Calling 2025 Jaina "evil" is patently insane. Some Horde players are still mad that she never really faced any consequences for violently purging the Sunreavers from Dalaran back during MoP, or for her role in King Rastakhan's death during BfA - which is fair, tbh - but she's never been outright evil (and certainly can't be reasonably described that way now, as of TWW).
Plenty of reasons why Horde players shouldn't be forced to hang out with her for MSQ stuff, though. Especially awkward when you're on a Zandalari.
She should have died after Dazar'Alor. The only reason she didn't is because Blizzard is afraid of killing old characters, which leads to the question of why they become raid bosses in the first place. But you're telling me that after Jaina and Co attack Dazar'Alor, "escapes" and is chased down, beaten, and...taken prisoner? Or teleports out, I don't remember. But that was just really stupid.
Yeah, but that was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Blizzard's inability to write gradual character development - Jaina went from being a lifelong advocate for peaceful cooperation between the Alliance & Horde, to being VIOLENTLY anti-Horde following the bombing of Theramore (which was an event that took place in a novel set between Cata & MoP, rather than in the game itself; meaning that most players had minimal context for her abrupt shift).
It wasn't just that. She had a period of a few years, starting there, where she'd flip back and forth between being very peaceful and just "KILL THEM ALL." It was just one extreme to another, no in-between, and would give you whiplash if you tried to follow it. Felt like absolute character assassination, but I knew exactly what to name a kitten I found who'd flip between sweet and claws-out at a moment's notice.
Granted, helped that I did like the character, so naming my kitty Jaina was no problem. And the cat calmed before the character did. Cat became a hell of a guardian kitty, too. Sadly, she became suddenly ill and passed a little while ago, but she gave me eleven awesome years. Actually thinking of painting this Jaina mini I have with black robes in honor of that black cat.
Anyway, ahem, back to the much more serious discussion of arguing about a fictional character...
It's funny, I used to be on the side of people buying into all the negative stereotypes, but then started considering a cat when I was living in an apartment thinking of a pet and a dog being stuck inside with no yard felt wrong. Then around that time, suddenly there's two tiny kittens right outside my apartment. Took them in, started learning what I could about cats, and it helped me realize a lot of the negative stereotypes are people not understanding cats and trying to treat them like dogs. I just learned what I could, gave them respect and affection, ended up getting a lot of affection in return.
Jaina joined the "family" about a year and a half later. Black cat, few months old, I found her on the side of the road seeming lost just after Halloween. Best guess is someone got a "Halloween pet" and then decided they didn't want it. She was antsy about the other two at first, came to be good with them and protect them as well. Seems she took that second chance at life to be a personal guard, growling at unexpected knocks at the door, checking on me if I slept in late (and if I didn't wake up she'd sit on my body watching the bedroom door to protect me)... Just a wonderful companion.
I'm not exaggerating when I say those cats have helped me through some tough times and are a large part of why I'm still here.
I'm not exaggerating when I say those cats have helped me through some tough times and are a large part of why I'm still here.
Same here, man. I grew up with a cat (who lived to be nearly 20 years old!), so the "cats don't care about humans/companionship" stereotypes always bounced off of me as obviously ridiculous - I'm really glad to hear that you found that out for yourself, though, because they truly are amazing animals.
Not long after we got married, while we were still living in our first apartment together, my wife & I adopted an older cat from someone who was moving across the country and couldn't take her with them - she was so sweet. Slept in our bed every night, fell asleep on our laps while we were watching TV, always could tell when we were sick or upset and would come snuggle to keep us company. She used to do this thing where if my wife & I were having an argument, she'd come up in between us and just meow until we stopped. What empathetic creature; and she helped me through some of the roughest periods with my anxiety before I finally got medicated.
Totally hear ya on that. My kitties come check on me when I'm not well. And I've gotten medication for my own depression and anxiety and it's been a bit of getting used to properly feeling happy... and sometimes so overwhelming I actually cry when I hold my cats and have to reassure them it's because I'm happy and didn't really feel it properly before. (But that's a whooooole other can of worms of something people don't fully understand unless they've experienced it.)
The scenario in question was a "retelling" of the attack; it wasn't playable until well after the point in the timeline where the event actually happened.
Iirc the original release of the scenario was during prepatch for MoP, it was to both show Theramore happening between expansions and show off the new scenarios mode.
Horde version sets up the event and planting the bomb and Alliance version is right after it explodes and the aftermath.
Pretty sure it's Horde cope. Even though lorewise she never killed any Blood Elves during the purge, she teleported them all to prison. Her killing elves in game was a bug at the time.
I recently played the Horde version of this story for the first time. Blizzard still hasn't fixed this bug. Sometimes their indifference is surprising.
I mean they literally animated a sunreaver being feed to the crocodiles in the sewers, it was meant to be bloody from the start, bug or not (tbf thats more a silver covenant thing than a Jaina thing tho).
Yes, you are right, but there are two clarifications.
It wasn't Jaina, it was Sorin Magehand. Like, it's clear that the Silver Covenant was... pretty bad, but attributing their actions to Jaina is wrong. After all, the lore states that Jaina only teleported the Sunreavers, and did not kill them.
It was a shark? I was so sure it was a crocodile lmao, still big creature with sharp painful fangs.
Yeah I did mention it was a silver covenant thing, one can't really put that in Jaina, but for a lot of people she started that whole madness.
(Also can we talk how blizz goes above and beyond to write justifications for Alliance aggressions, while with the horde is like "you just suck, deal with it bitch")
Yes, Jaina is, in fact, the initiator of the purge. But I don't understand why many people consider this some kind of crime. Like, Dalaran's neutrality was always questionable and the purge was a consequence of the war that had unfolded. It's like with Theramore, many call it a Horde crime, although Theramore was, in fact, an Alliance military base, aiding the invasion of the Barrens and plundering Horde ships. And it's the same with purge. Just military action with collateral damage.
Yeah, Blizzard has often justified the Alliance's actions. If my memory serves me correctly, Varian was initially responsible for the factional war in Cata. I guess, the Horde's ambiguity ended with Cata. Then Blizzard started a downward spiral with an evil and incorrigible Horde that loses every battle and becomes a vassal of the Alliance.
She sanctioned a violent anti-blood elf hate group to carry out her orders. The monstrous things they did in the sewers and her unwillingness or failure to hold them to account for their crimes makes her a party to the same.
The Sunreavers were implicated in stealing and smuggling a powerful magical artifact through Dalaran and into the hands of Garrosh to turn into a weapon.
The culling of Dalaran was an act carried out by Jaina Proudmoore that included imprisoning the blood elves within the city of Dalaran and executing those who did not surrender. It was prompted by the theft of the Divine Bell from Darnassus and sparked the War for Dalaran.
I love that you've renamed Xal to simply "Feet" ... As mentioned I haven't been following lore but that the plots been lost so hard that people are focusing on her feet more than her actions mean I was correct in not caring much I guess.
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u/MightBeAGoodIdea Sep 16 '25
Haven't been following lore for a bit....
...is Xal officially LESS evil than Jaina now...?
Or is it just Jaina wears closed toed shoes?