Since the topic has been broached, I'd say it's past due for me to do a proper thread on queer representation in WoW.

More specifically, how it is... lacking, to put it nicely, in The War Within. 🧵 Historically, WoW has not been a very representative game for queer stories.

Warcraft as a whole is not a particularly 'sexy' universe, but it's still rife with relationships left and right, and for about 25 years those were entirely straight relationships.

It's very funny looking back at how blatantly evil Bolvar was in Legion compared to more recentstuff lol Like come on man, you can't pass this off as "oh I was just doing it for The Balance :)" lmao

So, it seems like with 10.2.5 going live, a *lot* of NPCs relating to draenei and troll heritage got added to the files.

Gonna be going through them here, so beware of potential spoilers for both stories by implication of these NPCs. Starting with draenei, which *seems* to be focused around Auchindoun, and potentially building a new equivalent on Azeroth.

Not only are there a bunch of soulpriest NPCs, but D'ore, the naaru that Auchindoun was originally built around.

Okay, proper Dragonflight epilogue time, here be spoilers. This was a cute little capstone to the story, and a nice way of showing that the player is, in some way, being treated more like a character now.

Still a shame half these people have never even talked to each other to make that 'family' though lol

Okay, 10.2.5 time, here be spoilers. Feel free to mute this thread/me for the day, because I'll be covering *all* of it.

Starting with Vyranoth's reason for being Aspect of Storms, I like that it calls to her and Raszageth's interactions in the book. Okay this is... literally everything I wanted from Wrathion this expansion, and god I wish they'd actually *told* this story beyond this conversation lol

Really hoping this is leading up to him joining us properly in TWW, and god is this *so* well choreographed/voiced, holy shit

Finally home and free, wasn't lucky enough to get a pre-review copy so I'm doing it the old fashioned way on release day lol

Here be spoilers, but mostly out of context snippets I find interesting. It's nice to see Tyranastrasz get a cameo, and some confirmation that he's an *old ass dragon* lol

(maybe one day his poor skull will be taken from a fucking dwarven museum and given back to the dragons lol)

So, 10.1's campaign is over. I gave myself a day or so to compile my thoughts, and this will be where I air them out. Warning: this will be long thread lol

Like I've said in the past, I love most of 10.1, but the biggest pain point lies in the Black Dragonflight storyline. To preface: I do not think the plot beats of 10.1 are inherently bad.

There is a feasible story for any of the three brothers becoming Aspect, and while Wrathion's plot was inarguably the most set up, a pivot to explore other sides of his character instead is a neat idea.

Oh there's even *more* followup to the blue dragon storyline in the mailbox too Really glad she got a bit of extra follow-up

Oh my god, they really did it, they went all out with AU characters for the Scourge timeline

That undead Vereesa is so fucking good, I am obsessed Warlocks are seemingly getting a glyph that adds a visual indicator to their soulstone from the 10.1.5 questline, that's nice

Okay I'm back and hearthed to the Archives to get started again an Tyrygosa is just. Here??? Girl what have you been doing???

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1661084004454649856

Gonna hope she has some actual story in one of those locations lmao

Kirygosa first though

Anyways, hoping the Blue Dragon stuff is smoother than MSQ lol

Doing it on my mage with Dragonwrath to see if there's any unique dialogue Already a bunch of deep cut old blue dragon NPCs, so that's great

Also my prediction is just... immediately coming true lmao

Trying to see it in game for myself before judging but uh

It's bugged entirely lmao. Ebyssian has no quest and the other two just aren't here Okay I exited and changed phases, now I have the opposite issue lmao

Okay, I finally got my warlock to 70 to test the 10.1.5 questline for myself, managed to avoid most info on it

Here be spoilers Pretty much only seen this bit but I love it.

I like that Phineas puts a hood on in his Orgrimamr version, just to hide that he's human

Okay finally able to do the other wing now that it's live (and not bugged)

Seems like Aberrus as a whole is powered by Rashok, not just by latent shadowflame in the area Pretty much a mirror of the other wing, son goes "hey that's kinda fucked up" and Neltharion eggs them on by saying he'll support the other one

Oh the new shop skins are cute, I'm glad Whitemane's HotS skin lives on somewhere at least lol Bongo n'zoth canon confirmed

Cute little green drakonid NPC out by the new entrance to Zaralek Cavern Quest seems to be dracthyr only, little metaphor for their origins

Had some thoughts on troll heritage in the wake of this, since trolls and draenei are likely to get their heritage at the same time.

For troll heritage, I honestly want something much simpler: for the player to undergo the trials to become a Shadow Hunter.

https://twitter.com/Portergauge/status/1644888582434467846

My first instinct for a troll heritage would be for it to be the meeting of the tribes to re-establish where they all are, and to give the Darkspear a proper narrative moving forward.

But I honestly think that needs to happen independent of heritage, and available for all.

"If you ever need to read a book outside of the game to understand a major quest or plot in the game that is World of Warcraft, then that would mean that we would have caused significant narrative disruption."

I feel like Ion forgot that they're still doing this lol

https://twitter.com/Wowhead/status/1459556028639588353

Like, this issue has gotten *worse*, not better. Cairne dying in the Shattering and only there sucked, but he isn't a super major character unfortunately.

Literally the core plot of BfA is not in game at all. No way to see the saurfang cinematics whatsoever.