There’s this feeling of dread I get whenever I notice Erevien has liked one of my posts. It makes me reflexively go “Oh no, did I say something wrong?”
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Hahahaha. I got a like from 'em too.
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One could argue the Horde as an identity has already gone extinct, I feel. If anything, a Horde story/narrative needs to focus on establishing a new identity for the Horde. It’s roster has been more or less purged of all it’s worst/most troublesome elements. There’s no better time to build a new identity.
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Until we suddenly get new ‘worse/most troublesome elements.’
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A fair concern, but as of right now the worst the Horde has is Geya’rah and Talanji, and neither are on the same level as the likes of Garrosh or Sylvanas.
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That new path was already done in the form of the council which has been boring and doesn’t really feel like the Horde. No thanks.
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Neither are on the same level as the likes of Garrosh or Sylvanas right now. I’ll be blunt, I’m not expecting good development to come for either of the mentioned characters after Chronicles IV. I mean the fact that they actually canonized the Horde Champion as the one being responsible for Xal’atath… lmao. To think I was excited for TWW.
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I love how they pinned all the fault of the prior wars on the Warchief position because it had War in the name but then made the Horde Council for the leaders to rule the Horde collectively rather then individually… to not explore it in the slightest. Hell, Baine inducted the Vulpera by himself without any input from the other leaders.
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I don’t consider that to be a new path. That’s a stop-gap measure, a temporary state. The Horde isn’t really the Horde without it’s Warchief. I’m not saying the council cannot still exist, but right now the Horde doesn’t feel like it has a new identity, or is walking a new path.
It feels like its in a state of limbo or stasis. Nothing is happening with the Horde. It’s had its fangs pulled, but beyond that? Nothing is going on. We’ve no narratives about the cultures of its races changing due to BFA or Shadowlands (the last one in particular feels like it should have brought about a LOT of cultural changes across the planet, now that the system of the afterlife is a known thing). We’ve no stories about the Horde struggling with problems, overcoming challenges, or experiencing a renaissance, or anything of the sort.
It’s just… there. More of a word than anything else.
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Yeah it was simple. Don’t make sociopaths into Warchiefs. Give it to characters that will take care of the role. But they wanted to repeat MoP with a worse story. What’s even funnier is Rokhan takes place of the Warchief in Grommash Hold when the Alliance visits.
They should really be advisers. And actually have a role. If you are gonna change things, please let it be for a reason. Not just for appeasement of something awful writers did.
I wonder if they just had no plans for the faction other than to stir up crap. Which is wild because as I’ve said before, why even go to the trouble to make it Thrall’s Horde if it’s just gonna default back to pre-WC III era?
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It defintely feels like a few former devs were salty that people actually LOVED Thralls horde and not the WC 2 horde, so they made it their mission to destroy the horde as much as they could before leaving.
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Yeah, the Warchief position has always been fundamentally important to the Horde’s identity. The Alliance has the High King, the Horde had the Warchief. Instead of just altering it (or using good writing to avoid Horde = Bad as if it’s not a tired storyline to begin with by not picking the worst-fit candidates for the role), they just got rid of it.
They could have had the Warchief be a solely military position, the Supreme Commander of the faction’s armies like the High King is now for the Alliance with the Council as the political rulers/advisors. The Warchief couldn’t declare war unauthorized, or induct new members; that’s for a unified Horde Council to decide.
But no, they just scrapped it entirely because ruining the character(s) of Sylvanas, Saurfang (and then killing him), wasting the potential of Nathanos Blightcaller and ruining the Horde in of itself wasn’t enough.
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They should make a faction of NPC antagonists like the Dark Horde from Vanilla to resemble the WC2 Horde they love so much, rather then shoehorning it onto Thrall’s Horde. I’m a fan of the WC2 Horde as well, but I’m not playing the game to be a WC2 Horde bad guy. I’m playing the game to be a WC3 Horde good guy.
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I don’t even know it was that. It probably wasn’t thought through anymore than this will be cool. It didn’t even seem that well planned out because the payoff just wasn’t there. They kept hyping up that it wasn’t gonna be MoP. That when we saw what happened in the end we’d be excited. It was just one big disappointment. I think they are just out of touch.
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I mean, don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of the WC 2 horde as much as the next person, but it was Thralls Horde that I really fell in love with. A bunch of monster races that were actually the good guys? It was a such cool idea at the time and blizz did a great job flipping that trope on it’s head.
It’s saddens me how much they ruined the horde I love since than
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To be fair I know quite a few people who would willing do this and its part of their own personal RPG story… as bad as that may sound, I think the purpose of this is to set up the relationship between Xal and the Champion… “Maybe if we get a dialog if we still have the Eye of N’zoth or/and Are the same SP priest from Legion?”
At least IMO I think the Blizz teams might been trying to connect the players in that way. (I know its the copium talking, dont judge me!) 
I am curious though, if what Xal has instore for Jaina would include Talanji in it… even with all her self-forgiveness and closure with the Sunreavers Leader Aethas giving her that weird gift that conveniently was in a"Zen’shiri Trading Post in Orgrimmar".
I have my doubts that Blood elves who lost family or friends and Talaji who saw Jaina coming out after her father screams in defeat… have forgiven her or let it sly… From what I read of the Trolls in general you DO NOT want them as an enemy, they don’t easily forget, specially if that enemy has literal ties with the Loa of Death and its his High Voodoo Priestess, Queen of a Troll Nation! (IMO)
AHHH, I hate when Blizz leaves things all open on purpose for too long, who know how long before the tie those if they ever do… it’s so discouraging when things stay so ambiguous for this long, I like ambiguity as it leaves room for speculation or hype, but a real slippery slope to RPG in it as it can change at any point and break your immersion and characters story if you built it around does events in game. (IMO)
I guess we will have to wait and see in TWW
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Yeah, I liked the WC2 Horde because they were up in your face evil and didn’t make any bones about it; but the WC3 Horde actually had more interesting characters and plot then just “We’re evil because we’re evil. FOR THE HORDE!” such as Thrall freeing his people from human tyranny and escaping the Eastern Kingdoms to live a life of peace after he broke free from a life of abuse by his human owners and after he revived the orc’s old shamanistic culture, Sen’jin and later Vol’jin who joined Thrall’s Horde because they -weren’t- like the other trolls trying to bring back the glory of Empires past; because they adapted to the present and because Thrall saved them from extinction at the hands of Zar’jira and the humans. The nomadic and peaceful Tauren who avoided conflict as much as possible, but were extremely strong warriors if forced into war led by Cairne Bloodhoof. Rexxar who preferred to wander the wilds alone, but rose to defend the Horde because Daelin Proudmoore couldn’t let go of the past in his attempt to genocide the Horde and its member races, even the Forsaken were… well, Forsaken by their living relatives; Garithos had no intent to share Lordaeron, and the Scarlet Crusade hated anything that wasn’t A ) Human B ) also part of the Scarlet Crusade.
Then they brought MoP along. Alright, Garrosh is actually compelling; the old ideals of the Orcs in conflict with Thrall’s. Garrosh didn’t just want his people to survive, he wanted his people to thrive by any means necessary whereas Thrall wasn’t willing to go back down the path of war. New Warchief that’s not an Orc, very based, Vol’jin’s awesome.
Then in WoD and Legion, Vol’jin as the Warchief of the Horde goes to Draenor and… names us General, and then dies to name Sylvanas Warchief & because of faction parity.
Fast-forward to BFA and it’s… Horde Bad -again?- What do you MEAN the Horde needs to go down a path of soul-searching? What do you MEAN there’s question as to what it stands for, wasn’t that answered with Garrosh being deposed? The Horde gets villainbatted again, and we lose Nathanos, Sylvanas, Varok Saurfang, Rastakhan as a character was wasted to prop up someone introduced in the same expansion before also dying and all of the obvious plot beats Blizzard as a company is known for subverting is walked.
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They were half-right.
MoP was good.
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Yeah the story was much better. But I mean in the end they did turn Sylvanas into a raid boss. 
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At least they let one now former horde leader leave alive for a change. Positive change for once. I’ll take it, even if I dislike how blizz ruined her character 
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