Some of My Favorite Lore Moments, Characters, Cinematics, and Shenanigans

Azj-Kahet Concept Art (Blizzard Entertainment)

We are so back for some actual lore discussion. We’ll be covering the lead-up to 11.0 in the coming weeks, but to kick things off, I wanted to give y’all an idea of what I enjoy in WoW’s story.

My favorite wow characters are Sylvanas, Xal’atath, Azshara, Wrathion, Anduin, Jaina, Denathrius, Moira Thaurissan, Saurfang, and Garrosh.

Azshara does something really well that I think some stories lack: some people are evil literally just because they feel like it. I don’t think Azshara has ever been a “good” person in-story and that’s why I love her. She’s the worst! Mother! I’m looking forward to her likely return in the worldsoul saga because 1) laura post is a voice acting goddess 2) she’s just evil no morally grey about it. And I love that for her.

Jaina has come a long way. While much of BFA made me break out in hives, Jaina’s story did not. Her cutscene in the blighted lands remains one of my favorites in-game along with her calling the fleet back in siege of boralus. Jaina is literally a walking nuke-I cannot stress enough to you how powerful this lady is-and still feels sad about letting Arthas down. A story trope that WoW does really well is “character with enough power to destroy a continent who still feels very relatable,” with characters such as Jaina and Illidan thinking of their failed relationships even at their most powerful. Like imagine you’re Illidan Stormrage, prepping to enter a potentially eternal 1v1 with Sargeras, a guy the size of a planet, and you’re like “hang on I got some shit to say to my brother and his wife.” Iconic behavior.

That shot of Jaina surrounded by all the men she feels responsible for! I’m in tears!

A character who felt less and less relatable the more powerful she got was Sylvanas. I’m definitely not going to  be the 9001st person to tell you that Sylvanas was poorly handled in BFA and Shadowlands, but I am going to tell you that it’s ok that she became less relatable. Sometimes people retreat inwards and become more isolated. I think a thing that was done well with Sylvanas was her extreme tendency to only trust herself. That’s a very logical trauma response-difficulty trusting again-and that was not what I viewed as a problem with her. Were there other issues? Oh yeah big time. But I think it’s cool that these varying demigod power-level mortal/mortal-adjacent characters can all show us different dimensions of being a person. While also being raid bosses.

Nobody showed us multiple dimensions better than Garrosh. Garrosh is the peak of great writing, horrible person. Would literally never side with Garrosh in game (that’s my OPINION). Garrosh is one of the only WoW characters who had the daunting job of existing entirely after Warcraft 3 and my goodness did he deliver. It makes sense to me that a combination of Garrosh’s upbringing, Thrall’s stories, and the immense pressure Thrall put him under would kind of snap his psyche. Garrosh is an extremely flawed person who was set up for failure by basically everyone who supervised him, and even though he suuuuuucked at the end, his character journey remains one for the books.

RIP GOAT

Thrall is another example of someone who has not always made the best choices, but I feel that WoW has done him a bit less service. Thrall’s most pivotal moments post-WC3 haven’t been portrayed in game as well, especially the occasional complexities and actually interesting moments beyond “this weapon isn’t good, let’s find another” in the maw intro. He’s never been one of my favorite characters-but I get why lots of folks like him-and his portrayal in game is a good part of why.

I’m really looking forward to seeing many of these characters in the Worldsoul Saga, but none more than Anduin Wrynn. I subscribe to the Taliesin Take that the story of wow is the story of Anduin. I think he’s going to be wonderful to watch and beautifully acted (by the incredible Josh Keaton).

Anduin’s Legion theme by the one and only Neal Acree. A great example of when WoW tells story through music.

Next, we’ll discuss some of my favorite story moments in terms of quality of writing, character, or “This Was Cool.”

·         Battle for Undercity is a classic. This is both peak Sylvanas and peak Varian.

·         Purge of Dalaran is another, where you understand how and why everyone made the decisions they did and nobody is correct.

·         Battle of Broken Shore is a banger.

·         Sargeras stabs the planet. This is one of those moments where Blizzard’s team executes ‘rule of cool’ perfectly and it works. Glorious conclusion to Legion.

·         Azshara taunts the player in Nazjatar while holding a glass of wine. This is unreal. Imagine being this iconic in such a bad expansion. Like not only did she take the time of day to come mock you, she made sure she showed up with a drink. Calculated.

·         Liberation of Suramar. Thalyssra’s “let it die” about the Nightwell remains excellent.

·         Basically all of Mists of Pandaria. Mists slays. In particular, battle of the jade forest, klaxxi exalted finale, Taran Zhu at the foot of lei shen, literally everything in the landfall campaign, vol’jin gets stabbed, taran zhu vs. garrosh, garrosh defeat cinematic, we could genuinely be here all day.  I played current MoP and knew how good it was at the time and I am so glad (and a little smug) to folks came around on it over the past 12 years.

Jaina and Lor’themar get a much needed reality check from Taran Zhu (Fall of Shan Bu, 5.2)

·         Sylvanas vs. Bolvar. What follows isn’t good but this fight is.

·         All of Drustvar

·         All of Silverpine Forest Cataclysm

·         Ysera’s death and rebirth cinematics. Sometimes you can just make a really good cutscene based on feels. Worked on me both times! I actually do cry every time Ysera is on screen!

·         Rejection of the gift, potentially the best cutscene in game.

·         The ICC in-game music. This is where I mention how good WoW’s music is. ICC’s soundtrack basically tells half the story on its own.

·         Moira tells the heroes to fuck off in Blackrock Depths

·         Jaina forgives herself

·         Wrathion eats Lei Shen’s heart. I could write hundreds of things I love about this guy but eating Lei Shen’s heart on sight was like the wildest thing I’ve ever watched.

·         Anduin punches Wrathion in the face like they’re long lost exes (bc they are, argue with a wall)

·         Battle of Stoneplow. Potentially the best small character thing in the game.

·         Lastly, Iridikron’s cutscenes in Dragonflight. Iridikron is another character who immediately interested me and I’m excited to watch him in 11.0

Speaking of people I’m excited to watch in 11.0: Xal’atath. “But Ily I wasn’t a shadow priest, why do I care about Xal’atath?”

If you didn’t play Shadow Priest in Legion, you missed Xal’atath talking to you for an entire expansion. Here are some of her absolutely delicious voice lines.

Xal is the only antagonist in modern WoW who has had time to cook, time to be on our minds, and enough personality to carry her screen time. Where the jailer lacked personality and writing, Xal doesn’t. Her voice lines from Legion alone have more character than any acting I did in college-and I got a degree in it! Where Garrosh may have felt rushed to some people (not me), Xal’atath has been prepped for 8 years. Eight!! That’s half a Marvel phase!

Xal has just the right mix of us knowing who she is and what she wants and us also not knowing jack shit about who she is and what she wants. While she is clearly void aligned and after the Worldsoul, we don’t know her actual identity. A 5th old god? Their one sister who they all locked up first? A separate entity? 5% of Azeroth who was separated early on and seeks to rejoin her? THE JAILER’S LONG LOST SIBLING? The theories abound.

But she’s currently doing something well that antagonists such as the Jailer didn’t. When doing a long-con story, the journey has to be just as satisfying as the reveal. A story cannot “wait and see” you along with nothing interesting in-between. For my other cusp millennials, that’s why a show like Pretty Little Liars suffered so much. For every answer there were 3 more mysteries, and it took so long to get to the end of it that the eventual conclusion was inevitably going to be disappointing. When she was announced at Blizzcon, I was thrilled because she has had enough time on and off screen for me to be familiar enough with her general vibe. When the Jailer’s shadow (lol) came on screen at Blizzcon, I had no reason to be excited because who tf is that.

Also like once again how can you not love her. Her voice lines are unbelievable. That one in Tomb of Sargeras where she accidentally gets you killed and goes “lmao oops” lives in my head rent free. Her and Alleria are going to be having a mother-off on screen for the first year of War Within at least. We’re seated!

The writing team casting 11.0 as Alleria vs. Xal’atath

That’s a bit about my Xal opinions and some general vibes around what I enjoy in wow. Did I mention a solid amount of this blog is just me getting excited talking about things I like? Exactly. See you soon for another installment!

-Ily