When did Warcraft lore start going down? (10 options researched) (a poll)
Alright, I would like to ask you what point in the history of Warcraft lore you would point out to as the point of no return? When the changes have accumulated so bad, it can never be salvaged anymore in any case?
I will go through each release and list the bad about it from what I know myself. Playing devil's advocate in a number of places.
O. Warcraft II will be the baseline for all Warcraft lore. W:O&H lore was too underdeveloped to count.
I. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos.
1) Turned Orcs into noble savages that had been demon-influenced all along when they had been behaving nasty in the previous titles.
2) No Dragons in the Horde. No Ogres either (until the Rexxar campaign, but even then in lore only, not in gameplay).
3) No Gnomes. No Stormwind either.
II. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
1) The story, albeit very epic, was told too fast, with too drastic deeds.
2) Blood Elves removed from the Alliance.
3) Sylvanas remained in the Plaguelands instead of chasing Arthas.
4) The Admiral Proudmoore fiasco (arguably).
III. WoW: Vanilla.
1) The Forsaken joining the Horde.
2) Night Elves joining the Alliance.
3) Night Elven gender roles butchered.
4) Tauren Druids. Orc Warlocks.
5) The Scarlet Crusade existing (in place of Stormwind reclamation parties).
6) High Elves existing.
IV. WoW: TBC.
1) The Eredar-Draenei retcon.
2) The Draenei Shaman retcon.
3) Blood Elves joining the Horde.
4) Blood Elves getting the Sunwell back.
5) Lady Vashj wasted. Illidan butchered. Kael'thas lolcorrupted.
6) Dimensional ships.
7) Uncorrupted Orcs.
8) The Outland zones retcons.
V. WoW: WotLK.
1) Dalaran rebuilt (you'all kids are saying undying demons made RoC cheap. I say that it was flying Dalaran that made Archimonde cheap).
2) Ner'zhul butchered.
3) The Lich King butchered.
4) Northrend not being fully covered in snow.
5) Incessant pandering to the Northern European demographic.
VI. WoW: Cata.
1) Night Elven Mages. Goblin Priests.
2) The Neltharion lore was bad.
3) Theramore broke neutrality.
4) The Neptulon incident.
VII. WoW: MoP).
1) Theramore wasted as the last holdout of the Kirin Tor, High Elves and Lordaeron refugees.
2) Garrosh wasted as an honourable Orc.
3) A non-Orc chosen as Warchief.
4) Incessant pandering to the East Asian demographic.
VIII. WoW: WoD.
1) Time travel on a massive scale.
2) The demons-only-die-in-the-Nether clarification.
3) Various Orc and Draenei lore retcons.
IX. WoW: Legion.
1) The Broken Isles retcon.
2) Argus too small and destroyed (my biggest gripe).
3) The Army of the Light retcon.
4) The Illidan retcon (actually good, imo).
5) A non-Orc non-male chosen as Warchief.
X. WoW: BfA.
1) The Burning of Teldrassil (the only good thing, but it's an unpopular opinion).
2) Confusing Horde leadership story lines.
3) Confusing strategies.
4) Void Elves.
5) No underwater Nazjatar.
That's about all. I myself incline to agree with the folks on the Reforged forums on that TFT was the pinnacle of storytelling but vanilla was still passable, whereas TBC started the inadvertent, yet irreversible decline into nothingness and boredom.
Even though there are parts that I tend to be open about - such as the addition of the Old Gods in vanilla, or Kael'thas being super edgy and badass in TBC, or Theramore having a unique population of High Elves, or Lor'themar opening talks about the readmission to the Alliance, or Illidan having desired the fall of the Legion all along, or... indeed, Sylvanas burning the tree and being greyer than a typical WoW player can comprehend - there is still an inexcusable trend downwards.