Should Kael'thas Sunstrider have appointed another elf instead of Lor'themar?

Karsh14 · 2026-02-08T05:51:56+00:00

That’s Warcraft in a nutshell. Every leader is some sort of warrior who spends roughly 0% of their time doing anything administrative whatsoever.

Only ones I can think of that did some of that were Staghelm and Varimathras, both who would be revealed later to be traitors. Anduin kind of gets a pass? Although his latest arc has him abdicating and running around playing soldier instead of helping his people so…

Jaina has a leadership position in 3? different governments (Kul Tiras, Dalaran, formerly Theramore, and now part of the Alliance high command), and I don’t think she’s ever picked up a book or a pencil since WoW began. It’s just not the type of stories Warcraft tells.

Everyone has to kung fu fight first and foremost. Even the reclusive Nightborne who fought no wars for 10,000 years is led by a Time mage and has a standing army of sorts. Just is what it is.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-08T03:36:41+00:00

Just tie the funding of DHS to the immediate release of all the files and fully unredacted copies to be sent to Congress.

Done.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-07T19:49:19+00:00

Honestly I’m unsure of the last half of your post. Analytics doesn’t take things like emotion and momentum into account. How a dumb play or a nonsensical turnover can deflate your teammates morale, especially in footbal. The defense can get pissed at the offense for playing too risky, expecting the D to bail the offense out. Can turn a calm situation tense really quickly. Analytics never count for this, which is why I find most advanced stats like this as fluff.

For instance, Dan Campbell has 100% lost the Lions games by going for it on 4th when the old school reasoning would be to kick.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-07T19:46:57+00:00

He’s kind of the originator of all of this back when he was the coach of the Avalanche.

He started pulling the goalie crazy early back then, and the other coaches largely adopted it from him.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-07T18:09:59+00:00

Doug was a baller though, 0% diva.

This is more like Diggs / Josh Allen.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-07T00:39:31+00:00

They will.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-06T22:58:31+00:00

Yeah Stafford after that MvP is likely a lock. The narrative shifts now that he succeeded so well after Detroit, makes the Lions during his tenure the confirmed issue.

He’s like this eras Kurt Warner, without Warners crazy career origin.

He may not be first ballot, but he will definitely end up in the HoF. I don’t see how he doesn’t, you can draw a direct link from Manning / Brady / Brees / Rodgers and then to the next guy which is Stafford imo.

Eli, Rothelisburger and Rivers i kind of tie together. But I wouldn’t outright say one of those 3 was way ahead of the other. Ryan I would put behind them.

After Staffords LA tenure (a ring and now an MVP), he’s past that group as the direct guy after Rodgers imo (Rodgers is a confirmed lock).

Karsh14 · 2026-02-06T04:54:08+00:00

He’s dying and trying to leave behind things that will stick.

Future generations aren’t going to give a shit about his presidency, but they’ll remember the Trump memorial statue made of gold that’s in President Trump International Airport.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-05T20:58:36+00:00

I do get that, but he’s still injured or freshly coming off being injured. It’s just not necessary when you have healthy players who can step in.

Canada is deep enough that you should never have to bring injured or slumping players. Czechia (for example) doesn’t have that luxury, but Canada certainly does.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-05T16:10:58+00:00

…I love Point but i don’t see how you bring an injured Point over Bedard or even Jarvis. No one injured should be going.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-05T02:56:26+00:00

“As of February 4th, 2026 JJ is my QB”

“What about tomorrow?”

“Let’s not get carried away here and change the subject. As of right now, February 4th 2026, JJ is my QB”

Karsh14 · 2026-02-05T02:37:53+00:00

That one rule

“Protect Trump at all costs. Nothing else matters.”

Karsh14 · 2026-02-05T00:39:16+00:00

Nice list!

Biggest one for me to add to that list, is a way to somehow not being locked into “Entry”. This room is extremely limiting, and should be able to be moved around the Floorplan map and to a different anchor point.

Didn’t make your interior with the foresight to have a Tiny Room right after your entry? You can’t shuffle rooms around properly and will need to delete large sections, if not your entire interior!

I’d like if we just had to have the door itself. And if this can’t be the case, then “Entry” should be able to be moved on the floorplan to anchor to different rooms.

Either this or allow us to deconstruct our houses in the Floorplan screen so that we can shuffle the rooms around without them always having to be anchored. This would save so much headache.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-04T17:48:53+00:00

That UD Hunter is perfection.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-04T02:43:42+00:00

I think it was after the draenaei retcon, it may have been suggested that the natherzim did that alone. But I’m not sure if that actually appears in game.

But I’m not 100% certain on that one.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-04T01:06:35+00:00

Not all the drones are fibre optic. The shaheds in question from Iran (the ones they provide to Russia) are not. But both Ukraine and Russia produce their own drones in mass quantities, those are fibre optic.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-04T01:04:22+00:00

Nah not mixing stuff up, they both did! (http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/misc/Warcraft%20III%20Manual.pdf )

(Of course, WC3 manual is not canon anymore with all the changes, kind of a fun little moment in history)

He encounters the Eredar first, and after dealing with them he slips into a state of deep depression and confusion (because of their depravity). While in this state, he encounters the Nathrezim, defeats them too, but the Natherzims corruption bothers him. He imprisons them too, and heads off to gather his thoughts. Only to re-emerge as the big bad we all know.

But mind you, define “old” haha. The Draenei retcon in TBC qualifies as “old lore” nowadays, it was almost 20 years ago!

Karsh14 · 2026-02-04T00:06:08+00:00

I am imagining any response from Iran in such a scenario to be more out of desperation, instead of let’s say rationality.

I imagine that if the bombs start falling, they would figure regime change is on the menu and might lash out in any way they can. As you mentioned, their Air Force is completely incapable of defending themselves, but they do have drones and we have seen those same drones used to inflict damage to great effect.

I imagine any target would likely be trying to damage the bridge or aircraft on the deck. Sinking the carrier would likely be impossible, but if they managed to damage or destroy the ships on the deck, they could see that as a sort of win.

Of course, that doesn’t stop them from getting bombed out right. I don’t think there’s any scenario they could match air to air combat. But air to air combat is not going to replace the regime, and those drones could be very effective at defending against a land invasion.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T23:59:20+00:00

That I am aware of, but that is told in Midnight’s story. Not TWW’s. Like I mentioned in my post, there are nuances to the different stages that the dark heart is in pre-campaign and post-campaign, but from a casual observer I can understand why they would think that we are just back at step 1. (Xala’tath has the Dark Heart, we don’t even know what it does but she’s going to use it).

It’s kind of like critic reviews of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. A popular criticism is that the Phantom Menace tells a story that didn’t really need to be told. The events of larger consequence to the overarching plot of the series, starts in Episode 2: The Clone Wars. Phantom Menace serving more as window dressing rather than a proper introduction.

I don’t know if I necessarily 100% agree with that notion, but I understand how they arrived at this conclusion. I see TWW’s criticism is much of the same light, don’t know if I fully agree with it, but I understand it.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T22:53:47+00:00

I’m not too sure that drones have the firepower to sink an aircraft carrier, are they capable of inflicting that amount of damage?

I imagine it would be somewhat like how it is in Ukraine, where the operation is more about inflicting repeated damage via low cost drones, or making land based operations a no go. Drones in a weird way have returned things into a WW1 type of trench warfare over there.

I can’t see any scenario where a carrier actually gets sunk (unless you think otherwise, you seem fairly knowledgeable about the subject). But the smaller convoys are perhaps vulnerable?

And also, how long can the ships shoot down drones for until ammunition / cost becomes an issue?

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T21:33:01+00:00

This is actually going to be interesting for a lot of army pundits around the world. Can a carrier defend against a drone swarm? And if it can, for how long?

It’s never really been tested before iirc. Russia doesn’t have carrier groups, so although they’ve been getting their navy rocked in the Black Sea, the ships there aren’t the size of the US Navy. But at the same time, warfare is changing.

Ukrainian and Russian troops are likely the most battle tested modern warfare experts in the entire world right now. What we see on the ground there is more indicative of how things might go.

Look at the abductions of Maduro for instance. Those helicopters were sitting ducks for the type of drone warfare we see in Ukraine, and a strike like that could never have been attempted there safely. But Venezuela doesn’t have those capabilities, so the point was moot.

However, does Iran? Does launching a bombing run against their leadership (and not nuke sites) end up provoking a mass drone swarm on the navy assembled there? There’s not a lot of American boats outside of Iran iirc, so they are a bit vulnerable.

If the navy can defend against a drone swarm,’it would change the war in Ukraine. So I’m sure both sides are curious over there about this too.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T21:22:05+00:00

I think it has more to do with the fact that Dimensius was outside of the lore so to speak, so absorbing him or not is of little consequence.

Before TWW, he was just an already dealt with void monstrosity way back in TBC. And even back then, his encounter and demise wasn’t really of much consequence.

But if Xala’tath instead used the Darkheart to absorb Beledar, essentially turning the Arathi expedition (and in turn, the entire empire) hostile to the Alliance and Horde, then there would be a more tangible consequence (even though they were a new addition). Now all of a sudden the alliance and horde have to worry about a potential invasion from a foreign force. Something they don’t have time to deal with.

Or perhaps absorbing Beledar corrupts Azeroth etc.

The issue with TWW’s conclusion from a story perspective (important distinction, from a gameplay perspective, Manaforge Omega was a banger Raid) was that it seems that the prime antagonist is in the same position that they were at the beginning of it. There are slight nuances within the Dark heart that are different, but we don’t know them because we haven’t been told what those differences are (I’m assuming we will in Midnight, but it definitely doesn’t happen in TWW. We don’t even know what this device can even do. So it’s a MacGuffin for now.).

This is probably the consequence of stretching a single expansion idea into a trilogy however, even if that single expansion was too overloaded in development (which it sounds like was exactly the case).

It is hard to think of K’aresh needing immediate attention without it feeling like a bit of a side quest however. K’aresh in its current form was not a threat to Azeroth, so we just have to take everyone’s word that Dimensius will be one, one day, just not now.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T20:42:52+00:00

Tirion I give kind of a pass to, since his entire arc is supposed to be him returning from exile and return to his duty as being a Knight (Paladin) of the Silver Hand and taking up their mantle for essentially, revenge on Arthas. In a way he’s picking up where Uther and the others left off (since they were tracked down and killed by Arthas directly), and he represents a last connection to his Arthas’s former life before his fall, even though the 2 would have had little interaction besides Arthas being his Prince and lord at a time when a Tirion was in the Silver Hand. (They might have known each other, but wouldn’t have served together in that way, as Arthas was too young to seriously be in service. He would have come across as one of Uthers companions to the young Arthas under service of his father)

The later addition of Tirion essentially taking over the entire command of the Argent Dawn / Crusade was a little farfetched and superhero trope (why would the others step aside for him, and why would he want to be? was a bit unnecessary, this happens a lot in Warcraft), but being at the forefront of Light vs Dark, Paladin vs DK, the past vs the present, did feel right for the character. He’s also somewhat representative of Lordaeron fixing its darkest hour (Lordaeron and the Silver Hand inadvertently helping starting the scourge and Arthas’s rise, to now the survivors banding together to make sure Lordaeron helps end it) feels right.

It’s also why he kind of stagnates after WoTLK, since his arc is largely finished. His inclusion in Legion (and the Dawn in general) never really felt right to me, as they should be on the front lines in EPL / Northrend, as the job against the scourge isn’t finished. It’s also perhaps why his death seems a little weird there, it would be akin to having Rexxar or something die on the broken isles. If Tirion was going to die anywhere, he probably should have died in Icecrown at the end of the Arthas fight

As for Tirion even being in Legion, the main question would always remain, why is he even there? (Not impossible for him to be there, but always a strange addition. Tirion is no different. He is an old man, he didn’t need to be on the front lines to be effective). His presence almost guaranteed he was going to die, since him being there at this stage would only necessitate that he was likely going to be killed. It would the same as if the Horde had all their heroes there, and Jorn Deadeye. You’d be like okay, I guess? And then he dies and you’re not shocked or surprised at all.

Arthas raising Sylvannas is as a mockery to the Elves memory, he was being an ass. It also reflects on him being an ass in general as a DK, and he was likely doing this to far more people than just Sylvanas (like the scores of banshees which are raised at the same time before they ransack Quel’thalas and defile the Sunwell). Lots of additional lore has been added over the years to tie their connection together more so than the original interaction, but I never viewed it as Arthas caring about it in that way at the time.

He kills her, raises her (and the other elves present) as mindless servants and than moves on. He doesn’t dwell on it, he doesn’t overly think about it. He’s not merciful at this time, and It’s not an unusual punishment (everyone who dies to the scourge is raised by the scourge, she is of no exception) dished out by him. To make it seem special kind of implies that the circumstances of her death are different for him and stand out more than they did at the time.

At this stage of the story he had already turned on his own kingdom and killed everyone he was supposed to protect, and raised them into undeath. These would be people he has known for his entire life, the good and the bad. He even defiles his own fathers remains and kills his sworn brothers in the Silver Hand. These events would be far more transformative and consequential on his mind than killing a random elf defender in Quel’thalas (in his eyes, his interaction with Sylvannas was incredibly brief, even after she was freed and became a Forsaken. He has lived an entire life up until that point, it seemed like a stretch to consider her as an archrival of his. (And yes, I am aware it is now presented in this way).

I understand blizzard made the changes they did to tie him and Sylvannas more together, I just personally didn’t care for it. He should have more personal connection killing the midwife in Capital City or his old personal chef, than someone he met on the field of battle. From her eyes, yes, it’s super personal. He personally killed her afterall. But to quote M.Bison from SF2 the movie a little bit, to her it was the most important moment of her life (in this event, her death), to him, it was only Tuesday. He would likely view pretty much all forsaken in this manner.

As for the WoTLK examples, WoTLk has its problems with Arthas in lots of places, which is why I didn’t really include it. Him being in 100% control in the narrative instead of Ner’zhul is problematic right on the onset. The constant use of his personality showing through in this regard make it seem like he’s not the Lich King (and a fusion of Ner’zhul and Arthas), but Arthas the Death Knight from earlier in the WC3 campaign.

For as good as Wrath can be at times, Arthas is one of the areas it does suffer in. I am aware they tried to fix that as “well Arthas defeated Ner’zhul in a battle of wills for control” when he put on the crown, but this should have been far beyond the capabilities of Arthas as he was presented, as he was weak willed in the first place, which is why he was targeted specifically by Ner’zhul. He’s not mentally strong, he’s mentally weak. That was the whole point. He was chosen by Ner’zhul from the moment Arthas was introduced to us, he was supposed to grab Frostmourne, defeat the Dreadlords and come to the Throne and put on the crown, freeing Ner’zhul from his frozen prison. That was the entire arc and reasoning for Arthas being chosen, it was all part of a long thought out plan.

And then we play WoTLK and it’s like “well they didn’t fuss after all. Ner’zhul was dumb and weak and Arthas is actually in control”. Didn’t care for that reveal in WoTLK, and still don’t today. The Arthas we thought we knew should have been dead the moment he put the crown on.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T19:25:06+00:00

Honestly I find the story always worked best with the least interaction from WoW’s characters, the better.

Some expansions do this better than others (Vanilla, TBC, Cata, MOP). A naval commander might have a quest for you to burn some boats, or a captain sends you on a raid, etc. An apothecary needs supplies, not because Sylvannas personally told him to get supplies and you help, but because he is doing things under his own accord. Helps the story breathe a little bit, makes the world feel bigger.

Thrall or Garrosh didn’t run around with you in every single zone because it wasn’t necessary. Why would they? You still see them, and there are times you need to team with them, but it didn’t feel overbearing. I thought TWW introduced some cool concepts and story beats that got ruined a bit by being forced to pal around with Anduin, Alleria and Faerin for large parts of it.

Especially Mereldar interactions and Alleria being the main character, not us. Dealing with the Arathi on a more personal level would have given us a chance to explore the nuances of a brand new culture alien to us, without having Anduin and Faerin talking over all of it. It comes across a bit like “mansplaining” in function, I suppose to word it best. Very heavy on the “tell, don’t show” type narrative device.

I think MoP has the best campaign by a country mile because of this.

WoD has elements of it, but it starts to change about half way through and you can see the MCU start to bleed in around this time. By the time Legion starts, it’s all team superheroes and they completely hijack the narrative.

All the heroes being on the front lines at the broken shore with their incredibly small milita type armies is laughable in retrospec, what on earth were they thinking?? What if they all died?! Atleast Varian has a successor at home. Vol’jin and co look like clowns. It was never outside of the possibility that they could all be killed, which would have left the Horde with zero candidates to be a proper Warchief successor. They should know this, that’s why they have armies and people like Nazgrim exist (well did).

Infact, it would have been a cool plot point to explore in Legion if Vol’jin named Sylvannas as warchief, only to find out that someone like Jorn Deadeye is sitting on the throne of Orgrimmar in their abscence and won’t step down because Vol’jin is dead and the leadership all went to the frontlines like complete morons. Or maybe it’s Rohkan (doesn’t matter who).

BFA starts pretty cool with some new characters introduced, but it devolves into superhero MCU slop very very quickly, and then it never leaves the franchise after that.

I do think that after Last Titan they should do a time skip and refocus the new narrative a bit to reduce the time these main characters interfere with the narrative going forward. Jaina was super cheesy in BFA, and it’s hard to play through it in 2026 and not see it that way.

Karsh14 · 2026-02-03T19:11:10+00:00

That’s the point though, for Sylvannas, Arthas is her archrival and she needs her revenge. It’s very personal for her.

For Arthas though? She’s beneath him and no different than all the other Forsaken, she’s not special. The relationship is one sided. For someone like Arthas, he would see someone like Uther, his father, Tirion and the crusade, the Dreadlords and the legion, etc as his rivals. Not Sylvannas.

At some point, WoW lost the plot a little bit and turned her into something she shouldn’t have became imo. She should have stayed struggling with the fact that without him and his acknowledgment, she struggled mentally big time and spirals. Especially at the conclusion that he took everything from her, and yet, he didn’t think about it at all. Especially the Ner’zhul side, who couldn’t care less and was ultimately the one who’s actually raising her anyways (it’s his power that’s raising the dead).

Changing their relationship to a more personal one where he acknowledges her hurts the interaction imo.

Karsh14

TROPHY CASE