Khadgar does exist.
The real issue is, they killed off Kael’thas. He was easily Jaina’s equal and could’ve stayed on par with her in terms of power-ups.
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Of course not, but its like … “Every Warchief in All the Hordes EVER have been horrific leaders who have nearly led their entire people’s to destruction; with the exception of Thrall. We need more of that!” Screw it, I’m done pretending player nostalgia is a supplement for actual lore.
I also have long since grown sick and tired of pretending the only thing that can define the Horde is being contrary to the Alliance. I hate the Faction conflict more than just about anything in this game. Its never been good, and the only people who think it is are those conflating their experiences with a game mechanic for actual storytelling. That plot-thread has done nothing but rip the red faction into pieces over the years … so screw it. If we need to be “Red Alliance” (in that we’re prosperous, stable, and unified) … screw it lets be Red Alliance for a while.
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True enough on both counts. I also delusionally think Rommath could be a good practical and thematic rival for her (fire against frost, phoenixes against elementals, all that good stuff), but lord knows that will never happen.
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A criminally under-used character, but given the writing over the years, maybe it’s better that way; he’s been safe. There was voice files datamined for him being a member of the Twilight Cult in Cataclysm, but thankfully nothing ever came of that.
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To me, the problem is that the logic’s already far broken by having the horde remain in the first place. The game heaping the problems on the position is ultimately no different than when everything got shoved off onto Garrosh the first time around. I think Droite’s only half-right by saying the warchief position has a horrific track record - it’s the entire faction that has this problem now.
I doubt the position’s going to ever come back in a sensible way, but it still seems incredibly raw for the game to tell a story of “oh THIS fantasy system of government is bad” and completely glosses over the theocratic and monarchic dictatorships just because that’s not the story they wanted to tell.
Edit: Actually that’s not fair. Blizzard apparently almost went the extra mile of doing it to the Darkspear’s religion too, and the only reason why Bwonsamdi wasn’t thrown under the bus was because the writers were charmed by the voice actor.
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Sad thing is that Umbric on the alliance side has seen more action that Rommanth has.
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Well, Umbric is not the Grand Magister of Quel’Thalas with a responsibility to the land and Sunwell, so I do think he has greater freedom of movement than Rommath. That said, I also don’t like how under-used Rommath is, but barely tolerate it because they can’t ruin him if they don’t use him, and he was almost turned into a raid/dungeon boss once already.
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The issue with this is just because blizzard hasn’t done a good job of writing a coherent war narrative. They haven’t built the Horde up to the point where they could be viewed as a viable threat to the alliance.
This is a lot of the issue with bfa, blizzard have ignored numbers and development and just jumped back into another war story without explaining how the horde got into a position where they could possible threaten the Alliance.
Yes, we need a break from the war narrative but your fooling yourself if you think faction conflict is going away for good. Your also fooling yourself if you think that being a council is going to save the horde from the villain bat. As i pointed out its simply a way for the rest to pretend to ignore the crimes of one or two of its members.
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The opposite is sadly true as well. I don’t think anyone in the Horde took the Alliance as a serious threat because Anduin was at the helm after Varian died. Sylvanas had to make a 500 IQ play to make Saurfang believe Anduin couldn’t control the warhawks.
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Given them a magical chain hook and an enchanted shield that blocks some magic.
Sure, for Lor’themar. Replace Baine with Jevan Grimtotem. Let the Tauren be led by a council of Chieftains. Hamuul, Jevan, etc… I just feel like Jevan would be a much more interesting character being a Grimtotem who remained loyal to the Horde, rather than siding with Magatha.
I also do love the mental image of him hurling lightning at people like some kind of mix of Zeus/Thor.
indeed, the leaps in logic the story had to make to put Anduin in charge of the Alliance was stupid. its just Golden putting her favorite little boy in charge of the faction for no apparent reason.
Blizzard have gone on record claiming its a military position but then put an inexperienced brat in charge who has never fought in a war or battle. Nope its a monarchy position so its handed down to him from his father.
Its a real issue when writers play favorites with characters and factions and just ignore the story.
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I don’t believe the writers get to make decisions like that. Looking back on everything, I think it was fairly clear Anduin was always being groomed to become the leader of the Alliance. The problem is, he needed a LOT more grooming. Still does. Here’s hoping his experiences in the Maw will give him the necessary development.
Really I can’t see him getting developed in a way that we will like. Golden has stated that she see Anduin as a role model for her son so she is never going to let him be portrayed as anything negative(nor any of his “friends”). Likely they will have him double down on his pacifism and overly emotional leadership.
They might prove me wrong but I’ve been waiting for some postive development since MOP. Yet the character has been going downhill ever since.
Well, speaking for myself I’d like a leader who shows more, or at least as much concern about his own people and allies, than he does his enemies. I like that Anduin has concern for his foes; it is an enlightened perspective and it makes him a bit unique, but I don’t like that it comes at the expense of his allies.
Unfortunately for her, if Ion or whoever say, “Anduin’s the next raid boss, void him up,” then she either writes it, or walks.
We are talking about the Author who fought for Calia to be included in the story and won. Horde players have sure liked that character haven’t they?
If they can get him to a happy Medium between where Varian was and where Anduin is now I would be happy. Yet as you pointed out he has gone in the oppisite direction and spends more time making excuses for the horde that actually looking to bring them to justice. Its not a good look for the leader of the faction.
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To be fair, players had been wanting Calia involved in the story for years and years. Unfortunately, like so many things with the story, that wish became a Monkey’s Paw. No one wanted Calia to be some Lightforged Undead.
Why should they? She’s been shown to be extremely Alliance leaning since her introduction. The Horde wants development for the Horde, not from the Alliance. I think that’s a fair stance to take.
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my point was that she has one way of writing and that is to write alliance leaning characters who are all about peace, love and pacifism. Also that she is willing to push blizzard to incorporate these characters into the story on both sides even though they wanted her to use different characters.
So the chances of them forcing her to write Anduin as a Void driven loot pinata isn’t likely to happen nor is he going to grow a backbone. They are more likely to fold and let her write the characters the way she wants even though it doesn’t fit the setting.
Take Jaina for example, The writers of the game played tug of war with Golden on the direction of that character. The Game writers obvisouly wanted her to go down the path of vengeance against the Horde where as Golden wrote her every time as forgiving the Horde in her Novels. Eventually Golden won out and jaina completely whipped back into full pacifism mode by the end of BFA because she was now writing for the game.
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And mop/wod/legion. I think about it all the time how she changed so much with one vial of poison. No big cosmological powers necessary.
Yes it absolutely can because Warchief is not synonymous with “incorrect evil ruler.” Blizzard can decide to write a Warchief who is not evil and leads correctly. They did it with Thrall. They did it with Vol’jin.
Council is not synonymous with “good and just infallible, incorruptible ruler.” A council can be corrupted. A council will be corrupted the very moment Blizzard needs the Horde to be a villain again.
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