Feel like I need to give a little background here.
I love the Horde.
I hate Sylvanas.
I have always hated Sylvanas. Ever since Warcraft 3, I’ve despised her. I’ve always thought she was overrated as a character, and in game I knew better than to ever trust her. The only time Sylvanas might have your best interests in mind are when they overlap with her own, and the moment they diverge you are most definitely no longer required. I hated when she became Warchief because I knew exactly what they were doing with her. I knew they were setting her up to be the next Garrosh, a disposable Warchief to give the Alliance someone to ‘defeat’ in place of the Horde at large. Because the factions can never truly defeat one another but MoP already established that they can ‘defeat’ a rogue Warchief and pat each other on the back about what a good job they had done.
Much as I hated Sylvanas myself, I didn’t necessarily want her to be strung up as a loot pinata for everyones enjoyment. The less she had to do with the story the better.
Which is why no one was as happy as I was at the end of Legion when we saw Saurfang (and Baine) had an updated model. This was an obvious sign that he was going to be playing a larger role in the story and I was excited to have an Orc Warrior in the spotlight again. I even dared to hope that this might mean that Saurfang would be taking the mantle of Warchief… Bloodlessly since Sylvanas hated being in the spotlight, or with a Mak’gora so we could finally see the ritualistic combat practised without anyone cheating (since Sylvanas could just have her Valkyrie resurrect her after she lost.)
After Garrosh I understood that there were some who would be leery of this but this was Saurfang we were talking about! He lived and died for the Horde!
Surely nothing bad could come of this.
Then the pre-patch event happened, followed closely on the heels by ‘Old Soldier’. His instinct to abandon the Horde and kill himself was sickening, but there was a hopeful note at the end of Old Soldier. Maybe Saurfang might change the course the expansion had already so clearly set for the Horde. Again the crossroads. Again the villains. As if nothing had ever been learned.
Then it only deteriorated further. Every action made by those who supported Sylvanas seemed to be put in the most negative light possible. They were cruel, merciless, and cold. But instead of the push back I thought we would see from the bulk of the Horde at large, especially the three original Horde races, we got nothing.
Instead those who supported Sylvanas continued to execute her every command regardless of the consequences, and those like Saurfang increasingly turned towards the Alliance for help.
When I realized I could no longer support Saurfang was when he sat like a stubborn lump in Stormwind and refused to leave with me. We had served on the front lines in Silithus together. We had toppled Garrosh together. We had fought the Legion at the Broken Shore together. But he turned his back on all that because he refused to be in ‘her’ Horde. Even though it was ‘My’ Horde. And, frankly, ‘His’ Horde for the taking.
Instead Saurfang lost all faith in the Horde and turned to Anduin. (Likewise it seems Baine loses all faith in the Horde and turns to Jaina.)
I support Sylvanas. Even though I hate her. Even though I hate that doing so means that people think I’m a blind sheep, or an edgelord, or that I support genocide, or a slew of other nonsensical idiot ramblings that they tell themselves to make up for one simple fact they can’t seem to understand…
I love the Horde.
Blizzard wants me to lose faith in the Horde. They want me to look to the Alliance not as enemies but as potential saviors. That is what they have told me with Anduin’s story arc. With Saurfang’s story arc. With Baine’s story. Hell, probably even Nathanos’s story arc before all is said and done because they are that committed to ruining anything that was ever good about the Horde in the name, as far as I can see, of setting up another Alliance ‘victory’.
And I can’t.
I refuse to turn my back on the Horde. We are supposed to be a family. Even the warped and twisted parts. We are supposed to watch out for one another. We aren’t supposed to sneak around and make deals with our enemies behind each others backs because we don’t like what the other is doing. We aren’t supposed to kill each other because one of us is following orders and the other is following their heart.
This is stupid. The whole thing is stupid. And that’s the one thing I can agree with Sylvanas on. It’s just going to keep going unless someone puts a stop to it. If that means the destruction of the Alliance, of the Horde, or even of Azeroth itself at this point I would much rather see that story than watch the Horde tear itself apart over and over and over again… And then be in debt to the Alliance for ‘allowing’ us to do it.
I’d rather go where Sylvanas leads because at least it might be different.
Not that I have any faith in that, since instead of losing faith in the Horde I’ve lost faith in Blizzard being able to tell a story with the factions that they haven’t already done before.