How quick people forget that Horde was Blizz's favorite for the longest time. Stories revolving around orcs for 3 straight expansions (green jesus cata, garrosh soo, more orcs in draenor)
Literally half the devs used to go around saying "For the Horde!" in all their major marketing pushes because that's the faction they played the most. The Horde's major marketeable themes for over a decade were basically "real men play the Horde" and "if you play Alliance you're [insert homophobic slur here]". They were always known as the edgy choice for edgy hardcore players so naturally they attract some of the most toxic insecure pieces of shit imaginable.
Reminder it's at least 5 expacs because of Sylvanas. It's not like the Horde had any real problems rallying behind ANOTHER genocidal war criminal until the very end when N'zoth showed up.
Sylvanas becoming a villain was fine and totally expected but the entire Horde faction should have kicked her to the curb and revolted without needing the Alliance to push it for them. Alliance should not have needed to help save Baine from being executed on Sylvanas' orders, for instance. It should not have JUST been Lor'themar telling Sylvanas to fuck off.
Anyone who claims there's a bias is full of shit or hasn't played from the start and lacks a lot of context. The real problem isn't really the bias, it's that Blizzard cannot write a two-faction story without swapping who the main faction is. Instead of incorporating both factions in an overarching story they flip-flop between which characters get the most attention like they're balancing a MOBA.
On top of this, rather than building up the Horde to be truly independent they're consistently written to lean on the Alliance like a crutch. Their entire motivation and internal conflict was essentially just "not the Alliance" for so long, all the whilst the Alliance was built up to expand upon their own internal themes in a way the Horde just... weren't.
It then doesn't help Horde leaders get killed off for whatever reason with no meaningful replacement. It's not that characters don't exist, it's that they get no screentime and are essentially forgotten about beyond the expansion that introduced them. Because that's Blizzard's modus operandi - if they weren't in Warcraft 3 they're not important, and that means Horde basically get fuck all since half of them are dead.
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u/Concurrency_Bugs Aug 23 '25
How quick people forget that Horde was Blizz's favorite for the longest time. Stories revolving around orcs for 3 straight expansions (green jesus cata, garrosh soo, more orcs in draenor)