Purge:
remove (a group of people considered undesirable) from an organization or place in an abrupt or violent way.
massacre:
the unnecessary, indiscriminate killing of a large number of human beings or animals, as in barbarous warfare or persecution or for revenge or plunder.
Ehhhh, I mean, the rest of what you said is fair enough. I am not sure I agree with all of your examples, but I see what you mean. I am not sure we can really draw RW examples. At least not as definitively as you claim. The Horde displacement of of the Night Elves in Azshara and Southern Ashenvale could easily draw parallels to European colonization of the Americas. Also, how the factions elevated Human/Orc cultures above the others kind of gives me Wholesale Westernization vibes.
I think making those kind of observations is reading to much into it. It is also narratively limiting, as if to say, because this fictional races as cultural aspects that resemble some in the real world, certain narrative aspects are off limits for them to play or experience. Idk, I never liked that. Seemed unnecessary and virtue signaly to me.
Also this. A tit-for-tat game of which faction has the most tragedy is not really a game I want to play. I just want the race I play to not get brutalized all the time. But since the burning of Teldrassil, that race might very well be sentenced to a narrative of victimhood for the foreseeable future.
i knew that but the way you framed it made it seem that he apologized to jaina and veressa, also etnic displacement is not a massacre, he had a choice when confronted that there were traitorus elements for a SECOND time in his faction, there is more nuance than that.
His is a tragedy of being caught between a rock and a hard place while not having enough experience to deal with all of it, he had options but chose to play ignorant, making him as guilty as veressa or jaina and his people paid the price.
Thrall has a tragedy that his vision of the horde went all to heck because of his hubris and being a bad judge of character, its why he is so emo and the elements unresponsive.
baine? wants to do what is good for his people but he is so passive his people get involved with all the crap the horde dying in the process.
the entire forsaken used and discarded like a napkin? nathanos living like a simp and dying like a simp?
i do not understand your point all those are tragedies.
This is getting persnickety and off-topic.
I know that happens here, but let’s try to stay focused. I’m going to offer post 218 as a point to get back on track.
“Magister Hathorel says: No! You will watch your friends die–just as I did!”
Yeah. Definitely nothing there denoting a massacre.
I personally after much deep thought on the subject did come up with something. Some players want to be the good guy so even then this doesn’t cover everything.
What if instead of viewing Teldrassil as some great piece of nature it’s viewed as a sign of Kaldorei arrogance? Teldrassil itself was planted at the end of the third war by Staghelm to regain the immortality the Kaldorei lost. The entire planting of the tree was a scandal even among the Kaldorei, Malfurion was quite mad at the rash actions given what happened to the world tree in Northrend. Second every wildlife in Teldrassil is supposed to be peaceful and benevolent towards the night elves, most of their quests are basically describing outside forces affecting wildlife making them aggressive or invasive.
With this controversial mindset in mind certain horde members might see Teldrassil not as a bastion of nature but a attempted exploitation of nature to regain their immortality. The tree the night elves resided upon as natural as a potted plant in a living room. To a more aggressive horde member they might view it as breaking a sign of night elves arrogance over destroying nature.
I think again that this resolves the problem from the Horde point of view, but not from ours. The War of Thorns wasn’t a bad idea ONLY because of the Horde’s relatedness issues. It was also a bad idea because it completely killed motivation on the part of many Night Elf players, myself included, to play the game because said game was telling us that we were the free kill in the faction war.
This will be my last reply to this off-shoot tangent out of respect for Kyalin but no it doesn’t. Some of his friends probably did die because they resisted. It was still a purge and not a massacre.
For those who never did the Horde side of the Purge of Dalaran:
Yikes… ok…
Except nothing in game frames vareesa or Jaina as guilty.
Thrall being disconnected from the elements isn’t being shown as a tragedy. Like, at all.
No, he wants to do what is good for Anduin. His writing isn’t tragic, it’s atrocious.
Yeah, again, not being portrayed as a tragedy. Literally a “this is what happens when you follow a crazy person blindly.”
It was justice for Teldrassil. Again, not portrayed as a tragedy.
It might be a justification for aggressive horde members but not the heroes. Also we must remember that the horde didn’t know the tree was gonna burn until the Banshee Queen ordered it. Even Nathanos was surprised by the orders. So the more aggressive horde might have cheered for the theory I listed but heroes not so much.
I agree it was done quite wrong, horde members sneaking up on Kaldorei in their own forests. The Kaldorei displaced from Kalimdor completely instead of going to any other numerous places they could own. Lastly the Kaldorei in general have no teeth, despite some small shows the main Kaldorei population is merely sobbing in Stormwind which is a bad view… It makes them look like they gave up.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Alliance hand waving.
https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/massacre
Synonyms for massacre:
Bloodbath
Bloodshed
Carnage
Extermination
Genocide
Murder
Slaughter
Annihilation
https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/purge
Synonyms for purge:
Coup
Evacuation
Expulsion
Extermination
Liquidation
Suppression
Clarification
Murder
Team Blue did it, of course we’re justified, now stop looking at me like I’m crazy and have three heads 
I’d add more, but nothings coming to me at the moment 
Having three heads means you can eat more pancakes.
With REAL maple syrup, not that artificial junk they call syrup
Negotiations with the belves broke down because of that crapshow, thats an immediate consequence of her actions.
Then do elaborate because thats what i see when i see his story arc.
only if i look at the stereotipical psycopath forsaken not the forsaken as a whole.
He died like a simp while he couldve achived so much more.
If you think the War of Thorns was a “big, juicy ‘W,’” then we are on such different planets that I don’t see how further discussion can happen.
I don’t disagree. But, again, that cinematic was meant to show how powerful Tyrande had become. It wasn’t meant to tug at Horde player’s hearts.
this is why i think we should do the next expansion exactly like bfa but everything inverted.
Any Blood Elf that died resisting arrest were victims too. A hate group starts arresting and beating you and you probably have no idea what started the whole thing. Taking up arms is pretty understandable.