“I know you think that Cairne’s death had a greater impact on you than Varian’s. But, you see, that’s wrong. Varian’s death definitely had a greater impact on you. I know. I studied this for the express reason of knowing how others feel about and assimilate different media.”
Varian’s death had a greater impact on most people, and I can say this confidently because whereas Cairne’s death was hidden in a book with almost no in-game mention, Varian’s death got its own cinematic, it was foreshadowed with Legion’s intro cinematic, it became the subject of a redesign of one of the districts in the Alliance developer-anointed hub city, and it was agonized over in three subsequent cinematics.
Visuals > Text
5 appearances > One appearance
5 visual appearances > One text appearance
The disparity here could not be greater.
On the topic at hand, if I were to have free reign … I would say that a New Capital with the promise of a Second Major city for each race would be pretty neat. For the NEs, Hyjal becomes this awesome terraced NE Capital. Spilling down the mountain side, and made a hybrid questing player hub to give it some life. We then move into a Everlook-less Winterspring for the NE Winter Wonderland (settlement included). Then traverse into Felwood and finally clean out that land and it’s burrows for good.
Shifting into Ashenvale, we build a Feathermoon-esk Stronghold at what is now the Warsong Lumbercamp to reinforce the Eastern Border (then close the Goblin-made path into ST to secure South/West). Finally, into Darkshore, healing our way North … and ending it all off with the planting of a new World Tree in the stump of Teld. And not just any one, but one birthed from the first healthy acorn from the Reborn and Healed G’Hanir. Promising a future grand city crafted from a genuine sibling of Nord, not just a cutting.
For the Forsaken, Stratholme is rebuilt into their new Captial and they (along with the FTs and BEs) settle the Plaguelands. Rebuild the canon massive harbor Strat has, and have the Forsaken repurpose the once Scarlet New Hearthglen in their Scourge-Minds recovery efforts. To deal with their population and maintenance needs in a noble way. All the while, they can spend time rebuilding Lordaeron (not just UC) itself. And, like the NE’s new WT, it serves as a meaningful promise for a second major city.
EDIT: God I want an Anti-Cata expac so bad for stories like this.
^
Forreal, I genuinely didn’t even react as Varian exploded.
My reaction was:
https://giphy.com/gifs/bye-well-yikes-l0HlvtIPzPdt2usKs
“Wow that’s so sad, Alexa play the Karazahn Opera House waltz”
Big tree burn fast! And elfies taste good if you add a dash of soul ash to them first
I know it’s hard for people like her to grasp that media, whether it’s a book, a game or movie affects people differently. There’s been plenty of books that had really impactful scenes that made me cry and cinematics in MMOs where I sat there like Well…that was underwhelming. Varians death may have been more impactful for some, but I sat there and thought Great, dudes dead, can we move along now?
Varian was just a pure show of “rule of the cool” for Metzen to say goodbye to his Conan fantasy. Like how is possible a human can one shot a fel reaver and then appear as Obi-Wan style to give his sword to his son? Blizzard overuse of the cool just make any trope cringeworthy
Varian is the classic the animals running the zoo type trope. Dude was nothing but a hyper masculine bonehead that Metzen had a love affair for. 
Varian Wrynn, Conan esque Human Chosen One blessed to be The Chosen One by the Wolf Wild God otherwise worshipped by Nelves, Tauren, and Orcs (but he’s special) restored to the throne after a Spartacus gladiator pit but after magical soul split who could one shot a fel reaver and died via del explosion.
And I, a Horde main, with only 3 Alliance alts that I only made during Legion, am expected to ~feel more~ with Varian.
Barely even knew the guy.
But Baal! As Kyalin would say, don’t you know that multi million dollar cinematic was super impactful for you?! 
Well said. The idea that text can’t be impactful as, say, a cinematic is baffling to me. If you are invested in that character, then their death will impact you on an emotional level. Period. Gantrithor is a good example of this.
He loved Cairne and his death impacted him much more than Varian’s death did. The type of media does not matter. Sure, Varian’s death mattered to some, but to others it didn’t.
I’m going to use an example in another game - SWTOR. Darth Marr is one of my all time favorite Star Wars characters (movies, games, etc). His death was in a cinematic and it hurt to lose him. I was impacted emotionally. If his death was in a book and not on screen, it would still hurt me because I was emotionally invested in the character.
Works for other media as well.
Michael Crichton’s Sphere
Great book. Terrible movie.
Gods…I can’t tell you how many excellent books were turned into absolute garbage movies.
You can gloat about how your a special little bean that goes counter to hard science. All that does is make you an outlier. Kyalin never said you specifically and has made it clear a hundred times she is talking about the majority. That by your own claims isn’t you.
https://www.t-sciences.com/news/humans-process-visual-data-better
https://www.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/350326/studies-confirm-the-power-of-visuals-in-elearning
https://killervisualstrategies.com/blog/how-our-brains-are-hardwired-for-visual-content.html
Basic Google searching does wonders.
Well, since im to lazy to read 1000 some post of what i assume is mostly bickering about faction bias and semantics, i’ll just answer OPs question.
I think both the Forsaken and Night Elves need world update levels of work to their zones, but said work has to be done extremely delicately to avoid going to far in the opposite direction. Night Elves are easier, you rebuild their settlements, maybe give them Hyjal as a new Capital, possibly make the Tedlrassil Stump a new Zone (after all, the stump is huge), and then give them victories over third parties and the horde. As long as Horde players don’t see it, it shouldn’t cause any problems in game unless the players complaining just want to cause problems.
Forsaken-wise we need to somehow rebuild them while not going into the dreaded “Calia Zone”, where the Forsaken lose all their remaining themes. Making the Forsaken more open to their fellow horde races is all right, but making them a Goody to shoes faction is not. In return however, i’d also like the Alliance to be portrayed as a lot more Hostile to the Forsaken, even if it’s just extremist elements wanting to reclaim lordaeron and not Anduin himself. You could make Andorhal the new cap or add that area of the map Stratholme is in and make that the new cap, but in general i want more actual settlements and a way to raise willing people from the dead.
And you can simp all you want. Doesn’t change the fact that canon sources are canon sources and still part of the story.
So, that whole “doesn’t count because it isn’t a cinematic” is pointless.
Her response basically amounts to WHY CANT YOU SIMPLY BE SHEEP AND JUST ADMIT ONLY THE VISUALS MATTER!!! REEEE!!!
It reeks of desperation
“You’re not on my side so you must be a simp.”
Truly brilliant.
You freaked out because people don’t have the same reactions to media that you desperately want them to have.
You sound extremely rustled by the idea that you don’t represent the majority of people.