore war stuff, Horde experience on BfA launch was amazing, really cohesive, interesting and down to earth (for fantasy) story and introduction to first raid. I really hope 10.0 will be exactly like that, solid story without "champion world is ending" bullshit.

Zone specific storylines during levelling tends to be solid. Usually it's just when it's part of a bigger story that it starts failing.
Drustvar for instance had a fantastic storyline, and the reason is likely because it didn't have to consider, or deal with the greater BfA faction war storyline. Rather it could focus solely on just the witch stuff.

[Veluren]

Zone specific storylines during levelling tends to be solid. Usually it's just when it's part of a bigger story that it starts failing.
Drustvar for instance had a fantastic storyline, and the reason is likely because it didn't have to consider, or deal with the greater BfA faction war storyline. Rather it could focus solely on just the witch stuff.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that because I was told elsewhere it was a spicy take.

The zone storylines tend to be good, hell even the concurrent/conclusion storyline (Zandalar Forever/Rescue Jaina) can be good.

But whenever that stops and we go back to the "main" plot with the pre-existing characters starts back up, the quality swan dives into a shallow pond. It was like that for Shadowlands too, I thought the individual chapters of the levelling story were a neat introduction to the expansion, then I hit level 60 and we were back to Sylvanas and Bradd Pitt being sad and I got bored.

[Makorus]

With the way the development works, I think they write the zone storylines first, and then force the main plot in there when they decide when that expansion is supposed to come out.

The fact that BfA works just as well (if not better) with any of the Azeroth storyline removed (like it is now with BfA Chromie Time) is proof of that

Didn't they once say that they weren't sure if they were gonna release BfA or Legion first?

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that because I was told elsewhere it was a spicy take.

The zone storylines tend to be good, hell even the concurrent/conclusion storyline (Zandalar Forever/Rescue Jaina) can be good.

But whenever that stops and we go back to the "main" plot with the pre-existing characters starts back up, the quality swan dives into a shallow pond. It was like that for Shadowlands too, I thought the individual chapters of the levelling story were a neat introduction to the expansion, then I hit level 60 and we were back to Sylvanas and Bradd Pitt being sad and I got bored.

This is less bad writing and more focusing on only one character throughout the expansion which SL is(And its Anduin not Brad pitt -_-).

[Veluren]

This is less bad writing and more focusing on only one character throughout the expansion which SL is(And its Anduin not Brad pitt -_-).

He looks too much like him. Sad Pitt, then.