Expounded Universe

What did we think? What did you want to know? What are we doing next? The elements? We answer all the questions! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The climax is reached, can this book actually change anything or move any of the in-game story along? Will Bwonsamdi survive? Who rides what mounts? The elements? You better believe it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The penultimate episode dawns! A race begins as the Zandalari and Horde fight to stop the Widow's Bite from killing Bwonsamdi. You know what all those words mean, right? I sure do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, I'd love to tell you things are coming to a head, but we still don't know what that would look like. We are getting mentions of actual Shadowlands content though! That's neat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well, we know Shaw is still alive now, and meanwhile we settle the debate from the end of the last episode (Jef was right, weird) and see what's going on with Thrall and Ji now that they've arrived on the insurrection-torn shores of Zuldazar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay so I may have lost this episode for a few weeks. And that definitely means I forgot what's in there, besides that there was definitely some fairly intriguing Matthias Shaw romance. So hopefully you're into that! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this installment, we finally do what WOW must do, devote way too much time to Thrall. After he meets with the other people the game frankly could abandon for six expansions and everyone would be happy (obviously Tyrande and Malfurion), it's time for Zul'More Trolls (Hah, remember that? I'm so old) in Zuldazar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'd like to say that this is the start of a depressing trend of torture in this book, but at least the book seems aware of it, and it's just Alleria and Turalyon both times, so maybe it's part of the story and will be dealt with. We can hope it gets fixed instead of getting the 24 treatment. Meanwhile, Mathias Shaw is sailing along with Flynn Fairwind, who is actually from the games! And Nathanos...

Yep, it's one of the classic staples of the WOW genre, That kind of justified torture that your favorite heroes just can't help but do, because of the greater good. Oh and also Zekhan meets Bwonsamdi and ... I'm sure there must have been a third thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In which we figure out who's likely to be our primary Horde protagonist, we send him on his way to adventure, and also Anduin continues to fret in well-known locations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sheesh, I thought we knew some stuff about World of Warcraft but we're completely in the weeds here. We don't know about Battle for Azeroth era trolls, and that's what we seem to have blundered into. Oh well, at least Bwonsamdi is cool. We're meeting some maybe-important Blood Trools, hanging out with Talanji, and meeting WOW's ultimate wife-guy energy man, Nathanos Blightcaller. Learn more about...

And we're back! Our new scene is set, it's split between Westfall and Ogrimmar, in which an author must deal with the dizzying array of world leaders available in the Battle for Azeroth era of a game at least a bunch of us were already starting to forget. You'll never forget such luminaries as Kiro, Caravan Leader of the Vulpera, right? I sure won't. Anyway, we barely even get an idea of what's ab...

All your questions answered! All our thoughts explained! And of course the next book, announced! I, uhhh, I let Jon pick again. I will always vote for the chaos option given the choice, you know this. What horrors are we due? You'll soon find out! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The end is upon us! Or at least of this book. Once again a massive amount of stuff needs to be handled in just a few short pages, and this time, well, it kind of isn't! Do we at least finally figure out specifically what the deal is with Zonama Sekot? No! What fun! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new character has entered the arena, though we've been hanging out on them for a while now. That's right, it's time to meet Sekot proper, unravel some secrets of the past, and set up for the last 20 pages, where apparently, almost all of the stuff will happen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

And, as must happen in all these books when there's like 40 pages to go, the action kicks into high gear. Anakin, Jabitha (are we sure) and Ke Daiv are in one ship, Shappa Farr and Obi-Wan in another, and all the while our petulant pal Raithe Seinar is up in space being lorded over by Tarkin. All in all, a good time, with a good moment even! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc...

Tarkin arrives, Seinar fumes, Obi-Wan and Anakin finally encounter that most regular of EU traditions, the eleventh hour info dump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Man it has been a JOURNEY to get this thing to air. The ship is built and Ke Daiv attacks, I don't remember the rest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The shipbuilding begins! As Jabitha (that can't be right) leaves our heroes at the gate of the great factory, they meet new characters just in time for Anakin to start making it weird. Meanwhile, Seinar hangs out on his ship, and we hear about the comic misadventures of Ke Daiv, currently trying to buy a Sekotan ship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode Anakin meets a little girl roughly his age, Obi-Wan is bored enough to start getting crabby, and Raithe Seinar is just having big old sips of other people's anger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our heroes emerge from the unexpected ball bath covered in the winnings of victory, which of course are more balls. Then a bunch of ball-related stuff happens. Luckily Seinar breaks in for one chapter to ... well sadly he just maintains that he is still heading towards the story from a distance, but at least he's not doing a ball thing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoice...

In an attempt to give Anakin some more depth, we introduce... more whines of his? I guess now he loves spaceships but hates spaceships. Anyway he's still a kid, we can let that slide. Our heroes slowly explore the city of Middle Distance, while Seinar begins his own set of dastardly contingency plans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's weird to be reading a book that is ostensibly full of weird surprises and decisions that necessarily go nowhere after Attack of the Clones came along and changed them, yet still keep running into stuff that is somehow important all the way to the Yuuzhan Vong crisis. But let's do it anyway! Today we finally land on Zonama Sekot and meet a couple very grumpy cult people. Also Raithe Seinar pou...

Another episode about shifting pieces into place for a story to happen, but still there's something here that's working for us. Not sure if it's the gay from space billionaire villain Raithe Sienar, the crazy polychaete alien Charza and his tidepool bioship, but something's just clickin' here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Okay, so now we know the bad guy of the hour! Raithe Seinar, starship engineer and generally rich weirdo, is apparently the right man for this job! Meanwhile our heroes absorb some info on Vergere before getting on a worm's tidepool spaceship. Honestly, respect for this guy's willingness to go crazy with the aliens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices