Yup, back already because when re-reading my post I realized I’d forgotten to continue this trend. And I’m still in that mental place and really just don’t care if this is petty, I’m gonna finish what I started.
Another aspect of this is the story prominence both factions have held since Cataclysm. NGL, Horde came out of this looking pretty good. 2012 was the last good year for us. Sure, Thrall abandoned us when he got all broken up and elemental-y, married Aggro, lasered Deathwing in the face and made a babbo or two, but he’s still Horde-adjacent. We’ll take that win where we can get it.
MoP: We’re bad, until we leave the Horde, then we get to stand side by side with the real heroes in the Alliance. But no single character dominated the narrative here, so we’ll call it even.
WoD: Khadgar’s our ridealong character. Khadgar is a human mage. Khadgar has a long and stories history with the Alliance. He’s Alliance-Adjacent. The ridealong character in the expansion that shows the orcs they are just prone to evil by nature is an Alliance-adjacent one.
Legion: Don’t even get me started. Khadgar, Illidan, Velen, Alleria, Turalyon, Tyrande, Malfurion, it’s like an Alliance party that my Horde character and Liandrin were invited to (Liandrin left early to change her tabard or something). Order Halls? Nearly all of them are more closely tied to Alliance fantasy and Alliance themes, with Alliance characters. I almost forgot what faction I was playing given how much Alliance was around me.
BfA: See MoP, except we have some Horde ridealong character! We have Saurfang who’s mad at us, Baine who’s sad at us, Sylvanas who leaves us… FUN!!! THANKS I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!
SL: I have seen more Jaina, Tyrande and Anduin this expansion than any time leveling an Alliance character. Sylvanas does come back for a bit in this final patch, but she’s already left us after betraying us and after trying to kill us. Pretty sure she doesn’t count. Baine took a seat and forgot to stand up. Thrall met mom. That’s my Horde content.
As a Horde main, I am so overburdened with Alliance characters leading me on my quests that I may as well play Alliance. Because when the Horde characters show up, it’s about a 33% chance they’re also trying to kill me (or I end up trying to kill them), another 33% chance they do literally nothing, or a 33% chance they have a bit role to play that gets overshadowed by what the Alliance characters have me doing with them.
Lke… I get it. I really do. Y’all are so predisopsed to assuming Horde = Evil that you can’t imagine we picked this faction at a time when that wasn’t the case. Because it was so long in the motherflocking past that it might as well have never flocking existed!!
Stop that right now, Micah.
Being a leader-by-title-only who still survives and manages to have neither turned evil nor died is still an impressive feat for the Horde and you know it.
You got this, Zarrin.