PTR Spoiler/Discussion Thread (Part 2)

Argent Dawn
2533

This has been my opinion for some time, seeing a setting-shattering lore inconsistency that makes no sense under the slightest scrutiny. It was forced out under pressure to justify a rewrite of an abandoned expansion with a plot that was being written as they went along.

WoD was trash and they had no idea of where to go after the selfie patch as ideas, money and actual active players were running low.

Dragons either speak in their staggered, dramatic voice… like… this… or they get lost in their visages and become their masks, talking like the bubbly gnome, awkward elf or whatever else they pretend to be.

Gotta have earth dragon turn void dragon to complete the cycle and get deathwing mk2. The lore does not repeat but demonstrably rhymes.

The sanctity of the dream, the living world etc. Dragons protect the world with superpowers and have sprawling, often confusing responsibilities besides eating and mating.

New writers being cycled and legacy lore locked in the basement of the dojo so that it doesn’t ruin the flow.

Time dragon prophetic vision making it urgent.

Dummy Player causing another expansion’s worth of woes, setting villains free for the promise of a fresh pair of shoes. Or a sultry voice and a wink in this case.

We already stopped him in Cata and this patch is about preventing his emergence. Undoing what we did in cata and somethingsomething butterfly effect or Queen Variana rules the Horde with an iron fist, her orcish vanguard planting the red lion banner on the moon.

And too much of either is Evil, the Good path being liberal centrism as we correct the mistakes of the past.

Basic WoW prophet woes. No wonder Velen now chills on a beach with Ishanah.

Gold standard for so much, really.

Solving every complicated problem the american way!

They completely ignored the shadowlands world threatening feral scourge outside of the belf story. You’d think it’d be important for everyone.

2 Likes
2534

It’s a thing we’ve noticed in Blizz’s writing before. Their zone-contained stories and individual questlines tend to be pretty okay. In BfA I heard people speak pretty well about say, Drustvar and Nazmir and other zones on their own, but not many people liked how the over-arching story of the Faction war was being handled. ( I do maintain they tried to put too many stories in one expansion, Azshara and N’zoth could’ve been their own expansions instead of being crammed in half-way through.)

In Dragonflight it’s a similar story. The zone-specific stories I liked, heck, I liked just sitting down with Veritistrasz and just listen to how a dragon his age actually looks at topics like loss. Or the old Dragonmaw orc who came to the Dragon Isles despite having been complicit in his clan’s crimes towards the Reds. Blizz seemed to treat some topics with more seriousness than in previous expansions.

Hence why it is such a shame that the main story just falls flat every time. Murozond deserved better, and the Dragon Aspects could get off their hinds more often aswell.

5 Likes
2535

Her voice became incredibly irritating. It was alright… Now, bleurgh.

2 Likes
2536

Dragonflight’s zones tie more heavily into the ovearching narrative than BfA did. Uniting Kul Tiras, for instance, was a really good story through and through, from the small to the big moments and could work entirely on its own divorced from the faction conflict (except Brennadam, but as we know that was specifically changed because the devs felt Kul Tiras was so divorced from the aforementioned, awfully told faction conflict).

Exploring the Dragon Isles and empowering the flights are directly tied into the opposition from the Primals, or Infinities or what have you, you just can’t escape these very crummy finales. Playing through Kul Tiras again you can almost entirely forget about the faction war. The worst thing about Kul Tiras’ story is that Jaina for whatever reason becomes Lord Admiral, but even the final cinematic is incredibly powerful and hammers home the point that you completed what you sought out to do when you were first arrested upon arrival. Hell, even Azerite serves a better narrative purpose in Kul Tiras than anywhere else in the entire expansion.

2 Likes
2537

The fights vs Incarnates should have an Aspect(s) giving support in some capacity ala Deathwing fight. They struggled to win against them at the height of their power, but murder hobos win without help?

Don’t want them stealing the kill, but actually helping us in some capacity would be nice.
(and I don’t mean Kalecgos and Khadgar/Sabellian and Wrathion being vaguely present to talk)

2 Likes
2538

This but unironically. The Horde was most enjoyable when it was led by an extremely flawed, opinionated Warchief rather than a council of Not-Anduins with zero internal tension.

We should have had War of the Ancients 2.0 at this point with both sides dedicating their numbers, big and small, to wiping each other out. Instead we have them task us with… helping setup their Spa and attend to a whelpling daycare center or watching their leader doing the exact same thing Jay’lor did in Shadowlands.

I get that you’d have a harder time conveying a sense of adventure and exploration if the Waking Shores was turned into the Waking Warzone, but at least it’d be on theme for Warcraft.

1 Like
2539

One thing that always did bug me about Murozond is, the Aspects lost their power after Cataclysm, yet Murozond was still powerful enough to give his past self pause when said past self still had his Aspect powers. Did the Old Gods give him that many steroids, or how would that have been explained? Not that it matters now apparently :frowning:

But yes, Aspects could do more. Heck, in Cataclysm Alexstrasza even fought Deathwing one-on-one over Grim Batol. And although she lost, she still made Deathwing crash into the earth aswell. Early part of Dragonflight she fought Raszageth once, but only because the latter attacked the Ruby Lifeshrine directly. Must say, despite being weakened, she still fought pretty well imo. The only other Aspect I’ve seen doing stuff directly is indeed Kalecgos, the rest after activating their shrines again, we saw very little of. Though the Blacks can be excused.

1 Like
2540

No, they have to talk and express confusing sexual tension and then let each other leave without a fight. This is very important.

(seriously what is up with that cutscene)

10 Likes
2541

Squeecore does seem a common problem in a lot of contemporary writing now that I looked it up.

5 Likes
2542

They could at least be leading the defence against Fyrakk attacks rather than the chosen dragon NPC.

1 Like
2543

I don’t see what’s confusing. Alex loves everyone.

4 Likes
2544

Zoomers and their incomprehensible newfangled words.

(looks it up)

7 Likes
2545

Squeecore seems like a very apt way to refer to the . . everything really that’s been going on in dragonflight

1 Like
2546

WELCOME HONORED GUEST!
WHAT A JOY IT IS TO SEE NEW SIGNATURES IN THE VISITOR’S LOG AFTER ALL THESE YEARS.

Somehow they managed to slip it in for a constipated drakonid and essentially most of our interactions with the Dragonscale Expedition.

1 Like
2547

I tried looking up the meaning and I am still confused about what squeecore is.

Apparently they were just very good friends from what I understood from that cutscene? I mean, Alexstrasza’s had atleast three mates we know of, though I’m not sure one is named. The other two being Tyranastrasz and Korialstrasz.

Indeed, just, have them out more in the world, even if Fyrakk currently is stronger both due to his Incarnate-powers being intact aswell as sipping the Shadowflame.

2548

They have zero internal tension (or depiction of any cohesion at all) for the same reason Vol’jin - as warchief - has no real legacy.

UwU Uggoooo =^.^=

2 Likes
2549

the leader of the peon union you bust in the vulpera heritage questline has only one ability and it’s called ‘opportunistic strike’

4 Likes
2550

You couldn’t make this up.

3 Likes
2551

It’s a bit hard to encapsulate, but after listening to them talk on the podcast about it for about 30 minutes, here’s my rough understanding of a lot of the “factors” of “squeecore”:

  • It’s overwhelmingly preoccupied with setting up “Hell yeah!” “epic” moments rather than, say, organic character growth
  • Characters (or sometimes just the author) are extremely genre aware and constantly draw attention to the tropes of the story they occupy, without ever actually breaking the fourth wall. This genre-awareness usually isn’t used in any interesting way, and is fairly surface-level observation (i.e. red shirts, final girl, etc.)
  • Characters are extremely sarcastic and have a lot of lazy banter, because it’s easier to write for the author than “real jokes” or “real humor” (though the podcast, I would criticize, fails to define what that means)
  • Related to the last point: A huge discomfort with intense emotions; major emotional moments are undercut with “Whedonesque” interruptions like “Well that happened” to give a kind of glib distance from really fully experiencing the moment
  • Over-explanation of everything happening rather than leaving room for interpretation
  • Metaphors that fall apart after any scrutiny
  • A “neoliberal” preoccupation with making sure that everything works out for all the characters, often including converting the villains into allies
  • A huge preoccupation with mainstream pop culture references, but especially to movies and TV

So basically, the modern MCU writing style infecting other media?

14 Likes
2552

Correctomundo.

2 Likes