Platinum has done it again. Amazing lore explanation showing the embarassing lore of Night elves
not sure if this is fixable at this point.
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It feels like a mistake.
.5 I could understand, still strong but not as insane.
But 1.5? Ooof
Beseeching the Gods on that one.
In other news, I have finally reached lvl 30 on this game they call âReal Lifeâ.
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instructions unclear, contacted Tzeentch
please send help
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Defo gotta watch this oneâŚPlatinum is a genius, and our poor nelves have changed so much since W3. Theyâre not mutawahish anymore.
The issue with night elf lore is less about the story itself and more that retcons keep retroactively making them look really foolish - regulars to this thread will know I coined Starshadeâs Law to explain exactly this.
Obvious questions like âwhy didnât the night elves use the Night Warrior ritual during any other apocalyptic event in their long historyâ or âwhy did Maiev send a sailor to Kalimdor for reinforcements instead of across the island to ValâSharah or Highmountainâ poke big holes that the writers for the retcons havenât sewn back up.
The implication that night elves should be winning all their conflicts simply because they are old instead of being extremely capable fighters who get blown out by new technology they arenât prepared for is a common but wrong one. Itâs exactly why Grom Hellscream got badly beaten when he fought the night elves with axes but his son cut a swathe into the area with demolishers and Bilgewater goblin explosives
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You know, it wouldâve been a prime oppportunity to tell the story of a people that has trouble adapting to new times because their culture has been stagnant for over ten thousand years. And after BfA theyâd finally start getting with the times, after the Burning of Teldrassil made them realise that blindly clinging to the old ways would no longer be enough.
But yeah, instead we got night elves looking like this. That old night elf copy paste was quite aptâŚ
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Itâs a mixed bag, i feel like night elves have took some fat Lâs they shouldnât have. I think part of their degradation came with the shift in Cataclysm where suddenly the shunned and much smaller Horde was going to to toe with the Alliance and making (quite substantial) gains (for gameplay reasons, Alliance players flat out had more levelling content). And itâs just grown from there.
Itâs like everything with this setting though, a mis-managed diamond that in hindsight /could/ have been done this way instead. Undercity getting smashed before Teldrassil, for example.
Garrosh in general had an actual 4D chess strategy. They set the forests ablaze seemingly with the intent of âgetting rid of the homefield advantageâ as the night elves thought, but actually the forest fires were started knowing that the night elves could easily call upon Elune to extinguish the flames. Doing so revealed their locations as beams of moonlight fell down upon each priestâs location.
Garrosh then had the demolishers bombard those locations theyâve revealed for themselves, either killing the priests outright in the barrages - but more specifically they were coordinated to drive the priests (Tyrande included among them) to evade the incoming projectiles towards a killing field clearing where orcish archers cornered them. Tyrande almost caught two arrows and nearly died there and then.
The use of demolishers wasnât just about destroying the forest, but to strategically decapitate the priesthood by using the barrages to corral them into an ambush.
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Garrosh is also the one who sends away his air support for no reason other than to make a cool(but weird) brag line and then it goes exactly as expected.
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Garrosh does also have the problem of being an entirely different character depending on who is writing him (stonetalon garrosh my beloved)
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knowing that he was never meant to be the way he was in stonetalon, it was a miscommunication between story leads and writers etc makes me weep. stonetalon garrosh was unfathombly based and i choose to beleive thats how he always should have been
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I think Night Elves did take some weird Lâs here and there in far more subtle stuff, like them getting surprise attacked by the Horde because Saurfang attacked at night is pretty weird, but some other things are a little less⌠off-putting. For example, Grommash did get defeated, but not before single-handedly killing an elven demigod. They are not invincible whatsoever.
These far less bombastically presented but far more damaging Lâs are more often than not presented in Cataclysm (and onwards until BFA), an expansion that messed up the fantasy thematic of many races, not just night elves. In some cases, they canât even make up their minds about what those thematics are even within the same expansion itself, as playing through Tirisfalâs first quests then playing through Silverpine is like night and day.
From Cataclysm to BFA, the writing team was basically on an arms race with itself to see just how many themes of the setting they could flip on its head or straight up delete.
The Blood Elves all get collective amnesia and for a few weeks they all forget why they left the Alliance and joined the Horde; the Forsaken drop any thematic they ever had to the point that Sylvanas (the character whose entire motivation for staying alive and leading the Forsaken up until a few months before the fact was killing the Lich King) saying that the only difference between her and the Lich King is the fact that sheâs a part of the Horde; the Night Elves allow the Highborne back into their faction out of exile; the orcs and Garroshâs schrodingerâs military genius that turned itself on and off every 5 minutes ever since Wrath of the Lich Kingâs Borean Tundra NPC dialogue; and many, many more things that I would need to make a whole thread of my own to go into full detail with.
All of which culminating on them just straight up ashing two capital cities for âstory progressionâ, only for their stories to not progress because they remained untouched for 4 years in which more than half of the faction-leading characters involved went missing or died.
They burned about half of the setting for 3 months long âwoah cool!!!â moments that went absolutely bloody nowhere, and sadly, they took from far, far more than just one race who was made to lose every now and then except for when Malfurion was present.
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The worst thing that could have happened for the Night Elves storywise is joining the Alliance.
Accordingly, the best thing that could happen to them now storywise - even if not gameplay wise - is leaving the Alliance.
Garrosh 
Sylvanas on using demolishers to ridiculous effectiveness vs. night elves specifically
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Yeah, i think if i was into them this would be my gripe over losing some scraps. Iâll type up a bit of a rant later when i get the time.
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Happy Birthday my dude!
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My only real gripe with Night Elves is that too much of their story revolves around Malfurion and Tyrande. A raceâs story happening around their main characters is not a unique problem, but itâs especially painful considering the âold stagnant culture not evolving with technology and falling behindâ is also present in writing and stubbornness is not creating new characters. Especially when the story around them is⌠well, them failing.
And when they do, itâs often only in the books/short stories that wonât see light of day in game, or worse - they do (see: Delaryn, and yes I am still peeved by how they washed a promising new character down the drain). The in-game story is progressed only through rule of cool that only the main characters can afford and who wins is determined by whoeverâs rule of cool outcools the other, actual logic is not a factor in WoWâs storytelling, outside of some outliers.
Especially when sometimes it really does feel like either the writers have it out for Night Elves, or are just incompetent. After all, how could a human write a character that is 10k+ years old? Is that why the main leaders all the story revolves around sometimes makes way for other main leaders to be cooler (see: Tyrande apparently needing to Have A Little Patience in MoP, which I guess is her character now anyway), or being constantly outwitted by those who havenât lived as long.
Like at least give us a win that doesnât retroactively make us look even dumber, as per Starshadeâs Law.
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Sometimes I stare into that catâs eyes⌠and wonder how he could be so stupid.
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Happy Birthday!
All of this happens when you make a guy who hasnât improved his narrative skills or writing skills from being a quest writer to lead narrative designer btw. And all the weird 
afrasiabi did.
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Whats between those ears? Is it a brain?