It does make a strong contrast in hindsight. He ran an Orcish Horde, but Sylvanas was as Saurfang said, Blackhand’s successor in terms of ruthlessness and disregard for life. Garrosh I think needed more time before he was made Warchief. Some of what he said to Thrall was legitimate. But Thrall’s words also were legitimate.
It’s hard for any Orc who was told his bloodline is tainted, to transition to being the son of a hero; much to live up to that new legacy, and shift gears so quickly. Although I did not like Garrosh’s radical shift in Wrath, and his sudden hostility to Thrall felt it was forced; I firmly believe that if he’d been given the time to acclimate as a warrior he could of been a solid Horde character even now.
Thrall’s error was that he probably should of had him training in Wrath, defending Orgrimmar while Thrall, and Saurfang handled the Scourge with Vol’jin. Would this of prevented the Cataclysm and Pandaria wars? Likely.
The problem the Developers missed when they gave us BFA instead of the Black Empire and a ‘real’ Naga expansion is this. Faction Wars are for the most part, a strongly disliked and rejected concept that are only beloved by PVPers. I’ll agree with people that the franchise of Warcraft might of been built on it, but it’s grown beyond that time period.
They completely bungled the last expansion, and BFA was the first expansion I rolled my eyes at during the cinematic opening. Especially when Sylvanas started rambling about “what makes us strong”. Why? Because to quote the Quest Skip lines, “I’ve heard this tale before…”
Plus Mount Hyjal kinda happened.
The one thing I never could wrap my head around, was the opening spiel that “Peace between Alliance and Horde has all but faded.” Even in 2004 I had a record scratch moment of “Uh… what? Why?” PVP has taken far too great a toll on the lore and the game.
The only rationale I can explain it by is that Stormwind and Gilneas didn’t get the memo, and the Forsaken as a race became Blizzard’s only excuse on why the War would not end.
A single player race being continually used until BFA to justify the war continuing on ad nauseum, really gets stale really fast. THAT is why I am glad Sylvanas is gone and Calia is looking to be her replacement. We might just get some solid Forsaken HUMAN Lore (instead of angsty Hot-Topic Banshee Elf), that deals with old Lordaeron; with her departure.
