The killing of Cenrarious, the fighting in Ashenvale is never portrayed as something the Night Elves deserve. On the contrary, the death of Cenarius is considered a tragedy.
Garrosh is clearly made out to be a warmonger and he ultimately becomes the villain of all and gets killed. And his “honorable” moment was personally executing someone who specifically attacked Night Elf civilians.
And indeed, the War of Thorns was initially presented as a more ruthless/pragmatic than out and out evil- but Blizzard couldn’t let that last for long. It had to suddenly turn it into a story about evils of the Horde and the suffering of Night Elves.
As if we hadn’t just come out of Legion, where a global invasion of the greatest foe all of Azeroth had even known became largely a story about the old Kal’dorei Empire.
Furthermore, Azshara’s not framed as deserving of its fate, and the game doesn’t try to make it look like what the Goblins are doing is anything other than what it is.
Never does Blizzard try to make it seem like the Night Elves deserve their fate. There’s no attempt to paint the whole scenario as, “Well the Horde didn’t want to do any of this. They just wanted peace. But the Night Elves would not relent in their savage reprisals until the Horde no choice but to defeat them in battle so that they could truly prosper. Now all is well.”
Blizzard keeps the conflict in Northern Kalimdor as its go to for the cycle of hatred, the spark that ignites the next war, and a very bad thing. Not a heroic tale of the Horde forging a better/safer life for itself by slaughtering Kalimdor natives- who are regularly dehumanized and treated without any sympathy.
When Blizzard wants to tell that story, they have the Horde champion kill Quillboar, Gnolls, and Centaur instead.
Yes you do call out Human Impriealism, particularly as you dislike how it tramples over Night Elf identity.
But you’re always quick to deny/defend/dismiss instances of Night Elf imperialism. And even some instances of this Alliance/Human Imperialism when it applies outside the Alliance.
And if we’re going to talking about which warcraft race gets the most overblown boohoo’ing about their terrible treatment, either in the game’s narrative or via proxies on the forums, nobody holds a candle to the Night Elves- even as they get entire zones dedicated to them and their lore, a whole novel series covering their history, and get their likeness plastered onto the cover of the game, and continue to be one up there as one of the most widely played races.
Let go of your entitlement.