While this is true, “comparing your suffering will only compound it”.
I think most of the above was about discussing rumours that Blizzard had changed the Dalaran Purge questline to make Jaina look more lenient. I haven’t done it myself, nor have I delved into the topic, but I think that’s why people were a little surprised with your initial response, because it wasn’t a “omg purge bad/omg blood elves brought it on themselves”-posting. At least not as far as I gather…
There was a post above (a few posts above, admittedly) mentioning how the purge means that you can’t have reconciliation, because it was too drastic as an event.
I just think going “oh there can’t be peace because there has been X event, see?” is such a bland take.
I have not read that post?
I scrolled up 100 posts and couldn’t find this post you’re talking about.
The idea that you can’t have reconciliation because of the Purge isn’t unreasonable in current lore solely because for reconciliation the offenders need to accept their wrongdoing, repent, and ideally work towards reparations, if you want it to feel ‘correct’. It’s not because it was “omg so bad”, it’s because Jaina still, apparently, doesn’t think she did anything wrong. Ditto for Vereesa. How can you reconcile with someone who thinks the thing they did to you was good? It’d be like if Jaina tried to reconcile with Garrosh the Unapologetic for Theramore. It just doesn’t work.
Simply sweeping it under the rug feels unfulfilling to the audience, which is a beef a lot of people have with the faction dynamic in DF. We got out of BfA and all of that and now they’re just kinda…friends and chill. Years (3-5) passed offscreen but we, the players, didn’t get to see any of that bond-building, so it feels cheap.
I still haven’t played the Gilneas questline yet, but like… “Oh, yeah, the Gilean’s and Forsaken worked together on this!” How do the Gilnean’s actually feel about that, beyond Genn? How do the Forsaken feel about that, as well as, gee, I dunno, being backstabbed specifically by their Faction AND Race leader? Sure would love to know that.
How are relations between the various Thalassian Elf groups post-war, given Lor’themar at least tends to be a level head in any room? We don’t know.
The Nelves have had a resolution to the mess that was started in BFA, but the reconciliation? Who knows, we’ll probably have to wait for the next Book that’s not in-game but shoulda been 
Everyone knows that I’m Sylvanas’ Strongest Soldier, and I will take the opportunity to note that even though Shadowlands was a complete mess, they did have her accept her wrongdoing, repent, and work towards reparations. They had to do soul magic screwery to get there, but…well, they got there.
Tyrande also, crucially, did not forgive her (and noted that her Maw excursion was just step 1 of her reparations, not the be-all-end-all).
Given the way Sylvanas’ story ended in Slands, it is not unreasonable for Tyrande and Sylvanas to eventually reconcile.
Jaina had a similar soul magic screwery in BfA but the absence of the Purge was noted then and has loomed ever since. It’s part of why the reconciliation over that feels forced and unearned.
I’d note that Jaina is also one of the main beefs for another major Horde faction in the Zandalari. A significant amount of blame for Rastakhan has landed, rightly or wrongly, on the Lord Admiral of Kul Tiras, and so far as we know that’s also never really been addressed, nor do we know if she really feels bad about her role in that.
I don’t like ‘requiring’ novels to bridge expansions, but Slands->DF was desperate for a bunch of tie-in stories about ground level factions and how they were coping in a post-Shadowlands situation, whether it be novels or short stories or whatever, to help reset the tone for Dragonflight.
The Thalyssra-Lor’themar wedding was cute enough, but all the faction leaders being there felt incongruous with how everything else had happened.
I will always take issue with people who attack others for calling the current “peace” a cop-out. Because it was, a total, washy and hurried cop-out. I will support people who want to portray characters in-verse who are not happy with the armistice, peace-deal, ceasefire or what ever, and go out of their way to exact that dissatisfaction to what ever end.
And that’s not because I feed on the giga faction conflict dynamic or turbo-stan genocidal world wars in World of Warcraft, that’s just because Blizzard hyped up a “FOURTH WAR” only for it to fizzle out with the energy of a lazy diet pepsi bottle you opened for the sixth time.
I absolutely think the Faction War has long outstayed its welcome as a central pillar of WoW, both narratively and even gameplay wise, and I will die on that hill.
I ALSO, additionally, as well as, believe the ‘Somehow, Peace has returned’ is Bad Writing, and needs some serious structural work to feel satisfying and, as Elenthas said, earned.
“Oh, yeah, the Gilean’s and Forsaken worked together on this!” How do the Gilnean’s actually feel about that, beyond Genn? How do the Forsaken feel about that
However they feel, the writers can’t possibly let it matter enough to actually generate any friction, because that’s not allowed any more. We can tell just from the patterns in the way the story is written now that they’d never actually portray any Gilnean taking worse to the decision than Genn did.
Notice how Belmont and Faranell, the two Forsaken characters we get strategically-placed glimpses of whenever Blizzard want to remind us they didn’t actually make Calia queen, are completely absent where they would’ve had a chance to object to her giving back Gilneas.
Hard contender for the poorest questline in the game.
Between bad questlines and awful Transmogs, I’m genuinely surprised Gilnean/Worgen players aren’t rioting more. I would. And justifiably, frankly.
It’s ridiculous that the Gilneas Liberation Front’s campaign to get their homeland back was actually completely inconsequential to reclaiming it in the end. Somehow the Forsaken played a bigger role in restoring Gilnean power than Crowley did in his seven years (?) fighting them.
Lol. Lmao, even.
Yeah but they’re based on british people and british people would rather cross their arms, go ‘humph’ with their throat and look sternly at the nearest young person rather than actually try to enact any sort of change to anything ever.
… Look, listen, just because you’re right doesn’t mean you have to say it out loud, ok?!
(I pray the Helicopter Gods to save us, that’s all I’m saying…)
Maybe they’re just really happy they can finally roleplay in Gilneas without someone shouting “but the plague!!!1” over their shoulders all the time, and the buzz just hasn’t died off yet.
This is just an allegory to how British society uses alcoholism as a coping mechanism for a disjointed, socially-frictious environment that they have no desire to change because they’re just buzzed and stimulated from drink.
Having been a Gilneas rp’er pretty much since I came to the server in summer 2013… that questline on one hand made me weep to the point I wrote a short-story for myself and how my chars acted.
But on the other hand im glad that one of Desartin and Hargorin’s goals are finally fulfilled and we can actually rp in the place again.
It’s clear that most of the attention went to Amirdrassil and the night elves, but good god, Gilneas in comparison does not look good.
It’s not very reasonable either: we had Aethas go to Dalaran and demand to be accepted back.
Meanwhile, each year we have dozens of world-ending conflicts that force the factions to let go of their previous hostilities in order to work together, as it is their sole chance to defeat the new saturday villain of the week.
You’re just going to unite as an army to defeat a bad guy without having any lasting development?
How many times has it been since the Purge? MOP, WOD, Legion, BFA, DF… 5 times, more-or-less, with the cycle of hatred resuming as if nothing has changed. …Talk about something being [quote=“Elenthas, post:9767, topic:436639, username:Elenthas-argent-dawn”]
unfulfilling
[/quote]
Yet that is your take here:
From one side you criticize how cheap the reconciliation feels, yet the way through which you praise the episodes of the faction war doesn’t have any depth or nuance: rather, you flatten the differences, usually going for some sort of cynical: “well, the good guy did one bad thing, therefore that means they are both equally bad” - just like you draw a comparison to Theramore and the Purge, without taking note of the enormous differences between the two situations.
It’s just peak melodramatic blood elf posting.
But let’s not pretend the way which you praise the cycle of hatred is any deeper.
We know from experience in multiple instances, such as with Jaina and with Tyrande, that this isn’t how Blizzard handles the search for justice.
It is the duty and the responsibility of the aggrieved to abandon their desire for revenge and bring an end to the cycle of hatred, no matter what the aggressor thinks or how the aggressor feels. No matter how legitimate the grievance, even if the villain is blasting off again to commit more war crimes, the camera always seems to swivel around to focus on the wronged party as they are forced to make the choice between renewal and revenge.
I find it hard to recall any instance in Blizzard media where a villain makes an effort at redemption and repenting and reparations before the aggrieved party is asked to tone down their search for justice.
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