None of them are factually inaccurate, imaigned nor cynical prediction. Each one of those, unless you just haven’t played Shadow Priest in Legion nor watched the Xal’atath-related beta news/trailers are all things we already know about her as a character. I can admire the “its just cynicism” but only when its not in defiance of empirical fact.
Is probably the thing everyone should critique heavily, firmly and with little restraint; for it is largely the most shameful element, we’ve retread this ground. . .I want to say around 5(?) times now in differing expansions and unless you put a unique spin on a situation, these things tend to become very dry, and from what I’ve seen on the Beta there isn’t any unique spin and its played very straight - perhaps to its benefit, since we’re just helping the Nerubian Old Queen Loyalists topple the new Evil Queen.
Pretty substantially, I would argue. The Old God most known for being a cunning manipulator and deceptive diplomat is, in fact, not even able to be either of those things on top of being a terrible strategist and poor war-time general.
yeah it really isnt their first rodeo when it comes to telling an old god their too busy to come to work.
and considering yogg saron was meant to be the greater of the two, it really sells that nzoth was not all that.
yeah imma be honest, as artistically great as the azshara warbringers cinematic was, it did so much long term damage to nzoths reputation. master manipulator gets told no by a drowning elf queen then immediately folds to her demands. azshara made for a better master manipulator than he did.
The Old God who’s most notable trait is taking L’s even in the things that he’s meant to be a master of taking yet another L is going to send quakes through the 5-hour YouTube Old God Whisper Analysis community.
The greatest manipulation of N’zoth was convincing a bunch of WoW players who can’t even stomach reading quest text that he was actually smart.
Meanwhile, Y’shaarj who has been dead for TWENTY-THOUSAND YEARS was still manipulating events on Azeroth as far into the future as Pandaria; and there’s an implication that he was actually keeping the other Old Gods in a perpetual state of weakness by warring among them all.
Also Yogg-Sarron, who didn’t even bother with the manipulations stuff beyond Sif and instead was just a brutal getter-goer managed to manipulate events still impacting Azeroth today.
as bad as titan intervention was for the planet as a whole, genuinely it hits home there was no other recourse with dealing with him. yshaarj was in a league of his own. gone but never forgotten
i still love pointing out to people who dont seem to know it that the emerald nightmare wasnt the massive nzoth w they want to think it is. yogg saron’s the one who opened the door into the dream thanks to those kindly druids in northrend planting a tree right atop his tentacles. and created saronite deposits below those emerald portals the dragons of nightmare used to guard. nzoth’s just the one who wormed his way in the furthest.
It’s really insulting to tell people that this guy is so smart that he planned to lose on purpose. It just doesn’t work. If he’s smart, victory would be his main objective instead of taking L’s.
Oh you see it’s all part of his many visionary goals, all possibilities, plans within plans you know and insane contingencies heh.
It’s just grating. Another thing about the Nerubian… Is how human like their faces are. I can accept that from the Fal’dorei in Suramar but these are Aqir, what business do their female have in looking so human like? The males don’t appear to be except the ascended ones. I’m sure some arachnophile could tell you some details about make and female difference in spiders that Blizzard just isn’t using.
theres very few narratives where this actually works out for the villain and they tend to need a lot of care in their writing. care the wow team is not capable of showing. it would have been more serviceable to just say he was thwarted as the bad guy always is and leave it at that. its not better but its more dignified to just take the L and leave it.
the fal’dorei i can give a pass on because these were elves caught up in a magical blast. even then its only the females with a more “elven” torso, the males are full on mandible face.
what bothers me most is the fact that after taking xal’ath’s offer, then the princess looks more elven. more human. call me crazy but youd expect taking the offer of the void and the blood of old gods would make you more deformed, not be a god tier skincare routine.
I think we’ve had a Xal’atath character in almost every expac since like, Warlords of Draenor, at this point. Gul’dan, Elisande, Kil’jaeden, Sylvanas, Bwonsamdi, N’Zoth, Azshara, and then the Jailer. It’s not helped by Blizzard really enjoying the “ancient race makes a dark bargain to preserve themselves!” trope we’ve seen a number of times over the years.
Supposed anti-Titan Void making everything look more Titanic when it needs marketting revenue.
The greatness of the Pantheon truly lives rent-free in the Void’s head. Also I have just realised there’s a really comedic irony in even Xal’atath, supposed greatest Titan Hater sans-Iridikron, even hopping on the Titan-Elf bandwagon because she needs that revenue at the end of the day.
invoking the dark powers of selling your bare elf feet on the steamwheedle black photography market to bankroll your dark plot.
I remember a time when, for me at least, one of wow’s biggest appeals was the fact it was an MMO that let you play as “the monster.” to put it as bluntly as can be. An orc in a post jacksons lotr world. a minotaur, a zombie, a jamaican troll. even with the advent of belves, which people still decry as the downfall of the horde because they cant see past the pretty face and realise the belves of old had a monstrous nature in the name of self-preservation. over-time it feels like that facts become more and more diluted to the point the monsters of azeroth we used to revile like the nerubians of wrath have become completely humanised. its a weird direction.
Are you taking into consideration the fact that she is a manipulator known for exploiting and screwing with the heads of everyone else who has ever wielded her in the past? I don’t think it’s smart to think of anything that Xal’atath said as an artifact weapon as truthful or sincere.
On top of that, I wouldn’t view the words of a sentient artifact trying to manipulate its wielder and the words of a borderline omnipotent demigod boasting as he stands on the precipice of total victory in the same light. They’re two very different characters in two very different situations.
One of the biggest faults of the Jailer is that we never got to see him seduce anyone into falling to the dark side, or nor does he do anything particularly smart while he’s on the screen at any point. We’re told it’s his master plan but all we get to see is the jerk gloat and belittle the players as meaningless and incapable of stopping him. On screen, the Jailer was never anything but a braggart.
But we’ve got our fair share of evidence of Xal’atath actually doing manipulation and actually playing the part of a chess-master moving around all of the pieces from behind the scenes, instead of her just looming around the place and taunting the good guys. She’s written as an actual manipulator and we get to see people actually fall for her deception. She’s more than just a moustache-twirling villain chuckling and stroking her ego as she claims that everyone fell for her dastardly plan.
If you don’t think that the manipulation is well-written, that’s another matter entirely. But at least they put in the effort this time.
Yeah, if nothing else there’s at least some build up and whether or not she survives the upcoming expansion, it looks like her actions will have consequences in the subsequent two expansions as well.
I don’t expect incredible storytelling from MMO’s at this point. Whether it’s WoW, TESO, FFXIV or something else they all fall flat in regards to what they promise.
What I want is a game world where stuff happens for my character(s) to react to and it looks like WoW is going to at least bring that to the table.