Not 100% on board but if we get Malfurion back eventually I won't be too mad. I still think they should go a different direction though.
I think the title of this article needs a huge spoiler warning . Like the title should just be *Spoiler Warning *
Ah yes, let us kill off a character for story. That never ends well blizzard. Please reconsider.
... Spoiling a quest in a title when the game isn't even live yet? Classic.
Yes let’s just kill off the best characters who make the foundational lore to begin with. You’ve already killed Varian was that not enough?
What a terrible story point. They should listen to the community and drop this idea entirely and focus on the remaining green dragons.
Where the heck was the spoiler tag for this? :(
"Surely everyone read all the datamined spoilers, right?" - Wowhead article poster
Once again, why are they so afraid of building up new characters and expanding upon older lesser known, such as her daughter Merithra? Why should Ysera be coming back at the cost of another character? I've long believed Steve plays a game of favourites and this doesn't do much to dissuade me of that opinion.
Of course Malf is fine. We just spent 2 years kicking it in the afterlife. He'll get a job in Oribos sweeping the floor or sell stuff for the Cartels. Death doesn't matter he's chillin n grillin and prob partying it up.
Just completely invalidates all those quest chains surrounding Ysera. Including her death scene in Legion, and the main story point of the Ardenweald quest line when we literally fight and come together to bring her back. Not forget to mention her daughter coming into the fray in BFA. Now we're just pulling the ol' switcheroo ? At this point nothing matters, deaths don't matter, sacrifice doesn't matter it's all just "Oh it's my time to hand over the focus" I'm just waiting for Nathanos to make his return at this point. Danuser just hasn't been cutting it imo
Stop it. Just stop. No. No more. Just...no.
A spoiler free title would've been much better, it's not the first time Wowhead messed up this, please consider your titles a bit more careful next time.Personally I am not a fan of bringing Ysera back and exchanging Malfurion for her. While Malfurion was a kind of odd used characters since Legion and BfA, I still am not sure what this is going to accomplish storywise. Same goes with Ysera: Her death was fairly unexpected and felt cheap, however it was pretty emotional and she had a moving good bye moment. Seeing her reborn in Ardenweald and back in action at least felt like she found a new place she could fit into - even if it was more or less forced. I simply see no need of bringing her back, as it further undermines and negates the fate of death in Warcraft. If Ysera can come back, others might too, it is one of those examples were Shadowlands did much more harm than anything good in terms of lore.My second biggest concern is actually Merithra, her daughter. She doesn't see herself fit enough to be a leader and keeps questioning whether or not she is up for the task. Instead of letting her grow on her own, maybe with some allies from both dragons as well as mortals, it already looks like they are bringing her mother back mostly to make her a stronger leader. IMHO it would be a more interesting story, if Merithra has to deal with that stuff herself.
I don't remember Ysera sacrificing herself for Malfurion. She got corrupted, flew to the Temple , attacked it and we killed her. Then WE went into the Thicket and rescued Malfurion.
First off, I think it would have been better to title it 'A Near Impossible Bargain' or something. Sure, it wouldn't be the most exciting. it has to be better than the OG title. Also, how the heck does bringing back Ysera make Merithra a stronger leader? Even if you try to argue that she has valuable guidance, the remaining green dragons probably wouldn't gravitate towards her.
We're being told that in Shadowlands Danuser was just "course-correcting" a story someone else started, and that Dragonflight will be entirely his. If one of his first 'original' story lines is going to be to undo two expansions worth of development for Ysera that just proves people's criticism of Shadowlands that he has no respect for previous WoW lore and plays fast and loose with characters and concepts. And if this is yet more of his "course-correcting" of older storylines, he has to understand that the changes he made to characters and character arcs made the whole story worse and more disjointed (see Sylvanas "I'm a good girl now" Windrunner - there was a way to make the Burning of Teldrassil work, there was a way to make either the villain-arc OR the redemption of Sylvanas work, but this was definitely not it).Ysera's death got an emotional sendoff in Legion with a beautiful cinematic and we saw her spirit being back to her uncorrupted self in the Emerald Dream. In BfA, we saw Wrathion and Merithra coming out of the shadows to step into a leadership role, and she had a nice conversation with Alexstrasza saying she'd be happy to guide her into becoming an Aspect (in an aunt-like way I guess, as she was like sisters with Ysera, and we see this nurturing side of Alextstrasza in the recent DF intro short story too when she touches Wrathion's face as she shares the happy news with him). This then got expanded upon in Shadowlands to flesh out this abrupt parting into a longer arc (unlike Ursoc who was just disenchanted, RIP Ursoc). Much of the Night Fae story line is about Ysera finding her place in the Shadowlands, becoming a protector of the realm there, and already looking out for the souls' interests. There is also a beautiful emotional story where Alexstrasza sends Ysera all her love and tells her that she's happy that she found a new beginning instead of an end in death. Ysera also created a bridge between the sister duo of the Winter Queen and Elune, and between Ardenweald and the Emerald Dream (which could be interesting, for example being mirrored by Merithra of the Dream on the side of life, and Ysera on the side of the Shadowlands). So returning her completely undermines those developments, and makes all the emotional beats hollow and unsatisfying, because they're now being backtracked rather than paid off.More importantly, Ysera's survival was a cornerstone of the Winter Queen's character arc - we saw her having to make hard choices, draining the Anima from pods before, having no time for her subjects, just a frantic struggle against inevitable decline. When we sought an audience with her and placed Ysera's fate in her hands, she was reminded of her sister, and of her own purpose - she decided this was the time to take a stand, and chose to preserve rather than to run on survival mode, and gave up part of her own Anima to help Ysera take root in the Afterlife. We were told that this creates a bond between Ysera and the Shadowlands now, and that made sense, and we were explicitly told that this couldn't be undone "without great sacrifice". The story didn't mean "Yeah we can undo this literally next expansion" and making a swap with Malfurion makes no sense whatsoever - he isn't bound with the Winter Queen's Anima, so what would him staying change about Ysera's bond to Ardenweald? I swear the writing team saw Malfurion's "Winter King" card from Heartstone and went "haha that looks cool let's do that" because honestly it makes no sense based on the previous story.And the argument that Ysera needs to return "to do some things that she needs to do" is ridiculous - you're writing the story now, you're writing what's going to happen, you're writing the things that are needed to make things happen. There is nothing she "needs" to do, it's all down to the writing. Aspects have been replaced before (e.g. Malygos), as they should be, rather than rehashing old characters. I swear the writing team throws away never-before seen iconic characters like Azshara and N'zoth in single patches, but then keeps returning characters they should just leave alone (Thrall, Ysera, probably Sylvanas in an expansion or so)... What's next? We spend 10.0. choosing between Sabellian and Wrathion to lead the Black Dragonflight, but then in 10.1. Neltharion returns from corrupted-dragon-hell because "there are some things he needs to do"? Come on. If you have the chance to be write an original story, to prove that your writing isn't based on cannibalising earlier stories (e.g. Jailer, pre-titan-titan-first-ones), then take the opportunity and be actually original!
Kill off Sylvanas and give us Ysera back. Win/win.
I am not liking this at all. I cant find any argument to say that it's somewhat alright. Sacrifice should be meaningful. If they want to go this road, go for it, just don't do that thing, where a trained dog lays down and plays dead because he and his owner learned a trick - then ofc, that dog just stands on his fours, cause, hey, it was just a performance. A sacrifice is not a kill. It is giving up on something, it this case, your life. It is irrevocable. Making this something lesser, something you can walk around, makes every aspect of the story in whole game not meaningful because all the things can be altered in an instant, nothing matters, who even cares about RP element at that point?