A lot of the criticisms historically made of WoW’s fixation on Horde-Alliance conflict (when it still existed) were that it follows a cyclical, repetitive formula: your two factions come to blows, and are then pressed by circumstance to learn cooperation so they can prevent the apocalypse. The pacing and execution of this has been very sloppy at times, but the formula itself is perfectly fine for what Warcraft had always been trying to say.
War and conflict are cyclical: they’re ineradicable parts of human(oid?) nature, and disrupting them takes marked acts of bravery that do not come without risk. That is what makes them heroic. It is not difficult, courageous or meaningful to be a Tirion or an Eitrigg or a Thrall or a Jaina when harmony is the inexplicable status quo and takes absolutely no effort to maintain, because the writers aggressively and strategically stamped out every lingering sliver of conflict in the setting.
Yes, this arrival at cooperation has been a definitive theme since Warcraft III, but back then it actually meant something because it necessitated characters rising to challenge the way that things were. The ‘togetherness’ the factions have now feels cheap because no friction against it can be written to exist.
Edit: Naturally, I mean Jaina before… well, you know.
Going from Legion to BFA is you make it so all the “Oooh, who knows what will really happen?” guff actually had a point, and the Old God Whispers start making both factions bloodthirsty, fearful, hateful, arrogant etc.
Teldrassil burns, not because of Sylvanas, but because putting Azerite weapons in the hands of the influenced/Gallywix leads to mass destruction. It’s not until the Heart Chamber is repaired enough/the plot advances and people realise there is something afott/Gahuun is put down that the Naga arrive in force and Azshara starts gloating.
BFA → Darkened Tides (Tides of Darkness, geddit?) with the Naga and Nazjatar → Rise of Ny’alotha - Black Empire expac
Then Dragonflight, as a ‘cooldown’ but with Voidy undertones for the Black Dragonflight, Xal’atath waking the Incarnates maybe/stirring things up.
After things started going too well for everyone, and after seeing everyone being best buddies defending Amirdrassil, my character legit thought she was still trapped in an Old God vision where all her pipe dreams, however impossible, allegedly came true.
It’s a little sad that almost all of the best/most ‘canonical’ looking tints all seem to be locked behind the elite PvP or Mythic versions.
But it’s a little funny how the comments are all doom and gloom, but simultaneously fighting over which class has the worst set. It’s like the misery Olympics in there, though shaman seems to be winning.