I would put it down to Stormwind generally being the back bone of the Alliance’s military activities. Case in point, without Anduin’s airship, Genn would have had to swim to Stormheim when chasing Sylvanas. Stormwind is pretty much the core of the frontline soldiers in almost every military action we see the Alliance make.
Then what you are proposing will clearly not end well for you because in the writer’s minds, his ideology is right. It isn’t Anduin who is making the story like that. It is the writers. Which leads on to…
If Turalyon refused the role outright, the rest of the Alliance probably wouldn’t be able to say much. Its hard to support someone as leader when they refuse to take the role. That would just make those trying to support him look stupid.
As for the second issue, it isn’t about the Wrynn family, though if it has to do with Stormwind it will be since they are the Royal family. As I said before, it is how the writers want to write their story. Look at the Horde. Only now does the Horde show signs of not getting villianized again for the first time since Cataclysm and to get to that point the Horde has to have been mostly purged of its darker elements. It is the ideology the Writers want to stick too and your really baselessly optimistic to think that if Wrynn isn’t in the way it would be any different. It is just the way the Authors want to write their stories.
Brace yourself because I can almost guarantee you that any characters that don’t completely go off a cliff into Villianhood for the Alliance will end up ‘seeing the light’ that Anduin’s ideology was right all along, even if his naivety undermined his efforts to propagate it. I mean, he was in the end the one who’s action actually did lead to an end to the war. Ironically, it was his approach that worked most effectively against Sylvanas’ goals.
To be fair, I don’t think the OP was going there specifically though I get why it sometimes feels that way to us Hordies. I would love the Horde to be able to harbor darker, more pragmatic, elements without them sliding into the villain pit so I get the desire.
The reality is for all of us though, is the writers really don’t handle greys well. They tend to go for heroic and honorable or downright villainous and those who are supposed to straddle that line tend to have that ‘greyness’ seem more cosmetic than really a property of their character.
No it’s more I want a believable faction that isn’t bootlickers to an 18 year old who has no experience or right to lead the entire Alliance.
Also no, did you not read where I said the Horde got shafted by the writing. I can’t comprehend why Blizzard wrote what they did for the Horde and how they thought anyone would like that. It was garbage.
Look, Dardillien, my point at the end of the day is be careful what you wish for. This game has one hell of a monkey’s paw built into the writing and it almost never comes out how you want it to. Honestly, I think we will all be better off if they leave the factions alone and we just move on to exploring new horizons on our own. That seems to be the stories Blizzard handles best.
I just want to say I loved the rest of your post and agreed with all of it, but I am just quoting this part to say this:
What irritates me is they could easily write both sides as having darker, more pragmatic elements without them sliding into being villains. They also don’t even have to have those themes against the opposing faction! That would be a huge step in the right direction.
I will just use the Worgen as an example since they are my forte. Blizzard could have easily written them into the Alliance as being dark and creepy, like the other races see them as dangerous but they like their savagery and ability to be great weapons (that was sort of their point in Wolfheart). They don’t need to have Worgen hunting and killing Horde, just your general quests in zones fighting against undead (not Forsaken regular undead) or some bandits. Something like that where the it shows that worgen are allies but show that they are brutal and savage, show that they have this bloodlust they fight to see that there is a darker side to the Alliance.
OK … then lets spitball here. Lets assume that the Alliance “needs” someone to fill that High King spot. Anduin’s biggest issue as a character is that he’s not just the fledgling King of SW, but shoehorned into that roll … so lets find a good replacement. And of the other leaders, the only one that hasn’t done something within very recent memory that should invalidate them from such a role is Muradin Bronzebeard. Or in the case of Turyalon and Alleria … they’re invalid by having absolutely no friggen understanding of the political landscape of current Azeroth.
Muradin has a stable Kingdom that requires less direct attention to manage; Has begun the process of reunifying with other Dwarven Clans; has two other leaders who can shoulder the weight of his absence in IF should his duties as High King require it; and he’s distanced enough from most of the recent tragedies to remain objective enough to make level headed decisions for the entire Alliance. On top of this, I don’t think there is a single Alliance leader standing with more experience leading Joint-Nation armies. He’s been doing it since the First Alliance.
As for doing a ideological split … that’s fine, but I feel like people that do this are always trying to make the Gilnean and Draenei Racial Fantasies as convenient for the NE one as possible. If its a split between Hawks and Doves, we might see that since most of the Doves are locked in the SLs, but you aren’t going to see a stark racial divide that is favorable for the NEs.
I totally agree with you. I just, by this stage, have zero faith in Blizzard ever pulling it off and honestly I would be concerned if they showed signs of going in that direction considering their past track record. The amount of times I thought something might be promising only for it to end up being an aggravating pile of rubbish has become depressing.
I would love this for the Alliance… It will give me a bit more incentive to play with my Void Elf characters… Also I was not there fully when we had the Nobles fight for power… so I like to see that to…
IMO it be a great way to introduce new NPC moraly good, bad and ugly characters … seeing a Othmar Garithos 2.0 harassing my Void elf and other non-human races would hit some nice nostalgia specially when I get to beat him up later. Alliance needs their version of a Nathanos…
Or meet this son or daughter be it good or bad… in this inner conflict could be cool too…
Ah, I’m writing my rambling yet again… point is I agree and would love it.
Muradin is exactly who I wanted to be High King once Varian died. Hell he should have been High King before then too in my opinion, but that’s a different topic.
It makes way more sense for him to be High King than Anduin.
If I’m gonna be honest, I feel like things would be worse with Muradin.
Everything sucks for the Alliance now because Blizzard doesn’t care enough to write for anything for them and just defaults to lawful good overdrive.
What has Muradin done since he came back? Do you really think that would change if he was leader of the Alliance?
If anything he’d likely do the same thing Anduin and Varian did thru most of their tenure; stand in their keep and occasionally pop up to give a speech.
I extend this to most in the Alliance leadership because they all fall under that same problem of being woefully underutilized. The only exception being those Anduin, Genn, and Jaina and surprise surprise these characters are in the Anduin orbit.
That may be true but at least it makes more sense for the Alliance to rally behind and listen to Muradin, someone who has experience and knowledge, instead of everyone following an 18 year old boy who doesn’t know squat. Or knows very little.
I can’t tell you how nonsensical it is for an entire faction’s military to listen to the commands of an 18 year old that is just heinous.
True. Honestly, I would love for some internal tension within the Alliance, but its gotta be more “Hawks” vs “Doves” than down any racial lines to make sense.
I also do fear that current Blizz lacks the nuance to properly pull it off. For example, with the teaser that time may work differently in the SLs than outside of it, and Turyalon and apparently Maive being placed in high leader positions whilst their counterparts are within the land of the dead … I half expect to come back from SLs with the Horde in real trouble. However, I don’t expect there to be much subtlety in how the Alliance as the Aggressors are portrayed.
The other issue that strangely might stymie such a path is that the Horde can’t afford to lose any more characters. Which either means Blizz will just let them die anyway, sterilizing the Horde further … or give those reps that live monumental plot armor. Which, to be fair, might help develop some of those characters … but I’m certain it would take some of wind out of the sails of the Alliance hawk supporters. You might win territory, but you wont get meaningful kills.
Blizzard very much lack the nuance or the talent to pull it off. The Alliance internal conflict will 100% be a copy of the Horde’s. Someone in the Alliance is gonna nuke a city, or the Alliance equivalent of nuking a city followed by a dumb war in a new continent where the Alliance learns what it means to be family.
And we’re all going to hate it but then realized “Oh no, there’s gonna be a Part 2, Alliance Giglolo of this in a couple of years”
Sigh … or the other option. Part of the reason I stopped playing Alliance is that it became harder and harder for me to not notice this bizarre need by Blizz to insulate the Faction from its own (admittedly rare) instances of aggression. Taraujo is super weird when you realize there is more effort put into the game trying to absolve Hawthorne for that tragedy than there is about the tragedy itself. And there are tons of little examples like this.
So … my guess. Lets assume that Turalyon does make good on his comment to “Try to Reclaim more lost Alliance territories” and Maiev serves as the aggressor on the Kalimdor front. While the Doves are away of course. Well, with the way BfA ended it was at least portrayed that the Horde is in a sufficient enough position of power to make any attempt to destroy the Faction come with immense collateral damage. I’m certain the Alliance could, but its not worth the cost.
Thus … you alleviate this with another force to tip the balance. And since we’re dealing with “Death” as a cosmic force, “Light” seems to be on the horizon. So … the AU Lightbound and Yrel could very reasonably be the tipping point that allows Turalyon and Maiev to follow their ambitions. Its not like the Alliance has any window to the true nature of that group, and if they did get “tricked” into allying with them … well then the blame is on Yrel and the Lightbound for whatever atrocities occur … right? They have an out that lets them distance themselves when things go bad.
And at that point is why I’ve been saying they need not not have a the two factions fighting anymore at all and have them have their own isolated storylines completely divorced from each other.
Because when you trap yourself in this line of thinking, it becomes a constant cycle of getting kicked in the teeth and hoping the other guys get kicked in the teeth too.
Why not hope for just bloody good stories for everyone to enjoy? Because Blizzard has turned everyone into bastards with bastard coated filling who can’t enjoy the story unless someone else isn’t.
I mean bloody hell this thread started about internal Alliance conflict, but has devolved into “Internal Alliance conflict MUST involve the Horde”, with all the whinging that brings.
It has been so long since I did this, but wasn’t Taraujo something that wasn’t supposed to happen or like was taken too far? Maybe I am thinking of a different Tauren village but I could of swore on Alliance side you go and arrest those involved in Taraujo because it was wrong.
I think you are right in that the Light will be the next big bad and probably end up being what villain bats the Alliance. My biggest fear is they will go the route of making Turalyon, Alleria, Maiev, literally anyone BUT Anduin a villain and have him be our savior. Like if Blizzard wants to go with the villain route for Alliance fine, whatever, but please don’t do it just to prop up Anduin more.
But no one’s trying to “absolve” Hawthorne of anything. Everyone, Hawthorne himself accepts blame for it. The storyline lays out the events (on both sides) very clearly.
And the Alliance has many cases of outright Aggression (Taraujo doesn’t count) but the villains of the Alliance usually end up dead or “disappear” usually by the time the story concludes.
My point is that Blizz goes really out of their way to always try to distance, justify, or absolve the Alliance in the rare instances like this. Sometimes in really weak ways like with with Saffy and Grizzek in BtS; which as much as I love them exclusively exists to invalidate the Alliance attacking Horde civilians in Silithus. Its not an “IF” Blizz tries to justify it, its to what degree. That’s not really something they do for the Horde. So, in any hypothetical “Alliance is the Aggressor” story … I expect a whole lot of that phenomena.
point is I agree and would love it. 
