Of course, I’ll toss it after the jump for those inclined to avoid spoilers. Ready?
Cho’gall, empowered by C’Thun, says that when the child of three worlds, Med’an, becomes “of Light” — dies, in the vernacular — then the barrier between the Elemental Planes and terrestrial Azeroth will shatter and they’ll begin to merge. Well, we certainly know that the merger (or, more fittingly, hostile takeover) happens, so it stands to reason that Med’an will die. I figured Deathwing just did it himself, but I guess there’s more to it. It could also lend credence to the rumor that Thrall becomes the new Guardian of Tirisfal, despite Med’an’s recent infusion of Guardian power.
Let me get on my soapbox for just a minute here.
To be frank, I like the concept of Med’an — a mixed-breed in a world where the most we usually get are the result of Rhonin’s apparently irresistible charms to elven women — but the execution of the character has been just awful so far. A character that can use every kind of magic. who happens to be the son of two Warcraft II heroes! How wonderful. That certainly makes everyone else obsolete.
So, no, I wouldn’t mourn the loss of Med’an in the way he’s been presented so far, especially if it means that someone whose character has been completely assassinated in Wrath – our favorite Son of Durotan — can come back to the forefront and be an actual leader… even if it’s not just for the Horde anymore.
But this is a consistent issue with the WoW comic, in my opinion — uneven characterization, exclusive storylines that aren’t really that engaging to begin with but still affect the game world, and new characters that act like we’ve known them forever. Add to that the increasingly unattractive art in the book, like Garrosh’s tiny, tiny head and “shoulders” that make up roughly half his body — I know I already used the word Liefeldian, but I really want to use it again — and it equals out to sizable difficulty in enjoying the series at all, either in art or story. But the comic is also the only way to experience these storylines in the expanded universe.
.Jack Spicer asked…
“Here’s another quick question. The glyphs that a scribe learns from the books that were introduced in patch 3.1 (?), are those totally unique to those books, or can they be learned from ordinary Northrend Inscription Research?”
I believe that is the case, yes. You can only learn them through those books. I somewhat expect that will change when Cataclysm hits, though. Nobody will want to farm books in Northrend for glyphs when we’re all in the new content.
So what should I do once I get into the game?
Play it! Remember that your responsibility as a tester is to test, so play anything and everything in the expansion to make sure that the final product is picture-perfect when released.
Make sure that you provide lots of feedback on the forums. The developers hang out on the beta forums all the time and are very, very likely to read what you write, and even act on it if appropriate.
Above all, just make sure that your alpha/beta key isn’t being wasted, because there are people who would waste you just to play Cataclysm early.
