First, note that the crime Aethas is accused of abetting is the transport of the bell, not the theft of it.
Second, IIRC, there’s some doubt as to whether those who transported the bell were actually Sunreavers or just posing as Sunreavers to throw blame on them. If the cut scene where Aethas discovers the transport in progress (which isn’t in the game) is considered canon, this should be considered so as well.
In no version of the story was he aware of them in advance. And saying he was made aware during the process depends on accepting the canonicity of a cut scene that isn’t in the game.
If you accept that scene as canon, he was threatened into compliance, not an enthusiastic supporter of the act. In real-world courts today, that would be an argument for a certain amount of leniency, but admittedly it’s a judgment call.
It’s also true that Jaina didn’t bother to find out any of these details.
I would say maybe Chronicles IV will clear this up, but then, we all know Chronicles isn’t considered definitive canon by Blizzard, so … (sigh).
Everyone was trial. Though I’m unsure as to what that actually meant. All we know for sure is that they planned on letting Garrosh live so he could continue to learn.
“I would do everything right, of course” posts are so funny. Was the OP question what was the most optimal thing to do? Or what would you have done in this position with limited information and time?
There’s a lot of posts saying “Well I’d launch an investigation!” okay, how are you going to do that with the Sunreavers still in the city and still potentially a threat? For all you know, the Sunreavers are responsible for handing over a WMD, one with a similar impact as a nuke - the first of its kind seen in Warcraft history - to the guy who was the first one to drop a nuke. It’s highly unlikely that everyone in the Sunreavers is responsible, how do you find out who is though?
Ha, yeah that’s usually the prevailing argument used in every “what should Arthas have done at Stratholme?” thread since the dawn of time.
“Well see I’d calmly explain to everyone one at a time that they might have been infected with tainted grain, and to interview them to see if they could possibly have consumed any. Then (with consent) I would quarantine those who admitted to having consumed the plagued grain and avoided a single innocent death. What’s so hard about that?”
Thank you. I can’t believe it took over 100 posts for this.
A trial takes months to organize, and then even more months to conclude. Maybe these guys don’t get it, but Azeroth was in the midst of a massive world war the likes of which had not been seen since the Third War.
It is obvious that Jaina had neither the time nor resources to call for a trial.
That’s not all the Alliance knew, though. They’d figured out how the Bell worked as early as honoured rep, and absent an army of Horde warriors marshalled to receive its blessing neither Dalaran nor Darnassus was in any imminent danger. Jaina certainly didn’t express any fear that the Sunreavers themselves might have performed such a function during the purge. The Bell was long gone, and in retaliation she wanted them gone.
The strongest defense I’ve ever read for the purge is that Aethas very stupidly challenged Jaina’s original ultimatum to just gather his people and leave. These ideas that Jaina acted to prevent another catastrophe or was even interested in sorting innocence from guilt aren’t really corroborated by the text.
They know that the bell is used to harness the power of the sha as a weapon. As you say here, they need vessels and soldiers to receive the blessing. But we see later in the quest chain that Garrosh has no shortage of those people. Sure, they’re not in imminent danger in the most literal sense, but it’s pretty obvious that now Garrosh has the bell and that’s not a good thing.
Why is a natural organization working with the alliance. Isn’t that breaking neutrally to begin with?
You do not punish an entire population for a crime of 1 or some. Isn’t that wrong?
There are other issues that Jaina was dealing with such as the bombing of Theramore. Again even here Theramore was a valid target as it was paving a road though horde territory and this started before the war broke out.
So yes I personally believe Jaina was in the wrong, for 1 breaking the neutrality of Dalaran and 2 for punishing the entire population for crime of some or 1 or whom ever many. I also want to note without the sun reaver Dalaran would of been destroyed, their contribution in Wrath of the Lich king was great.
The answear the op wants to hear is kill as many blood elves as possible and launch a massive attack on silvermoon in relation that makes the lich kings attack look like child play.
No, because they were not working with the Alliance. They aided the Night Elves in securing the Divine Bell not out of loyalty to the Alliance, but out of a neutral desire to safeguard the WMD from Garrosh, a genocidal warmonger who has a history of using WMD on civilian targets.
This is in line with Jaina’s decree that Dalaran must remain as a bastion of neutrality. Again, the Sunreavers defied her decree by openly helping Garrosh’s war effort. It’s as simple as that.
They were not “punished”. They were arrested and taken into custody at Violet Hold. An arrest is not a punishment.
That’s no weirder than blaming Aethas for not stopping Garrosh somehow and then doing some miraculous solution.
But if they’re not in imminent danger in the most literal sense, then Jaina has time to conduct an investigation. Or at least have a conversation with Aethas that goes beyond “Get out now or die.”
I think the “Jaina was acting lawfully” argument would hold a tiny bit of water if she actually went through the Kirin tor at large for it, rather than just empowering a bunch of thugs by giving them carte blanche to murder while also pulling in stormwind troops.
Also, as a side note, lmao at the Silver covenant 's assassins getting their asses kicked en masse by an innkeeper. Great job.
Oh, I wasn’t directing that at you specifically, even though I responded to your message. But plenty of people on the forum do hold Aethas to that standard.
tbh, Aethas at that point was completely done with Garrosh’s crap and was a massive supporter of switching sides, and its not that hard to imagine most of his followers felt similarly, especially with how betrayed some of the people you help escape act.
They founded the city and came to help the Kirin tor during their time of need in Wrath despite the Garithos incident, they had every right to be there.
I got into wow for real during BFA, so i didnt play MOP when it was current. I did end up doing the landfall questline for the gryphon mount back in the day, and playing trough the event recently again just males me think that is a very well written scenario, where everyone kinda messes up somehow, the faction conflict becomes bigger but while keeping each side with enough reasons to “justify” their position, it felt like a good shade of gray.