i think everyone needs to see this right now
Let me start by saying that no matter what was said, no one should be harassed.
Anyway, I’ve a few people bring this up, and to be honest, I don’t think it really changes anything. People seem to assume that people are upset because they thought Blizzard said Sylvanas specifically would be morally grey, but that isn’t really my experience. At least, it’s not why I personally am feeling frustrated right now.
I’ve been a big Sylvanas fangirl since Vanilla. She’s always been one of my favorite leader, but I’ve never thought she was a good person. What she did didn’t come as a surprise to me. The moment they made her warchief, my heart started aching cause I knew one of my favorite characters could now only go in one direction: Eventual downfall.
The problem is that people showed concern that this would be another case of the Horde as main instigators in the war, with the Alliance as the “good guys” who are just defending themselves. When a statement like “Azeroth is a grey place” it indicates that there will be shades of grey, there will be people doing good and bad things on either side, which… Just isn’t what they are giving us. People reasonably thought that we would get to see the war as a conflict with two sides, where you could find something to support in either faction, but they’re not giving us that.
They are giving us a snarling villain on one side, and a heartbreaking attempt at saving civilians on the other. It is not portrayed as being grey, it’s portrayed at being very black and white. The alliance is good, and Sylvanas is evil, and since the rest of the Horde is not doing anything to stop her, we are evil by association.
And I’m sure we will get a chance to do something about it. We’ll get to dispose of her, sure. But that makes me sad too, because I still feel fond of her as a character. As a faction leader, not so much, but as a character, I do. Give me the Alliance messing up. Give me the siege of Lordaeron before the burning of Teldrassil, not a response to it. Give me ANY Alliance race leader being the aggressor in a way that isn’t shown as “He’s sad about how The Banshee Queen killed his son, see, isn’t it tragic?”, again bringing the main blame back on Sylvanas. Give me an Alliance that isn’t always innocent, and a real question about who is the good guys. Because that’s what “Azeroth is a grey place” indicates to me.
My own frustration doesn’t come from the fact that Sylvanas isn’t a grey figure. It’s from the fact that Azeroth isn’t.
Yes. The implication of Ion’s words was that there would be more shades of gray in this story. That both Horde and Alliance would have some good and some bad to them. That’s definitely not what the War of Thorns got across.
Now, I know some of folks are saying that the moral grayness of the Alliance may come out during the rest of the BFA story, and that’s certainly something that could be true. For me though, I’m not sure I WANT more grayness at this point. The bar they’ve now set for the Horde is so bleak and villainous that I don’t want to see that bar drug down lower and lower for each faction. I don’t want them to force either side to have to match that level of villainy to make the setting gray.
Like I would definitely like both factions to have heroic and questionable actions to their names, but I don’t want the game to be painted all in shades of charcoal.
I definitely don’t want them taking Jaina and having her commit some equally horrifying act to give this balance, which is where I fear this is heading.