It is high time that we, the people, actually voiced our thoughts and voted as to how we can proceed and what we can do to save this sinking ship.
THE IDEA:
We reset the timeline after a specific point and alter certain events WITHOUT retconning a thing. How? At some point we are faced with an expansion where the Bronze Dragonflight has detected a serious time anomaly and we are sent to investigate the threat. We discover the responsible ones which may or may not be void lords and an important character like Jaina decides to face them in an endless time loop in order to keep them trapped forever, to save the universe while also giving up her own freedom. As a result we leave and in the end we reset the timeline thinking that we’ve fixed everything, however when we return we are faced with a similar, but much different world.
It is important that this expansion is very different in tone and writing in order to set the tone for the future of the franchise, if it does indeed have a future. Let’s go crazy here, let’s not hesitate to kill off characters like Garona, Flynn, Yrel, etc etc in random ways, let’s watch a scene of the noble paladin Arthas returning to Lordaeron only to be stabbed by his angry father because he wasted too much taxpayer money on his Northrend expedition, or a scenario where Gul’dan is a peaceful philanthropist.
Please, no more cringe dialogues and ridiculous Shadowlands-like storytelling, as it stands right now I haven’t logged in to actually play the game in months.
YOUR VOTE:
With a simple “I agree” or “I disagree” we can see whether or not the community approves of this idea or not. Of course if you’re indecisive about this, feel free to express that as well.
I really like the idea of one of two possible incarnations of using the “timeline plot”.
for “reasons” we have to revisit important lore events in time and make them occur as they should. Beyond CoT type dungeons though, I’m talking entire “zones” as specific events where the quest line is the buildup to such an experience. For example a zone built around the “war of the ancients”.
More gimmicky but I think it would be fun. In this version we again travel to “instances” in time, however the onus is to procure some architect or whatnot stowed away in this timeline (Brokers maybe?) and the timeline itself is a distortion of what we know. So for example playing through the ancient world where Azshara never really got a footing because shortly after discovering the Well of Eternity, the Night Elves were happened upon by Zandalari whom commandeered the well and became even more powerful, and in this instance Azshara is more of a freedom fighter against a growing Troll Empire than an evil queen, and in this dimension she’s the voice of caution where other previously friendly faces are the ones throwing their lot in with the Zandalari for survival.
Or alternatively as you said with Arthas, where he never takes up the Runeblade, he never culls Stratholme and instead were fighting against a different “lich king to be” being groomed and getting to Northrend with Arthas by our side. Who this candidate could be is another guess altogether. A bitter Kael’thas? Zul’jin swayed by promises of reclaiming the earth? Maybe even Thrall being manipulated. Who knows.
It’d be more gimmicky and absurd for sure, but this kind of “what if” is always interesting a game with a lore background as numerous as WoW with so many moments hinging on a certain outcome. It’s be cool to see what may have happened otherwise.
Another one id like to see: Thaurissan and Modgud were successful in their sieges of Ironforge and Grim Batol and the Dark Irons along with Ragnaros are the truly threatening force in this alternative timeline, steadily reducing the world to char.