I've spent a lot of time considering why the idea of a potentially objectively evil Horde bothers me so much. I play Alliance because, Horde Elves aside, I like their aesthetics better overall. They were the original elf-having faction, so they were where my first roots were laid. That said, I shouldn't care about the horde. They are NPCs and honor points to me, so why should I care?Ultimately, I want my paladin to be an elf that can queue with my friends. That's 99% of my give-a-damn. Anything that moves away from a possible purely logistical softening of the faction wall I am against. Casting one faction as objectively evil moves against this motivation. I hold Blizzard accountable to deliver on their "we bring friends together" slogan, and they continue to fail at this in WoW.There's also the layer that holds Blizzard accountable for the very real vitriol we see in faction discussions between grown ass men and women that are understandably invested in a world that puts their character on rails, tells them what their character thinks, and casts them perhaps against what they see as type. The sales pitch for the horde has changed so much over WoW's lifespan. For a very real period of time, the whole "shades of grey" pitch was the story of the horde... but going further back, the horde were the faction clearly designed in part to attract people that played characters that worshipped objectively evil gods of hate and fear in EverQuest. Indeed, don't some element of WoW's origins parallel the "Chaos" worshipping races of Warhammer? There were no shades of grey there, the horde was for the "play the bad guy" fantasy. I think the mixed messages that have happened to Horde characterization over the years are one of Blizzard's most irresponsible moves.And before anyone questions "objectively evil," whoever ends up being responsible for the symphony of burning kaldorei children is evil, full stop. If that's the horde, they are evil, the end.
While the Horde and the Alliance are distracted with fighting each other, the old gods are preparing for an all out attack.
A lot of hysteria over the introduction to a much larger story.By the end of the expansion, Jaina and Anduin may be the evil ones, manipulated by the Old Gods through their avatar Kadgar.I play the Horde because the alternative is Human, short human, really short human, human that can turn into a wolf, blue skinny human or space goat demon.Ultimately it really is just a game, controlled by the imaginations of blizzards employees. If the story seriously bothers you then you're in too deep and need to take a step back. This world of Warcraft was born from a game subtitled Orcs vs Humans. FOR THE HORDE!
Out of context things sure look like Sylvanas is just another Garrosh, or even evil by attacking first. But tensions were high between the alliance and the horde already because of the events at the Broken Shore. In the end her methods may be questionable, but it is most likely for the good of the Horde and for her people. That has always been what drives her to the things she does.As for the Battle for Teldrassil, i believe she meant to capture it as a source of azerite for the horde. Teldrassil being a world tree most likely feeds upon azerite with it's roots so when this is said: "We take this azerite and use it to conquer Kalimdor". Perhaps that was the original purpose of the attack. Since the wound is already a warzone, taking another source of azerite would be beneficial for the faction. Specially if it lies in the same continent that Sylvanas wants to conquer for the horde.After all, the plan was to capture it. "Warchief, may I ask why we want to capture Teldrassil?".During the process of taking over Teldrassil, perhaps something didn't go as planned or perhaps someone was betrayed and *BOOM* Teldrassil is set ablaze and with it Sylvana's plans. Left with failure on the Battle for Teldrassil, the horde now faces retaliation from the Alliance on Lordaeron.We could say that maybe Sylvanas could've destroyed Teldrassil to avoid the alliance from having that power. But i don't think the night elves would let anyone defile a world tree and their home, to extract azerite, not even the alliance. For that same reason i don't think she would set it on fire for a "if i can't have it then no one can" kind of thing.
First off: @#$% Night Elves. Hippy Bastards had it coming.Second off: The closer you look, the less you see. What do we really know from this text? Nothing, really. They are out of context lines that relate to the Burning of Teldrassil. We don’t know for certain what is being said or even if it is truthful. Sylvanas is a known liar.Third off: What is interesting is her aggressiveness. For someone who’s goal is to prolong her (un)life, attacking the heartland of the night elves is completely the wrong way to go about it. If you would pardon my use of a dead meme: “Something’s not quite right.” Sylvanas’ actions and even the quests she gives to players have an air of subtlety about them. It seems unreasonable that she would just change tactics that drastically. So what could have happened?1. Old God whispers: The Scourge and Sylvanas might be connected to Yogg-Saron. Remember that when she threw herself off of Icecrown, Sylvanas landed in saronite. Who’s to say that the afterlife she saw was an illusion by Yogg-Saron? And who’s to say she is acting of her own voilition?Or2. Pressure from Horde members: In the “Before The Storm” prologue, Sylvanas laments that anything she does as Warchief is met with criticism by The Forsaken or Baine and Saurfang. Could this be something said under political pressure?The last thing I have to say is that it is interesting is the text everyone is crying hellfire and brimstone over points to Teldrassil being burned In Game, even though the Battle for Lordaeron is the opening to BFA. Tad suspicious no?
Horde tears taste the best!
This sucks, i was always into Horde because of Thrall, and wanted to play a faction of honorable outcasts. I swallowed Garroshs crimes, but this is too much. Thank you Blizzard for making Horde the evil bad guys, now Alliance has every right to kill us all.
As much as I hate Sylvanas devolving into pure cartoon villainy (and taking the Horde along with her), I’m just as pissed off they did the same to Jaina and Genn, who are basically crazy-racist rage monsters now, and arguably, Jaina has been that way since Mists of Pandaria.