I think this single response sums up BfA
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Thalryssa and Lorthemar were gonna be there no matter what because their the horde representation, so the question shouldnt be, Why Thally over Tyrande? It should be, Why Shandris and Jaina over Tyrande?
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Don’t get me wrong. I thought and still think that Tyrande would be a natural choice for an NPC to be involved against Azshara. That said, I would hardly call her an important part of Tyrande’s story. The two only met once in opposition and hardly new each other well. Frankly Malfurion probably interacted with Azshara more.
While Tyrande isn’t there, I do think Shandris is a good fill in, particularly since in a lot of ways she represents the ‘common’ night elves who were betrayed by Azshara slightly better since she is just a lucky survivor rather than someone chosen by a god.
Likewise, Thalyssra serves as a great horde representative since Thalyssra was part of the governing structure that ruled at the time and would have known Azshara personally far better. Hell, her apprentice became one of Azshara’s henchmen and got into that position because Thalyssra herself recommended her to the Royal Court.
In the end, Thalyssra isn’t primarily there for Alliance players. That is Shandris’ role. Thalyssra is there for Horde players. It would have never been a Thalyssra or Tyrande. It would have been a Shandris or Tyrande.
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I don’t quite understand how people think since they met in person once, that somehow Azshara isn’t a massive part of Tyrande’s life. She spent the Long Vigil and even post that being terrified of the idea of becoming even slightly like Azshara, becomes worried when her people treat her with reverence her position and her heroic actions deserve, because she’s worried that she’ll become the next Azshara, as in personally becoming self absorbed and taking her people for granted. In the Nightmare war which wasn’t that long ago, Tyrande’s biggest fear that the Nightmare prayed on WAS Azshara, and not some metaphorical image of like Tyrande dressed up as Azshara, but actual Azshara. Even as recently as post night warrior transformation, she STILL reacts in a volatile manner at being called queen even tauntingly.
Oh, I know she’s not. At least, at first. But, unless she’s going to raid Azshara’s Eternal Palace all on her lonesome, I’m eventually going to have to come in, and do her heavy lifting. I already regret not letting the Withered eat her alive. God only knows what grand and wonderous betrayals she’ll have in store for me after helping her, again.
And, I’m aware Horde players are going to be in similar shape, helping Jaina (or a hypothetical Tyrande). It’s almost as if this expansion was a mistake.
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This is a good point. Shandris lost everything because of Azshara, including her childhood.
She’s also needed to activate some ancient magical contraptions that only an old Highborne can do. I mean, I guess they could have Jaina do it, but that’s a bit ridiculous even for her
Well, I’m totally ok with her being there…she’s a fave.
No. No we don’t. I’d rather follow someone who doesn’t side with genocidal forces.
Besides, unlike Thalyssra, Tyrande actually participated in the War of the Ancients. Thalyssra was too busy sipping wine to defend the world from the Burning Legion.
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A little left field buddy we are on two fleets fighting at sea when the once itself opens and we fall into this place. You expect tyrande to break from her campaign of reclamation and go all the way to kul’tiras board the pursing fleet and confront the horde fleet while the forsaken make gains in darkshore? From a story writing perspective that doesn’t make sense, and at this point no horde heroes are really in the spot light in a positive manner. Thally would actually have more of a history with the Naga as she was on the upper echelon of societies magic ruling class and tyrande was a priestess of little note until the war of the ancients.
It’d. Make more sense to have thally feathermoon and rommath in this particular zone as all three are elves with different perspectives on azshara and it could give development to three lesser known characters, but it can’t be perfect
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Just a few quick counter points.
- Nathanos was Tyrande’s equivalent for Darkshore and also left so there’s a precedent set for that.
- There is data mined dialogue of her showing up once the groundwork is done for bases from a portal and telling Shandris to keep on keeping on then leaves again.
They have already set up that it is both possible for her to get there easily and Darkshore is either so Horde sided that the commander for it is no longer even bothering to be there, or it’s so Alliance sided he’s already dipped. Even if for some reason the Alliance still need a commander there but the Horde don’t, Malfurion I held the world together for an expac Stormrage is also there. They could easily have Tyrande here if they wanted. They just don’t.
(I personally believe because that would take spotlight off of Jaina, Shandris being a minor enough character to not warrant a large amount of focus but still being the token night elf there to get a tick)
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Was this ever verified? Last I heard, it was an unsourced quote from a person on a Discord.
I read over it on one of the wowhead blocks but I can’t remember which one, it was after the first big dump but at the time it was still part of the chunk that didn’t have names allocated to it yet.
I’m conflicted, now. I’m not sure if I prefered her not showing up at all, or at least showing up, but noping out a second later.
Personally I think it’s a complete missed opportunity, and I don’t really think with past showings that “wait and see” for something down the line for them is acceptable. We’ve had nothing from Tyrande since Darkshore started, and that is up there with the dumbest things in this expac.
Just an aside I just remembered, Shandris is actively involved with the Warfront, which is more then they’ve done for Tyrande, but she still has time to be over in naga town.
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Tyrande charged head on to Feathermoon Stronghold in the middle of Deathwing’s cataclysm just to make sure Shandris was alive and ok because she knew those nagas were up to no good.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to think she’d go and check up on her if she found out Shandris will be facing Azshara herself.
Also we wouldnt’ be making all this fuzz if we had actually seen Tyrande do something but she has been mia since her scenario.
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That’s really the crux of it. We got built up with Tyrande finally getting something big after years of neglect and down right insult (Being lectured by VARIAN The Chin WRYNN of all people about patience), outside of a brief appearance in Legion, and then she…just vanished. Then finally something that’s massively important to her as a character shows up, the perfect chance for her to show up and…nothing.
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What expac was this exactly? I remember thrall keeping the stone pillar from collapsing at the maelstrom. Nathanos leaving the front is equally bad story telling, my entire point is this should be used to further the stories of other lesser know heroes for both faction. I as a horde player don’t want to listen to tyrande guilt trip me through an entire zone. I’ve been listening to the same crap from her every expac she features in she is a very boring character if you aren’t a die hard night elf fan. Leave her in the story arc that she is currently driving, don’t transplant her in a completely inorganic manner before her current story is even finished.
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It was mainly just hyperbole for effect, but as I recall what he’s doing during Cata in that big whirlwind thingy is connecting to at leas the upper half of kalimdor to stabilize it post cataclysm, and thats not taking into account him briefly holding together all of the old super contient of Kalimdor during the very end of the WotA.
And to be fair, every Alliance npc tells us we’re the second coming of Hitler, that’s not unique to Tyrande. YOu consider her boring but a large portion of the player base really love her and want her done justice and to be the bad a** she’s always shown to be in the extended media.
If they can bring over Shandris and Nathanos, they can do it with Tyrande, they just don’t want to, and she really isn’t driving it. She certainly started it, then she completly vanished.
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So you would prefer Tyrande then? Reality is this is a case where the ‘new horde’ actually makes the story relevant for horde players. Without it you would just be hangers on to an Alliance hero.
Still, if you prefer to be a sidekick to the Alliance more power to you.
Well the Horde prefers her and frankly that is who she is there for. Would you prefer to follow around Thrall instead? Or maybe Gallywix?
This is, at the end of the day, neutral content. Your going to have to put up with us being there weither you like it or not.
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I do prefer Thalyssra but like Syriyna is saying she’s there for the Horde. It’s not an either/or thing, and Thalyssra being there has no impact on Tyrande being there or not. Azshara is to Tyrande what Xavius was to Malfurion. There’s no good reason not to have her in Nazjatar.
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What other story points have played our in darkshore after the warfront started? Because she has been in every part of it with the exception of being a warfront boss. I agree nathanos shouldn’t be in this upcoming story arc he is always so inorganic to the plot and turns everything into how edgy he is. Tyrande would just be on vengeance overload. You have to pick characters from The opposing faction that would work well each other narratively. If tyrande is slapped into the mix she either has to revert back on her recent character development or the faction war would leak into this story and just be terrible.