Baine in 10.0 and beyond

[october breeze]

I smell animal abuse in this thread!

[Varodoc]

Baine dies in 9.3, when he sees Sylvanas he snaps from the PTSD of all the shit he went through in Torghast and tries to kill her. That is when the other two Windrunner sisters show up, kill him, wound Thrall, and start bitching out the Afterlife and Horde for what they did to their poor innocent sister. This leads to the next faction war in 10.0, vengeance for the Windrunner sisters against the Horde that turned Sylvanas into an undead and a half souled monster. Yes, Arthas and the Scourge were Horde when they killed Sylvanas.

Hilarious

Blizzard clearly forgot that Alleria exists.

[Mehrunes]

Correction, Baine is sitting leaning against the wall. So there's no room behind him for the shit to be deposited. In other words, he's sitting in his own shit.

[kansor]

If the timeskip theory is true then I wonder what is going to happen if he returns to Thunder Bluff and finds out someone else has taken over as chieftain.

Would have been much better use of the character to leave him in Azeroth so that once we return he's matured and become a leader on his own terms. He's been dealing with whatever is going on back home while we're gone and gained some toughness/credibility.

[Nraktja]

I don't think Sylv will do any fighting, as the least Blizz should do is have her be in chains. Portable ones, of course, so that she can act as our tour guide of the Jailer's plans in Zereth Mortis.

But yeah, Tyrande won't get to behead her. Maybe a 'stay-a-while-and-listen' convo, where she taunts Sylv about how she killed Nathanos.

I'd be very surprised if in the aftermath of Zereth Mortis we'll actually get an official execution event of Sylvanas. It would be so cathartic if it happened*, but if there's one thing the current Blizzard knows how to do it's how to disappoint their customer base.

*Yeah yeah, I previously argued there'd be no point as it would just relocate Sylvanas's soul to the custody of one of the covenants. Reneging that I suppose the writing team could write it so that Sylv's affinity to the death realm would make it so her death would be ultimate, the same as what happens to the inhabitants of the Shadowlands when they die (=be removed from existence completely).

To be honest I don't actually think they would be so tone deaf as to write any sort of forgiveness cinematic for them after all the criticisms that were everywhere since 9.1, but again they almost always choose the worst possible option in advancing the story, at least in the case of the past 2 expansions. The only thing I really expect is as you said, Sylvanas will not get killed and will get some semblance of redemption in stopping the Jailer and saving Anduin. They might make her fate ambiguous in 9.2 but in 9.2.5 add an epilogue that she stays behind in Shadowlands, never going back to being the Forsaken Queen again or be accepted by her closest kin that were Blood Elves.

On topic though, what I think they really lack is a wide variety of writers for many of the fan-favourite characters in the Warcraft universe. Lead Writers and Lead Narrative Designers are allowed to pick their favourites and write a story revolving around them and often relegating the other characters like Baine, Vol'jin, Genn, Bolvar etc. in the background or in the case of Tyrande completely wreck their character core and motivations. The writing team needs more equity in terms of decision so the game gives equal time and care to almost all of the characters and especially racial leaders instead of making one a protagonist for 3 expansions straight. Again as a Night Elf fan, if the writing team had a prominent Night Elf/Tyrande fan that could have vetoed the decision to go for the Burning of Teldrassil he/she would have done that and that particular plot point that still taints the game to this point could have been avoided. They would have talked about genociding a major player faction while offering no satisfying resolution to it in neither the BFA expansion nor the next would have pissed off a signifcant amount of the player base. Not the mention a major player faction being complicit would have pissed them off also, so a lose/lose in all counts.

So in my opinion, expand the writing team; As many RPG games do, relegate the writing of significant characters to major writers, and value their opinion instead of one guy leading the narrative as it suits his/her whims. Obviously you cannot make every character significant in every patch or expansion, but rotate it around. This will also remove character inconsistencies as much as possible since the writers of that particular character/plotline will have the specific knowledge and care necessary, without being needlessly fanboyish/playing favourites.

[Doffen]

Baine is wrong for the Horde.

They need Bane instead.

[Zuben]

Tides of War.

Thanks. Funny that. The way I understand it is that the war we fought in Cata was the same we continued in MoP, so it never ended, and during this time Baine would punish taurens for participating. For reals, I fucking hate that guy.

[Hardwing]

He needs an agenda besides the old "I want peace"-motto.

My favorite: Uniting Tauren, Taunka and Yaoungol with Magatha as his opponent. Would at least have room for setbacks.

[Aresk]

The crowning moment that cemented my hatred for him was when I, a Loyalist, was forced to kill Sunreavers alongside Jaina to spring his legitimately treasonous ass out of jail.

That moment will always cement Sylvanas as a moron in my mind. "Now now, my champion, I don't want you to attack my enemies. Instead, kill my loyal allies and help my enemies escape. If you attacked them, they might kill you, and I need you alive so that I can have Azshara try to kill you instead."

[Arrashi]

He will overdose on soy based food and ascend to next level becoming our guide in a cosmic journey.

[Mungho]

He will overdose on soy based food and ascend to next level becoming our guide in a cosmic journey.

I remember a joke someone made a while ago that they should put a child tauren in Thunder Bluff simply called 'Baine's Wife's son'.

[Syegfryed]

sadly(?), the team only have enough "creativeness" to work with a few NPCS that we(devs) love and care(like sylvanas, thrall and anduin) so there is not much room for others like Baine, especially when the devs had one expansion to ruin him more than necessary.

everything the horde leadership, as a whole, seems that is going to shit and the devs have no idea of what do to and how to deal with it, taurens of the horde are being leaded by Mayla in his absence, which makes no sense unless you are a dev who don't know about warcraft story and think 'yep a cow leading other cows". Mayla is highmountain, a foregeing, she barely left her home, how she can lead, manage take care all the tauren tribes in kalindor sicne she knows close to nothing about then, their relationship with others and what they need? is like putting a canadian to be US president. "well they are close enough right? speak english?"

its just this feeling of dread from what they will come up in next expansion

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks. Funny that. The way I understand it is that the war we fought in Cata was the same we continued in MoP, so it never ended, and during this time Baine would punish taurens for participating. For reals, I fucking hate that guy.

it is the same war

[sighy]

Jailer should have killed Baine and ashed his soul in the first act of Shadowlands, that would have made Zovaal seem slightly interesting.

That'd probably have a decent potrion of the playerbase cheer Zovaal on lol.

[Syegfryed]

That'd probably have a decent potrion of the playerbase cheer Zovaal on lol.

there is a decent portion of the playerbase hoping he does his name right, as janitor, and clean reality

[sighy]

there is a decent portion of the playerbase hoping he does his name right, as janitor, and clean reality

Lol, well not sure how they got the idea that from the creators of everything they didn't like in the past 3 xpacs a clean slate would usher in things they do like...

[Ardenaso]

things really went downhill when Cairne died

[Super Dickmann]

Given that Baine will never be killed him being in a vegetative state, catatonic after hearing about what happened to Anduin is the second best solution. Hopefully he never moves again and the Oribos attendants eventually build a museum around his hibernating mass.

[sighy]

sadly(?), the team only have enough "creativeness" to work with a few NPCS that we(devs) love and care(like sylvanas, thrall and anduin) so there is not much room for others like Baine, especially when the devs had one expansion to ruin him more than necessary.

everything the horde leadership, as a whole, seems that is going to shit and the devs have no idea of what do to and how to deal with it, taurens of the horde are being leaded by Mayla in his absence, which makes no sense unless you are a dev who don't know about warcraft story and think 'yep a cow leading other cows". Mayla is highmountain, a foregeing, she barely left her home, how she can lead, manage take care all the tauren tribes in kalindor sicne she knows close to nothing about then, their relationship with others and what they need? is like putting a canadian to be US president. "well they are close enough right? speak english?"

its just this feeling of dread from what they will come up in next expansion

Tbh Baine never was a good character, even all the way back in Cata. Especially given that the only times he ever faced any hardship he was bailed out by the Aliance right away and overall was perpetuating an ideology, which nearly saw his people go extinct cca wc3.

Yeah... his ass staying superglued to the floor in Oribos is probably the best case scenario.

[Mehrunes]

Jailer should have killed Baine and ashed his soul in the first act of Shadowlands, that would have made Zovaal seem slightly interesting.

And disrespect the heart of the Horde like that? Not even WoW's turbo-Satan is this evil.

[Narwhalosh Whalescream]

Baine is off his bloody rocker and believes he is a curded yak milk delicacy, leading to very uncomfortable situations at diplomatic meetings when he asks if they want to drink him.