World of Warcraft®

12/03/2011 02:53 PMPosted by Narnicka

So he can "Haduken!" the Alliance single-handedly? Negative.

I believe the term you are actually searching for is "Kamehameha".

My response to the end cinematic was: "Whatever." None of the story has made sense.

Just take the "Hour of Twilight" instance for example. The whole time we're escorting Thrall, I'm wondering why in the frack do we start in some stupid ice canyon in the first place. How did we start there? The last thing in the chronology was that the heroes (us, the dupes of the dragons) went back in time and recovered the Dragon Soul. So then why, after doing that, did we get plopped into ambush city in a canyon? Even worse, the Twilight knows that Thrall is going to the ruins of Galakrond to rendez-vous with the dragons. If that is the case - why doesn't he just fly his metal-armored self and torch the place while we're there? I see him flying around. If he knows Thrall is such a threat, why not put himself in human form, wait until Thrall gets there, poof into a dragon, and incinerate him? (But we knew that would happen - the last time Deathwing's minions got close to Thrall, they elected to "divide his essence" as opposed to "capping his !@#". So much for eliminating the threat!) Why not? Because it's "cool" to escort Thrall again!

The worst part of it all is that, like Cray pointed out, they wasted so much narrative time on stuff that ultimately didn't matter. Why kill off Malygos in a plotline that seemed extraneous in an expansion about the Lich King, when you were just going to eliminate Aspects in the next expansion. Maybe the time spent on that content could have been given to, I don't know, the Nerubian stuff that got shortchanged.

But whatever...it's the "Age of Mortals"...again. "Cool."

The worst part of it all is that, like Cray pointed out, they wasted so much narrative time on stuff that ultimately didn't matter. Why kill off Malygos in a plotline that seemed extraneous in an expansion about the Lich King, when you were just going to eliminate Aspects in the next expansion. Maybe the time spent on that content could have been given to, I don't know, the Nerubian stuff that got shortchanged. "

Ay got one word fer ja:

Pandas.

Aspects not Immortal anymore? Now we raid them for loot.

12/09/2011 10:04 AMPosted by Azàzel

Aspects not Immortal anymore? Now we raid them for loot.

Indeed - and why not? We've already killed two of them. (Well, three, if you count Murozond/Nozdormu in End Time.)

Ultimately, however - looking at this a bit - it's just another case of the immortals fading into nothing. Medivh was the first - the last Guardian, fading away to let the mortals look to their own defense. (And do not come at me with his supposed kid, He Who Must Remain Nameless. Medivh and Garona are cool characters, and them having a kid isn't a BAD idea...but turning him into the next Messiah? That's Thrall's job, hasn't Blizzard read their own memos?) The difference is, I feel Medivh's ending felt far more epic, more important.

The reason, I think, is because Medivh wasn't constantly in your face. Other than the opening of the Dark Portal with Gul'dan, Medivh remained largely in the background. Let's examine all the crap the dragons have been up to - starting with Deathwing and his minions:

-Deathwing posing as Lord Daval Prestor, dealing with the Alterac succession.
-Deathwing's alliance with the Horde.
-Onyxia and Nefarian taking control of Blackrock Mountain.
-Onyxia posing as Lady Katrana Prestor, her involvement in Varian's kidnapping, trying to corrupt Stormwind from within.
-The chromatic dragonflight.
-The black dragons of Blade's Edge.
-The Netherwing dragonflight, to a lesser degree.
-Sartharion, Halion and the twilight dragons in the Obsidian and Ruby Sanctum.
-The Cataclysm - need I say more?

Deathwing and his ilk have done quite a bit - but let's also look at the other dragonflights:

-The four (at the time) uncorrupted dragonflights at the Ahn'Qiraj opening.
-The bronze dragonflight, the infinite dragonflight and the Caverns of Time.
-Kalecgos and Madrigosa at the Sunwell.
-Malygos and the Nexus War.
-The Wyrmrest Accord.
-Ysera and the greens at Hyjal.
-Alexstrasza and the reds in Twilight Highlands.

In short - the dragons have been EVERYWHERE. Now, it seems, they're starting to get phased out. What could this mean for the future? Who knows.

I found the ending cinematic on the uninspired side. As an Alliance player, I wasn't given a lot of reason to care much about Thrall. Sure, Gondorin Ragefang knows that Thrall has been the Warchief of the Horde, but is he really aware that there was some messed-up Warchief succession that gave us Garrosh because Thrall was a bad judge of character? More to the point, that all took place in a novel. From the game's standpoint, we have Garrosh going from an emo whiner to a chest-thumping ape who makes an !@# of himself at the Argent Tournament in Northrend, and after that's done, he's suddenly the Warchief of the Horde, and Orgrimmar's being turned into a fortress.

Meanwhile, Thrall appears out at the Maelstrom, and we're just supposed to ignore that he's been leading our opposition faction for the past 6 years, and we're supposed to help him because he says he's doing it "for the good of the world".

We've slain two Aspects, three if you consider Murozond is actually a future version of Nozdormu. The Lore as to Kalecgos, Alexstrasza, Ysera and Nozdormu actually still being empowered as Aspects is left up in the air and unclear: we get that they aren't immortal any longer, but are they still charged with guarding (respectively) Magic, Life, the Emerald Dream and Time? And what about the Black Dragonflight? Deathwing is gone, but they lack an Aspect, so are we to assume that they couldn't figure out a succession plan like the Blues did? In theory there's one uncorrupted black dragon out there, the one from the Badlands that's involved in the Rogue Legendary questchain. I'd imagine they could likely manage a female for him via Alexstrasza's power, and they could repopulate with black dragons who aren't all homicidal.

There are far too many questions left unanswered from this expansion, and I had hopes that Cataclysm would finally clean up all the dangling plotlines from the past 6 years. All we really got out of it is that the Infinite Dragonflight is done, the Aspects aren't immortal anymore, and the Old Gods are apparently becoming secondary (at least for an entire expansion) as the Horde and Alliance finally erupt into full-blown war again.

After killing Deathwing and speaking to Nozdormu, he implies that he no longer has power over time - his task done, the Dragon Soul returns to its proper place in time. I do wonder how Ysera's loss of power will affect the Emerald Dream, though...because they imprisoned the original worgen in there, it makes one ask what other nasties the green dragons or the druids trapped in there.

I don't think they're getting rid of the power of dragonflights, just making the Aspects mortal. Because if they did that they'd have to end the Emerald Dream, which would make druids much weaker and less important, aside from releasing Xavius (or did he die in Stormrage?) and the original Worgen and whatever else is there. Not to mention they'd have to like delete the Caverns of Time and three (four? Can't remember) rep factions that are the Bronze dragonflight...