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Boomsticks
- What's up with the boomsticks? In the Ironforge scene, when Lothar gets it from the dwarf, he appears totally unfamiliar with it, or the concept of gunpowder weapons in general (he peers into the barrell of a loaded gun and so on). But by the time of the final battle, all footmen are armed with guns and trained in using them. What's the timeframe there, a week or two maybe? To get the entire army trained and equipped in the use of a new weapon?
- The main advantage of early firearms over bows was that they were easy to use. Just point it at whatever you want to die, and pull the trigger.
- There's still some training involved - the footmen seem comfortable handling the guns. And the weapons need to be manufactured, transported and distributed among the soldiers. The film suffers heavily from an undefined timescale. Sometimes it seems like the whole story is over in a week, sometimes like the early "humans learn about the orcs" scenes happen over a period of months (Khadgar has accumulated quite a lot of research materials...).
- There is a scene shown where Stormwind is practically begging for help against the orcs, in a meeting that has both dwarves and high elves present. It's likely the dwarves supplied them with the guns shortly after that.
- It would have been better if they at least showed them giving the guns to the footmen.
- It could be that there was meant to be a scene for the dwarves supplying the humans with boomsticks that got cut, since the original cut of the movie had an additional 40 minutes. Maybe an extended edition would provide an answer to this? Fingers crossed.
Putting on the armor
- In the scene where Khadgar breaks Lothar out of the dungeon it takes all of ten seconds for Lothar (by himself) to put on his plate armor, which typically should have taken a lot longer than ten seconds, not to mention that also typically one needs help getting into a suit of armor, especially plate. Also, in another scene Lothar discover's Llane's dead body and then lifts him up over his shoulder - while both men are wearing heavy armor - and then carries him without breaking a sweat. Does Lothar have superhuman speed and strength or something?
- This is a high magic setting, and Lothar and Llane are basically the most important people in the kingdom. Their armor might be enchanted to be lighter and easier to be put on. World of Warcraft features a bow that fires lasers, so it wouldn't be the strangest thing in the setting.
- They're also of royal blood (Llane explicitly and Lothar in the source material) and in High Fantasy settings, as mentioned above, royal blood is almost always special. Lothar, for example, looks a bit too young to have a son of Callan's apparent age (Callan himself is also another of the few humans shown killing orcs singlehandedly and without a boomstick's help). They might indeed be superhuman to our standards.
Llane's strategy
- King Llane deciding to have almost the entire Stormwind army be deployed in defensive positions far away from the Orcs and only take a small force to attack the main Orc encampment to save the captives and prevent the whole Horde coming through. Even for someone as honourable as Llane and concerned with his people's safety, his strategy even without knowing about Medivh's betrayal made no sense as pointed out by Lothar.
- He wanted to preserve his men, he didn't know whether the entirety of the Horde was under the Portal, and, most importantly, Medivh claimed that the orcs were in rebellion. Llane probably expected to find the enemy in shambles, and himself The Cavalry for Durotan's forces.
- He could have attacked in greater force, but he'd take a bigger risk too. If the Horde managed to pass through the portal, the human forces would be damned trying to fight them on open grounds. And, after losing, the rest of the kingdom would be easy pickings. By taking a smaller force, he guarantees faster troop movement, which increase the chances of striking before the portal is ready, and, in case of failure, the rest of the army can take on defensive positions where they could better defend themselves against the orcs until the other kingdoms realised that this wasn't just Stormwind's problem, and sent proper help.
Where is Lordaeron?
- This is a major issue for me. When Llane shows Garona the map of the entire Eastern Kingdoms(which comprised the known world, at the time, as Northrend wasn't discovered by Ironforge yet, Kalimdor was still unknown, and Pandaria hadn't even been invented in the lore), it shows Stormwind, Alterac(who are later seen storming out of a meeting of all kingdom leaders), Dalaran, Quel'Thalas, and Ironforge(built beneath the Blackrock Mountains). While Stromgarde and Kul Tiras were basically city-states at that point(and thus wouldn't be noted on the map while still being apart of the "Seven Kingdoms"), Lordaeron is very conspicuously absent from the map. Adapted Out is the only explanation I can think of, here, as there is no reason a mapmaker wouldn't include the second-most major human nation in Azeroth(later becoming the strongest of the human nations after Stormwind falls to the Horde) on a map of all kingdoms.
And if that's the case: Where is Lothar going to be fleeing with Anduin and Stormwind's refugees when Stormwind inevitably falls in the sequel?- That's very strange, because Kul Tiras is on that map, I distinctly remember seeing an island to the west of Ironforge/Lordaeron area on it labelled Kul Tiras. Perhaps the filmmakers just forgot, albeit it's a pretty big thing to forget (especially since it would mess with the Arthas story something fierce if they ever get to adapting it).
- The shot of the map didn't pan up far enough to show Lordaeron - there is a split second glimpse of a cut off name ending in -on above Alterac. It's not missing or adapted out, it just wasn't seen (not fully anyway) on the map. This is supported by an extra titled 'Lordaerian Delegate' in the credits roll.
- Weird, because Quel'Thalas is clearly visible on the map and Lordaeron is southwest of it. Is Quel'Thalas' position adjusted for the Movieverse, then?
- Most likely true, since it was more or less just thrown in at the top of the Eastern Kingdoms when The Burning Crusade was released. Plus, it would be a whole extra two seconds to pan all the way up there. Seems like it was just moved around for the sake of convenience.
Inexplicable Light Magic
- What was up with the mages suddenly using Light magic without any reason or explanation? In the final confrontation, fel-corrupted Medivh is shown using advanced Draenei-style Light magic, and then Khadgar briefly and inexplicably channels Light magic himself. In a film in which such exquisite attention is paid to every little detail, this couldn't possibly have been a visual effects mistake. Since Medivh did spend long enough on Draenor to father Garona, it is not impossible that he learned from Draenei technology, but Light-use of any variety makes no sense while he is fel-corrupted during these scenes. There must be some explanation, but I cannot fathom what. I'd assumed that "From Light, Darkness, and from Darkness, Light" thing was just a metaphor for Khadgar to figure out that Arcane and Fel are opposite sides of the same force the way Light and Shadow are...
- Medivh explains that as Guardian, he is required to know all magic. Both fel and light are part of 'all magic'. And Guardians are always incredibly powerful, selected from among the best of the best of the Council of Tirisfal. Knowledge of light magic is quite abundant on Azeroth, its clerics wielded it in the First War, and paladins are nothing but knights who have learned to wield it in tandem with their martial skills. The light does not serve those who choose fel magic, but it 'knows' to distinguish between those who learned it, and those who dedicated themselves to it. Medivh, being Brainwashed and Crazy would have greater leeway in moments of clarity. As for Khadgar's ability to use it, it seems the light chose him because of his destiny during Tides of Darkness and Beyond the Dark Portal.
Portal Size
- This is me quoting CinemaSins here, but why must the portal be 200 feet high in order to walk an army of 8 or 9-foot tall orcs? Maybe Gul'dan wouldn't need to wipe out so many races if he made the portal a bit more fuel-efficient.
- It's totally possible the portal doesn't need to be that big. I imagine that both Gul'dan and the Legion are fairly egotistical; maybe Gul'dan just decided to make the portal a monument to his ego as well.
- It's unknown how true to game canon the WCU is, but as we have seen at least references to the Burning Legion, the portal's immense size may be to allow Archimonde et al through when Gul'dan gives the signal that Azeroth is ripe for scouring.
"A practical people" huh?
- So, Orgrim tells Gul'dan that he will bring the rest of Frostwolf clan to witness him receiving the Fel, ostensibly to prove to them that it's a boon to them. Gul'dan appears to agree and lets him go. Then in the next scene, he's purging the Frostwolf clan. Orgrim does not appear to be even surprised at this. Was there a scene missing there or something?
- Gul'dan likely already gave the order to purge the Frostwolves before having his meeting with Ogrim and thought to spare him if he became one of his fel-infused followers. When Ogrim came up with an excuse, Gul'dan just wrote him off as another rebellious orc to die when he went back to camp.
How old is Garona?
Medivh seems to be around the same age as Lane and Lothar, which makes sense since the Brotherhood comic shows they grew up together. But Garona doesn’t seem to be that much younger than her lover Lothar. Which raises the question how old was Medivh when he visited the orcs world and fell in love with Garonas mother? He would have to have been a teenager still.
