I've finally had a chance to watch the event from both factions, and let's just say I'm a bit... underwhelmed... at this point.
Sure, I know what's coming, but I'm very disappointed in how the Alliance is reacting. Their council looked like a staff meeting. All that was missing were the coffee and donuts, and someone going over the TPS reports. I even said out loud "Where's the PowerPoint stack, guys? You can't have a staff meeting without one!" The result of the meeting was just like you'd expect in a corporate staff meeting: a whole lot of "wait and see" and "we need more data".
By contrast, the Horde meeting was like halftime in a basketball game when your team is losing. You've got the one who's saying "Look at me and all the good I'm doing!" (Hellscream) and the "Listen to the coach instead of freelancing!" (Vol'jin). Garrosh and Vol'jin nearly come to blows over who's doing the more important thing, but Thrall breaks that up in a hurry.
Of both groups, Thrall is the only one going out and doing something --going to Nagrand to commune with the Elements-- which of course leaves us with Junior Nutcase Garrosh in charge. Also notable by their absence in the Horde deliberations were Lor'themar, Sylvanas, and Carne. Sylvanas is probably in the doghouse already, but the other two? Those puzzle me.
As they say at the end of a lot of old television episodes, "Stay Tuned...."
But the Alliance doesn't have a long tradition of shamanism as the Horde does. Even though they made sure that Velen was there so they didn't COMPLETELY ignore draenei - I'm pretty sure he's a priest - none of them is going to have the direct communion with Azeroth to personally say "I'm going to go and do xyz to ask the elements what's going on." Now, maybe if they'd had Nobundo there... Anyway, did you read the pre-Cataclysm novel? I recommend it highly. Extremely relevant right now, and not a bad read either. The Alliance has quite a bit of stuff going on themselves - perhaps it's been poorly represented in-game, though. :(
ReplyDelete@Vid: Good point about shamanism, but if The Earthen Ring were represented there --they were-- one of them could have spoken up about what Thrall was up to. It would have been very relevant information, given the current status of relations between the factions.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'd love to read the book, but... have you seen my "to be read" pile? I just counted the titles (I keep track on the sidebar on my regular blog) and I've got something like 32 to work on. And I'm not even counting the rest of the books in a series, either.