Two things they changed, which I liked a lot:
1) Having Thrall be stillborn, and being brought back to life by Gul'Dan.
This was a good explanation for something that had kind of bugged me - how does Thrall end up green when he's raised independently with no Fel Magic? More importantly, I think it adds a some nice, subtle depth to both Thrall and Gul'Dan. Doesn't make Gul'Dan any less evil - but shows a bit of his shaman heritage, doing a bit of midwifery and that his powers *can* be used to do nice things on occasion.
2) And, at the end, having Llane tell Garona to kill him
I'm not sure what the latest canon-reason for this was, but ever since I read The Last Guardian (my favorite WarCraft novel), it hasn't made any sense to me for Garona to betray Llane. She's a good enough and strong enough person to never do it willingly. The reason given in this movie made sense, AND it doesn't even violate the hazy, confusing canon - the canon is hazy and confusing BECAUSE Lothar misinterprets what's happening and that's the only story they have to tell.
The Medivh Subplot
This was something that bothered me, but I'm genuinely unsure (from an artistic perspective) how they could have improved it. Medivh isn't well explained in the movie. There isn't enough background or foreshadowing for the "he's a demon!" revelation to make any sense. And yet... I don't know how I would have fit more into the movie.
They could have chosen to tell "The Last Guardian" story (i.e. Khadgar, Garona and Lothar unravelling the mystery of Medivh together). I think that could be done in roughly 2 hours - but it wouldn't leave any room for Durotan or any of the other orcs. The orcs were the best part of this movie, and I think it was crucial to have them be major characters.
The "Khadgar goes to visit the Kirin Tor" scene was pretty pointless - it didn't explain anything ("Light from darkness light what the fuck are you talking about?"). They could have revealed actual information there about Aegwynn or Sargeras, but the problem wasn't just that we didn't have the information - it was that the characters didn't have the screentime to really *earn* the information. (In "Last Guardian", Khadgar does a series of magical experiments that eventually allow him to see controlled visions from the past)
A Missed Opportunity
In that scene where Lothar is bothering the guard set to watch him, I was really hoping for the guard to "What!? Are you still touching me!" or otherwise highlighting the "click on a unit too many times" gag. (I think the optimal joke here would have been to have him start to say "Are you still..." and then abruptly turn into a sheep).
To be fair, Garona is only half Draenei because Blizzard forgot their timeline. She was always designed to be half human, but when they went back and filled in the story, realized that it simply wouldn't work, as there would have been no humans around for her to be born of. So then it became "Well, we always called her a half orc, we never said what the other half was..." and decided that the union of a draenei and an orc ends up looking like a green human.1) In the regular canon, both Durotan and Draka go through the same skin change as all the other orcs. It was caused by all the fel magic being utilized during the war with the Draenei (Even Drek'thar, for a time, was a warlock.), and Draka even noted while they were stationed at Hellfire Citadel that her brown skin was slowly peeling away to show green underneath (Rise of the Horde). Once you become green, you are physically changed forever, and thus any children you sire also inherit those traits. Thrall was green because his parents were both green. The only orcs that escaped this process in the regular canon is the Mag'har, who, at the time, suffered a strange reaction to fel magic called the Red Pox. The green orcs were so terrified of this sickness that they quarantined all that suffered it at the old village of the Frostwolves, which is now Garadar in Nagrand. This is the only reason in the main canon that brown orcs still exist at all. Of course, for the movie they wanted to make sure that Durotan and Draka were presented as "uncorrupted", thus they made the fel sickness a forced change rather then an ambient one, but since Thrall's entire look has always been green, they wrote up the whole stillborn and Gul'dan scene as a way to make sure he keeps his iconic coloring.
2) They actually do point this out in The Last Guardian. While Garona, Lothar, and Khadgar fight the possessed Medivh, she is grabbed by Medivh and he uses his magic to curse her so that she will kill those she cares most about. When Lothar and Khadgar finally get the killing blow on Medivh, they look for Garona and find her missing. Khadgar at some point during this also has a vision of Garona killing Llane with tears in her eyes, and it's revealed that Llane was the one she killed because of the curse, having sided back with Gul'dan against her will.
I can agree with some of the other things with Medivh and such, I honestly felt weird how much they were tip-toeing around Sargeras. The whole Alodi thing was weird too, since Alodi was supposed to be the First Guardian, and a man. The woman in the cube looked more like Aegwynn to me, but they never really go into depth with it.
Honestly, the thing that weirds me out the most is the implication that Medivh went realm-hopping in his youth and fell in love with a strong woman that he does not remember.
Why is that weird? Because it's implying that he jumped to Draenor at some point and knocked up an orc to sire Garona, allowing her to be half-human even before the portal was complete. In the main canon, she is half-draenei, the niece of Maarad, and has a sexual relationship with Medivh, conceiving her son Med'an. Out of all the changes you could hint in the movie you make her main canon lover and baby-daddy, her friggin father instead? What!?
Oh I know all that, but it does not change the fact that as of her establishment for the last 7-8 years, she is half-draenei. She has appeared in comics and has draenic family that have now had large involvement in the game world (Maarad). They can't go back on that.To be fair, Garona is only half Draenei because Blizzard forgot their timeline. She was always designed to be half human, but when they went back and filled in the story, realized that it simply wouldn't work, as there would have been no humans around for her to be born of. So then it became "Well, we always called her a half orc, we never said what the other half was..." and decided that the union of a draenei and an orc ends up looking like a green human.
This is the rundown.I'm confused about the "ruined it on purpose because China" rumor. Who was angry with who about what? (either in fact, or rumor?). What would deliberately sabotaging it have accomplished? (Not disbelieving or believing, just not sure what you meant)
Sure I can explain but be aware, it's a bit crazy. You seem to know most of what happens in the first war, so I will ignore that part. Gul'dan was the leader of the Horde using Blackhand as a puppet Warchief until sometime right before the sacking of Stormwind.While I'm doing Lore Catchup - What's the current canon (in game) on when/if Gul'Dan died? Originally it was a big deal that he died and left a skull behind. I know he's in Warlords of Draenor because that's in the past (I haven't played that expansion though). I seem to recall him showing up in normal-timeline WoW though. Was there a reason for that, or did I just imagine it?
I think you misinterpreted the motion and sound. Gul'dan was lamenting about what just happened, and Garrosh was just rubbing it in his face by quiping about times changing, and then pushed Gul'dan back down to the floor since he was no threat by that point. The sound you hear was Garrosh's metal boots shifting as he pushed him. You meet this Gul'dan literally in the first five minutes of WoD, as he is being used by the Iron Horde to power the Red Portal during the opening suicide mission. We are forced to release him to close the Red Portal and stop the Iron Horde from further invading Azeroth.One thing that threw me was that, in the opening trailer for Warlords of Draenor... it seemed "obvious" that Garrosh literally snapped Gul'Dan's neck. I haven't actually played WoD so when Gul'Dan showed up in Legion I was confused. (I guess orcs are hardy enough that you can do things to them that make neck-snapping sounds and everything's fine)
Day of the Dragon came out in 2001 and was the first to speak about the Bronze Dragons and their powers over time. They increased the influence of time altering properties of the Bronze Dragons in WoW with the full introduction of the Caverns of Time, but those focused on us retaining our timeline by preventing changes to it. It was actually one of the Thrall books (Twilight of the Aspects) that introduced full on multiverse theory. Thrall is attacked in the caverns of time by a mysterious assassin, that ended up being Aedelas Blackmoore from an alternate timeline. They end up falling into the time portals and Thrall experiences various points in time, and even other timelines that never existed (one where he is killed as a child and Blackmoore takes over the world, one where he is a loyal servant to Blackmoore, etc.), before finally shattering the false timeline and finding Nozdormu. Even after the false timeline was shattered, the Blackmoore from it still attempted to kill Thrall, until Thrall finally ended him once and for all.It's pretty amusing how heavily WoW is leaning into the "Time Travel is a a major plot point" thing (and not only that, but they've actually been setting that up since... since maybe even before WoW? When did Day of the Dragon come out? So while it's inherently ridiculous, I can't accuse them of shoehorning it in)
They came out and said specifically that the original idea of WoD was to have us return to an updated Outland, in which Garrosh had raised the spirits of the long dead chieftains to fight for him, specifically because they liked those characters and wanted to see them again.I always thought WoW decided to lean so heavily on time travel because Blizzard realized they had killed off all of the characters that anyone cared about.
Because it was entertaining to me as a person. Why does anyone like any movie?I find it really hard to believe anyone liked this movie. People do, apparently, but I don't understand why.
I don't get it, either.I find it really hard to believe anyone liked this movie. People do, apparently, but I don't understand why.