Since the very beggining of Nightborne being presented in Legion´s Blizzcon, I found them to be flavor-wise as nothing more than purple Belves with a different playable model (imho improved to in the case of male Nelf cause even if male Nightborne look thin they don´t look like a deformed purple gorilla). I will say I even was in the group of people against making them playable (their themathics really DON´T fit WC3 Nelf narrative nor development and they can potentially cannibalize Belf arcane side; but well, I suppose Blizz has been uncharacteristically subtle when dealing with their integration to the Horde so right now I don´t feel they´re a threat to Belf thematics´s and lore integrity).
Nightborne model may look âuglyâ for some, but honestly the only thing I dislike over it is the crooked nose and strong laugh lines on males -makes the look extremely older-⌠in regards to female I find the model perfect (I would like more hair options thoughâŚ). All in all I guess that I don´t have a problem with ugly as long as I find the lore of the race appealing.
In regards to Velves? I feel sad for them⌠I think they´re slowly becoming a wasted potential, and were contaminated with the same stupidity bug polluting Veeresa and similar High Elf characters (heck, one could even say the induction of Velves on the Alliance made Helves like Veeresa, Aurora and Alleria look like the most moronic and hypocritical creatures ever. Yeah complaining over draining mana from a mad rat apparently is less offensive than keeping in close quarters people with psycho voices telling them 24/7 to murder the poor unfortunate soul standing right next to them -and sorry but this is canon, blame the guy that made the âThree sistersâ comic-).
Alleria had SO much potential to become an actual conflicted and complex character, but frankly? she´s just another Veeresa but now with super powers to make her even more cringe worthy (Being jailed by a fanatical brainwashing windchime and looking at her husband defending the choice of the aforementioned windchime? NO problem!!, apparently she has 0 issue with Turalyon over that -and sorry but people irl divorce over less⌠the guy basically was complciit on her unfair incarcelation and she like a good little elf trophy wife for the human hero got amnesia and pretended nothing happened!!-⌠Being confronted with the undead devastation put upon her former nation -which includes the raise into undeath of her little sister and death of most of her family- by the prince of the former MOST important Alliance nation? No issue!!!, Arthas-who? But of course, an Orc taking a stroll on Silvermoon is much more aggravating than Dalaran et al never doing anything to help the elves while they were trying to survive the zombie apocalypse!!.. Her little sister being called upon âcreatively twistingâ the facts so the blame over her own mistakes would fall upon the Horde sister? no issue, who cares if Veeresa lied over her being trhe actual intellectual author and coward regarding Garrosh⌠and so on and so fort.
Umbric too has been infected with silly background most of the time (I love Silvermoon and I want to take care of it even if I´m subjected 24/7 to a magical energy that can destroy the very source of stability and wellbeing on the country!! Also, I did my research under edgelord motivations and following the parameters made by the cretin that actually made possible the genocide of 90% of the elves -with a functional Sunwell, Umbric et al insisting on Void magic does look both silly and childish⌠there really was NO need, though I give him some brownie points for admiting he screwed up and that Rommath´s reservations were founded⌠Umbric still may have hope of becoming a much better character than the walking joke that are the Windrunner nutjobs-.)
I don´t have an issue with a coherent narrative for playable Helves, problem is Blizz seems more interested in feeding the moronic âI´m a hardcore patriot that actually never ever cared over defending Quel´Thalas in their darkest time, but some NPCs got exiled so I assume we all were -wrong lorewise as established by the UVG and never contradicted by Chronicle-, so we ALL are victims like poor Veeresa!!â BS 10th rate headcanon some few but VERY vocal fans seem to desire for their fav race (Veeresa btw, was too busy getting her arcane fix on her knees by her hubby and acting like a trophy elf wife to actually and voluntarily defend Quel´Thalas from the menaces polluting it after the end of the Third War).
In retrospective, I think I don´t gave an issue with characters and racial characterization that DO aknowledge the shortcomings, so I guess this is why I dislike that version of the Helves and Velves SO much (that version of the Helves/Velves makes them nothing but a bunch of opportunistic crybabies still parasiting on her human overlords to get the job done for them)⌠not because they exist or the model, but because they feed some of the worst literary development I´ve ever seen.
