Morally Grey? ARE YOU KIDDING ME.[Spoilers]

[kurigosh]

It wasn't exactly defendable considering proximity of Draenei isle. Burning it down will serve greater purpose.

d00d, this was not strategic. you can try to reason that this was strategic but sylvannas did not plan this. her plan was to capture it and she burnt it just because some random retard talked smack to her, thats mainly why this is bad writing. sylvannas is a ruler, she should stick by the strategy she and her advisors made, not just change it because RRREEEEEE

[Qualia]

What is not morally grey about it? Target of great strategical advantage. It sends a message. Huge blow against Alliance morale.

That's not the nature of the act, though. We may argue whether the initial assault fit that, but this burning clearly wasn't done to gain any "strategical advantage" for Sylvanas and her people. It wasn't done to deliver a blow against the Alliance's morale. It was done upon a decision on the spot because Sylvanas was enraged due to a dying Elf's bitter final words. She pretty much went against her original plan, threw a tantrum, pulled both the Horde and the Alliance into a massive war, and killed innocent NE civilians because of her own outrage. I'm pretty sure there isn't anything morally grey about that.

Since someone brought up Hiroshima above: there is a reason why US keep maintaining that it was a strike that was meant to end the war to avoid further losses. That was then considered a necessary evil. Now, imagine if somehow it was revealed that the strike wasn't done for that purpose, but simply because "Oh, a dying soldier threw some witty remark at us, so we nuked them to let them know their place", the "necessary" part would be gone fast and only "evil" would be left - regardless of the result it brought.

Edit:

Again, if events like this can happen in real life, why when it comes to WoW it's "bad writing"? Or history is filled with bad writing judging from a MMO-Champion point of view.

Thing is, the decisions in real life did not happen because of such an egoistic reason - or at least, that's what we are told. And even with an arguably reasonable reason, people are still skeptical whether it was necessary evil, or just outright evil. So this, at least, can't be compared to the bombing in real life since their nature are hardly the same.

[Jeina]

I bet they are.

And what will they achieve? capture one shattered city. Not much for their morale and military prowess.

They won't even achieve that.

[valax]

aaand she's completely unhinged ... damn you blizzard in comparison Garrosh had a noble heart WTF .... what a stupid reason for an event so big.. I was looking up to the cinematic to be a plot twist .. this is just stupid .
EDIT : one week , one damn week holding in suspence for ..this? could have released it all last week and would have made more sense , now I understand perfectly Saurfang's stance .. she's just following Arthas footsteps , what grinds my gears is that it's clear to see the MF lich king himself will side with the alliance to stop her .. FUCK THAT.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

At least she's got boobs, which makes her less evil.

Boobs make women sexy. No one in their right mind ever said boobs make a woman less evil.

[Magnagarde]

Still hung up on the open midriff, my dude?

I suppose that is the only way they can make her have a redemption arc; she'll reveal her midriff in front of Anduin to get an easy pass.

[metzger84]

I said it already in other thread. She is undead because of Arthas and Arthas did all these horrific things to "protect his homeland". Alliance reaps what they sow. Whole clip explains it!

You've got to be joking She has free will over her actions. No one's to blame but her.

[Deleted]

Yeah, totally. The Alliance are just shattered right now.

Oh, wait. Everyone is pissed and the "boy king" just declared he will end the Banshee Queen's reign. This is like...the WoW equivalent of Pearl Harbor and we all know how that ended for the Japanese :P

Again, if events like this can happen in real life, why when it comes to WoW it's "bad writing"? Or history is filled with bad writing judging from a MMO-Champion point of view.

[Claymore]

I'll be honest, after thinking about it a bit more...

Okay, this totally lines up with the character of Sylvanas. Like it or not, she's always been what I call "bitch-mode", even when she was first introduced. That's totally fine, it's consistent with who she is. It sucks, you know, that Blizzard never bothered trying to turn her into a deeper, relatable character, but at least they didn't just replace her personality (like they did with Jaina).

I think the real disappointment I have here, is that -- by being Warchief -- she effectively undermines everything about the faction. Saurfang has lot all respect and cool-points he'd built up (this is a guy who told Garrosh he would kill him if he ever acted dishonorably, and now Saurfang is the one following dishonorable orders like a little bitch), and her actions feel like those of a "character", not an actual faction leader.

And because of that, the entire Horde feels... shallow and one-dimensional, because of her actions.

Sylvanas is no longer interesting, because there's no question about her motivations anymore, and because she is now operating completely unchecked, it makes the rest of the Horde look like a bunch of wimps. It's like all of those Orcs and Tauren cease to exist now, because "what the Warchief says, goes", becoming mindless 'goons' to her maniacal cartoon villain.

[enragedgorilla]

Kill em all, Raise them all to serve .
Seems about right.

[Hubbl3]

I said it already in other thread. She is undead because of Arthas and Arthas did all these horrific things to "protect his homeland". Alliance reaps what they sow. Whole clip explains it!

Yeah! It's all the Alliance fault! They could have just given up. But instead they fought back and forced Sylvi's hand!

[steelballfc]

Quality was never Blizzard's strong suit, hell I'd be surprised if their writers even talk to eachother.

don't they have meetings and stuff ?

[Fetus Rex]

d00d, this was not strategic. you can try to reason that this was strategic but sylvannas did not plan this. her plan was to capture it and she burnt it just because some random retard talked smack to her, thats mainly why this is bad writing. sylvannas is a ruler, she should stick by the strategy she and her advisors made, not just change it because RRREEEEEE

Plans change and should change on the fly. It most definitely was considered option and used when she realised importance of the tree to purple elves.

[Pannonian]

Again, if events like this can happen in real life, why when it comes to WoW it's "bad writing"? Or history is filled with bad writing judging from a MMO-Champion point of view.

Because of Balance and morally grey.

You don't compare Horde to real history, but to the Alliance. Alliance is good, alliance would never kill civillians, Alliance is always honorable.

Yeah sure, Horde is more realistic, but its still opposed by the shining Alliance, while Blizzard talks about morally grey.

So this comparison is entirely correct, but has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

That's not the nature of the act, though. We may argue whether the initial assault fit that, but this burning clearly wasn't done to gain any "strategical advantage" for Sylvanas and her people. It wasn't done to deliver a blow against the Alliance's morale. It was done upon a decision on the spot because Sylvanas was enraged due to a dying Elf's bitter final words. She pretty much went against her original plan, threw a tantrum, pulled both the Horde and the Alliance into a massive war, and killed innocent NE civilians because of her own outrage. I'm pretty sure there isn't anything morally grey about that.

What do we call it when you burn a lot of innocents alive - on purpose - in an effort to strike terror into your enemies? TERRORism. Terrorism. Ain't nothing morally grey about terrorism.

[steelballfc]

How can you be so shallow? Her hope died when she was protecting alliance land. It's payback time!!!

it was her land, not "alliance".

[omeomorfismo]

Thats a good question. How were the catapults powerful enough to launch missiles from Auberdine to Teldrassil and it's funny how that those small missiles managed to burn a huge Tree when Archimonde wasn't able to burn the other World Tree and he was larger.

Technically Grommash and his Iron Horde got destroyed and genocided 35 years later so they finally paid for what they've done.

archimone never wanted to burn the world tree °-°

[kurigosh]

Again, if events like this can happen in real life, why when it comes to WoW it's "bad writing"? Or history is filled with bad writing judging from a MMO-Champion point of view.

there are loads of retarded people out there, just have a look at hitler... What we say about bad writing is that you can make compelling and relatable characters that makes the narrative rich. There are "bad writen characters" in real life because people can be a mess sometimes. that does not take the criticism away from blizzard tough

[Magnagarde]

Yeah, totally. The Alliance are just shattered right now.

Oh, wait. Everyone is pissed and the "boy king" just declared he will end the Banshee Queen's reign. This is like...the WoW equivalent of Pearl Harbor and we all know how that ended for the Japanese :P

If someone like Anduin believes taking someone out is necessary, then you know how far it went lol

[Aydinx2]

Sylvanas didn't do it!
And if she did, they deserved it.
And if they didn't deserve it, she had her reasons.
And if she doesn't, she's corrupted.

Imagine if Garrosh got this level of apologism. "Garrosh did nothing wrong" is a meme, "Sylvanas did nothing wrong" is 50% of the threads on this forum.

At least you can actually make arguments in farvor of garrosh. The alliance and the horde were actively at war and he got influenced by the heart of Y'shaarj. After Legion the alliance and horde are probably at their most peaceful since forever.