Here's the TL;DR list:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wo...nscript/877992
Some points I'd like to talk about
:
Orcs:
Thrall is seen as a "Orc raised as a Human". So far, we were always under the assumption that the Orcs were tricked into the whole demon blood thing. Until Grommash told Thrall they took it voluntarily. One thing that WoD added was that their planet was full of life that tried to kill them. Even the rocks to the very plants were all carnivores. You can imagine what a brutal world that is, so the Orcs are "bloodthirsty" from nature. They were raised in a hostile world.
But then again, does that mean that Orcs can't thrive without conflict? Since Thrall was the only succesfull Orc on building a society that involves Orcs, but also Taurens and Trolls included. Does that mean Orcs are a lesser, dumber race?
Tauren:
Christie Golden said: "Taurens are the moral compass of the Horde". After she chuckled saying that she's not biased clearly. Okay, so Golden really does mean that the Horde is evil in its own. That Orcs, Undead, Trolls, Blood Elves, even Goblins and the Pandaren that joined under Garrosh' rule are all evil and that the Taurens act like their moral compass. Basically saying that the Tauren are what's keeping the Horde together, as they're just a bunch of ragtag goons, who can't stick together. (I'm also going to assume that there are no more Pandaren left but a handful, if what Golden says is true. No Pandaren would want to join a faction where only one race has a "moral compass")
They also stated that Cairne was the most influential friend Thrall had. How? What about Doomhammer and Drek'thar? What about them? Saurfang? Why Cairne? Why couldn't they have left Cairne to be inspirational for his no good son Baine?
Conclusion
I don't think this panel showed much what we didn't know already. They basically retold Thrall's storyline, then gave their own views on it. Views that weren't represented into the game at all. Yet they want the player to believe that what they say is true. Tauren's are supposed to be the moral compass of the Horde, yet all they do in game is be moral cowards. That is if we have to think that Baine represents the entirety of the Taurens, and God do I hope they do not think that.
Because all Baine did was not speak up when Sylvanas was blighting his own soldiers, raising them as skeletons afterwards. He did not speak up against the burning of Teldrassil. He only spoke out when Jaina was about the get hurt. If being a moral compass means running to the Alliance with your tail between your leg like some kind of traitor, then by all means turn the Taurens into bloodthirsty brutes aswell, since that's how Christie Golden sees the Horde.
Does being a moral compass mean that all you do is bow down to the Alliance and report to them whenever shit in your faction hits the fan? Does this mean that the Alliance is the morally good faction?
As for the Orcs, I don't know how you can save this race. It's basically made canon that Orcs are a race that are from a nature point, evil. They're bloodthirsty, without the demon blood. This has been established since WoD, where the Frostwolves are the only clan on "securing that beast within". While the other Orcs glorify their nature. (hence why frostwolves were the good guys)
And as for Thrall being the only reasonable leader that led them, it was all thanks to him being raised by humans.
So we can safely assume Orcs will always have some play as a villian role. Perhaps that the glorification of being brutish barbarians is over, considering the political statement some of the writers have made in the past about adressing toxic masculinity.
I don't think these writers are fit for the world of Warcraft. They have such a hard time depicting what they mean in the story itself, even though they're the ones making it. They come off as arrogant. They do not wish to build upon the lore and pretty much the foundation of what Metzen and other writers created. They instead want to tear it all down to install their own version and even some political statements.
This is just sad.