Originally Posted by
Super Dickmann
The Forsaken were at rock bottom prior, with every relevant character excised and Calia having taken over as their main speaker off-screen in a book, featuring no times at all in SL and featuring only through new characters that were made to dismantle the race and demonize their racial leader of fifteen years in BFA. This after their entire backstory got arbitrarily changed in a crappy tie-in book so that they could have Calia installed. They were already members of the Unifaction, their core cut out so they could join an Alliance-approved Anduin clone and be part of world peace. World peace and total removal of human conflict are the endgame and the Forsaken were already part of that.
The Calia quest is 'good', because it gets to that point in a more organic way than anything before it, while using Forsaken characters, themes and imagery and putting Calia while still obviously bound to be the face of the faction, as a more subordinate role to an identity that still has many of its traits over it. It is able to do so because the Forsaken destruction was complete both internally and externally. Internally, they're now better off than they were because there's at least some of their identity back and the circumstances of Calia are gone. Externally, nothing is given except apparently a throwaway line about Gilneas, and their relations with both the Horde and Alliance still aren't covered because to do so sensibly would require conflict and conflict is what Blizzard is unwilling to do.
By comparison, the Night Elves are internally functional on a base level. Their entire cast is alive, their reasoning in wanting to reclaim their grounds, oppose the treaty, fight the Horde etc. and their return to a characterization as close to WC3 as it's ever been in 8.1 are all popular among their fanbase and easy to implement. Blizzard know this and push it, but while the Forsaken need internal correction after they've been gutted outright, for this Night Elf story to work they need external validation which is much harder to slot into their world peace simulator. For the Night Elf identity to work they need to do something, not just chat - they need to not just kill Nathanos, but seize back territory and have quests where they fight and kill Horde. They need to not just plant trees and frolic around in the woods while punishing Sylvanas, but assert themselves relative to the Alliance as a separate, hawkish block. And all this needs to be portrayed positively and reasonably.
Blizzard can't do this and still have their world peace simulator hence why Tyrande's been limpwristed in every appearance from 8.1 onwards. They are aware of this internal identity and wish, and so Tyrande and the night elves constantly talk a big game as do other characters about how mad and strong they are, but they can't validate their identity externally relative to other powers because if they did they'd have to realize that their entire direction, drive towards homogenization and insufferable moralizing are cancerous. And that they can't do. That's why despite having far more material, far more screentime and a fanbase that goes on and on about the tree even more than the game itself does, the Night Elves got a worse shake than the Forsaken when it comes to their 'fixing' quests and always will be. Because what the Night Elves need isn't a strong identity or cast - they have those, they also don't need yet another fucking tree or reprise of Teldrassil, what they need is to be in a game that realizes that it's about war.