I genuinely want to quest with Thaly on my night elf that I did the Suramar campaign on originally.
Even if not a single line acknowledges the plethora of elephants in the room, the level of sheer awkwardness would power me for a decade.
4 Likes
The Horde and Alliance leadership circa BfA was interesting because Sylvanas was a sinister figure surrounded by peaceniks and Anduin was an avatar of purity surrounded by war hawks. Had they scrapped the godawful Sylvanas/Saurfang plot and honed in on some Alliance drama instead, BfA mightāve been a counterpoint to MoP instead of a bitter repeat.
5 Likes
I really wish BfA had been about Anduin trying to live up to a larger than life image of his father as a great warrior king that leads him to increasingly irrational choices as he begins to slip down a bad path. Eventually, there is an internal rebellion and he finally comes to terms he isnāt actually king material to begin with and steps down to preserve the Alliance.
8 Likes
No no, that actually sounds like it could be an interesting story.
9 Likes
BFA, not that Iām saying anything new, had about 3 good expansions in it.
A lot of things were kneecapping it out of the gate, but the war plot probably would have been more fun had it been given some space to breath and some actual development instead of āHey kids hereās an atrocity okay off we go to the next thing donāt worry about repercussions look at the next warcrimeā.
15 Likes
Which is REALLY ODD, given they had just gotten done admitting Argus could of been its own expansion and they swore they would be careful of making the same mistake again.
2 Likes
Huhā¦
Thatā¦ actually works as speculation as to why Horde characters arenāt taking bigger roles in all these neutral stories. Horde players are sick enough of Alliance characters giving them the side-eye as if expecting them to start kicking puppies and choking orphans. I cannot imagine the backlash if characters like Thalyssra, Lorāthemar, etcā¦ apologized to Alliance players for the atrocities of the Hordeā¦
My intent was not to downplay the line itself, but to point out that it only crops up once, at the very start of the encounter. Zerde described it as āthe trollsā making this comment, which makes it sound like the entire camp is constantly insulting the Alliance PC during the encounter.
I like the idea of Anduin making bad choices, but he doesnāt have to step down entirely. He could just recognize that military strategy isnāt his strong suit and nominate a Supreme Military Commander (who would be ratified by the rest of the Alliance) to handle that part of the job.
4 Likes
I dunno. I like the idea of people accepting responsibility by stepping down. At the very least I would of liked to see him formally abolish the notion of the High King and made the alliance the assembly of equals it was supposed to be instead of stormwind and friends.
2 Likes
My favorite remains my Undead Warlock with Shandris in SL
āIāll never work with you, vile Horde Scum!ā
Two Seconds Later
āIāll follow you into the literal gates of Hell!ā"
6 Likes
Thatād probably go over better than if the characters said nothing at all. Or worse - looked down at and mistrusted the alliance player.
I guess I feel like that should only happen if his reign is a total disaster in every respect, and I didnāt get the impression you wanted him to be that bad. Besides, he should be young enough still to learn from his mistakes.
If heās competent at areas of ruling that donāt involve military strategy, then delegating that part of the job is the obvious solution. And it still has the effect of diluting the whole High King thing, which seems to be the main goal that a lot of Alliance partisans want to see.
On the other hand, if heās a total trainwreck of a king in every possible way ā¦ then Iād like to see him stick around just to drive the story in interesting directions with bad decisions, instead of putting someone actually competent in charge! And I sincerely do not mean by this that I want Alliance players to sufferājust, perhaps, for the PC to have the agency to clean up some of the messes this would cause. Maybe he could gradually get better, as they originally planned to happen with Garrosh.
I dunno, it depends on what they apologize for and how they say it. I can think of some pretty nauseating apologies.
5 Likes
Aethas bought an apology gift for the ethnic purger of his people.
4 Likes
It is that bad, yeah.
Does anyone know if Turalyon still combos horde post-leveling with the Yet Another Horde Savage line, or did they sensibly patch that out.
6 Likes
Doesnāt help that the āgoodā Horde characters, if the writers want to keep using them, have to insulate themselves from the one fiery atrocity that warrants contrition.
6 Likes
the WoT is really sort of a narrative black hole that they have to avoid at all costs or it will suck in all story time because it was just that screwed up.
I think they have to focus on the Horde in a way that while not ignoring it happened goes āthis happened and it was bad, but this is not what we are talking about right nowā.
ā¦also, they just need to introduce more new people into the A-team roster who had nothing to do with what went down then.
2 Likes
I still feel like if they wanted to fix the black hole, they could have easily added context to having Baine/Lortheron/etc being blindsided by the WoT and trying to reach out to their Alliance-side contacts to see what could be done to stem the war if they helped bag Sylvanas and bring her to justice. Basically have Baine reach out and get shot down rather than just breaking up with Anduin via letter and horn piece.
Nominally, this was already basically what they were already said to have been doing already outside of being willing to hand over Sylvanas. Its bizarre that they specifically went out and made the WoT a secret between Sylvanas/Saurfang that no current living leader had any input onā¦ then tarred them with the brush over the fallout of Teldrassil anyway.
But given the time to fix this was years ago, yeah, lets just move on
2 Likes
I feel like they should of been more direct with showing that Baine and company were wary of directly outright rebelling against her because of her mastery over developing a cult of personalityāThat she was more popular and people were buying into her propaganda. Then they could of shown them basically biding their time and undermining her in small ways they thought they could get away with.
4 Likes
Very well adjusted comment made by a normal person
2 Likes