Has he been redeemed or will he ever be?
He still hasn’t met a single Night Elf after his War of Thorns campaign.
What do you guys consider would be enough for this character moving forward?
Note: To be fair the game seems to have completely forgotten he was the one leading the Horde’s armies until his capture in Lordaeron. Either this means Saurfang has been let off the hook or they are waiting for a true reckoning.
Death? Imprisonment or freedom?
Saurfang is the best.
The Burning will be swept under the rug and he won’t meet a single night elf for the rest of the expansion. He’ll probably heroically die and there will be a big scene of him being reunited with his son in the afterlife to the sound of sad music. It’s a humans and Horde story now, there may be talk about how sad the War of Thorns made him, but that’s it.
The Burning’s already been morally upstaged by Sylvanas raising one single human. I don’t have much hope.
I feel like the best option for him right now is to kill him off. I think the game was trying to spin him as being a victim of Sylvanas’s manipulation so it’s “not really his fault” for the war, but I think he’s nearly as bad as her at this point and the game trying to make him out to be the heroic underdog is really unappealing to me. I personally don’t think his character is redeemable.
i think that he should let himself be captured by tyrande and killed.
that is the only redemption i can’t think of.
i mean, he is an old dude right? soon i will not be able to be lift an axe, so he needs to show some good faith with the night elves. ir order to even think about peace.
Death.
Beheaded Baine will still have two horns, one will be used to stick Saurfang’s head on, and other for Thrall.
one can only dream
He’ll get another cinematic about how he doesn’t think he could be redeemed before getting a letter from Tyrande, delivered by Anduin and Genn saying their totally cool. Oh and it should go without saying but it’s one of those fancy cinematics.
I see no reason why any Night Elf would ever consider Saurfang redeemed.
The only way he should be redeemed by the Horde is to challenge Sylvanas to mak’gora like he should’ve done after the Burning of Teldrassil.
Pouting in an Alliance jail cell waitin’ to be told “the meaning of honor” by a seventeen year old Human boy and then run cryin’ to Thrall isn’t redemption… it’s pathetic.
But knowin’ Blizzard, they’ll hamfist some stupid “redemption” with Anduin hushin’ Tyrande and Malfurion both into forgivin’ Saurfang ‘cuz everythin’ was just Sylvanas’ fault.
I don’t think what night elves think matters in regard to Saurfang. They’re biased and ignore the facts of the matter that he was never for killing Night Elven innocents, and so isn’t party to Sylvanas breaking his strategy of scaring the night elves into submission.
After all, the books already explain the night elves killed more Horde than Horde killed Night Elves before the tree burned. Any wrong that he did is already repaid in full 100%.
Define redemption. When has the horde ever been redeemed in the eyes of the alliance? What usually happens is their actions are pinned on something or someone, and the alliance moves on.
No and No
When they revealed that he spared Anduin so he could stop Sylvanas he had reached the point of no return. All the other stuff is frosti… I mean crapping on the cake.
The history that saurfang has with this franchise shouldnt be defined by the war of thorns. Ever since that event went down almost every character involved in the story has suffered. The only character i can think of with some positive development is Gazlowe and, even though hes in stasis, Gelbin finally got some cool involvment. I am excited to see what will come of these characters.
I agree that somensort of sacrifice for the night elves is in order. Just not this one. Going about it like this would just be ruining more characters even further and not really giving the night elves any vindication. I think tyrande should get some legit retribution by attacking and thoroughly defeating some horde forces including a couple named figures.
The nightelf attack could be what lets sylvanas hold onto the horde just a bit longer. They could play it off as part of her super genius evil plan, that she figured she wouldn’t hold onto control of the horde without setting up something to band them together once they inevitably lost confidence in her.
Later we could have a continued push by the nightelves. Tyrande’s forces are now fighting saurfang’s. Tyrande could be trouncing saurfang berating him and his honor but before she gets in that killing blow, the battle is interrupted wrathgate style by void baddies. A huge mass could errupt from the ground spueing a host of lovecraftian creatures and void tears start emerging. Parts of the ground break with the entrance fo the old gods minions.
Now both sides are getting slaughtered. If everyone stopped to combat this massive old god incursion they would be decimated, if they try retreating the will be cut down.
Saurfang turns to tyrande, gives some comment about hie the horde cant undo what happened but that azeroth will need tyrande and malfurion, they have to survive, and the horde owes it to them. Saurfang will ask that once they are far enough away that tyrande go ham and scorched earth tha battlefield killing any horde alongside the old god swarm. What good is an old warrior compaired to their omega level powers?
Whats left of the horde forces stay behind. As the night elves get away she does just that, full independence day style. She should definetly be winded at the very least afterward. I see a cut scene of the horizon, a mass of old god monsters overrunning saurfangs forces. The moon starts to rise and a starfall starts to silently streak toward the battlefield, then another, and another. The starfalls quickly become this dense cataclysmic rain that ends with an a-bomb flash.
In my head all of this is very cinimatic.
If you’re talking about in-game Night Elves, you may want to factor in that Saurfang has never said a word about the burning of Teldrassil to any Night Elf. As far as the Alliance knows - as far as we know - the Night Elves do not know that Saurfang had nothing to do with the orders to burn the tree himself.
Tyrande is upset because she believed Saurfang had honor for sparing Malfurion and would treat the people on Teldrassil better than anyone else in the Horde would. And then the burning happened, and instead of doing anything about it or telling the Alliance he was against it, Saurfang sank into silence and left everything unclarified, leaving the Night Elves to believe he was part of it.
If you’re talking about Night Elf fan out of the game: Saurfang’s buying into Sylvanas’ mind games was stupid, and his sense of honor in a massive feint and sending in rogues to prevent the people in Ashenvale from calling for help so he could march through a land full of civilians just trying to live their lives was garbage honor, and that Saurfang should have to atone for based on our meta-knowledge.
I’m not. Only a couple night elf players show any awareness that Saurfang actively avoided (and commanded against) killing civilians or innocents.
Redeeming Saurfang? It depends on what you mean.
As far as the Alliance: I am gonna miss Sylvanas’s attitude concerning the Alliance. When she was talking to Vareesa about the Blood Elves, Sylvanas says:
“They don’t need your redemption.”
That is one of my favorite lines in all of Warcraft. She was sticking up for the Blood Elves when none were around, while also stating the Alliance will not be the judges of the Horde. That sort of attitude is going by the way side.
As far as Traitors: It seems mailing pieces of your anatomy + Anduin’s love + Jaina caressing the arms of Horde males = what really motivates Saurfang’s current fan base.
They think Saurfang sparing Anduin and begging the Alliance for help while he is in jail is just fine. They ache to service Anduin, and Saurfang is giving them their wish. So no redemption is needed for Saurfang fans.
As far as loyalists, he is pretty much Anduin+Baine’s towel boy from now on, but thats a given.
Hopefully Tyrande kills Saurfang, so at least SOMEONE can get some justice on that craven traitorous genocidal coward.
Accurate…
I don’t know if Saurfang himself thinks he’s in need of redemption. He was perfectly fine with the War of Thorns up until the Burning. In A Good War, he outright enjoys invading Ashenvale and killing night elves. What made him have a sad was that Sylvanas dishonored the Horde by doing the Burning. He literally says what his new, post-Burning motivation is, “I want MY Horde back!”
He wants to kill Sylvanas so the Horde can be honorable mass murderers again, not dishonorable mass murderers.
What do you guys consider would be enough for this character moving forward?
Death. 10 chars.
A lot of tearful crying from the guerilla-warfare mass murdering race.
Well, he’ll probably die … because every old orc gets to escape the consequences of their actions through a quick and easy death (even though him dying literally stands in opposition to the messaging of his fancy Cinematics). How about we deny Saurfang a chance at an honorable death (which he wants), and force him to actually live out a life of service and atonement.
He should not get what he started this war to obtain, as a consequence from that war … the chance to follow in his Son and Brother’s footsteps.