They Wasted A Perfectly Good Plot / World of Warcraft

---

• The worgen starting zone in Cataclysm. After a good overall story, it just abruptly ends for Alliance players, forcing you to play a Horde character to explore it more. Even then, the zone's storyline has no ending, and Gilneas is left completely hanging. What happened to Gilneas, Blizzard?
  • Word of God says that worgen were added to the Alliance to give the faction more of a darker edge, akin to the Horde's Forsaken or Wolverine. Cue the aftermath of the Gilnean starting zone and there's very little worgen presence anywhere in the world to fully give off any of that impression, much less any that act different from any of the other Alliance races, either defaulting to acting no different from regular humans but with an added superpower or druids that are as concerned about nature as night elves are. The only Worgen shown to even struggle with his vicious nature was Admiral Ripsnarl, a minor boss in lowbie Alliance quests. Whilst the only Alliance Worgen to show off any of their supposed vicious nature, Ivar Bloodfang, appears in lowbie forsaken quests before disappearing.
• There was a lot of Foreshadowing throughout Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King in regards to the Infinite Dragonflight and who their leader is. One quest in Dragonblight heavily implies Nozdormu, leader of the Bronze Dragonflight, has/will perform a Face–Heel Turn, but Chromie hand waves this saying he must be fighting the Infinites. As of Patch 4.2 he's back with no explanation given (his return was shown in a novel released after he appeared). Although it turns out he did go crazy in the distant future, and did become the leader of the Infinites, making this an aversion. Dragonflight brought back this plot point and finally addressed its emotional impacts on Nozdormu, the Bronze Dragonflight and Alexstrazsa, with Nozdormu resigned to his fate but Chromie and Alexstrazsa determined to not give up on him.
• Also in Cataclysm, Magni Bronzebeard was turned to diamond performing a ritual intended to protect Ironforge during Deathwing's initial attack. In the wake of the ensuing power struggle, the Council of Three Hammers is formed, where representatives from the Bronzebeard family, Wildhammer Clan, and Dark Iron Dwarves jointly rule Ironforge. These are three characters with very clear and very different allegiances, worldviews, and aspirations, making for a treasure trove of potential storylines that have gone completely ignored. Apparently, a recently-recovered amnesiac who just lost his brother, a guy with a near-need to be out and about up in the sky being pulled into a desk job in an underground city, and a Token Evil Teammate who is quite obvious about her intent to take over the whole city so her son can someday be its sole ruler can work just fine together.
  • This gets addressed to a certain extent in Cataclysm itself, where Moira realized that she couldn't even count on the loyalty of her own Dark Irons, never mind using them to move against the other clans. In the "Blood in the Snow" scenario in Mists, it's indicated that the Bronzebeards and the Wildhammers don't trust the Dark Irons, and won't leave the city to deal with the Zandalari and Frostmane trolls lest the Dark Irons try to take over in their absence. When Moira and her Dark Irons defeat the trolls, the other two admit that they were wrong to distrust the Dark Irons, who were the only ones who took the initiative to deal with the problem. Even then, it still qualifies, as the "Blood in the Snow" scenario didn't really do much other than briefly address the issue, then try to quietly sweep it under the rug. The only dwarf who actually plays a real part is Moira, and it's pretty jarring to see her suddenly playing nice with everybody.
  • Really, the only way the scenario makes sense is if it later turns out to just be a ploy by Moira to either get the other dwarves to lower their guard, gain favor with Varian, or simple Pragmatic Villainy of "Horde first, then take Ironforge". The plotline gets thrown out of whack in Legion, when Magni reawakens, and acknowledges Moira's worth and her hard work as part of the council, thus removing the chip on her shoulder.
• Mists of Pandaria Siege storyline could've been a perfect chance to see the orcs were not going to repeat the mistakes of the past and follow an evil leader, as well as to showing the evil of both factions. Instead the writers portrayed virtually every orc NPC as siding with Garrosh entirely regardless of prior characterization, whilst the faction conflict was portrayed as Black-and-White Morality with the Horde always being the only one depicted in the wrong even when it didn't make sense.
• The antagonistic clans from the faction-specific zones in Warlords of Draenor — the Shadowmoon clan and the Thunderlord clan — could easily have been made differently to be more interesting opponents. The Shadowmoon were forced to join the Iron Horde, and Ner'zhul was then forced to take desperate measures to secure their membership, but in-game they come across as amoral, generically evil cultists, and Ner'zhul is a cackling Disney villain whose good intentions are mentioned only once, who comes across as happy to serve the Iron Horde and who doesn't care for the lives of his clansmen enough to vindicate his ruthlessness. The Thunderlord clan, likewise, seem to have been solely written with E-V-I-L in mind. They could have been so much more. Even Fenris Wolfbrother, their warlord, gets handed the Jerkass Ball for no reason at all. The Shadowmoon could just as easily been written as the Token Good Teammate in the Iron Horde, or even become Defectors From Decadence. The Thunderlords could have been written as competitive rivals of the Frostwolves. Instead, Blizzard relegated them to the sidelines and aside from the occasional boss and one level 100 zone their parts in the story are pretty much over.
• In the short story "Code of Rule" and the storyline in Highmaul in Warlords of Draenor, it's shown that the Gorian Ogres have developed a way to counter magic in the Magic Breakers, ogre warriors who had been stuck with infusions of a school of magic before having a part of their soul taken and replaced by the magic branded in their very being with a forger stone, making them immune to this school of magic. It's even explained that it was in exchange of ogres teaching orcs to become Magic Breakers, with the goal of countering the various magic users of Azeroth, that the Grommash and Garrosh Hellscream spared the ogres and integrated them in the Iron Horde. However no orc is ever shown to have become or even trained to become a Magic Breaker, and this point is never brought back in the game.
• The idea that satyrs can be redeemed back into their night elf form by the acceptance of Elune through an act of sacrifice is the main plot of the Avrus Illwhisper NPC's quest. This could be an interesting way of bringing depth to the Satyrs and create interesting storylines to the Night Elves. This wasn't brought up again and the satyrs went back to being the Legion's lackey.
• The entire plot of the Dragon Aspects itself. This idea of five dragons who are in charge of different elements of Azeroth fighting against the Old Gods has tons of storyline to be explored and how they affect the mortals' life when they were still Aspects. Instead, what we got is Deathwing, Nozdormu in the near future and then Ysera quickly got corrupted and then killed off, Malygos went insane and got killed off while Alexstrasza and Ysera got severely depowered and Demoted to Extra after Cataclysm together with Wrathion while Kalecgos's storyline involves him dissolving the Blue Dragonflight and ties him up with Dalaran. It got to the point that Alexstrasza and Wrathion are the only ones that are competent or care enough about protecting Azeroth from the Old Gods and the Burning Legion. And this is still not mentioning the already contentious storyline of dragons going sterile (see above) that doesn't even give much focus to the Dragonflights and what their reaction / resolution is.
  • Almost all of this plotpoints are addressed with varying degree of satisfactory pay off in the beginning of Dragonflight. All of the Dragonflights resume their role as an Aspect with the help of the Player Character due to the emergence of the new threat. Alexstrasza finally has chances to interact with her fellow Dragons and display some genuine flaws and character development rather just being the bland goody two shoes Big Good Mission Control she was in the previous expansions. Ysera was brought back to life but cannot reassume her role as an Aspect due to the manner of her being brought back, and passing her role as an Aspect to her daughter. Kalecgos reunite his family and resume the existence of the Blue Dragonflight, as well as the emotional impact of Sindragosa and Malygos's death and subsequence turn to evil are finally being addressed. Wrathion and Sabellian fights for control of the Black Dragonflight. And we finally saw the full story of the formation of the Dragonflights. However, the fertility issue plot point seems to be Handwaved away and resolved off screen.
• The story of the Army of the Light. Despite official lore stating they are made up of survivors of different worlds the Legion has destroyed and otherwise slaughtered the populations of, have been fighting them across the cosmos for thousands of years, and being stated to have fought them to the point that the war could go either way, with the exception of Xe'ra, Lothraxion, Turalyon and Alleria (and later a few NPCs of various races), every member shown is a Draenei (Lightforged or otherwise). They're only shown in the game to be a limited to one ship smaller than the Exodar, and these wars on other worlds are never shown or even discussed. Also, see They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character above.
• The Shaman Class Order campaign is about uniting all four Elemental Lords (something that's never happened before) to fight against the Burning Legion. While players do unite them (and cause new ones to ascend for Air and Fire), the Elemental Lords never actually do anything and the campaign ends there without ever actually fighting the Legion. In Battle for Azeroth a side quest mentions that the Elemental planes are in chaos with the emergence of azerite, meaning the unity of the elements is gone.
  • This is a point of contention for the Death Knights as well. After spending the first patch rebuilding the Four Horsemen to serve as a counter against the Legion, they never actually do anything. Simultaneously the story of the Lich King's renewed activity and the Death Knights working for him ends without resolving any of the hints of darker motives.
• A major complaint about the artifact weapons in Legion is that many of them are random weapons created that have existed all along but now are being found to be used by the players. Many iconic Warcraft weapons are skipped over because of this, with very little reason given for why the weapons cannot be used by the player or don't appear. Weapons like the Axe of Cenarius, which was considered for Warriors but dropped because it wasn't "cool enough", Shadowmourne, and Quel'Delar, are never touched on for why they don't appear in the lore as options, while other notable weapons like Shalamayne and Atiesh are instead given to other characters, robbing players of the chance to use them. While making up new weapons for the expansion make sense since not every single class has one that would fit, only a small amount of them really feel like they truly are worthy of being "legendary weapons", and some feel like a retcon to justify their inclusion.
• Illidan and Maiev. The two have had a vendetta carrying over 10,000 years. Maiev is obsessed with capturing and imprisoning or executing Illidan, and he, for his part, wrought a shitton of damage, killed her subordinates and all-around never stopped adding to her laundry list of crimes she held against him (not to mention the flirtatious nature of the jabs they trade). After she kills him with the help of the adventurers and he then gets resurrected, he is seen working with her. You'd expect that this would be explored in more detail and the two would finally reconcile or that Illidan would at least make clear that he was plotting against the Legion all along and really was never a "Betrayer". No such thing happens and the two don't interact past the Tomb of Sargeras (about the middle of the expansion's plot). It gets even worse at the end, when Illidan steps into the same role for his own arch-enemy ( Sargeras) that Maiev was fanatically fulfilling for him during those 10,000 years.
• The faction conflict of Battle for Azeroth had potential if Blizzard had actually carried through with their hints at a more nuanced conflict with shades of grey. Instead Sylvanas went pure evil with the Horde obediently following while the Alliance are once again the beleaguered nice guys. This was only compounded by the expansion's obvious Halfway Plot Switch leading to the faction conflict ending in an anti-climax and abrupt shift to fighting N'Zoth.
  • It's been pointed out that setting the faction conflict as a Grey-and-Gray Morality would have actually been do-able if one switched the order of events of Teldrassil and Undercity. In the preceding patches before Battle for Azeroth their were elements to have the more peace-minded Anduin overruled or being unable to rein in the more war-hawkish elements of The Alliance with the Night Elves and Worgen especially. With pre-existing conflict between Gilneas and the Foresaken already existing, and the Night Elves having been the worgen's chief allies, there could have been a plot where they spearhead an Alliance incursion into the Undercity to retake Lordaeron like what Varian Wrynn tried to do back in Wrath of the Lich King prior to his development. The loss of her people's capital would have served to at least partially justify Sylvanas' wrath towards Teldrassil and continued the Cycle of Revenge narrative common to the universe. But Blizzard's writing at the time seemed extremely reluctant to portray any of the Alliance leadership as doing anything questionable (or lament it as such), leading to a very imbalanced war.
  • The plot overall feels like it was misplaced in the game's timeline. The plotline would have made more sense if it had been the continuation of Garrosh destroying Theramore after Cataclysm. That would make the destruction of Theramore actually mean something in-story aside from being an excuse for Jaina to go edgy, as it would be the perfect rallying cry for Kul Tiras. At the same time, the Zandalari were apparently facing major problems after the Cataclysm, making this the perfect time for the Horde to earn their trust.
• In Nazjatar and its raid, players finally face Azshara after years of hyping her up. Considering that Malfurion and especially Tyrande have a personal history with her that goes back to before the Sundering, a story tied to the Night Elves' very existence, you'd think that they would be there to deliver the killing blow, or at least in Nazjatar, wouldn't you? They're not. On the Horde side, Thalyssra is seen as an appropriate character to be there, due to her also being from before the Sundering. On the Alliance side, Jaina, who has no history with Azshara whatsoever, is the one leading the raid and questing in the zone.
• Nya'lotha, despite years of buildup and speculation, ending up being only a raid is considered wasted potential by many. Its location as a plane was also glossed over for a time, until it was revealed almost as an afterthought to be a possible future trying to overwrite the present.
• After Legion implied that Bolvar was losing it, and that it wasn't clear if there was anything left of Bolvar in the new Lich King, it would be reasonable to expect that this would become relevant somehow — such as him becoming a threat to Azeroth. What actually happened? Come Shadowlands, he was worfed by Sylvanas in the opening cinematic, lost the Helm of Domination, and became old honorable Bolvar again, while his dubious actions as the Lich King were glossed over.
• During Cataclysm, Morgan, the namesake of Morgan’s Vigil in the Burning Steppes, states that her goal is claim the entire region and create her own kingdom within the Burning Steppes, and show the world the true worth of her ancestral lands. This could’ve been an interesting storyline, because how would Stormwind react to having a new kingdom emerge next door which could quickly become another rival for supremacy of the region? Or an ally that could serve as a buffer to the encroaching Dark Horde? But nothing has been done about it since a piece of gossip during Cataclysm.
• Since the announcement of Shadowlands, there was much speculation regarding Arthas with the developers teasing that he'd have a role to play in the expansion. Rumors and speculation only grew when it was revealed that not only was the Scourge heavily based on one of the main afterlives (Maldraxxus) but that the Jailor was ultimately responsible for the Scourge entirely. In 9.2, it's revealed that Arthas's soul was used up almost completely forging Kingsmourne. After Anduin is purified, a tiny fragment of Arthas's soul appears long enough for Sylvanas to monologue about how she became just like him and that he should fade from memory. Then the soul fades away entirely without saying a single line of dialogue or a comment from Jaina, Arthas's former lover, and Uther, Arthas's mentor who was the one to cast him into the Maw. Considering how beloved Arthas is as a character, this send-off was viewed as a major waste of the potential to use him again, to the point that many people expressed the idea it would have been better if he never was teased to come back at all.
• Despite Shadowlands taking place in the afterlife and having a heavy focus on Sylvanas, the Forsaken and other undead beings on Azeroth do not feature prominently in story. Sylvanas's relationship to the Forsaken was one of the central focuses of her character and she has no real noteworthy interaction with any of them throughout the expansion.
• Many fans felt that Shadowlands failed to properly take advantage of its afterlife setting and that it should have featured many more deceased characters from the game's past and lore rather than the small handful that ended up utilized.

---