I recall them saying we'd come to appreciate Garrosh Hellscream as a Warchief. Can't recall if the same was said about Wrynn. Since my Spider-Character-Derailment-Sense immediately went foghorn mode, I'll keep with the most logical explanation: martial minds like Hellscream's and Varian's make the most sense in a completely senseless and apeshit context (waging war while a winged T-Rex is breaking the world). Drawing real world references, it's not unheard of for governments and leaders to create or enter wars for the purpose of cementing their power and acceptance, as well as diverting their people's attention. My dear ol' Portugal, for example, entered World War I out of this. Now, Varian and Garrosh enter war out of sheer hatred for each other['s faction], but once we're at it, players will pretty much be forced to help their faction - and respective leader -, no matter how imbecile the whole thing seems to them. This will be enforced by leveling-required quests, most likely. NPCs are a no-brainer, they'll be poop-socking-cheering for the faction leaders, day and night, bar notable characters.

Agreed on the nice gesture by the human king not really tying with the main Horde-Alliance storyline come Cataclysm. In fact, since it's been confirmed that we'll pretty much be at war, said dissonance is set on stone. Maybe Varian and Saurfang will send each other letters stating how all the war business makes them sad and is bad for their kids (oh...sorry, Saurfang).

On the Aggmar thing...he's proven himself to Garrosh, otherwise he wouldn't be in charge of conquering the Isle of Conquest. He sounds and acts like Garrosh, even though he's older and thus has gone through enough things to know outright bloodlust against everything that moves is what fucked up the orcs back then (his white hair, unless a case of albino, indicates he was around at the time of the first or second Horde). So, what you have is pretty much an experienced bloodletter with a chunk of arcanite where a heart should be (the letter to Deino quest) who's magnificently loyal to his Warchief and doesn't bother him with morals or past traumas (or death threats). Maybe Garrosh will see how keeping Saurfang would be logical from a political stability point of view (going blank slate may show the troops there's too much rupture in the Thrall -> Garrosh transition). But an unquestioning right hand can't be thrown out. Of course, I hope Blizzard isn't thinking of making Aggmar a Saurfang-clone, ponderate and cool-headed.

I understood that the Alliance portion of the Might of Kalimdor went on to become the 7th Legion.

That being said, in this time of H:A hostility, it's interesting that no one has taken time to remind King Varian of that event. Part of the problem might be figuring out exactly where the Ahn'Qiraj War Effort falls in the timeline. Where was Varian when that event occurred? We know the event occurred because the Qiraji and silithid have abandoned Ahn'Qiraj in the comics, leaving the Twilight's Hammer free to camp C'thun's corpse.

Trying to reconcile the timeline would be horrendous.

Most combos don't really need explanations anyway, and Tauren Paladins/Priests, NElf Mages and Dwarven Shamans don't need so much an establishments/introduction than a definition what they are: not wielders of the Holy Light, but the powers of An'she, not "Night Elves", but Highborne/Shen'dralar, and Wildhammers instead of Bronzebeards.

That really killed it for me as well. It feels out of character coming out of Jaina. She did, after all, step aside for Rexxar while he killed her father. Sure, Arthas is an ex-boyfriend, but she was essentially characterized as a weepy, damsel in distress type in ICC.

Calling Varian her king looks like a lore mistake as well, considering Jaina's father is the ruler of his own nation (Kul Tiras) and she's essentially leading the remnants of another nation (Lordaeron).