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'Kay so.
If anyone ever questions why the heck I monkey around with backstories in WoW so much and ignore big chunks of canon and expanded universe stuff and etc. etc. etc.?
This sort of business would be why.
The comics also discard and ignore big chunks of canon to the detriment of the franchise's overall storyline and the characterization of big names (of course, this is usual for the extended canon stuff...I think half the writers haven't done a speck of homework); Richard Knaak's stuff may have official backing but he still sucks (AND blows (neither with skill)) and he can't keep his internal canon consistent.
The game of WoW itself, I can understand a certain inconsistency of writing and character and so on. They have a lot of writers. So it gets to be like Star Trek: TNG, in that sometimes everything's glorious and IC and fun and sometimes you want to defenestrate someone. WoW overall does IMHO have a BIG problem with using characters as plot levers regardless of whether it makes sense for them to be doing Things A, B, C and QQ given background and personality. And I really don't like the tendency of leaving out big pieces of storyline to encourage fans to get ahold of the extended canon materials. It's like - guys, that material may not be available in some subscribers' countries . I'm not talking prohibitive shipping charges here, I'm talking NO CAN HAS MAILBOOKZ. This is not as farfetched as you might assume; Square Enix NA did not ship to Canada last time I checked, and they may still not. (Canada is apparently not part of North America, but rather the Phantom Zone. Or perhaps Outlands.) Add onto that the fact that some shipping charges are just repulsive, the fact that book pricing is still hugely arbitrary, and the unsteady availability of given volumes or trade paperbacks (the Sunwell Trilogy is, for example, probably going to get harder to come by since Tokyopop is dead, Jim; ditto the DK manga and so on) and you have a lolfailsplosion.
...Fungustown, where was I again?
Ah, right. Consistency. This is a definite issue in the game proper but there is at least some explanation for it. In the case of the Draenei, Metzen had a massive brain fart and admitted to it. In the case of the flailingly splonktacular what-the-fuck-arious characterization of some big name NPCs, that's an example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand (or left foot, or right foot, or that third hand that holds the cleav--wait, no, that's just Abominations) is doing. A writer may know what the ur-plot is heading toward and be able to write accordingly, or they might not and thus introduce some amusing hiccups.
So given all that I think I can be forgiven for cutting canon the side-eye by turns and writing what is, to me, a more fun story. If it means the foundation canon of the RTS games remains more intact and the spirit of THOSE remains apparent in my work, even better. I very much use WCIII as a characterization guideline for MANY people, and I'll add in the MMORPG stuff if I want to and think it can make sense.
If I can keep the grey-and-grey frenemy/reluctant ally interaction that WCIII was so effing good at, that's STILL better! I know that frenemy stuff isn't conducive to the faction headbangin' of the MMORPG, but that's not going to stop me from writing it. There's a vast spectrum of beliefs and goals and drives amongst the major players, and a veritable mosh-pit of motivations. I mean, you've got relative hippies like Thrall and Jaina and Velen and Big Red Lady Alex; on the other hand you have ragingly impulsive Leeroys like Varian and Garrosh (both of whom are desperate to prove themselves in some way--though to whom is anyone's guess). And in the middle you've got a bunch of people who would just like to go one day without gnolls, Defias, or KT fanboys taking a leak on their porch.
So, yes, I do discard big chunks of Cata canon for my own nefarious purposes. I discard them the same way I discard big pieces of Wrath and Burninating Crusade canon. Why do I do this? Because I feel the characterization or motivation was poor or thoughtless or hacky. Because I am offended by the implications of something. Because I don't think this, that and those make any sense at all. And so on, and so forth--and why does this matter, anyhow? XD Anyone who likes strict canon is going to hate my work. They're not going to read it.
Hopefully the poeple who do read it like what I have to offer and think my ideas are fun. I'm not expecting them to consider my fanfic a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but if it's fun to read and makes sense I've succeeded.
This sort of business would be why.
The comics also discard and ignore big chunks of canon to the detriment of the franchise's overall storyline and the characterization of big names (of course, this is usual for the extended canon stuff...I think half the writers haven't done a speck of homework); Richard Knaak's stuff may have official backing but he still sucks (AND blows (neither with skill)) and he can't keep his internal canon consistent.
The game of WoW itself, I can understand a certain inconsistency of writing and character and so on. They have a lot of writers. So it gets to be like Star Trek: TNG, in that sometimes everything's glorious and IC and fun and sometimes you want to defenestrate someone. WoW overall does IMHO have a BIG problem with using characters as plot levers regardless of whether it makes sense for them to be doing Things A, B, C and QQ given background and personality. And I really don't like the tendency of leaving out big pieces of storyline to encourage fans to get ahold of the extended canon materials. It's like - guys, that material may not be available in some subscribers' countries . I'm not talking prohibitive shipping charges here, I'm talking NO CAN HAS MAILBOOKZ. This is not as farfetched as you might assume; Square Enix NA did not ship to Canada last time I checked, and they may still not. (Canada is apparently not part of North America, but rather the Phantom Zone. Or perhaps Outlands.) Add onto that the fact that some shipping charges are just repulsive, the fact that book pricing is still hugely arbitrary, and the unsteady availability of given volumes or trade paperbacks (the Sunwell Trilogy is, for example, probably going to get harder to come by since Tokyopop is dead, Jim; ditto the DK manga and so on) and you have a lolfailsplosion.
...Fungustown, where was I again?
Ah, right. Consistency. This is a definite issue in the game proper but there is at least some explanation for it. In the case of the Draenei, Metzen had a massive brain fart and admitted to it. In the case of the flailingly splonktacular what-the-fuck-arious characterization of some big name NPCs, that's an example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand (or left foot, or right foot, or that third hand that holds the cleav--wait, no, that's just Abominations) is doing. A writer may know what the ur-plot is heading toward and be able to write accordingly, or they might not and thus introduce some amusing hiccups.
So given all that I think I can be forgiven for cutting canon the side-eye by turns and writing what is, to me, a more fun story. If it means the foundation canon of the RTS games remains more intact and the spirit of THOSE remains apparent in my work, even better. I very much use WCIII as a characterization guideline for MANY people, and I'll add in the MMORPG stuff if I want to and think it can make sense.
If I can keep the grey-and-grey frenemy/reluctant ally interaction that WCIII was so effing good at, that's STILL better! I know that frenemy stuff isn't conducive to the faction headbangin' of the MMORPG, but that's not going to stop me from writing it. There's a vast spectrum of beliefs and goals and drives amongst the major players, and a veritable mosh-pit of motivations. I mean, you've got relative hippies like Thrall and Jaina and Velen and Big Red Lady Alex; on the other hand you have ragingly impulsive Leeroys like Varian and Garrosh (both of whom are desperate to prove themselves in some way--though to whom is anyone's guess). And in the middle you've got a bunch of people who would just like to go one day without gnolls, Defias, or KT fanboys taking a leak on their porch.
So, yes, I do discard big chunks of Cata canon for my own nefarious purposes. I discard them the same way I discard big pieces of Wrath and Burninating Crusade canon. Why do I do this? Because I feel the characterization or motivation was poor or thoughtless or hacky. Because I am offended by the implications of something. Because I don't think this, that and those make any sense at all. And so on, and so forth--and why does this matter, anyhow? XD Anyone who likes strict canon is going to hate my work. They're not going to read it.
Hopefully the poeple who do read it like what I have to offer and think my ideas are fun. I'm not expecting them to consider my fanfic a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, but if it's fun to read and makes sense I've succeeded.