To be completely honest, it’s a group of people who view the Light as a stand-in for Christianity and get angry on its behalf as if its an actual IRL religion. Those people need to grow up and gain media literacy, but what can you do?
8 Likes
That kinda goes against the light thought. The light literally fills you with hope, love, compassion, and the wanting to do what is right. That is the definition of good. The ones who use it without having those are outliers and not the norm.
He lost the light quick though because of it. When he was having negative thoughts, the light left him. Same with Anduin. You need to have hope, compassion, and will to use the light. You let negative thoughts cloud you and you lose said powers
I think people, well some people anyway, tend to forget that the cosmic force Light doesn’t care about mortals and their sense of morality.
As long as you BELIEVE in the light and that you’re doing the right thing, you can wield it like any other cosmic force
so… probably the opposite of what OP intends / wants but they have given me the idea that a light religious crusade allowing the player character to be the lawful evil burning heretics in the cleansing fires of the light… would be kinda fun. Have the quest text spout the talking points of how the light is inherently good and the void is inherently evil… as the quest has the player character starting the fires of the tied up citizens that didnt attend church last sunday. No one expects the spanish inquisition. The light is good so it CANT do evil things… so if i smite that accused heretic with the light… and it works… well they must have been guilty after all.
I do not feel like Blizzard have interpreted it any other way than how I portrayed it.
I rather feel like that the World of Warcraft playerbase have misconstrued it all. World of Warcraft players have looked to being like the Void Gods, Old Gods, the Naaru, the Titans, and claimed them to be the ultimate representatives of the Void, the Light, Chaos, Order, etc.
That is what I mean with people misconstruing, misinterpreting, misunderstanding.
They think that the Naaru are the light, they think that the Void Gods are the void, when that is in fact the furthest from the truth. The Light and the Void are not beings of their own, blizzard have never claimed them to be, quite the contrary in fact, since the beginning of Warcraft.
Blizzard even went so far as to portray the Naaru as just as flawed beings as mortal races, just to hammer at the idea, that it is not the Light that is good, what makes the Light or Void good or bad, depends on the people who wield it. The forces themselves have no moral alignment, the forces themselves have no opinions, they just are.
That is how it have always been portrayed, people are just being weird.
Just like Star Wars fans have been weird with the whole: “Balance in the force is equal parts dark and equal parts light” like the duck… way to completely miss the actual point, thanks for ruining Star Wars, dumb nuts.
If true, there’s also an opposing group who use the Light as a stand-in for Christianity so negative stories about it can be tied to their own antireligous power fantasies, and they get angry when those story beats are criticized. Those people need to grow up and gain literacy and accountability, but what can you do?
1 Like
I can kinda see the chip on the shoulder for people who don’t want the cosmic forces to suddenly start behaving radically different than they have before. Every interaction we’ve had with The Light has been pretty benevolent. Even the very few instances of it getting questionable are typically in the service of a greater good—Xe’ra putting the end of The Legion over Illidan’s agency, for example.
I think it is ultimately just another symptom of creative lead changing hands one too many times, being taken up by people who have wholly different ideas about where they want the setting and mythos to go. It’s reminiscent of the latest Star Wars trilogy that I mockingly refer to as a slap fight between JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson.
8 Likes
Since I’ve gone about that ad nauseum, I’ll just say if they wanted to use Xe’ra for a questionable Naaru story arc, they should’ve kept that separate from Illidan’s story, plus him killing her off so easily makes it hard to take her seriously as a threat if we see her again.
2 Likes
They had one imprisoned in Netherlight Temple (Saraka the Lighteater) and were studying it, but nothing really came of it. The entity was cleansed to revert back to it’s ‘Light’ state and it was never really explored again.
Yes a million times! I kind’ve headcanon some of my Shadow Priests this way (I have a Priest of every race - don’t ask…) I even have a Goblin Priest that consults the Void for ‘gossip’ to use as leverage and juicy tidbits for her not-so-legitimate tabloid publication. The possibilities are endless and it feels SO wasted!
Not that I don’t love a good Lovecraftian thing, I do. It’s just… MORE 
1 Like
This is where we disagree. I think it’s just part of fantasy worldbuilding to decide which things or forces have alignment and what the implications of that are. I also don’t think alignment of a force requires a “conscience” or full sentience. I have a couple of pop culture analogies that may clarify my meaning.
First, consider the One Ring from Lord of the Rings. It sentience is debatable—sometimes the book talks as if it is, and at other times not—but it doesn’t seem to have a conscience in the sense of being able to tell the difference between good and evil. Nor is it able to choose who picks it up and uses it, although it can influence that person. However, the ring in itself definitely is evil. It could theoretically be used to do good things in the short term, but the wisest characters know that would backfire in the long run and so they don’t attempt it.
For another example that’s closer to how I think the Light used to be portrayed in Warcraft, consider the Force in Star Wars. Again, there is not a clear indication that it is sentient or has a conscience; those who are able to connect with it get that ability through genetic accident. The Force itself leans toward balance and harmony, as that is what is produced when it is wielded in the proper way; but the Force itself can do nothing to prevent Dark Side users from misusing it and producing the opposite effect.
I actually think the original concept of the Light was to some degree consciously modeled on the Force, with the Scarlets as the equivalent of Sith.
What is boring about it, to me (you don’t have to agree), is that it makes every cosmic force the same. They are all capable of producing either good or bad effects, and there’s no difference about how a character engages with any of them. Just step up and use the tool. Use any cosmic force with good intentions and it will work, barring outside circimstances, of course. Use it with bad intentions and that will work too. There’s no drama in the character’s relationship with the cosmic force they’re wielding, any more than there is about a character’s relationship with a sword or a hoe. The cosmic force itself is just an implement. As you say, it then becomes about finding the pyromaniac.
That said, I wouldn’t mind the world being built this way if the cosmic forces had been clearly established as neutral from the start. It’s the shift that really annoys me.
PS: I do agree that the inevitable “Fight the Light” expansion is going to be about fighting some group who use the Light in a way that will be presented as bad. The pyromaniacs, so to speak.
1 Like
You’ve had a bad guy Light faction since day one of WoW - in the Scarlet Crusade. Blizzard also has used the Prophet Velen as an obvious reference to Babylon 5… in which light was considered more akin to Order rather than good… and Order in of itself is not necessarily good.
There is Alternate Draenor - where the Maghar come from shows fanatical Draenei wiping out the orcs. The Arathi in this xpac have a Warhammer 40k flavor to them.
Point is - this has been a thing through out WoW… and can be a compelling story when told competently - the thing is… WoW’s story is not always top tier story telling.
1 Like
I don’t see that. The cosmic forces are more embodiments of Moral as a whole, ((mainly speaking Light and Void)) Since the two offer nothing different of what they are. The Light is ‘Order’ and ‘Life’. And the Void is ‘Death’ and ‘Disorder’. Both being Primes of their forces. Those are not elements, those are Morals to hold, Philosophy that becomes embodied to power fundamentally in the game. One Truth vs Many Truths, if I’m not mistaken.
All Warcraft has done is to take the Halo off of the Light.
The Light is a force of Order, just as the Void a force of Chaos.
The evil or good comes from what use other beings make of them. That’s why the Scarlet Crusade can use the Light for Evil and not suffer one bit of hindrance in doing so.
But Naaru are not unto the light as void gods are unto void.
Naaru are just an elevated race. They are not created by the light, just changed by it.
Void gods are the ultimate representation of void.
Side note, I dont think Blizzard per say actually has an anti religious bias. Exhibit A:
Blizzard certainly has shown in their games that religion can be abused and twisted. Having said that people who genuinely use their faith to focus on helping others has been treated by the story as being “good”, see A Prophet’s Lesson on how service and humility(important tenets in the Catholic faith) are given importants. Or how love is probably one of the strongest things on earth(see Varian’s short story and Anduin mentioning this)
It’s not hard to see why people might consider it a stand in: https://warcraft.wiki.gg/wiki/Church_(Warcraft_II)
1 Like
And it’s not unfair they’d be considered villainous sometimes. About half of Central and South American history is;
Terms like Inquisitor have scary connotations for a reason.
9 Likes
Psh, only to the Heathens!
(that is a joke before someone thinks I am being serious)
I mean there’s multiple reasons they go with the Catholic aesthetic for the Holy Empires in fantasy and scifi in 40ks case.
Chief amongst them being there’s ya know. An aesthetic. Nobody looks at Joel Olsten’s megachurch and wonders what it might look like as a war machine. For much the same reason nobody looks at a Costco for artistic inspiration.
2 Likes
Maybe not Costco but IKEA, yes.