It’s one of those cases where the Alliance “won”, but doesn’t feel like they won.
To sound petty, it wasn’t a “big enough” win. It really came off more like a stalemate than a win. The power-levels, pre-fight power-ups, were perceived to be something like this:
- Tyrande/Malfurion
- Malfurion/Tyrande
- Val’kyr
- Nathanos.
Okay, that’s a bit hyperbolic, but you get the jist. The idea is that, even before power-ups, Tyrande and Malfurion were perceived to be much stronger than any Val’kyr or Nathanos. Especially from an Alliance player’s perspective, wherein Nathanos is basically a very, very, very talented archer, certainly not someone the average adventurer would want to 1v1, but nowhere near the levels of Tyrande or Malfurion.
Then, the Alliance-side plot is basically “Tyrande is doing this super dangerous ritual in desperation to get this volatile, massive power-boost.” She and Malfurion were already perceived to be far more powerful than some archer, and now one of the two has gone Super Saiyan.
Nathanos is Sylvanas’ lapdog. Sylvanas, who orchestrated the burning of Teldrassil, the biggest, most heart-wrenching event in recent Kaldorei-player memory. This is it! We’re getting him! Tyrande is pissed, and we’re pissed, and we’re about to [Ctrl]+[A] → [Delete] Nathanos, get vengeance, really hurt the Banshee, no problem!. The hype is real-
Wait, he got away? That’s it? And he rezzed our friends and took them with him? And now we have to fight them?
Oh! Okay, I get it. We’re going to defeat him in the war front.
No? He’s just…
Oh, a tweet - several months later - said we won.
okay
It’s another one of those dozens of cases of BfA narrative where Blizzard hit us with the “tell, don’t show” philosophy. So yeah. We were told we won, but that’s definitely not what a victory is supposed to feel like, so we don’t feel like we won.