It was a “really hard sell” at Blizzard to get Night Elves into Warcraft

[Broken Fox]

Well they are generic wood elves (with player 2 skin) so no real surprise here.

They were actually badass in Warcraft 3. Even Grom was like "oh shit". Probably the only cool elves, ever.

[mysticx]

While thats true, at the same time it shows the narrative direction that the devs eventually took. They created a unique hybrid to two fantasy tropes and decided to go nowhere with it. Its more salt on the wound when a good creative idea could have been utilized to tell a decent story, rather than be the figuratively literal punching bag for the franchise's narrative progression.

Even worse, to push the stories of the two blandest races, the dull-as-dishwater humans and typical blood-and-conquest-obsessed orcs...

[Arrashi]

They were actually badass in Warcraft 3. Even Grom was like "oh shit". Probably the only cool elves, ever.

And then he murdered them 3 seconds later.

[mysticx]

And then he murdered them 3 seconds later.

Those were a good three seconds for NE fans though. :3

[Villager720]

And then he murdered them 3 seconds later.

Yes and no; while he does manage to kill a few elves and cut some trees down, he then proceeded to get nearly obliterated.
Only by chugging hulk-juice demon blood did he manage to save himself and the Warsong.

[Arrashi]

Yes and no; while he does manage to kill a few elves and cut some trees down, he then proceeded to get nearly obliterated.
Only by chugging hulk-juice demon blood did he manage to save himself and the Warsong.

Erm no, he obliterates them, sends them crying to their god...and then kills him too.

[Beloren]

Looks like in the end they ditched the dark elf bit, and just elf them as wood elves, and seem to be getting rid of them anyway.

They must really not like them if the fans like them but they keep bumping them off. Lol

[Villager720]

Erm no, he obliterates them, sends them crying to their god...and then kills him too.

He invaded and kills their scouts. It wasn’t just Cenarius wrecking the Warsong; he brought an actual army with him as well.
You’ve clearly got a different narrative in your head though.

[Arrashi]

He invaded and kills their scouts. It wasn’t just Cenarius wrecking the Warsong; he brought an actual army with him as well.
You’ve clearly got a different narrative in your head though.

And said army got wrecked by grom and co.

[Leyre]

The only good elf ia a desd elf

[Villager720]

And said army got wrecked by grom and co.

+demon juice

They were getting wiped off the map until a deus (daímonas?) ex machina saves them.

[ravenmoon]

Because writing complex races is hard it’s all “King’s honor friend” and “zug zug me honor” from here on out.

I know right! I am boiling it down to they just don't want to, and just aren't excited about it as any of us are.

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Because writing complex races is hard it’s all “King’s honor friend” and “zug zug me honor” from here on out.

I know right! I am boiling it down to they just don't want to, and just aren't excited about it as any of us are.

Well they are generic wood elves (with player 2 skin) so no real surprise here.

It's funny they became htat in the end, when they wereenvisioned to be both the best of the dark elves and the best of the wood elves.. and while Wc3 manual, Wc3 and WotA trilogy really did paint an extravagant picture of the dark elf side ( including pre-sundering empire, highborne, Well of Eternity, arcane magic, Illidari, demon hunters) and the Forest elf side (druids, Long vigil, walking trees, sentinel huntresses, bears/cats, half night elf /stag people, World tree, Emerald dream) - ithey kinda just faded into generic wood elves, which surprises me greatly - that Star and moon stuff is pretty unique, yet Elune is only mentioned and plays little to no role, the Stars part of the night elves - is only evident in the art work and class abilities - as if the systems team and art team seem to have better vision or remember the night elves had far more to them just woods and forests - it took 15 years for demon hunters to meaningful play a role, 15 years for a proper visualisation of the pre-sundering arcane civilization of the night elves - and not a peep from them after the expansion - especially going to deal with Azshara.. well, I mean if they think Jaina is more interesting and suite

[Wildberry]

+demon juice

They were getting wiped off the map until a deus (daímonas?) ex machina saves them.

Are we really pretending Demon Blood is the offender when they ran crying to a demigod?

[Arrashi]

+demon juice

They were getting wiped off the map until a deus (daímonas?) ex machina saves them.

But elves were being wiped out until you know a god, an actual deus ex machina saved them. So thats extremely moot point.

And no just because nelves scream for help with every smallest issue doesn't mean anything.

[ravenmoon]

While thats true, at the same time it shows the narrative direction that the devs eventually took. They created a unique hybrid to two fantasy tropes and decided to go nowhere with it. Its more salt on the wound when a good creative idea could have been utilized to tell a decent story, rather than be the figuratively literal punching bag for the franchise's narrative progression.

Indeed, 100% agree, when I fell in love with the night elves, it was because of what I had read in the WC3 manual, played in the WC3 game and read in the WotA trilogy - in the pre-sundering civilization described there, they had what seeme dan amazing dark elf legacy, and one that wasn't evil, even though the Queen became twisted, but there were many who were not, they had the amazing forest elf bit too - which is what we see them at in WC3, with the long vigil era that ends, and a great story that had reason and sense - the future of the night elves after WC3, promised to be their best, because for the first itme since the legion's first invasion, they would be able to combine both dark elf and forest elf bits - the legion's return and defeat opened the way for the arcane and well of eternity to be utilised and the return of the dark elf legacy to add to the existing forest elf legacy and create a new version free from what destroyed the first, witht he potential for it to be more amazing even though it would never be world spanning again.

this I found very appealing, it seemd to set the stage to tell a grander story for htem, - during htose days my attention was more on how the thalassian elves would recover after Arthas, and getting their sunwell back. and when TBC came I was totally delighted, and felt surely they'd to a recovery for the night elves too.

night elves with their unique Stars thing - moon and stars - never seen dark elves with that sort of ocfocus - and the stars and moon had this arcane thing tot hem, with silver it's colour which complimented purple quite well, - purple the colour of the arcane and their skin, silver the colour of the stars and the moon - and this interesting foucs - a moongoddess which seemd some sort of arcane wielding (moon) light wielding entity with much mystery.

So much potentially.

[Hellspawn]

From PC Gamer

https://www.pcgamesn.com/world-of-warcraft/night-elves

Looks like the Nelves being popular was an accident.

No it was not. The concept was just new and people gravitate to things they already knew(light skinned wood elfs) . Mind you at that stage no one knew how they would look like, expect Samwise and Metzen and their Artgang who had a concept in mind!
And after they made concept art, the team was sold on it.
In world of warcraft they were more generic storywise.. but WC3 night elfs were great.
I think they also want to move in the WC3 direction again regardless what the last interview from some dev may indicates.

Are we really pretending Demon Blood is the offender when they ran crying to a demigod?

The demi god acted on his own. He saw himself as the protector of Ashenvale.

[Tiwack]

People love to judge when instead they could just play and have fun.

[Evaddon]

I'll be honest, they would've been better to just be a enemy faction that we worked with once in awhile instead of being playable

[Clone]

Yes and no; while he does manage to kill a few elves and cut some trees down, he then proceeded to get nearly obliterated.
Only by chugging hulk-juice demon blood did he manage to save himself and the Warsong.

Just plain no. It was one clan against four different branches of sentinels and a demigod.

[formerShandalay]

Of course there was a demi god. Ashenvale was his domain, so what do you expect? If you do to the Throne of the Elements in Nagrand and start kicking their shaman, they kick back too ^^