Gonna be honest. Malfurion being shelved has more of an impact on me than the War of Thorns.
Meh. This is fine. Malfurion is the most powerful hero on Azeroth that we know of and he's constantly getting written out of the story like Superman or Professor X just to avoid the "why didn't he just snap his finger and save us all" dilemma.Sending him to Ardenweild is a necessary continuation of giving player characters a reason to solve the world's problems.The real issue is the lack of development of the next generations characters. We need to see the Talia's, Flynn's, Shandris' of the world rise up and become competent replacements for the people we're losing.And anyone who thinks Anduin isn't going to be back after an expansion or two to clean up Turalyon's mess is crazy.
Anyone else remember that natherzim book in revendreth talking about infiltrating the other cosmic forces? Said something like "it's hard but we found a possible way to exploit the realm of life" then there's that old god whisper "beware the eyes of green the vassal of life hides treachery." So Ysera dies, goes to shadowlands, soul is tampered with by natharezim, goes back to azeroth, helps death invades life? Idk it all just seems like dominos for future expansions
I’ve pontificated on this development elsewhere, so I won’t burden the folks here with that. Just that this is not just bad writing, it’s banal. There is no narrative payoff or nuance with this development. Nothing profound. Not even a message. It’s pointless “trauma p**n” (as someone else phrased it.) I mean, I am against the time skip to begin with because at its core we have seen that as Shadowlands is timeless, events feel like they last LONGER in Shadowlands than on Azeroth. So it stands to reason no time should have passed between the start and end of Shadowlands, and this would have given Blizzard some wonderful narrative tooth with the Shadowlands NPCs having processed their trauma while all the NPCS that remained behind were still raw with their trauma. There’s a lot to work with. instead, Blizzard deflates the balloon by having an extra long time skip, thus making a tepid, flavorless narrative landscape. So instead of giving the Night Elves a nice, clean win - with a new home and Tyrande being rewarded for relinquishing vengeance by being able to rebuild her home and her people alongside her husband, and instead of having Malfurion maybe willingly go to Ardenweald because he just found out that the Emerald Dream is only half of some greater cosmic cycle he and his fellow druids are sworn to preserve, we’re going with cheap pathos and yet another Pyrrhic victory.It’s mind-boggling what Blizzard is willing to leave on the table. instead of using Malfurion and Ysera to build on aspects (pun intended) of the world building that came out of Ardenweald, we’re going to squander it all in a failed attempt at making us feel sad for the Night Elves.You know, we’ve felt sad for the Night Elves long enough. That well is dry. This is like Jean Grey all over again. The first time Jean Grey became Phoenix, then Dark Phoenix then died, it was a profound experience. Now it’s Dark Phoenix whack-a-mole every time Jean Grey is dug out of moth balls. Now, no one cares. The same is true for the Night Elves. After Darkshore (where we saw many of our favorite NPCs dead or dying), after the burning of Teldrassil, after the su*cide mission in Dazaralor, after Ursoc, after Ysera. Enough is enough.Look, if you want to take Malfurion off the board, have him willingly go to Ardenweald via the Maw Walker to learn about the Great Cycle from the Winter Queen and use that to tie druids and Night Elves to Ardenweald. He’s not dead, he’s just on a mission.As for Ysera. She’s now connected to the Emerald Dream and Ardenweald. She’s freaking Persephone! Lean into that, Blizzard. Have Elune pay the price, and reveal that the Emerald Dream is the intersection of Ardenweald and the Life realm that Elune oversees - and that the Emerald Dream is the crux of the Great Cycle as well as the “back up” of Azeroth, which is the foundation of the Cosmic infrastructure. Have Ysera become the Aspect of the Great Cycle, with the Emerald Dream her realm and her charge, and have it be that she exists both in the realm of the living and the realm of the dead - which in many culture is what the dreaming is. But to kill Malfurion to bring back Ysera is just...I don’t have the words and banal doesn’t go far enough.
No ones ever really gone (especially when there a portals to take you in and out of the shadowlands like its a tourist attraction)
Don't understand me wrong. In general the dead should be left dead and in my opinion the same goes for Ysera (as much as I love her). It could have been an option to develop Merithra even further, otherwise her whole storyline until now would have been kind of unnecessary. That is more or less the case now.BUT - big but...I don't get the outrage of the community about this. Yes, Malfurion is a very important, well-known and important character of the Warcraft franchise but change is the way of life. I am fully aware of the fact that the Night Elves have gone through dark times in the recent expansions but at least they have been relevant and somewhat the center of the last few stories. The Night Elves have gotten more attention than the majority of the other races in the game and in my opinion that is a beautiful thing. Malfurion with his sacrifice for Ysera at least in my opinion is an okay way develop his character further in the Shadowlands where he probably would end up as a demi god in Ardenweald or something like that. And who knows, probably one time he can come back...In short, not a necessary death but it could be a memorable and in a way beautiful way to start a new chapter for the Night Elves in their new tree on the Dragon Isles. Interesting to see though if Illidan will make his move now...
God this is dumb. Can we just not do anything with elves anymore? Who here wants something with more Trolls? Tauren? Gnomes? It's gonna get to a point where we really don't have anything left to deal with lol
What? That reason doesn't make any sense...Ysera didn't give her life for Malfurion's in Val'sharah. 1) Clearly it wasn't her intention to sacrifice her life.2) She gave her life for ... nothing. She made a mistake and actually made it more difficult for us to save Malfurion in the first place, as it was obvious we would save Malfurion sooner and easier without her getting corrupted. Now, what does it even mean it was not her time? How can Malfurion know when her time is supposed to be? Did Xavius somehow changed the timeline? The only thing that is sure is that it was not Malfurion's time to die back then, as Xavius kept him alive because he needed him (and he was required to be alive in Emerald Nightmare), meaning there was no trade from Ysera, meaning this switch is nonsensical.It's just one of those cheap sentences that mean nothing. The only thing I see in this is that writers are clueless about what to do with Malfurion, so they once again wrote some generic BS that doesn't make sense to switch him with a character they killed off, who will be relevant for an expansion.
Malfurion is so damn lame. Kill him off and bring Ysera back. Dragons are superior to all and should be prioritized over some puny elf.
I like that Yseras coming back but it's a s****y way to do it :( they're supposedly giving the aspects back their OP titan magics in Dragonflight why can't they give Ysera her powers and thus the powers are somehow powerful enough to break her bond with the Winter Queen and bring her back then nobody has to die.
I'm a huge Malfurion fan and Illidan fan. But Malfurion suffers from a similar dilemma to what Superman suffers. The character is to powerful to be used properly. Now is there a way to make OP characters like superman and Malfurion work within a story effectively? Yes. But lets be honest, while I don't think the writers are as inept as many claim, I do realize they don't have the competence to write a character like Malfurion effectively. He has taken a backseat in lore, in his relationship, and within night elf society. He's just there merely as a comfort to Tyrande and has not done much of note on his own for awhile. If they can't utilize him properly, I'd rather they shelf him. Also, it doesn't seem like he's actually dead and could return in the future. I don't think Ysera should have died to begin with. That being said her death was emotional and literally showed Elune taking her spirit. She went through a journey of development and acceptance of her fate in Shadowlands. That is all irrelevant now. And it seems Merithra will get no development as the young daughter who lost her mother suddenly and had leadership thrusted upon her that she was unprepared for. That story literally writes itself but that's out the window.So, while I want Ysera back and think she shouldn't have died to begin with, this does cheapen her death. Overall, I see silver linings which I pointed out but ultimately Ysera being brought needs a payoff. The flights must be on the brink of annihilation, the Incarnates are back and Nozdormu has become Murozond or something. They need to show that action this drastic was necessary. We'll see how it plays out.
This just makes Yseras death in Legion even more pointless.... No one can really die. The stakes are pointless.
Im just imagining Illidan right now sensing Malfurion being gone and finding him just to be like “YOU WHERE NOT PREPARED” then trying to get with Tyrande again. Hilarious