Those are hardly comparable. Life regrows from a forest fire and, in some cases, trees are even flammable specifically because burning releases their seeds to grow more saplings. Nothing grows from perpetual destruction and plaguing.
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Bruh… plague and blight is not a natural forest fire it’s specifically brewed by the forsaken to make things uninhabitable and poisoned lmao
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Yeah that’s true, we’re the knock-off Scourge at the moment.
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Finally someone says it.
The worst part about the Burning of Teldrassil is all of the salty night elf fans it created.
I am personally at a weird crossroads on this matter. I deeply sympathize with Night Elves and Night Elf fans, Teldrassil was not only a loss but Blizzard doubled it down and made it an extra gruesome and horrifying one that entailed nothing but their military left standing in any living capacity. They have effectively lost their society and way of life, and it’s deeply tragic and saddening.
On the other hand, I could also argue that they’re not necessarily exclusive on races that get raw deal when it comes to their treatment in the story, and would in fact even say they’re treated a little better than other races. At least they are fighting and trying to attain some level of vengeance against their enemies right after losing their homeland. When it came to races like Worgen, Blizzard didn’t address any of their desire for vengeance until multiple expansions after they lost Gilneas and by then people started feeling like Worgen should just have gotten over the loss because it sure seemed like Blizzard didn’t care either. To say nothing that they became consumed by Night Elf culture and whatnot.
Be that as it may, my heart still does go out to the Night Elves, because I am a Worgen at heart and Night Elves helped them when no other race would. I like that they have a shared suffering going on in the story, but I do feel Blizzard is addressing the loss the Night Elves have faced much quicker than they’ve done with other races in the past, so I do admit that’s part of why I feel it should be reminded that I still think it could be so much worse, despite how I do understand the feeling.
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That’s exactly the concern, I believe. That Blizzard will sidestep the issue and keep trying to brush it under the rug until long enough time has passed that people start saying that everyone should just get over Teldrassil.
Of course, this being the Story Forum, we don’t even have to wait that long:
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Yes I definitely understand that, and am reminded of that troll thread. (Though, even to this day, I see a number of people go “wtf why does Genn hate Sylvanas is he a bigot or something???” like there’s a number of posters who have just never leveled in Gilneas or played a Worgen at all to know the story.)
Honestly though I would say Darkshore is a lot like the Silverpine story but handled better. Both have screentime devoted to the aggrieved races fighting back and finding vengeance, but Silverpine was a Horde-exclusive story, meaning Worgen were inevitably going to lose and lose badly whereas in Darkshore both factions are getting focus and it’s still left up in the air who will come out on top, so I do see where that worry comes from but I still prefer this as a follow-up to a tragedy happening than what happened with the Worgen.
1 Like
At the beginning of BfA, before the Tides of Vengeance reveal at Blizzcon, I did not expect there to be any follow up at all beyond the mission table achievement. The Darkshore Warfront and its associated content was definitely a lot more than I expected, and I appreciated it.
However, I also posted this on the Tides of Vengence PTR Forums and here on the Story Forum:
I do not think the amount of time the Gnomes or Gilneans have had to wait to get their homes back has been acceptable. But preferring the Darkshore Warfront over what the Gnomes or Gilneans or anyone else has gotten does not make Darkshore an acceptable stopping point for the story right now, either.
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Eh. Other races have had the luxury of having their worse tragedies off-screen. Teldrassil wasn’t, and the worst part about it was that it happened solely so a few non-nelves could feel sad about it on camera.
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No kind of tragedy is a luxury I would say, though I wouldn’t call Gilneas an off-screen one.
And the worse part is when it happens to races like Gnomes, Trolls, or Worgen that never get any entire zones dedicated to them outside of it either. (Though I guess one could say Mechagon is a zone for Gnome fans to enjoy, it’s something at least.)
At this point it goes beyond night elves, for me, and it should for all of us. It’s not night elf fans or tauren fans, it’s people who want to appreciate the story in general. The War of Thorns and the Burning showcases a very marked disconnect between the writers and the playerbase, and them treating major set pieces as disposable in this way is concerning, especially given what appears to be an actual disdain and disinterest for certain races, while also having an unhealthy focus on other races, but a version of those particular races at odds with their original concept.
Blizz is not the first company to destroy a major city in their game, and while I’m sure others did it long before this, the one that stands out to me is Guild Wars 2 and what happened to the original Lion’s Arch. The various enemy factions were built up for months, and while many didn’t like the villain herself, there was never any doubt as to the care that went into crafting the events. You had a ruined city, the ruins of something everyone had grown attached to, and covered in poison gas. As the gas subsided, you would run in, dozens of players, to save civilian NPCs until the gas overcame you. And then later on, run in to take the city back, once the next stage was released weeks later. It was all races, all factions, fighting to save this one hub, and you did get a win, eventually, but what happened reverberated for years later, and set the stage and focus for several content patches and an entire expansion.
BfA, at least the meta arch, is characterized by an inconsistency. It’s not just set pieces they treat as disposable, it seems, but character and race themes as well. The Horde War Campaign has one part that stands out to me the most, where a Kul Tiran that was just raised after being killed is struggling with her new state, literally going into shock and trauma, unable to reconcile. Lillian Voss is shown to be helping her, but it feels very wrong, to me, because it’s literally one of the people who subjected the person to this torment now being framed as the ‘good one’. Nathanos makes a comment that if the Kul Tiran can’t pull herself together, she needs to be killed, damning her to the hell he knows awaits all undead. And while one could argue that this is supposed to show how bad Nathanos is… I don’t think the writers meant that. I legitimately think that it was meant to make him look like a ‘morally grey’ cool badass, and the writing of late hasn’t exactly proven otherwise.
TL;DR: The writers have a bad case of Game of Thrones syndrome and night elves are just the most obvious and overt victims of this.
17 Likes
imo essentially in blizzard’s “faction war” plotlines, you only get a substantial victory if you are the antagonist side of a scenario. The Protagonistic victories are always very subdued, probably due to blizzard not wanting to make it seem like it goes from justice to revenge, but that results in them not understanding how it feels for the audience.
For the record I am not defending any of this.
1 Like
You bring up a lot of really good points, they seems to over use shock value, like way to much. They have a long history of building up characters then just killing them off for shock, kindy sparkshire for example in tides of war. Great gnome character (my gosh have the gnomes been neglected) and just bam gone to really maxamize the impact of threamore. I dont think it was necessary, like a city getting mana bombed is shocking enough…Like I really hope the gnome king dosent die because it may take yearrrrssss for them to do something about that. Like the trolls, vol’jin died and the trolls really havent had any defacto leader since nor many other characters developed. I could go on with even more examples but ill stop there.
Ill wait until the end of bfa and first part of next next expansion, but the forsaken after sylvanas dont have many characters built up, and the night elves dont have like any lands currently. Like those are big races you cant just leave hanging.
…Annnnnnddddd they have a terriable habit of just leaving things hanging after they destroy things.
I also agree with your point, a lot of things are very wrong, like you help the horde recover derrick proudmores body only to have him raised then rescue him. But you’re being framed as the ‘good guy’ in this situation. Its like lol wut?
Or the narrative is just just at akward places, like when you rescue lady ashvane, but sylvanas just leaves you, rexxar, and thyrlassa there for no narrative reason what so ever.
I ramble alot, but yea they really over use shock value which causes them to treat characters as (to much so) disposable.
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i think that she could have become a great character it sucks that she was only created to change the motivation of the main character.
the recipe for greatness (haha) was there, a gnome, apprendice of proudmoore (one of the best mages in azeroth) and survivor of such event and how she deals with it.
it would have created an eventual replacement when we start needing “new blood” for our roster in case we needed it and it would help the gnomes to get another notable character, a waste.
But overall your point is spot on.
many things here seems like half finished or just random things.
Like… you guys save ashvane… and give a spooky dagger to sylvanas that apparently will guide you to victory… and the next thing you know you are surrounded by nagas trying to murder you 
and working with your enemy or be killed by the recurrent villian of the week
And ashvane (for the surprise of no one) is already on that side.
like… how did that even happened?
what went wrong? what is even going on?
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Welcome to World of WARcraft sugar. Every race had it s ups and downs but ONLY nelf fanboys play the persecuted victim card and think they are ENTITLED to be imune of war and it a tragedies.
Get. Over. It
Still waiting for those ups. Don’t tell us we need to get over it you wanker.
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I so am. Every race had losses. Nelves are just the most recent one. Difference is that i don t see any other race s fanboys acting like the writters owe them to put nelves in an untouchable pedestal where they can t lose anything.
Like i said. Get over it
Again, other races aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously. When it’s all losses I think we have perfectly legitimate grievances and shouldn’t just “get over it.” Getting over it would be giving Blizzard the thumbs up to just do this again next time.
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Let me see:
Humans lost Stormgarde, Gilneas AND Lordaeron but…they aren’t " used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously"
Orcs lost both the first and second war AND their planet and had to literaly start anew but…“they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Dranei lost their entire homeplanet and where kicked out of Draenor and had to start anew entirely but “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Worgens lost Gilneas for nearly 10 years now but “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Goblins lost Kezan for as long as the worgen lost gilneas but “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Blood elves lost Quel’talas in Warcraft 3 where you have to play as Arthas attacking them, their king gets nuts and you have to kill him during BC buuuuuut “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Forsaken literally lost everything, that’s their entire point and just now they lost Undercity buuuuut “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Darkspear trolls didn’t even have a city of their own before Cataclysm, their entire story was about being a punchbag for the Night elf empire, Vol’jin got killed in the most contriving way possible but “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
The Mag’har orcs lost their entire planet to an alternative ‘‘spanish inquisition esque’’ draenei buuut “they aren’t used as perpetual punching bags for the next big threat to come along that needs to be taken seriously”
Yeah sure…nelves are the poor victims, the poor punching bags who lose everything oh my god! No one can understand their loss!
GET
OVER
IT.
Everyone lost something. You are not special. The nelves are not special even if you insist on trying to paint them as divine, untouchable beings who can’t lose anything.
Why does this make you so mad for? I think you’re the one who needs to get over it, you’re taking it too personally.
On topic: I don’t want them to be untouchable, I want them to actually have a win that isn’t just losing less and unambiguously feels like we actually achieved something. It’s not that unreasonable to ask for is it?
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