Green Jesus and Jaina will save us all!
“The Pizzas are on the way. They’re coming. Don’t worry! And they’re going to be huuuge.”
They had one expansion in Legion. BFA was Horde. Shadowlands was neither. Dragonflight was Alliance for one patch to tie off the loose end BFA started.
Horde had three expansions back-to-back.
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Lol. BFA was alliance. How could you possibly call the expansion where once it launched the alliance win in every way possible a Horde expansion?
Shadowlands was alliance. What else do you call following the Alliance around while Baine sits in a corner?
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You’re too biased, my friend, and it shows.
No, the game has been about the Alliance since Legion. The Horde has had its moments in the spotlight, but the main narrative has been centered around the Alliance. In fact, most of the times the Horde does get the spotlight by being presented as the villains and antagonists to the Alliance.
In BFA it’s clear the story is told from the Alliance’s perspective. It’s a clear Alliance = good guys, Horde = bad guys. In fact, the Horde got the spotlight in response to that, with all the storyline about the player not agreeing with their faction’s actions. The Alliance won that war, btw. Even Baine, who takes the mantle as the Horde’s main leader, is vastly seen as just Anduin’s friend, without anything special to him beyond that. We were presented with a more morally gray expansion in the teasers, but they didn’t deliver.
But well, maybe you can argue that being the villain is still having the spotlight.
Let’s look at Shadowlands, then. The face of this expansion is an Alliance hero, that’s a start. Then, it’s absolutely clear the main character is Anduin. Everything in this expansion is ultimately about him, from start to finish. Look at the number of cutscenes that are about him. We even start with a quest in the Maw in which he’s the main character, with Jaina as the main actor. Thrall gets an infamous moment in which he looks for an axe and that’s it, while Baine is utterly humiliated, discarded as worthless (literally) and only serving to move the plot further towards Anduin. Sylvannas (who was presented as openly renouncing the Horde, not just becoming neutral) is an important character, I grant you that, but once again, as the villain.
It’s clear the canon of this game is written with the Alliance as the main focus, with the Horde being either and afterthought or the villains, depending on what the Alliance plot needs.
Try to find moments in which it’s the Horde the ones being the heroes, not just sidekicks or villains. The closest to that it’s the Old Soldier’s storyline, which is a response to the Horde being the villains. Even Thrall has been reduced to the token Horde guy in the main trio (Anduin, Jaina, Thrall) with no other role than to provide moral support.
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I think we’re going to space. Azeroth hatches, maybe we use some derelict Legion ships, and we head to space.
Says a forumite.
Whom better would the ways of a forumite know?
More attempted and failed deflections.
I… was agreeing with you.
The fact that they felt that they needed to play defense on this in the first place says a whole lot.
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Translation:
War Within is Alliance, Midnight will be Horde.
War Within is Alliance. Midnight might include some Horde characters.
It’s telling how when asked about this they go on about Anduin. They really love their Anduin.
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After seeing how the new Chronicles sanitized some of the only “grey” moments the Alliance had, I’m starting to feel inclined to agree.
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In the article that OP posted, it’s quite telling how when asked about the Horde’s role they immediately start talking about Anduin.
The thing is, the story team loves Anduin and he’s the main character of this game, but a close second is Jaina.
They can’t have their beloved Jaina be anything but a perfectly good, strong and always right woman.
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The catch here is that Midnight will center around the Blood Elves, which is fine, but with the whole “unifying the elves” thing Metzen said I won’t be surprised if the Void/High Elf side double-dips extremely heavily, to the point where the Blood Elves end up having to go “We were so wrong about them! They’re our saviours!” a bunch.
I’m just hoping they have some focus on the Amani, possibly with the Darkspear and Zandalari getting involved.
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Antagonist != main character.
Anduin was the main protagonist of the Warcraft story in BfA, Shadowlands, and looking like TWW as well.
The most widely recognized Horde character, Thrall, has been relegated to pointless cameos for most of the game’s history. So much so that I, as a Horde die-hard, freakin’ hate the dude now. Wish they would kill him off.
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Forumgoer Who Cares About This Stuff Too Much: “I got a stopwatch out and timed the amount of screen-time Alliance characters and Horde characters got for the Saga and the Alliance characters got 2.2195 hours more than the Horde got, so you’re clearly a liar and should lose your job since this is clearly an Alliance-focused story and you hate Horde players.”
Facts. Gazlowe is there, Thrall is there, Geya’rah is there, and Undermine will be the main city in patch content.
Not exactly no. They said that the opening of TWW may feature Alliance more, noting the Anduin story specifically, but they did remind us that there is more content to come in TWW, plus 2 other expansions in the trilogy.