Though I'm not the first person to point this out, BFA's Alliance and Horde stories are interesting mirrors of one another. Not only do we have parallels running between each continent's three zones and their counterparts across the sea, but we also have a kind of mirrored arc for each side - one with an upward trajectory, the other downward.
We'll start with the Horde, who have really instigated this conflict and whose journey to Zandalar happens canonically before the Alliance's to Kul Tiras.
The Horde starts out strong. Yes, they've lost Undercity, but this planned tactical retreat was nothing like the shocking and unexpected loss of Teldrassil for the Alliance. Sylvanas authorizes a bold mission to infiltrate Stormwind's prison and break out a pair of Zandalari prisoners (I have no idea how Sylvanas knows they're there, or why she expects to be able to make them allies, but it does seem to work.)
As the Alliance flotilla closes in on Talanji's ship, she brings them home to Zandalar, where the Zandalari fleet devastates the Alliance ships, leaving only one of seven still afloat. Talanji returns to the loving embrace of her father, and indeed Zandalar is portrayed as a gorgeous paradise with an immortal king who names you "Speaker of the Horde" to serve as an ambassador and gives the Horde the chamber directly below his throne to serve as an embassy. Not a bad get for the Horde.
The Alliance, meanwhile, shows up with Jaina only for the "Daughter of the Sea" to be sentenced to death and the Alliance emissary (that's you) thrown in jail through apparent guilt by association. After breaking out of jail thanks to Alliance loyalists in Boralus, you're eventually able to establish the Alliance presence on the very outskirts of the city, far from Proudmoore Keep.
Yet over the course of questing, the Alliance discovers several festering problems rotting at the core of Kul Tiras and manages to defeat them - they defeat the Heartsbane Coven that has been plaguing Drustvar, installing the far more reasonable Lucille Waycrest in place of her evil mother. In Stormsong Valley, they fend off an attack by the Horde, another by Quilboars, another by the Naga, and they purge the Old-God-worshipping Tidesages from the Shrine of the Storm (notably, there is a good Stormsong nephew who stands to inherit the house. Finally, in Tiragarde Sound, they foil a coup attempt by Lady Ashvane, and after they rescue Jaina from the Blighted Lands, they come together to both end Ashvane's treachery and at the same time bring the legendary Kul Tiran fleet home. By the end of this story, Kul Tiras is united, Jaina is now a hero to her people, and the Alliance has a kick-ass navy ready to tear things up.
In Zandalar, however, this mesmerizing glory of Zandalar quickly begins to show its flaws. First off, despite its problems, it's clear that Kul Tiras is still largely a unified whole - the entire archipelago is very much part of the Kul Tiran nation. Yet Zandalar, despite being, theoretically, an Empire, shows itself to be actually quite limited. Outside of Zuldazar, they have basically no control over the other regions of the island. The Blood Trolls have made Nazmir a death trap, and Vol'dun is set aside entirely as a kind of Australia like prison-exile land for unwanted Zandalari.
And in questing, there aren't really any big wins in Zandalar. In Vol'dun, we fail to stop the rise of Mythrax, in Zuldazar, Rezan is slain, and in Nazmir, we beat the leader of the Blood Trolls (on fight, like four) only to realize that there's an Old God (or something very much like it) in Uldir that is very much alive and clearly able to spread its corruption beyond its confinement.
Indeed, the questing culminates in Rastakhan selling not only himself, but his entire dynasty, into Bwonsamdi's service - and while it does reinvigorate him with the strength he had lost thanks to Rezan's death, his ability to kill Zul (which isn't going to take, of course, given that Zul, Reborn is a boss in Uldir,) does nothing to stop Mythrax from destroying the Great Seal, finally letting G'huun loose. So Rastakhan traded his entire bloodline for power that does not seem to have been enough to actually solve any of his problems.
These are some seriously different trajectories. Now, obviously G'huun will be dealt with once we kill it in Uldir, and that might put the Zandalari on better footing to help the Horde fight the Alliance. But I also really have to wonder what Bwonsamdi's role in this will be.
One thing that was rather jarring was when I got to the Necropolis on my Undead Rogue and Bwonsamdi was telling me to kill all the undead around his temple, as he finds them to be abominations. I half-expected to have some different quest text for this interaction on an Undead character, but there was none.
Given Bwonsamdi is now the rather literal power behind the throne of Zandalar, how is that going to work if Rastakhan becomes a member of the Horde and thus subservient to Sylvanas Windrunner?
There are a lot of big match-ups I'd like to see play out here, but one that seems almost inevitable is Bwonsamdi versus Sylvanas. How is that going to work?
On Kul Tiras, the story resolves quite well (though I think the jump from Jaina redeeming herself in the eyes of her people and becoming a national hero to her becoming the new Lord Admiral literally seconds later is a bit jarring - unless that title truly is a matter of birthright, and thus she actually should have become Lord Admiral the moment Rexxar killed Daelin.) My one outside-the-narrative concern here, though, is that the Kul Tiran story might be "done." Right now there's not an obvious place for a raid on Kul Tiras (even making a city raid wouldn't work as we already have the Siege of Boralus dungeon.) I think Gorak Tul might be truly dead after we fought him in the Blighted Lands, which is sad as I think the Drust and the Heartsbane witches are some of the coolest stuff in the expansion.
But within the narrative, though they started off in a rough spot, the Alliance now has to be pretty happy with how things have turned out in Kul Tiras, which is now a full-fledged member of the Alliance and has their incredible navy not just available but actually spoiling for a fight.
It remains to be seen how things will turn out with Zandalar after we fight G'huun. But even if the Blood God is defeated, Rastakhan is bringing a big old suitcase of Loa-sized baggage into the Horde.
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