Wizard101's Best World
It's standard to feature a Write-a-Post contest winner in the September Series, but this is the first year we'll get to draw on new contest winners! Blaze was one of a few winners of last year's contest, and you'll get to hear from him about what his favorite Wizard101 world is.
I have been playing Wizard101 for a long time now. I have played each World multiple times on multiple accounts. I have enjoyed playing every world but none of them have been as fun to play as Khrysalis. I am aware that this is not a popular choice but in next few paragraphs I will try to explain my perspective and hopefully will get some of you to agree with me by end of my post.
Quest by Quest
The storyline of Khrysalis is very good. We do get to do
some important quests and progressive storyline there. By contrast other worlds
like Zafaria or Polaris have many quests which don’t contribute much in the
main storyline and are more like "fillers." These Worlds mostly consist of
fillers that have nothing to do with the overarching plot and the events
weren’t interconnected with each other. So the storyline of Khrysalis is much
better where the quests progress the main storyline in a positive way and lead
it to a resolution. Khrysalis is not only the magnum opus of Wizard101, but
should be the model of how Kingsisle writes and designs quests for future
Worlds.
In Khrysalis every event is interconnected and has a purpose
and serves to further hurt Morganthe and shatter the Umbra Legion. And help
further restore Khrysalis. From liberating Bastion and Sardonyx, beating the warlords,
defeating Atlach-Leng, restoring the Astral relics, learning Shadow Magic and
controlling it, crossing the Starfall Sea and descending into the Black Hole.
All these events further our journey to reach the Shadow Palace and break apart
the magical and military high ground that Morganthe has. All while learning
about the suffering that the people of Khrysalis had to endure under
Morganthe’s reign and foreshadowing the Grandfather Spider arc.
Big Bad Guys
The main villain of Khrysalis, Morganthe, is probably the
most formidable enemy that we have ever faced. Even though Malistaire, Old Cobb
and his children get a bigger buildup and more hype, only Morganthe ever lives
up to her reputation. This is evident when Morganthe is compared to them.
In Khrysalis, the Spider told his Children to "Marry
and make war! Build fleeting empires and towers of cards and beautiful
disasters!" and to "sow Chaos to one day reap." But the most
evil thing Rat did was hypnotize Urville Station's mining workforce, and
enslave that town. And the Scorpion did nothing significant at all! He only
showed up two times in Mirage, one in Alkali Barrows and one in Aggrobah. That
is not causing Chaos!
Grandfather Spider's prophecies made them seem like
extremely dangerous Chaos Bringers, who would cause unimaginable Chaos. But the
Cabal, and even Malistaire, seems like a bigger threat than the Rat and the
Scorpion. And the plans to sunder Land and Sky, and reverse the Sands of Time
aren't as chaotic as they should have been. I don't even see how reversing the
Sands would have caused unlimited Chaos.
Morganthe on the other hand was everything the Children
should have been but were not. She was dark, devious, intelligent, extremely
evil, and used Shadow Magic. Even if the spells she used was a very small
portion of Shadow Magic. Her actions made us terrified of her. To the point
where she committed genocide upon the people of Azteca by destroying the entire
world! She also indirectly plunged Avalon into disarray and crystallized the
City of Bastion. And committed many more evil acts! A true villain indeed!
The Children of Shadow were hyped up to be even more
dangerous and powerful than Morganthe, and have a connection to the Shadow
Web (whatever that is). But they failed immensely, and the story suffered for
it. By stark contrast, Morganthe personally took part in the story, and we saw
the evil she's capable of doing. She was a very dangerous threat to the Wizard
and the entire Spiral.
Story Structure
Khrysalis also has another thing going for it and that is
the gradual build up to the resolution of the arc. Like Dragonspyre, Khrysalis
benefits from being the last World of a story arc. But even then, it surpasses
Dragonspyre in every aspect- be it grandiose, story depths or the epic feels.
Throughout the second arc Morganthe's master plan and backstory was revealed
little by little, the major event in each world affected the overarching story.
The purpose of Morganthe's plans in each world was a piece of her master plan
to rewrite the Spiral. And the final battle with her in Khrysalis was built up.
We liberated Bastion and Sardonyx, raised an army of Mantis Warriors and Mouse
Knights, learned the process of how she became so powerful in the Solar Arc and
the Hive, and dissolved the Umbra Legion by fighting members of it from the
bottom to the top of its ladder (culminating in defeating the second-in-command
Archmagus Lorcan).
Usually comedy, puns and humor add extra layer to a World
but the lack of humor helped Khrysalis become a great World in my opinion. With
a build up to a story that was grim and scary, we satisfactorily get a
Khrysalis story which is more grim and less funny, and rightly so. In Khrysalis
we raced against the clock to reach the Shadow Palace and rescue the Lords of
Night, before Morganthe rewrites the Spiral in her image. And the situation
felt tense and dangerous because not only was the confrontation between
Morganthe built up, but Khrysalis itself was written to be as serious as
possible. The jokes were subtle and subdued, and there was a grim tone in
Khrysalis, fitting for a world pinned under Morganthe's tyranny for centuries.
The characters took Morganthe's plan seriously and were dead set on helping the
Wizard reach the Shadow Palace, all the while freeing the people of Khrysalis
through the various events.
So in conclusion, keep everything in mind, I would say that
Khrysalis is the best Wizard101 World till date and hopefully Empyrea will be
able to successfully topple it from the position to become Wizard101’s best
World. Fingers crossed!
Thanks to Blaze Hexcaster for this post!
Thanks for reading and see you in the Spiral!
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