#I mean the reason for lack of focus and respect for horde storylines is probably because most of the horde races are not really white coded

[goblin-enjoyer]

i'll admit that my knowledge of WoW is mostly based around 'the Horde are really cool and i like them a lot' and 'Thrall hits all the Favorite Character buttons like Winston does and actually they seem to occupy similar narrative roles' but i've heard some stuff from friends who were into WoW!

Fair. Thrall is a pretty cool dude there’s a reason why he is one of the only horde characters that gets mentioned consistently. He does preform a similar role as Winston in the sense of getting all the characters together and acting and the more reasonable and responsible party in conflict. It just sucks that he’s one of the only horde characters to get any screen time. Baine and the Tauren get to show up to fill a primarily alliance heavy scene so that horde players don’t feel left out. Trolls don’t even have a real leader at the moment and are constantly getting sidelined hard(but at least they have some of the most in-depth lore when compared to the often forgotten Tauren). Orcs are kinda just default horde npcs most of the time but at least when they do get character/culture moments lately they get the fantasy so right and it’s always nice to see orc players come together and cheer for when these things happen. Forsaken get to be a part of their own plot lines but they rarely show up in the world, things have been weird since slyvannas got hit with the standard horde leader villain bat. Blood elves are for when blizzard wants to use humans for a quest line or two but then either remember that this is a horde plot line or they want someone nicer looking. Their old lore is pretty interesting but currently they don’t have much going for them in my personal opinion. Goblins (I love them and ones my main) are the hordes joke race/only reason they have any sort of tech on par with the alliance. Their story’s are fun but far in between. Blizzard just puts them next to gnomes for the contrast.

With the faction war being pretty much over blizzard has less of a reason to give horde races story lines and prominent npcs then ever before. People complained so much about the constant horde villain batting and the obnoxious war writing of battle for Azeroth blizzard thought the best way to fix this after the faction war finally ended was instead of finally writing story lines about everyone equally and start writing the interesting dynamic from there, or give some of the hordes other leaders some time in the spotlight after constantly being raid/dungeon fodder for years they just got rid of almost any identity that and horde aligned npcs have and relegate them to scene fillers and hostile goons for the player (see the primalists being mostly comprised of horde races). I’m probably over exaggerating and forgetting a few things but man, after an expansion that disregarded most of the horde races spiritual beliefs ( shadowlands ) and one, while good and enjoyable, still primarily had titan themed stuff and aesthetics so dwarf, human and gnome ( dragonflight ) I just hope that the upcoming expansion the war within doesn’t keep kicking down.

[holygabbadostbatman]

SPOP: LotU Meta!

Below is some of my behind the scenes thoughts on writing "SPOP: Liberators of the Universe." Now that the main story has concluded I wanted to share this with y'all. Spoilers below! First off, let’s start with the two main original SPOP characters who feature dominant arcs in this fic: Catra and Adora. In this section I’ll focus on what I pulled from these characters current (aka season 4) storylines and what I’ve added onto it (aka what I’m assuming will happen in season 5 while still leaving space for my au). Catra: Catra’s arc in SPOPLOTU is still a road to redemption. She has proved she is on the rebellion’s side through being Glimmer’s ally while trapped on Prime’s ship, which is why Glimmer and her seem to be the closest allies at the start of the story. Catra’s focus, unlike Adora and Glimmer is what happens after the war. The former force captain has seen Adora as She-ra put an end to Horde Prime by killing him, so the Magicat figures the rest of the war shouldn’t be impossible. With the end of the war in sight, Catra knows she has a long way to go to get in Adora’s good graces again. Catra understands why Adora still doesn’t trust her but this doesn’t make the tension any less painful. With Kanmore’s arrival on Etheria, Catra’s focus on life after the war is heightened. Here is someone from a far off planet on a mission to end the war as quickly as possible, which is exactly what everyone in the fight, especially the former Horde kids, desperately want. At first Kanmore doesn’t know the complex standings of the relationships and alliances throughout the rebellion but as she learns of Catra’s actions during her time as a Horde Force Captain, her view of Catra never wavers, simply because for Kanmore she can’t honestly say she wouldn’t have done the same in Catra’s situation. Kanmore is clear in saying this doesn’t mean Catra was right to do what she did, but she is right to atone and work on repairing the damage she dealt as part of the Horde. The B plot of Kanmore playing matchmaker for Catra and Adora not only serves as a way to relieve some of the intensity of the story, but also serves to show Catra and Kanmore are on the same page of focusing on ending the war (and therefor the Horde) as soon as possible to rebuild their respective worlds. Kanmore’s slowly growing feelings for Catra doesn’t get in the way of this plot simply because Kanmore clearly sees that Catra and Adora truly love each other, which for Kanmore shows that there is still hope and love in their war torn universe which for her means more than going back into a relationship with Catra or anyone else. Kanmore’s feelings also serve Kanmore in her post-Magda world since once she realizes that she has feelings for Catra and that she knows she will never act on them, she shifts some of her focus to spreading the love to the other characters in the alliance. Adora: Adora’s arc is essentially the same as her arc in SPOP, she is tasked with holding the mantle of She-ra and protecting Etheria and the wider universe. Like her growth in season 4, SPOPLOTU!Adora doesn’t hold the mantle lightly and now being detached from Light Hope, makes decisions not only for She-ra but also for herself alone. The only person she will directly take orders from (ever so often admittedly) is her queen, Glimmer. When traveling with Kanmore to Titus she allows Kanmore to lead the mission simply because she knows that by following Kanmore’s orders, the others will as well. Adora as She-ra killing Horde Prime weighs on her for most of the storyline. Killing someone, even if that person is Horde Prime, changes Adora, just not as juristically as she thought it would, which worries her even more. It’s not until she talks to Kanmore about it, since Kanmore is a killer herself, that Adora realizes that she’s not alone in reacting this way. This instant connection brings the two closer together and helps Kanmore understand that Adora draws connections with people through discussion which gives her the idea for the rebellion’s night out. Now we will get into my OC, Captain Beth Dunkeld, now known as Captain Beth Kanmore. I’ve purposefully only given out small details about Beth’s past, although I do have a full fleshed out background for the character (which I will probably assemble and post eventually when I have the time to make my outlines make sense lol). This way the reader only knows as much as the other characters in the story. A great example of this is that Beth is a pilot, trained in Levitan. What the reader doesn’t know, simply because Beth doesn’t discuss it in story is she chose to be a pilot because if the Horde did force all citizens to enlist, she would be in a position to not be forced to kill people in hand to hand combat, in her mind not really making her a soldier (although it clearly would.) Beth’s entire family being successful in the Horde reflects Adora and Catra’s upbringing. Unlike those two however, because the Horde wasn’t entirely in control, from an early age Beth understood that the Horde was against Primus. It’s for this reason she got out of Terra as quickly as possible (roughly 17-18 aka around the age Adora and Catra were in season one) and made her way to the Horde free (at the time) Levitan. She enlisted in the Levitan air force and quickly moved onto being a reporter, her pilot training making her a strong asset for reporting all over Primus. Beth eventually meets Magda and the events Beth describes to Glimmer and Catra happen. Beth’s choice to seek revenge/a form of justice for Magda and her team’s death is a cruel twist of irony. Here is a young woman who has done everything she can to not be a soldier, for the Horde or otherwise, only for the Horde’s actions to force her to uproot her life she has worked so hard to achieve and become a killer. And the worst part? She’s naturally good at it. Something that will haunt Beth the rest of her life, especially with her father’s specific Horde occupation. Her family was right, she was born to be a soldier. This realization is one of the reason’s she has taken up drinking. However, this is not the key reason. Beth’s grip on the bottle comes mainly from her memories of Magda, or rather her lack of them. Ever since she found out Magda was killed, until she lands on Etheria, Beth’s subconscious won’t allow her to think of Magda in a positive light unless she is under the influence of either drugs or alcohol. In other words her sober self only focuses on the fact Magda is dead, not the person she was to Beth. Because Beth still wants to be able to function, she picks up the drink, but it isn’t until later on in the story that we truly see her drunk. Because she has been self-medicating it takes a lot for her to truly get drunk. But when she does get drunk, the Beth from before Magda’s death resurfaces. The young woman who was deeply in love with a Horde soldier, who loved telling other’s stories and sharing them with her growing audience is revealed. The mask of Beth the ‘rough and tough Horde general killer’ is gone and the gentle, sensitive Beth is replaced instead. This version of Beth is finally seen in chapter 7 in her drunken conversation with Catra. Catradora and Kanmore Finally, the reason that I chose to write a SPOP OC in the way I did is because of the main connection between Beth, Catra, and Adora: their shared loneliness. Beth, who naturally is a great judge of character (which is why she was naturally a great reporter) immediately picks up on Catra’s loneliness during their mission to Levitan. It’s because of this that Kanmore can get Catra to open up to her so quickly, because she instantly assumes that no one in Catra’s life has really asked point blank about the Horde, but because Glimmer and Catra were stuck together on Prime’s ship, Beth assumes the two have discussed it. Beth also picks up on how close Glimmer and Catra are and how new that is to Adora giving Beth intuition that Adora is lonely as well. Even though the former Horde soldier is surrounded by the rebellion who idolize her Beth can sense how lonely Adora is which brings her to the conclusion that the only way to bring the two of them back together is through them opening up to one another, something both of them have no trouble doing with her, a complete stranger.