I have a feeling you are very confused regarding my statement here.
Horde hasn’t always been this abomination. While we were the more edgy faction, things haven’t escalated so high until Cata. My pride is coming from the many years I played this faction, not from the mess that happened with Garosh and Sylvanas. My personal preference for Sylvanas comes from other reasons, not fist bumping Teldrassil.
When I said it was ironical, it was because we got humiliated (for a good reason ofc). We can’t lift our heads up anymore, we’re just criminals. That was the irony sir.
And that has nothing to do with the council. the council was a good move, but it needs time to become strong and the leaders to actually trust and advise each other.
I don’t know what you understood but that’s my point of view.
Okay fair enough,i get were you’re coming from and i get you have pride in the faction whilst acknowledging all the crazy that Blizz has heaped on to it since Cata just like as Alliance players we’re proud of our faction even though our leaders are written like complete idealilstic morons every expansion that make the My Little Ponies look like war hardened cynical emotionally scarred individuals by comparison.
But your initial post-
Was not a good use of Irony to be fair which is what just made think huhh
Author confirmed with recent interview that Bwonsamdi faked his vision to mislead Zekhan and push him into action. She also said that Bwonsamdi was saving troll souls only.
Which makes sense, in order for Bwonsamdi to intervene you need to make a bargain with him, which Saurfang didn’t make, nor he ever encountered this Loa.
And Bwonsamdi does not shy to fake stuff. His move though had positive consequences showing that lies and mischief can result in something good.
oh and the name “Zappy Boy” is also canon thanks to Bwon now, he directly said it to Zekhan…and considering “Zappy Boy” was invented by the playerbase, one could say Bwonsamdi actually represents the (troll) fanbase in WoW…so he is just…all the troll fans
I’m not really surprised about it.
But i don’t see the reason as to why the author should’ve written him as doing such in said situation.
We all know he is often a self-serving trickster. We got that message abundantly clear.
I fail to see what harm would’ve done to his character, if he had genuinely had this gesture with Saurfang.
It would signal better his opposition towards Sylvanas and would’ve given him more ties with the Horde.
And would’ve helped define more layers for the character.
It’s not as if he wasn’t shown capable of taking souls that weren’t troll. Vol’jin had to intercede for him to not take Tyrathan Khort.
And the guy had never interacted with him either.
Not strongly against it, but i think the alternative was better.
I must’ve forgot. I thought Zandalari got him, in this case it was indeed odd. Maybe Bwon thout that since Tyrathan was Vol’Jin’s pet he could take it as well
Had to think on my reply a while because I didn’t want to come across as a flipflopper.
But I’m actually pleased with the vision just being a manipulation, just fits allot beter with the Bwonsamdi we came to know in BFA.
I’m a bit confused though, at first I thought it only logical Bwonsamdi would care for Troll souls. And even taking other souls that would be sacrificed to honor him, makes sense.
But now…with what I’ve seen from Shadowlands, example that(imo) awfull quest where a Tauren soul turns into a Kyrian, in mind, I’m wondering why he would be so picky for Troll souls, since I get the impression that in the Shadowlands, with those covenants, it’s irrelevant what species the soul was before he or she passed on?
Ehh there can be many reasons, he was watching them before trolls were calling themselves trolls, so in the very beginning likely before other races on Azeroth came to be. And it seems he grew fond of them, Trolls also woship him and give him offerings so he grows stronger. While nobody else is doing that.
He is not exclusive to trolls when it comes to making a deals with, as we saw in dungeon, but he truly cares for them.
So I think it’s personal bias as someone who just watched over them for centuries, he even took their form and customs (because he couldn’t be one of them if he predated them).
So I’d think it’s a matter of really long relationship of giving and taking that made him so invested.
That’s actually a cool theory.
And yeah, he’s a sentient being, why wouldn’t he have favorites.
Just like Elune and the Night Elves, well originally atleast.
I know this concerns the story but I can’t talk about that without talking about the terrible writing. The book is boring and that’s about the worse thing it could be. I’ve read some terrible books cover to cover cause the writing was so terrible that it kept me amused.
Not with this, it had nothing going on for it. The subject was boring, unlike War Crimes, which while not great at least had a main plot that kept you reading past the corny character side interactions and on to the main plot, the trial and witnesses, what they reveal, what they say and so on. That was the last time Baine was interesting.
This book however, drifts around the subject with is often confusing to the point of annoyance. The main subject itself is uninteresting at least in my opinion. Heavily out of touch with the established lore and furiously bent to fit some narrative.
I have no kind words for this book. In my own opinion it was a waste of money and time.
At least even if the story was a bit boring the book showed that the Alliance is capable of morally grey/evil acts too like freely torturing innocent Horde civilians with the Void just because they want to get some information
and even Anduin was kinda ok with this method…admittedly though Blizzard probably specifically added this part just to make the Horde players feel better about the burning of Teldrassil, so they made the Alliance look bad in comparison too, but of course the problem is that that at least for now acts like this of the Alliance are only in books and not usually showed in game where it’s actually important…
I disagree. This was the worse way to do this. If they want to make the Alliance badder, more prone to violence they should do it in game and gradually not in a book. At least give players some satisfaction.
To detail that, take the Illidan book for instance, that follows an event the player participated in. The battle with Illidan in the Black Temple. Players being written in the story, reading that part was nothing short of epic for me.
This… not so much, I’m afraid. Maybe Blizzard and Miss Roux could take a hint from that and involve the players some more. And quite frankly I kinda wish these writers would use a specific character of their own to present the story via interaction with the other characters. But meh…
I wouldn’t say that this book had boring premise. A lot of people wanted to know the Zandalri stance on recent affairs, how they’re doing, What is Talanji thinking and what is Bwonsamdi’s role.
So I think these were very important informations. However the delivery was a hit and miss. Now, I don’t know where exactly is Blizzard’s dictated content and where actually is her own device. These are details we will never know for sure.
But all in all it could’ve been done in better way.
I wanted to give this author a benefit of doubt but haaaaaah.
I just finished the book myself and I liked your analysis of the book. The development of a few characters were superb, others not so much. Talanji who had most screentime didn’t get a good development. While Anduin on the other hand, had less screentime and managed to get a better development.
I don’t even know what to say about the new Horde council and just the fact that pacifist Calia is a part of it makes me sick…
The rising conflict within the Alliance was intriguing though and I hope this is something they will expand upon sometime in the future. But I don’t understand why Tyrande spared Sira in the end, it felt a bit forced and out of character.
Wonder what will happen to her now or if her part is done and she will remain in the Stockades lorewise and we never see her again.
Nathanos and his new Troll gang, in other words the “bad guys” was indeed poorly written and rarely expanded upon. It would be more interesting if they didn’t focus on Apari and the other Troll at all. I would’ve preferred if it focused more on Nathanos.
The “good guys”, aka the Horde & the Alliance never lost anything as far as I’m concerned. It would’ve been far more exciting if Talanji had one of Matthias Shaws legs chopped off for tresspassing, Zekhan actually dying or Bwonsamdi being sucked into the Maw.
Hell even Saurfang seemed to be going to a happy place after death, despite the disturbances within the spirit world.
It feels like this book explored more about the characters motivations, rather than the development of the story. I had hoped that the book would be more about bridging Battle for Azeroth with Shadowlands.
Hard to believe Sylvanas flew around Azeroth in the sky after the Mak’gora until after the event of this book. Especially when Nathanos appeared immediately there after escaping Nazmir.
So what did she do until now and where did she go after breaking the Helm of Domination?
It would’ve been nice to see some dialogue between her and the Jailor. Perhaps exploring how she got her powers in a backstory.
What i would’ve loved, is to have the epilogue including some information regarding what happened with Bolvar. Maybe some dialogue between him, Sylvanas and Nathanos after she broke the helm.
It started that way and said characters often ended up feeling forced and obnoxious to the overall plot, in the way they ended up ingame.
Knaak had a tendency to write stuff from that angle.
There were some good examples (Jarod Shadowsong for example), but overall, most ended up somewhat irrelevant copies for more developed alternatives (Broll vs Malfurion, or Falstad vs Kudran), or downright nasty: Kalecgos, Veeresa, Rhonin,…
The only part I genuinely enjoyed was Zekhan’s arc, I think. Considering my biases that isn’t that meagre a feat, though. At least I am kinda invested in one additional character now. His arc felt like the middle part of a coming-of-age series, and wasn’t all that badly done for that.
That said, I was going at it rather negatively, and it was better than expected. But it felt very inconsequential. A bit more foreshadowing of Alliance problems, but for the rest… I don’t expect much to stick.
I could list my problems with the story, the character motivations, and especially the world building… but it was better than Golden, so I’ll just take that and be happy. Ish.
