I think when understanding the mistake Blizz has made concerning the Horde is largely in how they structured it politically without properly distancing it from their past. After all, the Orcish Horde was MADE to commit genocide and conquer the enemies of the Legion. It is an organization utterly conceived of for evil purpose.
Thrall came in, after being raised(strangely) by humans, and learning of the Orcs largely through other means. He talks to some ageing evil Orcs that spin some BS about Honor and this and that, and obviously buys it. He then goes on to take up the reins of leadership of the Horde as Warchief.
Just think about that for a minute, and what the implications are. Of course it would end in disaster! All the institutions of a demon-wrought army being continued with the delusion of ‘honor’ and crap. The Horde has been doomed from the beginning to be the bad guys. And that is due to the fact that they are unchangeable.
You can’t change the fundamental aspects of the Horde anymore than you can change the fundamental aspects of the Alliance. The creators are unlikely to stand for it, and the fans are really unlikely to stand for it. The Alliance was created as the good guys no matter how many shades of gray you throw at it, no matter how many times you bring up Arthas and Garithos or other crap.
Individuals may be corrupted, or turn evil, but the institution itself will remain ‘the good guys’. Same but opposite with the Horde. The Horde was created as the bad guys, and no amount of good individual characters, or leaders, can change the fundamentals of the institution.
You want a good guy Horde? Then you can’t have the Horde anymore. Thrall’s Horde was not good, they were not good guys. They were bad guys who had a leader who was delusional and idealistic. The fact that his Horde ended up siding with Azeroth is simply a matter of convenience and practicality.
Wolverine was a good guy in large part, the Horde has never been good. If you want Wolverine look elsewhere. All else is delusion on your part.
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Oh, you know what. Something just occurred to me.
What if it wasn’t about the souls at all. What if is was a strike directly against Elune?
An attack against Elune’s Children meant to draw her out, to expose wherever she and Anshe have been hiding for the past couple thousand years.
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We literally do not have enough world building regarding the intricacies of either Faction government system to say this.
The entire post is a cop out.
That will certainly be the retcon yes.
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Not really a retcon since that’s has never been the directly expressed reason in game, only the interpreted reason we have given what little we know.
We literally have multiple instances of Sylvanas’s internal monologue from that series of events
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What? How is the post a cop out? It is, and I’ll use a word you overuse, LITERALLY the same organization, just with a change of management. Just because the founders are dead and the new boss wants to diversify the company does not change what it is made for.
Statements stands, you cannot claim institutions ie government is the same if all we know is the name of the leader title. Institutions are the State and parastate structures that help support the State.
Cop out.
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Oh yikes just went through your posting history, you’re one of the “Alliance should’ve genocided the Horde” types
Blocked.
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Okay. You do you.
Edit: Oh heck, taking a cue from the guy who blocked me I went through his post history.
“The entire original concept of Warcraft and up until Cataclysm was recurring racism lmao”
I dodged a bullet when he blocked me. Didn’t realize I was talking with “Person with certain political leanings and worldview that clash violently with my own”. Whew.
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None of which would be retconned by this Motivation.
I’m really starting to doubt you know what the word “Retcon” means.
And just so everyone understands, that is a character perspective. If I were in this character’s shoes and so forth.
As players, other means of rectifying the issues we have with the factions in-game must be found.
How do you think the horde should have been distanced from its past, though? A new generation of orcs was starting to grow up without having actually taken part of WC1 and 2 (and the ones that did survive were supposed to be repentant and rejecting their past), the trolls are of an unrelated tribe, the tauren didn’t take part at all, and the forsaken were still alive back then. From what I can remember, the only surviving aspects of the faction was the warchief position and the name horde.
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I don’t have that answer. I can recognize the mistake Blizz made in writing the Horde into a corner, but I don’t have the smarts to figure out a solution. And my whole argument about the continuation of an evil institution was geared towards the fact that it led newer members, even those who never took part in older atrocities down a institutionally justified(encouraged? enforced?) path.
When your nation is founded on the principles of an army created for genocide and conquest, how can you succeed? That’s my point, not that all individual Horde members start out evil.
Well, besides the fact you still have characters like Garrosh and Krenna pushing for War as their only means of survival (because hard, honest work was beneath them.) So, the Horde always have that element.
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Why can’t the infinite dragonflight do us a favor and push us in a better timeline? We have the potential for a wild roster.
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What I find immensely frustrating about this sentiment is that I don’t know what these “genocidal principles” are but apparently Blizzard agrees since that was Saurfang’s point in 8.2.5, which had already been rehashed for Cata/MoP, and then again in WoD. So the story ended up taking 16 years and 3 relapses before it “finally” gets to its original WC3 mission statement when the game launched, well past the point where it’s believable.
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Because they don’t do anything that doesn’t benefit themselves first.
Sarm don’t argue with a guy who doesn’t believe racism exists in the narrative and believes the Alliance should’ve genocided the Orc race and the rest of the Horde alongside it lol
There’s no progress to be made with this type of poster
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I know it is frustrating! I went through a whole process back when I leveled my Orc Shaman based off of Thrall back in Vanilla.
And by “genocidal principles” I am generally referring to culture. The Horde never went through so many of the processes of the average nation state. They went from army formed by demons for the purpose of genocide to… well, a somewhat strict tribal confederation mainly intent on survival. At least, that was supposed to happen. But when you don’t change the culture of the demon created army to something new, and Shamanism was clearly not influential enough(nor ethical enough, there are no mortal morals among elementals), you get stuck with the numerous rehashes you mentioned.
Saurfang was right about the Horde, even though it goes against our own preconceived notions.