There is a giant sword sticking out of Azeroth

Just a reminder. Stabbing a planet is a strange thing to do in a story, if it wasn’t supposed to be an urgent problem.

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I’m sure Blizzard haven’t put it there by accident or otherwise forgotten about it.

Take The Jailer. For a guy who spends a lot of time making special swords for his underlings and who recently donned himself in full armor and a fancy helmet, it is a bit odd that he himself is missing a sword.

Maybe on his journey to who knows where he will come across a sword that he will find useful and fitting.

Who knows.

i’m sure we’ll notice once again when a certain blue crystal dwarf rises out of the ground and says something along the lines of:

“CHAMPION!”
“what a shame…”

etcetera.

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Let’s assume he does. Does that excuse not treating it as much of a problem for 3-4 years? Like I said, it seems like it should be urgent, but isn’t treated… at all.

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Goblin venture CO is probabbly scrapping it already and making profits.

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Battle for Azeroth had a lot of Alliance and Horde focus revolve around the sword - it being a decisive territory to claim due to the Azerite.
Shadowlands is hot off the heels of Battle for Azeroth, so technically our character isn’t really privy to what - if anything - has been going on since on Azeroth. We’re stuck in the Shadowlands.

Not really, no. The story was kicked off there, but the only thing we did after that with the sword was walk past it while visiting the heart. And nothing about the Azerite stuff was about helping with the sword-problem, it was about gathering power, either for your faction or to help Azeroth fight off her magic tumor.
And even characters like Malfurion and Thrall didn’t seem to care about it at all, being used in entirely different plots.

Oh. Blizzard is dealing with it as we speak! Good to know. Yeah. Totally.

Sorry, but no, that’s :cow2::poo:
I can buy that they have plans to tie the sword into the ongoing cosmic nonsense as you are suggesting, but that they are actually developing the story in the background? That’s not Blizzard.

But okay, let’s assume this is true. Well, that’s still quite shoddy story-telling. The urgency we felt is already gone and wasted. Treating the problem 3-4 years later won’t bring it back.

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I was just trying to say that from a story perspective our character is really only aware of what’s going on in the Shadowlands. That elaborate ritual at the top of Icecrown that sent us into The Maw was a one-way ticket and we don’t really have any concept of time or space in the Shadowlands versus Azeroth. The Azeroth newspaper isn’t being delivered to Oribos.
So although technically the sword is still just sitting there in Silithus, then story-wise we are stuck in the Shadowlands and don’t have any idea what’s happening or been happening on Azeroth.

That’s just how I see it. I’m not really trying to make you buy anything. You’ve told me your position on the story before, so any quarrels you have with the story is your business. I don’t particularly care. I’m just explaining it as I see it, because I enjoy spilling my thoughts on lore topics. :yum:

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Why is that relevant, though? I’m not my character.

But you are experiencing the story through your character. And your character isn’t hanging around in Silithus or otherwise having any kind of connection to the sword there, at the moment.

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Neither the story, nor the world are exclusively, or even best, experienced through my character. There are novels, info books like the chronicle, short stories, audio books, cinematics and even tweets that have nothing at all to do with my character and still drive the story, and develop the world. That my character wouldn’t experience something is no reason why it shouldn’t be adressed. It never was.

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Sure. I certainly wouldn’t mind if Blizzard were to release some more books that tell stories from the perspective of other characters – or having those stories run parallel to the events of Shadowlands, for example with regards to the sword in Silithus.

But I don’t see the absence of that as a negative. I quite appreciate confining the story focus to the Shadowlands. But that’s just me. :slight_smile:

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You wouldn’t. I certainly do. This was a monumental event, unprecedented and should have been scary as hell. Blizz failed to capitalize on that, and when they get back around to it, no one will actually care anymore. That’s a bad thing, and that you aren’t willing to recognize it doesn’t change that.

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I don’t really see the need to discuss this. I know what your perspective on Blizzard’s storytelling is, and I think you know mine. And like I said earlier, then it’s not really my business to address your quarrels with the story or otherwise argue the validity of my own appreciation of the story.
I’ve given my thoughts on Silithus and the sword as I see it and I’m always happy to talk about the story some more. But addressing criticism with Blizzard’s story-writing is not really my business. :slight_smile:

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There is also the Naga Queen we just randomly decided to set loose again.

I think i speak in the name of players and the writers when i say that nobody effing cares about the sword when we can have the continuation about what we are to do about Sylvanas.

I think you already know this, but i’m afraid that’s the way the story decides what to highlight or discard. That’s Blizzard for you :man_shrugging:

Now, if you want to give it an explanation of sorts, we can jointly headcanon that the planet has healed around the lodged object. Like those old veterans that carry around some bullet in them.

You’re certainly not speaking in my name there. I’ve said it for a long time, but just never hearing about Sylvanas would have been preferrable to me, and actually dealing with the consequences that the things that happen have on the WORLD instead of the stupid main characters would have been a great improvement to me.

She was on the loose for 10k years and didn’t do anything of relevance. Indded, the only time she wasn’t on the loose since the Kaldorei Empire was… 8.25 – 8.3. No, I don’t feel the same urgency on that one that “A GIANT DEMON JUST STABBED THE PLANET!!” suggested to me.

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Yes, but at this point, i can assure you that 99% of players (leaving that 1% because there are always outliers) as well as writers, are currently hooked on the story if only to know what happens with the arch involving Sylvanas. Even if genuine interest was turned into morbid curiosity akin to the one of watching a train-wreck.

I can say, with certain degree of confidence, that few remain interested in the rest of the stories currently floating around about this Thanos copycat and his own version of the infinity stones.
Or about the plot device that was the sword of Sargeras in BfA.

But it was an urgent problem. For last patch of Legion and maybe first half of BfA. Now it’s plot is done. Wound is healed and sword no longer pumps poison. All fixed, we can move on.

I find this phrasing bizarre. I guess the only way you can appreciate the story in this game is if you view it as a story with a single protagonist. I detest the linear, predetermined narrative path we’re forced to tread. My character is not your character. I have my own experience with the game, my own highs and lows, my own triumphs and defeats – none of them are yours. Yet my story is secondary to that of Blizzard’s pseudo-protagonist who assumes that the player has done everything there is to do in the game. That’s “our character.” But it’s never going to be my character.

What about those portals to Stormwind and Orgrimmar? Are they non-canon? Or does “our character” never walk through them? The answer is that no, “our character” never does go through those portals. “Our character” saves the multiverse in the Shadowlands. Because my agency and your agency doesn’t matter, only the agency of “our character”. The moment you walk through one of those portals you are entering non-canon land.

What a living and breathing world they’ve created.

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Yeah. I mean, I certainly won’t deny that the way the story is being told is rather confusing and the game’s design greatly emphasizes gameplay needs over story needs. Gameplay First and all that.

The portals exist for gameplay purposes so players can easily travel between Azeroth and the Shadowlands. So they exist within a gameplay context. But in the story context they don’t exist and there’s no easy travel between Azeroth and the Shadowlands.
And yes, the distinction between what exists in a gameplay context and what exists in a story context can be really confusing sometimes.
But that is how it is.