i will never be normal about the you wear fine things well scene. i will pause that shit five times and rewatch it again and again and rant at my screen about every single thought going on in ed's head and how fucking perfect the music and taika's acting are
!!! FLASHING LIGHTS WARNING!!! [IM NOT FUCKIN AROUND!!]
REACHED THE CUSP OF 'THIS MAY NEVER BE ABSOLUTELY FINISHED N IF I DONT SHOW IT NOW, IT WILL NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.' SO HERE, A PROJECT IVE BEEN ORBITING AROUND UHH SINCE 2021 OR SO.
I synced El's and Brenner's massacre POVs and you need to check it out.
they have really similar trips down that hallway, so I decided to line them up starting at the moment they emerge from the test room doorway. and...
the one thing I wanna point out in case it's not apparent is, you know Brenner somehow hears a snippet of Two-dying-noises when he walks into the Rainbow Room? well those noises align perfectly with when El hears them.
I have thoughts about the opening of TWW as it stands now, it just doesn't work for me because it makes all of the involved characters look incompetent at best and straight up stupid at worst. You are telling me there was no serious council meeting to decide whether they should bring a city with civilians into uncharted territory without scouting ahead?
When Dalaran was ported during Legion it was out of necessity (as it was under attack) and then it housed some of the strongest people on Azeroth (the Class Hall representatives) while also reinforcing it's defenses. Sure they were going to port it anyway, but it happened now with little preparation because they were getting bombarded. In TWW Khadgar asks you to go help people nail shelves to the wall before teleporting. And everyone knows that Magni's vision showed a city burning at Khaz Algar. Does it never occur to anyone that maybe we are in danger bringing a city over without any prior knowledge of this location?
Also everyone keeps saying that this was done because there was no other choice, the citizens of Dalaran should've known what they are in for (dying apparently), Dalaran was used as a military base before, Xal'atath sabotaged it from within (where? lmao) and like all of this could've been fixed in one scene while also not making everyone look like an idiot.
Instead of the pointless Radiant Echoes quest, have the pre-patch event be Alleria leading hunting parties after Xal'atath that always lead to a dead end. Have Alleria literally be stressed and worn down over days and weeks so that she is too distracted to even suspect Xal'atath might be in Dalaran already. Use the repetitive gameplay aspect of the event to wear down the player too and give us that sense of pointless hunting that Alleria is also experiencing at this point.
Then have her attend a council meeting with Khadgar and the others, including Drenden, and have Thrall, Jaina, Anduin and Magni there too. Show us how tired Alleria is of this chase and have Khadgar comfort and encourage her that she is doing everything she can. Then have him voice his concerns about porting the city on a whim, Khadgar is as responsible for the lives of the people in Dalaran as the ones they try and help. Have the council disagree with this porting.
And then have Drenden stand up and say how even though he is new, he knows of how Dalaran stood against the Burning Legion and how the world needs them now and this is a sacrifice that must be made. Almost convince the player he is not Xal'atath. Have Xal'atath as Drenden address Khadgar directly and play into his heroism and goodness and cast any doubt aside about this porting before he makes the final call. Show us how Xal'atath sways the entire council to do this one decision on a whim. Even have Khadgar tell Drenden to secure the wards around the city.
This will just pay off so much in the scene between Xal'atath and Khadgar because you know she dogwalked him during that council meeting and played into his virtues and ultimately he now thinks its his fault he moved the city here and cost all those people their lives. Why not have him die with regrets? Feeling like a failure?
To top it off, in the scene where Drenden reveals himself as Xal'atath to Alleria, why have him just grin to her and act like Xal'atath in drag? Give him few more seconds of sounding like Drenden, tell Alleria that maybe she is just tired of all this hunting, put his hand on her shoulder and just have the realization that he is Xal'atath slowly sink in so that Xal'atath reveals herself once Alleria already knows.
Not saying this would be perfect, but just one scene like the council meeting could've established so much about these three characters and add more weight to the loss everyone suffers. Let them be human, let them have doubts and disagreements, show Xal'atath playing right into that and actually manipulating the stage and the council right under the players noses too.