Midnight 12.X Patches & World Soul Saga Speculation Thread

[huth]

You're telling me when Tyrande & Malfurion are saying their tearful goodbyes, and talking about the "agony" of their separation, its supposed to be temporary? Malfurion not only had nothing to do during while Tyrande was avenging their race, we know Malfurion spent *centuries* in the dream, away from Tyrande, like it was nothing. If its supposed to be temporary what is he even talking about? Malfurion canonically went years without seeing his wife *for fun*

Malfurion is not coming back because the writers have explicitly told us they have nothing for him to do. They even talked about how they should have had Saurfang kill him for all they did with his character after that.

Maybe look at the actual explicitly laid out rules for the swap, not just the contextual clues that support your view. It's temporary.

The last two times Malfurion was away from her he was in danger. Of course Tyrande isn't going to be happy with him leaving. That doesn't mean it's permanent.

He'll be back when the writers come up with something for him to do at the latest.

[Berkilak]

That he survived legion just to die here.
Sindragosa waa obvious as well, but they needed an increase in their roster, so why the trouble >.>

What benefit does his continued survival bring, other than contributing to some sort of arbitrary quota? He got to die on his own terms, in his own time, with the people he chose. It's a profoundly rare death in fiction. And one I thought the WoW writers handled extremely well, which is a rarity. Credit where credit is due - all of this was a good thing.

[Sondrelk]

What benefit does his continued survival bring, other than contributing to some sort of arbitrary quota? He got to die on his own terms, in his own time, with the people he chose. It's a profoundly rare death in fiction. And one I thought the WoW writers handled extremely well, which is a rarity. Credit where credit is due - all of this was a good thing.

Not to mention that to keep him around would require justifying his continued survival in more ways than just relevance to the plot. Dude was introduced sleeping in what was effectively life support. The fact that he is on the Dragon Isles at all is a bit questionable.

I'm sure the writers could have mentioned a Blue Dragon artifact somewhere that lets him survive more easily, but what would be the point.
As was mentioned. Him getting to die peacefully has itself strong thematic resonance. The Blue dragons, normally such a troubled race, has finally gotten to the point where they can die peacefully, without sacrificing themselves or being killed by enemies.

[AOL Instant Messenger]

What benefit does his continued survival bring, other than contributing to some sort of arbitrary quota? He got to die on his own terms, in his own time, with the people he chose. It's a profoundly rare death in fiction. And one I thought the WoW writers handled extremely well, which is a rarity. Credit where credit is due - all of this was a good thing.

I'm of that mind, as well. I see the value in maintaining a roster of recurring characters, and I tend to be the first to advocate for it, but I think Senegos' peaceful demise was a nice way of closing his story.

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But they did increase their roster? Every dragon you've brought back got several moments to show their personality. They are all now part of the roster.

To be fair, I can understand his concern on account of that you really need to enclose the word "personality" in scare quotes in regards to any modern WoW characters; however, one can hardly condemn Blizzard for finally undertaking to refill their character roster, even if there is much, much more that you absolutely can condemn them for.

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It could still happen, but I'm not getting my hopes high for 11.0. I think Avaloren/Other Side of Azeroth is the likeliest at this point.

To be fair, I can see the value of going to a continent-sized location as being roughly equivalent to the value of a world revamp in terms of scale alone, though not in terms of sentiment. I could see plenty of ground—in a literal and figurative sense—to build on from that.

[Paula Deen]

It is clear the next major patch is going to involve the unused space off the coast of the plains with a World Tree, per the end cinematic that was datamined long ago, now put into context with the conclusion of the Ember's story.

Dealing with Elune is definitely something on a general list of loose threads....so what about going to the moon?

[Berkilak]

To be fair, I can understand his concern on account of that you really need to enclose the word "personality" in scare quotes in regards to any modern WoW characters; however, one can hardly condemn Blizzard for finally undertaking to refill their character roster, even if there is much, much more that you absolutely can condemn them for.

I think Blizzard often confuses a character in a story with a simplistic "individual that does things." Don't get me wrong - having your characters have agency in the story is a good thing. But there's more to a character than a few lines in the wiki detailing the events they were involved in. A character needs to learn, change, and grow. WoW's chief problem with their narrative is that they continue to use the same characters for the same purposes year after year.

Thrall and Jaina are the chief offenders. Both already had their stories told long, long ago. But they get shoehorned into pretty much every new story, relearning lessons already learned, and never really changing their status quo. They're added because their iconic, not because the writers actually have an interesting story for them to tell.

Senegos was fantastic because he was introduced as an ancient dragon struggling to cling onto life to protect the future of his family and ended as a someone with newfound confidence in the future of that family, allowing him to release his tenuous grasp on life with peace of mind. It was the perfect culmination of his character arc, and completely in keeping with that "bittersweet feel good" mandate that a lot of the writing in Dragonflight has seemingly been adhering to. To keep him around would be a betrayal of his very narrative purpose and completely rob him of any kind of resonance as a character.

[Berkilak]

I would love to go to the moon. But what would that look like? Would it be empty or would there be civilizations, fauna and flora in the craters? Seems strange to me.

Could look a little something like this:

Or this:


There's a lot you can do with it. Visiting the moon isn't even unique in the MMO space, let alone the fantasy genre. Could be very interesting, and certainly wouldn't strain credulity more than yet another undiscovered continent shrouded from us for thousands a years.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

The moon having a psuedo Titan Satelite system area makes sense or at least in concept I'd be fine with it.

[Nymrohd]

I have to say I enjoyed the blue flight story (had to do it twice for the damn mount) but one thing that just constantly felt weird is that no one seems to remember I killed half their family. Like Kirygosa . . . we killed both of her parents

Also, a bit more variety in visage forms would be nice.

[Berkilak]

The moon having a psuedo Titan Satelite system area makes sense or at least in concept I'd be fine with it.

It would make sense for them to set up an post separate from, but close to, whatever planet they're ordering.

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I have to say I enjoyed the blue flight story (had to do it twice for the damn mount) but one thing that just constantly felt weird is that no one seems to remember I killed half their family. Like Kirygosa . . . we killed both of her parents

Who says she didn't remember? Her entire story was about starting a new life and not dwelling on the horrors of her past.

[Nymrohd]

Who says she didn't remember? Her entire story was about starting a new life and not dwelling on the horrors of her past.

Lovely but I AM the horrors of her past. I guess Kiry is mighty zen.

[Berkilak]

Lovely but I AM the horrors of her past. I guess Kiry is mighty zen.

Precisely the point.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Kiry eventually needs to face what bothers her, running away aint gonna remove that emotional pain. But I do think she's interesting Blue. That aside my rants about the Blue Dragon questline. I still liked it was there.

[Nymrohd]

Kiry eventually needs to face what bothers her, running away aint gonna remove that emotional pain. But I do think she's interesting Blue. That aside my rants about the Blue Dragon questline. I still liked it was there.

Voice acting does wonders to give character to NPCs. And good god did they do a better job at Lanigosa, no idea who was the previous voice actor in the Silver Hand questline but honestly the worst one in WoW and one of the worst I've seen in any game.

[Alanar]

What mount are you talking about?

I believe if you have that lego staff you can get that form. Dragonwrath staff or what ever its called.

Not an updated model tho.

[Nightshade711]

I believe if you have that lego staff you can get that form. Dragonwrath staff or what ever its called.

Not an updated model tho.

I’m disappointed that it’s not actually “account wide”

I wish we coulda been able to at a minimum use the mount on any character that can transmog the staff.

[huth]

What mount are you talking about?

If you do it on a character that has Dragonwrath, you get the Dragonform from the staff in an extra quest at the end. Only usable by character that did the Legendary chain though, so you're not missing anything if you don't.

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I’m disappointed that it’s not actually “account wide”

I wish we coulda been able to at a minimum use the mount on any character that can transmog the staff.

Eh, it keeps the consistency. You no longer have to actually equip the staff, but it remains exclusive to those that did the questline.

[Nightshade711]

Eh, it keeps the consistency. You no longer have to actually equip the staff, but it remains exclusive to those that did the questline.

It’s just kinda weird to me.
I mean nowadays we can even use Glad mounts on characters that’ve never gotten gladiator for example.

We can already transmog the staff on all characters that can use it so it’s just a weird restriction.

[GabrielKnight]

This Blue dragon questchain is way overhyped on Twitter.

Sure, it's fun to see some overdue lore, the characters we meet are pretty quirky and charming, the voice acting is good, and I like hanging out in the "real" Azeroth.

But it's also super repetitive, going after all those Blue dragons. Because most of them follow the trite old Blizzard formula of "chat to an NPC, receive two unrelated kill/fetch quests before moving on", they feel so similar to each other. Each part is pretty shallow as well. You basically meet somebody with a gargantuan problem on their hands, and within five minutes they go "OK, let's flap away to the Dragon Isles together because family and stuff".

There are people on Twitter saying they literally cried, not just once but several times as they watched the finale. A finale featuring dragons they've barely met in the game, except as raid bosses 10 years ago.

It's also suuuper awkward to see modern day quest writers casually gloss over the fact that Malygos kept four female dragons as his baby-making machines, given how they're usually so eager to remove anything which is remotely offensive from the game these days.

You know, I only hat time to do the Zeros one, and I was about to come here and say how idiotic I though the chain was; to my surprise, I saw everybody praising it. Honestly, I felt embarrased at the whole situation: first that ball thing to catch insects, then helping A FREAKING DRAGON solve a gambling problem, let alone to Baron Revilgaz, who I never though was such a gangster in the first place.

Perhaps I'm just getting too cynical, I don't know.

[Nymrohd]

You know, I only hat time to do the Zeros one, and I was about to come here and say how idiotic I though the chain was; to my surprise, I saw everybody praising it. Honestly, I felt embarrased at the whole situation: first that ball thing to catch insects, then helping A FREAKING DRAGON solve a gambling problem, let alone to Baron Revilgaz, who I never though was such a gangster in the first place.

Perhaps I'm just getting too cynical, I don't know.

The Zeros part absolutely is stupid. The females are all pretty damn solid; I liked Haleh and Surigosa best and Azuregos is excellent. As for Lanigosa it was just a massive improvement from her last appearance. The finale with Senegos is solid. The fight vs Sindragosa was just dissatisfying because it reminds me that Blizzard cannot bother to scale shit (and given I'm a 430ilvl tankadin if it was built for me, most people would just die), like she kept casting but nothing happened.

I think the reason it is well liked is that it is pure fan service. It has a large roster and visits multiple locations. It's the exact same reason the Orc Heritage one was liked. And imo it shows how a revamp would also be well liked but that's another topic.