One of the things I think is missing from current leaders is that we no longer have HEROIC leaders, on either side. We have a villainous character today, Sylvanas, but no good, heroic characters.
In early WoW, we had Thrall, Cairne and Vol’jin. They inspired you to be a more heroic character. They gave you a reason to want to follow that faction other than “I don’t want to be the other faction”. Vol’jin was our last hope and he got killed by a level 3 demon.
Varian actually was able to turn it around an in his death scene actually be the kind of hero that should define what the Alliance is. Of the remaining Alliance leaders who could be considered heroic?
Anduin? The BFA cinematic at Lorderon gave hope, but there was no follow up. Genn? Maybe since you changed him from a revenge only character but he would need to grow into it Tyrande and Malfurion? Too whiney and despite having god level powers, they cant beat a human archer that is as good as an elf (so maybe as good as Tyrande whithout her other powers) Moira? She is more likely to be the Sylvanas of the Allaince. Not heroic, but she should be the on committing genocide on the Horde. Mechatorque? No need to explain. Valen? See Anduin
Thrall’s Horde could use some Heroic leaders again.
The Alliance REALLY needs Heroic leaders. Its culture should be defined by heroes like Uther.
I like most of the characters you mentioned. I am a fan of Baine. My main complain is there are no Strong, honorable characters left. The kind that will make the hard call to jump in against overwhelming odds and fight to the death, maybe even winning.
The honorable guys are just honorable, just not willing to fight.
Varian made the call to go out like a boss. He knew he was gonna die, but he made the sacrifice play for his people. You know like a hero.
Saurfang: We’re getting the band back together again.
Thrall: I just can’t do lead vocals anymore man… Voice injury just won’t go away…
Saurfang: I understand… But it’s not the same without the Keytar
Thrall: “I can still do Keytar.” Thall and Saurfang put on neon pink shades.
Eh. If the Horde had any people that were just going to go nuts for an honorable death they’d be in a civil war right now.
Anduin’s honestly been going pretty hard. Just doesn’t get a lot of screen time. But nobody gets much screen time and they’ve got tons of character bloat right now.
Like, Malfurion and Tyrande aren’t even in Nazjatar, Shandris is. They’re just at a level of character saturation that makes everyone a cameo. Except the manager writer is into Nathanos so we gotta see that dude every minute of every day.
I wonder if he doesn’t get more screen time because of the forum edgelords? Not sure.
Personally, I’d be happy with a Warchief that was ruthless without going off the deep end far enough to trigger yet another civil war. To put it another way, evil but not cartoonishly evil. I was hoping they’d do that with Sylvanas and have Saurfang/Baine stick around to be the voices of honor. That said, since they decided to go all in, I’m just enjoying the ride and I’ll see what happens at the other end.
Well. Sylvanus just burnt down Teldrassil and has been a jerk the whole expansion so she can do her heel-face turn in the next expansion. Because she’s Nathanos’s waifu.
Yes, yes, yes. We have no heroes, we have prissy bois.
Anduin is the #1 offender, closely followed by Baine and Saurfang.
Examples of how you can be a badass and a peacekeeper at once—Varian Wrynn. Thrall. Vol’jin. Cairne. Kael’thas (pre-crazy). Jaina. Uther. Antonidas.
Examples of you can be a non-evil badass—Maiev. Illidan. Akama. Tyrande (WC3). Arthas (before he went insane, obv.)
I just don’t get why our leaders HAVE to be mega prissy for there to be peace between the factions, like, damn. Varian and Vol’jin were both great, and now it HAS to be Anduin and Baine, the latter of who sent Anduin part of his horn as a gift (/puke), else the Horde and Alliance don’t stop fighting. Soo dumb. So dumb. I hate it.
I’m hoping to see Tyrande do more now that she’s the Night Warrior. I’d love to see a disconnect from the Alliance because of how Anduin refused to help Tyrande in Darkshore. And the cutscene where Malfurion drowns an Orc in the earth was pretty awesome. Maybe we’ll get the old school Night Elves? The ones that weren’t turned into kittens when they went Alliance.
As for the Horde…man, I don’t know anymore. There are two parts of the Horde, and neither will be happy with the other’s existence. People want the Horde to be irredeemably evil, and many joined the Horde because it WASN’T that. The other part wants a return to the old guard, where the Alliance were actually aggressors and the Horde had depth and reason to what they did. I just don’t know if we’ll ever get that again, and champions to go with it because all of ours keep dying every expansion. It’s been exhausting to hope for the next big name in the Horde because they’ll probably end up evil and awful for no reason anyway.
Thalyssra is a good start. Time will tell if she starts regaining/honing her power as she utilizes her abilities in combat now. Y’all are pretty empty with iconic heroes. Think it just shows how much character development has been lacking outside the core heroes.
That I think is the biggest issue. The faction has been undergoing an identity crisis. Which DOES happen with any political group in time. They begin to question why they’re doing things the way they are.
And eventually a splinter group forms that wants to go a different direction.
In ways, that’s what the Horde needs, to finally have that formal splinter faction form.
The problem is, the world would be a mess, in terms of territory, if it suddenly became “Honorable Horde”, “Chaotic Evil Horde” and “Alliance” all vying for power.
Now it could make for a good story, but it’d still be a mess figuring out how you’d handle questing, zones and all that.
Thrall and Saurfang have demonstrated heroics time and again sure… but Baine? I ain’t ever see him do anything heroic. He just sits in his tent all day or by his map table and never lifts a finger to support us. He’s as unheroic and uninspiring as they come unless you’re inspired more by rhetoric than action.
