Bit this conclusion could have been even more powerful: it could have been the end of race-based factions. In the story’s finale, the two factions - and by extension all of Azeroth’s main races - come together to defeat Garrosh. However, no one suffers more than the Pandaren, who see their villages and cultural sites destroyed, loved ones killed, and entire landscapes devastated.Įarly in the story, Taran Zhu berates us for participating in a “race war.” This is exactly what the war is, and Blizzard acknowledges that in no uncertain terms. His transformation from arrogant warchief to mass-murdering maniac is a tragedy for both his enemies and his own people. Garrosh himself gave in to the sha’s influence, spawned from the Old God Y’shaarj. This is about the very real aftermath of conflict.Įven the psychological effects of war are given their due in Mists, embodied literally in the ferocious sha. We had hints of this early on: when the serpent statue crashes to the ground at the climax of the Jade Forest questline, we see that this is not a typical Blizzard story. The gorgeous and historic Vale of Eternal Blossoms is all but annihilated.
The natural splendor of the Krasarang Wilds shores becomes a despoiled, bombed-out no man’s land. We turn a peaceful country into a war-torn wasteland. Both sides are invaders so focused on winning that they fail to fully consider the consequences of their actions on the local population and their land. Instead of glorifying the faction war that breaks out on that newly-discovered continent, Blizzard chose to show us the war’s awful costs. Mists of Pandaria struck a similar, refreshing chord. Pandaria offered an outside impression of the faction war Platoon put itself in opposition to most war films of the preceding decades that glorified combat, put bravery rather than empathy as the highest virtue, and made every death seem like a noble sacrifice for God and country. Sometimes the people in charge don’t always do the right thing. It exacts a terrible price from both the soldiers who fight it and the people who live in that war’s theater. Stone’s film was memorable and important because it showed that war is never strictly good versus evil.
“I came back from Vietnam a different person,” he said in a recent interview.
So for those who haven’t seen it, Platoon was Oliver Stone’s take on the Vietnam War, based on his own experiences serving in the infantry there. That’s an old 80s reference, because by gaming standards I’m an old man now. One of the reasons Mists of Pandaria is my favorite expansion in terms of lore and story is because it’s Blizzard’s Platoon.
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