The Queue: Wishing for more Warbringers

I don’t want another Warcraft movie, I just want six seasons (no movie) of Warbringers. That’s not asking for too much, is it? I don’t think it is.

But for now, let’s queue.

I’d love to get an animated series with the art style of the Warbringers shorts, which were excellent.

The Warcraft movie suffered, I think, from trying to show everything. It spent a lot of time introducing people and places, and making sure everything looked perfect. With an anime, you’re going with a stylized look from the start without trying to make a photorealistic orc. No need to spend so much of your time (and budget) on CGI. And if instead of trying to lay out the whole crux of the first war, they stuck to smaller stories spread out over more episodes… well, Warcraft has plenty of stories to tell, and I think it tells its smaller stories better. Again, coming back to Warbringers. Being less ambitious and trying to tell a smaller, more personal story might make a much bigger impact.

I’m here for it.

At Gamescom, Ion promised alpha news “in about a month.” If Blizzard sticks to that I’d expect something by the end of the month, or perhaps early October. So maybe not next week, but the week after is likely. Of course “alpha news” could mean a lot of things, from “there is an alpha” to “here are early patch notes.” We don’t know how much we’re going to get, just that something alpha-related is on the horizon.

Plans change, but considering the audience of eager gaming fans, I don’t think Ion would have given a timeframe on alpha announcements if he weren’t relatively sure there would be alpha news in that time frame.

Which is to say Soon(tm).

I usually just say coke, but that may be because Coke Zero is my favored vice. If I didn’t say coke, however, I would say soda, or call it by its specific name (a Dr. Pepper is always going to be a Dr. Pepper, not a coke and not a soda).

I am not into Mountain Dew, so more Baja blast for everyone else. However, I do have a penchant for Red Bull, particularly the sea blue flavor which tastes exactly like a blue sweet tart. Yum.

I don’t think WoW really likes to kill people. We killed Kael’thas twice just to meet him in the again in the Shadowlands. In this expansion, Khadgar “died” to quickly return, and I suspect Locus-Walker may be alive as well. Not many characters stay dead. (They’re more likely to be written out of the story as a new writing team loses interest than to straight up die.)

But if anyone’s going to die this expansion, my money’s on Turalyon. Xal’atath has threatened to take everything Alleria loves, and for all that things are kind of awkward in their relationship these days, Turalyon is certainly on the list. Arator is also on the list, but I feel both Turalyon and Alleria would do anything to protect him, which is to say one of them is likely to go first if he’s threatened: and in any situation where his loved ones are threatened, I thing Turalyon is going to take the hit for them.

Frankly, however, I don’t want anyone to die. There’s enough misery in the world that I don’t need more in my fiction… but I will say I could do with less Alleria. I feel like her personal narrative is repetitive and isn’t going anywhere. She exhibits some standard (and worrying) signs of depression, pushing away loved ones (because she’s dangerous!) and avoiding friends (she’s dangerous! stay away! also probably no one likes her anymore because she’s dangerous!). Her emotions are all over the place, whether influenced by the void or by the stress of being in a bad situation, and she’s prone to snap at people, make quick judgments, and rash decisions. It’s a self-destructive path that she’s built for herself, and she doesn’t see it at all: instead continuing to isolate herself and obsess over Xal’atath. It’s a spiral that doesn’t have a good ending, and it’s grim and unpleasant to watch… on top of the fact that, in case you missed it, the game and associated media have to remind you about it whenever Alleria comes up.

I’ve seen friends spiral like this in real life. It’s not great.

But, this is a fantasy, so maybe there’s a happy ending. (But for now, I remain tired.)

Strawberry is the superior milkshake flavor. I don’t make the rules.

Blizzard generally doesn’t give us release dates too far in advance, but Legion Remix isn’t very far in advance: just today Blizzard announced it will start on October 7.

We’re too far out for an official date on patch 11.2.7, which includes housing early access. But WoW follows a very consistent patch schedule these days, so we can safely assume it will arrive in early December.

That’s all for today, everyone. Take care of yourself and celebrate the victory of making it to another Wednesday! I’ll see you in the comments section.