There is actually quite a few similarities between WWI and the 4th war.
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The excuse of cloak and dagger operations as pretext of war. The Assassination of the Archduke of Austria was used as a pretext to invade Serbia,
even though the Assassin had no ties to the Serbian government. Sylvanas similarly to an
extent used the excuse of alliance operatives acting in Orgrimmar as a pretext
for war, though this was obviously used in a bad faith manner.
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Disregard for casualties, all sides in WWI used up that generation of men, mostly in fruitless frontal assaults. France and Britain were hard hit, and suffered a population loss in the following decades, Germany suffered even more deaths, but recovered faster due to a bigger population. The Horde suffered obscene casualties in the war of thorns, 10X greater than the night elves. Similarly, Alliance casualties in siege of Lordaeron couldn’t have been much prettier. No idea if population problems will be covered later, but if the Alliance was down to using the last of the farmers as soldiers, then their entire generation of fit young men must all have died or been injured.
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The Use of chemical warfare. Poison gas in WWI, Blight in 4th war. (Notable praise for the Alliance not reciprocating chemical warfare, although this probably wasn’t done for moral reasons, seeing their inhuman treatment of Horde POWs.).
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No one wanting to fight this war. Almost no one in WWI wanted to fight that war, 1917 seeing massive mutinies in the French Army, and the total collapse of the Russian Imperial Government. 1918 seeing similar circumstances for Germany and her allies. Almost no one in the horde or Alliance want to fight this war other than Sylvanas fanatics, mostly undead. Saurfang rebellion topples Sylvanas leadership.
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Extremely unsatisfying conclusion. When WWI ended, literally no one got what they wanted, and no one was happy. Italy didnt get the territory in Austria it wanted, German Empire, Austro-Hungary and Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and lost much territory, the French thought the punishments on Germany were not nearly severe enough, the British lied to India stating if India helped win the war, they would get independence, once the war ended, the British changed their mind and said no. Similarly the Alliance, although victorious, got almost none of the terms it wanted, the horde was not fully expunged from Night Elf lands, nor were they punished for the things they did, Gilneas and the Night Elves still didnt get the revenge they want, meanwhile the Horde was put through the meatgrinder for Sylvanas, yet accomplished none of the goals they needed to, such as securing resources for a comfortable long term horde existence, or ending the future threat of Alliance aggression. I dont need to point out that the player base was also left extremely unsatisfied.
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We needed another one of those threads…
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Back in 1914 a lot of people were looking forward to it actually. But then the reality of trench warfare hit them hard like a sack of bricks. A lot of people including the leaders on all sides believed it would be over by Christmas.
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Oh boohoo, if we cant compare the story to real life events, then what sort of point of reference can we even draw? May as well turn the story into “Stuff happened, then other people did other stuff, THE END”.
We can, but we have had quite a few similar threads recently which just resulted in a never ending discussion about real world history with very little connection to the wow lore.
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This, and the expansion was so improperly executed that it ultimately makes no substantial comparisons to the grueling slog that was WWI.
There were no out right revolts against the war, there wasn’t mass food shortages, anti war protests, no battlefield slogs that never really ended (You can claim this was warfornts, but they felt so shallow), the expansion did not properly showcase the mass carnage a comparison like this would warrant. The closest we got was Genn admitting they’d be calling up farmers next. Thats it. The stress the war put on the factions is never explored. The internal politics and logistics, minus big mean Sylvanas, is never touched. Nothing is focused in a substantial way that makes any mass conflict feel warranted. WoW just seemingly can’t throw that punch.
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I am not one to get blustered and flustered about the twisted reflections of the real world some posters have warped in their minds and compared to Warcraft…
But I just do not see it. It is a stretch. I think you wanted to say something and built a meaning around it, but the foundation was non-existent, so it fell apart.
I mean:
If one wanted to make an allusion to WW 1 and WW 2… The 3rd war and the 4th war seem more apt.
The 3rd war ended in a total Horde humiliation and a painful defeat. The 4th War was waged with those humiliations in mind, as well as every other thing.
I think the War of Thorns was just a play on words to match the Game of Thrones hype. It is not even numbered as an individual war in the Faction conflict. It is an event between the 3rd and 4th wars while apparently somehow being a war of its own with all the same actors? Or it is the opening salvo of the 4th War? Or the Blood War?
Either way - I am not opposed to the nature of comparing things as long as context remains. Having said that, I think your comparison is just bunk.
And this. At the start, all the European nations were clamoring for war. They thought it would be like the old wars.
Seriously. I think it speaks volumes about the story that one of my favorite lines of dialogue came from the God of War refernce orcs.
The war from the perspective of a father trying to explain it to his child. That’s great. It’s a moment of legitimate, relatable humanity. But it’s singular nature felt weird. In Elegy for example the Kaldorei now have a poem about the burning that reminded me of the Lament of the Highborne.
The Sin’Dorei and Forsaken have no opinion on causing misery eerily similar to that wrought on them by the Scourge? Nothing at all to say about that?
Seriously every Horde race knows what its like to see their home destroyed. It’s bewildering that’s only touched on once by two NPCs who are practically throw away gags.
We hear for example that Slyvanas has the support of the Horde’s people and that’s never explained. If we saw her making huge quality of life improvements in Orgrimmar that’d explain it. That might even give the rebel faction pause for thought. But we never get anything like that.
The biggest giveaway to me that Blizz could not or would not think through the ramifications of the story comes with the Forsaken. They’ve lost their home and were just abandoned by their God Queen who revealed herself to be a false savior. And the most we get is some dialogue from refugees that boil down to excrement happens.
Now this isn’t exactly new. In Burning Crusade I always thought it was really weird how Kael’Thas’s betrayal wasn’t more of a lasting gut punch to the Sin’Dorei. They really move on from it weirdly quickly. But that was 13 years ago. In game cutscenes weren’t really a thing there wasn’t much you could do to show it. But today they really went out of their way to show us a lot of interesting character drama with the hero characters. It’s odd that none of those resources were put into portraying how the war was effecting the actual people fighting it.
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Let’s hope there’s not a WWII followup war twenty years or rather two or three expansions from now.
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