If they set it up by explicitly having characters vow to do something (protect Azeroth against threats including Iridikron+Xalatath) then their absence should be explained.
Especially when one of said character still shows up to mope around Dalaran blowing up, showing he’s not all that busy lately. Kalec.
I don’t need an explanation for why Malfurion and Tyrande are sitting this one out, or why we’re not deploying the full might of the Kor’kron Legions. Sure they probably do care about The Guy Who Eats Planets but I accept there’s only so much screentime.
But like
Anduin? Thrall? Natalie Seline? The dragon aspects? The Army of the Light? Wrathion? I know Wrathion’s not busy because he’s not hanging out with his boyfriend and he didn’t get the job he applied for, but he is an expert on fighting void whispers. It’s basically his whole thing! He was even the last wielder of Xal’atath’s knife!
When a character should really be there and then they’re not, yeah, we kinda do want an explanation, and a good one at that. Like when Wrathion didn’t show up in Legion (OOC: Because the hastily wrote him out of being Ebonhorn when people pointed out it made no sense. IC: Who knows?) or Vereesa wasn’t in Dalaran (OOC: Because two Windrunners might distract from Alleria. IC: She’s…uh…on holiday somewhere? Maybe?)
Keeping the NPCs that show up to an absolute minimum is weird. It feels incongruous. Less like a living world where the threats are serious and more like the writers are plucking action figures from their toybox.
We didn’t need/want Azerothian Avengers, because frankly they weren’t important to the story being told.
But…we do kinda want relevant characters for the expansion to show up except for Alleria And Only Alleria All The Time Only Alleria I Hope You Like Alleria Because All You’re Getting Is Alleria.
Bringing Wrathion means the devs have to acknowledge that Wrathion exists… And they simply can’t have him proximity to Anduin because. Uh. Well, uh. Reasons. Ye-ah.
With Wrathion’s track record, inviting him along to kill a planet-eating Void monstrosity would likely involve summoning Sargeras from wherever he is, along with Illidan… which would still be better than the brokers everywhere.
The campaign repeatedly brings up that all these untrustworthy parties are in it just for the most important reason to all living creatures… Survival. Yet I am to believe that the survival of the universe isn’t worth calling in every living soul capable of fighting and withstanding the Void’s whispers?
As Elenthas said, it’s hard to buy. We don’t need everyone but we need everyone who’d be relevant and make a difference in this fight.
It’s weird that a giant void creature that wants to eat the planet he lives on would not have Turalyon at the helm of the Vindicaar doing strafing runs on K’aresh 24/7.
It doesn’t even need to be an “Avengers” moment. Having things in the background to give more life to things would be better, even if they have no speaking role or direct involvement.
It would have also been better if we had dedicated characters for the hero stuff that were seperate from y’know the leaders.
Gazlowe popping out of the avengers portal to hit GlorpSlorp, devourer of realities and abyss of the seventeen primordial precursor heavens, with his wrench to save azeroth.
he’ll be back at the end of midnight mark my words. just watch him crawl out of the sunwell to grab xal’atath/azshara/whoevers the big bad to gul’dan them again…
Throw in a few random Kirin Tor mage NPCs, some random dragons from the Flights, basic troops from the factions and have them defending points to help fight the void.
Nothing named. Nothing important. Just entities from our apparent unified and living world.
Closest thing to an excuse that I can come up with is that Dimensius isn’t a world-ending threat yet. If he fully manifests and goes on the war path, it’s likely that he would target Azeroth and that Azeroth would move against him in a terrible war that would almost be as devastating as the destruction of K’aresh. However, he’s not at that stage yet. Alleria is being brought in specifically to destory Dimensius now, with the promise of “help us save the last remants of K’aresh from destruction, and you’ll save yourself from a war of apocalyptic proportions further down the line.”
From that perspective, there are some characters who aren’t that proactive and who lack the expertise who wouldn’t get involved until Azeroth is truly threatened. This is pre-emptive action, rather than dealing with an immediate and fully manifested threat.
But that’s ultimately flimsy justification and I consider this valid criticism. There’s lots of characters who are depicted as proactive and who are well-informed regarding the Void, who are perfectly suited to assisting Alleria in this situation. Wrathion and his agents, Natalie Seline and the Cult of the Forgotten Shadow, Tyr and Tyr’s Guard, the Army of the Light and likely many more.
“None of us trust each other, but we have no choice but to work together” is a novel and appealing direction for WoW’s story. It makes for a nice change after Dragonflight and the other TWW patches and I like how 11.2 handles it. However, people are right to point out the holes in the narrative and they do detract from the quality of the story. As much as it would spoil the theme to ship in all of Azeroth’s finest void experts, there’s no reason for Alleria not to.
I think deleting the Void Elves from the patch would ironically make it an easier sell. If the sole Azerothians brought along were Alleria+the Champion of the Horde with Ethereals/Brokers/Xal making up the rest of the NPCs with some throwaway dialogue about chaotic void portals or space winds or whatever then we can just go “oh, so it’s literally just these two, alone with whatever allies they can scrabble together who are already there, and they can’t get home to ask for help either”.
But now that Void Elves are brought along, you gotta say “okay, why them, but not these?”
Locks the place off as an RP destination but eh, it is what it is. Either way it’s not gonna change at this point. Just gonna grumble about it and that’s all.
