I can assure you I wouldn’t, because with BfA we had to go through the same crap we did MoP for a second time. I would much rather have the shoe be on the other foot cause at least that is different this time around.
Again, I get the Horde story sucked in BfA. Both factions got screwed, but I would rather had the roles reversed because at least it isn’t the exact same as MoP and the Alliance doesn’t get it’s teeth kicked in for a second time in a row in 4 years lore-wise.
You’re arguing from your current state of view. Imagine being one year through an expansion where your leader is a genocidal maniac and you following it without question and your racial leaders victimize races uninvolved and show how brutal your faction has been, and you just follow through. I doubt you’d enjoy that.
And your racial leaders lose most of their previous characterization to shoehorn in a faction war.
No, but I do believe I would have hated it less. Because I genuinly can’t fathom hating bfa more than I already do.
I don’t think the situations can ever truly sync up because the factions base appeal differs, as far as I’m aware. To me, the horde needs that moral striving because its faction is about proving its capability to do so. I assume the alliance’s core theme is about preserving what it has, so its losses are more of a direct sting to its fantasy.
I think the two faction wars directly damaged that because for the alliance, they didn’t preserve (gave up Azshara, lost Southshore, etc.) and the horde has shattered its moral core twice now. The alliance may have reclaimed most of its stuff on paper, but given that BFA was a rerun, the faction is left staring down the gun of a barrel again and being told this time it won’t fire. Meanwhile, the horde just finished running an Axis marathon and somehow you’re supposed to pretend you can still be considered a good person despite that.
Unfortunately I think you’d have to rewrite more than just separating the Ardenweald covenant bits. Tyrande’s stuff is being seeded as some sort of prophecy to save the whole zone with her Night Warrior powers. Vol’jin’s just…tacked on in comparison. You could just up and step on his wild seed and so far, the story won’t change a thing.
After MoP, I absolutely would rather have gotten that than just a retread of MoP. At least then the Alliance does some of the teeth kicking in instead of being the punching bag. Again.
I don’t think this is true, I just think Blizzard thinks it is true. And extreme fans on both sides.
And how is that different from what we have now? Our racial leaders are completely butchered to fall in line with Anduin and his ideals. They are made to look incompetent and borderline OOC just to follow an 18 year old kid.
You still had tyrande, maiev and shandris questioning him, so that isn’t true. Even Genn did.
I think the only racial leader who did that was Jaina. Even Shandris was tempered because of her worrying about Tyrande, not necessarily in line with Anduin, as she does show caution.
Your racial leaders are alive, at least
Tyrande questions him and is being made out to look “wrong” and “consumed by vengeance”. Shandris and her “Tyrande you spoke harshly to King Anduin.” 
it’s not like Tyrande has raised Shandris as her daughter for 10k years… yeah let’s just side with Human Potential Anduin.
Genn “questions” Anduin but is still a bootlicker.
Even the Dwarves all side with Anduin.
No one ACTUALLY questions Anduin and says he is wrong, other than Tyrande. That’s it. Seriously? After everything the Horde has done in the span of 4 years?
Is that any better when they are all Anduin bootlickers and sycophants? I’d almost rather they all be dead than have their character’s butchered to fit his ideals.
Well isn’t it fortunate that the Horde gets both! Characterization butchered AND death!
Ah yes, Dreadmoore “I want the Horde to be able to wreck the Alliance with no repercussions” the DK.
I skimmed the quote too quickly and read it as “not until the horde are stoned” and I thought “well that’s one way to make the faction chill out.”
Night warrior so far has been a complete failure. She hasn’t accomplished anything and her story hasn’t advanced other than “angry because powers”, we are also only told the night warrior is strong, but never shown. And no beating a weaker Nathanos isn’t showing off any kind of relevant power.
So far other than to give night elves black eyes, the night warrior has served no purpose. It was clear they had no real desire to use this beyond 8.1, that is why Tyrande doesn’t even show up to fight Sylvanas, when now that is all she is seemingly focused on. Tyrande would have had a better arc without needing a new power up and the night warrior needs to do something big or the power was completely pointless. But just doing something big isn’t a good story.
I think she is far worse off with the power from a story perspective and it only even exists so far to justify cosmetic eye colors.
Feel free to quote me, homie.
They should have made a different Night Elf take up the power, in my opinion. Say, Delaryn Summermoon?
Instead of her being killed, Sylvanas makes her watch Teldrassil burn and then leaves her there “having had her hope killed”. This leads to Delaryn, who isn’t already a demi-god like Tyrande, undergoing the ritual to become the Night Warrior. Then she is the one who attacks the Forsaken camp and fights Nathanos.
I don’t know, for me it makes the Night Warrior seem more impressive because Delaryn couldn’t do all that stuff before, but now she can. It makes the power actually look like a power up, expands Delaryn’s story, and doesn’t force Tyrande into the role and leave us in the current situation we are in now.
Also, I like the idea of using side characters for story beats more than racial leaders. I hate how currently if something happens it has to be a racial leader that does it. Why?
It definitely would have been better if someone else took up the power, and someone like Delaryn who was actually there so you could see her doing something like that (instead of just turning her undead and 100% loyal to her killers and butchers of her people).
Tyrande was suppose to be powerful in her own right, but then giving her a power to just fail to stop Nathanos in 8.1 and then disappear into the Maw until we have to get her to get rid of the “powers” isn’t really anything other than wheel spinning the story.
I would love to see more side characters used in that way, they don’t need to keep cramming all these new “powers” (so far it has been nothing other than black eyes) into racial leaders that would have been more impressive in a side character. But so far the night warrior story has been entirely a failure when used with Tyrande, but that is because I still think they had no actual plans for this power when they made it in 8.1.
See, here’s where the disconnect between an in-universe view and an out-of-universe player perspective clash.
How long do I, the player, have to deal with in-game guilt trips about the actions taken by the NPC leaders? Because when I’m playing, I’m not playing as Baine or Saurfang or Thrall or hell, Forsaken Footsoldier #1610. I’m playing a blood elf hunter who chose the rebel side, who opposed Garrosh, who opposed Sylvanas. And I don’t expect every or any quest in the game to realistically acknowledge those choices or those events, but my blood elf hunter already gave her pound of flesh. I helped Tyrande look for her husband even when she hated me, I rescued dead elf souls even when she hated me, I tried to rescue Anduin and Jaina from Hell2.0, I… I’ve paid my dues for the actions I didn’t instigate or take part in when that choice was available.
Yet my character is the one I play, the one made to keep atoning. It’s not the NPCs who are given this burden, it’s me. It’s always me, the player of the game with red background portraits. And it’s not like there’s even a bar to fill with atonement cred for me to work on my atonement progression. Because even though it’s always my gameplay that requires me to atone for the Horde’s crimes, the narrative is actually waiting for some Golden book for the atonement to actually be paid in, an atonement that has nothing to do with the elements of the game I’ve been playing.
Maybe I just don’t want the gameplay loop of: Have my leadership decide we’re evil today and attack the Alliance in some horrific manner, turn against my leadership, fight the latest iteration of Space Satan while being guilt tripped for the last atrocities my leadership committed, repeat loop.
Maybe I’m just tired of the game hammering home how I’m bad and should feel bad about my badness, with intermittent breaks when everyone’s happy friends again and I help Alliance characters fight Space Satan, just so I can be guilt tripped again two years later.
If you want to play the non-metal, non-evil faction, with the moral high ground the Alliance is waiting for you. Hahaha honestly I think that is Blizzard’s mindset. they want the Horde to be metal and hardcore so they make them evil, but then are like “oh wait this is a player faction.”