Lack of Human & Alliance Villains

I know that’s a bit of a point of contention here but far as I can tell - there really aren’t too many. There was one bad advisor who turned out to be a dragon, Varian was a bit of a prick in Wrath (albeit for decent reasons), Jania was almost genocidal but got talked out of it. I guess that thicc Kul Tiran noble more recently but uh, well peep spoliers on the Adventurer’s Guide for that one.

And I’m not trying to Red Team winge here. I mean yeah a bit of a pisser they seem to have forgot the main draw of the series post WC3 was humanizing the traditionally monstrous races. I mean hey if you want to be a pretty Paladin slaying the monstrous ugos well, gestures vaguely at most other fantasy settings.

But I digress. I’ve actually encountered a lot of Blue Team villains via user created content in RP servers. And ones a lot more interesting than “Make Azeroth Great Again” Garithos types. Grizzled Stromgardi warriors to set in their ways to see peace as an option, deranged Gnome warlocks who realize no one with authority on them will question an Orc village lost to foul rituals, Kaldorei druids who’ve delved too deep into fur and fang so they hunt often blameless Horde as an outlet for feral aggression.

There’s a lot of fertile ground for evil acts on the Blue Team that I’ve seen explored very well by players. And not ‘well from my perspective’ evil - legitimately heartless and cruel acts driven by sadism. But you just don’t see that in the story too often and frankly it’s baffling. Especially with humans. We’re all humans, we know they suck - turn to page, pick a number at random, in any given history book to see that.

Personally with this Forsaken main I like maintaining my character’s quiet morality in the darker setting. A cannibalistic walking corpse that none the less shows compassion, worry and mercy towards others is frankly interesting to write about.

Whereas with Blue Team I feel like writing a toon that’s nice despite a nightmarish and horrifically violent setting would be, well, factory standard. It makes the Blue Team seem really bland. Milquetoast. I’ll admit the Alliance allied races are threatening to add some flavor but how do you’ve intergalactic Light crusaders and Void cultists on the same team as ethnicities and their troubled relationship isn’t at least the Alliance’s perspective through a whole expansion? Well Blizz’s weird writing I guess.

Now to be clear I’m not trying to yell at Blue Team stans here- some of those examples I noted where from Burning Crusade to illustrate how interesting the Alliance can be in the hands of writers unconcerned with brand. But on the whole don’t you think some outright evil sonsofb/+ches might make things more interesting?

And Light Bless if you’re already out there trying to do it with nothing but TRP3 and hatred in your heart.

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Have you met our lord and saviour High King Anduin? We lack the capacity for evil.

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Oh that boy summons extra special Power Word: Barriers by crying for his dead men but only after throwing down a weapon of violence.

I actually don’t hate Anduin. He’s far too precious for this setting. We’ll just set up a nice little Farm for him in Mulgore where he can chill with Thrall and if they ever ask we just tell them things are fine.

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I prefer his StarCraft clone. The guy is far less naïve and idiotic.

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Up until Wrath, many of the Villains were former Alliance races or at least caused by the Alliance (Kael’Thas), much more than the Horde. The Horde had trolls until Wrath, but that’s about it.

I think what you’re saying is that at least from Cata, Alliance is REACTIONARY in it’s storytelling. Horde characters like Garrosh and Thrall and Sylvanas and Saurfang initiates the action and the Alliance just reacts to it. In that case, I would agree with you.

I would add that Jaina is really interesting in BfA and I think if done right, she could be a real driving force in the storytelling going forward. Taelia is also interesting, but knowing Blizzard’s history, I don’t have high hopes that she will play any part past this expansion. Calia might be another foci to drive the Alliance story as well, although it’s too early to tell at this time.

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Wait, which Alliance villains were there pre Wrath? Which was, 4 expansions ago for those playing the home game.

The Scarlet Crusade were a great example of an all too human feeling evil. But they weren’t Alliance. Illidain was a nasty little horned boi, but he wasn’t Alliance, and indeed turned out to be a secret double plus good boi.

Likewise Kael’Thas may have been driven to Outland by human racism but Garithos was a Knight of the decidedly now undead and red Lordaeron. What’s he to do with Stormwind?

Am I missing someone else? Onxyia as mentioned but I don’t think she professesed any loyalty for the Blue Team.

I’m talking about villains doing villainous things for what’s in their twisted mind good for their commonwealth.

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Blizzard have failed to realise that the Alliance having its grey moments is what made them compelling. Them attempting to do whats morally right however having grey moments that sully them (purge, stormheim, stratholme and Garithos). It sparks conversation and discussion in the community from both sides.

The Alliance doesn’t need to go full super villain mode like Sylvanas has, it just needs to be proactive instead of reactive. It needs to have the Goal of stopping The Horde and not just Sylvanas, have moments that make the Horde see them as their enemy.

The main issue is that Anduin never should have been made leader of the faction, its was the biggest mistake they have made with the story. It basically took all agency out of the war as the now the Alliance is not a threat to the Horde, we are simply your saviors trying to save you from your bad Warchief (again). It also meant the horde would always look villainous in comparison. Where Varian was at least aggressive towards the Horde, it was a character the horde could hate, yet respect.

Blizzard really needs to change the direction of the story soon as this story not only is a retelling of MOP but lacks any interesting narrative discussion points. This also means there is nothing to discuss about the current story, instead only what we wish the story was instead.

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Hard agree. Anduin is such a nice boy. I can’t muster any hatred for him - which is bad in a story where I’m supposed to hate the Alliance.

Gennjamin Greymane’s a gruff old furry boomer I don’t much care for. That’s about it and even he appeared to be cured of undead racism after the Gathering, because he saw a Forsaken get heartbroken and slink away instead of murdering. Correct me if I’m wrong but I think that was literally the reasoning. “Wait these people I hate have emotions? Racism cured!”.

Velen ain’t up to much. I don’t know the name of your Panda and only know mine as his non involvement has been a running joke. I think the Dwarves are run by a Homeowner’s Association now or something. The Night Elves briefly threatened to be quite terrifying but I guess Maulfy and Tyrande f’ed off again as I only remember fighting C lists at best in Darkshore.

Christ the Lightforged who led the suicide attack on Dazar’Alor was maybe the most interesting Blue NPC I’ve fought. I also loved how it was mostly allied race toons I killed - boy way to hand the new guys the short end, cold blooded. Or it might’ve been if that plot point is ever relevant again.

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#BRINGBACKTHEPURGESQUAD
10char?

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Hey home owner associations are pure evil

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Does Benedictus count? The Archbishop? or do you mean characters who did their evil explicitly for and under the Alliance banner?

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However like a lot of Alliance characters that end up villians had already left and gone off and joined the big bad before they actually did anything. They never did anything bad under the Alliance banner.

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And you’re likely never going to get Alliance villains for so long as Sylvanas is Warchief and maintains the Hordes’ villain status.

Hate to be that guy OP but you will never have an Alliance Villian so long as Blizz remained too incompetent to write any.

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Is it just me, or did Benedictus seem sort of removed from everything? He was ostensibly the highest ranking member of the faith. He went evil and served the old gods. But it does not quite have an impact and he is barely mentioned in forum discussions about Human/Alliance villainy.

I understand in the lore, the whereabouts of the Archbishop are a bit muddied. But even on the forums, Benedictus is kind of ignored or forgotten.

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Speak for yourself, humie.

That’s what I’ve been trying to do for like four years. Keep the fire burning, bro. <3

Still waiting for an Alliance racial leader to go off the reservation and become a raid boss that even the Alliance have to fight (without convenient mid-raid race swaps.)

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It’s almost like, alliance aren’t the villains. Gosh how about that.

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If i recall his story was a casualty of cata’s behind the scenes mess in which we were meant to reveal him I think as part of the twilight highlands alliance intro but that got cut leaving us with him just kinda showing up in a dungeon and then getting killed.

The lack of exposure kinda makes you forget about him in the long run.

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Sorry but the Alliance has generally been good guys. The dark side of the Alliance was also less than the Horde. If anything we just got back to its warcraft 2 form.

If you want a faction that doesnt end up having its leaders be turned into raid bosses the Alliance is waiting for you.

This. The Alliance have bad apples but those are the exception not the rule. Also, the Alliance are establish kingdom more interested in protecting what they have as oppose to espansionism.

Lastly, there are plenty of Alliance/human villians but they usually end up causing issue for the Alliance more so then the Horde/globally.