Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

His existing matter-of-fact, “everything has gone to my design” demeanor wouldn’t feel as awfully boring if he had earned the right to it.

Amplifying the doom and gloom in his persona would certainly *help*, but what is there would be helped even more by it not feeling so narratively cheap.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

Him being this master manipulator who turned his own realms of death into tools for his wider goals? That’s an interesting twist, especially since the Shadowlands *were* built around that.

It only becomes horrible when it’s applied to *everything else in the setting*, because he hasn’t earned it.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

I can more or less agree there, I just probably also think there are bigger issues to tackle with him than that haha

Like, I think if you restrict everything he does just to the Shadowlands, his existing character is raised significantly because it comes off so much less arrogant from a writer POV

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

I think you misunderstood, I meant on a narrative level. Zovaal is never someone hyping himself up as amazing, his dialogue is all entirely matter-of-fact and based around his beliefs around inevitability.

It’s not good! But him being the ultimate manipulator isn’t the fault of characterization.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

Zovaal’s whole story in relation to the greater Warcraft universe is just fundamentally flawed, and needed to be much more self-contained.

Him being boring is just the cherry on top that makes him impossible to excuse even to an optimistic audience member.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

Shadowlands would not have become a good story if you replaced Zovaal with Denathrius doing the exact same story, it just would have given people an easier way to overlook the flaws haha (much like a lot of people do with BfA because Saurfang has good one liners as a marketable orc man lol)

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

Case in point: Denathrius. Super charismatic, fun to interact with —still super damaging to the setting! The dreadlords have turned everyone else into stooges, and it’s only really overlooked because Denathrius was hot and ultimately just another stooge to the Jailer who can maybe be salvaged later.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 8h

People have said this since Shadowlands and I cannot disagree more I’m sorry 😭

The jailer is not a bad character just because he’s boring, he’s flawed because he uproots the entire setting for the sake of making himself look super smart and powerful. Making him charismatic doesn’t fix that.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 21h

Hearthstone pulling through as always by showing how good her new outfit looks with her WC3 Priestess of the Moon vibes

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 21h

I've always loved the *idea* of this outfit, but for Tyrande it just feels so incongruent with who she's supposed to be as a character. The silken short dress for a mounted battle priestess is just like. Mama wear that to the club.

Her BfA outfit fits her character SO much more.

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Reposted by Portergauge

Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

The article in question! One of 11.2's biggest strengths for me was finally focusing the intent of Alleria's story, after a *lot* of meandering since her introduction in Legion.

The way they used Locus-Walker was *so* good for Alleria's character.

www.wowhead.com/news/the-fol...

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

His Amanussy snatched...

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

And given what we know from the Alpha...

All I'll say is, the story being told was set up perfectly by 11.2 and Locus-Walker, and I'm really glad Alleria is getting to be so flawed and complicated in this main character role. I can't wait to test Voidstorm.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

Because ultimately Alleria *was* right about her, and now instead of being driven on a basic path of vengeance for her sister's city, she's driven by the personal loss of a loved one, and the belief that *only* she has the power to stop Xal'atath.

That's SO much more compelling.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

It's why I was kind of happy to see her regress a bit in 11.1, because yeah, choosing the cold logic over vengeance worked in that moment in Hallowfall, but Xal'atath herself is still ultimately the threat to solve.

And it led into her hyper-focus on Xal'atath in 11.2 perfectly.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

I can admit fully, 11.0 really didn't really sell me on Alleria's new arc. Dalaran as her motivation for vengeance on Xal'atath felt like cheap shock value, and a rip-off of her sisters (especially Vereesa).

And as a whole, it felt like her inner turmoil resolved *way* too fast.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

The article in question! One of 11.2's biggest strengths for me was finally focusing the intent of Alleria's story, after a *lot* of meandering since her introduction in Legion.

The way they used Locus-Walker was *so* good for Alleria's character.

www.wowhead.com/news/the-fol...

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

Well, that's the thing, it doesn't *have* to. Fel-Scarred is a more melee-based tree, but the new Annihilator tree is an *entirely* ranged caster like an Evoker.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 1d

Currently, Devourer doesn't use their glaives as their ranged idle animation, but they don't have a unique caster pose either, so they unfortunately just... do their fist weapon post like Visage form Evokers haha

Hopefully they get a unique pose animation like the other casters.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 2d

On request, a random assortment of Devourer DH ability visuals to showcase their full Void skillset.

Currently only Throw Glaive still uses fel visuals, but that's likely just outdated.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 2d

It then does a quick intro to specializations, mounts, inns, and then he's off!

Certainly streamlined towards the DF story experience, but it definitely loses a bit of the "early introduction to WoW" charm that the capitol city exploration had.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 2d

No more flight out of the zone or Metzen outro, sadly, just goes into a flashback cutscene from DF prepatch and then you're suddenly on the Dragon Isles.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 2d

Dungeon is all the same mechanically, only difference is the final boss is a mind-controlled Kalecgos who frees himself at 50% health.

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 2d

Doing this as Anduin was such a good choice

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Portergauge @portergauge.bsky.social · 2d

Shocked to see them create a new IGC just for this, but it's nice to ease players into that budget instead of scuffed ones

This definitely... leans closer to DF Wrathion's characterization than I'd like though

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