Okay, so when did Saurfang start to give two craps about Rastakhan? As I recall, Saurfang was in a cell in Stormwind when I, and the Horde, opened relations with the Zandalar, aided them in their times of need and formed bonds of friendship with the wise old king.
It’s not like Saurfang and Rastakhan shared more than 2 words or even that Saurfang was particularly invested in the actions the Horde took to build that relationship at Sylvanas’ behest.
Edit: So the more I’m thinking about this, the more it feels like they’re trying to retroactively place Saurfang in the role of an active supporter of the Zandalari since they are the one allied race that isn’t tied to an NPC or faction that will still be around once Sylvanas is gone.
Since both Sylvanas and the recruitment of the Zandalari are integral to BfA’s faction war story, she can’t be edited out of this event. So throwing Saurfang behind the Zandalari for literally no reason was probably the best they could do.
Since Blizzard realized that he comes off as an Alliance pawn throughout the first half of this expansion and they want to assert his independence. So they wrote some dialogue to set up tension between him and Genn.
I read those lines as really saying, “See, I’m not an Alliance tool - we don’t even like each other.”
a sovereign King, slain on his own home.
I dont know… rule of cool may be in play here… it sounds pretty farfetched he doesnt win anything by saying this… what is he implying? King llane wrynn? menethil? perenolde?
Also, why poke the alliance while, we were trying to save baine from being hamburger? totally unprofessional and uncalled for.
It was too pathetic to watch Saurfang throw a tantrum in that cell in front of Anduin. As far as I’m concerned, Saurfang the Warrior died in the Undercity courtyard against innumerable Alliance foes.
Saurfang seemed to know why the Horde Player, Rokhan, and Thalyssra are at the Stockades. He is aware that we are there to free Rastakhan’s daughter from the Alliance. And he chose to sit it out.
Now Rastakhan is dead at the hands of the Alliance. And Saurfang appears miffed.
Story wise it’s not that Saurfang cared, or even knew Rastakhan, it’s just Saurfang trying to throw some shade at Shaw for what the nominally morally superior Alliance did.
Of course that works way better when you’re not a member of the faction that burned down a city full of people. Which Shaw rightfully throws right back at Saurfang.
Not to mention Saurfang literally planned the invasion of the Night Elf homeland with the intention of killing Malfurion. I’m not sure how I’m going to get through that scene without vomiting from the hypocrisy.
I’d wager Saurfang is pissed about the war being brought to Zandalar, a kingdom that more or less had no stakes in getting dragged into the Horde/Alliance faction conflict.
It’s needless blood shed when he’s of the opinion people should be gunning for Sylvanas, not the Zandalari.
Oh ho, now there’s an interesting theory. SaurfangxTalanji, a jailhouse romance, recontextualizing Saurfang’s second most infuriating moment as sacrificing his freedom so that the woman he loves can travel straight to Zandalar.
It doesn’t work, but I’d ship Talanji/Saurfang as a May/December romantic power couple.
Sort of not the point. How to explain this better…
It’s about writing Sylvanas out of the Horde’s history as much as possible, because if you don’t do that, Sylvanas is responsible for the single largest increase in membership and power that the Horde has ever seen. Allowing for a very real argument that Sylvanas has been our greatest warchief to date.
Now if Sylvanas was being kept around or presented in a favorable light this wouldn’t be a problem, but the villain bat doth swing and it has hit Sylvanas hard. So for the sake of salvaging what the Horde has built, the writers of this game need to take credit away from Sylvanas.
So, once Sylvanas is gone the new warchief will be the one standing in that embassy. And where Sylvanas said “We’ll need allies against the Alliance” that new warchief will say “We need allies against (x)” with x being the villain of the next expansion. And this will effectively eliminate Sylvanas as the incredibly historic diplomatic power house who increased the Horde’s size unimaginably by instead passing that title off to whichever Warchief happens to be in power when the player character gets exalted reputation with the Highmountain and really the player is going to say Baine did it because Baine is the one that’s always in that cut scene.
Except now for the Zandalari. Because, in the weird time mechanics that is World of Warcraft, Sylvanas’ story of damnation and self immolation will always be tied to the questing in Zandalari that also brought them into the Horde.
Haven’t experienced the Alliance perspective going into BoD, so I’m curious–if the goal was to cripple the Zandalari fleet and drive a wedge between the Horde and Zandalar, why was the actual invasion of Dazar’alor necessary?
It wasn’t. We secretly planted the bombs during our war campaign in 8.0. As seen in the cinematic, they’re detonated remotely. There was no need for the invasion at all. Kelsey could’ve hid behind a sleeping Tortollan, detonated the bombs, and flown home and we’d come away with the exact same victory, minus all the deaths and Anduin having a sad about Rastakhan.
The goal was to cripple the zandalari fleet and FORCE the zandalari king to surrender. (and capture him)
if he surrendered, the zandalari would out of the war.
that obviously didn’t work.
Eh? so that was the plan? look i thought it was decimating their navy and getting loot nobody told me that was the plan i just went there for the purples.
Anyways for reals now, spoilers.
Summary
LAST CHANCE TURN BACK NOW
Apparently everything is for nothing, we lose our fleet with the rest of the horde fleet when azshara splits the ocean with the tidestone, courtesy of a trap made by sylvanas.