Gratz
Comic 759 - Stage two
Author Notes:
(Next update 5-2-16)
Story: I heard that what we got was changed half way through development so it suffered from lack of project time. Rather this is true or not may affect my thoughts. You see, I heard the original end boss was going to be Grom Hellscream (Grommosh now I guess.) But when players reacted negatively to another Orc end boss Blizzard changed it. Now this is pertaining to if this is true so keep that in mind. I feel like the warning flags should have gone up in the pre planning stages. And not because it's another Orc . I feel like they should have gone up for a completely different reason. You see, the Horde players had just come off an expansion where they got a lot of story but it was a story where their fraction leader became a really big jerk, made lots of people mad, branded the horde as bad guys and lead to Horde players needing to sack their own capital city and "kill" their fraction leader. While was, in its honestly, a rough story, it was enjoyable. But then to follow it up with, "Ok Horde players you are going to kill a major lore figure of yours now!" I think was a bit too much. Honestly, feels like the Horde as a whole has only a handful of lore figures and most of them are already dead, (or mostly dead in Sylvanas's cause LOLZ).
Now to be fair we have killed a large amount of Alliance lore figures. Arthis and Illidin where both big figures from the RTS days. But even at the RTS game times they were kind of flirting with the dark side, (or dressing up in it Arthis!) Now before you think I'm only just horde I can sympathies with the Alliance a bit.
Warlords was suppose to bring huge Draenei lore, but I feel like it robbed them a lot. Now I'm sure I'll get hate for this but here it goes.... I don't like Yrel. Yep I don't like her, and it's not even that she is a bad character it's just that she is given so much screen time at the cost of other lore figures that exist in our main time line, (Maraad and Velen! I would much rather have seen these two fleshed out more because we know them from before Warlords and can know them after (at least out Velen). But Yrel? Unless she comes back to the main time line she is just a one off character that got more screen time at the expense of relevant lore figures.
Which leads to the final problem, time travel and alternative universes. Now time travel stories only work if you are going back to keep the present safe or if you are going back to change the present, (Men in Black 3, X-Men Days of Future Past for example). Going back in time to save your world from an army? Ok... Going back and your action leading to a new alternative universe that no longer has an impact on your home world? NOT GOOD! Now Blizzard Watch did a fine article about this already so some of this may sound similar. But the end result of our adventure in Warlords has led to basically nothing. Our lore figures haven't really gone through major changes in this journey, (yes Thrall squandered it!) No one is coming to help our time line. All that has really happened is we lost some lore figures of our own and allowed a new Gul'dan to get lose in our world!
So I guess this is what it boils down to. Warlords was a way to bring back Gul'dan so we can fight the Bunning Legion again, Which does not look too bad mind you.
So what does this all mean for my final thoughts on Warlords? Well I said at the start I don't regret it. But then wrote a three page essay about the biggest things I didn't like. However, something to keep in mind is despite what was wrong, I still enjoyed! I had lots of fun finding followers for my garrison and trying to populate it with people I thought were cool. I had fun in Ashran as we stood atop the stairs of fires and fought off the enemy as they try to out us from the fire objectives, (I even dropped a rain stone at this point so we had a epic battle in the rain!) I had fun leveling and keeping my eyes on my map for extra loot and objectives! So while I feel like none of the ideas in Warlords were bad, I also feel like they got strangled in the details. And with a 101 problems throughout the game it just seemed like there was always something there to disappoint you and as time went on it only grew. Perhaps this game would have been better if it only needed to fill a year's worth of time.
So was Warlords the worst? Yeah perhaps it was. But it should still say something that even with Blizzards worst Wow expansion I still found a lot of joy in it and am looking for more adventures in World of Warcraft!
(Next update 5-2-16)
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Warlords was fun but it was sad to see Maraad die and Velen's sacrifice was necessary to save all he loved and held dear.
Err....
Cow Fiiiiiiiight!
As for the topic, nearly all time travel stories end the same- right where they began.
What makes these panels so ominous can be accorded to two things you did well. First, the sudden extreme eruption of power that caught Xura, supposed to be Arua's twin and equal opposite, completely unprepared. Second, is the fact that until the very last panel it is impossible to tell how angry, or even IF Arua is angry. Every word is "spoken" in perfect calm, without inflection or hint of emotion. And it's not until that last panel, when you look into Arua's eyes, and see those wings and that broadsword, that you realize that you are looking at a warrior who has just stated: "You. Shall. Not. Pass."
It's on. And darn if it doesn't feel too soon.
82 votes.... ):-6