[Speculation][Spoilers] Before the Storm

[Drakile]

Is there any chance that the spider-senses that Anduin has are actually the Old Gods misdirecting him? He thinks its the divine bell, but he is just being used as a puppet?

The Boy-King sits at the master's table. and so on

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Anduin as the game’s main protagonist is pretty lame.

[Nihilan]

Anduin as the game’s main protagonist is pretty lame.

You doubt his potential!??

[Verdugo]

Is there any chance that the spider-senses that Anduin has are actually the Old Gods misdirecting him? He thinks its the divine bell, but he is just being used as a puppet?

No, its Christie Golden writing into his ear.

[Deleted]

Anduin as the game’s main protagonist is pretty lame.

Well, it could still be worse, at least he isn't strong independent womyn.

[Verdugo]

Well, it could still be worse, at least he isn't strong independent womyn.

Both of them are but symptoms of a disease.

[SinAscendant]

@ausoin: lol are you serious? They're having a peace summit and Calia, the sister of the worst Human villain in Wow history, the one who murdered Sylvanas and made the Forsaken, is going behind her back to try and start a fucking civil war

She is absolutely within her rights to be pissed there. Calia is the one who restarted the war, if she had just stayed the fuck out we would have had actual peace.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

People are aware that any writer blizzard hires doesn’t work in a vacuum right? Blizzard approves of all of this stuff or they wouldn’t let it in the book.

[Qualia]

Is there any chance that the spider-senses that Anduin has are actually the Old Gods misdirecting him? He thinks its the divine bell, but he is just being used as a puppet?

The Boy-King sits at the master's table. and so on

Terribly low. For that to be the case, the Old Gods would need to gain a new ability to cause someone pain without doing anything else to them, and be able to do it at a distance. This target, Anduin, is even pretty well versed in wielding the Light and is favored by it. The only time his pain - or the lack thereof - was mentioned was before he asked the Priests to help researching Azerite, and convincing people not to abuse it - how would that even benefit the Old Gods?

@ausoin: lol are you serious? They're having a peace summit and Calia, the sister of the worst Human villain in Wow history, the one who murdered Sylvanas and made the Forsaken, is going behind her back to try and start a fucking civil war

Sylvanas thought she did, but in fact, she didn't. She actually did come in good faith, with zero intention of starting a war - civil or not. Sylvanas was just being overly cautious - or if we want to look at it negatively, paranoid. It's not that Sylvanas was fully wrong - Parqual was going to defect from the beginning, but Calia didn't really have any part in it until that reunion, and even then she only wanted to help them to get to safety. Sylvanas' action likely happened because she was already pissed off that the reunion went better than she expected - she was hoping that it would fail and the Desolate Council would turn into fighting each other without the need for her to do anything.

[Toppy]

People are aware that any writer blizzard hires doesn’t work in a vacuum right? Blizzard approves of all of this stuff or they wouldn’t let it in the book.

They also by their own admission dont put much focus on the story, so likely just ok just about anything

[Arrashi]

Well, it could still be worse, at least he isn't strong independent womyn.

Both of them are but symptoms of a disease.

Hey, sooner or later we will need first transgender leader won't we ? I mean a lot of IPs already went there, so blizzard can't remain behind.

Or at the very least, anduin will become trap.

[Kwento]

I just finished reading this... I don’t even know what to call it...
And I actually thought that Golden wasn’t as bad as people thought! And then we get *this*...
Right. Apart from the obvious reminder that if you play Alliance then you are the good guys, the entirety of Alliance side of the story is boring to read. I barely got through Anduin parts of the story. But there is no change there. Alliance were always this way and even after Blizz promised to change our perspective of this faction, it was obvious they would fail.
But the Horde part just killed me... So I understand that killing the deserting Council members was an obvious choice for Sylvanas, considering that they were literally betraying her and Undercity and I understand the entire deal with killing Calia, but the entire scene is just made for people to concentrate on emotional part of it. Reading through it, it was just another typical story of how Horde is evil and Anduin runs to save the poor princess (yes, I know she is technically a Queen) from a monster. There was not a single example given from a perspective of a, for example, Horde aligned Forsaken, who watched all of this unfolding and agreeing with Sylvanas.

So, basically I’m just glad that they are adding Zandalari to the Horde. This way I can just play one and not give a crap about any of this unless Sylvanas comes over to live in zuldazar...

[Aeula]

Oh and Jaina and Kalec seem to have recounciled.

Typical Christie Golden. Blizzard got rid of her vomit-inducing fan fiction and she immediately brings it back. Why they let her write for them I'll never know.

Anyway, Sylvanas acted correctly, given the situation. Though I've no idea why she let the council go there in the first place, she should have forced them to visit the apothecary for a dose of blight rather than letting it get that far.

Also noticed that she decided to tag how Sylvanas is proud of being the first female warchief. Ugh.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

They also by their own admission dont put much focus on the story, so likely just ok just about anything

Oh that’s definitely true.

[Arrashi]

People are aware that any writer blizzard hires doesn’t work in a vacuum right? Blizzard approves of all of this stuff or they wouldn’t let it in the book.

Implying that blizzard has any standards regarding what they approve.

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Typical Christie Golden. Blizzard got rid of her vomit-inducing fan fiction and she immediately brings it back. Why they let her write for them I'll never know.

Anyway, Sylvanas acted correctly, given the situation. Though I've no idea why she let the council go there in the first place, she should have forced them to visit the apothecary for a dose of blight rather than letting it get that far.

I think that first thing that came to her mind when she got that job was "Gotta bring back that dragon romance".

[Deleted]

I've been saying this months man. Horde needs to stop justifying itself and be ok with being the aggressive bad guys in war. Everytime horde gets a bit on edge it's supporters panic and start apologizing or explaining why. It's a damn war machine, stop saying sorry for running down some trees in the forest as your tanks go by. Hell blow up a few for good measure.

Also this applies to the "bad writer" slam too. Just accept the theme ppl!

It's bad because they've been ping-ponging between two vastly different identities for the Horde ever since Warcraft 3.
Warcraft 3 brought redemption to the orcs, giving a first look of a Horde in touch with shamanism and honor over wanton violence and demon-worshipping. Still a focus on martial prowess, but kept in check by a code of honor. The Darkspear were presented as being more peaceful than the other troll tribes, tempered by wise leaders like Sen'jin and Vol'jin. The Tauren were completely in the "noble savage" stereotype, down to the native american influences.
Only the Forsaken were the odd duck, but even with them there was a theme of being shunned, pushed into a corner and persecuted by the Scarlet Crusade and the Alliance as well. They were somewhat justified in their being "broken". The same theme continued with the Blood Elves being added in BC.

Then that image of the Horde as a coalition of the downtrodden bonded in a struggle for survival starts to shift in WotLK. And it originates with the Forsaken, or at least a faction of them. Wrathgate happens. Garrosh becomes prominent and comes off as a hot-blooded young orc with the martial prowess yet untempered by honor and wisdom. Cataclysm sees the Stonetalon arc continue down that path, while in other places they go the opposite direction and set him up as the ghost of Warcraft 1 and 2's Horde. This culminates into MoP, where it actually becomes interesting as an examination of what the Horde should be, and the "good" Horde wins out in the end.

It should have ended there. The Horde's identity was established, the ghosts of its past laid to rest. But no. World of Warcraft apparently needs the faction conflict to keep going, red vs blue, orcs vs humans, savages against the enlightened. So while the Alliance keeps their identity of nobility and goodness, even with former antagonists like the Dark Iron joining (Moira mellowed out pretty quickly), two expansions later the Horde is once again dealing with the same identity crisis it had as in MoP.

If the Horde had been the bad guys from the start and had remained so it wouldn't have been a problem. But time and again we get these visions of "what the Horde SHOULD be", and then they are promptly discarded just to keep a stale faction conflict going with idiot plots and contrived circumstances.
I'll eat my hat if at the end of BfA there isn't some ceasefire and the "good Horde" wins out again, maybe with Baine as Warchief, with the faction conflict taking a break for another expansion only to have the Horde go "aarrr! we're evil again" and proceed to be the evil meanies again for the sake of red vs blue.

[Lorgar Aurelian]

Implying that blizzard has any standards regarding what they approve.

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I think that first thing that came to her mind when she got that job was "Gotta bring back that dragon romance".

They got to have some standers my thrall x garrosh fanfic hasn’t been made canon yet.

sorry.

not sorry.

[Arrashi]

They got to have some standers my thrall x garrosh fanfic hasn’t been made canon yet.

sorry.

not sorry.

Perhaps it wasn't...spicy enough ?

[Kwento]

I've been saying this months man. Horde needs to stop justifying itself and be ok with being the aggressive bad guys in war. Everytime horde gets a bit on edge it's supporters panic and start apologizing or explaining why. It's a damn war machine, stop saying sorry for running down some trees in the forest as your tanks go by. Hell blow up a few for good measure.

Also this applies to the "bad writer" slam too. Just accept the theme ppl!

See, my problem with this, personally, is that I joined back when the Horde was under Thrall and I preferred my “good” alignment on my trolls and taurens.

[Blayze]

Implying that blizzard has any standards regarding what they approve.

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I think that first thing that came to her mind when she got that job was "Gotta bring back that dragon romance".

"I'll buy shares in Bad Dragon first, and then the money will come pouring in!"