The Problem with Saurfang

Note - This is an abandoned script and done in notepad with no spell check. And I'm real bad at spelling.

The Problem with Saurfang

The preface this video, I should say that I am personally a big fan of Saurfang. Hes one of the few Horde leaders in game that both Alliance and Horde memebers like both in Lore and with the general WoW player base. But there in lies his problem to an extent. Suarfang believes in his orcish honor and will never do anything to forsake it. Which sure, thats a great character trait for him to have. But because of this character trait of his, blizzard is kind of forcing this ideal that anything he does is right.

    Lets take Sylvanas for Example. Many people disagree with her actions for obvious reasons. Shes a no nonsense forsaken willing to do dirty things to win. And Win she does, shes probably one of the most successful leaders when it comes to battles won or victories denied. When she first broke free from Arthas' control, she nearly killed him before Kel'thuzad came in and saved the day. And afterwards she only had a handful of followers and the 3 dreadlords who controlled arthas and the rest of her scourage as her enemies. So she one by one defeats all 3 dreadlords, gets one of them to turn to her side, and takes Lorderon for herself and builds a kingdom.
    During catacyslm when Garrosh orders her to take Gilneas she successfully captures the city despte them reciveing aid at the last second.

    She successfully takes teldrasil where garrosh failed in Ashenvale before ever getting close.
    And even when the Alliance tried to attack Undercity in retaliation she would have won the battle at the front gate when she used the plague if it wasnt for Jiana single handely turning the tide of the battle in the Alliances favor. And even then she was still able to ultimatley deny them of a victory and would have killed the leader of the Alliance in another trap if it wasnt again, for Jiana being there to bail them out.

    She may have done a lot of morally questionable things to achieve her victories, but her results are there to see. 

    Theres a reason shes a fan favorite character. Shes intresting, gets results, and is proactive in her story rather than reactive. Thats why a compelling villain is intresting to watch. A villain by thier very nature is trying to bring change to the world and requires a very proactive effort in order to bring about that change. Which opens up lots of character moments as they go out into the world and try to get things done. Where as a hero can only ever react to bad things happening and is more limited in scope. Not to say Sylvanas is entirely a villain though, shes pretty justified in her distrust of the alliance. A point even Saurfang had to agree with her on.

    When she first became a forsaken and sent out her people to try and get in contact with the Alliance, all of them were hunted down and killed. The Alliance had no intrest in forming allies with the forsaken, despite many of them, if not all of them being part of it before the plague. And to add to that, the Alliance officially hunted them down with the knights of the Silverhand, until eventually that group turned into the scarlet crusade and the Alliance kind of distances themselvs from them. Not 100% though, the Alliance was still on ok terms with the Scarelt crusade even in vanilla.
    The intentions of the Alliance is understandable. They thought the forsaken where monsters just like the scourage, they didnt know any better and didnt try to know any better until BfA. Even Tyraleon, the beacon of light of the Alliance tried to strike down Alonus Foul the moment he saw him despite Foul being the kindest soul you'd ever meet and also being his mentor in his past life. So while the Alliances intentions on the matter may be understandable, thier actions towards the matter where not. And Sylvanas judges the allliance based on thier actions, not thier intentions. As she should.

    And its not just the forsaken. The Alliance have done simular things to the Blood elves too. After the scourge decimated thier homeland, Keal;thas tried his best to reach out to the Alliance and re-join, only to be sent on suicide missions by the alliance general he was under, and eventually setenced to death. He had no choice but to ally with Illidan and his naga, because at least they werent actively trying to kill him. Then later on, when lorthemar lost contact with Kael'thas, Sylvanas apporached him and offered the horde as potential allies, and they accepted as they were going to need the help for a multitude of reasons, with 1 of them being finding out what happened to thier leader Kael'thas. But then many years later the immediate need of the horde wasnt really an issue for them anymore, and Garrosh was being a huge jerk to everyone so the Blood Elves thought to try and negociate with the Alliance for a 2nd time, only for Jiana to go on a genocide in Dalaran, killing, exileing, and imprisoning all the blood elfs in the city. So instead of going to the Alliance to get away from garrosh, they instead joined Vol'jins rebelleon to take him down and reform.

    And then again after the broken isles, despite there being rumors about that the horde retreated from the borken shore for legitamte reasons, Gen Greymane defying orders decides to attack the horde in retaliation and starts a war with the forsaken in Stormhiem. And what doesn anduin do with the information of this unprovoked attack? Nothing. He just brushes it under the rug and pretends it never happened. Gen is still his most trusted advisor nd reiceves no punishment, which is the same as endorsing the attack.

    All this to say, Sylvanas is entirely justified in her war against the alliance. There are real world countries and cultures in the real world that still hold grudges over things that happened to them hundreds, and somteims thousands of years ago by a group of people. I'm not going to list any examples because I'd rather not bring real world politics into this, but there are literally a ton of examples I could have used. And the bad things the Alliace have done to the forsaken arent even that long ago. And one of the go-to arguments I hear against Sylvanas is that the alliance is willing to make peace now, so shes just being a warmongerer for the sake of it. When really, shes entirely justified in her reasoning, a fact even Saurfang agreeded with. So how does this all relate to saurfang?

    Well,Saurfang went along with Sylvanas plan until she decided to burn the tree. He was fine with killing malfurion to destroy the hope of the nightelves, but then pulled out at the last second because he did an dishonable blow. Which sure, whatever, kind of a lame reasoning, but thats fine. Warcraft lore is full of minor hiccups like that but I wouldnt write a whole video about that. Sylvanas then burns the tree killing most of the cilvilians in it and this understandably upsets Saurfang, and reminds him how far Sylvanas is willing to go. Waging war on the nightelvs and killing thier major leaders is honorable war to him, but what sylvans did was going too far, which again, understandable. Even real world wars have rules about whats going too far.

    Then in the battle for undercity, Saurfang chooses to fight the allianceby himself in basically a suicide attack. Not something sylvanas forced him to do, just something he decided on his own and Sylvanas was like "yah sure whatever, I'm not gonna stop you" To which even Baine had to agree with. He didnt like what happened, but he couldnt fault Sylvanas for Saurfangs own choice. So then the Alliance take him captive instead of killing him and take him to his holding cell.
    During the extraction scenario, Horde players meet up with Saurfang in prison and offer him a chance to exscape, with him telling the horde players that no, hes done with Sylvanas horde and wont be returning. While this inst exactly treason in of itself, the fact that hes a horde leader with all the intel that a leader of his stature would have, along with the fact that sylvanas spies know hes willingly talking to the Alliance, could very well be lossly defined as treason. Afterall, wars are won on information.

    Then in the upcoming patch, Saurfang manges to escape from prison, with the narritive hinting that the leader of the SI7 agents of Stormwind mithias Shaw helping him out with it. And your tasked with finding him and returning him to the horde. When you meet up with Suarfang, the forsaken that came along with you give Saurfang a choice, come with them, or die for treason. And here in lies the problem with Saurfang, he does choose to fight, and you as a player are forced to help him out. Only, the narritive of the story paints this as a positive thing, as if your obviously suppose to help him out. When really, Saurfang made the choice to leave on his own. He made the choice to not go to Orgrimar and talk to Sylvanas, because he knew he commited treason. And we're suppose to help him out secrelty as if thats the right thing to do.

No, thats not ok. Sylvanas is not the bad guy in this situation, but its obviously trying to paint her in a bad light, and paint Saurfang as if hes in the right.