Yes I recall. But what, the guy comes back to life and suddenly his crimes evaporate? From now on, because he is a weapon against the Legion, is he forgiven? At NO point did we address his crimes. Velen at the end still says “Light be with you” as if Illidan hadn’t torn apart Velen’s people, tortured, enslaved.
If you want to make excuses for Illidan, Xe’ra also fought against the Legion for ages. It is worth remembering that what remains of the Army of Light is from a war fought for thousands and thousands of years.
Illidan and Xe’ra are cut from the same cloth. They are the same: The ends justify the means. For Illidan and Xe’ra, it doesn’t matter how many people need to die, be enslaved, or anything else to achieve the goal.
The only difference is that we didn’t see Xe’ra being hypocritical on screen, whereas we saw Illidan. He can do whatever he wants, enslave as many as necessary. But if someone tries that on him, suddenly he’s a defender of freedom? No. Illidan is the same, same type of manipulative, slave-owning, cruel villain. And putting him as a “hero” was one of Blizzard’s worst mistakes.
I never said that he was a “hero” or good, or kind, or whatever. What I said that X’era was wrong no matter who she tried to do it to. Illidan’s many many sins do not redeem her methods.
No one is making “excuses” for him. Illidan doesn’t get any thanks, no handshakes, no acknowledgement of his victories. He gets sympathy from Valen, because Valen has sympathy for everyone… even the two brothers who turned against him. In the end, he doesn’t get acknowledgement from Malfurion or Tyrande. He’s not being punished, because he’s chosen his own eternal jail cell… in eternal battle with Sargeras.
While Alleria is a hero, the fact that she constantly has to battle voices in her head and nearly borked the Sunwell just by being near it shows Xe’ra had a valid point.
It’s funny when I see stuff like this because Horde people see it as bad, and think that Blizzard favors the Alliance when that isn’t it at all.
Blizzard definitely favors Horde for story, the problem with that is Blizzard’s idea of cool is giving Horde story focus where they do “badass” or “metal” things, whereas we the players just see it as bad.
So for the Alliance it sucks that we lose more land, or get our teeth kicked in, and then are made to look stupid and forgiving of the Horde afterwards. Meanwhile, Horde players are unhappy because Blizzard likes to scapegoat said bad things onto one person so that the rest of the Horde doesn’t look bad, and instead it just makes them look equally as stupid as the Alliance while also losing a leader.
P.S We don’t know how well, how or why the Army of the Light started to lose ground in the war. Since they’re still around after TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND YEARS, the Army of the Light did better than anyone else against the Burning Legion. Plus, we know the Void is a threat at least as bad as the Burning Legion, so I think Xe’ra had valid reason to be wary of their “help” against it.
In my mind this is just another way of looking at the Horde being antagonists. The “bad *ss” has been associated with them being the villians. And villains doing some splashy evil which the plucky heroes overcome is a standard Blizzard plot.
Now I don’t believe the Blizzard, as a matter of policy, discriminates against any faction. They want to sell subs to the whole world after all. So why has the Horde been ignored outside of faction conflicts?
But yes, this doesn’t work with a playable factions. After the villain moment, the Alliance players then expect to defeat the villain complete. Not just the individual but also his faction. But you can’t do that to a playable faction.
But if Blizzard doesn’t hate either faction, why do things go as the do? I see two factors. One is that when they think about the story going forward, they think about the Alliance story. When they wrote Legion, they thought about how the Legion had affected the Alliance.
The other is that they have to be fairly blind to the POV of Horde players. When they decided to “do Garrosh right” in BfA, they thought that they would show everyone how good it could be. They were unable, or unwilling, to see that it was a story Horde players wanted no part of.
[Note sure how you got “badss" past the filter without the "”. It sure won’t let me use it.]
To each his own I guess, I do definitely see blizzard favoring alliance. Horde looses characters we do not get heroic or honorable moments in game. Our victories come from super weapon or under handed tactics, versus alliance come from sheer power of 1 or 2 characters.
Horde does not get nearly get as much quest time, development or zones compared to the alliance. Horde has less characters, when they do stand next to their alliance counter parts they do nothing and are powerless. Heck even levels show this where Jaina and alliance gang are boss level and horde character are max level.
Again I do not see horde favoritism at all, it can’t be any more alliance favoritism.
I see your point, and agree on those concerns because they are valid. Those are things that need to change for the Horde. For example, why were there no Orcs or Nightborne, or any of the races that were screwed by the Legion on Argus? That is baffling!
But, one could also argue this. You say all that makes it seem like Alliance favoritism, but then look at BfA. That was entirely a Horde expansion. The whole premise was Sylvanas and the Horde attack the Alliance, and the latter is just trying to stop their/her plans. The Horde got like 4 CGI cinematics about Saurfang. Alliance got none. (Anduin doesn’t count cause he was a set piece to Saurfang’s story, much like the Alliance was to the Horde that expansion.) Now, was the Horde story bad? Absolutely, but it was still a HORDE story, and that was my original point. Blizzard sees it as good, when we the players do not.
Much love you agree on those things good to see people agreeing on things regardless of the faction.
BFA being a horde story I didn’t personally see it that way outside of the CGI. It might be because I played horde and was expecting to see a horde story. But dear lord I would have loved if horde got an heroic moment where one of our characters were owning like Jaina or Tryanda. I think the story would have been a lot better if alliance and horde switched roles. where the anlliance were the aggressors and burned down say thunder buff or under city or something.