It is also bad to try and paint a whole group as ‘evil’ simply on the actions of a certain few bad actors. Like 3/5 Eternal Ones were fine with Deaths role in the Cosmetic cycle. Only Daddy D and Uncle Z wanted Death to be the one on top. Although we could speculate that the two of them had different ideas on what that meant. It is unclear if Denathrius knew about the “greater evil” Zovaal was seeking to stop by uniting all of the cosmetic realms under his banner by force (domination). Should we claim that Death was evil simply on the actions of Dentharius and Zovaal? No.
We have seen that there are some demons that fought against the Burning Legion for their own persons. Either they were ‘cured’ of their fel addition or they found the whole “burn everything to ash” boring. Some demons just want to have fun in their own way after all.
At the end of the day, the forces themselves are mostly neutral. However certain actors that represent those forces could be good, or they could be evil.
It is one aspect of the Light and Darkness in Destiny that I like. Even prior to Witch Queen we knew about bad actors that used the Light powers they were given for their own selfish desire such as the Warlords. While there were those who used it for good, such as the Iron Lords. Likewise we encounter uses of Darkness that use the force for good. Eris Morn being the first, as she uses Hive Magic (aka The Sword Logic) to defend humanity and its allies. Even Elise Bray (the exo Stranger from D1) began to use Stasis, an aspect of Darkness to help fight against The Witness. Then we have the Drifter, one of the first lightbearers. Who saw the horrors the Light could do when given to the wrong people and became disenfranchised with it. He likes the immortality it brings (provided your ghost is still alive) but we only see him use Darkness, such as stasis. And the source of the light (The Traveler) is not so benevolent either. It abandoned worlds whenever the Witness and its forces came knocking. The Fallen being the most recent. It gave the light, willingly, to Savathun, the Witch Queen. It willingly allowed lightless Guardians to be slaughtered by Ghaul and his Red Legion during the Red War because it did not want the Witness to know it was still alive and kicking. Only when Ghaul became a God did it intervene. As Ghaul was a bigger threat in the moment than the Witness was. However as we learned in Season of Arrivals, Light and Dark (sky and deep) are neutral. It is how people use them that matter.
The difference though between Destiny and WoW is that Destiny had this from the get go for the most part.
Except we know for a fact that the Naaru protect life for its own sake. I swear, why are you people so desperate to force this grimdark “everyone sucks” headcanon down our throats?
Who knows. The bigger question is, why do these people think everyone that is part said cosmetic force(s) acts as if they are in a hive mind? Even though we just had an expansion where only two of the “rulers” of the Death cosmetic force were actually evil.
Because it’s very clearly what blizzard wants to do even if it feels like it comes at the expense of overtly stated ideas like that.
Like the devs once said in a recorded interview for TBC, that the Draenei are meant to embody the altruism of the naaru in stark contrast to the Eredar we had known in the franchise prior. And while it’s somewhat natural for this to happen like 20 years later, what they’re doing in recent lore feels like it completely misses the point of that.
If we’re talking about the Light in the old days, there was a certain degree of will applied to it.
For example, Arthas lost his ability to wield the Light because he knew his actions were wrong. It grew increasingly difficult to wield the Light for him as WC3 progressed, because some part of him knew what he was doing was evil. By contrast, as of Vanilla, the Scarlet Crusade are able to act objectively evil, because they believe they are doing good. This dichotomy is further reinforced with the introduction of the Blood Knights during Burning Crusade. The Blood Knights were able to force the Light to serve their bidding, but as Liadrin herself noted, it was not the harmonious relationship she had previously known with the Light, but a constant battle and struggle.
This doesn’t make the Light inherently good, mind you, but rather does indicate there are certain requirements in wielding it. Or were, at least, back in the old days. Namely, you had to be convinced what you were doing was right, beyond all doubt. Even the Blood Knights were aware their actions were pretty shady, but they embraced that. Its how Tirion Fordring was excommunicated and lost his ability to wield the Light as well: he believed he had lost his connection for acting unlawfully.
Yes and no. They also actively desecrated their old beliefs in acts of spite and hate, knowingly indulging in those activities. The Blood Knights were fully aware of the harmful nature of their actions, and they didn’t care: they forced the Light to obey them regardless, and for that reason the Light resisted them.
Except it’s demonstrably proven the Void is worse than Light’s ever been.
The Void Lords flinging Old Gods across the cosmos to consume planets. Their desire to corrupt Azeroth and use her to unmake everything else in the cosmos.
Everything we’ve seen followers of the Void do from Vanilla to now.
Plus, too much Void makes you grow eyeballs, flesh, tentacles and turns you purple. Too much Light just makes you turn gold.
Anything we’ve seen from Light followers or beings (including the attempted Lightforging of Illidork and trying to bring peace to an AU planet deadlier than Australia) pales in comparison to the atrocities of the Void and its followers.
I like the headcanon that draining Mu’ru didn’t do jack squat, and that the Blood Knights were able to use the Light because they believed that the ritual worked, and were adamant in their belief that they deserved to have it.
Tell that to the worlds with millions/billions encased in Light crystal for all eternity.
At the very least, since M’uru was knowingly fulfilling prophecy at the time, it’s entirely possible that the blood elves only thought they were successfully stealing his power by force when in reality the naaru was deliberately granting it to them and letting them believe it was all their doing.
I honestly don’t know how the Light/Void cycle of Naaru life is going to work in the new cosmology, since they’re inherently beings of Light. Their Void cycle seems to be a pesky remnant of a very old era of lore.
Would be plausible except for the issue of the Light resisting their use of it. I mean, its easy enough to see a bunch of elves so confident in their supremacy that they harbor no doubts whatsoever about the righteousness or their cause or actions. Its just not the direction Blizzard went. Then again, I don’t think we’ve ever had much info on how the Scarlets wield the light from their perspective either. Who knows? Maybe they also feel that resistance.
I’m curious about this myself since as we are told they are supposed to be these inherently light bound/formed beings yet… they also have a void state…
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