Story progression and a return - Spoilers warning

Lore Story
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Midnight, the whole thing just feels like its gone odd, and bringing Sylvanas back again has just made it worse for me.

It really does feel like she’s been given a bit of a free pass. After everything thats happend, all the things she chose to do, it never really felt like there were proper consiquences. Instead we got this strange half-redemption that didnt feel earnt, and now shes back in the story again like none of it really mattered. Its just frustraiting more than anything.

And then you look at Arthas and it just makes it worse. He was a victim in a lot of ways, manipulated and pushed down that path, and yet he ends up with basicly nothing. No real closure, no proper send off, just gone. It feels like the one charcter who should of had more depth at the end actually got less, which just doesnt sit right.

I think thats why a lot of people are disapointed. Its not just about one charcter, its the wider writting. Things dont seem to have weight anymore, big moments come and go and then get brushed aside. You stop feeling invested becuase it feels like nothing sticks or realy matters long term.

And then youve got how other parts of the world are being handled as well. The Blood Elves especialy (I.e. guards and way they act) just feel really poorly developed right now. It comes across a bit off, almost like they are reduced to a few shallow traits without much depth or nuance. It doesnt feel like the same rich world building we used to get, and at times it even feels a bit tone deaf in how its presented, which is a shame becuase they used to be alot more intresting.

Compare that to older Warcraft where even side factions had history and identity, now it just feels rushed and a bit careless.

Overall its just disapointing. I dont hate the game, I still want it to be good, but the storytelling lately just hasnt been hitting the mark, and bringing Sylvanas back again just highlights all of those problems instead of fixing them.

1 Like
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This is where it gets the strongest imo.

You can’t really put any stock on anything tragic Blizzard is doing or has done because they have no pay-off or consistency at all. I don’t really care if Sylvannas comes back, or if she’s forgiven.

What’s worser than redemption undead Sylvannas is that there’s not much… stock to it. This is why the side-story crew of WoW probably have developed a hunched back right now with how much weight they’re carrying due to how the main story feels… meh.

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They seem to be confusing foreshadowing with setup. Yeah, we were aware that they would probably shove all the Windrunner sisters in there somehow, but no, Sylvanas’ return was not properly setup, it was random and paid off on nothing. Which seems to be the standard nowadays. Stuff just happens. Xal has been around for years now, but are we searching for ways to keep her from randomly fading in and out at her convenience? Are we looking for ways to defeat her? Nope. Are we putting our finest draenei, goblin and gnomish technicians towards researching Lightbloom and Lightblindness that have suddenly become a thing? Nope.

We’re running around like headless chickens. We don’t plan, we just go with the flow, and somehow it works out fine. That’s not new, but it’s becoming less and less ecusable. And with the end of the faction war, basically the only context where they actually had a halfway plausible (if you squinted hard enough) plan of action for both sides of the conflict are just gone, so there is no relief from our ineptitude ever.

We’re always so busy idly wondering what he big bads might actually planning, that we don’t even try to take an active role. Wondering what Sylvanas, N’zoth, the Jailer, Iridikion, Xal, and all the other “great shemers” are planning might be a good setup for the information gathering phase, but it’s pretty much worthsless, if we never get an opportunity to react to it and win anyways. Who cares what the Jailer actually wanted, if the solution was to just hit him till he dies?

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Said it before, i’ll say it again.

I believe it is not the fact that Xal’atah is a master schemer or deciever. It’s that we ourselves, our allies and our supposed protagonists have become inept and wholly stupid to fit the narrative.

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I’m with you until that part, but I fail to see how our ineptitude would “fit” the narrative in any way. The solution usually comes down to “what if we just hit them really hard, like we do everything else?”. That’s not a solution that fits the narrative setup at all.

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Admittedly, holding my hands up, it is half sourced by my personal bias and response to seeing how our allies - and ourselves as the player - have been reacting to these events.

Quick list of where I felt this, which could be of course interpreted differently depending on the player’s personal opinion:

  • Mostly standing around, watching the antagonist float around.
  • Protagonists having the reaction speed of a sedated snail.
  • Protagonists becoming clueless of obvious solutions.
  • No real build-up to working towards a solution. (Xal’atath is still floating around with 100% secrecy and impenetrable power? )
  • No real response to threats beyond, yeah, hitting it.

Thus, really, my belief in the ineptitude fitting the narrative comes from a jaded front: Ineptitude to keep the story going. In some direction.

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Ah, so less fitting a narrative that makes sense, and more enabling the nonsense we get. Ok, fair enough.

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We have VIBE coding and now VIBE storytelling. It’s not a miracle but what you expect from bad writers. And they had bad writers since WoD.

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