If it was pettiness wouldn't they have killed him instead of letting you save him?
Killing him, or any other named Forsaken, would be something vaguely resembling some small modicum of justice for the Night Elves, and as such, is something the devs absolutely cannot let happen, under any circumstances.
The pettiness on the part of the devs towards the Forsaken comes from them not letting Belmont solo Tyrande, Malfurion, Maiev, and Shandris, all at once, and then going on to finish Her Führer's work, and exterminating every last Night Elf (including astral projecting to the Seat of the Pantheon, and killing Illidan). At least, until someone complains, anyway.
Replace him with a generic nameless Forsaken NPC leader unit that Tyrande kills off with the rest of the nameless Forsaken NPCs and leave Belmont out entirely if the Forsaken players don't want him to die.
That would be ideal, but there's actually an even easier and simpler solution to even that. Remove Tyrande's line about Saurfang. If Tyrande doesn't chastise herself for sparing a life, then her sparing a life immediately after won't read as bafflingly incompetent.
Tyrande Whisperwind says: Teldrassil burned because I chose to spare Saurfang's life.
I'm still not sure how she came to that conclusion.
I don't either. Sadly it's setting up Tyrande as thinking that Saurfang is culpable for the order of burning Teldrassil, when he was shouting for the Horde to stop.
Tyrande Whisperwind says: Teldrassil burned because I chose to spare Saurfang's life.
I'm still not sure how she came to that conclusion.
I was about to argue, but then I realized you're right.
It wouldn't have mattered if Tyrande killed Saurfang or not, surely Sylvanas still would've burned the World Tree. If Saurfang never shows up, or scouts report he was killed, I don't see why she wouldn't go ahead with burning Teldrassil anyway.
Unless Tyrande thinks Saurfang ordered the world tree to burn.
Rescuing Belmont every two weeks isn't really that much of a bother. I kill Captain Nialls / Raider Captain Kronn every week.
Captain Nialls and Raider Captain Kronn are easy enough to chalk up to them just being knocked unconscious rather than killed. Belmont would have to specifically get paralyzed by Tyrande's Night Warrior style magic between every Horde turn.
Unless Tyrande thinks Saurfang ordered the world tree to burn.
This. This is the final twist to end all twists. We're all here thinking Sylvanas is gonna die/get Kerrigan'd when they're instead going to have Saurfang martyr himself. He'll become Green Jesus 2.0
This. This is the final twist to end all twists. We're all here thinking Sylvanas is gonna die/get Kerrigan'd when they're instead going to have Saurfang martyr himself. He'll become Green Jesus 2.0
Saurfang killed by Tyrande before Sylvanas could get at him... This is going to reveal how everyone's prejudices backfire on each other!
When the truth of Teldrassil's burning(that Sylvanas gave the order and Saurfang tried to stop the Horde from firing the catapults) is brought to light much blame will be thrown on Tyrande and the Night Elves who learn the truth will see her and Shandris as villains.
This will divide the Alliance further as people start to question the war and their past prejudices.
How Maiev would deal with this is beyond my understanding. She might capitalize on this to dispose of both of them though what she'd do next is beyond me.
Tyrande Whisperwind says: The time has come to reclaim our home.
Which leads me to the most important problem. This is a Warfront. Gameplay wise. This is not a win. This is at best a stalemate eternally basking under a monument to Sylvanas' depravity and ego. Blizzard is probably wanting of moving on from the Night Elves' story and moving on to other focuses in BfA after the Darkshore Warfont. But if this is it, after the War of the Thorns, after A Good War and Elegy, after Warbringer: Sylvanas, after "Old Solider", after the Burning of Teldrassil, if the Night Elf story dead-ends with the Darkshore Warfront, that will be completely unacceptable. And to preempt anyone calling for the Night Elves to lose and have take it as a positive so they can go relocate on the Eastern Kingdoms, that is even more unacceptable. If this is the end of the Night Elves' story in BfA, though the changes in the PTR definitely make Tyrande look fittingly powerful, it all would not have been worth it, and I'd rather the Night Elves' story had been left with the ending of Elegy and the "Azeroth at War: Kalimdor on Fire" mission table descriptions than the Darkshore Warfront.
This is what I'm afraid of. Blizzard has a horrible tendency to drop whatever story they've been working on for the "next big thing" while only carrying on with the most important threads, ie Tyrande and Malfurion. Night Elves will never get closure. They'll never retake Darkshore let alone even contest Ashenvale; warfronts are features that will in all likelihood remain forever enforcing a permanent stalemate.
I will accept this story if they just tell us WHY those raised suddenly turn on everyone. Or better, have or imply a transition or condition period.
I think the Horde version already has what we are looking for:
Sira Moonwarden says: Soon she will be here, and she will tear you to pieces.
Sira Moonwarden says: Where... is she...?
My suggestion for the Alliance side is to have Sira's soul wandering around in a daze saying these lines she said before her death, in a sense presenting her reliving the moments before her death again in her death limbo, while the Val'kyr drag her soul back into her corpse. I think that might be the simplest to implement with the recordings they already have.
I actually am okay with Belmont dying and wanting him to die. Not to be a butthole to the Hordies out there but I mean, the Forsaken are already systematically killing named Alliance forces and turning them against us in rapid succession. Losing Belmont wouldn't be as detrimental because the Forsaken are already working to painstakingly replace him with many others because it is part of Syl's campaign to make us lose hope by turning our once allies against us.
My suggestion for the Alliance side is to have Sira's soul wandering around in a daze saying these lines she said before her death, in a sense presenting her reliving the moments before her death again in her death limbo, while the Val'kyr drag her soul back into her corpse. I think that might be the simplest to implement with the recordings they already have
Another possible idea is that Sira is actually left to die. I, on the spot, have thought of two situations and will use Maiev as the catalyst for both for simplicity. These are not heavily thought out;
1) Maiev sent Sira on a suicide mission without Sira knowing, and it, naturally, got her killed. Hence why no one shows up, she really was left to die on purpose, and due to undeath twisting emotions, she becomes enraged. I'm not suggesting anything petty, Maiev wouldn't make this call unless she really thinks she needs to, This does, however, reflects poorly on Maiev.
2) Maiev intended to go back for her, but a higher piroirty pops up. Like, say, Sira was supposed to hold the Forsaken's attention while Maiev flanked the undead, then Maiev learnt, say, a death camp near by was executing prisoners with the intention of drawing the elves out. Choosing to save the imprisoned citizens over the soldiers, Maiev leaves Sira to die. Sira doesn't understand, from her point of view, why Maiev never shows up, and undeath naturally enrages her because becoming undead is a really messed up process and no one should want it. This makes Maiev look better, but some might not like it.
Sira Moonwarden is becoming Forsaken, voiced lines and much more mean this is going to happen. I just want to build situations where it makes more sense for Sira to turn on her former allies. Does it make total sense? Well, no, no it doesn't, but at least there's a better foundation to Sira becoming hateful that's easier for the average player to understand.
In light of Blademaster Telaamon's suicide mission which he voluntarily gives his life for the Alliance, I think your suggestion would be further detrimental to the Night Elf narrative than helping it. Over all, Sira being intentionally left behind is not a suggestion I would in any way support.
THe alliance wins darkshore too, the lines about the alliance wining on all fronts is at the end of the story in 8.1 that said, blizzard isnt going to show this in game, in like changing the zones.
Just to be clear real quick, they haven't won Darkshore, they are winning in Darkshore. Weeks of fighting in a war is a long time, which is what his line states.
But I do wonder how the Horde is suppose to come back from all that happens in 8.1. It really makes no sense that they Alliance doesnt press their advantage and win but, I've beaten that horse to death, undeath, and death again.
As far as Darshore writing goes, I can't agree with OP more. A few more changes that wouldn't really change how anything plays out but, would improve the overall feel of the whole story is still needed IMO.
Even if its our personal head canon wishlists becoming in game fact.
I applaud Blizzard for smoothing out blatant inconsistencies...but that is a far cry from what you suggest.
You basically want Blizzard to change the characters involved to fit your head canon. A laudable goal - but I disagree. Hopefully Blizzard can tell their story - while polishing inconsistencies. Instead of altering it because of loud and popular nonsense.
I don't like how you came in to my thread not to discuss any of the points I brought up, but rather to casually attempt to dismiss my points by pretending you're presenting a disagreement by offhand trying to call my perceptions into question by using the intentionally irrelevant and accusatory term "head canon."
But this tends to be a pattern for you. I don't often put people on ignore. I can probably count on one hand the number of people I have. But I also often don't find much value in anything you post, and so as I see no reason to burden my enjoyment of these forums with your presence I will be putting you on ignore now. So this will be the last time I ever read one of your posts, and obviously certainly respond to one.
By doing something dishonorable and evil of course!
It's like you haven't been paying attention to Blizzard is writing the BFA Horde.
Oh I have and I am sure they will try but, it still doesn't work out. See even if Sylvanas's plan for Derek works out and she manages to use him to kill one for the Alliance leaders it still doesn't bring our ships back. It still doesn't bring the whole death camp full of Forsaken back. War is a numbers game and we are dangerously close to dipping into the red.
I can think of a few things that might do it. Mainly Helya coming back into play to help Sylvanas, there being a good chance she helped Sylvanas become Warchief already. With her help comes her fog warriors which would be a big help. They are an endless supply of fodder. They can go out and get killed and just come back.
That's the rub for me though. What kind of crazy plot is about to happen to allow the Horde to live and I would like the Horde to not have to survive on plot devices alone, which is where we have been at for a long time.
EDIT: I had misspelled the Warchief name! That's a paddlin!