The Queue: Farm Woman Vanessa

We don’t always get to witness characters getting story advancement and resolution, or happy endings — or something kinda close to “happy,” at least — so what happened to Vanessa VanCleef is really nice to see. I can’t say I disliked her as head of the Defias Brotherhood, trying to avenge her father and make bloody justice (however distorted), but I’m more than happy that she decided to trade the poisoned daggers for baskets full of bread, and dedicate her life to feeding the downtrodden people of Westfall instead of doing murders. It makes me all warm and fuzzy.

This is The Queue, a column where we answer your questions every day, whether they’re about WoW, TV shows, or some more WoW. And we also get to ramble about characters we like.

Diablo.

Look, we’ve had Diablo crossover events in WoW before. The Amalgam of Rage, taken straight from Diablo 4, is one of the coolest-looking mounts in the game. They could really do a lot with the Diablo aesthetic.

Armor sets inspired by Diablo himself, Baal, and Mephisto. Lilith and Inarius, Tyrael, Auriel, and Imperius. An HD remake of Tyrael’s Charger (another Diablo mount that’s already in WoW). Wings (demonic, angelic) as back pieces. Seriously, there are so many possibilities that it would probably be enough for not just one, but a few months of Trading Post offerings. Perhaps a Heaven-themed one and a Hell-themed one? And then a third one for the children of Lilith (that’s us) and other denizens of Sanctuary?

We’ve recently had a crossover event in Diablo 4 where they added a bunch of iconic WoW class sets to that game, and the result was fantastic — I even spent some Platinum I had lying around to get the sets, and it was the first time anything looked good enough to me in the Diablo shop that I wanted to spend. I’m sure the same could happen in the opposite direction.

All of them. I was already of the opinion that this would be a great idea even before Midnight. Seeing the new Quel’thalas zones only confirmed that.

But I have to pick one, right? Right. Your Tanaris idea has been a favorite of mine for quite a while, and I could easily go with it. Mean Streets added three whole crime factions to Gadgetzan, with the Jade Lotus, the Grimy Goons, and the Kabal; and just that is enough to add so much story potential and spice to the zone.

If I were to pick a different one, though, I’d go with Westfall, because it’s been long enough with a giant vortex in the middle of the zone and Sentinel Hill on fire.

We’ve had actual lore developments to that zone with the Human heritage armor questline — spoiler alert, Vanessa VanCleef is no longer the vengeful leader of the Defias, but instead enlisted the help of her girlfriend noblewoman Cecilia Clessington to create the Breadbasket Guild, with the explicit goal of rebuilding Westfall and feeding its people — doing the work that Stormwind should be doing. It’s time for the actual zone to reflect those events!

I want a full underground machinery zone. A Titan zone that is not just a “regular” zone like Uldum or Uldaman, but rather the Manifold underneath Northrend that we can see in places like Storm Peaks. A full zone of that. Constructs, machinery, automatons, Titan lore. Some contained pockets of Old God corruption as well. And nature attacking it — courtesy of the Haranir, of course. A zone like that could have it all!

I guess Titan facilities, Constellars, and the idea of “planetary re-origination” as a whole. What’s the deal with that? It seems like a pretty enormous deal that might threaten Azeroth at any point, and no one’s really actively worrying about it. Sure, we managed to convince Algalon to spare us. But what if he changes his mind, and there’s no one there to argue our case?

And what, exactly, does re-origination entail? I find it extremely unlikely that the Titans would willingly cause any harm to Azeroth’s Worldsoul — yet, at the same time, it would be a cataclysmic enough event to wipe out all life on Azeroth. Would the manifold “shelter” the Worldsoul at the core of the planet while everything around it goes kaboom? Do the machines remain intact — and then proceed to rebuild the planet from the broken pieces? It just seems so weird. And it also seems a bit strange that the Titans have the power to do that, but have never decided to do so despite all of the stuff that’s happened to Azeroth in its history: the Black Empire, the Sundering, later massive waves of Old God corruption, Deathwing’s Cataclysm, etc.

The best series I watched in quite a while, Dark, had exactly three seasons. So I think you might be onto something here.

But seriously, of course there is no single answer. There are plenty of shows that were still good by season 6 or 7 or more. Lost was a show that, despite the extremely disappointing ending, was still going strong all the way to its last season. Say what you will about how Game of Thrones became a shadow of its former self by season 6 or so, the first 5 seasons were still some of the strongest drama we’ve ever seen in series form.

And then you have sitcoms, where the inevitable risk — almost a guarantee, in fact — is the eventual flanderization of characters. Even shows I love like Friends and That 70’s Show became much worse after their fifth or sixth season or so. Some sitcoms even refuse to acknowledge when it’s time to retire: once Charlie Sheen got replaced by Ashton Kutcher in Two and a Half Man, that thing seriously became one of the worst shows I’ve ever had the displeasure of watching.

So I guess although there’s no magic number, I like the idea of shows not going past their sixth season. Seems like a nice stopping point, and writers can plan around it — much like Dark had the three seasons fully sketched out in advance, and that’s why it’s such a tight show with no loose ends despite the convoluted plot.

And that concludes today’s Queue. Have a great weekend, everyone, and go ride ponies or eat bread.