As anyone who's played World of Warcraft longer than just 4.3 should know, the beginning of each expansion is less of a complete and solid new era for the game, and more like the season premiere of a television show. We are introduced to a lot of new environments and conflicts, and they are resolved or expanded upon as the season or expansion goes on.
Much like a television season, the early victories can lead to new conflicts. Naxxramas is fall sweeps, and then Ulduar's the mid-season finale to take us through the hiatus, and then things ramp up for the rest of the season, culminating in a confrontation with the season's big bad at the season finale (ICC.) And then from there, we're waiting for the next season to come out.
Obviously, WoW goes a little slower than television - each expansion has lasted about two years, while TV tends to do a season per year - but I think the principle is the same. And just like a television season, where we get glimpses of what might be coming for us, but usually only taken from the first two or three episodes, we also should know that things can go in quite unexpected directions ("Holy crap! The Zandalar Tribe has gone evil!" Kind of like "Holy crap! (spoilers for Lost season 2 incoming) Michael just totally shot Ana Lucia and Libby!")
WoW expansions have, for the most part, been pretty straightforward with who's the bad guy. Arthas was always the big bad of Wrath, likewise Deathwing for Cataclysm. Illidan really should have been BC's final boss - not because I think it needs to be straightforward, but because they hadn't been intending for you to face off against Kil'jaeden when they were first planning it.
Mists of Pandaria is doing something very interesting, in that we really don't know who's going to be the major threat. The Mogu and the Mantid strike me as Drakkari-level villains - people we're definitely going to deal with in multiple zones, but I doubt we'll be looking back on them as the most memorable villains of Mists. Still, we know we're going to have a Mogu raid and a Mantid-themed zone.
Ultimately, we probably can't do much to speculate, because we don't even know what the first three raids of the expansion will be (likely a similar spread to tier 11, though I hope we get a couple more bosses, and if not, a decent reason to go to whatever the equivalent of Throne of the Four Winds will be.)
If any villainous group stands out as the most likely serious threat, it's the Sha. I've heard speculation linking them to the Old Gods and the Naaru (and actually, given the descriptions we've heard of them, they'd fit in with the latter pretty well.) But like the Old Gods, without a real personality applied to one of them, I doubt we'd see one as a final boss of the whole expansion.
So let's lay out the threats we know will exist, and other possible threats to include.
The Mogu (we already know there will be a Mogu raid.)
The Mantid
The Zandalari Tribe (they seem to have a presence. Not sure if the island north of Pandaria really is Zandalar, or just a base. Like the Infinite Dragonflight, this might be one of those recurring villains they're setting up.)
The Naga: No reason in particular we should see these guys in Pandaria, but then, there's no reason we shouldn't.
The Sha: Clearly.
Beyond this, we also need to find out why Pandaria's been hidden for so long. It's got to be pretty important to have been the only major land mass not part of pre-Sundering Kalimdor. Was this something of Titan design? Or is there some other creative force, something that was there before the Titans or the Old Gods?
Actually, this is starting to get into questions for an article coming up about questions I'd like to see dealt with in the future, so here I'll stop and reiterate what I've been saying for weeks: we know very little. Much as Pandaria was hidden from view, the content of Mists of Pandaria will, I think, remain mysterious until we can actually get there for ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment