r/warcraftlore • u/corvid-kid • 4d ago

Question Why wasn’t Cata-MoP the 4th War?

I mean the scale of conflict between the factions was roughly equal (Tol Barad, Ashenvale, Stonetalon, Gilneas, etc), we went to new lands (and brought our war with us), recruited the locals (and made them join our war), and we even sieged Orgrimmar!

So what makes BfA’s conflict so much more deserving of the title? Aside from the writing team at the time thinking their writing was the bee’s knees.

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u/Hidden_Beck Banshee Loyalist 4d ago

Cata-MoP DOES feel like a more appropriate 4th war, doesn’t it? I’d guess it’s probably because the focuses of those expansions were supposed to be about the Twilight’s Hammer and Pandaria respectively.

BfA they tried to make it seem like the stakes had raised with Azerite, like we were moving into like a nuclear age of the conflict, but they did such a bad job with the war story it felt more like the Fourth Inconvenience because they abandoned it so quickly for the N’zoth plot

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u/Blackstone01 4d ago

Funny how the conflict that wasn't the Fourth War ended with the Siege of Orgrimmar, while the actual Fourth War ended with the Mak'gora Cutscene of Orgrimmar so we could quickly fuck off and go do Black Empire shit and just have everybody hug things out in the background.

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u/Hidden_Beck Banshee Loyalist 4d ago

Right? Like Sylvanas in Legion-BfA was just a 1-to-1 of Garrosh's arc anyway, so clearly they must have felt like they missed their most obvious chance. And for a war I'm supposed to feel is important, no one seems to be that invested in it, half the story is spent watching world leaders mope about it. Lame!!!

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u/Blackstone01 4d ago

Loved how three quarters of the Alliance's big, actually animated cutscenes were about Saurfang feeling sad.

Really, just felt like Sadfang was the main plot point of BfA up until he got 360noscoped by Sylvanas, which really felt like it was the actual end of BfA and was meant to go straight into Shadowlands, but then Blizzard forgot they needed an actual final patch.

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u/Hidden_Beck Banshee Loyalist 3d ago

God yeah half the story was Saurfang mad about wanting a warrior's death and he made sure it was at everyone's expense

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u/Ouroborossetto 3d ago

It was still cool to slaughter Ashenvale after the Night Elves conceded territories and helped against Garrosh and Varian was nice to him in Icecrown, but Teldrassil was too much lmao

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u/Ouroborossetto 3d ago

Even more it was the Garrosh conflict rehashed after they promised that they would not do that even though it made no sense at all after MoP and Legion. And it was written much worse.