The Embarrassing Fall of the Night Elves

[@bv5191]

Elves come from trolls and trolls never win, so it just makes sense

[@samwrai]

Noooo! Its so true!

[@animeturnMMD]

Once a troll always a troll. XD

[@viwic2209]

At least the trolls always try again. And every time they managed to be a threat that has to be put down. I mean, what have the Gnomes ever archived? Except building a Subway maybe xD

[@ExValeFor]

@@viwic2209 Thats because most trolls aren't faction members. So they get to have raids and dungeons all about how they get destroyed and then try to kill everyone all over again. They put nelves on the alliance so now they sit around doing absolutely nothing and occasionally get their shit kicked in! fuck the horde and fuck the alliance, at least the hostile and neutral factions get to do shit sometimes!!!

[@zombiszabi9243]

Rofl yes it makes ense lol

[@litterbox2010]

Elune: Grants revenge powers to Tyrande for revenge Also Elune: Takes them away mid-fight because revenge is wrong, Tyrande should use revenge powers for not revenge. Give them back. Idiot Tyrande. The absolute state of WoW lore and writing. Pathetic.

[@nesnahprotsdam]

That cutscene actually made me quit WoW for almost a year. Blizzard has the worst writing team in the industry. Even Twilight has a better story than the garbage that has been Tyrande's storyline.

[@jaipii1285]

Cough TLOU 2 cough 😷

[@markup6394]

I think it was Taliesin who argued, that it wasnt Elune witholding those powers but Tyrande herself: knowing deep down that vengeance wasnt right, she battled Elune's influence to the point that she let Sylvanas escape. - If that is thats case... ... thats even more pathetic because it means the whole night warrior business was a waste from the start -.- (I mean, imo it was a waste anyway, but this would've just made is worse...)

[@oscara1573]

Kinda ironic since the NE have one the most vengeful characters in Warcraft, Maiev, which is also a priest of elune

[@durendenmp812]

@@nesnahprotsdam I just started playing again months ago, and only because the Dragonflight story seemed really intriguing. Fuck BFA

[@gruntmasterbroadcast]

Night Elves: "Elune hear us?! What have we done to deserve this fate!?" Elune just shrugs and does a backflip Night Elves: "We truly are cursed...

[@giovanniprovost]

Elune fortnite dances in the sky as Teldrassil burns

[@marcinbiay1074]

if blizzard let Elune do a backflip i forgive them 20 years of destroying NE lore

[@Lysvsyl]

Night Elves burning alive: "Elune save us!" "lol" Elune proclaimed "lmao"

[@valeclaw1697]

In reality, Elune is being mangled by all the writers trying to constantly retcon what she is. You try to commune with her and she's screaming because they cant go five minutes without trying to shred her wowpedia page with a chainsaw and slap in something that doesn't make sense in her place.

[@valeclaw1697]

@@marcinbiay1074 If only they had been smart enough to see that most of those 20 years actually did have issues that were harming the core fantasy of Night Elves, and focused on bringing back their OG identity by destroying Teldrassil, since it fundamentally doesn't work when you look at what their identity was in wc3. Alas, here we are.

[@Lehnert]

I liked how in MoP Varian was teaching Tyrande, that was 10 000 years old experienced warrior and leader, how to use patience in war.

[@galten7361]

Yes since Varian was more than anything an author's pet. He was giving all the author thinks is kewl (a tortured past with deep memory loss, his own party of badasses complete with a slutty blood elf, gets to kill Onyxia, animu hair) topped with not having a solid characterization (ranges from not having a grudge against Orcs in his comic, rants and raved ablut the Horde in WotLK, becomes a wise king with Jaina being a loose cannon).

[@FishyFuji]

Its also funny considering Varian himself was both impatient and rash, and the patience thing was something he learned from his 15 year old son.

[@valeclaw1697]

​@Hawkknightthat scene in Wolfheart was so fucking silly lmao. Night Elves clearing the fog when they have owl spirits whose magical senses bypass physical things like smoke or even magic.

[@Boxkar24]

XD, just got done leaving this exact same comment before I scrolled down and saw yours. Cannot tell you how much I hate that scenario.

[@DIEGhostfish]

That was the dumbest possible pairing for the scenario. I know they wanted to show that Varian was finally "at peace," and it's not like Tyrande hasn't been a hothead before, just ask Maeiv or Duke Lionheart, but it still felt contrived.

[@sylvansheep4833]

"The Kaldorei are not nice. They're intolerant, savage, spiteful warriors of nature" My favorite bit of Night Elf lore is that the original priestesses of the moon in wc3 weren't healers but rode tigers, shot flaming arrows, and had starfall! These "DPS priestesses" really epitomize the viciousness of night elf culture/Elune imo, so badass.

[@valeclaw1697]

I will say, theyre both warriors and support. WoWs problem isnt necessarily showing healing, its not showing the warrior shit. Their weapon training and magic capable of more than light and shadow under Elune. Theyre a violent, zealous race as tied to duality as nature and the moons.

[@galten7361]

Blame the Alliance.

[@BlackHawk4698]

Maybe this is a controversial take, but the Priest class in WoW is a complete and utter lore failure, because it took all the different religions of the different races and gave them the exact same generic power set. Night Elf Priestess of the Moon is the same as Troll Witch Doctor is the same as Human Priest of the Holy Light is the same as Undead Shadow Cultist and so on.

[@MostlyHarmless7777]

@@BlackHawk4698 I don't think your take is controversial, just one based on modern day, retail WOW. Originally, priests had 2 unique spell based on their race choice in vanilla WOW. Each race got one at level 10, and then level 20. This is where the meme about dwarf priests getting FEAR WARD needed for the fight against Onyxia comes from. Ah, The Grind, great series kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaDHapSLqdeWsJY However, rather than expanding upon this, Blizzard decided to remove this more lore accurate class design.

[@Spicy_Spores]

@@BlackHawk4698 Agree 100%, I was always upset culture/religion from different races was just scrapped. It's sooo much worse now with them introducing hundreds of class/race combinations now. Yeah, I get why, but i'll always think "Lightforged Death Knight", etc, is incredibly f/cking stupid. I wouldn't care as much if they made them made sense, or unique. You're constantly taking -1 damage because you literally shouldn't exist, or some shit like that. Or if you're a Night Elf Mage, NPCs respond to you appropriately? Soooo sad.

[@mattemattics5667]

I still laugh hysterically how they locked up Illidan for creating a new well, then proceed to use and benefit from that very well.

[@cobalt968]

That’s probably the most realistic aspect of the whole story! Art really does imitate reality!

[@Aphorism89]

One thing has nothing to do with the other. One thing is to open a well, but once open, you might try to make something out of it.

[@blazer168]

EXACTLY! Wtf is up with that!? I may be an Illidan simp but damn was he screwed over by his own people, ESPECIALLY his own brother.

[@Aphorism89]

@@blazer168 i am an Illidan fanboy, but you gotta see the point. He was always acting in an alternative way and in a very cloudy fashion. It was easy to believe that he was up to no good. That's the way it was written, and that's what made him special because he was always a good guy :) a true martyr to the end.

[@grimnir8872]

To be fair the Night Elves didn't use it, the Dragons did.

[@DDDiegoAGM]

"It's britney b*tch" and then Azshara walking took me out hahaha so good!

[@philippeblais8594]

"I am so tired Malfurion." *Proceeds to pass out from sheer tiredness.* I was honestly expecting to hear snoring at that point.

[@waterman034]

I was expecting Malfurion to just yell "tyrande!" again

[@YAH93]

@@waterman034 Same here.

[@jesserothhammer7378]

I expected Malfurion to fall asleep after she said she was tired. That's kind of his thing. Sleeping through all major events of NE society and making her shoulder the burden of leading them so he can play with animals in the Emerald Dream.

[@galten7361]

@Jesse Rothhammer Malfurion is a mistake.

[@Dragon-gs2qy]

@@jesserothhammer7378 "play"

[@cynthia-op8rx]

a friend of mine has been obsessed with the night elves since childhood and i have never met a person so thoroughly devoted to, and crushed by, the lore of their favorite fictional group.

[@MrVlad12340]

Same. Night elves just had a very unique, amazing lore and feel to them. To see them destroyed in this way by dumb, overpaid and underperforming hacks was disgusting.

[@Yormolch]

Me, a troll fan, sobbing in the corner: "I feel you, mon!"

[@alies-]

I can relate as a big fan of Trolls and Nerubians which are main jobbers of this universe xD

[@Thaumiel_5]

It seems I'm also like your friend 🙃

[@kokotvole4884]

@@MrVlad12340Yeah, bring back racist WC3 Elves, who are environmental extremists and who have warrior women and have beef with everyone who steps on a flower

[@AvelineMelena]

The night elves are one of the biggest wasted potential in wow. And... Thats saying a lot seeing how much they manage to waste stuff

[@exaelart]

Cairne, Baine and the rest of the Taurens

[@gallakailancer3692]

Its a fitting plot line for a civilization that regressed after the Sundering. It would be like electricity being outlawed after a worldwide nuclear holocaust. Naturally any society ahereing to the ban would lose ground to another society that still wielded the now forbidden power.

[@recklesscoding]

Before vanilla first came out, I was hoping that NE would have been a playable neutral function. Then I recall reading about goblins being neutral and was so surprised that NE was still not neutral. Still, all these years after, I don't get why NE start with friendly on all Alliance races but the undead don't. Lore wise, the NE have every right not to trust humans et al. Factions aside, NE priests were also a huge waste. They had some extra spells (Starshards and Elunes Grace), but the WC3 shot flaming arrows, invisibility, etc aka being like 'arcane hunters'.... such a shame really.

[@Opi395]

They already said gameplay > lore. The night elves had to ally one of the factions for gameplay and human is less evil than orc to them.@@recklesscoding

[@recklesscoding]

@@Opi395 I know and I get the gameplay bit. It is just sad though lore wise.

[@oliverwilhelm6171]

I can't get over Night Warrior just being a socially-acceptable Demon Hunter for the night elf culture. Warglaives, funny eyes, and vengeance.

[@grimnir8872]

Not huffing Demon Juice is a pretty big aside.

[@BIacklce]

using unknown chaotic arcane or fel magics one barely understands: 👿 using unknown chaotic nature magics one barely understands😃

[@yogsoggoth]

@@BIacklce Not to mention that using the arcane and even fel is safe-ish, Demon Hunter's bodies adapt to this stuff and they can keep living like this for a long time. While the Night Warrior energy just fucking kills you. Like, as long as it is in your body, you will die like a bitch. The only way to survive is to get cleansed (which is very hard to do), otherwise you are just doomed. Why the fuck are nelves like that... God, this race is braindead.

[@valeclaw1697]

I fucking cant get over that it was originally Elune's avatar of death tied to honoring the valorous who die in war, and then blizz deleted that lore right before THE AFTERLIFE EXPANSION lmao.

[@efaristi9737]

Difference is that that power is much more stronger, is destined to one chosen, not a legion, and come from the goddess they worshipped their whole existence. While Demon Hunter are a army juiced up by the very energies that corrupt the world and denature it. The fact they were also led by a guy most night elves know as THE traitor didn't help.

[@HollyToadstool]

The bit where Malfurion choked the Troll while saying "Tyrande! I need you!" had me crying with laughter and I had to go back to see it again. Well played, good sir. Well played.

[@zokidawa]

When I discovered the night elves in WC3 they left a big mark in me. I thought they were a beautiful and mysterious people linked to nature, the night and the stars. I also loved wandering their lands in WoW and listening to their music, everything felt magical and possible. Then Blizzard made them "underwhelming" and almost insignificant as the expansions went by and it just broke me. 😭

[@valkylva]

The reason why they did this is because of their popularity. So many people wanted to play night elves that they made their lore less appealing.

[@popamihnea6695]

I swear, the "I am so tired, Malfurion" is the best TLDR of fan's reactions to Night Elf lore

[@bunnieskitties293]

Man the WC3 Era night elves actualy do look good. That classic Metzen era art is something to behold.

[@Wiliraughshai]

Its obvious Tyrande lost her powers against Sylvanas because she tried to strangle undead being and Elune was cringing so hard she just said "Nahh I give up on you"

[@etain21918]

Elune is like, bro she ain't breathing this is useless, also my sister is right there too She's pretty mad at me for being a neglectful sister she'll be more pissed if I take her job too

[@valeclaw1697]

"Tyrande you can literally conjure weapons, youve done it in books since like 2004, why are you choking her and not shooting her?"

[@valeclaw1697]

​@@etain21918"i have no fucking clue where this sister ive heen neglecting comes from, im pretty sure ive never even been especially tied to life magic, and that her existence contradicts 20 years of nature lore, but whatever"

[@jsc1jake512]

@@valeclaw1697 She nuked Nathanos' dogs just by walking menacingly toward him and Blizz is trying to convince us that she came to the conclusion that strangling Sylvanas was a good idea? Sure, you could chalk it up to her being blinded by rage but that'd be a cheap writing tactic, oh wait this is Warcraft we're talking about.

[@thalanoth]

@@etain21918 No, they don't condone woman on woman violence, it's too much for the whamen; Elune made her trans and she, I'm sorry, he, is now a powerless snowflake of a man that cannot defeat wonderbanshee

[@eles369]

With how much the writers hate Night Elves, it wouldn't surprise me if the seed just gets destroyed by some bad guy or something lol

[@nesnahprotsdam]

A random bird eats it. Big bird raidboss incoming.

[@valeclaw1697]

Tbh, as a night elf fan since wc3? I want the seed to be destroyed, but for the story to ignore it and just acknowledge "anyways, they go back to Hyjal, which it never made sense for them to leave and go to Teldrassil from anyways." Like, making new world trees is one of the biggest issues with Night Elf lore. When it was one, it was cool, and it had meaning. When they lived on Kalimdor they had a warrior-steward oriented culture in every facet of life and it was badass. Now? They're fucking jokes. Every new world tree has less and less meaning or depth in it's lore, they're just pretty. Their gods have been retconned over and over into being useless, same as every character remotely associated with the Kaldorei. Making a new world tree wont repair the damage WoW's been doing for 20 years- we need the original DEFENDERS OF KALIMDOR back.

[@Shiirow]

we all know the seed will become corrupted, and Xavius will come back because you know the emerald nightmare was merely a setback... yadda yadda yadda

[@galten7361]

Just use whatever capeshit writing they have.

[@preds43]

The Void Lords: *Quietly laughs while tentacles slowly appear around the seed*

[@valeclaw1697]

Just for fun on a second post about meta lore: Retcons to night elf lore since 2004 that drive me nuts in no particular order! Wild Gods: Used to be spiritual embodiments of primordial aspects of nature and couldn't truly die because of it, now just big magic animals that die for plot every 2 minutes. Elune: Originally a spiritual entity whose power was almost always shown as Pseudo forms of Holy, Shadow, Death or Arcane magic, pretty much never life, to the point that Cenarius' connection to nature was always attributed to his father, not his mother. The Night Warrior itself is a hilarious case of retcons because it's lore that actually came out before WoW did, back in 2004: but in addition to not being a mortal avatar (for reasons ill mention later!) she was also not a moon DH. She was an avatar of death, and there's multiple instances in expanded lore of her powers being used to summon spectres made of starlight that couldn't even be killed, just outlasted or run from. Kalimdor Connections: They screamed 'Kalimdor' as a war cry in wc3. Their bond to the land was significant and ancient. They were it's annointed defenders, chosen by the Aspects to atone for their failures with an existence of kinship and service with the land, ran by a warrior sisterhood theocracy who ultimately controlled their government and politics. Then for whatever reason, mass migrated EVERYTHING to a tree grown by a heretic off Kalimdor's shores, that was corrupted and only 3 years old at most by the time of Vanilla. Warrior Steward culture randomly replaced with 'uh, they have long ears and like trees' culture with no earnest depth. Moon Priestesses: Warrior Priestesses, whose elite were described in books as being viewed as mortal incarnations of Elune's will. They also know a secret language to commune with Elune for magic and ritual, supposedly taught to them by Elune herself, that is never mentioned anywhere in WoW. Half the time they show up in WoW, blizz depicts them as reskinned Holy Light Priests, despite the Sisterhood training in sacred weapons like the bow and moonglaive, and their deity having powers beyond the light or shadow.

[@galten7361]

Their critter friends don't really help much.

[@FIREBALLINbg]

Could I get in on this lore if I just search for the earliest warcraft lore books I can find? Cause I feel like im missing out with all the retcons that have happened.

[@SporeTres]

So is the Warden ultimate of Wardens in Warcraft 3 closer to the Night Warrior than Tyrande? Kinda makes sense, since I feel Wardens are basically just arcane jailers.

[@planetary-rendez-vous]

I pretend the lore after wc3 doesn't exist.

[@Malcorpse]

At least the first Tyrande fight with Nathanos got changed from the beta version where she outright lost to him after her powerup and it was only changed because of community backlash. The bias towards Sylvannas from the writing staff was not well hidden in BFA and Shadowlands.

[@galten7361]

Sylvanas had meh to bad writing too.

[@AzureRoxe]

Always remember that the lead writer, Steve Danuser, has a VERY unhealthy obsession with Sylvanas, to the point he retconned Nathanos to LOOK like him and have similar features to him, he ROLEPLAYED as Nathanos on his Twitter as being in love with Sylvanas and obliterated Sylvanas's lore multiple times.

[@iantaylor7988]

@@AzureRoxe I keep hearing about Danuser's self-inserting with Blightcaller - they look nothing alike and the character has been the "Champion of the Banshee Queen" since vanilla. They updated him once he became an actual character.

[@IzzetNilson]

​@@iantaylor7988 this is true but they update it very similarly to him which. At least to me, it felt borderline awful. The thing I hate is last i saw he's still in a BG if you're horde talking mad shit about you at the start of the match. And that's just going to be there forever.

[@Rannos22]

I always felt that Night Elves should've had neutral relations with the rest of the alliance much like how the forsaken did with the horde

[@galten7361]

They don't eanna write the Alliance like it.

[@durshurrikun150]

@Hawkknight Stop crying, fanboy. The high elves aka the blood elves would have never joined the alliance after what Garithos did to them. Also, the high elves never even believed in the alliance, they joined for opportunistic reasons, not out of belief.

[@davidglendaleardenaso8735]

I prefer if the Night Elves (and Forsaken) had their factions instead, something like: Alliance: Stormwindian Human, Bronzebeard Dwarf, Gnome, High Elf Horde: Orc, Darkspear, Tauren, Ogre Forsaken: Undead Human, Undead Elf, Alteraci Human, Blood Elf Sentinels: Night Elf, Furbolg, Cenarian, Dark Troll then perhaps make Cataclysm go first before WotLK since I feel Arthas should die later than Deathwing, whereas Alliance: gets Highborne after they were cast out for good from the Night Elves Horde: gets Goblins after Kezan tragedy Forsaken: gets Satyrs to gain a proper foothold in Kalimdor Sentinels: gets Gilneans since they feel responsible for Worgens, and to gain a proper foothold in Eastern Kingdoms then in WotLK they get Death Knights as usual then in MoP, Alliance and Forsaken get Dark Iron Dwarves from Moira/Dagran faction, respectively; and then Horde and Sentinels from Huojin/Tushui faction, respectively WoD doesn't happen and the Legion arrives when Varimathras betrays Sylvanas and the Forsaken in this time instead, then the factions finally reunite with some of certain races to their fold (except Sentinels, who took the opportunity to get Tuskarrs as their ally instead) Alliance: gets Kul Tirans Horde: gets Zandalari Forsaken: gets Demon Hunter (with customization skins of Blood Elf, Night Elf, Fel Orc, and Satyr) Sentinels: gets Tuskarr of course the Stormwindian would eventually get Dalarani skin, Bronzebeard with Wildhammer and Frostborn skin, Orc gets Shattered Hand skin, Tauren with Highmountain and Taunka skin, Ogre with Ogre Magi and Dire Ogre skin, Blood Elf with Darkfallen and Dark Ranger skin, Furbolg with Polar Furbolg skin, and Darkspears with Amani, Drakkari, and Farakki skins no such thing as Velen and "uncorrupted" Draenei; the Draenei here would be the ones just like in WC3 led by Akama who should be neutral at best

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

@@durshurrikun150 "after what garithos did to them" But they sure as fuck had no problems joining the horde after what the horde had done to them. what an absolutely absurd reasoning. and then kael thas turned out to be a generic bad guy who betrayed his people regardless, so an argument could be made that the high elves wouldnt have been fond of the whole "lets become blood elves" deal at all.

[@durshurrikun150]

@@boarfaceswinejaw4516 They had no problem joining the horde because the horde did nothing to them. The old horde had cease to exist decades before and had a completely different ideology to the new horde. Blame Blizzard for making Kael'Thas into a lol villain out of nowhere. My dear, the high elves collectively decided to call themselves blood elves, blood elves and high elves are the same exact species. Idiots like Vereesa are just a political faction, not representative of a race.

[@thechartech]

Laughed my ass off at the "tyrande" swap. So good

[@mintkasa]

oh azshara. she was teased to be THE MOST powerful mage still alive, just lurking beneath the dark tides of azeroth to one day overthrow the entire world again. hell, we have been fighting her minions in every expansion since classic, so obviously her empire is still huge and the power she holds unimaginable. all of that buildup only to defeat her as a raid boss...

[@mintkasa]

oh and thank u for making these videos. they are funny as hell and one can really tell how much passion u have for wow. its a good casual subsitute for playing wow since i quit my sub to focus on uni

[@lesgrosgainz]

I mean Azshara is but a fodder in comparison to several raid bosses the adventurers beat during all those years.

[@galten7361]

It was a problem since Jaina was forced into it.

[@andrsl1]

@Justin B Yeah but nazjatar was pathetic, just a patch from a expansion that had lore all over the place and could not decide what the its thematic should be. Aszhara and the naga should've had their own expansion, she's like on Arthas or Illidan level, a very iconic character that has been teased since WC3, sure she she's still alive somewhere and that can still happen, but our first interaction with this incredibly powerful character was underwhelming

[@WalkerOfTheWastes]

@@lesgrosgainz Azshara was a match for Archimonde and Kil'jaeden back in the War of the Ancients, before her pact with N'zoth. Hell she's one of the few bosses who actually completes their goals with an obligatory "ENOUGH!" and mandatory villain exit: she frees an Old God. And unlike Deathwing-who split the planet almost in half- or anyone else who has touched or dealt with the Old Gods, she's perfectly sane. The fact Blizzard's shitty writing didn't do her justice-just like they don't do anything justice nowadays- is little to do with her power or her skill.

[@valeclaw1697]

In my personal opinion on a meta side of lore: Blizzard has struggled with the implementation of the Kaldorei ever since WoW started, and has been fundamentally stumbling over their foundational lore / identity since even Classic. Over time i've found it increasingly difficult to reconcile the idea that they were essentially recreated their culture from the grass roots after Nordrassil was planted to be the warrior-guardians of Kalimdor, charged by the aspects themselves with guiding the future of the World Tree, and living under the religious authority of a Warrior Sisterhood in the Moon Priestesses, with the fact that we're expected to believe that they moved the vast majority of their civilization from those lands that they have a personal and intimate connection to, to a THREE YEAR OLD (AT MOST!!) TREE IN CLASSIC, grown by A HERETIC to the religion that runs their fucking government. Night Elves don't even keep their original fantasy. Elune isn't the same as she was in old lore, where she was described as a spiritual entity, not a god damn tangible robot in a life dimension. She wasn't even asosciated with nature magic, Cenarius' inherited his power from Malorne, not her. It's never attributed to her, shadows, pseudo holy, death power and pseudo arcane ARE WHAT IS USUALLY TIED TO HER. They went from a warrior-steward style culture to pussies, entirely because blizzard writers just arbitrarily wanted them to. To the point where now they're planting ANOTHER MEANINGLESS WORLD TREE instead of defending Nordrassil, WHICH GOT RESTORED IN THE BACKGROUND OF THRALL'S 4.2 QUEST.

[@JamesW609]

Agree with you I loved how they still retained some of their troll savagery now they're just dumb tree hippies I guess

[@galten7361]

Pretty much all of that happened since they figured to make the NEs into an Alliance race and needed to make necessary changes to them both during WoW's developmenf and as it went to fit. The Alliance centered around Humans and the Light with the NEs in RoC not really fitting well. Especially when the NEs were first envisioned as being in the Horde or at least allied during RoC's development.

[@valeclaw1697]

​@@JamesW609lmao when blizz retconned OG lore to say elves came from trolls, they also simultaneously retconned all the other lore making them as savage as trolls.

[@JamesW609]

@@valeclaw1697 Savargery isn't bad for evlves just look at faefolk from European mythology fae folk are are more savage than any troll and all elven myology is inspired from it

[@valeclaw1697]

@@JamesW609 oh I'm not saying it's bad. I think it works better for their fantasy to have all the knowledge of civilization and still embrace savage nature, a good example of duality. I just think blizz took their spine out at the same time as the troll retcon. Not that they're linked, just funny timing.

[@luck4Is]

Being a Night Elf fan is definitely soul-crushing, to say the least.

[@elliominati]

I will never forgive blizzard management for hiring writers that hate the lore

[@blastermaster5039]

Christie Golden and her vampire boys need their spotlight

[@oscara1573]

The NE exchanged cool units like the chimaeras, mountain giants, dryads, faerie dragons, refrigerator sized druids and an amazonian army for being the sidekicks of mortal people (not saying that those dont appear in-game but theyre there mostly as easter eggs than actual part of their army). I think the NE among the worgen, furbolgs and other furry races should have made a third faction instead of joining the alliance

[@johnathanmartin1504]

I've been saying this since the day World of Warcraft started. It made very little sense for them to join the alliance. The forsaken should be their own faction too.

[@budakbaongsiah]

@@johnathanmartin1504 It'd be back to WC3 then, the Alliance, the Horde, the Night Elves, and the Undead!

[@galten7361]

They joined the Alliance since it the game's design leaned towards it. Nothing more.

[@primary2630]

​@@johnathanmartin1504 forsaken make their own alliance and then die to everyone since no one likes undead.. they joined the horde to escape death by the alliance.

[@primary2630]

​@@galten7361 they had common enemies.

[@Chrysobubulle]

Then in the next expansion we’ll find out that Elune is a robot made by the First Ones running on Widows 95 and that’s why she’s been glitching for some time now

[@galten7361]

She's not already yet?

[@Obironnkenobi]

This reminded me of when I first started playing classic and accidentally joined an RP guild. I was cringed out pretty bad at first until I started to get to know people. There was this one guy who was Night Elf Druid and he would have "visions" of the future and he would just tell everyone about events from Retail. He had a full blown meltdown one day because he saw "Telldrasill in flames" and it shook him pretty badly.

[@insertname9736]

That's kinda a clever way of roleplaying.

[@CyclopsToppingWolverine]

Seems to be a trend for Blizzard to put their female characters into revenge plots where they ultimately have to "stop being crazy and be better", yet Baine for example gets to have vengeance in the new 10.0.7 questline and it's portrayed as something awesome. I get there's more nuance in this comparison but it's hard to not notice. Thinking about BFA/Shadowlands just makes me annoyed.

[@Ilyak1986]

Ehhhh, I'd say Kerrigan got the ultimate revenge plot *AND* ultimately got her revenge, en route to saving the rest of the universe too. Kerrigan reached a level of literal godhood that the women of WoW only *wish* they could achieve. Ran the entire morality gambit? Check. One woman army? Check. Revenge? Check. Ascend to divinity (in a scifi universe, no less!)? Check. Flies off with her love interest to places unknown? And check.

[@theoutlander1411]

Blizzard can't seem to write men either. Any man they do write that is a badass has to be killed off (Varian, Garrosh, Tychus, Mengsk, etc.) I think the only ones spared of this is Genn Greymane and maybe Lothremar, but they're both relegated to the background.

[@RED_Theory038]

Yeah in general WoW is very toothless and I don't think it's a gender thing, it's a writer thing.

[@viatka1966]

You've kinda mentioned it briefly, but the loss of Auberdine in Cata was always so sad for me as a NE main. It's a big impactful place familiar to those who leveled nelfs in pre-cata, and it's just gone. Now if you go to Darkshore it's just a place that makes me unironically supersad, looking at the burned Teldrassil, darkshore ravaged by the war in BFA with all the poison and stuff, and the ruins of Auberdine nearby... and to top it all off the lack of actual conclusion, no actual revenge in the end... man, I got super sad even just writing it down. It sucks to be a NE fan in current wow, that's for sure.

[@TrilainaBloodwind]

The absolute mishandling of Night Elf lore is a big reason why I stopped playing WoW. The lore as a whole was the straw that broke the camel's back for me continuing to play WoW, but the Night Elf lore in particular showed a GLIMMER of hope for being interesting and cool, then gets dropped on it's face from the top of the empire state building. Absolute ridiculous.

[@Byggherren]

Night elf main tries not to play the victim (challenge level: impossible)

[@wrayday7149]

This! They wanted a big shocking moment to stun the wow players no matter how nonsensical... and then tripped and fell trying to explain it. They honestly need to find a point where they need to "reset world events" and it be the jumping off point to making a new WoW MMO and starting over.... and then scrapping everything past WoTLK.

[@asd3601]

just night elf lore, not you know the entirety of warcraft lore being dumped on

[@galten7361]

Pretty much all you're complaining about is from shoehorning the NEs into the Alliance. Among all other lore problems, the Night Elves as established in RoC do not fit with the Alliance as established in WotLK.

[@TrilainaBloodwind]

@@Byggherren I'm just explaining what part of the lore I didn't like. And that lore is why I stopped playing. Not sure what the whole "play the victim" bit is.

[@DarkmourneTheFlayer]

Grom Hellscream was actually putting quite the beating on the Night Elves in Warcraft III (to be fair, their druids were still sleeping). The Orc missions show the Warsong Orcs consistently pushing them back. They had to get Cenarius involved to push him back, and we know how that went. Grom also quite enjoyed fighting them. Good video, but that's kind of an important bit to leave out when talking about them in Warcraft III. They had teeth then. They were as savage as the Orcs and they're a joke now compared to those days. So much potential wasted with bad writing...

[@galten7361]

Blame the Alliance.

[@insertname9736]

​@@galten7361 They would've mostly been the same in the Horde too.

[@joshputzke5400]

night elves: we were once the greatest on azeroth, and now we have fallen so hard trolls: welcome to my world

[@NolDragon]

With everything happening to the Night Elves, there must be one gigantic stockpile of Tears of Elune by now.

[@patrickstar1164]

One thing is always missed in the story of Azshara, I don't know why very few channels mention this, but Azshara in the books had this idea that she is too good to be a wife for anyone she knows personally, and she was hoping to marry Sargeras.

[@samwellcheck562]

That is too in-character to leave out, can't believe I've never heard this lol

[@MSinistrari]

I'm taking this as proof that there is an Emerald Wet Dream. That's why the Night Elf druids sleep so much with all the dancing and frolicking with dryads going on. My Forsaken Warlock heard all about this from a Blood Elf Mage at a bar that got confirmed by a Nightborne Elf. When she asked a Tauren Druid about it, he kinda blinked and snorted so he clearly was surprised a non-Druid knew about this. So, Emerald Dream, Emerald Nightmare, Emerald Wet Dream.

[@philippeblais8594]

Nixxiom was also able to figure out about the emerald wet dream.

[@MSinistrari]

@@philippeblais8594 Nixxiom's wisdom has no boundaries.

[@mateerdos1664]

True story, part of the reason our Queen and Saviour -may the gods bless her forever- blew up that filthy trunk, was to save the soul of the forsaken from that swamp of shameless flora and fauna abuser, shadow lurking, savage and most of all, living nightmares of the woods.

[@kitsuneforyst]

I'm sure there must be an alternate reality where the Night Elves can't stop winning and are in fact the leaders of the Alliance. But alas, in this reality, the state of the Night Elves is just tragic and...sad as a Night Elf player.

[@blazer168]

I always found it weird that the Nelfs joined the alliance rather than the Horde. The Horde are way more in tune with Nature than the Alliance, are have much more in common with them and hey they're even next door neighbors. Sure the Orcs killed Cenarius but that's more the Legion's fault.

[@captaintitus4637]

@@blazer168cause orc bad

[@kaneslives]

@@blazer168 that would solve the lumber issues to… maybe it would give them more incentive to cure the barrens.

[@blazer168]

@@kaneslives would be a hell of a lot easier if they had allies in the Barrens too

[@Mediados]

@@blazer168 In this case it still makes sense that they wouldn't trust the Horde after what Warsong did. They claim Kalimdor to be theirs, which means they seem to feel entitled to decide who lives there and who doesn't. And the Orcs just couldn't care less what the Night Elves say, they have to take the resources to survive.

[@samgc3650]

I think what failed about night elves and just most characters in warcraft is the fact that during the RTS games these characters are so powerful lore wise, but unfortunately making an MMO this means the player is needed when in reality malfurion, for example, is so powerful in the warcraft lore he does not need our help. I unfortunately see this as a sacrifice one makes, i wished blizz would handle it better.

[@blazer168]

What screwed them over was not listening to Illidan and following Malfurion instead.

[@Highstar25]

the problem with that is that usually that would be a sacrifice made in order for the player characters to feel like badass heroes. But in WoW the player character is SOMEHOW still treated as a nameless jobber who everyone forgets about the second they leave the room who frequently gets overpowered by non-elite questline villains with cutscene plot armour.

[@asd3601]

reducing the whole thing to two factions was a mistake and made little sense in the lore

[@galten7361]

@AS D They only had a faction system since Dark Age of Camelot had one.

[@joeld.k.7652]

@@galten7361 camelot had a 3 faction system though , with more depth.

[@PrussianZwei]

"Azshara is back. Her model is dope, her voice actress is amazing, the zone she is in is beautiful and op oh and she's gone. Welp waited 15 years for that one" beautifully summed up

[@chukky1124]

exactly :X azshara is by far my favorite character and the moment they added her to the game i was Hyped like a little kid for a popsicle. but how they treated her man....i was sad... she deserved so much more

[@seriousface116]

"I'm so tired malfurion" Is hands down the best line to have come out of shadowlands and its made even better as she said it to the litteral king of naps, that look on his face wasn't anguish to the pain she was feeling... no no no, that was a "this bish just stole my line" face Atleast he gets to stay in ardenweald where he can get some hardcore napping done

[@labibsaud8064]

And being away from the incompetent writers grasp.

[@monkpawfire]

its from dragonflight

[@mvw9078]

My first character back in early TBC was a night elf hunter, and while I played him for a while - I eventually switched to blood elf paladin, which I guess is poetic in a way. Couldn't tell you why I switched exactly as it was a while ago, but I just fell in love with the lore of the blood elves over time, with all of its struggle and coolness, and the sheer brutality in which they use the Light at times - as opposed to the night elves around that time that felt very flat. I think if I saw the absolute savagery and unrelenting nature of the night elves in the early days of WoW, I feel as though my character list would look very different. Like, shit, lorewise in Ashenvale the night elves basically make that place into 20th century Vietnam for anyone trying to invade. They make it seem as though the forest itself is rising up to stop intruders with every spirit, every tree, and every animal seeking to crush them. Firing off arrows and darting away before anyone can even register what is happening... yet in game we get "big forest, kill orc in open field, oh also Ursa..." etc Great video though, Plat!

[@galten7361]

The NEs weren't like that in WoW.

[@francescoporcari8597]

​@@galten7361 yeah it was more like that in Warcraft 3

[@boarfaceswinejaw4516]

"early days of WoW" nah, wc3 is when the nelves were cool. WoW neutered the nelves quickly.

[@NYALLurker]

"7 foot tall Amazonian sentinels stalked trespassers in their land" Damn I wish they were real now.

[@eagleflies9515]

make night elves mommies again

[@galten7361]

Might as well have joined the Horde.

[@xLuis89x]

@@galten7361 for absolutely no reason, or better yet, the ol' reliable, make an alliance leader reject them for any kind of reason, that will make them join the horde no matter what 100% guaranteed.

[@galten7361]

@xLuis89x There is no actual in canon background for the NEs joining the Alliance (and so subordinating themselves to Stormwind/Humans). And more importantly the NEs were envisioned as being in the Horde or at least allied to them back when WC3 and WoW were much earlier in development (see also their oldest concept arts).

[@Zakjuh]

@@galten7361 Night Elves don't fit in the Horde either. And that you propose such a thing in hindsight after what the Horde has wrought is downright laughable.

[@scottcressman934]

omg when Malfurion leaned in and screamed TYRANDE I NEED YOU at that troll I burst out laughing 🤣🤣

[@bearok89]

Talking to Malfurion in DF and having the option to ask "Who are you?" summarizes the Nelfs pretty good i'd say Also the scenarion in MoP where Varian tells 10 000 year old Tyrande to "have a little patience"

[@galten7361]

Varian once his comic came out was never a well made character.

[@Bruno-md9nm]

Well, she never had any patience, her years of life never changed that

[@Spumoon]

I'm still grieving Teldrassil. The music inside the Temple of the Moon in Darnassus is an powerful force of nostalgia for me.

[@Rex133TV]

The worst part about watching a Plat lore video is that it makes me want to write a new WarCraft AU every time! What if the elves had stayed out of the Horde Alliance conflict? What if the Night Warrior was as badass as you might think, and Tyrande becomes a tyrant? What if, what if, what if...

[@valeclaw1697]

Id say that tyrant Tyrande would be anathema to who she fundamentally is as a person.

[@galten7361]

If they joined the Horde they'd be their RoC version.

[@Rex133TV]

Anathema or not, it's an alternate universe, you write (or rewrite) as much as you need to make it happen. The most interesting thing about AUs - to me anyways - is the exploration of the core question that spawns the AU, not how close to reality it is

[@labibsaud8064]

Night elves should've had their own faction of elves, where the blood, high borne, void and horde version high borne knock offs clone are all a part of, sure they have their own interest and goals but they are need to look out for one another. Same for the Scourge, I want Arthas being the necessary evil to stave of worse evils.

[@MsKeroseneLamp]

Azhara's voice actress is no stranger to breathing life into power hungry matriarchs. Laura Post also did Queen Nehelenia in the 4th season of the Sailor Moon for the viz media english dub and Ragyo Kiryuin from Kill La Kill.

[@grimnir8872]

So THAT is why she has evil dommy mommy energy.

[@calebbugai2729]

As a night elf fan and player, this was bittersweet to watch. No matter how sad and true the lore’s lows are, your take is as witty and hilarious as ever. Bravo!

[@Ravenaxis]

As a Night Elf player i agree wholeheartedly with Tyrande's words: "I am so tired, so tired of always being Blizzard's jack'o all trades punching ball"

[@filipvadas7602]

I was always kind of frustrated how whenever Illidan is involved, the Night Elves lowkey expose themselves as hypocrites and the story/lore never explores this or even draws attention to it.

[@Ilyak1986]

Well, the rest of the races are hypocritical in their own right as well. It's also Blizz's excuse to generally put Illidan on a bus and try to keep him as *far away* from the action as possible, because he's basically a one-man burning-legion smiting army. Yes, he has his lieutenants, but basically, Illidan achieved more with his ragtag group of misfit followers than just about any other actor in all of WoW lore. And that's *WITHOUT* the help of just about any major faction, the dragon aspects, etc. etc. If a major faction welcomed Illidan with open arms, there'd generally be no story, because "oh look, someone wants to do something bad, oops, never mind, Illidan arrived and just nuked that doofus."

[@filipvadas7602]

​@@Ilyak1986 to be fair, Illidan comes with the caviat of being willing to do anything for his goal. So having him on your team would be a leap of faith, counting on the idea that he won't eventually overplay his hand like he did with Sargeras and his allies in Outland.

[@さよナランチャ-h6v]

@@filipvadas7602Having Illidan on your team is an idea at best considering he let plenty of Kael’s people die during BC, pushing him into the influence of Kil’jaeden

[@TheAwikak]

Massive opportunity blundered at 20:07! You should have put in one last "Tyrande i need you"

[@yserareborn]

Yeah, well, they still do a front flip sometimes for their jump animation, so best race. Also, Tyrande did fine considering she had to fight the author’s pet and the author’s self-insert. Things could’ve gone worse for her…

[@galten7361]

She didn't fight Anduin.

[@OnlyDeathIsEternal]

@@galten7361 I think he was talking about Nathanos and Sylvanas.

[@oluftheexplorer9476]

@@froggin-zp4nr I wouldn't even call it character development. Going from "My purpose is done, I got revenge on Arthas" to ... "I am evil now. Death to all" out of nowhere was and still is horrendously bad writing.

[@liva9994]

Can we talk about how priest's have been getting the bad end of the stick for so long now, like to hammer home how "useless" they are, they make EVERY PRIEST into something else. Like Tyrande was a priestess of elune, and then becomes this demon-hunter-melee combatant. Anduin becomes a Paladin Hell, even in the priest orderhall, they have that night elf priest who also becomes a paladin. Whitemane (priest) becomes a death-knight. Like sure, Velen and Moira? are still technically priests, but we never see or hear anything from them. It was one of my other qualms... But yea, I mean WoW should never have had only 2 factions, but instead stuck to the 4 from WC. As in, why would the forsaken team up with the horde? why would Night elves team up with the alliance? But then again, it's easier from a gameplay-point-of-view, so that is what we got.

[@spiritualdreamer]

Chronicle 3 actually explains why the forsaken joined the horde, they realized their need for allies in such a hostile world, and reached the Alliance first, but were rejected (and killed) on the spot, so they went horde. But the same explanation is never given for the night elves. Why did they joined the alliance? It didnt make sense, as they gained nothing for it, and were very self-sufficient and quite xenophonic. Alas, it was just a gameplay move.

[@galten7361]

They joined the Alliance for game design.

[@Dreadnautilus]

Really there should've been five seeing that the Frozen Throne was heavily building up Illidan forming his own faction consisting of Blood Elves, Naga and Draenei. But you can't fit that in the two faction scheme so Draenei are now Alliance, Blood Elves are now Horde and Illidan became a madman to be killed in a raid until nope he was really an antihero all along.

[@Nathreim1]

You forgot the part that Saurfang's plan to defeat the Night Elves was so fullproof that he felt bad afterwards and did even have the spirit to kill Malfurion who he accidentally beat by chucking an axe at him. The Legion Failed twice to beat the Night Elves but a old Orc did it in one try.

[@valeclaw1697]

Never forgot that fullproof planned involved tons of shit night elf lore counters. Such as: SWIMMING UNDER THEIR ENTIRE NAVY LMAO. The "secret path" into Darkshore being shown in the novellas to be "have half your army scale the exposed, blank cliffs full of Chimaera in Darkshore after passing through a Felwood full of maddened murderous spirits and demons. OR BURNING AN EMPOWERED WORLD TREE, when a weakened Nordrassil required the fire elementals to steal a branch of Nordrassil and attempt a ritual in the firelands during the Tarecgosa questline TO EVEN TRY TO BURN IT.

[@galten7361]

Don't forget he approved invading the big tree to begin with.

[@Ilyak1986]

> The Legion Failed twice to beat the Night Elves but a old Orc did it in one try. As it turns out, when there's a badass Demon Hunter constantly out screwing up your plans, things tend to go bad in a hurry.

[@strider8662]

That couldnt have been further from the truth. Orcs invaded night elven lands multiple times and eventually got pushed back. Which is exactly how BFA went too, they got pushed back all the way to the crossroads. And ıts not orcs, its the entire horde. Alliance didnt even have time to send aid, it was wow universe's blitzkreig because horde knew that they wouldnt be able to win if night elves had time to prepare.

[@marzipantart]

​@@strider8662 The Alliance never helped the Night Elves to begin with. They joined for aid to keep the Horde from turning their land to sawdust and fat lotta good it did them. It never made sense that they'd need the Alliance, they should have easily repelled the Horde back in those days. Now they're burned to the ground and it's fucking awful, fuck Blizzard devs.

[@alies-]

That's a great video with great analysis and humor! I always adored Night Elves for their unique connection with the moon, nature, emerald dream and world of Azeroth in general. They have always been friends and allies with mighty Demi-gods, Ancients, Dragons, or even building sized eternal living trees and mountain giants. When i played Warcraft 3 as a kid, i even thought they're born from the trees, because their buildings producing troops were Ancients of War, Wind and Wisdom. This with fact that they become wisps after death made them feel really special. They are most fascinating race and true protectors of Azeroth. Too bad that Blizzard decided to pull the down so far in WoW for just gameplay reasons. Imo they totally lost their charm and now they barely differ from real humans, just a bit taller, have blue/purple skin and have pointy ears & eyebrows. I feel sorry for diehard NE fans who take all this modern Blizzard writing too seriously and feel upset about it..

[@nopnopnop100]

That "Tyrande, I need you" got me good lol

[@errantlyerin]

It is a good day when Plat uploads a new video thank you sir!

[@0mn0mable]

your comments/insight about what a world tree 3.0 will look like vs what it looked like in classic has got me hyped for the new world tree with dragon riding sized zones and dergun ridin'! :D

[@TheStreakWolf]

Dammit that "Tyrande! I need you!" during the darkshore cinematic had me in tears.

[@dylanragon]

I've been looking for a channel like this for SO long, someone who explains the lore the way we actually experience it, and without going into too much unnecesarry details. SUCH a good video man insta subbed

[@imperium35769]

I felt the same way about druids and that's why I've played them so long. Truly a badass class.

[@FishyFuji]

On the nightborne, Tyrande asked them a legitimate question. They did just stop value-brand Azshara after all, so making sure the next leader wasn't going to be the same was pretty logical. Thalyssra couldn't give an answer and got defensive, and in the end it looks like Tyrande was right. Cause despite the night elves, both the Alliance and Val'sharah refugees, playing a large role in curing their mana addiction and reclaiming their city, the Nightborne had no issue cutting down, burning, and committing genocide to night elves a year later. But yeah, "she was mean >:c" Valewalker Farodin must feel pretty stupid right now

[@galten7361]

The Nightborne should have just been a neutral race.

[@DominionSorcerer]

@Justin B prior to Legion the last thing Tyrande heard of the elves in Suramar was them betraying the Kaldorei Resistance to the Highborne / Legion in order to save their own hides, so yeah. I'd wager Tyrande has some reasons to be wary of the nightborne, whereas the Highborne made genuine strives to make amends for their past crimes.

[@marzipantart]

This is one of the most accurate comments I've ever read. Also, Highborne are responsible for the Legion to begin with, while lowborn pay the price to this day. People blame the current Night Elves who were hippie peasants, and not those ACTUALLY responsible, the Blood Elves/Nightborne.

[@oluftheexplorer9476]

I find it funny that it mirrors the blood elves reason for joining the Horde. "One man was mean to us.... Let's go join the monsters that pillaged and burned our lands during the second war, litereally helping our mortal enemies in an attempt to kill us" xD

[@DominionSorcerer]

@@oluftheexplorer9476 Garithos had literally nothing to do with why the blood elves joined the Horde. Most blood elves alive today wouldn't even have heard of him until years after he died.

[@RaytheonThunder]

Platinum just had to remind me again of how badass and cool the Night Elves were in WC3 era. And how WoW utterly butchered the faction. Sigh...

[@alleriaVI]

I also thought it was interesting that Tyrande rejected Thalyssra into potetnially joining the Alliance because they had used the nightwell. Even though Thalyssra **said** to Tryande that they were waning off the nightwell's power and only consuming the fruit, she still rejects the Shal'dorei because "Elune's will", and immediate suspicion that Thalyssra would be the next Azshara. I love elves but I thought that after everything the Shal'dorei went through the night elves would be a little more welcoming to their literal relatives.

[@Ivoreydarker]

Problem is... Thalyssra used the very first interaction Tyrande said to her in Suramar's Campaign (i did it not much long ago) it was, LITERALLY, the first quotes they said to each other...

[@Lucashmc89]

Oh man, as a die-hard Night Elf fan, watching this video was painful. 😭💔 I agree with every point, even though it makes me want to cry. Blizzard really made the NEs look pathetic. It's sad to see. 😔 #NightElfDeserveBetter

[@SomeGuy-ty7kr]

You ever watch something and think, "Man, I'm so glad I didn't keep up with that."

[@khebre6032]

Yeah... Yeah i do

[@OmegaShanic]

Just to add some real life (depressing) lore to this: from my understanding, the reason for the Night Elf downgrade in World of Warcraft from Warcraft 3 was due to them being one of the final areas of WoW to complete. As a result, they were given to the relative newcomers to the team, such as Jeff Kaplan. These guys had never played Warcraft 3, and so heavily based the interpretations, characterization, and appearance of the Night Elves on the Elves from Everquest. Along with the Knaack rewrite of Tyrande from the War of the Ancients trilogy, this all served to cut the edge off the Night Elves. Then their lore, as you well know, was copy pasted to the Blood Elves, Suramar, Sinfall, etc. but given different choices and story beats. At this point, the Night Elves exist to make other Elves (and even other races) look cooler by comparison, to have their ancient ruins dot the planet, and to attempt to tie the Druid Lore Zone in Every Expansion into the greater narrative.

[@marcinbiay1074]

wait, wait wait...some workers join Blizzard but they never played wc3? and these people are supposed to make a game based on wc3. What?

[@OmegaShanic]

@@marcinbiay1074 As far as I know, Blizzard never had a requirement of knowledge to their prior games, for any of their game developments. Jeff Kaplan and several others that were brought on to work on WoW were brought on for their experience playing and understanding late game and hardcore elements in MMOs, not prior Warcraft experience.

[@valeclaw1697]

They butchered Kaldorei so much even in early WoW man. I get WHY they wanted Teldrassil as designers, a tree zone sounds badass. But they fucked it up in inplementation by their own admission, its just a retextured rock in the ocean. And making that retextured rock made the elves whose entire wc3 identity was tied to their unwavering devotion to Northern Kalimdor was the first step in destroying the very identity of the Kaldorei, when they were a unique spin on Drow and Wood Elves before. Their badass unique versions of nature spirits? Some got kept to WoW but watered down, others lying in the trash for years. Half their units when neutral. Ffs, the RPGs in 2003 basically made Nighthaven out to be everything Darnassus was, BUT IN THE ACTUAL ANCESTRAL LANDS OF THE KALDOREI.

[@ANDELE3025]

@@marcinbiay1074 My dude, not only did a lot of (now i think mostly ex-devs) way back say that they outright didnt play or at least didnt finish certain campaigns, but even lore side the likes of Christie Golden made entire books without ever having touched or even read the manual of WC3, god forbid WC2 (you have her to thank for the confusion about who, what and how LKs status was about that before axing him off in the retcon and deus ex light-ima storm).

[@galten7361]

@ANDELE3025 That had more to do with Blizzard insisting on making WotLK be all about Arthas. Hence Ner'zhul getting killed off in a novel.

[@RagingLycanBRO]

More like the embarrassing fall of Warcraft lore and worldbuilding

[@hhluca8062]

so glad someone played these games for me. the lore in the Warcraft 3 game manual was all i needed back then

[@Ainastrasza]

An addition to the War of the Shifting sands part, the Kaldorei at first went to the Bronze Dragons and literally told them they need to help or the Qiraji are going to rampage across Southern Kalimdor, and the Dragons kept telling them to fuck off. The only reason the Dragons even got involved was because, shock horror, the Qiraji started rampaging across Southern Kalimdor and became a direct threat to them which wouldn't have happened if the Dragons were there from the start. Should've just helped in the first place lads.

[@galten7361]

The Dragonflights were never well made.

[@Cromulorf]

Plat why are your videos so high quality? I am constantly blown away

[@mastersquige]

as a troll player, it makes me happy to see the elves join us in misery ^^

[@HadamacikTheProphet]

once a troll forever a troll with tusks or even without :D misery is all we know :D

[@viwic2209]

Well at least the trolls managed to be a threat several times. In my option thats not misery but fighting spirit. Compared to the other oldest races of Azeroth that is quite impressive. I mean the tauren got nearly extinct by the centaurs, while the gnomes literaly nuked themselves. That stuff i´d call misery xD

[@Hawkens4k]

Everyday a troll suffers, and with your help... We can add more non-elves too this list

[@albens5852]

The Night Elf home burnt down and it still looks better than the troll ''capital/starting area''

[@Hawkens4k]

@@albens5852 I'd say burn, but I'm pretty sure alot of elves were burned recently....

[@renaultellis6188]

Pre-wc3: Loses the Kaldorei empire, lost lives Wc3: forced to give up immortality, lost Cenarius Vanilla-Wrath : de-fanged, losing grip on Ashenvale Cata: lost Azshara, lost much of Stonetalon, Darkshore towns destroyed, lost sole possession of Nordrassil Mists: humiliated by a Human king Legion: lost Cenarius, lost the Nightborne's favour, lost Ysera, humiliated by Xavius (writers) Bfa: lost Teldrassil, lost Ashenvale, became inferior to Jaina, failed to gain the Alliance's support, fallen kaldorei became Dark Rangers Shadowlands: Night Elf souls sent to the Maw, Tyrande failed to takd her Revenge on Sylvanas Dragonflight: Malfurion sent to Ardenweald

[@galten7361]

Eh yeah

[@Riftimmortal]

This is a similar problem that the folks who made the justice league animated series had in making Superman a punching bag in their first season. How do you make a threat seem really bad? Well an easy writing pitfall is to make your biggest and strongest character take an L from this threat. In the hands of unaware writers this can be abused to the point where the biggest and strongest character no longer has any characteristics or feats that the audience would think makes them the biggest or strongest anything. A race of beings that potentially are tens of thousands years old with a direct connection to their natural surroundings and can shape the very environment to their advantage. With total command over the flora and fauna, they would be informed of any threat within seconds of it setting foot near their groves. With a connection to and allied with a dragon aspect and her brood. Guided by and beloved by the greatest (supposedly by lore) deity in the cosmos. With warriors trained over millennia and generals experienced in fighting all manner of dangerous foes, from demons to mages. They have entire armies that can blend into the very night and environment itself and ambush from anywhere. This race takes an L on home field advantage. Ha Ha, good one.

[@ak11yanora]

i got this video recommended to me by youtube and it is mindblowing, to be honest! nice montage and a very well written scenario. i know nothing about the WoW lore, however i have been playing hearthstone and on a Lich KIng WoW server called Sirus (a russian Wow client server, to be specific). the class i absoluetly adore is druid, and in both games i chose it and had a very fun time! thanks for telling me and all of the WoW community about such important events! good luck man

[@FreedomAndPeaceOnly]

When he started choking the Trollwarrior and then said 15:15 *_" TYRANDE! I NEED YOU!! "_* Damn my sides, heheeheheheheheheheheheheh!

[@Junglewarfare]

watching this video after the Night Elf heritage quest. Man...what a sad state of affairs

[@bottotv]

"Hulking Druids the size of refrigerators." LOL ps: I'll make a druid now.

[@herbertherbertson2670]

you did malfurion pretty dirty at 15:00 LuL ... TYRANDE,,, I NEED YOU

[@2ndCthulhu]

Nelves were a key factor for me becoming interested in W3. I watched a segment on the game on the (at the time) tv channel talking about games. They showed a couple clips about Nelves and I was immediately in love, as I was reading about Celts and Norse mythology at the time and the references stood out to me so clearly. The campaign absorbed me, the matches were brutal but amazing. And then in WoW they just became purple elves. Not even "Warcraft" Elves, which always were heavy metal as fuck in artwork and booklets. Just "Elves". Serial filed off, purple skin. The small fangs from artworks we've seen were all but gone, the architecture was incredibly interesting but nothing showed their ferocity in combat or their brutality. It was just "Balance Balance Balance" and a bit of unfounded, arrogant foppishness by Fandrel Staghelm. What's even more infuriating is that Blizzard has been clamouring to give the Alliance an "edgy" version ever since. First Draenei, then Worgen, then all the Allied Races during BFA who had some serious teeth but still never bore that true grit. If Blizzard had leaned just a bit more into the Troll-ish ancestry or a bit more on the dark aspects of Druidism/Forest Witchcraft, if the WoW Nelves were just more like their W3 counterparts, I bet we would never have had that problem.

[@Troubleshooter11]

Yeah that voice acting during that "exorcism" was fucking 10/10. Props to that actress for bringing her A-game.

[@qutusa8866]

No idea if you'll pick up ideas for more videos in the comments, but I think a video about Rhonin would be really cool because I think he is a very interesting character.

[@u-mos8820]

Citizens of Dalaran! Raise your eyes to the skies and observe! Today our world's destruction has been averted in defiance of our very makers! Algalon the Observer, herald of the titans has been defeated by our brave comrades in the depths of the titan city of Ulduar. Algalon was sent here to judge the fate of our world. Cold logic deemed this world was not worth saving. Cold logic, however, does not account for the power of free will. It's up to each of us to prove this is a world worth saving. That our lives... that our lives are worth living.

[@markup6394]

True... but his story was wasted as well :( His death was actually really tragic... I liked him a lot...

[@etain21918]

Especially with the start of the day of the dragon book Where the kirin tor wanted deathwing to eat rhonin and choke so that they'd both die That was an amazing intro to the first ever wow book I read

[@fuzzwobble]

With how Tauren belief systems worked, it always struck me that the Tauren and Night Elves should have actually been a third faction. They are so alike that the Cenarion Circle faction is effectively them cooperating in secret while being annoyed they have to fight each other, and they even worship the same goddess by different names. The moment the Horde burned down a World Tree, the Tauren should have gone into an all-out revolt and forced a coup. It's a complete antithesis to their entire culture and identity to stand by and let an ally do something like that. The only thing keeping them in the Horde for the longest time has been a blood pact between a retired Orc leader and a retired Tauren chieftain, but the Tauren have far exceeded their pledge to help the Horde at this point. A blood pact to provide aid isn't forever. This isn't even going into detail about the leader of the Horde for a while being Sylvanas, who is confirmed by the Horde themselves to have been manufacturing and researching a plague to slaughter all natural life. The *instant* the Tauren discovered this plague, an absolute monstrosity that destroys ecosystems, they should have entered a fit of rage. It makes absolutely no sense that they would follow Sylvanas after they knew about her plague and had seen it used several times. Honestly, third faction should have been Night Elves, Pandaren, and Tauren.

[@xxDrain]

2:36 It's pretty cool looking at that map and seeing places from Kalimdor and the Kingdoms still connected by land.

[@biyaogw2]

I hope the nightelves and WoW itself gets a reset that they deserve. It's absolutely pathetic what happened to the universe lore since Warcraft III until now. They should abolish the idea of telling "character stories" that our characters tag along with and just refocus on simple smaller themes that put the focus on the world, faction conflicts. And this time if they ever chose to make a reset of the game: Make the nightelves badass and savage.

[@impas2349]

I don't quite understand the criticism about the night elves stopping using Order magic. You said worgen's curse is as bad as using arcane, but druids immediately forbide using it unlike arcane which the highborne had been abusing and didn't care about the consequences for years. About Qiraji war, I don't think Aracne will help better than druidizm. I don't think Order is stronger with the fight against the void. Besides, the well of eternity has been destroyed, so it's impossible for mages to be as powerful as they used to be. The days when magic would fix all Kaldorei's problems are gone. Other than that, great video, I love your content

[@skewdower9522]

I agree

[@makromonster3400]

for years Blizzard neglected night elf lore, which made the problem so big that many Wow youtubers started talking about it loudly. also blizzard one day later : - its time for more jokes about burning teldrasill. - But... - Mooooore!

[@Mesisir]

Imagine what could have been if they just did a 3-faction split (or more) instead just Horde vs Alliance

[@galten7361]

Too hard for dev.

[@labibsaud8064]

They went Cold war Era, Red vs Blue.

[@janjanbinks1710]

I'm a person who never played WoW but has been playing Warcraft III since I was a kid. I remember the Night Elves being the most intriguing aspect of the game to me, ancient and mysterious and absolutely ruthless in combat. I never knew ANY of this WoW lore and I low-key wish I can delete it out of my head so I can look at them the same again when I play as them. Damn what a fall off I feel like I've been catfished

[@vimmiv]

first of all, LOVE THE EDITING LMAO this was so nice to watch. I love night elves very much but I've been so disappointed with their story (I started playing late legion/late bfa then stuck through SL , yucc). Hearing WCIII descriptions give me goosebumps, they were always meant to be the elusive protectors of nature, but they feel so much more disappointing as time went on. Despite it being holding one of my favorite animations in the history of wow, the entirety of the night warrior storyline felt like it was shoehorned in because people were upset over Teldrassil (justifiably). I will still love the Nelves very much but damn, their story just makes me physically ill with what the writers did with it. Fat F also, a very petty thing of mine, but to have the only night elf looking heritage armor in the game, the one dropped through war of thorns/darkshore activities, the ones worn the defenders..... being not night elf exclusive makes me so sad. I would love to see true heritage armor for them.

[@stormstrider1990]

Exactly. Many have argued against night elf heritage armor because of the Warfront sets, but in my opinion, that's not what the night elves deserve. To me, the closest thing to night elf heritage armor is the bikini armor the night elf from the Vanilla WoW trailer wears. It was given to Darnassian Archer NPCs in BfA, but not to players. I think that should be the basis for the heritage armor. I doesn't have to be an exact replica, more like "Darnassian Archer 2.0", with more feathers, tattoos for the exposed parts, and maybe a badass hood and cloak for the "elusive forest warrior"- feel. Alternatively, they could put the Darnassian Archer armor on the Trading Post, and come up with something new for the heritage armor.

[@myself2noone]

14:06 Given what happens in the next 10 seconds of this video, it's difficult to say she didn't have a point. "We don't trust you." "I'll BURN DOWN YOU'RE HOUSE!" "Yeah, see that? It's why we don't trust you."

[@koishi_da_thing]

Even Saurfang, an old orc who says to himself that he's honorable manage to get a scratch on sylvanas. Yet the thousands of years old night elf with the wrath of a god barely makes a dent

[@flameknightdragon]

the fact that she needed help and still lost to a human with a bow and no powers.

[@VoiceAnon]

If elves aren't ruining everything, it's not a proper fantasy setting.

[@hoangkienvu7572]

I feel like in Warcraft each and every race has fucked over everything at least once, not just the elves.

[@maxthepaladin2147]

​@@hoangkienvu7572 Warcraft: universe where everyone is a dumbass Not really so different from our own at times

[@durshurrikun150]

Who opened the dark portal? Who helped the scourge summon the burning legion?

[@zachariastsampasidis8880]

@@durshurrikun150 orcs and humans

[@durshurrikun150]

@@zachariastsampasidis8880 Medivh was a human, although possessed by Sargeras. But Arthas and Kel'thuzad were humans.

[@tiffles3890]

Blizzard has kept doing the Alliance dirty and Night Elves have borne a good chunk of it. > [10:45] "Gameplay triumphs over lore" THIS. While I don't have a problem with Night Elves joining the Alliance (tbh, I'm an Alliance fan), speaking in general terms, MMOs are just a bad medium to develop the overall lore of a fictional universe. Any fantasy universe whose lore has to conform to the needs of an MMO is bound to see a deterioration in the quality of it's lore. Similarly, they gave Blood Elves to the Horde of all factions just to make players make more Horde characters, which is downright ludicrous.

[@loop4569]

Alternatively make the MMO a gigantic prequel like ESO

[@TarisRedwing]

Thank you I love these lore videos and this one is finally on my fav Night Elves.

[@galenkehler]

Historically, the player is the "Night Elf" while the devs are the "Orc". That's why they wrote the story of shadowlands forcing the night elves to just forgive and forget BfA and Shadowlands 😅

[@Lysvsyl]

God, someone in the writing department really has a hate-boner for them. They cannot catch a break.

[@istnuk1994]

A bit surprised that the mist that the night elves raised to shroud kalimdor and keep outsiders out during the long vigil is not mentioned at all. But it’s still a banger video!

[@galten7361]

Is that canon?

[@BlackHawk4698]

I think you are thinking about the mist around Pandaria.

[@valeclaw1697]

​​@@BlackHawk4698o, theyre not. This was super early lore they also referenced in exploring Kalimdor.

[@valeclaw1697]

Well he also forgot the Highborne tried to protest by making an arcane storm over Ashenvale, and Malfurion wasnt afraid, they got to live because he simply didnt wanna execute a ton of people.

[@istnuk1994]

@@BlackHawk4698 @Galten Yeah It's canon, and no it's not the mist of Pandaria, it's part of nelf lore but rarely mentioned, that before the druids went to sleep they raised a mist to keep the continent hidden and it lasted until the third war when Medivh started herding people there, this is also why the sea there is called the veiled sea, and why Kalimdor was just a myth and considered asforgotten for the humans on EK. It's mentioned on the old wow home page about nelves and was mentioned again in the recent book exploring azeroth Kalimdor, for example.

[@iarmandov2]

Im not sure why I laughed so hard at the “it’s Britney bitch!” 😭😭🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@Epsyk]

I‘m really excited whenever you post a video. It’s always a guarantee for good lore, packed in awesome visualization.

[@llgynoth7185]

this guy does not know the lore he even got the origination of night elves wrong.