Cairne VS. Baine Bloodhoof

People hate him because he goes out of his way to make sure the Horde loses every war they engage in. Between Anduin stating to win the war for the alliance because that is the only way to secure peace and Baine who tells everyone he hates to be part of the mean Horde that only acts when his best friends Jaina and Anduin are about to be hurt lies miles of good story development.

Do you even realize the dimensions of Blizzard killing as many Horde characters as possible? Especially after Bfa? Do a count. I invite you. It sticks when you see that except for Varian the alliance cast has stayed undamaged since Warcraft 3. Blizzard doesen’t treat the factions equal and it shows.

One time he decided that maybe turning somebody’s brother into a bioweapon wasn’t acceptable conduct.

I neither know nor care what you’re on about, but I know that “some guy who happened to show up in a mission once and had a name” is not a character, let alone a Horde character.

His treason goes much deeper than that. He sabotaged the Horde since Cataclysm. If He was the leader of any other race the people would have forced him to step down by now.

Let me do it for you. I am in a good mood today.
Cairne, Vol’jin, Sylvanas, Nathanos, Zaela, Garrosh, Nazgrim, Rastakhan, Saurfang, Dranosh, Grommash, the conclave of the chosen during the Zuldazar raid, Malkorok, Gallywix and many many other minor characters on the Dragon isles mostly blood elves. Blizzard has a hunger to kill as much Horde people as they can while the alliance remains unharmed.

Fascinating, but do you have any examples that actually happened instead?

  • Baine “my people are a legitemate military target” Bloodhoof. Taurajo.
  • the warning to Theramore a day prior to the attack so Jaina could gather more forces to defeat the Horde easier.
  • giving a prisoner of war back to the alliance 5 minutes after they murdered Rastakhan.
  • the council ignoring the problems of the Forsaken while alliance troops occupy silverpine and Hillsbrad.

He has many faults and all of them make it easy to hate him. No alliance leader would ever be this submissive towards the Horde.

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Dude, I know this post is three years old but I also know you still read this forum.

It’s not a stupid statement.

Cairne and Baine are not the same character and we see that with the Garrosh situation. When Cairne thought Garrosh killed his people, he challenged him to mak’gora and the winner would have been the war chief. If stupid Magatha wouldn’t have interfered, Cairne would have been our war chief because The Shattering implied that Cairne was winning.

Baine has never done anything like that. Would Cairne have opposed all that stuff you asked about? Absolutely. But Cairne would have done something about it. Not sneak around like a cowardly dog and do favors for the Alliance that would have got his people killed.

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Baine: "Hm. My father died when he stepped up against Garrosh’s madness and was helped by a member of my people. I know! The smart play here is to do the exact same thing and likely get the exact same outcome except possibly worse because now that’s twice my people decided to try and kill the leader of the Horde over ideological differences, so after I die my people will either be made indentured servants or outright massacred to ensure loyalty!

… Actually, y’know what? Let’s do this more intelligently."

Baine saw what honor got his father in the Horde, and dealt with modern problems with modern solutions.

All Baine had to do was just not accept any blessings from Magatha or anyone really because again, Cairne’s plan would have worked.

Except it didn’t. When Cairne died.

Where is the lesson to Baine that ‘no really challenge them to Mak’gora again it’ll totes work this time and no shifty stuff’ll happen’. Especially against SYLVANAS?

Sylvanas/Garrosh supporter checking in to emphatically agree with OP

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The issue with Baine is that the writers haven’t given him any real opportunites to be heroic; Like I appreciate the idea of having a voice of reason in a room full of hot heads, but baine just never really came together as a character who could do anything interesting.

Because he accepted a blessing from Magatha. Just… don’t? I mean that’s not hard.

Also you’re applying 20/20 hindsite vision to Baine. Nobody knew she was in league with the Jailer until SLs and like it was said in some book, not sure which one:

You don’t have to assume she’ll have tentacle powers to assume Sylvanas is going to be an underhanded fighter in a duel. And what are you going to do if you lose the Mak’gora, like Cairne did, to underhanded tactics? Garrosh didn’t lose his claim to Warchief, so why would Sylvanas? She’d just say ‘oops Nathanos gave me my poison arrows today go hate on him’ and he’d have gladly soaked up the Horde’s aggro and ran away for a bit until the Warchief of the Horde decided ‘okay that’s enough leave my boy-toy alone we have wrongthink Tauren to purge.’ Besides, the Forsaken would eat up any opportunity to erode trust among the living, even before the Jailer connection was made known.

Baine is capable of reading the writing on the wall and going ‘yeah the honorable route isn’t gonna work here’. Part of being a good warrior after all is knowing when to pick your fights.

Again, you’re applying the reader’s logic to Baine’s character and you’re missing my point.

According to the book The Shattering, Baine and everyone around him assumed he could snap Sylvanas like a twig. He was considered one of the greatest warriors in the Horde (what a joke but whatevs.) So it was written that Baine knew he was stronger than Sylvanas and just let her do all the crap she did in Legion and BfA. And Baine had no way of knowing she would do underhanded things in a duel because nobody challenged her. They just allowed her to run wild.

Cairne was in a similar situation as Baine with a crazy war chief doing horrible things. Or he thought he was. Cairne took action. He didn’t stand by and allow Garrosh to run wild.

Awkward was trying to say that Cairne and Baine were the same person and the above situation shows that was absolutely not true.

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While it was certainly good, that he opposed that genocidal maniac… his reaction came pretty late. Like… really, really late. He watched her commit genocide on the night elves, the destruction of Ashenvale, darkshore and then Teldrassil, he watched her kill Alliance and Horde soldiers alike, so she could raise them again and enslave them and still went along with it. No offense, but all the fan bois, who were still shouting “Please, oh please notice me my queen. I love you!” had a mushy brain.^^"
Why was the resurrection of Derek so much worse than all the stuff that edgy elf did before? Why was that the straw that broke the camel’s back? That’s why I can’t take Baine very serious.

Same, but in OP’s defense I believe he’s just using the trope to define what Baine is like.

I blame the trope more than OP for that.

And I really don’t think Cairne would have rescued Derek.

Derek was being guarded by the Forsaken. Cairne, even though he really distrusted them at first, accepted the Forsaken not only into the Horde but in Thunder Bluff. I really don’t see Cairne killing members of the Horde to rescue Derek, which was a orc-killing human when he was alive.

Also, if you watch the cinematic, Baine knew that rescuing Derek would enrage Sylvanas and make her come after Thunder Bluff. Two cinematics tell us that. I refuse to believe that Cairne would have valued the life of an orc-killing human over the Forsaken and Thunder Bluff.

No, he didn’t. He was stronger than her at that moment. She played doe-eyed because he was physically within reach of her and she wasn’t going to defeat him without prep.

If she were at a distance and, more importantly, prepared to kill him, then things change dramatically. Baine caught her off-guard in that moment. Just because he had the advantage in that moment didn’t mean that it was going to last in a full-on duel where Sylvanas was indeed prepared and willing to kill him on the spot. Again, a poison arrow or two and suddenly Baine Bloodhoof joins his father in whatever afterlife houses warriors that can’t read the room. He knows she’s prone to fighting dirty, she’s essentially the Horde’s spymaster. He also saw Garrosh, a man who benefitted from underhanded tactics against his own father go unpunished despite the poison being the deciding factor.

Again, Baine might have been stronger then, but once Sylvanas went totally off the deep end, even before the Jailer, he knew better than to challenge her because Sylvanas is worse than Magatha could ever hope to be when it comes to underhanded tactics.

See, this is what I’m taking about. You’re applying reader’s logic to the character.

Baine had no way of knowing she gained strength. We, the players, didn’t know in Legion and BfA.

You’re misunderstanding me.

When I say ‘at that moment’, I don’t mean ‘because of the Jailer’. I mean because Baine, a physically powerful melee-oriented character, is NEXT to (and actually grappling) a character who is physically frail and relies on ranged attacks, traps, and underhanded tactics to survive fights. She is at a massive disadvantage because starting a fight then and there puts her way out of her element.

She would be a moron to decide to fight Baine where he fights best, so she did what she does best; manipulate her target to her benefit and wait to strike.

With her arms grabbed and Baine right next to her, yeah, my money’s on Baine. If she had time to knock an arrow and create distance? Baine’s odds drop dramatically. And that’s BEFORE the Jailer-juice kicks in.