As usual, Blizzard blows their narrative bulk on the opening pretense and failed to deliver any lasting satisfaction. Seems to be a trend in BfA.
I was going to say that at least we got some nice customization out of it, but the SL pre-patch is far more impressive.
As Horde I didn’t actually know the defection of Sylvanas was meant to be the end of the war. I thought Tyrande and Genn would continue fighting.
It was only when we got the title Veteran of the Fourth War that I realized it was meant to be over. It didn’t feel like we solved much.
Seems to be the same with Faction conflicts as a whole. Really, how was MoP any better in that regard? The Horde blows up Theramore at the start, killing its inhabitants in apparently one of the most painful ways possible and literally scarring reality and at the end Varian gives the Horde leaders a stern word and walks out. The Horde feels like its pride and honor is left in tatters and it basically needed saving from itself and the Alliance is left feeling those responsible got let off the hook with only a few scapegoats getting the blame. I mean BfA is practically a rehash with just the levels of extremes tuned up. Even worse though because it makes both factions look even more incompetent and foolish. Just wait till they have Tyrande realize “that her holding on to her hate is wrong and she has to let go and forgive the Horde for the sake of her people just like Anduin always said”.
It wasn’t outside of the Pandaria story. That’s why BfA is MoP 2.0: Undead boogaloo.
Still? When will it end?
You should read Blank Scroll again. They mention Garrosh burning down Teldrassil in that as well. It’s the generic Bad Thing that can happen to a tree.
Which isn’t to say it wasn’t the plan the entire time, but considering the number of times Blizzard seems to have either outright lied or changed their plans mid implementation I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t Sylvanas’ plan the entire time. Killing the Kaldorei, sure, but not outright burning the tree to do it.
I don’t see why they wouldn’t just retcon Teldrassil at this point. Sure they needed an explanation why Saurfang becomes sad and Sylvanas powerful, but they never once considered or cared about how the plot should go on for the Night Elves, and that’s why they were mostly ignored after that.
The biggest problem right now is that they are trying to let both the Horde and Sylvanas + her loyalists get away with it, which simply doesn’t work without making things even worse for Night Elves.
A retcon isn’t plausible at this point, given that they’re investing even more into the story of Teldrassil in Shadowlands, while still having no resolution for it in sight yet.
They should just let it go at this point and retcon it. There will be no resolution for Teldrassil unless either Sylvanas or the Horde (preferably both) are brought to justice for it, and for both of these parties it’s not possible anymore.
Unless Blizzard plans to give the Night Elves an updated home in Hyjal, all of their zones back and all of their people back, they can’t give them any closure other than with Sylvanas death or Horde blood. And from what I’ve seen on beta, this doesn’t seem all that possible either as some of the souls are aleeady permanently gone.
Horde blood wouldn’t be resolution, either.
The Horde got bloody revenge for Camp Taurajo in-game, and that wasn’t enough to bring satisfaction, as Blizzard still has even NPCs bring it up.
The Night Elves attacking the Horde would just prolong players’ anger, not resolve it.
Well there has to be something. Blizz can’t just let Sylvanas AND the Horde get away with everything and pretend that nobody is responsible for it. They already did so with Saurfang and the Horde kind of, and I’ve recently heard of interviews where they are doing the same with Sylvanas now?
Some things that absolutely need to happen are:
Oh! Look! another NEFPA!
They should do this anyway. Throw the Forsaken a bone with Stratholme while they’re at it.
As for “brought to justice”, well Sylvanas should be conceptually easy … if Blizz simply allows it to happen. There are any number of punishments you could throw her way. Bringing the Horde to justice though? That’s where things as always with these sort of discussions gets real tricky. There are no architects of the WoT left within the Horde. We have no way of knowing if those faceless nameless NPCs that fired the catapults survived any of the following battles; nor would NE players be happy with faceless, nameless NPCs as recompense (which … is a wee bit ironic). The remaining Sylvanas loyalists are being rounded up in chains, and for all we know they’re headed right along with Sira. There is no canon destination for them. The entire Horde form of government has been changed, with the Warchief position no longer existing.
So how does one “get justice” on the Horde faction? I honestly could give a crap if you blow up a city, but we’re in real bad shape with characters atm. And since we’ve already established that blowing up a city with a bunch of nameless, faceless NPCs is unlikely to result in the justice NE players want … does that mean they want Horde reps? That’s … real problematic.
NPCs on Teldrassil are named. A number of the named NPC’s souls show up in Ardenweald after the player saves them from the Maw.
I don’t think Droite meant nameless literally.
See, there is our barrier.
I’d start with giving the Night Elves a heritage questline where they slaughter their way through Ashenvale and reclaim the zone canonically.
Sira was handed over to the Alliance, correct? Was it also officially stated that the same thing happens to the loyalists?
Aside from this, in 8.2.5 there were dialogues of loyalists being forgiven which also was a really bad decision from blizz to portray the Horde in a better light, because that just didn’t do it.
The opportunity for that is mostly gone, and I don’t think justice on the Horde can ever be achieved without the extinction of every single Horde soldier, so I’d give them an Ashenvale questline where they kill the remaining genocidal Horde members, and then let Tyrande get the kill on Sylvanas before she inevitably goes down to her own powers. Sadly the latter really doesn’t seem possible currently.
Even not literally is an exaggeration. People recognize them. “Hey! It’s ‘Ishnu-alah’ guy!” and “Hey! It’s the guy with all the sprout quests!”
Great! They’re incrementally more relevant than the one’s without names. The vast majority of them still have little to no characterization beyond what Blizz could craft in 3 seconds with a NE character random name generator.
The question remains then, if you were to blow up Orgimmar and kill off a whole swath of “named” (characterless) NPCs … would that be sufficient justice for the NE players? See … I really doubt it. I get the feeling that the Herbalism Vendor Firodren Mooncaller’s blood can only be repaid with someone like Rokhan.
Depends if people found satisfaction in killing Malkorok and Siegecrafter Blackfuse. Especially the latter, given he came out of nowhere for the raid.
Or the various named Garrosh supporters we fought in the Northern Barrens during patch 5.3.
Obviously we’ll see how things go with Nathanos soon enough.
Shoot, go for it. Any Horde still in Ashenvale is likely some Sylvanas holdout anyway. Who gives a crap, and I doubt you will even if you were to get it.