The point is Blizzard has used Horde stuff too often to create new villains. It’s time to stop that trope for good.
The Amani aren’t Horde stuff, Erevien. You know that too. In-universe it’s been close to 50 years since the Amani were part of the Horde. Out of all forest troll tribes, it has only been the Horde aligned tribe, the Revantusk Tribe that you seem to hate, that hasn’t been villains since Warcraft 3.
The Amani being villains in Midnight wouldn’t be a new villain, it’s them still being villains. But again, note that I am not argument that the Amani as a whole be made to join the Void, only some. Those desperate and too bitter to give up their fight. That said, let’s look at history.
WC1 / WC2 - the Old Horde were the villains of the story, the Amani joined them. So did goblins, so did ogres, even humans (Alteraci) had dealings with them.
WC3 - Amani aren’t named by name, but forest trolls are a common creep on many maps so their role there is antagonistic (many humans are too in the form of bandits). In the Fall of Silvermoon you can hire mercenaries, those are forest trolls, likely Amani - we’ll chalk that up to game mechanics, however. But here is where it gets interesting because in Warcraft Reforged, which has updated many maps to better mirror WoW’s in game maps and story, you can rescue a group of trolls imprisoned by the high elves who will fight for you. Which means some Amani trolls may have fought for the Scourge.
Vanilla - Amani didn’t show up, but with the exception of the Revantusk Tribe all other forest troll tribes serve villainous / antagonistic roles.
TBC - Amani show up in full force for the first time in WoW, they are very clearly villains and oppose the Horde directly. So much for “Horde stuff” used to create new villains. This, by the by, might also already include Void shenanigans as Ex Lord Malacrass has quotes like “Da shadow gonna fall on you”, and he is said to have kept the darkest Loa for himself when he imbued the essence of the Amani’s gods into several champions.
WotLK - no forest trolls.
Cata - Repeat of TBC, but with the aid of the Zandalari as part of a worldwide effort of restoring the troll empires of the Amani, Gurubashi and Sandfury.
MoP - the aforementioned four tribes show up in Pandaria to conquer new land with the aid of their Mogu allies, whose goal is the restoration of the Mogu Empire over all of Pandaria. Contrary to your claim in another thread, this was a campaign of extermination at worst and of enslaving all other races in Pandaria at best.
WoD - no Amani.
Legion - no Amani.
BfA - Amani show up, a lot of them live in Zuldazar where they have an enclave. Only the tribes that joined the Zandalari in Cata have enclaves there, they are again serving an antagonistic role. In a show of how far they have fallen they’re little more than opportunistic thugs.
SL - no Amani, but Zul’jin shows up in Revendreth.
DF - no Amani.
TWW - no Amani.
Midnight - Amani will show up. Some are bound to be villains, most probably will oppose said villains.
If old god servants can be redeemed then so can Amani trolls.
To be honest, I can see a storyline where some of the Amani side with the Void. Case in point we know that Hex Lord Malacrass had bound a darker essence with him, which could have been Kith’ix, so we might encounter an apprentice or students who decided carry out their masters’ work.
With that said, I’m hoping that this outright attack on Quel’thalas just motivates the Void to just charge at Zul’Aman for the resurrection of Kith’ix, which causes the tribe as a whole to reject the Void as a whole, and the Amani ultimately accepting the aid of the Horde to deal with the matter.
Any Void aligned Forest Trolls should easily come from the twisted Vilebranch.
While I would like a Forest Troll reunion storyline, or at least the Revantusk and Amani joining forces, should we go the one tribe route I would prefer the Revantusk. If playable Forest Trolls hail from the Amani, then I’m RPing my Forest Troll as a Revantusk.
The Revantusk did expand their territory with the conquest of Jin’thalor. Furthermore the Revantusk are one of the troll tribes within the Horde. So when it comes to Forest Troll matters, the Darkspear, Shatterspear, and Zandalari are more likely to look to them over the other tribes… which yet another factor that could create a Revantusk - Amani rivalry, that hopefully ends with them uniting.
As did most of the Forest Trolls, the Amani included. I want the Amani to get a chance to be heroes too, but the Revantusk was the one tribe that remained with the Horde and shouldn’t be forgotten.
Blizzard is fond of redemption stories and I could easily see the Amani getting that treatment. At the very least Blizzard has shown that they are open to improving Horde - Amani relations. After all per Exploring Azeroth: Islands and Isles they let Thalyssra, a leader of the Horde, walk through their enclave with no issue.
Oh that’s new show source.
Yep. The new Exploring Azeroth book actually has positive development on the Horde - Amani front, with them just not causing a fuss over a Horde leader exploring their area. Which is a mark improvement from their decision to go hostile when the Horde was allowed entry into Zandalar.
Whilst I agree with you, to be fair there’s been a few remarked “exaggerated” and dire claims that he’s been right on
- But I suppose it comes down to the saying that if you throw enough stones, you’re bound to hit something …
Honestly though, I wouldn’t exactly be surprised @ the Amani going to the void, lol
It would be bad writing.
It would be incredibly predictable writing that’s for sure — But I feel they could do it well if there was a schism divide in their society about it, similarly to how there was in Suramar amongst the Nightborne with the Legion.
Writing to not offend anyone is the death of creativity.
Yeah I agree, which is why I’d like the Amani to have a schism and there to be a political divide that we — ever so gracefully push, so the victors are in our favour.
It’s also why I want Magatha Grimtotem to lead the Tauren — Because she’ll shake things up or at least present interesting developments on future stories.
Having happy-hippy-hooha-peacelovers may be great for the real world, but for an interesting narrative or game? … Not so much.
All Baine does is sitting useless in the corner.
Not wrong, lol
— Actually wait yes you are wrong!
He doesn’t just sit in the corner! … He also sides-over to the Alliance
While mailing his boyfriend anduin body parts
Baine is pathetic yes.
While you are not inherently wrong… that also tends to demonstrate the lack of imagination of the one doing the writing.
It is certainly harder to not offend anyone while telling a compelling/creative, such concepts are the functionally the same in my view, story… but the death of it? I find that unlikely.
Art exists to provoke people not to save their feelings.
Only to those for whom such concepts are weapons.
Art can’t bully you. It is the expression towards society from the person who created it.
So, it is the weapon they chose to wield.