Just as no race is a united monolith, neither is a race, let alone an individual, static.
Redemption and penance exist for all peoples. In-universe, one doesn’t have to like it, or accept it, but people who commit atrocities can change for the better. If you don’t acknowledge that, the only message you send for those whom follow in those paths is that they may as well keep walking it, because change isn’t possible.
Granted this is a video game and none of us here are writing it, but I think you get the point. It’s a boring story that never changes. Part of WC3’s allure was how it turned a traditionally band of monstrous races into noble savages, striving for redemption from past atrocities.
Ah the lie of the noble savage. And by the way, it was ONE savage that tried to be noble. The rest just kind of followed along. Most of the time. When they weren’t murdering people or guzzling demon blood.
Only in the afterlife.
This has been brought up many times, and I wonder how far you people have thought this out. I’ll hamfistedly write out a scenario for you to puzzle through and see if you have what it takes. I’ll keep certain descriptors out of the picture so it doesn’t muddy the waters(like the species, culture, sex, or religion).
A band of 500 armed beings attacks and razes a town of 200 unarmed beings. They spare no one they catch, and kill everyone they can. Only a few scattered groups manage to escape. The band of 500 then goes on to do this several more times to multiple other communities. There was no declaration of war, no warning, and the band of 500 do not know any of the ones they are killing.
How would you go about, if you were in a position to do so, dealing with said group of 500? Would you attempt to reason with them? Would you attempt to capture them all and interview them to see which ones did the killing? Would you punish them as a group? Would you let them go? Would you hold only their leadership responsible?
How would you deal with that armed group of 500?
Attempt to answer to the best of your ability without further context. Anyone can answer, even if I am directing this at Giru.
They weren’t a threat at the time. Theramore, Durotar, and the Night Elves of Ashenvale had actually settled down to a decent accord post-Hyjal. The Orcs and Trolls had a decent place to live in Durotar and the Tauren were settling down at Mulgore. And the Horde had entirely removed itself from the Eastern Kingdoms.
The actions of Proudmoore upset an apple cart that had barely had a chance to roll, He deforested Durotar an action much like what the U.S. Government did to the Plains Indians when it decided to extinct the buffalo.
So to begin, I know the answer you’re looking for is wholesale slaughter. You kept it as vague and nonspecific as you could so any kind of deeper analysis would be untenable, but you weren’t actually able to accomplish that. I’ll engage honestly, though.
500 “armed beings” going on a murder spree of thousands don’t just magically appear, especially when they don’t know any of the people they’re killing. That doesn’t happen without some kind of objective. Whatever coalition they’ve formed just wouldn’t be able to exist if it was uncontrolled murder and mayhem with no direction. If they’re rampaging through multiple communities but don’t know any of who they’re killing, they’re there because someone else sent them there.
With that in mind, I’d have as many of them as I can captured and try to determine why they’re doing what they’re doing. There’s most certainly some greater evil pulling the strings, and answering unknown aggressors with wholesale slaughter fails to address it.
And those of the 500 that mercilessly butchered everyone they could catch? You would ONLY punish the leadership? Hoooooly crap.
Probably because it is the only right answer.
Really? Is that because you inferred whatever I didn’t specify? I wonder what your inference says about you… Probably nothing. I kept it vague and non-specific so in order to be able to understand the views of people. The answers to this question are very telling.
By the gods, no wonder you people can support the Horde. You bend over backwards to avoid punishing the wicked. I said to try and answer without further context, but you created your own. A context that attempts to excuse the actions of the 500 armed beings butchering unarmed beings by blaming some ‘greater evil pulling the strings’.
Dudes roll up on your house, break in, kill your family, burn the house and leave.
“Oh, they’re not a threat anymore. Hunting down and eliminating them so they can never do that to anyone else would be WRONG!”
Madness.
Except for you know, the Blackrock clan, the Dragonmaw, some Burning Blade, the Trolls, the Ogres, etc. THRALL’S Horde didn’t have a major presence in the Eastern Kingdoms, but the original Horde did. And to a Second War veteran, what’s the difference?
Well, assuming one doesn’t want a repeat of the event. What’s killing 500 mooks do? The guy behind it will just send 5,000 mooks next time. Unless you take care of the source of the problem, it’s just rehersal for the mastermind.
The mooks should absolutely be held to account, but slaughtering them all isn’t winning the victor any moral highground.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it but I feel like there’s a flaw in the analogy’s setup in that only the one side’s perspective is considered and assumed to be the universal standard that all sides must be held to.
If they were just 500 feral hogs, that’d be one thing, but we’re playing a game where you’re supposed to know going in that the other side had issues pushed upon them too (and more importantly, a timeskip) and its players assuming their PoV, not that of the first side.
