Yes, it must be Tyrande. They showed her as the only one who had a chance against Sylvanas. She was the only one to defeat Mawsworm and managed to break Sylvanas chains, while rest of the characters were easily kidnapped and tied up.
The Maw was too dangerous for us to go there alone. We first had to help all the covenants to lead a counterattack together. Tyrande was the only one who had the favor of the higher goddess, so no wonder she survived for so long.
Maybe she’s not on Azeroth, but she’s still a threat to us. Just imagine. Even if Kaldorei rebuilt their homes with Tyrande’s help. Would it mean anything if later all of their work was destroyed by invasions from hell?
Killing Sylvanas would of been a just and logical response before the Shadowlands, when we could trust that she would go somewhere and face justice in the hereafter… But after the shadowlands, with all its mechanisms spelt out and butterboy in charge of the multiverse’s souls, you know even if she had died he would of prevented the destruction of her soul and sent it on its way somewhere else. Having her scour the maw for every soul ever fallen into it is a penance that will take well… forever. Or at least as long as they want to memory hole her.
I have to say, the idea that Tyrande going off by herself is more effective and safer than her working with the others is not something I see any evidence for. But I guess you don’t agree.
I will point out that Sylvanas did not, in fact, stopped by Tyrande at all.
The point of the plot arc was, to me, clearly about the dark side of “revenge”. Now I don’t know that she was “evil”. She didn’t hurt innocent like Sylvanas, Jana, etc. But I think the point was that she was “off the rails”. And that is why I though, as she came to terms with it all, her actions in the trial showed her in such a good light.
Just having Elune turn the Nightwarrior lights out at the moment she did was… not good storytelling. I think the issue was there was no build up to it. They should of shown Elune restraining Tyrande self destructive quest over the prior interactions we had with her, or at least urging her to stop. They could of given soft whispers around her that she kept ignoring, or actively refusing to acknowledge.
The problem with the Night Warrior was that this great power that was causing her to implode still wasn’t enough to absolutely thrash Sylvanas. In fact they both fought almost to a sandstill until Sylvanas poofed away and Tyrande caught her from behind completely surprising her.
The issue is presentation, then there is the whole, nope revenge is wrong, its self destructive but only when Alliance/Night Elves do it. Baine can go on his murder spree in Dragonflight. Thats fine. Its ok! But Tyrande? Alliance? No can’t have that! thats wrong.
We got to find reasons why Sylvanas is a vicitim in a single patch after a decade of villainy, got to depower tyrande after doing nothing with it and have another trial. Because they are just so much fun.
They weren’t trying to tell a good story. The mission was to make Sylvanas look cool to hype for a raid and then save her from death because Horde needs its characters. She is off in hell until next expansion. Probably…
If that was their goal then they failed abysmally. They did not hype anything up, and really just annoyed folks. They literally pulled an untelegraphed deus ex machina. That is never a good idea.
This quote can apply to basically everything Blizzard ever does.
Regarding the Night Warrior, beyond just being a copout to disappear when it did it’s really freaking weird that the power which Tyrande specifically requested be given to her for vengeance, which Elune gave her to let her carry out that vengeance, was taken away because…she wanted vengeance?
It is unclear what happened there tbh, my personal interpretation was that it wasn’t elune that took the power away, but Tyrande herself hesitated enough for the power to turn off, I think so because of what elune says later “Only Tyrande herself can decide”.
That could hold to my point, maybe she only said that because she was hesitating and trying to go full vengeance, like when you are struggling with something hard and you call it easy or light to hype yourself up, but Is just my personal interpretation, I am not affirming it is the case.
They should have had Tyrande beat Sylvanas nearly to second/third/whatever death, only for her to survive via Jailor emergency teleportation. You know, like Kharn vs. Erebus from Warhammer. Then after another Jailor “power-up” that leads to her raid encounter, we see something is… off with her personality. A sign of mental tampering perhaps that leads to us realizing the Jailor is manipulating her.
The actual cinematic of that fight was perhaps the most unsatisfactory and uninspired fights in the entire setting. Whomever thinks the fight had to have ended the way it did for the raid encounter to happen or satisfy Tyrande fans probably shouldn’t chew gum and walk at the same time.
Its the same thing with her first conflict with Nathanos. It would of gone down so much better if she had flattened him and his redshirt horde defenders and then afterwards the val’kyr had sacrificed herself to bring him back because they knew Sylvanas’ plans could not succeed without her champion.
Absolutely baffling that they didnt do this considering it would have the same outcome, a valkyr ended up dying anyway. The difference is Tyrande’s brand new super mode wouldn’t have looked pathetic (an omen of things to come, in hindsight).
The super-mode comes across as pathetic because the writers had to dig it out of the Lore-Trunk-of-Forgotten-Things in the hopes that it would calm down the fanbase they had just antagonized.
I mean, was it not obvious when it turned out to just be a Moonlight-Demonhunter spec for Tyrande? It’s not like she gained new powers, she could always call down damaging moonlight. It’s not like she couldn’t wield glaives before, she simply used a bow. And she was always headstrong and determined, so her personality didn’t even change by observation.
It was a narrative patch-job, much like all the outcomes of BFA. I feel terrible for anyone who thought otherwise or expected otherwise.
Personally I wouldn’t count it. All characters who become narrative focuses gain about 10 kilos in muscle mass. Even Jaina who only waves her arms around to cast spells. Call it the Action-body-frame, if you will. Free upgrade with any character narrative.
Funny, I distinctly recall Aylin moping that she’d “lost pieces of herself” after her brutal dumpstering of Lorroakan – the same verbiage used to describe PC paladins failing their oaths – and reflections on the “darkness” taking root in a soul more concerned with vengeance than justice back at camp. Tyrande losing faith in her righteousness probably wouldn’t have gone over much better with night elf fans.