The Way BfA Should Have Gone

Lore Story Forum
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After Legion the Silithus events play out the same way. The Horde finds azerite first and the Alliance attacks the goblin miners there.

The Alliance begins to think that Sylvanas is primarily behind whatever the Horde has planned with Azerite and while the Night Elf forces move to Silithus to cut off the mining operations, Stormwind prepares to move on Undercity. The Siege of Lordaeron happens as in game. But the Alliance move not just to destroy Undercity, but reclaim all of Lordaeron and eradicate the Forsaken.

The surviving Forsaken flee to Orgrimmar where the leaders of the Horde decide that the Alliance is planning an attack from Northern Kalimdor with the purpose of finally dismantling the Horde. They decide to mobilize the Kalimdor Horde forces and launch a sneak attack (as happened in game) into Ashenvale before the Night Elf military in Silithus returns.

The Horde pushes their way to Teldrassil where Sylvanas makes the decision to burn the tree to completely shatter any Alliance holdings in Kalimdor. While Saurfang and Baine do not love this idea they see the necessity of driving the Nelves out completely and go along with it. Thus there is no civil war 2.0 and while the burning of Teldrassil is still a horrendous action it can be supported as necessary and not just an unnecessarily evil action.

Both factions then decide they need a navy to prevent any further attacks from the other continent, so they turn to Zandalar and Kul’Tiras. The leveling zones play out the same way.

This would have in my opinion fight much better with not only the characterizations of both factions and many characters, it would have given both faction fan bases justification for what their side is doing. The Alliance would be attempting to reclaim Lordaeron, prevent Sylvanas from obtaining Azerite. While the Horde would be actually attempting to protect themselves from an overzealous Alliance.

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for me it would have been just easier to say
“we need a fleet to attack these random nagas but their naval advantage is too strong!,they are building an azerite empire! we must stop them!”

we go to zuldazar with talajanji showing up as a diplomat for the horde

and jaina doing the same as she tries to mend things between kultiras and the alliance.

Same story, only that not “WORLD WAR RIGHT NOW” at the background
we would have the story of the fall and rise of an empire
and another about uniting a nation, a family and about redemption.
without the need of “FACTION WAR!” garbage.

can this absurd war end already? i am tired of it.
blizzard wanted a revenge story for the nelfs? lets have the naga burn the tree or be their enemy and the nelfs would lead the charge vs azshara in 8.2
same with forsakens, lets say some random light zealots like calia.

hopefully in this scenario, teldrassil and lordaeron didn’t happened or at least, not in the same way. and if blizzard REALLY wanted the faction war, then escalate it after 8.0 not before.

just hire me already blizz.

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You could do that too. For me I don’t hate the faction war, I think there are some compelling stories there and if that’s really what Blizzard wanted to do it would be much easier to find a way to make the Alliance the aggressors that results in both sides being “morally grey”.

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I still think it’s great miss-opportunity of not making an old god-possessed Greymane light up the world tree then blamed it on Sylvanas.

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BfA needed proper motivation.

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There’s an episode of the show “The Boondocks” where Huey explains what an n-word moment is. While he’s explaining it, two men approach each other, bump into each other, and start shooting guns at each other. Every shot misses until all their shots are spent. At the end of it, the two men realize how stupid what they were doing was, and they put their weapons away and begin to part amicably. Then a police officer wastes both of them.

If my analogy isn’t properly understood, The horde and the alliance should have realized how stupid this whole thing was before any real damage was done, just like the men in my above scenario. Unlike my above scenario, they should do this so Officer N’Zoth doesn’t murder us all.

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Funny how the core of these “BfA done right” ideas is the Alliance attacking Lordaeron first.

And you’re right. That’s how this entire mess gets fixed. The Alliance already had all the reason in the world to attack Sylvanas, and the Horde needed to be on the defensive on the outset of this war; trying to conquer the world with Garrosh is still too recent a chapter of the Horde’s history. But they just couldn’t do it. It had to be the exact same dance as before, step for step.

The decision to have Teldrassil come first will forever be one of the most baffling story decisions they’ve ever made to me. WC3 was a pleasant fluke; Evil Horde vs Goodly Alliance is the only thing they know how to write with the player factions. What trite.

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A better solution is to just not have the faction war whatsoever.

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The biggest mistake was Blizzard made was trying to force the faction war and the Azeroth is dying plots into the same expansion. It makes both sides look selfish and dumb. Both would be fine on their own but not together.

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This expansion shouldve been about racial pride, stopping OG forces and healing the planet. As it stands now BFA shouldnt have happened in a post MOP and especially post Legion world. The reasoning is contrived and literally boils down to a scared sh*tless undead elf too far gone and on borrowed time.

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It’s a great suggestion, OP. Which is why literally everyone suggested it back when BfA was first teased.

But I guess Blizzard knew better.

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Everyone was suggesting it because there are so many possibilities that come up for it that would be brand new and awesome twists. Blizzard had options, but took the lazy route and tried to write it off as being “bold” and doing crap for the “shock factor.”

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How about we don’t make the Horde player complicit in genocide?

The Night elves catch wind of Syvlie’s Mongolian urge to recreate Baghdad and evacuate Teldrassil and burn it to deny its resources and out of spite. There, now the Horde player won’t have to deal with “mien fuhrer” comparisons and the night elves aren’t being kicked while down yet again for a cheap feel.

The grognard minority get their “WC2 feel” with continents so blizzard can scrape the bottom of the barrel for future faction conflict, and the human paladins can learn to live without a mountain of a high ground in morality for a change.

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That’s the whole thing. The Alliance has not dirtied their hands and have been avoiding the Villain bat for… well, the entirety of World of Warcraft. Every “bad” action is swept under the rug or is even not directly our intentions. The Alliance isn’t even remotely aggressive even when lives are directly on the line.

If the Alliance started the war, it would make all the more difference with Teldrassil and Undercity’s destruction. It’d raise the stakes and paint that both the Alliance and Horde hate one another. Not this one sided deal of Sylvanas’ Horde is trying to destroy EVERYONE. And not even the Horde is on board.

I am quite certain that if the Alliance started this; the story would be 10x more interesting and the Horde would feel more pride in their actions. As they’re fighting for survival. They’ve been the provokers for multiple expansions. To be on the receiving end would put everything under perspective and justify actions in return.

Right now, the Alliance feels like victims fighting tooth and nail. With Sylvanas being this evil dictator of the Horde. Had it been Anduin pushed into a war to prove his worth as a king, and show the teeth of Genn and Jaina’s hatred of the Horde. It’d make so… so… SO much more sense.

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The real way WoW should of gone:

After defeating Jaina it becomes very cold and dark. You become uncomfortable from the chill and darkness that envelops you. Suddenly you wake up. You are in a bed and as you look around you, you see bandages, ointments, and milled herbs all around. Someone walks in, it is your faction’s leader. He greets you and thanks you for your effort you given over to your faction. “$n you have helped to rid Azeroth of the Scourge and have fought bravely against the Lich King…”. He tells you of the victory amd challenges that you and your group or friends have overcome. In return he is interested in hearing of these dreams you have had while resting. He is interested because you have been muttering words like, Panderan, Apexis Crystals, Artifact Power, and Azerite Power. Though he can not quite tell if they are dreams or nightmares. That part of the story is for you to tell as you see fit. Then WoW ends, roll credits.

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This would only work if there became a political crisis over Stromgarde, which ultimately would escalate to include Gilneas, and finally Lordaeron. The Alliance assaulting the Forsaken to reclaim Lordaeron outright wouldn’t make any sense for any Alliance character. Turalyon, Calia, and Alonsus are the only characters who have any ties to Lordaeron, and none of them are aggresive towards the Forsaken. Turalyon was abhorred by them at first, but after seeing Alonsus, he had a change of heart. Plus, Sylvanas is his sister-in-law.

The best way for the story to play out would be that Danath returns to Arathi to reclaim Stromgarde, and the Forsaken have a problem with his movements. So there becomes a major skirmish over the Arathi Highlands, and the rest of the E.K. Alliance moves to support Danath. He is the heir to an Alliance kingdom, after all, and a Son of Lothar. Perhaps we could have all of the Sons of Lothar lead the effort, except Khadgar of course, and each bringing in their respective forces.

While the Alliance is working on reclaiming Stromgarde, Genn also moves to reclaim Gilneas. Perhaps he could be backed by the Night Elves on this.

The Horde responds to the Forsaken’s call for aid, and refuses to give the Alliance their old territories back, for fear of the Alliance holding such a strong pressence near Undercity.

The Horde’s response to the Alliance’s landgrab causes the Alliance to then move to reclaim Lordaeron, realizing that the Forsaken will not relent.

The Horde are ultimately defeated and the Alliance wipes out all of the Horde’s pressence in E.K., except for the Blood Elven lands.

The Kalimdor Horde counterattacks the Night Elves in response, burns down Teldrassil, and queue BFA.

Azerite doesn’t even need to be a factor.

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Not simply to plug my own crap, but you might wanna check this out: Idea for a Better BFA Narrative.

It was my take on how to redo BFA; the gist of it was that Thoras Trollbane leaves the Ebon Blade to rebuild his kingdom, and Danath is stuck down in Stormwind advising Anduin still. Sylvanas -still- wants Stromgarde and Arathi after the whole Galen debacle, and she starts putting heat on Arathi.

The player is sent by Danath to convince Thoras to send an official summons for aid, but he’s too stubborn, and so you gotta get creative and pull some “beacons of Minas Tirith” level stuff to officially send word for the Alliance to ride north.

Both factions fight over Arathi (and consider it contested ground) and we start the expansion with the Arathi Warfront.

In response, Sylvanas and Anduin know it could get worse, so Sylvanas invites the Alliance leaders to Lordaeron for a peace summit, and tries to assassinate them, believing she can cripple the Alliance by doing so and pre-emptively end the war, killing Malfurion in the process, but the rest escape - and that prompts the siege of Lordaeron, in which Nathanos or some other Horde leader dies.

Sylvanas responds by attacking Teldrassil after the fall of Lordaeron, and manages to capture it, and we get the Darkshore battlefront in the process.

The second raid of the expansion would be Tyrande disobeying Anduin, along with Genn, in an effort to reclaim Teldrassil and free her people. The twist is that Anduin needs those forces to attack Dazar’alor, and so it leaves him short handed in the future when we raid Dazar’alor.

Genn and Tyrande stage an assault on Darnassus, and both player sides have to fight the enemy faction in the streets of the city, leading to a final show down between Sylvanas and Tyrande, which ignites a fire, which burns the whole tree down.

Most of the civilians die, and both sides blame each other, even though it’s not directly one side’s fault or the other’s.

It gives justification for some night elves to wanna be raised as Forsaken to get revenge on Tyrande, and it gives the rest of the night elves justification to absolutely hate the Forsaken.

Both sides win by everybody losing. Both factions have cities raided, both factions lose a city, and both sides lose a faction leader.

It also sets up a more contentious plot within the Alliance, and takes the Horde out of the villain spotlight, and seems more like natural escalation of war, and things getting out of hand.

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It should have just gone:

  1. Alliance decides to take out Sylvanas because of both the perceived betrayal at Broken Shore and killing Calia and a bunch of other people at a supposedly peaceful meetup.

  2. Fall of Lordaeron happens.

  3. Sylvanas is pissed about losing Undercity. So she leads the Horde to burn down Teldrassil.

  4. Everyone is super pissed and super at-war!

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I have a feeling night elf players would still be mad. maybe not as mad, but still mad.

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Not even close to as mad (or dead inside) as they currently are, or historically are whenever Blizzard is looking for victims to justify Alliance indignation. Especially if Tyrande or Mal themselves pushed the detonator.

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