New world bosses from World of Warcraft’s newest content have a bizarre connection to Shadowlands. A line of dialogue spoken after these new World of Warcraft enemies are defeated left many fans annoyed and confused.World of Warcraft recently released Embers of Neltharion, its biggest content patch in Dragonflight yet. The update introduced new chapters of the story campaign, the Aberrus raid, and events for World of Warcraft players to complete, including the Zaqali Elders, a pair of world bosses located in the Zaralek Cavern zone. The Zaqali Elders encounter includes Gholna and Vakan, two ancient Djaradin warlords who have recently escaped imprisonment that World of Warcraft players must contend with simultaneously. However, once both are defeated, Vakan’s last words claim he sees a “Shadowlands Arena.” This overt reference to World of Warcraft: Shadowlands left many fans scratching their heads and palming their faces.
Those familiar with World of Warcraft’s previous expansion would immediately connect said arena with the Theater of Pain, the massive colosseum in the center of Maldraxxus, one of the four main realms of the Shadowlands. The arena was the location of a dungeon in Shadowlands, and a venue where players could face several other world bosses during the expansion. That said, it is also located in the afterlife of the World of Warcraft universe – a place the Djaradin would know little of, even ones as old and powerful as the Zaqali Elders.
Fans were not impressed by the clumsy reference to Shadowlands. One of the biggest criticisms of Shadowlands is that it demystified the magical setting of World of Warcraft, and this attempt to keep the unpopular expansion relevant was overly blunt. Others pointed out the reference didn’t even fit into the lore of Shadowlands, considering souls are supposed to go to Oribos first, so seeing Maldraxxus beforehand shouldn't be possible. Either way, most fans would prefer Shadowlands to be forgotten, ignored, or even retconned out of existence.
Other players suggested less-drastic measures to make the reference fit into World of Warcraft more smoothly. One fan suggested Blizzard change the line to reference an “eternal arena” or an “endless battlefield” instead, which would keep the reference to the Shadowlands, but make it less overt and jarring. Unfortunately, World of Warcraft probably won’t end up changing this line of dialogue in the future, and almost certainly won’t retcon the Shadowlands expansion itself. Hopefully, future callbacks to the controversial era of World of Warcraft are done with more grace than the Zaqali Elders.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC.