I won’t be shocked if they are moving on from the 11.0 story of Khaz Algar with 11.1 and pushing the narrative in a completely different direction.
I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in Blizzard headquarters during the development of the War Within. This entire expansion seems like it has been badly affected by creative differences within the dojo.
There’s no way of telling who was responsible for writing what, but if I had to take a guess, the War Within was originally written as a full expansion by Danuser and company, only for Metzen to be brought on board with his own big ideas. Due to the poor reception of Dragonflight’s themes and narrative, Danuser gets dropped in favour of Metzen, who suggests the Worldsoul Saga. Resources are diverted from the War Within to develop Midnight and Danuser’s original vision for the expansion is reduced to a shell of what it could have been, as it is turned into a stepping stone on the way to Midnight and the Last Titan.
It would explain how rushed a lot of this expansion is and why there so many clashing and unexplained elements of the War Within. I fully expect us to move on to Midnight without learning what Beledar actually is, for example.
I’d honestly recommend that people do all the side quests alongside the main campaign quests as a lot of them follow up on and explore more character driven moments that really flesh out what’s going on in the main quests.
Certainly, though, if they’re not completed then the main campaign does feel very short compared to previous expansions.
I also agree that the Horde is being very neglected. It’s been that way for a while - Gilneas was reclaimed and the Night Elves have a new world tree but not much of a bone has been thrown in the direction of the Horde races by comparison.
Per Metzen, he came into TWW while it was in progress and had already been started, but it was his involvement which turned it into the worldsoul saga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIbAAEkq6-Q
That confirms a lot of it then, as they would have been working on a full expansion that had to be cut down to a “saga expansion” instead, so that they could move on to start work on Midnight.
A year already into progress no less, so I doubt much of TWW even is Metzen because I imagine if they’re planning like a non-insane company they’ve probably had rough drafts of the patches around the 6-months mark. It does explain a lot though.
On the other hand, I think that a lot of the stuff that was cut from the War Within was likely cut because of creative differences. Anything that Metzen was strongly opposed to probably ended up on the cutting room floor, which might explain why a lot of things are surprisingly absent from the expansion.
Honestly I don’t understand why they didn’t just let Khadgar die. He’s getting older, is probably going to die of old age soon anyway, it would be thematically fitting for the captain to go down with the ship (like Antonidas did), it would be fitting for him to emerge from the Dark Heart only to go out in peace, and it’s an opportunity to trim the overgrown Justice League of Azeroth. It’s not like there’s a shortage of other characters to be mortally wounded so Anduin can save them.
Khadgar is only in his fifties, so he’s got plenty of years left before he dies of old age. Especially as a mage of his calibre given that human magi have been known to prolong their lives for centuries.
Adding to the tinfoil hat speculation, perhaps Midnight and TLT diverted resources from Dragonflight, which is why we got filler content in place of 10.3.
Prolly cured themselves with meditation like our high elves did.
It’s getting shot down when we use it to fly to the next unexplored land, crashing as is tradition.
Colliding with the Fel Hammer, no survivors.
If you’re talking about teldrassil it was a calculated, cold action ostensibly to “kill hope”, the only yelling being to give the order. The invasion of the defenseless world tree was underway but a grand statement of morale breaking mass murder was deemed more expedient than occupation.
Source: I watched the cinematic a few days ago.
Elements return to Thrall, for the third(?) time.
At this point the awkwardness isn’t Xal’atath, it’s blizzard’s trope recycling. Our smug queen is blameless.
And I wish paladins RP’d that more.
I feel the marvel tumour shifting…
Next patch…
It’s that narrative balance easing toward equilibrium after several expansions following the Horde’s journey of self discovery, rebellion and reformation through the Sylvanas saga.
Lest we forget, most of the rebellion narrative and story of BfA plus Vol’jin’s ashes leading us into the shadowlands was exclusively avaliable to Horde players.
Fair 'nuff, that was a big stupid moment of her. Warcraft has an emotionally driven elf with judgement issues already and her name is Tyrande.
A subdued “this changes nothing” moment wouldn’t have had the same “oh crap we were the baddies all this time” effect on Orgrimmar’s defenders, though. I’m sure it could’ve been written differently.
Thrall’s significant presence in promotional material only for him to basically not show up at all. My personal guess is that he was going to be killed off and that might’ve been a big impetus for Metzen’s takeover of the narrative department.
The harronir are borderline irrelevant, despite once being important enough to be included in a cinematic trailer. The kobolds matter more to the expansion than them. I think that once upon a time, they were meant to be an extremely important part of the expansion.
The Priory of the Sacred Flame has an extremely flimsy story, which leads me to believe that maybe the Hallowfall Expedition was originally intended to be more morally grey or antagonistic.
There’s lots of little hints about the Titanic Watchers of Dorn and their tyranny over the Isle of Dorn. I get the feeling that they might have played a bigger role once, that was reduced to the earthen deciding out of nowhere that suddenly, they want to be free from the Edicts.
Those are the four big ones, in my opinion. It’s all personal speculation, but I think they’re all likely candidates for the cutting room floor.
Regarding the haranir (that’s the current spelling), there is or was a zone in development called “The Rootlands”. It might be patch content (11.1 or even 11.0.7 like the Forbidden Reach was 10.0.7 content).
Y’shtola on transmuting themselves into pure ‘magic’ and then returning with a disability.