So what this really comes down to is that some people are sulky because they think the wishes of a different audience were put ahead of their own? Is that what’s at the bottom of this well of salt?
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No ones sulky. Just pointing out what felt wrong at the time and it’s nice to be validated years later. That’s all.
And Draenei were added because Alliance needed a big hulking race at the time.
And they slotted them in. It didn’t go against the initial storyline to appease the North American audience because they refused to play smaller races.
Both factions had a deficiency and Blizzard fulfilled them with what was available at the time.
Nothing else matters.
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No one had “defeincies”. The only thing off was no pallys for horde and they fixed that. The devs gave their reason for BE. I’m not going to argue with you that was confirmed already.
They both had deficiencies. There were only 4 races on each side and you’re wailing about a decision that could not be any different.
Draenei and Blood Elves were the only possible races that could be added and they were added the way that they were. If you want to argue Blood Elves unjustly joined the Horde you would have to argue the Draenei unjustly joined the Alliance.
Good luck with that.
The Metzen who I quoted from the TBC announcement Blizzcon talking about how they had so much fun giving the concept of high elves the same kind of treatment that they gave wood elves with the Night Elves. That Metzen?
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Did Tyrande leave a mark on Sylvanas?
Answer the question.
I’m not saying he didn’t have fun doing it. I’m saying they made a decision based on some BS, and then went with it and had a good time doing it. Metzen has alway been pro horde so I’m sure this worked out well for him to stick it to the alliance again
I thought you were saying that some dungeon designer who had some vague memories is a better source on why they were added than Metzen and all the other devs who explained ALL the reasons that went into the blood elves. I mean, it’s not like they weren’t set up to not be alliance in WC3. But nooooo, Asian girlfriends is the end all be all of reasons.
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I just can’t with you today. Idk if you just love the horde or what. The guy was a high level designer from the start. Metzen wouldn’t admit to selling out would he. Would anyone?
And as of 2020 he only vaguely remembered that reason. It is a part of why they did it, but again, just a minor part. Just usually people who are into boring fantasy standards can’t admit that.
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Metzen loves the entire Franchise. Thrall was his baby, as was redeeming the Horde. Some of Metzen’s favorite characters included Tirion and Malfurion especially. I can’t imagine he was entirely happy with the direction the Horde took over the game’s lifetime, but as this very thread makes clear, the story took a backseat to metrics which were deemed profitable.
As far as how much fun the writers had making the High Elves into Blood Elves, the fact remains the Blood Elves didn’t remain that way for long. Just about one expansion. It’s almost as if Blizzard hadn’t intended for them to be playable at all, but rather exist as an antagonist faction, like the Naga, or Scourge. Making them playable required a redemption.
Small coincidence if after the Blood Elves were redeemed with their new Sunwell, that they ceased to have a strong racial narrative.
Just another reason to not have restored the sunwell…
I’m really hoping for an expansion storyline that sees us destroying the Sunwell after the Space Chandeliers try to finish turning them into their army on Azeroth. Only to have their connections to the Nightborne leveraged to get a supply of the special fruit to sever their connection to the Sunwell just as the Nightwell connection has been severed.
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Yes, but then they would’ve just been unrepentantly evil, as their make-over intended. That was what they did with the race.
Note that as soon as they’re playable, despite the fel green crystals around Silvermoon the narrative is, “No, no, no, no! They’re not draining Fel! It’s mana! Their eyes are only green because Fel was used to rebuild the city. Somehow. Even though the buildings show no sign of it.” We’ve seen what Fel does to a landscape, after all. Silvermoon should’ve been radioactive green, and Eversong should’ve been as dead as the Ghostlands, if Fel is what was used to fix all of that.
Can only speculate, but yeah. Just seems like Blizzard intended for Blood Elves to be an antagonist race doomed to dungeon and raid fodder. Even explains why they threw Kael under the bus despite making the race playable; Blood Elves had been intended to be antagonists.
I think it was great they tried to do something else, since that’d have been a waste of potential, but in the end, like so much else, Blizzard just didn’t commit to it. They half-arsed it, and then reverted the Blood Elves to High Elves, just with more red to their logo.
Oh I know. I even get it.
Thing is I wanted them to have a redemption arc not some wanna be space-savior walk in and be all “The Light has spoken and thus it is so… you are redeemed, now walk in the Light always.” That’s just weak writing.
I wanted them to have to face their demons and actually own them and overcome them not get a free pass. Basically the inverse of whatever they were doing with the Forsaken…
What it boils down to is, on the larger scale of things, the Blood Elves whom were playable, whom joined the Horde, didn’t actually do all that much to require redemption to begin with. We’re told they didn’t side with demons, consume fel, etc… they weren’t enslaving races in Outland, reneging on deals with Ethereals, betraying Azeroth, etc…
The most the Blood Elves on Azeroth could’ve sought redemption for was how they treated their kith and kin, in exiling those elves whom refused to drain mana from living beings. For as painful a death as being drained of mana is, all races survive off of other creatures, mostly by eating meat. M’uru might get brought up here, but the Naaru knew what it was doing, even if the Blood Elves didn’t. Forgiveness was given, regardless of whether or not it was deserved.
That’s part of the problem with playable races in general though; they’re so divorced from any narrative their race at large has, that it becomes difficult for it to feel like meaningful development for them when it crops up.
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Not sure if sanctioned by the greater blood elf leadership but I distinctly remember the be rogues taking great glee from murdering people in ashenvale during BFA pre patch
Yes, but we were speaking more to the Blood Elves’, ‘redemption,’ at the end of Burning Crusade, not for later actions.