2 Written by
Anna on
June 15, 2009 – 10:51 am
There are a lot of things I enjoy about TRI (my raid group). I enjoy their company. I enjoy that we have pretty solid progression for a “casual” raid (which is to say, we raid 7 hours a week). I enjoy that raids are as much silly fun and RP as they are srs bsns – and that we get things done while still being able to goof around a little on occasion.
But there’s a new thing that’s started with LK raiding – a new thing which I like more and more each week.
We’ve always had creative sign ups – usually based around song lyrics or movie quotes that relate to that week’s progression or boss attempts. Recently, however, while the thread titles and “yes” and “no” list titles have still been song and movie related, the posts themselves have been in character. And many of the responses have ALSO been in character.
And the one that was posted today… well, it’s taken the cake. The descent into madness, with a drunken night elf (who should never have gone drinking with the dwarf priest) a monocle’d white rabbit disappearing into a hole, and a bunch of other nonsense. The responses have been fantastic, Aely got to actually be in character in Northrend again (with her wounded shoulder from Wrathgate), and I can’t wait to see what other folks come up with.
My favorite individual posts, however, were from last week’s discussion of Mimiron:
Fury Warrior (Engineer): I’m not so sure you should dismiss the wonders of engineering so quickly, though. I have a plan in mind to defeat Mimiron entirely by surprise that only requires a Gnomish Remote Control, half a dozen World Enlargers, and 232 explosive sheep…
Raid Leader (also Engineer): … and twenty four of us hiding in the f*cking tram car!
Rogue: Not me. I’ll be stealthed right outside the room with a readied Sprint cooldown. I want to see this.
Comments Off Written by
Anna on
June 14, 2009 – 5:06 pm
Sooooo things have been a little quiet around here, and for that I apologize. I had houseguests that came to help Mr. Annas and I with our house – and a 2 day, quick visit to take care of our patio turned into a 5 day marathon ordeal. We had a good time, if you can say that about hard labor, discovered we have a Cyborg Ent in our yard (that’s a story for another day), and now have a new patio and a lot of other good things fixed with our house.
But because of that, I didn’t raid, didn’t log in, and haven’t had time to sit at my computer to do ANYTHING since Tuesday afternoon!
I’m back though, and things should resume as usual. Angrathar will be continuing this week, as well as an Ask Anna post (hooray!) – and it looks like, thanks to some help from Phileas, that Angrathar may have an extra epilogue post. Which is very awesome, since you guys haven’t gotten to see him and Aely interact much (and he’s got a fantastic accent, too). Anyhow – much love, and I’m glad to be back.
2 Written by
Anna on
June 9, 2009 – 2:24 pm
So I’ve kinda been putting off this book review for awhile.
I’ll admit, I had high expectations for Arthas: Rise of the Lich King going in – Christie Golden’s novels Rise of the Horde and Lord of the Clans are two of my favorite WoW books, and I’d really enjoyed them. They’re not great, classic literature, but that’s ok – they’re entertaining and enjoyable reads with characters I liked and stories that kept me interested.
Unfortunately I’m not quite so glowingly happy with Arthas.
The book suffered from a lot of things that I think really crippled what could’ve been a fantastic novel or novels.
Yes, plural.
My first issue with it is that there was too much that was utterly glossed over, too much that should’ve been either fleshed out or left out in order to make room for expanding other sections. Were this story fully written out, it would fill two books easily. Sure, Blizzard probably didn’t want to release two books, and I’m not sure if Golden asked for more space and was denied it, or was given a length limit or whatnot.
At just over 300 pages, it felt both too long and too short at the same time, because things were mentioned in passing, instead of explained or written out. So many scenes needed to be actually filled in, rather than glanced over, that it never felt like the book settled into any pace other than headlong, breakneck, and rushed.
For example – during the part where Arthas and the Scourge are marching on Quel’Danas, they mention that there is a traitor. And Sylvanas kinda figures out that there must’ve been one. And then she retains her brain (kinda) – and so does he (kinda) – and they are both part of the scourge… and that’s all that we ever hear about it.
Dar’khan Drathir is one of the biggest betrayers in the history of Warcraft – and he gets hardly a passing glance because the story has to move so fast. You get the same feeling from Arthas’ meetings with Uther Lightbringer – and his Paladin training happens entirely without being mentioned at all. Even two pages dedicated to these kinds of little interactions would’ve helped this feel like an independent story rather than a rote retelling of Warcraft III.
And that’s my second complaint. Warcraft III wouldn’t win any awards for dialogue writing, and that same dialogue is, if anything, less effective in novel form.
Seeing the scene outside Stratholme reenacted in full was nice… but having to rehash the entirety of the game (essentially) with little or no actualy expansion of the dialogue felt forced and was a serious letdown. Golden writes better dialogue than this, and the parts that are “campaign text” stick out. The only part of the book that feels in any way original is the section at the beginning, telling about Arthas’ childhood – and that is fast, furious, and glosses over a lot of things.
Another frustration, in the words of Falconesse? Just marry the fucking horse already! (pardon my language)
One thing that I’d like to have seen, particularly with the development of Arthas himself, is a more defined transition from “wants power to save his people/land/family” to “wants power”. Especially since you see the latter early on. Plus, you have so many clues that Arthas has been mentally unbalanced – if not outright mentally ill – since he was a child that some of it seems, in a way, disgenuous.
Arthas Menethil is supposed to be self-centered, impulsive, and rash (which he is… and I’m not sure how that managed to get him accepted into the Silver Hand – something that seemed to be everyone else’s choice FOR him?) – but he’s also supposed to be good at the beginning, and there are aspects of his character that don’t come across that way even from when he is just a child. Whether this lends credence to it being “his destiny”, weakens the power of the Lich King as a temptation force, or just shows that he was one serious basket case of a man is kinda up to your own reading.
What does the book do well?
It gives us a lot more insight about some lore characters that we didn’t have before – Jaina, Kael’thas, Uther, Muradin, Terenas Menethil. Those sections of the book were my favorites – not the sections dealing with Arthas. The vast majority of the story that deals with Arthas isn’t new. In fact, it reads like a transcription of Warcraft III/Frozen Throne. If you’ve not played those games, and are unfamiliar with Arthas lore (90% of which you can get on WoWWiki), then this will be new stuff for you. Otherwise, it’s mostly old hat.
In fact, I’d say that the only really “new” idea in the entire novel comes in the last 5 pages. And I’m not sure the book supported those last 5 pages particularly well, but I can’t really talk about that without giving it away.
I’m also not sure if part of Blizzard’s request for Golden required that she use the WCIII/FT script and the lore that already existed or not. If it was, I’m more sympathetic towards the novel itself, since that is an incredibly stifling set of guidelines.
Golden’s two previous WoW books basically “set up” the lore for those characters – where with this one she was working from a very well established story, and that definitely may have affected the effectiveness of the novel. I kind of suspect that this is what happened, since the other characters in the book are more interesting than Arthas was. Arthas comes across as a one-trick pony (*mutter mutter horse mutter*), where the other characters – even Uther, who had maybe 4 cameos – had at least the impression of depth.
Should you go out and buy it?
Well, that depends.
Obviously it has some shortcomings, and largely frustrated instead of interested me as I was reading. But, if you are unfamiliar with the Arthas lore, this is a good way to get it – particularly if you’ve not played through Warcraft III. There isn’t anything groundbreaking in the book though, and the writing isn’t good enough to make me want to read it again (unlike both of Golden’s previous books, which I have read twice each). Regardless of the title, it’s a brief overview and not an in-depth character study of Arthas. It’s fast paced, glosses over really excellent opportunities for story/character advancement, and suffers from that awful horse – but as an afternoon’s worth of reading to get you the cliffnotes on Arthas, it’s quite successful.
And I really rather like Jaina. And Muradin and Uther. Would like to see more of them plz!
Comments Off Written by
Anna on
June 8, 2009 – 9:50 am
This is Part of Angrethar, the story of The Battle for the Wrathgate from Aelflaed’s point of view. You can see all of the posts in this story on the Story Archives page, by searching for the Wrathgate category, or through this link.
It felt like the first time in months that Tarquin ap Danwyrith had stopped to breathe. Two days up here at Angrathar, he knew, but he felt like he had been born in that icy gulch, beneath that broken hill. Maybe this was hell. He rubbed his knuckles into the corners of his eyesockets, as if to scour away what he’d seen, aware all the while of the absurdity of it. Just more petty defiance, more useless-
He put a collar on his thoughts and dragged them back from the abyss. Going to be doing that a lot, murmured the part of his mind that had regained its balance. First things first, the living. He had a responsibility. Ceil was with Sonya, of course; she wouldn’t say two words to the girl, but she’d hover over her as if she could will her back to health. It was typical.
The Riders were ranged about the point where their headlong flight had stopped, in various states of breathless disbelief. Tarquin fancied that he could have seen the same reflection in all their eyes had he bothered to look, heard the same thunderous echoes of – fucking come off it! They were alive, that was what mattered. Wounded, exhausted, terrified beyond measure in some cases, but alive. That was where everything started.
He began a headcount, matching things up against the mental list he carried with him at all times, noting the gaps with a heavy heart. Bellesta, Feliche, Aelflaed -
Shite.
The monstrous gas probably wouldn’t have gone that far, but even still, Bolvar’s death had routed the Alliance, all the way back to the reserves. She could be anywhere. She could be a twitching shell half-buried in snowdrifts, a torched and mangled body on one of a hundred heaps, a shambling carcass taking up the Bloody Prince’s new guard outside the gates. There were thousands of them out there. Tarquin indulged himself in maudlin thoughts for a moment longer, then turned to his family and surveyed for a moment before calling out. “Jolly! Kaidos! ‘Larra!”
Of the Riders, those were three of the most coherent. Ulthanon had seen it all before, more or less, and Ilarra could always stand to see more. As for Jolstraer, dead-eyed and battered as he was, the old knight simply had too many years of momentum behind him to fall to despair. They all wandered over with the same air of distraction – trying, most like, to keep the horror from creeping in. “We’ve still Riders out there,” he told them. “Aely wis sent wi’ the Legion medical at the start. I want yeh three ta find her, or her body.” Ulthanon winced. “Kaidos, check the field. ‘Larra, go an’ check wha’s left ay the Legion. Jolly, go south, ‘mong the scatters.”
Ilarra cleared her throat delicately. “Lotta dead folk out there, boss. Not that I won’t be positively thrilled at findin’ her, o’ course, but – well, how soon you want us back?”
“When yeh find her.” Tarquin caught Ilarra’s gaze. “Find any in the colors. Bellesta an’ Feliche’re missin’ too. Mair, might be. I’ll have yeh a count in a tick. Get yirselves ready.” He turned back to counting.
