The latest cinematic of World of Warcraft is being torn apart. Viewers believe that Blizzard can no longer tell stories.
Since Wednesday, the new part of the Covenant campaign in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has been playable. The story this week revolves around the night elf and priestess of Elune, Tyrande Whisperwind. She is struggling with the powers of the Night Warrior and will die if the heroes do nothing.
At the end of the questline, there is a brief cinematic of 2 minutes with several major revelations – but hardly anyone likes it. A whopping 80% “thumbs down” speaks for itself.
The recently released cinematic about Sylvanas also caused drama and many thumbs down.
What is shown in the cinematic? The cinematic depicts the finale of the questline. The former night warriors have just performed a ritual to save Tyrande. The ritual fails, and the Winter Queen must intervene. The moon goddess Elune speaks through Tyrande and holds a dialogue with the Winter Queen. She is angry that Elune did not help when help was requested.
Elune counters that she helped – after all, she sent all the souls of the night elves into the Ardenweald during the burning of Teldrassil. However, the souls never arrived and ended up in the Maw.
The Winter Queen believes that this does not have to be the end for the souls and that they can still be saved, starting with Tyrande. Elune leaves the choice to Tyrande: pursue vengeance or choose renewal. Tyrande apparently chooses renewal and thus creates a new tear of Elune, which is then taken to the heart of the forest, renewing the seal of the Night Fae.
Watch the cinematic for yourself here:
What do the viewers say? They find particularly harsh or sarcastic words in the comments. Here are just a few excerpts:
- “Danuser [a developer] tries his best to save his genocidal waifu, just disgusting.”
- “The cinematic is really beautiful… a shame that the story simply does not match the quality of the cinematic.”
- “The choice between vengeance and renewal? Listen, you glowing potato. Tyrande would have gotten her vengeance a long time ago if you hadn’t taken her powers away at the finish line.”
- “You’d find better story writers in elementary school.”
- “I didn’t even know that the story writers of the Game of Thrones series are now helping to write for WoW.”
- “Alright, it’s now obviously that they are only doing this to mock the community. No writer in their right mind would create such bullshit.”
- “Great job ruining Elune. Her first appearance is to tell her sister that she made a little mishap… so majestic…”
Positive comments are usually only very far down or are completely hidden due to “thumbs down” ratings. The prevailing sentiment is clearly negative.
What are the main points of criticism? Many viewers criticize that Elune comes across as dumb and incompetent in the cinematic. She “sacrificed” the night elves so that they could serve as fuel for the Shadowlands. Additionally, many find it illogical that Tyrande was made the Night Warrior but has no direct contact with Elune to tell her that souls are going straight to the Maw.
Another point of criticism is that Tyrande has no real choice at all. After all, she wanted to kill Sylvanas in the previous cinematic, but Elune’s power left her then. Consequently, many viewers find the scene rather ridiculous since Tyrande can only choose renewal – the moon goddess allows nothing else.
What do you think of this cinematic? Do you like what Blizzard has done with Tyrande and Elune? Or do you belong to the 80% who absolutely hate this cinematic – just like the last one?
