I don’t think anyone would deny that virtually all meaningful character development in the game medium was RTS-focused. The MMO just had Arthas as an antagonist for us to confront. The only very minor exception was that weird story insert with his literal heart having been cut out and having some connection to his original soul represented as a child, being used as bait for Tyrion.
It’s kind of sad how much the “good story telling” era of WarCraft is so completely centered on the RTS days. There are one or two exceptions. Unpopular opinion, but I actually liked their writing for Garrosh, who was solely a creation of the MMO. I might be getting swayed though by the quality of the voice actor there. When he had his last confrontation with Thrall, he really sold Garrosh’s sense of being betrayed by Thrall and his resentment of being left in charge.
Call it a rebellion or freedom fighting or whatever you want. Blowing up millions of people to get to one dude isn’t a good look.
Sure it was a weapon that needed to be stopped. Sure it was a military base. But what about the people who were just doing their everyday jobs like the cooks and cleaners and accountants?
What about all of the sub contractors and construction crews on the second Deathstar?
Luke (and friends) might not be the villain of the series, but he’s definitely not the good guy either.
I dunno about you but when I want someone to take over my life’s work, I pick the guy that open mocks me in front of the troops, has a hair-trigger temper and tries to kill me because he thinks I’m not doing a good enough job.
Gawd whoever wrote that side of Thrall is so damn stupid.
Back in the 1990s in the Black Fleet Crisis novels, they addressed this. Luke ran into the Fallanassi, a pacifist order of Force sensitives who considered him a dark jedi.
“Do you even KNOW how many people were on the Death Star when you destroyed it?” they asked him.
Blizzard really regretted powering through all the RTS characters that gave WoW relevance to the older crowd.
That’s why they brought back Kael and Vashj and even Kel’Thuzad back in SL, and we had Illidan come back in Legion.
Also just pointing out, in the current lore:
Orcs, green and brown, corrupted and pure, are chilling together now.
Elves, Blood and Night Elves, undead and normal, are now chilling together. Also true for Fel-eyed Blood elves and Sunwell elves.
Void Elves and High Elves (likely just the same thing altogether, by now) are chilling together. All absorbed into the Alliance.
People acting like Man’ari are the problem are just sorta ignoring everything else that’s been around for some time now.
Also, also- Trolls, Darkspear Trolls, you can play as a Sandfury or whatever other tribe through customization. And those tribes all hated each other to death in Vanilla. But now, seemingly all working under the Horde banner?
He was literally being controlled and manipulated. He was a good man at the beginning. I feel like he should’ve been trying for redemption in SL but his soul was literally fashioned into a frostmourne melded with the the Jailer’s manipulation. Garrosh was the only one who had no regrets in what he was doing (and also wasn’t controlled).
How so? Arthas fizzled into nothing while Sylvanas conned Tyrande into throwing her back into the briar patch … oh excuse me … the Maw, where she can chill in her Torghast condo until it’s time for her to return.
