To be entirely fair to that first point, Arthas was there. I could definitely see Sylvanas seeing Arthas and all intelligence fleeing in the face of REVENGE!
That said, it just opens up the biggest plot hole of the Wrathgate once more. Why exactly was Sylvanas’ Plague deployed at the Wrathgate? Putress and his flunkies weren’t exactly sneaking up on anyone, and moving the Plague to the front line is going to leave some form of paper trail. And no matter what kind of scheme was hatched back in the Undercity, Sylvanas was on the front line herself and probably made it a point to know exactly where each canister was at all times.
So either the Dev was right and Sylvanas has been mustache twirling evil since Wrathgate, or her entire support network was infiltrated by traitors, or the entire circumstance behind the Wrathgate was nonsense garbage writing from the get go!
I like the idea that she either knew about the pending coup, and just adjusted things so that she walked out of it scot free and having her most dangerous and treacherous underlings dealt with by her pawns after they made a good attempt on the Lich Kings life. (If we want to get really twisty, getting Saurfang Jr offed defanged Saurfang SR, leading to Garrosh and let her get rid of another threat in the Horde. Or two threats, if you want to look at it that way))
That or she actively egged the coup on through disposable minions or her own disguises, like she did in the plaguelands with Koltira.
I think it’s more like this is what happens when you write a story where the main character has to kill the biggest baddest villain every two years but you only start with like two decent villains.
Also, I pugged the latest raid with two alliance guilds yesterday and both groups had largely positive things to say about Sylvanas. As did my last horde guild.
I’m starting to entertain the possibility that the WRA forum’s opinion of Sylvanas is an outlier to the community at large.
There are people who are still very pro sylvanas. Probably many.
There is still much and easily equal criticism against her. Or, more specifically, Blizzard.
Also something something… I forget the fancy name for the loose correlation of “you’re more likely to hear good things from people still playing the game than those who don’t”.
I’m sure there definitely are still pro-Sylvanas people, but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to understand why because of how specifically Blizzard is writing her out of even the slightest redeeming quality at every turn.
But at the same time, a lot of the super eager anti-Sylvanas “I can’t wait to kill her” stuff makes me vaguely uncomfortable. She’s not a good villain and I want her to just stop being in the story as much as the next person, but I feel like some of it crosses a line from taking out frustration with the story to just being a bit creepy.
This is shocking, but also not. Like Sylvanas has a lot of fanboys who get off to her, and some who legitimately like her as a character and her story, so I’m not surprised she has people who like her. At the same time I know a lot of people who are sick of her and want her gone.
I can’t wait to kill her, or for her to die in and go to the hell she fears, but I know what you mean. I’ve seen some people who are like, “I hope Sylvanas dies in the most embarrassing way! I hope that b-word gets raped the hell that awaits her!” And stuff like that. That’s too far for me, like those people need to chill.
Did they clarify if and/or where the lore about Thros and the Big Wide World of Death fits into the Shadowlands? Or does it just…not matter for this expac? Because, uh, it kind of feels like that was supposed to be working up to something? Or was that just me?