Just going to revive the thread as the poster that started it. An idea I have is that the gaming industry is less developed technologically than OTL(or developed in a much different way vs. OTL). This is because of Japan, which contributed A LOT to the gaming industry, most likely being closed off culturally to the US unless they lose the GAW or democratize, and even then it would be in the mid 2010s when you'd see an anime or cultural "boom". I'd say 2020s gaming is a bit closer to maybe mid 2000s gaming tech wise when the xbox 360 was just being rolled out.
I actually have ideas for a few popular video games being re-imagined as movies or tv series in the TNO universe due to their writers taking up different jobs in the TNOverse in other fields of the entertainment industry such as a hypothetical animated series based on the OTL Warcraft universe, anyone would be intrested in seeing me post some of these ideas?
If it’s Warcraft I’m all for it!
You want Warcraft, here you go, except it's not headed for a particularly "happy" ending. And I don’t mean unhappy in in the "happy vs sad or grimdark ending" sense, I mean in the "late game of thrones fuckup" sense
The Rise of Champions of Azeroth(Part 1)
IC: Some major heroic and anti-heroic characters from the long-running Champions of Azeroth(1996-2008, 2012-2015) animated series that used to premiere on Cartoon Network. Champions of Azeroth was created by Chris Metzen, with the inspiration for the series being a Dungeons&Dragons campaign he participated in when he was younger involving a king seeking to return to him homeland along with his rejected pitch for directing a Lord of the Rings movie trilogy that had some intresting differences from Tolkien’s work--namely the extremely sympathetic portrayal of Orcs emphasizing the idea that Orcs were victims to Morgoth's and Sauron's corruption and Metzen's idea of Sauron's final defeat purifying the Orcs back into elves. [1]
The first series, which released in 1996, focused on the adventures of a shipwrecked man named Lo'Gosh, who was subsequently sold into slavery and made into a gladiator the Orcs. While this opens up as the traditional good humans vs. evil orcs high fantasy storyline, we later learn that the Orcish Horde, now known as simply the Horde, has long since abandoned their past as a genocidal, fascist-analogue empire and transformed into an genuine alliance of equals with other races such as the Native American-inspired Tauren and the Mayan and Aztec-inspired Trolls, with Metzen admitting that part of his portrayal of the Orcs was inspired by what he knew of the reforms that were made in Germany following the Nazi civil war first by Speer, and later by the Gang of Four when they sucessfully outmanuvered Speer(through the exact details of this would not be known until the mid-2000s).[2] Throughout the first few seasons, we would be introduced to Horde Leaders such as Grand Warchief(analogue for Fuhrer) Thrall, a Helmut Schmidt expy, along with Tauren Chieftain Cairne Bloodhoof and Troll Chieftain Vol'Jin, and follow their storyline as they seek to redeem the Horde from its' past sins. We are also introduced to the archmage Jaina Proudmoore, the leader of the human settlement of Theramore, and an idealist that hopes that the Horde would be able to find redemption for its' sins and make peace with the rest of the world; flashbacks indicate that she struck down her own father when he saw the Horde as irredeemable monsters despite them breaking free from a then-unidentified corruption in the "third war".
Originally, Champions of Azeroth was supposed to end after 2 seasons, with Lo'Gosh rediscovering his identity as King Varian Wyrnn, fully overcoming his hatred for the Orcs, and returning to his kingdom in Stormwind to settle things with the person responsible for his exile--the evil chancellor Katrana Prestor, who is in reality, the Black Dragon Queen Onyxia, while Horde hero Varok Saurfang deals with Old Horde vestiges that have pledged themselves to Onyxia's brother, the Black Dragon Lord Nefarian, on top of Blackrock mountain.[3] However, the smash success of the first two seasons all but guaranteed further seasons down the road, with audiences liking Metzen's deconstruction of high fantasy elements and his portrayal of Orcs as far more nuanced than "traditional" interpretations of the Orcs as a pure evil race, with the character of Varok Saurfang being extremely popular and subject to various memes to this day. Audiences also liked the use of flashbacks to fill in pieces of the backstory pertaining to what got Varian exiled from Stormwind, as well as the vague mentions to a cataclysmic event in the past known as the "Third War". As a result of further seasons being greenlit, season 2 would end with Onyxia and Nefarian being defeated by the Alliance and the Horde respectively and Varian being restored to the throne, but Varian's inner conflict with regards to letting go of his hatred of the Orcs remain unresolved.
Further seasons would heavily expand on the backstory for the Night Elf civilization, which was primarily kept to the sidelines in the original 2 seasons, and go into the backstory of the Third War, as well as the First and Second Wars heavily. We would learn that the Orcs were originally a peaceful race on Draenor, but was corrupted by an external demonic force called the Infernal Legion[4], turning it into a violent empire that wiped out many of the other civilizations on Draenor such as the Draenei(whom are revealed to be a faction of a civilization that rejected the corruption of the Legion) and eventually made their way to Azeroth. Despite early victories, they were beaten by the human forces at the Battle for Blackrock Mountain. The surviving Orcs were heavily abused by the human victors, but they were liberated thanks to the efforts of Orgrim Doomhammer(whom was noted by some to be an analogy for Fuhrer Albert Speer--a analogy that would
not age well when further studies into Speer's commitment to Nazism were undertaken and with greater awareness of what exactly happened during the great slave revolt that allowed the gang of four to take full control emerging on the public consciousness)[5] and Thrall, whom built the Orcs up into a major power on Azeroth once again, with the Orcs redeeming themselves in the Third War and freeing themselves form the corruption of the Infernal Legion once and for all. The story would also introduce the realm of Outland, the remnants of Draenor, as well as new villains such as the Lovecraftian Old Gods in season 3 and the Undead Scourge, and once again from seasons 5-6 introduce the Infernal Legion as a major antagonistic force seeking to reemerge on Azeroth and burn it to embers through the assistance of various agents on Azeroth and Outland like Kael'Thas Sunstrider, the fallen king of the Blood Elves, who was driven to despair by the destruction of his civilization and the Sunwell-the source of the Blood Elves power-by the Scourge; his defeat would see the Blood Elves pledge their allegience to the Horde.
Eventually the storylines of the "second act" of Champions of Azeroth come to a head with the prevention of efforts by the Infernal Legion to manifest in Azeroth at the battle of the Sunwell and the appearance of Lich King Arthas, the master of the Undead Scourge and a hero of the Third War turned evil. Complicating matters is the Blue Dragon God[6] Malygos declaring war on all magic users, viewing Kael'Thas' attempts to manifest the Legion once again on Azeroth as proof that all magic users are evil, and tensions between Alliance and Horde being tested by supposed Horde betrayal during the initial assault on the icy land of Northrend; while said betrayal was actually carried out by elements of the Horde sympathetic to the Infernal Legion, the "Wrathgate incident" and the subsequent Battle for the Undercity would cause Alliance and Horde relations to deteriorate even further. Taking advantage of this chaos, the Old God of Death, Yogg-Saron, awakens to spread further chaos.
The Lich King Arthas, despite appearing as the traditional Dark Lord-type villain with the standard destroy-the-world plot, was portrayed in a extremely nuanced and sympathetic light. His backstory was revealed to have been that of a prince that sought to save his people by any means necessary, eventually falling to the curse of the blade Frostmourne and rising to the top of the Scourge hierarchy after losing his soul to the curse of Frostmourne and destroying his own kingdom of Lordaeron. This set in a cycle of corruption and violence resulting in the formation of Sylvanas Windrunner's foresaken, as well as Kael'Thas first aligning with Illidan following his exile to Draenor after losing the favor of xenophobic alliance commander Garithos, and later the Burning Legion. It has been pointed out the point of tragic villains like Arthas and Kael'Thas is the consequences of giving in to one's darker nature in order to fight a great evil, perpertuating an endless cycle of violence as seen in the responses of Sylvanas and Kael'Thas to the destruction of the High Elf civilization, something echoing the ideas of the short-lived Black League warlord state in Russia, as well as the mindset of the collaborators in Samara.[7]
The fall of the Lich King with the end of Season 8 in 2004 was billed as another attempt to end the series, with Arthas being defeated once and for all by paladin Tirion Fordring[8] allied with the Alliance and the Horde along with Death Knights that have defected from the Scourge, and the ascension to the Frozen Throne by Bolvar Fordragon, who was brought to near death, as the new Lich King to keep the Scourge contained. Yet once again, efforts to end the series were rejected by Cartoon Network. Season 8 was seen as the best season ever produced for Champions of Azeroth and viewership remained high despite the series being moved to Adult Swim as a result of its increasingly darker and war-centric over adventure-centric tone[9]. With a loyal and huge fanbase, and a move to Adult Swim, the writers decided to embark on the most ambitious storyline yet focusing on the politics of a shattered world at war, a move that was controversial at the time, yet eventually viewed more warmly in hindsight, through the initial backlash over the new storylines would bring the original series to a gradual end by 2008 and set the stage for one of the most ill-fated series revivals in recent memory.
(cont. on part 2: The Fall of Champions of Azeroth)
OOC: So this is bascically Warcraft in my TNO headcanon, its' bascically a cartoon describing the storyline of WoW, but with rotating protagionists in place of the players based on the faction leaders and key heroes in the lore and with events of the RTS games in flashback scenes or outright flashback episodes. Many of the plot points in WoW(ie: the Draenei as uncorrputed Eredar) are introduced from the get go rather than inserted in via retcons, with flashbacks used to establish them. The writing and lore is handled much better than OTL game's lore, through as I will make it clear in part 2, the show is not headed for a good place for reasons somewhat similar to otl.....(I will hint that the original series ends with alt-legion and the revival will, let's just say have the reputation equvilent of Game of Thrones OTL for TTL's animated world and the 2012-2015 revival attempt will thus have a reputation similar to the last few seasons of GOT)
Notes:
[1] This was actually thought of in the Boorman script for LOTR, where Sauron's defeat purified the orcs into men, and Aragorn was crowned "king of men and orcs repented".
[2] Interestingly enough, some players OTL did make a
similar analogy to WW2 as it happened OTL and the Old Horde(I personally think the Old Horde is more Imperial Japan than Nazi Germany but in TNO-verse this Horde as metaphor/allegory for Germany would be really prevelent in a timeline where Germany "redeems" itself via the G4)
[3] This was how things went down in warcraft lore canon with Onyxia's lair being an alliance victory and Blackwing Lair being a horde victory
[4] Essentially alt-Burning Legion
[5] Essentially an in-universe example of the harsher in hindsight trope
[6] Name for Dragon Aspect ttl
[7] Yazov was defeated here by Batov ,who subsequently joined with Bukharina, whom also defeated the collaborators here as well.
[8] Essentially in the abscence of the players, the main protagonist of the Wrath of the Lich King arc(seasons 7-8), season 4(which is Plaguelands+Scourge Invasion+Naxxramas) along with various flashback episodes based on
Of Blood and Honor, Arthas' motivation is also changed from trying to kill Tirion to trying to corrupt Tirion into the ultimate Death Knight.
[9] Toonami dosen't exist in this universe due to the fact that anime is much more closed off due to the nature of Japan in the TNO unisverse, and there would be less anime to import until at least the 2010s, and this is only due to Mutoist Japan losing the GAW and eventually undergoing a sort of democratization leading to a late 2000s-early 2010s Japanese economic miracle(through more like west germany economic miracle of OTL than the OTL Japanese miracle)