I know this would be some what impossible due to TWW being in some way directly connected to some characters changes being met, though I do think shadowlands as a whole should be retconned for the following.
Antagonist wasn’t developed nearly well enough
the destruction of well loved lore characters
Most of the story itself being contradictory and just down right bad
These are just a few of my opinions and I welcome anyone to tell me that they feel I’m wrong in their own headspace of thought, Though I do feel retconning shadowlands as a whole would actually be a sorry to the players who felt their loved characters were messed around with and not given the treatment they deserved due to how badly the entire expansion ending up doing.
while I agree I also feel like where would you even start
the obvious make the jailer an oppertunist who saw a chance and jumped on it rather then some great mastermind that planned out the whole history of wow since before the fall of Sargeras into a dark titan, but even then, what is the afterlife? a place people go to get sorted into some harry potter house and then do chores until time ends or something? that sounds depressing. They didn’t even refer to all the existing afterlife lore that other races had outside of the other side and the maw and it took criticism on that specific plot point where blizzard had to retcon after the fact that all afterlives exist in the shadowlands, we just can only visit the 4 based around doing chores until the end of time
I think one thing is for certain, you cannot change the beginning nor the end, it begins with Sylvanas breaking the Lich kings helmet and ends with the Jailer defeated and the threat avoided and Sylvanas mawed. But with some changes to motivations to their actions and also the how’s to their actions (jailer being an oppertunist rather then a master mind manipulator) you could go a long way.
As you said, it isn’t possible to retcon the whole thing.
But what they can do instead is make a future arc where Zovaal becomes more interesting (For example, Zovaal actually seen some big threat and the Primus was the culprit, then the Primus dominated the Zovaal we met (he even had domination runes on his body already…) and at the very end, when we killed Zovaal he snapped out of it, that being the reason for him to try to warn us of something worse to come.
But that wouldn’t save Sylvanas =
Sylvanas is really ruined.
Shadowlands was indeed a confusing expansion and some zones were just mind-blowing, boring to go through.
I wouldn’t want it removed in the sense, but should remain to show why Blizzard shouldn’t hire inexperienced story writing and also as an example as to why Game Directors should have the man berries to stand up and say “no”, when the idea has been pitched.
If we could I think the best way to handle SL is the way Highlander 3 did with Highlander 2. It pretended it never happened. Highlander 2 has to be one of the worst movies ever made, so 3 basically continued from 1 as if 2 never happened.
They’re not aliens in every cut of the film but their attempts at retconning that aspect somehow made Planet Zeist the saner option. And then there is Highlander: Endgame which managed to retcon the first three Highlander films out of existence (unless you consider Highlander: The Series as taking part in a different universe).
As for retconning Shadowlands, you could just have it take place as a fever dream in during the N’zoth fight. It starts when we get possessed and ends when we break free to blast N’zoth with the Heart of Azeroth.
That’s what he is, was never stated differently in game, the community just assumed otherwise and loved bashing the expansion for it… if ppl would actually care to really engage with SL lore, they would have realized that.
Again, this was stated in the very first Oribos questline; not a retcon. The four afterlives in game are the “main afterlives with jobs (ferrying, purging, protection, revival)” but there are myriad more. I was aware of that from the first moment I played Shadowlands.
Shadowlands is my favorite expansion, and everyone who just wants to have it retconned forgets that this game and it’s story doesn’t belong to them, but to its makers, who can do what they want with it and it IS CANON. For everything else: go write your own fanfiction but stop asking the devs to change the game according to your headcanon just because you can’t cope with the fact that the story didn’t go the way you wanted it to.
Just because Shadowlands is your favourite expansion doesn’t mean you’re the majority its been stated through figures and by the devs themselves shadowlands was in fact a failure through and through including the numbers themselves also.
Also if you want to actually have a discussion try not be condescending when you make points from your view, The devs themselves have said that the story alone was poor and theirs plenty of story in shadowlands that has actually went against established lore.
Which made no to little sense, I get your passionate about your favourite expansion but by god take those rose tinted glasses off.
While Christopher Lambert (who is Belgian or French, I can’t remember) is meant to be Scottish but speaks with a French accent. Meh… 80s action movies were great…
