Sure, it’s a game set in a fantasy world where the rules of physics and math don’t actually apply, and this isn’t exactly the first time Blizzard has taken the lore of World of Warcraft right off the rails. It’s become a tradition to cram every new expansion full of flashbacks, retcons, and other changes that don’t make sense.
For those who are fans of the lore, or for players that just enjoy nitpicking at details, it’s easy to find a few things in the latest WoW expansion, Shadowlands, that aren’t exactly airtight when it comes to mechanics and storytelling. Just as long as the quests are fun and the armor looks good, nobody really cares. Just put on that shiny new gear and feel good about yourself.
10 Evil Sylvanas Turns More Evil
One player’s villain is another’s hero, and if you’re for the Horde, why is Sylvanas a bad guy? She’s an immortal badass with all of the powers of the Lich King and starts this expansion by burning down Teldrassil, effectively destroying the heart of Night Elf society. Way to strike a blow for the Horde! That’s pretty impressive, especially if you’re Forsaken. Isn’t this the fiery power play that this faction has been waiting for? She just took out a whole Alliance faction. Speaking of which, that leads to another issue.
9 Papier Mache Teldrassil
The narrative is that Sylvanas’ destruction of Teldrassil is supposed to be a bad thing, even though this is exactly what the Horde has been trying to do for decades, but how did she even do this? Was this so-called magical tree filled with gasoline or made of papier-mache? It went up faster than an old birchbark canoe.
If this was so easy to do, why couldn’t it be done in Warcraft 3? Players could have just burned all the Night Elf buildings down the whole time? Considering how creative other storylines in WoW are, this is weirdly lazy writing, and that makes it awkward to get emotionally involved in this no matter how the game keeps pushing it on us that it’s a heinous crime.
8 The Hero’s Quest
Why start from humble beginnings and work your way up when you can be a hero the second you show up? Contrary to the traditional progression that RPGs in general and WoW expansions often utilize, there is no process to work your way up to being the world’s most epic hero. You are one instantly.
Contrast that to previous expansions, such as the Death Knight in Wrath of the Lich King, individual characters were met with suspicion and fear and had to prove themselves. It added some stakes and emotional investment, and the quests weren’t so easy and your ’toon wasn’t already decked out in their finery with all the right trinkets. Plus, the quests aren’t really that epic even though the game really wants you to think they are.
7 Everything About the Jailor
Other than it’s a convenient way to give Sylvanas an excuse for being all OP now, who is this and why are they here? It seems to the writers had to come up with an entity that was more powerful than any other in Azeroth just to outdo themselves, but have no written themselves into a corner.
Yes, we get it, he’s really scary. Stop reminding us. Sooner or later players have to fight this thing, and if they’re so important and godlike, how exactly is that supposed to happen and what effect does the death of this character have on the lore? Can they even die? Where do they go if they do?
6 Uther The Villain
This is a moment that will make Warcraft 3 players catch their breath, never mind anyone that knows anything about some of the basic tenets of WoW lore. It seems that Uther’s been scarred by his experience in life, but even the most sympathetic player has to admit he’s gone off the deep end here. And wasn’t his benevolent ghost still lurking about by his tomb back in Azeroth? Looks like yet another famous legacy character got Skywalkered.
5 Nobody Knows What Happened
This seems to be a feature of most WoW expansions, but here it makes even less sense because we’re given the idea that the new factions in the Shadowlands are efficient and communicative, but as players, we don’t see any evidence of that.
In fact, that seems to be a massive contradiction, as the player’s whole reason for being here is to help the seemingly totally clueless locals as to what happened. That might remind some players of something else.
4 Meet The Old World, Same As The New World
Civil wars, external wars, non-communicative leaders, and bickering over ideological views. Are you sure we just didn’t take the boat to Northrend or roll a character in the ruins of Silvermoon City? It’s understandable that we need to use this formula to give players a frame of reference that they’ll recognize, but couldn’t the world of the dead at least do something differently? Except there is one thing that’s not the same, and that just makes it even weirder.
3 The Old World Doesn’t Matter
The lore so far tells us that once someone or something in Azeroth dies, they go to the Shadowlands. There are a few exceptions, but that’s the general rule. It’s interesting to see some information about where Azerothians go when they die, but the problem is they seem to be assigned to places that have nothing to do with their actions and everything to do with their faction, race, or how they made a living. On the other hand, if those are the rules, why don’t all Undead go to Maldraxxus? Are honor and loyalty exclusive only to Paladins? This feels broken either way.
2 Elementals Can Die?
How is this a thing? Do elementals have souls then? Shouldn’t they become death elementals after they die? Or, wait, they can die? Do they die in the same way that demons die, in that case?
The problem with a place that’s labeled as “where everyone goes after they die” has to mean everyone. As players, we’ve left a few corpses in our wake, and some would be interesting to meet again, but not all of them. You might be excited about seeing Arthas Menethil again, but Ragnaros, not so much.
1 “Infinite Realms”
Well, Blizzard, that’s a nice, easy way to give yourself a handy excuse for all of this. It’s an idea that can be used to explain virtually any weird quirk that people come up with, like the ones on this list. It also neatly explains where the Shadowlands is located or isn’t located, in terms of where Azeroth is in the universe or the realm of the Titans or anything else. Sure, it’s on another plane of reality, and Sylvanas had the powers of a god the whole time. Whatever.
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