No, but I’d rewrite the following story to have the Burning of Teldrassil be on everyone’s minds as the primary source of the conflict. I wouldn’t do what Blizzard is trying to do----pretend that Teldrassil didn’t happen.
The fall of the Kaldorei is akin to the fall of the northern human Kingdoms on the EK back in WC3, a terrible tragedy that looms over and influences the surviving factions going forward. I would use it to fracture the Night Elven populace and see more cracks in their unity.
If I WANTED to stir the pot, I’d have the attack on Ashenvale happen and word get out.
I’d have Anduin realize he can’t get the Alliance military there in time to help, and have him try to draw the Horde forces off with the one tactic that might work – taking Undercity hostage. (I’d also have all that be Moira’s suggestion.) I’d have the Alliance attack Undercity while the Horde is struggling through Ashenvale and trapped at the wisp wall.
I’d have Falstad and the Wildhammer breach the walls with bombs, I’d have the Lightforged and the draenei dispell the plague with a WHOLE LOT O’ LIGHT, and I’d have Nathanos be the one who blows up Undercity. As much as I like him, I wouldn’t have him live through it. And I’d have Alleria be the one to portal the Alliance leaders out of the obvious trap.
I’d have JAINA show up at Teldrassil and help evacuate with portals, and otherwise, have it play out pretty much the same. But Sylvanas has a reason to be so furious that she’s lost her city and her pre-emptive strike for nothing when Saurfang doesn’t kill Malfurion (still a stupid plan, since that really doesn’t seem like enough to put the night elves out). And Jaina could get some closure actually evacuating people during the strike. Though someone would have to push her through the portal at the end there.
That would have given the Alliance time and warning. The only reason she was able to pull it off was the diversion of Alliance forces including the entire Night Elf navy, to Silithus.
Yes.
I almost don’t even want to participate in the thought exercise of what I’d write in it’s place, because there are already some good suggestions put forward, and it’s kinda depressing that a bunch of unpaid amateurs are writing better scenarios than what we actually got… But yes, I would retcon it.
I would definitely retcon it, or at least rewrite it. As so many people have said, the current story of the Burning has made deescalation of the war nearly impossible - at least without angering a chunk of the playerbase.
I had one rewrite idea rattling around from when everyone was speculating on how to start the war while letting both sides feel justified:
First, have Lordaeron come first. As I would write it, it would start with the Alliance hearing that the Horde has started building a port in Gilneas to more easily receive Azerite shipments from Silithus.
Genn immediately launches a reclamation effort, with support (including specific named characters) from most other Alliance factions, despite Anduin’s quiet disapproval - and the attack goes surprisingly well, since the Horde has most of its forces in Orgrimmar preparing to counter the night elf fleet moving to Silithus.
During the attack, the player finds notes on a Forsaken apothecary and goblin engineer showing the plans for a nearly-completed Azerite war machine. Genn is convinced that the Horde will use this to attack the Alliance as soon as it is finished (Jaina can have flashbacks to the mana bomb), and they attack Undercity to destroy it and prevent the Horde from using Azerite.
Cue the Battle for Lordaeron, with the Horde being the barely-prepared defenders while the Alliance shouts that the Horde are too evil/stupid/monstrous be trusted with this new superweapon, and must therefore turn over all samples to the Alliance for safekeeping.
Afterwards, however, the Horde player learns that the Azerite machine in Lordaeron was a prototype, and a finished model had just been shipped to Orgrimmar to join the Silithus attack. Sylvanas decides to divert this army and destroy the Alliance’s Azerite port both as retaliation and to keep the Azerite stockpiles from tilting in the Alliance’s favor.
I would change the War of Thorns to be a much more one-sided war, with the night elves using guerilla tactics to slow the march rather than trying to face the Horde war machine head-on. More spooky ambusher/woodland ghost thematics for the night elves, and more unstoppable charge moments for the Horde - when they manage to pin their opponents down, that is.
That frustration of not getting a fight would lead in to Sylvanas’ decision to burn the tree: She needs to destroy the harbor, but she doesn’t expect the whole tree to go up like a tinderbox (it’s a living tree in the ocean!) and just wants to give the defenders the right motivation to finally leave the cover of the forest and fight the Horde army head-on.
Then some unexpected shenanigans happen between using the Azerite war machine (which has a nice magical range upgrade over normal siege weapons), the Azerite stockpiled in Ru’theran, and/or the (explosive and flammable) Azerite sucked up by Teldrassil’s roots - and kaboom! The whole tree’s on fire. No backing down from total war after that. (or at least until Azshara appears.)
There’s a lot of details and tweaks that could be added, but I think that would have been a much better way to motivate both factions for the war without making the Horde irredeemably evil.
It’s clear to me that the ‘goal’ was to separate Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms into (almost) purely separate faction areas, like Zandalar / Kul’Tiras. Azuremyst Isle and Ghostlands aren’t technically connected (flightpath maps aren’t connected, you must ‘teleport’ by boat or portal to get to/from them).
I think they might have been setting up some long term planning to have original continent WQ’s like BFA’s “Honorbound” and “7th Legion”, where you go into enemy territory and complete objectives.
It would explain why they ripped out so many legacy portals, because easy access to dalaran crater, karazhan, blasted lands, caverns of time could be unacceptably more convenient than the various limited beachheads.
If that was their intent, then I’m betting the whole project turned out to be too ambitious especially considering how tired everyone is of WQ’s being passed off as ‘current content’, so they’ve probably dropped the project.
Even when I dabbled over on the Alliance side, I had no fondness for Night Elves or their starting area/city. So I can’t say that I miss it. I much preferred Iron Forge and it’s mirror-counterpart UC.
So no, I’m fine with Teldrassil staying burned.
I half suspect that once Sargeras’ sword is dealt with, Silithus will become the site of a -new- World Tree.
The better question is, who WOULDN’T retcon this crap?
-It ruined Horde
-It ruined Sylvanas
-It hurts Night elves
-It removed a great zone
-And the interns writing BfA are incapable of treating it with the sensitivity and care that a massive event like that deserves
In a heartbeat. I’d retcon the entire War of Thorns. Nothing else has even come close to making me feel as queasy and gross and ashamed of being Horde. If this expansion HAD to have faction conflict, it should have stemmed from Silithus and the cold-to-hot war over controlling Azerite, and spilled into Zandalar/Kul Tiras from there. If Sylvanas needed to plot and scheme, have it be in secret like it always has been - nothing about her decision to torch Teldrassil seems necessary to set up all her Old God-Xalatath-whatever scheming. What was even the point of forcing the Horde to commit an unspeakable evil, and for a major player race to suffer an unspeakable loss, if the entire narrative going forward is basically going to ignore it anyway? Such horrible, lore-breaking, character-destroying over-the-top evil, and for what?
Immediately.
Yes I’d opt to retcon the burning.
As much as I would prefer to have the Alliance attack Lordaeron first, that means you’d have to include retconning Before the Storm otherwise it also wouldnt make any sense with Perfect Angel Boy of Peace Anduin incharge.
In any case, I’d be OK with BTS being retconned as well.
Blizzard escalated it way too much.
The alliance didn’t need more reasons to attack the horde.
Hell i was actually hyped when i saw that anduin was attacking lordaeron
that would have go in line with his previous quest about becoming “a king”
and him, being persuaded by his advisors decided to put his big boi pants.
“hey, the horde is preparing weapons of mass destruction with azerite! ATTACK NOW”
-we would also have a plan for the blight and there is no need to have deus ex flying dutchman to save the day if we were prepared for it.
instead… we got… this…
At least make tyrande a protagonist FFS just like jaina was in mop after theramore in mop.
Yes, i would retcon it. all of it.
but that would not erase all the negative emotions that we all feel during all of this mess.
yes.
Malfurion would be dead and the tree would be captured.
Zanjin inspires a retcon I hadn’t thought about: Yes, Malfurion kills Sylvanas and the Horde retreats in disarray.
I sure would. Assuming the outcome has to remain the same, have Sylvanas actually succeed in her plan. Malfurion dies but Tyrande performs the Night Warrior ritual anyway out of rage at the loss of her husband and succeeds in driving back the Horde forces with the Alliance champion and her remaining forces + whatever reinforcements eventually show up. Instead of having a bargaining chip, Sylvanas only succeeded in martyring Malfurion and giving the Night Elves more reason to destroy the Horde entirely.
No. but I would retcon the way some horde characters reacted to it. It should have been universally supported by the horde for what bfa’s story was sold as.
I’m also pretty convinced that Sylvannas’ war crime, like the abysmal time suck that is the Horde’s city layout in zandalar… Are both just Blizzard’s way of trying to shift players from the overpopulated horde side to the alliance.
Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES
Long long answer: I’d honestly retcon all of the War of Thorns, the entirety of the pre-patch stuff should have been dealing with attacks from insane elementals due to the Wound, and Azerite concentrations all over the world wreaking havoc on the wildlife and nature itself. We could have had a bit of a faction conflict this expansion but honestly there are far more interesting fish to fry, like the fact that the Shadowlands are apparently divided up by various gods of death who trade in the souls of the fallen. Make them Sylvanas’ focus.
God I hate that place on my only Horde character. I hearth into the Inn, go to the bank, oh I want to go to my mission table? Time for a pointless flight down to the docks. I want to do a profession quest? Back up to the temple where I have to leap off the side or walk down a million steps. Capital city utilities should not be far enough apart to be separated by a flight path.
For sure, no question.
the only people who liked the burning of teldrassil are the fashy horde bros who think the horde is the triumph of the will faction and/or bizarre masochist alliance people.
anybody who thought blizzard was capable of telling such a tale that involved the burning of teldrassil in a way that was good and well resolved is delusional.
so naturally the majority of answers to “would you rewrite or erase the burning of teldrassil?” are all gonna probably be “yes, dawg, of course”