Classic This expansion made me go from liking Anduin to nearly dispising him, and I understand what Horde players mean when they say Baine is an 'Alliance bootlicker' now.

Back in Cata/MoP, Anduin was a breath of fresh air. Amidst all those warmongers, he was someone asking "why can't we be friends?"Sure, after Theramore it was kind of naive to think so, but we knew the Horde could be good to some degree. It was a nice change of pace, it was a nice contrast to Tyrande, Varian and Jaina, and you could kind of see where he was coming from.Plus, his interactions with Garrosh left some hope that he would recognize when people were beyond redemption, even if he offered them a chance every time, and he helped mellow his father from the angry jackass into a more noble person. Plus, there was the implication that, just as Anduin had mellowed out Varian, Varian, in turn, would harden Anduin, making him understand that conflict was sometimes sadly necessary. ("you must be willing to fight for peace") That was what Legion hinted as, with Anduin picking up his father's sword, and the Battle of Lordaeron cinematic/Battle For Azeroth trailer seemed nice. It showed that Anduin was still very much not a fighter, but would help others fight, would lead the Alliance... ... and then comes the actual expansion, where nearly every single of his appearance has him lament "will nobody think of the poor Horde?"The horde burns Teldrassil, defiling the land, committing an actual genocide (as described in Elegy and i think a few interviews)? " My whole life, I have prayed for peace in this world. But that dream can never be realized so long as Sylvanas Windrunner leads the Horde. She expects this atrocity to crush our spirits. Shatter our unity. But this I vow... The Alliance will endure... and the Banshee Queen's insidious reign will be ended"Notice the distinct lack of "the Horde will pay" or any of the sort. He's putting the entire blame for what happened on Sylvanas alone, and removing her will be enough to make peace between the Horde and Alliance possible!Which, need i remind you, he's saying just minutes after learning that the Horde inflicted something on the scale of the Burning Legion or Scourge (hell, that the Horde did a copy of what the Scourge inflicted on Quel'Thalas, except even worse somehow).Then you have the Battle For Lordaeron, where he takes Saurfang prisoner instead of killing him, promising that they'll talk of "[...] honour... and how it may yet be reclaimed".Because that's the thing you say to one of the people responsible for the War of Thorns (whihc, i will remind you, was explicitly called a genocide of the Night Elves). Not how he'll face justice for his crimes, not how Tyrande will decide his fate, or how his judgement must be public or whatever, or anything like that.NO! You tell him how he will be able to get his honour™ back.Then he gives sylvanas a chance to surrender, which wouldn't be too bad, except he just placed all the blame for an actual genocide of one of his allies on her and her alone.Then you have "Lost Honor", where he frees Saurfang after hearing him being sad about how Sylvanas ruined the Horde.Let me repeat that: he has one of the people responsible for the War of Thorns and the Burning of Teldrassil, and Anduin frees him because he heard that Saurfang was sad about being complicit in genocide for the third fuckign time in his life, and thinks the Horde can be good again.AFTER Saurfang and the Horde committed something that, I will repeat, was described as an actual genocide of the Night Elves.Then you flash to the end of the Dazar'Alor raid, where he agrees with Jaina that they should go easy on the Horde, lest they become as bad as Sylvanas.Because making sure the Horde wouldn't be able to hurt them again is totally the same thing as being a genocidal maniac, right? (of course, attacking the Zandalari in the first place was dumb as fuck, but oh well.) Not to mention that that victory at Dazar'Alor was only possible by sending an entire battalion on a suicide mission to distrct the Horde, so he's wasting their sacrifices as well.Flash-forward to 'The Negoctiation" cinematic, where Saurfang finally admits the Horde has been fucked up from its inception, and Anduin's reaction is "there were bad people on both sides".He's saying that to the orc partly responsible for the genocide of the Night Elves, mind you.Then you get to the aftermath of Reckoning, where he's content trusting the Horde that, this time they'll be good, does not impose any kind of sanctions or demands on them, celebrates Saurfang as a hero, does not ask anything from them, hell, even gives them Calia and Derek as a package deal!Then you have the 8.3 PTR, where everyone agrees with him that they should maintain that peace and that asking the Horde to be held accountable for their LITERAL GENOCIDE OF THE NIGHT ELVES (as Tyrande wants to do) is wrong and bad.Taken individually, any of these wouldn't be such a problem. Or if they were presented as the naive hope of a young ruler.But when they're presented as the right thing to do, when the only one to question them is presented as being in the wrong, when it's the only things Anduin has done this expansion, when eve Shandris Feathrmoon is telling us "we should move on from that", they make me angry, because they make it seems like Anduin cares more about the Horde being good again than about the fact that they, I feel like i need to repeat that again because Blizzard seems to want to sweep it under the rug, COMMITTED SOMETHING ACTUALLY DESCRIBED AS A GENOCIDE ON THE NIGHT ELVES AND CONTINUED TO SUPPORT SYLVANAS UP UNTIL THE MOMENT SHE LEFT THEM.And now, my apology to Horde players.When i saw them complain that Baine was more of an Alliance character than a Horde one, I used to be confused."I mean, Baine is only doing what the 'Noble Savages' Horde would, right? Showing mercy to his enemies, not sinking to the same level as the bad guy... isn't that what you should all admire?" I would say/think.Except that now I get it. When the only thing Baine is doing, when the only times he speak up is to say "but what about the poor Alliance? Aren't we being mean to them?", I can see why you would view him as an Alliance bootlicker.And now i feel the same about Anduin. via /r/wow https://ift.tt/331Gw3p