Hey, friends. I asked Estus to post this for me in another thread, and he’s a swell fella and did that for me; but the more I dwelt on the topic, the more it bothered me. I figured I’d expand it, because hoo boy are we Horde not Wolverine.
`https://imgur.com/gallery/O2wTy
People bring up Metzen’s comment about the dichotomy of the Horde and the Alliance being similar to that of Wolverine and Captain America. Captain America is a boyscout, someone who tries to do the morally upstanding thing in a romantic revision of the 1940s: if you’re in trouble, Captain America will save you, and that’s a promise. Wolverine has never been that simple, and he gets muddier if you don’t read the comics. People think that Wolverine is just an anti hero (or perhaps an anti villain) that butts heads with folks like cap because of attitude more than anything else. While it’s true that’s part of Wolverine, the core of the character is that he’s a good man who’s lived a really crappy unforgivingly long life. This guy is 180 years old. He’s seen it all: the rise of humanity from wild campfires to nuclear powered city scapes. And with those city scapes came genetic testing and manipulation. Wolverine’s suffered some of the worst humanity has to offer, but despite all of that, Wolverine wants to do the right thing. The Horde was like that, once. They suffered fel tempering and enslavement by the Legion, but eventually broke free and tried to do right.
Take this comic, for instance. I have no doubt there are readers amongst you who think Wolverine had no trouble doing what he did. But this sort of stuff, the missions Xavier can’t trust to Jean, Cyclops, Gambit, or Colossus, he trusts to Logan. And to be frank, Xavier takes advantage of him a bit. Because no one else would do what Logan did to save the rest of mutant kind. And he didn’t just walk in and kill the guy. He brought beer, and a proverbial shoulder to cry on. He explained what happened, and why – not to be cruel, but so that J could at least have some peace of mind. Things always seem so much bigger, scarier than they are when you don’t know the whys or hows that they operate on. But at the end of the day, Logan has to live with the weight of what he did. There are entire plot lines about this that I’d be suspended for posting due to heavy alcohol consumption on his part. Logan is not a well off guy, but he is a good one.
Thing is, Nu-Blizzard either forgot this part of the Horde, or they never knew it. We aren’t the noble hardtack anymore. We’re just flat out angry, idiotic villains. Last Blizzcon, Gregory or whoever was talking with Golden announced to the world that Garrosh’s sins were because he was “the orciest orc to have ever orced.” He put the onus on his orcish heritage, like to be orc is to be evil. Nu-blizzard doesn’t see us as Wolverine anymore. We’re the Sentry and that sucks.
Now I hear you asking, “Treng, who tf is the Sentry and why does he matter if I’ve never heard of him?”
`https://i.imgur.com/KRYV3Ih.jpeg
(Here’s a picture of Sentry whoopin’ Wolverine’s butt.)
Good question. I’d have deleted Sentry ten decades ago if I had the supernatural power. Just delete the concept from having the possibility of being made. But, he’s one of Marvel’s (many) Supermen. Sentry is a guy named Bob Reynolds. Bob is an ordinary feller (maybe) who is an addict and a thief. He stole something he shouldn’t have, and used something he shouldn’t have, and the thing he shouldn’t have used allegedly gave him superpowers. Bob became the Sentry, an impossibly powerful blonde superman whose solution for almost all issues is one in the same: Carnage on the run? Toss him into the sun. Xorn? Excommunicado Sunnado.
So, you might be thinking: Treng, why’s your new marvel persona an addict with super powers, and why is that a bad thing? Well, beyond the fact that Bobby’s an addict, he’s also certifiably insane. And possibly(??? it’s unclear if it’s real or not) possessed by something called The Void. You see, the Void is basically one of the most powerful entities in Marvel (unless it doesn’t exist, then it’s still Sentry, just another personality) and when Bob turns into the Void, all bets are off. He kills friends, foes, old ladies on the street. No one is safe. And Bob and the Void argue with each other all of the time, just like the Horde. Blizzard can’t decide if we’re honorable or insufferably evil. If we’re the normal every guy on the street like Bob, or the inevitable, unstoppable juggernaut that is the Sentry (or the Void.)
Blizzard has us divided into three separate characters depending on what they need us for. If Blizzard needs the Horde to start a faction conflict, we’re the Void: An evil super power that the Alliance can’t possibly stop until… suddenly we’re Bob, and they can. Bob doesn’t have super powers, so the civilians of the Night Elf race can bend and break him, much less any of the Alliance Hero Characters. But Blizzard isn’t a Class-Five; they know they can only punish Horde players so far and retain their subscriptions. So, when the Alliance takes the lead in saving the world, Bob splits into the Sentry and the Void, with the Sentry believing he’s some righteous paragon (when he isn’t), and the Void being the Sum of All Evil that the Alliance and Sentry will seal away until, inevitably, the Void breaks free and it all starts again.
To sum it all up, I miss being Wolverine.
