Yuck, I hope not. That would mean that they are even more disconnected from their player base than rumored. Based on the fact that Sourfang’s point of view was pushed so hard in a cinematic that had to taken nearly a year to make, I’m going to say it was planned. Either they planned the internal conflict from the start or they had some impressive misconceptions about the Horde player base.
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Why not both?
Seriously though, I think they both planned this repeat of MoP but also didn’t expect so much backlash from Teldrassil and everything afterward. Obviously they planned it since like you said, Saurfang’s cinematic would have taken a long time to make, and furthermore there simply wouldn’t have been any time to turn the entire expansion storyline on a dime so quickly after the playerbase’s reaction to Teldrassil. This civil war was clearly always in the pipleline.
But from the way they acted in confusion at the outcry when Sylvanas’s warbringers first came out, and from how they were so sure when Saurfang’s cinematic came out that that appeased everyone’s worries, and from the way they keep insisting things are morally grey, I genuinely think they also have a gross misunderstanding of just how bad they’re making the Horde act and genuinely don’t understand why people are up in arms.
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Could very well be the case, though it is starting to feel intentional the way they keep down playing any justification the Horde might have to fight the Alliance. It’s unclear if Jania killing people in Dalaran is even in lore anymore and the chronicle books appear to be cleaning up everything else that might have happened on their side. I wouldn’t be shocked if Garithos in the next book or game referencing him paints him as a nice guy who attacked the blood elves by mistake.
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Damn that didn’t take long did it.
You’re not really making a point.
It flew right over your head
The motivation is actually pretty clear. There are just other elements surrounding it that come off as a bad MOP retread.
Azerite was a catalyst to an arms race. There wasn’t anything subtle about it. Once everyone began scrounging for it and the Horde and the Alliance were the only two superpowers on Azeroth capable of amassing large quantities of it, conflict and war was going to be inevitable.
The Horde’s motivation in “A Good War” was great and even sensible. The Horde had to ensure they were in a strong position against the Alliance, and they were being proactive about it the move into Kalimdor.
The difficult pill no one wants to swallow is that destroying Darnassus was the only viable option and that occupation would only keep drawing the battle there. If it existed, they were going to want to reclaim it. Though now, the Warfront in Darkshore just proves that it wasn’t just the city the elves would keep fighting for, but for the land surrounding it as well. Still, at least Garrosh had the decency to allow civilians to evacuate when he attacked Theramore.
The reason why I personally don’t have a lot of investment in this story has nothing to do with the arms race or the destruction of key enemy infrastructure to choke the of a key and powerful resource and everything to do with being indignant that we’re in the middle of a Horde identity crisis.
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Nope, sorry, they dropped the ball on that one. They have failed to convince me that the destruction of Teldrassil was necessary.
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Some people just won’t be convinced.
Suffice to say it’s a massive resource drain. Holding a city requires upkeep. A charred stump does not.
The only two options weren’t either hold the city or burn it. There were a million things we could’ve done. Also, the plan was initially to hold it, the only reason we didn’t is because Malfurion was alive, upkeep had nothing to do with it.
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It was my understanding that occupation was part of the plan, regardless of whether or not Malfurion was killed.
The fact that he wasn’t meant that Sylvanas had to up the ante to break their spirits.
To clarify, I didn’t say burning it was the only option. I said destroying it was. That distinction may not make much different to most people, but it does to me. I understand why Sylvanas decided to burn the tree but that doesn’t mean I agree with it, particularly because of the civilian cost that incurred. Even Hellscream allowed for the evacuation of Theramore. One way or the other, Darnassus was going to either be held or destroyed.
So with that in mind, if there were a million options that didn’t end either in the occupation of Darnassus or the destruction of it, can you name one?
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Sack it and leave, they’re tied up using resources to fix the place afterwards.
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That just defers their capability to use it as a transport hub. The intent was to eliminate it.
If you can’t execute your war plans without resorting to genocide, then the proper course of action is not to enter a war of choice.
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Ruling the land the city is in provides resources that go towards upkeep.
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Sure, but only a net positive, and we don’t know how close to the margins.
Not to mention how tenuous the grasp would be. A small strike force is all you’d really need to infiltrate and cause enough chaos the make the grasp slip. Cases in point would be the first liberation of Undercity in Wrath, but more specifically the infiltration by Varian himself into Ironforge when the Dark Irons occupied the city for a bit.
If you want to fully reduce the drain, not just minimize it, you have to eliminate that which is causing the drain.
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Or the more frightening reason - that they think their horde campaign material really is morally grey.
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It never existed in the first place, honey.
Not it wasn’t. The rationale used might as well apply to letting any faction exist.
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The Horde’s motivation in A Good War, is an argument for the Orcs and Forsaken to kill each other if ‘peace’ isn’t possible between groups that ever used to be enemies in the past.