I want to share why I refused to buy Midnight on the Epic edition, even though the price is reasonable for a game of this scale. A friend who knows me well talked me out of it, because he understands that for me the lore is everything. Two days in, I’m thanking him. This expansion would have broken my heart.
Tl;TD [We cannot make Allience the main power so let’s bully the Horde]
I started playing WoW at age 10 during Wrath of the Lich King, on an Alliance Paladin. I leveled to 79 before something stopped making sense to me. The Horde were the ones actually carrying the story. The Paladins kept preaching about “the Light” saving everyone, and every time, they ended up with corruption, treason, or failure, and a savior group from the Horde would arrive to clean up the road to victory.
Take the wars between the factions. The Alliance keeps writing the history books claiming they won, but I don’t believe they ever truly did. Turalyon, the same Turalyon you see plastered all over Midnight, who was central to Legion, has always been, in my reading, a man desperate to be a great hero without the foundation for it. The simplest concept of war in any human civilization is honor, and that’s what he’s missing.
I have hundreds of moments to back this up.
I never killed Garrosh Hellscream in Mists of Pandaria, because in my eyes he was making the Horde great again. I uninstalled Warlords of Draenor the moment Thrall (with absolute Cheating) killed the son of the orc who once called him brother. Grommash Hellscream gave his life to free the orcs from the Blood Curse, and Thrall murdered his son, an orc whose only crime was wanting the Horde to be the dominant power on Azeroth. If you played the Krasarang questline in 5.1, you remember Garrosh telling Vol’jin: “Your lack of vision is why your people are still primitives, and your lack of loyalty is why I did not summon the Darkspear for this campaign.” That wasn’t villainy to me. That was vision.
I uninstalled Battle for Azeroth when Lady Sylvanas was forced to lose so the writers could put Anduin, a man with no real personality, who looks like he’s permanently searching for a lifeboat out of every disaster, on a pedestal as the peace-bringer. The same expansion that gave us the Old Soldier cinematic, where Anduin performs a mass resurrection of fallen Alliance after the Horde just tore them apart. If a single Priest can mass-res, then logically the Alliance population should never decrease, they have immortality on tap. So either remove the Horde faction, or stop pretending it makes sense.
Saurfang was a High Overlord. He deserved better. Sylvanas deserved better. The Horde deserved better than to be stripped down so Anduin could look noble.
I came back during Cataclysm Classic just to feel a story whose goal was actually saving life on Azeroth, not bullying the Horde.
And now Midnight.
It is not acceptable to keep using the Horde as a punching bag. There is no reason a Horde player should be forced to follow the storyline of a proven liar like Turalyon and his son with father traumas. I’m a Horde. I want to save Azeroth with my warrior spirit, not by holding hands and praying to something as cosmetic as “the Light.”
If the Light was the true power of this universe, why did the Army of the Light beg Illidan Stormrage for help in Legion? Illidan turned Xe’ra to ashes the moment she tried to force him into her plan. While I was running quests gathering shards of her, I kept asking myself: why am I collecting this useless piece of glass? I handed the fragments to Velen and Turalyon expecting nothing, and the cinematic that followed rewarded me exactly because Illidan refused to be the Light’s puppet with the glorious dialogue:
(“Rejection of the Gift”)
Xe’ra: “Let go of your shattered form, and embrace the Light’s power.”
Illidan: “I’ve traded my freedom for power before.”
Xe’ra: “The prophecy… must be fulfilled. Your old life has passed. The Light will forge you a new one.”
Illidan: “This is not yours to take!”
Xe’ra: “The light will heal your scars!”
Illidan: “I AM MY SCARS!”
Xe’ra: “The Light is your destiny!”
Illidan: “MY DESTINY IS MY OWN!” (Reasonable, to the point, and FACT)
(Illidan destroys Xe’ra with his eye beams)
(And the comedy part of the cinematic was Turalyon’s reaction)
And now we’re supposed to believe the Light will stop Xal’atath, by gathering casters (including the famous caster of the whole WOW lore Anduin) to channel some “Light of Whatever-It’s-Called” into the Sunwell? The Sunwell is already corrupted into the Darkwell. Turalyon and Alleria fell through it. The Light didn’t save them. It didn’t even save itself.
Light has always been cosmetic in Warcraft’s actual history. Even in fantasy comparisons, in Harry Potter, the people who saved the world were the warriors who fought, not the ones who prayed. I’m tired of this hollow fantasy framing, and I genuinely don’t understand what Blizzard is trying to accomplish with it.
In Midnight specifically, I’m being harassed into:
-
Following Turalyon’s storyline
-
Meeting Eitrigg, a sitting Horde chieftain (Blackrock clan, since Dragonflight), now sitting at the Sons of Lothar’s Winter Veil dinner. The Sons of Lothar. The same group founded to chase orcs back through the Dark Portal and finish the job. Putting a Horde chieftain in that room is, frankly, an insult.
-
Saving cats while Quel’Thalas burns
-
Solving Arator’s father issues
-
Being slowly convinced that “Horde is bad.”
(And i just spent 2 days, and got lvl 82).
I’ll bet anyone reading this that the resolution of Midnight will depend on a character who/whom (you know whom i believe 
) is, by any honest reading, a fundamental enemy/ex-enemy of the Allience.
To anyone who made it this far: I’m not asking for the Horde to win every war. I have enormous respect for King Varian Wrynn, a true warrior, a true vision, the bearing of an actual king. But his son? I cannot accept Anduin as a king. Even Blizzard’s own trailers show him passive and uncertain.
If the Alliance roster is weak, write them better characters with cleaner lore. Don’t keep nerfing the Horde to make the Alliance look strong by comparison (In Midnight Horde dosen’t even have Warchief for God Sake).
From Mists of Pandaria onward, every expansion has stripped another Warchief from us and forced the playerbase to accept that the Horde is the problem. Garrosh, Sylvanas, and now even Eitrigg, folded into the very faction created to wipe orcs out. I don’t know how much further this can go before there’s nothing left of the Horde that the original story called family.
And my final thought is belong to one beloved person who died unfair in Mak’gora Warchief Garrosh Hellscream, i found this post from redit which user named themalestorm wrote:
My final thoughts belong to one beloved person who died unfairly in Mak’gora: Warchief Garrosh Hellscream.
I found this post on Reddit from a user named themaelstrom who summed it up better than I ever could:
(Vanilla and earlier) Garrosh is born as the son of Grom. Legendary orc, hard to fill his shoes. Just when he’s about to prove his orciness, he gets sick and is left behind. He learns his father was the one to sell their soul to demons. Garrosh is now super depressed.
(The Burning Crusade) Out of nowhere comes Thrall and the Horde peeps, and Thrall is like, “dude, Grom saved us, shake this depression and join me.” Garrosh has to go, of course. How else can he prove himself in life?
(Wrath of the Lich King) Thrall places Garrosh in a command position with Saurfang. That’s the best thing that ever happened to Garrosh, really. Saurfang is wise and knows how to deal with orcs. UNLIKE THRALL, WHO’S A PANTSY HUMAN DOING ORC COSPLAY. Anyway, Saurfang tempers Garrosh’s steel and his impatient, aggressive mood (he’s pretty much like his father, really). Garrosh is mostly exposed to orcs, and his new mentor is also a very orc-ish orc. He’s building up confidence, and of course he hates the Horde’s enemies. He doesn’t really get the whole diplomacy thing. Orcs aren’t always super warlike, but in the end they’re used to sparring and respecting, not cuddling and liking others.
He keeps clashing with Varian, who’s also super anti-Horde and anti-orc (since he lost his father to orcs as a child). Jaina and Thrall try to keep things diplomatic, Varian and Garrosh build up conflict. Thrall’s behavior is unacceptable to Garrosh. Thrall does little more than scolding him in a PANTSY HUMAN WAY, saying things like “I’m disappointed.” Protip: it doesn’t really help. Anyway, the campaign is successful. In his first command against this “Lich King” that everyone was so afraid of, Garrosh succeeds.
(Cataclysm) Thrall needs to be a shaman and discover his orcish roots (god, he’s such a hipster). So he’s like, “Cairne, I’m gonna make Garrosh the new Warchief.” Cairne is like, “Wth dude, don’t be stupid.” Thrall says, “Nono, you can help him, it’s gonna be okay really.” In truth, Thrall feels responsible for him and wants to believe in him. He sees Grom in him. He forgets how he had to punish Grom for refusing to obey orders out of bloodlust. Or maybe it’s his guilt that stops his PANTSY HUMAN BRAIN.
Then he goes to Vol’jin saying, “Yo voodoomon, am gon make Garrosh warchief,” and Vol’jin’s like, “Dude wth, im gona fite you irl.” Thrall’s like, “lol u funney, ok im gonna do it then.” Then he goes to Garrosh saying, “Dude I’m gonna make you Warchief,” and Garrosh is like, “Dude wth, I can’t do that, make me like a commander or something, I like playing shooters, not paradox strategies.” And Thrall’s like, “okthen, you’re the new warchief, bye.”
SO PLEASE REMEMBER THIS PART, WHERE EVERY FUDGING PERSON, INCLUDING GARROSH, TOLD HIM NOT TO GO WITH IT, AND HE DID IT ANYWAY.
So, he’s Warchief, and gotta say, he was pretty badass. He grabbed orcs by the throat and dropped them off cliffs for being dishonorable. He sent his army to attack and single-handedly took down a dragon attacking his flying ship and stuff. He also allied with the Dragonmaw Clan, who are pretty much into the old orc ways. Thing is, he’s clashing with people left and right. Because of his lack of confidence, he gets defensive. Defensiveness causes issues. Issues cause clashing. See the problem there?
So at some point, he and Cairne clash in a Mak’gora. This is an orcish traditional fight to the death, where you’re allowed to wear a loincloth and get one weapon. Plus you can get a blessing from a shaman. You’ve got to understand, Garrosh takes this whole honor thing pretty seriously. What he doesn’t know, however, is how sinister Cairne’s enemy Magatha Grimtotem is. She poisons Garrosh’s blade secretly when she offers a “blessing.” So Cairne and Garrosh start fighting, Cairne is totally winning, and then Garrosh manages to scratch him… but the poison is so strong that Cairne just dies. Garrosh is like, “lolwut.” Then he’s furious when he learns what really happened. He says, AND HE MEANS IT, that he’d prefer to have died rather than win like that. Thankfully, Baine, Cairne’s son, is pretty chill about it. Of course, this creates a big divide between Garrosh and others, leading to even more isolation.
(Mists of Pandaria) Garrosh is even more aggressive and orders Pandaria to be conquered. Stuff happens, he goes after Pandaren artifacts, more isolation, more clashes… Things escalate and escalate. No one trusts Garrosh at this point except his orcs, and the feeling is reciprocal. So eventually Garrosh goes out of control, finds an Old God’s heart, uses it, defiles a sacred ground in Pandaria, creates a sort of second orcish Horde, and finally turns into a monstrosity thanks to Old God influence. Horde resistance led by Vol’jin and Lor’thewhoever, plus the Alliance, attack Orgrimmar and capture him. The pandaren hold him for a trial, where we see he’s actually more than meets the eye, but his actions don’t change much. He says he regrets nothing. Anyway, bronze dragons yadayada, powers yadayada, and woosh! He’s now in the past, in an alternate dimension.
(Warlords of Draenor) Bronze dragon wants to control him, so Garrosh kills him. Then he goes to his father and warns the orcs of Gul’dan’s betrayal. He shows them some tricks from his own Horde, and they start building the Iron Horde to mount a revenge attack on us. Dadgar yadayada portals yadayada, we attack back yadayada. In the end these adventurers attack Garrosh, and he faces Thrall in MAK’GORA. WHERE YOU ARE ONLY ALLOWED TO WIELD A WEAPON AND USE NO SPECIAL POWERS. WHAT DOES THRALL DO? HE NOT ONLY FUDGING USES HIS MAGIC POWERS, HE EVEN FLAUNTS THEM. Then he kills Garrosh.
So.
Did Garrosh do anything wrong? Totally (i have objection which going to describe). Who’s the main person to blame? Thrall. Thrall fudging forced Garrosh into a completely alien environment (I mean literally, he’s from another planet) into a seat of power, when Garrosh was still shaking depression and sorting out his issues. It didn’t work out as well as it could, so what did Thrall do? He gave Garrosh ultimate power. Garrosh even refused it (just like anyone with a little common sense, really). But nooooooo, Thrall had to go ahead and make it happen.
There you go.
https://www.reddit.com/r/heroesofthestorm/comments/6ok8e0/garrosh_hellscream_lore_made_easy_for_everyone/ the “themaelstorm” comment under the post.
First of all, the Alliance didn’t march into Pandaria to defend the pandaren. Let’s not pretend they did. So my honest question is: if the Alliance had been the ones to find the Heart of Y’Shaarj buried under Pandaria, would they have left it there untouched? Absolutely not. This is ultimate power we’re talking about. The pandaren spent thousands of years holding back the corruption, and they were losing the grip on it long before we arrived. The real fight in Mists was about who would reach that power first, and what happened the moment Garrosh did? The losers blamed the winner for finding it first.
And finally, about Sylvanas. Apparently it’s unacceptable for her to use her banshee powers against Saurfang at the Gates of Orgrimmar (heartbreaking, and once again Thrall’s fingerprints are on it, he’s the one who pushed Saurfang toward that duel knowing exactly how it would end, another “brother” sent to his death by the same orc cosplayer), but it’s perfectly fine for that same Thrall to flaunt shamanism in a Mak’gora against the son of the man he once called brother? In a duel that explicitly forbids special powers? That’s not honor. That’s a double standard, and the writers should be embarrassed by it. Thrall doesn’t even carry the guilt for any of it.
THE END.
)