Was the horde and alliance campaign in Pandaria well written?

[Gann Stonespire]

...
Theramore

Irrelevant as they failed to mention all the things Theramore had been doing to the Horde.

and the Purging of Dalaran is mentioned multiple times throughout the storyline.

Gets like one mention in the Horde storyline, thats it. Its not even close to mentioning the Horde's grievances with the Horde or their motivations, especially as it happens later in the expansion.

Now whether or not it was *good*, that's an entirely different story.

It was one of the worst storylines I've ever had the misfortune to play through.

[Chonar]

Irrelevant as they failed to mention all the things Theramore had been doing to the Horde.
Gets like one mention in the Horde storyline, thats it.

Yes, go on and move that goalpost.

It was one of the worst storylines I've ever had the misfortune to play through.

Personal feelings are irrelevant to our discussion, but duly noted.

[Shiny212]

WoW as a whole is not well written.

[MrLachyG]

I enjoyed the Alliance version. The Horde version I didn't care for, because of the Hozen. I didn't do Horde's Landfall quests, because once I reached 100 and had to suffer through the horrifically awful Nathanos, I stopped.

........ what are you talking about? Nathanos wasn't present in MoP or WoD, was only present for a single short questline in Stormheim during Legion and then obviously was heavily present in BfA.

[Venziir]

I enjoyed the Alliance version. The Horde version I didn't care for, because of the Hozen. I didn't do Horde's Landfall quests, because once I reached 100 and had to suffer through the horrifically awful Nathanos, I stopped.

Nathanos wasn't in MoP, and neither was level 100.....

[Gann Stonespire]

Yes, go on and move that goalpost.

My post to begin with was the writers gave no good reasons for the Horde's motivation to be at war with the Alliance. My goalpost has not moved an inch, get your eyes checked.

[Chonar]

My post to begin with was the writers gave no good reasons for the Horde's motivation to be at war with the Alliance. My goalpost has not moved an inch, get your eyes checked.

You: "They didn't mention any reason the Horde was at war with the Alliance"
Me: *mentions two*
You: "No, thats not enough."

Textbook definition of moving the goalpost. This conversation's over, have fun fuming and broiling in self-righteous anger as you scream into the void of the internet.

Infracted.

[Gann Stonespire]

You: "They didn't mention any reason the Horde was at war with the Alliance"
Me: *mentions two*

Correction

Chonar: mentions something irrelevant to the Horde's motivation(Theramore) and something that happened midway through the expansion(and thus not a reason for the Horde's war with the Alliance) only to be immediately dismissed right after even in the Horde storyline.


If you had given me an example of MOP mentioning some of the bad stuff the alliance had done to the Horde, and I said that wasn't enough, that would be moving the goal posts, but you didn't, so the goal post hasn't been moved, you are simply raging at me when you never tried to begin with.

[Pachycrocuta]

@Venziir , @MrLachyG , and @aceperson : I know Nathanos wasn't in Pandaria. I played through Pandaria on a mag'har orc (used my boost on my shaman to 110, and avoided Nathanos), got him to 100 (aka Legion) and stopped because of Nathanos. I couldn't stomach going through Legion having to put up with it.

[Soon-TM]

I think being anti-war is good rhetoric to have, but its pretty tone deaf when a game where the war itself is the selling point.

That's why MoP's story, which was great in several regards, was ultimately ruined by the moralising frenzy of Golden & co. And it has been even worse in BfA, with the story being constantly at odds with itself - hence the gargantuan amount of retcons, inconsistencies, and outright silly moments, e.g. Sylvanas lying to herself in her internal monologues, or the morally grey meme.

[Arikara]

One thing about the Pandaria faction war in particular was really well written: The pandaren reaction to the Horde and Alliance.

The factions themselves were not well-written though, no. At least it ended with Garrosh getting an asskicking. If only we'd killed him in BC, none of this would have happened. For good measure, maybe Cairne would have prevented the travesty that is BFA.

[Powerogue]

Very fun, I still replay that sometimes.

A bit heavy handed on the moral, obviously, and an entire race of monkey people who's only defining feature is poop throwing always struck me as a bit silly. But hey people want playable ogres, intelligence is clearly not top priority in people's allied race demands. The patch content that came later after Jade Forest was particularly good, but...

Everything about the Battle For Azeroth faction war was better; fight me.

That's not to say I'd ever remove MOP's arc, but that characters, mainly Jaina and Thrall, were left in a really bad place back then and this expansion gave them extremely fulfilling closure.

BFA was not the crappy knock-off repeat of MOP, it was the completion of MOP's story arc.

(At least faction war wise, I still agree with the general sentiment other elements like the old god element were anticlimactic and feel similarly "left hanging." Here's hoping that's either on purpose or the accident-but-we'll-act-like-it-was-the-plan-the-whole-time that they specialize in.)

[Mehrunes]

BfA dropped the ball so hard that it made the faction war in MoP look good, but it really wasn't. It was the same infantile worldview being shoved down the player's throats, culminating in an utterly moronic Horde lol-rebellion that teamed up with the Alliance to assault Orgrimmar. Actually, in regards to the rebellion, MoP is actually worse, because in BfA only a handful of Alliance ass-lickes like Saurfang and Anduin's footstool betrayed the Horde.

Meanwhile in MoP we had Trolls rebelling because Garrosh rightfully was distrustful of them because they merrily followed a traitor so severe even Baine argued he deserved the penalty of death by being stabbed in a damp cave. Tauren rebelled because Baine deluded himself into thinking that Garrosh was the one to be blamed for Cairne's death rather than Magatha. Blood Elves rebelled because Aethas and Rommath did not die in a Sha experiment they knew upfront was going to be dangerous. Goblins rebelled because one Goblin team wasn't paid in full. And Orcs, that initially followed Garrosh en masse because he threw Thrall's green guilt policy to the garbage (where it belongs), rebelled because Thrall returned to Orgrimmar to preach some more green guilt.

Sure, the BfA Horde suffered from some weird amnesia immediately after Sylvanas fled and forgot all the reasons they had for sticking to a war against the Alliance, but at least they didn't join the traitors for such utterly contrived reasons.

And since Alliance technically fought in both of these wars instead of just being the beacon of all that is holy, I have to mention the utterly shameful Krasarang scenario where Varian, a guy who was fighting the first war in his life, was schooling a 10k year old Tyrande on the basics of war. It doesn't beat Anduin "attacking the Trolls when they are sad would make me as bad as Sylvanas" Wrynn, but it was still pretty damn stupid.

Then there's War Crimes that wrapped that war up. And it's not only the single worst Warcraft book in existence, it's so utterly nonsensical it makes 50 Shades of Garbage a masterpiece by comparison.

Everything about the Battle For Azeroth faction war was better; fight me.

One does not fight blatantly wrong convictions like this or the belief that having to wear a face mask is oppression. The proper response is just shaking one's head.

[Wyattbw09]

There are only two types of answers to this question.

1) People who enjoyed it for what it was a break between "serious" expansions that was never supposed to take itself too seriously.

2) People who still can't get past Pandas and still call it the "Kung Fu Panda" expansion.

[Leodok]

Yes. It was easily one of the highest points in Warcraft lore, featuring some of its best characters.

Most of the complaints in this thread sound like they're just projecting their (very much justified) dislike of BfA into it...

Everything about the Battle For Azeroth faction war was better; fight me.

That's not to say I'd ever remove MOP's arc, but that characters, mainly Jaina and Thrall, were left in a really bad place back then and this expansion gave them extremely fulfilling closure.

BFA was not the crappy knock-off repeat of MOP, it was the completion of MOP's story arc.

...except for this ellaborate piece of shitposting

[XalAtoh]

All WoW lore are by default BADLY written. No exceptions.

Mist of Pandaria, is bad, BUT better compared to the other expansions, especially Legion, BFA (if you consider the nerf for Legion and Sylvanas reign major plot failure).