The problem with stuff like that is that the Iron Horde fit the role of “thoroughly, unambiguously evil raiders and pillagers” more perfectly than the normal Horde ever has, and I say that as someone who thinks that the normal Horde is already there. They were the nasty, faceless evil minions that no one in fantasy ever worries about.
The factions are way more ambiguous than that, which isn’t helped by the fact that they seem to go out of their way to underline that the Alliance is just a bunch of people desperately trying to defend their homes.
I still want to know at what point Blizzard decided to turn the Alliance into the “found family” underdog faction of outcasts and refugees fighting to survive in a world that wants to see them destroyed.
“By denying Sylvanas the lumber she so desperately needs, it’s completely justified for the Lawful Goodbound to go rampaging through Stormwind farmland indiscriminately killing farmers.”
BfA’s story would be amazing only in the context of a college drama, because chances are a lot of this would spawn from Anduin and Sylvanas being in love with the same person.
Good thing the Geneva Convention isn’t relevant to a fantasy world where Geneva doesn’t exist. Considering it doesn’t take into account magical healing that can put a troop right back into battle and, thus, an injured troop is still a threat, I don’t think it applies at all here.
Also pretty sure the existence of a Geneva convention in Azeroth would have quite a few things to say about using Ice/Frost/Fel magic on your enemies, laying curses or diseased on them, and employing half mortal/half demon or undead slave-soldiers in aggression.
The problem with “there’s no Geneva Convention in Azeroth” is twofold:
Azeroth is still written by Americans in 2019 for a (primarially) western audience whose morality and worldview are definetely informed by stuff like the Geneva Convention;
Azeroth has to have some notion of bad behavior in warfare; otherwise, they wouldn’t have put Garrosh on trial, and we wouldn’t have literally gotten a book called War Crimes.
I agree. But it’s also a fictional fantasy universe where what constitutes bad/good isn’t necessarily rooted in our own law and morality.
And I’m not saying that as some kind of moral equivalency thing or whatever. Just that if you look at most fictional fantasy works, “good” and “evil” matter less than “hero” and “villain”. Sylvanas is most definitely the villain here, but not because of the Geneva convention or war crimes.
Like the kind where we can acknowledge a character can do some terrible stuff but also get away with it.
Like how we all know Thanos is clearly a villain- and considered relatively sympathetic, despite doing way more terrible/illegal stuff than someone like Obadiah Stane- who nobody ever seems to suggest “had a good point” even ironically.
Or someone like Gammora is considered a sympathetic hero (or anti-hero) despite being his right hand woman up until fairly recently.
And let’s not even get into Loki.
Looking at (and judging) WoW from the perspective of real life ethics does indeed paint a different picture than if you look at it from the kinds of over the top melodramatic comic and fantasy works it’s more similar to in style and scope.
And Garrosh went on trial so that he could escape and appear again as an antagonist. The same reason why Loki was taken back to Asgard, despite killing tons of people. If only Killmonger or Aldrich Killian (the Mandarin) had that luxury.
It’s a curious subject because you’re technically correct, but in execution, we’ve seen that most of the characters seem to possess the same sensibilities we do.
As an example, we know that the Orcs were raised in a world where slavery, death and other cruel fates were mostly shrugged off as part of life because, on Draenor, the strong rule the weak. Hence, it would logically follow that the Orcs probably would have accepted their fate to being interned by the Humans. But they hold a grudge over that because the practice is Not Good.
(This is a broad generalization as one example, so don’t fret too much over it.)
It feels a little like the Horde and Alliance have modern sensibilities when they need to be outraged and don’t when they need to excuse something.
Irrelevant. It’s not set in the real world in 2019.
Of course, but the existence of magic and magical healing change the standards considerably. Once again, magical healing means that a wounded enemy troop is still a threat. No one’s saying there are no standards of “bad behavior” in war on Azeroth. Just that those standards aren’t going to mirror the real world exactly. Otherwise, even looting the dead would be a war crime…
I think they hold a grudge over it more because they don’t want it to happen to them again.
The game treats it with about as much depth and seriousness as one would assume from any melodramatic highly fantastical work. Which is to say that it was mostly for dramatic effect and they weren’t intending their audience to view it and by extension the Alliance and everyone who played the campaign as CSA supporters/sympathizers.
The Horde and Alliance have the general sensibilities of your average over the top fantasy comic/movie/show/game. These can indeed change over time to reflect the attitudes of their audience, but they aren’t intended to make you question real world moral/legal arguments.
No matter the universe, war tactics remain the same. Killing a wounded Horde means one less Horde soldier to recover and attack the Alliance again. Assuming Sylvanas doesn’t raise them from the dead. Depending on the victorious commander, sometimes the enemy wounded were executed, left to die, or revived and used as slaves.
Azeroth is a place where this is no UN, no Geneva Convention, and no fairness in war. It’s just one side versus the other, largely, and the victor of a conflict decides what to do with the defeated that’s left.
Though, keeping them alive and a prisoner might be the better option.
Possibility for conversion, possibility for intelligence on enemy positions, and Sylvanas doesn’t get to raise us as an undead that you gotta kill again.
![:smirk:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/smirk.png?v=6" ":smirk:")
but the gee knee va conversation doesn’t exist in wow