Let’s beat Anduin with the Villian bat! Mind control is a cope out anyways.
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You could be fighting an unprovoked defensive war for which the consequences of losing would be utter extinction and many neutrals would still finger wag at you. This is a doomed hope.
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I say we just beat him with a plain ol’ bat instead 
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I don’t think that’s possible anymore. Not in the simplest sense. Through their need to always use the Horde faction as a plot-device to settup future content and villains, Blizz has placed the Horde on such a backfoot when it comes to the Faction Conflict … there is no way that we will ever be portrayed as justified in participating in it ever again. There will be no “Good Guys” on the Horde, as the Horde Reps and Horde People will always be portrayed as deserving of whatever the Alliance does to them. And that doesn’t include Blizz’s obsessive need to maintain an artificial purity test with the Alliance on top of that.
After 2 Rounds of Villain Bat and 4+ years of being actively shamed for participating in the Faction Conflict as a Horde player … I have absolutely zero interest in that Faction Conflict anymore. Blizz has made themselves very clear, the Horde are by default evil monsters who don’t need the luxury of reasons to attack the Alliance (because they can’t be so impure as to allow us them). And that I should feel bad about attacking the Alliance. They are the embodiments of all that is pure, flawless, and good in this world … which means that the Horde attacking them makes us all that is impure, flawed, and evil.
The problem is also the way its written. The Alliance constantly struggles, the battle of Lordaeron was a complete disaster and we even got several coffins lined up in a row on the harbor with families which got torn apart (because we really need to drive the point home that war is bad), the attack on Dazar’alor only happened because of a suicide mission, in Darkshore a warden is killed and Delaryn brought back, and as soon as we get the superiority over the seas half the fleet sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
It feels more like the Alliance is actually the underdog faction, fighting against complete and absolute monsters who would want to wipe them out completely. But, none of this matters because in the end the Alliance comes out on top anyway and none the worse for wear, with a shining white vest while the evil monsters are punished. But, obviously not all of them because most of them didn’t do nothing and many of them where simply misguided.
What’s also funny that the faction consisting of most of the classic fantasy races with humans, elves and dwarves is completely dehumanized.
You know in a faction conflict I would involve the neutral factions. Like refugees trying to reach the lands of the Argent Crusade, the Circle of Cenarius or even Steamwheedle Cartel cities to escape the war. Maybe even soldiers who tagged along to escape being send into a meatgrinder.
Like…if Blizzard wants to go the route of “war is bad” then they should go all the way (at least as far as the age rating allows them).
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I still have a slight hope it can happen in the future. We’ve expended Garrosh and Sylvanas and their arcs with the Horde are over now. We have fairly good dudes running the faction now, and Gazlowe was even put in there to replace Gallywix. They’d have to rip all that apart and install another hateful Warchief for the Horde to go back to being villain batted.
Not sure they’d do that a 3rd time. I have some hope. Personally as a Thrall fanboy I’d rather he just take up the mantle of Warchief again, and then incite a faction conflict with him and Anduin at the head of it. You know that’d be pretty interesting to see 2 peaceful guys be forced into a conflict. Definitely way more grey area to work with there.
And how did they place both Garrosh and Sylvanas in charge? Right, in some of the most forced writing imaginable, and then years of keeping every single theme and character that represented the WC3 Vision of the Faction silent and convenient? All while they simultanously became increasingly non committal will Alliance acts of grey and aggression. Meaning the Horde is just the baddies … because we’re the baddies. Its gotten so bad that quite literally the only method a member of a Horde race can now prove they’re “not evil” (not even good), is by how submissive and convenient they are to a member of an Alliance race.
We the Horde have no legs left to stand on for the Faction Conflict.
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So in this hypothetical story arc, are Yrel’s group morally gray villains or evil, maybe even to the level of Burning Legion 2.0? Especially since I don’t see the LB as going all “wolves in sheep’s clothing”, or at least not to the level of killing Faol and Turalyon. They are convinced of the rightness of their cause, why hide it?
Plus this relies on sweeping the Iron Horde under the rug, since the Draenei’s real experiences with the Iron Horde - such as the death of Yrel’s sister and her time as a Blackrock chain-gang slave - are being ignored to push this “muh fanaticism” narrative.
The Mag’har helping the pre-LB Draenei fight the demons shouldn’t count as atonement; the demons threatened the Mag’har too, so they would’ve fought even if the Draenei never entered the picture. Given how many signed on with Gul’dan it comes off as wanting credit for cleaning up their own mess.
They hide it because they know damned well the failures of the Iron Horde. If you try to invade Azeroth by force, you are going to get bodied. So, approaching as friends, then gaining a foothold … is the smart thing to do. Since you have the opportunity. On top of this, the Iron Horde is already pretty much swept under the rug. 30 years under the rug. And the Lighbound aren’t just targetting those races that were part of the Iron Horde, but all native cultures on Draenor (by all indications).
One of the leaders of the AU Mag’har is AU Draka. And AU Durotan was apparently killed by the Lightbound. Also, within that Light Mother in game book, they make no mention of the Crystallization of the planet as a motive for their crusade. But rather visions of a United everything under the light. So … they are going to be villains. And if they aren’t then that is in effect Blizz saying that “Genocide is OK as long as its an Alliance race doing it”. Because YES, the Lightbound have committed a multicultural genocide.
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Accurate 
You also have the Taran Zhu types who scold you for waging a “Genocidal Race War!” then a few zones later his organization is firebombing and mass murdering the Yaungol and Mantid.
Plz. Villain bat this character.
We are also forgetting “Calia’s lost son” that the Scarletts claim to have found.
Could always be a usurper to the Throne who comes claiming to save the Alliance and reclaim it’s lost holdings… Personally, I think that’s more interesting then Turalyon.
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Murdering? They’re literally fighting against an enemy dedicated to wiping out and/or enslaving his people and have been for countless generations.
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If Blizzard sweeps the Iron Horde under the rug, that is an asinine thing to do and poor writing. There’s plenty of Draenei who lost loved ones or more to the Iron Horde.
How have the Lightbound genocided the other cultures? Do we see them take anyway their languages? Their fashion styles? Their architecture? Their art? Say what you will about forced conversion, but people only changing their religion even under duress is not genocide.
The Ogres’ culture was already in jeopardy with the Gorian Empire broken and the Ogres being in Orc prison camps. Speaking of genocide, didn’t the Orcs drive the Primals (the rock ones) to extinction?
I don’t blame Yrel’s group for the destruction of AU Draenor, the cause is up in the air… but anti-Draenei/Alliance/Light fans jump to conclusions and blame Yrel’s group for it.
I feel like we’ve had this exact conversation before and while you initially believed cultural genocide didn’t exist at all … now you’re just playing dumb. Or you’re generally so distracted by the word “genocide” that you don’t truly understand that the deliberate and systematic eradication of a groups culture to enforce your own … is a more common than simply wiping out populations. And is a genocide. And that is exactly what the Lightbound have done here.
"I believe with all my heart that the Mag’har are destined to join us as servants of the Light. But first, they must be taught to trust the naaru.
The Light Mother has blessed me with visions. I know that one day the Army of the Light will march across the and bring order to countless worlds.
That bold future begins here. With us. We must make Draenor whole again.
I call upon you all to ensure that the future promised by the Light Mother is fulfilled. Purge the infection that prevents Draenor’s heart from being whole.
The Light will forge a new future for the orcs… but first, we must save the Mag’har from themselves.
No more division. No more defiance. In the Light, we shall be one."
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I’m not playing dumb. I’m asking the following; what are the Lightbound are taking away from the Mag’har besides changing their religion and killing those who refuse?
What if instead of the Light, they wanted to join everyone together in undeath? Would that ease the tension over the word genocide to a palatable level for people?
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God … if only there weren’t examples of this in real world history it wouldn’t make what you are implying so creepy. Truly, I genuinely don’t believe you know what you are trying to excuse here. Do a little research on US Boarding Schools for Native populations during the early 19th Century if you want some reading material. That’s a cultural genocide attempt that has “less” overt religious overtones at least.
And since Religion, Faith, and the Cultural Norms that stem from (and tie into) them are inherent and ingrained in culture … what the Lightbound are literally doing is eradicating these people’s cultures. To superimpose their own. Especially with Orcish spiritualism (even for the AU Mag’har) since it so firmly ingrained into how they interact with and view the world. In every facet of their society. But I get it, they’re Draenei. They would never be prone to falling prey to world ending crusades like … the Eradar right?
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I’m never been a blindly “Draenei do no wrong” fan - there’s bad Draenei (some Cult of the damned and Twilight Cultists come to mind), and I’m not talking about real-life examples, I’m talking about a specific scenario in-game. The Colonialists/Natives is not a 1-to-1 example of what’s happening here, since here the natives formed a group of racial supremacists and struck first (Blizzard might try to sweep the Iron Horde under the rug, but I and others won’t) and Yrel’s group are not trying to wipe out any races.
Compare the Mag’har and Yrel’s group to the Pandaren and Lei-Shen’s Mogu. What Lei-Shen did was actual cultural genocide;
Lei-Shen forced non-mogu to be slaves, Yrel’s group are equal opportunity. Lei-Shen eradicated the original Pandaren language, Yrel’s group aren’t doing that. He forbade Pandaren from learning to read and write, she didn’t do that to AU Draenor’s people. Lei-Shen destroyed all of a people’s art and literature, Yrel didn’t. Lei-Shen denied them their own architecture, Yrel hasn’t…
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The freedom to choose their own destiny?
Convert or Die. Nice opportunity there.
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