The number of terrible interpretations of the 9.2 cinematic involving Sylvanas are so numerous I’m starting to get the sense they’re intentional.
No, this doesn’t invalidate years of character development.
No, it doesn’t rob Sylvanas of her agency.
The whole point of Uther’s little trauma session was to make one point that every man and his dog seems to have missed.
Yes, that was you. Yes you did that. The only reason this half of you didn’t do that was because you were trapped in Frostmourne. The other you, which is still you, went and did a whole lot of crappy stuff after being traumatised. It’s the physical manifestation of the Forsaken’s entire theme - the consequences of hardship and the terrible things one does and becomes in order to survive.
Coming to terms with incrementing evil being a slippery slope to absolute evil is an important thing for her character…
It does to a degree because apparently everything she has done was because of the “”""""""""""“subltle”""""""""""" manipulations from the jailer. And that she was just a pawn all along because as we have heard… the jailer has never known defeat, apparently.
This of course feels like this is an edgy anime villain where the anime character gets shiny white eyes and says “Ahhh all according to my keikaku”
Which is kind of what Sylvanas has been saying as well as she went from one thwarted plan to the next… all according to plan, apparently.
Why is tormenting the portion of the soul that has absolutely nothing to the many evil things the other side did somehow passed off as “coming to terms” The OG Sylvanas has nothing to do with RG Sylvanas. One side isn’t repentent and the other has nothing to do with it.
Teldrassil had nothing to do with survival, it was actually detrimental to it. The burning was done for this odd notion of “True Freedom” which is apprently achieved by… not serving but interning under someone titled the JAILER.
Yes we have seen this already.
I am unforgivable and I must face the consequences. - Sylvanas
We cannot be forgiven and thats probably for the best - Zekhan
But what does this mean? Practically speaking what is the consequence?
Will Horde NPCs be kicked out of organizations like Cenarion Circle?
Will territories be denied to Horde NPCs and maybe players for leveling content?
Will Horde and Alliance NPCs work together again? If yes then why?
What consequence does acknowledging these crimes and assuming responsibility actually translate to in the game and story?
You can almost see it happening in real time if you follow enough lore speculators and their communities.
You can literally track where the story -invested players turn again Sylvanas, where the community as a whole turns against Blizzard and certain story devs, and where certain content creators recognize where Blizzard is going with the story and understand it…but are unable to reign in their already radicalized audiences.
I dont know how they could really follow through, because it flies in the face of their gameplay first philosophy. They dont do things that make the game mechanically feel worse for one side than the other. All their actions are always mechanically mirrored. When one side looses a zone, the other does too, etc.
This was a bill they can never really pay off beyond just saying “yeah, that was pretty awful, huh.”
Though II think we can use this to finally push them to make druid, mage, paladin orders that are faction specific and with the exact same content.
You know, just to show the divide and consequence, but functionally it won’t punish the players but actually give them more content.
Oh I agree with that. Why not just expand the Zandalari druidic order, which already has a basis and distinct traditions, for example?
Shamanism is a little more nebulous as there is no Alliance side counterpart faction to the Earthen Ring as Shamanism is so rare in general over on team blue.
The Tide Sages are sort of this weird hybrid of shaman, priest, and frost mage. The Tide Mother they venerate is likely (though never confirmed) to be another lesser known aspect of Elune via the Moons control over the seas.
Except not every Forsaken was killed by Frostmourne, and also, they made this ‘actually Frostmourne splits souls it doesn’t devour them’ thing literally in this expac. Before it was “Forsaken are physically incapable, to varying degrees, of experiencing positive emotions making them more likely to be psychopaths but through great effort they can be good people”, and now its, “Actually Sylvanas was evil because her good side was trapped in a crystal all along so she’s actually not morally culpable for what she did”.
And no, I don’t believe for a second because the ‘good side’ of Sylvanas recognizes that she has to face the consequences of what she did means she will actually face any such consequences. Not with Danuser in charge of the story.
Yes, this is it. BfA radicalized people in a very shocking way. We are dealing with the fact that many people don’t want to admit they were wrong and they did let themselves become radicalized.
Eh not really. We havent had “mirrored” losses since Cata. I mean just look at our faction leaders, most of them are still alive while their Horde counterparts are dead/replaced.
There are several ways this could be done, quests where the Horde send aid, actual Heartfelt quests of Horde warriors showing repentance for teldrassil or dying to save night elves from one thing or another. Those who fully allied with Sylvanas being show in jail etc.
This has been the case since long before that. MoP and BFA have only accentuated it.
Because what Sylvanas did in BFA and Shadowlands goes against Sylvanas’ entire theme and philosophy, that she had already in absence of her RG fragment.
TBH, Sylvanas as a character has been dead since Cata.
I think you meant RG, and no, I don’t agree that she should be punished but if its the only why for her to heal her fully restored soul and get the happy ending she deserves, I could understand.
No I do believe that OG Sylvanas should be punished and I don’t think RG Sylvanas should be punished. So tormenting RG Sylvanas doesn’t achieve anything.
The way so many of you fall for Framing, the most basic of writing tools, is a little bit sad, to be entirely honest. It’s no wonder the writers lean so heavily on it instead of actually doing the legwork to earn that reaction.
