The Queue: This does not end in a tearful reunion montage

It simply does not.

That’s a deep cut. I had to go make sure they weren’t actually in Chronicle Vol. 2 before I answered you.

I don’t like the Bladewind for obvious reasons. My boy Maraad’s sister Leran getting murdered by them and all. The rest have pretty much nothing going on — a page or two of mentions out there, and  both the Whiteclaw and Redwalkers are likely utterly gone. If I had to pick one that I’m interested in seeing more of, I guess it would be the Whiteclaw or Redwalkers because both of those clans had chieftains that realized Gul’dan was bad news. The Whiteclaws basically ended up as an object lesson to Durotan — ‘this is what open rebellion will get you’ — while the Redwalkers were so rebellious that even Kargath Bladefist was ordered to leave them alone for fear they’d assassinate him.

I’d like to see more of the Redwalker clan, to be honest, if we were going to see any of them. But I figure after people’s reaction to Mists and Warlords it’ll be a long time before we see more Orc clans.

I think that any society where the average member might still be alive ten thousand years down the road will see a fair bit of continuation in terms of its culture. Imagine if George Washington was still alive and in full possession of his youthful vigor right now, for example. We wouldn’t have any arguments about what the Founding Fathers would say about X or Y, we’d simply ask them.

Then realize that modern Night Elf society is reactionary. It’s a backlash culture, created by people who watched their entire world implode and sink into the ocean. If you saw your people make such astonishing mistakes that they were invaded by a host of demons and then most of the world got destroyed in the process, it’s possible that you’d become extremely adverse to new ideas.

Not that I think your criticism is entirely fair. Night Elves have been forced to cope with a lot of change over the past few years — the loss of their immortality, the invasion of much of their territory by the Horde, the return of Mages to their culture in the form of the Highborne — and they’ve managed to adapt. Consider that Darnassus itself didn’t exist until after the Third War. Night Elves have managed to maintain a society for over ten thousand years by holding fast when they could and bending when they must, it’s less stagnation and more endurance.

Now, if you wanted stagnation, the High Elves were stagnant. But they paid for that, and the last thing you could call current Blood Elven society was stagnant.

It’s not up to me, but if it was I’d say sure, why not?

He doesn’t want to kill Velen. He wants to torment Velen.

Remember, when the Horde destroyed the Draenei, Kil’jaeden was happy to cut the Orcs off even before he got confirmation of Velen’s death. To Kil’jaeden, killing Velen will happen but it’s the end of his long, long campaign of torturing the Prophet for turning his back (as Kil’jaeden sees it) on their people and their friendship.

Kil’jaeden’s hatred for Velen could be seen as self-awareness. KJ knows deep in his soul that when he took Sargeras’ deal he destroyed himself and his world, just as Velen foresaw — in essence, Velen was right and KJ knows it. Rather than admit it to himself, he instead points all that self loathing at Velen, who he views as having betrayed him and everything they shared before Sargeras came. Now, after over twenty-five thousand years of hounding Velen, both of them are locked into this cycle of hatred — Velen has lost too much to be able to forgive his old friend, and Kil’jaeden has done too much to ever be forgiven or to relent.

As for leaving the Legion, I don’t see it happening. Kil’jaeden wants to be top dog. After tens of thousands of years as one of two Eredar at the command level, he’s tired of Sargeras and wants to be in charge. He said so in the Sunwell, it’s never been shy about thinking he’d do a better job than the Fallen Titan. He’s not quite stupid enough to actually try and directly oppose him, but Sargeras’ current bodiless state means that KJ can get a little mouthy without fear of reprisal.

I can’t imagine that KJ does a heel-face turn here. He sent Velen’s own son to kill him. This doesn’t end in a hug.

That’s the Queue for today. Seriously, no way do Kil’jaeden and Velen end up on the same side. If we did somehow redeem KJ, Velen goes bad that day to kill him.