Tyrande Wick - Or, an alternative to Tyrande the raid boss

I have a story concept for you.

So, our protagonist has just been through a lot over the past few years, when some jerks break into our protagonist’s home for pretty flimsy reasons, beat them up, kill something dear to them, and take something of theirs. This protagonist gets up, dramatically obtains a great power from the past, and then uses it to get revenge.

By now the vague trick that I pulled is probably obvious. I’m alluding to the plot of John Wick, but I could be alluding to what Blizzard could be doing with Tyrande. The title sort of gives me away there and I’m not going to pretend that it doesn’t. But before this gets too terribly obvious, let me explain.

Many Night Elf fans, including myself, have worried that Tyrande is on a bullet train to raid boss status. The Night Warrior is framed as a dark power. Shandris begs Tyrande to let go of its rage. We have characters in Ardenweald suggesting that it will eventually kill Tyrande, or else somehow she will have to split or give up that power. Anduin declares that she’s consumed by vengeance just as we are going into an expansion that, if the Afterlives: Uther short is any indication, will heavily press on themes having to do with when justice becomes vengeance. With the reminder that Blizzard usually adopts… odd stances and calls them “moral”, we have on top of this: cinematics that are delving further into Sylvanas’s motivations, having her talking semi-cordially with Anduin, looking more likeable, and looking less like a villain. Finally, it’s Tyrande - the character who exists to be wrong, and who had a mild impulsive streak in Warcraft 3 transmogrified into her signature trait come MOP and Legion.

I mixed in a few elements having to do with Blizzard’s history, but a few of them have a theme - Tyrande is being framed as one might frame a villain, and this is causing members of my community to be a bit… concerned. I’m making this post to highlight one possible direction that Blizzard MAY be going with this - not to give them the benefit of the doubt or to assert that I know what Blizzard WILL do, but to give some credence to an argument as to where they MIGHT be going in hopes of making this conversation feel a little more balanced.

For this, I want to reference the Savage Books video (which can be accessed on Youtube - content warning for language) entitled *John Wick: Writing a Terrifying Protagonist", which examines how the movie uses a common framing device, typically used to hype up villains instead to hype up the protagonist. We already have some shades of this very thing in Warcraft, such as when Maiev explains the power of the Night Warrior as she and Shandris search for an ominously missing Tyrande. The sledgehammer scene was the ritual itself. The quest materials themselves further take on a somewhat darker tone that’s intended to give off a feeling of grisly determination.

Does it perfectly do this? No, Nathanos in particular screws with it, but the attempt was there, and that attempt is further reflected in the Terror of Darkshore cinematic, which, while it emphasizes Malfurion, does present the Night Warrior in the center of the frame.

The framing of Tyrande as a dark and potentially villainous presence continues in the BFA epilogue of course with her appearance in the Alliance embassy and
her statement that she won’t sign a peace treaty unless it’s in the Banshee’s blood. For the next bit I’m going to note that while most of her focus is on Sylvanas - that’s not where ALL of her focus is on. She does mention that it doesn’t matter who rides the “beast” if it will still bite.

The other point I will mention is that Lor’themar in Shadowlands has already expressed worry about the possibility of Tyrande turning her focus onto the Horde. Is this the scene from John Wick that Savage Books analyzed? No, but the concert of these elements trends in a similar direction.

I mention the latter two points because yes, it is possible for Sylvanas to be redeemed, and for Tyrande to still carry out this arc in some fashion. Blizzard has already said that the faction conflict is not “over”. Ion said this specifically during an interview, citing in particular what he did, yes, refer to as a genocide of the Night Elven people, which, while I’m on the subject - is a matter that they left a lot of wiggle room for in terms of the number of survivors. Elegy paints a picture of a very successful evacuation, and a mostly-intact military.

Is this a prediction? Or a reason to trust that Blizzard will take this route? No, it’s a possibility. But I do want to raise it to give us something other than cynicism and gloom to contemplate.

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this is gonna be a long month, huh

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Possibly more depending on how long the grace period lasts.

Excited?

I expect Tyrande will find her salvation ( and not turn into a raid boss ) via her splitting the Night Warrior’s power with the Kaldorei spirits the player character saves from the Maw and brings back to Ardenweald.

Even if she does turn into a raid boss ( the Alliance’s second important figure to do so IIRC ) I very much doubt she’ll die either. She’ll be subdued, cough up a loot chest somehow, and that will be it.

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So you want Tyrande to be murderous, vicious, and entirely willing to shatter whatever tenuous peace exists between the factions even after getting her revenge on the principal architects of Teldrassil, but you don’t want her to be “the bad guy” or dispense purples. You want half the game to quiver in terror of just a single faction leader, but she can’t possibly be looked at in a bad light.

Seems extremely self-indulgent.

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I don’t have any problem with a dark, vengeful racial leader. Blizzard does, of course - Sylvanas is literally proof of that - but I don’t.

She can stay mad. It’s fine. I’d be a little (read: EXTREMELY) annoyed that the Alliance got to have this when the Horde had to lose theirs, but it’s basically fine.

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By this point I feel that this playable race has more than paid for it - although I will add this caveat.

I do not, under any circumstances, believe that if it ends up in the faction rivalry, which it probably should, it should be allowed to cross the border from Ashenvale to either the barrens, or into Azshara, or at least not in a permanent way. For balance reasons, I do feel that establishing the Night Elves as a threat is necessary, but I do not believe in simply punishing the Horde side as was done to us.

Nor do I want any “penance” to come in the form of moral lectures.

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Am I being petty? Sure. But I agree.

Why should the Alliance get to have yet another consequence-free power-up and get their dark, edgy, “terrifying protagonist” the Horde has to quake in fear of, when the Horde has continually lost all of theirs?

No thanks. Let the Alliance pay up in raidbosses and purples this time.

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I’m having a hard time understanding how you regard the situation as consequence free when the playable race has suffered immense consequences for its paper sin of “pride”, which was canonically blamed for, among other things, the destruction of Darkshore in Cataclysm, and the Burning of Teldrassil itself.

At this point, I feel that we pre-paid for our edgy subscription here.

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No. Everyone suffered in BfA, you don’t get to use that as justification.

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While I don’t fully agree with Jellex, I have to say: a single racial leader is worth a functionally infinite amount of land and random shop vendors. Until Tyrande or Malf bite it, they haven’t really lost that much.

And - how is Teldrassil attributed to the Nelves’ “pride?” From my view it’s squarely framed as an unwarranted attack by the big bad Forsaken.

(I do regret how quickly this thread is becoming a pile-on, I must say. On the whole, I appreciate the position you’re trying to take here, even if I don’t fully buy the justification you gave.)

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Its one thing for NE fans to be unhappy with the direction BFA took their story, I get that.

But holy hell if I never have to hear another argument that boils down to "Nelves are weak because they couldn’t solo the horde while most of their troops were gone " or complaining that they have it worse than the Horde (which has been hemmoraging leaders, and whose existing ones constantly get overshadowed), I’ll be happy.

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Not in the same ways - and the resolution for my suffering is not the same as the resolution for yours. So unless you’re arguing that we can’t solve multiple issues at once, which we absolutely can, this is not a bar to what I’m describing.

@ Gavick

While I don’t agree with Jellex, I have to say: a single racial leader is worth a functionally infinite amount of land and random shop vendors. Until Tyrande or Malf bite it, you haven’t really lost that much.

I think that’s a rather Horde-centered opinion, and it’s certainly a perspective that I don’t share. I derive my motivation to play the game in part from what the game tells me the playable race I want to select is capable of, especially when, up until perhaps recently (although, we will see), our racial leaders haven’t been worth much, and in more cases than the opposite, have dragged the image of the playable race down.

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Reminder that the Horde has also lost a zone and capitol

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Which I think they should get back.

Should we also get a terrifying protagonist whose power looms over the Alliance, making them worry about what will happen if that character’s gaze is turned their way?

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One thing I do need to point out: They really, really need to stop putting her in neutral content if they go this route. Expecting Horde players to continue questing alongside the character you’re outlining is idiotic.

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You sort of had one in Sylvanas - who is such a minefield that I’m not sure how to quite approach it. Before that was Garrosh - who got screwed over.

I sympathize with Forsaken players who would argue that she’s a core piece to their identity, and I’ve seen the logic in her influence continuing in some fashion - I’m just not sure how given how the story has gone with her.

@ Gavick

100% agree - they never should have had her quest with Horde players. That’s terrible for both sides.

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For what it’s worth Night Elf Players don’t really want her in neutral content either. Nor Malfurion.

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That was the original point I was making. I’m well aware that it’s petty, but the Horde has had those sorts of characters before, and they were all defanged or made villains or killed.

Why, then, should you be allowed to avoid the raidboss and purple dispenser fate?

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