The Biggest Lie of All

Lore Story Forum
1

An expansion marketed as being about Faction Pride and Faction Conflict, was actually about Faction Shame and Faction Cooperation.

Shame: The Horde loses its moral fiber and transgresses its defining values.

Cooperation: The Horde works with the Alliance to once again purge itself of evil.

#NotMoP

24 Likes
2

This is a trick question.
Horde has no moral fiber.

6 Likes
3

You know who really has no fiber?

Night Elves.

9 Likes
4

Night Elves are full of fiber

And protein

8 Likes
5

That big Blizzard own characters are treated fairly and are not portrayed as dumb.

6

I dunno, Elves seem like the last race you’d want to eat. They’re pretty lithe and lean, not really much to actually consume. Tauren is where the real goldmine is.

2 Likes
7

Vivette wrote this in another thread:

Which seemed about right to me. War in BfA has consistently been portrayed as a tragic mistake that we’re unable to avoid because of plot contrivance. There would be so much more drama if there were a real moral conflict–if both sides had both legitimate moral and practical reasons to fight.

Blizzard always seems to get uncomfortable around stories that don’t condemn aggression, though. Like, these guys woobified the God damn Zerg after Brood War because it was unacceptable for protagonists to end the story with any kind of legitimate hatred between them. Taran Zhu even exposits explicitly on this BS in his expansion.

If Blizzard could just toss that naive, preachy, simplistic throughline and realize that it’s OK in a game about war to portray good people caught in a legitimate death struggle that they can’t easily escape just by rebelling against the evil dictator, I feel like a lot of problems and contrivances would solve themselves.

6 Likes
8

They could have kept most of the story arc relatively the same without sacrificing faction pride on the altar of convenience. Have Genn instigate things—he has a compelling reason to. Teldrassil: unintended, or Sylvanas could have schemed to make it look like an accident.

I wanted to get into the faction pride thing, but there’s nothing there to grab onto. A lot of the cryptic Old God prophecy stuff is still interesting, but I’d rather just have an engaging expansion plot that doesn’t stupid/evil-bat all of the important NPCs.

9

Yeah, they could have, and then it would be kind of tedious instead of wildly offensive because no one would have any real responsibility for the accidental atrocities. It would have exactly the same impact as Deathwing levelling the place.

I’m not saying Sylvanas needs to BURN IT for no reason, or that it was the right move for the Horde to instigate (it wasn’t). But I am saying that the fight should be intentional and bloody with a cost to players.

If you’re unwilling to do that, I don’t think faction wars are worth it. Anemic conflict doesn’t justify the many costs and pitfalls of a pvp-themed story.

1 Like
10

I think people sometimes misread Horde players not wanting to get the villain-bat as Horde wanting to be good guys. Frankly, the War of Thorns didn’t cross into playerbase revolt territory until Sylvanas’ apparent snap-judgement to incinerate the tree instead of holding it hostage to spite a dying night elf. Made all the worse by being told that the responsible party would be a surprise.

I’ve just got Story Retread Fatigue. Alliance keeps getting boring-stale-righteous syndrome and Horde keeps getting turmoil-evil-goldfish syndrome. I was hopeful when I saw the new Thrall model, that maybe we’ll actually land on Vanilla era Horde again and stay there for awhile, but that was immediately undercut by the Jaina/Sunreaver revelation. I have little faith Thrall’s involvement will shake out in a way I find appealing.

4 Likes
11

That was #Savage.

But I agree with the OP post. In BFA, MOST of the Horde are presented as amoral scum, but luckily, the Alliance are there to save them from themselves and show them how to be adults!

Not a good experience for the Horde, or the Alliance who is getting mauled by the feral child.

4 Likes
12

I still say the singular, biggest moment/lie is the BfA trailer, where Sylvanas rallies the Horde and they charge.

It was such a hyped moment, a glimpse to the awesomeness that was to be the Battle for Lordaeron…

Then came the self-Blighting. The raising. The Genocide. The division. The Alliance holier-than-thou preaching…

Good lord, that cinematic is so disappointing in hindsight.

3 Likes
13

More Horde complaining about BfA… Unique and useful thread, 10/10.

1 Like
14

The Sylvanas WB was bad narratively for a lot of reasons… one being the awful portrayal of her death, another that her WB was essentially shared with a literal “who?”. I’m sure maybe only a small minority of players even know that the other Elf in the WB has a name. But definitely the worst would have to be the way they portrayed her making the decision to burn the tree. It certainly wasn’t a decision made just to spite one single Night Elf yet that’s what it looks like. The reality is just that Delaryn indirectly led her to the solution we see her wracking her brain for in AGW. Like I’ve said before her WB was just stylistic crap.

15

Wait and see :joy::nauseated_face: