Sylvanas only had her own campaign in TFT because of WAR3 FANBOYS. What you are doing here is dismissing a legitimate argument by trying to equate it with WoW. Regardless of what Sylvanas has become in WoW, the fact that she has any screentime in TFT is due to the fans just the same. We knew that was an influence considering fans were also the ones who substantiated the addition of the Pandaren Brewmaster and Goblin Tinker heroes.
By that same vein, the Dreadlords have always been written as antagonists. Supporting characters they may be, they are not POV characters because they are written for the purpose of being thwarted. We can apply this same logic to the Pitlords or the Eredar.
In Sylvanasâ story, she may not have a direct reason to hate the Dreadlords, but as fans who have played RoC and know who they are, we still are viewing them AS the badguys. Whether we are playing as Sylvanas or as Arthas, we are fighting the Dreadlordâs commanded troops. At no point are we given any reason to empathize with the Dreadlords or their cause. Like the Legion, they are completely devoid of any redeemable qualities.
Now you can interpret that all you will. You can empathize with their struggle to usurp control from Arthas. Yet nothing in the story actually suggests any redeemable quality about Varimathras. With Sylvanas, we empathize with her because she was tortured and seeks revenge. We get her. That is why itâs her story. I say this because that is how the story is written.
The Dreadlords are literally continuing the work of the Legion, and the story paints the Legion as the de-facto badguys. If you consider Varimathras gaining any redeemable value, then the idea that Varimathras is still in control manipulated must be separated for the audience to empathize with him. Yet even the audience does not trust him, and thatâs why we are given those âloyaltyâ scenes to cement the idea that he is now under Sylvanasâ command.
If we are to believe your interpretation of the story, then he is still a Villain who is manipulating Sylvanas, and at no point should the audience regard him as a main character at all considering all his motivations continue to lie with the Legion.
If they wanted to make Varimathras and the Dreadlords a serviceable power, they would not be writing them as âmanipulating the Forsaken by feigning their own destructionâ. For that to conclude satisfactorily, they would have to show Varimathras controlling Sylvanas/Forsaken somewhere in the story.
Taking WC2 as an example, we know Gulâdan is not trustworthy because we are shown him betraying the Horde. If he did not betray the Horde and WC2 ends with him still being âloyalâ to Doomhammer, then that paints a VASTLY different picture of Gulâdan; within the context of the story he really would simply be a whipped dog who creates the Death Knights and Ogre Mages for Doomhammer and resigns himself to continued servitude.
Without a conclusion for Varimathras within TFT, the self-contained story is that of a whipped dog Dreadlord.