To subvert or not to subvert

While you have a point, this is followed by a single Horde character nearly killing four Alliance leaders - two with cosmic powers - in a single blight bomb barrage. It would’ve worked if one of them didn’t have teleportation magic.

So what you’re saying is that UC got blown up for nothing, and the Alliance heroes foiled yet another Horde attempt?

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Not entirely. In addition to being a Horde trap, I think Sylvanas had the plan of “I win because you didn’t/if I can’t have UC, no one can!” So Sylvanas achieved that second part.

I mean, it’s still destroyed because the alliance drove the horde out and nothing was achieved by the horde that way, and all the alliance loses is something they’d need to dedicate troops to to hold.

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No Horde victory in BFA can make up for the fact the entire war started with a completely unprovoked war and atrocity on the Horde’s part.

The thing is, I can stand losing battles, but I can’t enjoy victories upholding genocide. Alliance can claim how much they have lost all they want, but none of these losses have gutted the credibility, standing, and themes of their faction so thoroughly.

Material faction losses can be made up for, the losses experienced by the Horde in BFA, to their standing, credibility, morality, spirit, and themes, can NEVER be completely brought back cleanly. BFA is ALWAYS going to cast this stupid shadow over the Horde’s future actions. I would take losing multiple cities over that.

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I hate the WoT but saying it was completely unprovoked is… entirely wrong lmao

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Logically it shouldn’t be considered unprovoked, but the game certainly seemed to treat it that way, so I think that’s the canon regardless of how much it shouldn’t make sense.

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The characters need a reason to go outside that does not depend on a world-ending threat to stop. Currently, the stakes are always too high, and the characters have become too reactive with little room for personal goals. For the sake of illustration, I would point to WC3, where many of the characters had simple yet clear motivations: Thrall sought to establish a homeland; Arthas pursued Malganis for “revenge”; Kaelthas was searching for a fount of magical power, etc. While there were world-ending threats in WC3, the characters still had motivations beyond survival. In contrast, I can’t name a character in modern WoW that has a goal. In fact, I could extend this to the factions as well; their point of view is simply to survive the next major villain.

Therefore, my suggestion is to give the characters goals again. For example, have Jaina hunt relics to fill the void left by Dalaran, Forsaken leaders seek a means to reverse/counteract decay, Maiev wish to reclaim more of Kalimdor, the Blood Elves search for more founts of power, Anduin/Velen fight a war behind the scenes against the shadow , etc. It doesn’t need to be complex; they just need a reason to leave the house.

This approach would further free up Blizzard to craft smaller stories and create conflict between characters that would not balloon into an all-out faction war.

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Who still reads newsletters?

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I can think of one person

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Subverting would mean they did anything else that wasn’t already obvious.

Modern Wow exists in this weird continuum where they want the universe to be morally grey, but also one centered around heroism. The tonal clash is strange.

Just looking at the next three expansions, are we going to have the Void be bad, only to find that the Light is just as bad, and then the Titans are no better? Or, are we going to have the Light and Titans turned into caricatures and redeem the Void by comparison? It cant be three expansions of reversal of expectations, right?

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Is it really a reversal if we expect it?

It’s like a “plot twist” in an M. Night Shyamalan film. The first couple times was neat after that the “twist” becomes no twist just an expected plot beat.

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Right. This is what we get when writers want to have their cake and eat it too. Thankfully, a lot of them are gone now because they were part of the Cosby suite crew. Some of the remaining few have also left.

This situation is making some people learn the lesson from Aesop’s Fable “The Bat, Birds, and The Beasts” the hard way.

If they want to change things up, their only option is to let good be good and bad be bad. At this point, black and white would be a breath of fresh air. If vinyl records can comeback, so can black and white.

The problem with that idea is that morality is not a universally agreed upon thing, everyone has different ideas on what morally white and morally black are

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Let’s not bring Ska into this, please.

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Moral objectivism is more true to the reality of the human condition. Black and white morality only works in fiction and it’s not very thought provoking.

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I wasn’t talking about Ska, but okay.

True, though that just means some people are right and some people are wrong.

Only if you’re arrogant enough to believe that you have the right of it, Cause yes sometimes people are just in the wrong, sometimes people will believe full well they are in the right when doing the most heinous things

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That cuts both ways. And some people who say they’re in the right really are right.

That doesn’t refute what I said. Some are still right and others still wrong.