I don’t see why Malfurion would be jealous of Illidan when Malfurion has done more more than Illidan ever did. If anything, Illidan would be jealous of his brother rather than the other way around. Illidan isn’t some misunderstood hero despite what Blizzard wants us to believe. He’s an idiot with anger issues.
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Yeah, this too. By and large, Malfurion didn’t really have anything to be jealous of Illidan for. Malfurion was the first Kaldorei druid under Cenarius - a goal Illidan had hoped to attain - and the apple of Tyrande’s eye - a girl Illidan had wanted to charm. Illidan envied Malfurion; Malfurion had nothing to envy Illidan for.
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Jealousy no, but rather the Kaldorei went ridiculously reactionary politicking after the Sundering, blaming all woes on the arcane.
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I am pretty sure, it’s also the complete opposite, he loved his brother even after all the crap he did. It probably watered down as he continued to do stuff like, ruling Outland or messing with demons. But he still must have loved him nonetheless. If only a sliver.
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Thing is, he didn’t have too… Tyrande had no romantic feelings toward Illidan.
Illidan is not a good guy. He is an incel with a God-complex. He killed his own people for power, because he believed only HE had the power to stop the Legion. He believed it was the only way, but didn’t bother to pursue any alternative. Did the ends justify the means? Sure… But that doesn’t make it good. Evil things are evil, regardless if they serve a greater good.
I am not being judgey with a statement like that… I just believe it is dishonest to say that a wrong action is right just because it is made with good intentions. Personally, I am more than willing to do monstrous things for the sake of a greater good, but I am not going to lie to myself and say those monstrous things are anything else. It’s called personal responsibility, which Illidan has never had.
Illidan made all of his decisions for the sake of power. He murdered his own people for Power, the created a 2nd well of eternity for power, he consumed the skull of Gul’dan for power. Greed was his motivation, but he called it sacrifice. He wants to pretend he is persecuted for being punished, he wants to say he made those choices knowing the consequences… But he never wanted to accept those consequences when they came.
He thought greatness was owed to him because of his eyes, which is why he was too impatient to learn Druidism… it wasn’t something he thought he needed to learn, just something he deserved to have.
He thought Tyrande owed him her love. Not because he cared about her or her wants and her needs and her virtues, but because “I am better than my brother.”
He rabbles against notions of fate and destiny while promoting notions of sacrifice, because saying his hardships were a self-inflicted burden he chose to carry out of selflessness paints him in a more glorifying light. it is more palatable for him to believe, but its not the truth.
Illidan, first and foremost, is greedy, he is egotistical and he is a coward. He makes decisions for himself only, and he thinks he should be praised for those decisions. He skews the truth to save himself from the reality of his own self. To cowardly to admit that his hardships were a product of his own selfishness. To cowardly to admit that the reason Tyrande loves Malfurion and not him has nothing to do with power.
Illidan is an idiot, who made selfish choices that just happened to work out. And just because they just happened to work out, he thinks he is owed praise.
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All I can say is that regardless of how necessary his actions may have arguably been, you can’t allow someone as extreme in his methods as him running around free. He’s at best a nuke you can only bring out when the nuclear option is all you have left.
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No, he’s the exact opposite of selfless. Everything he did was to feed his own arrogance and ego. It’s just at the very end it just happened to benefit the greater good.
There’s nothing selfless about melting down your own people to increase your own power.
I wonder why OP is such a fan…
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Were they wrong though? The addition to arcane and it’s over use caused so many problems. The over indulgence and arrogance of the Azshara and the Highborne brought on by the lust for more power is directly linked to the arcane. The Guardian was created for the sole purpose of killing demons that came to Azeroth because of the overuse of arcane by the humans. Last and certainly not least, how did having all that arcane energy sitting around work out for the Queldorei?
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It is about time people saw Illidan for what he really is. Demon hunters saying they sacrificed everything. What have we given. Is a joke.
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That is uncalled for.
I would say there’s a healthy middle ground between having a society primarily based on arcane and one that punishes use with death. And reintroducing the Highborne is a better move towards that ideal.
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I think that Malfurion giving Tyranda “I have migrane” treatment later which lasted thousands of years was pretty savage cherry on top.
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Well, keep in mind, this is mostly a lore discussion contained in the story’s context. I would not consider this anything more than that.
I can not say for certain, but I think Illidan and Sylvanas will be marquee merch sellers above Anduin or Malfy, no matter what any of them do.
Wouldn’t be the story forums without passive-aggressive insults.
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Illidan’s greatest sacrifice was the friends and family of other people.
That really sums up everything you can say about the guy.
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The actions of the Highborne, Azshara, Illidan, and the history of Dalaran, give a lot of credance to that attitude.
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That’s… a really good point, actually. Even if he was overlooked in favor of his brother by Cenarius, he still had it very good. He still commanded a lot of respect in the Moon Guard and Kaldorei society in general. What he martyred was pretty much always what was important to other people. The lives of his Moon Guard, the Ashtongue, the inhabitants of Outland, the majority of Auchindoun’s souls (thank god he never got to use them).
So when people say that Illidan’s made huge sacrifices, it really doesn’t net him any sympathy or paint him as anything but a brash and selfish idiot.
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Arcane fills one with Pride just as Fel fills one with Doubt(it is outright mentioned as giving him Doubts in Chronicle). Mixing the two makes one arrogant and filled with Doubt in satisfying whatever they want satisfied.
Illidan has been tainted with Arcane Pride for centuries and despite the Fel that turned him into a Demon filling his mind with Doubt never got it out of his system until deciding that he couldn’t be the Chosen One and that he couldn’t get Tyrande and must settle for facing Sargeras.
The High Elves’ arrogance is all due to the Pride fueled by the Sunwell’s Arcane.
Interestingly those Elves who are weaker in Arcane like Thalyssra(whose title of First Arcanist was mocked by Azshara who thought the title better suited the Grand Magistrix Elisande herself) and Malfurion tend to be humbler than most.
Tyrande who wields Lunar Arcane is very arrogant though shows doubt in herself at times while Azshara who is a master of the Arcane is extremely Arrogant and lacks Doubt in herself.
She lacked humility. Doubt had nothing to do with it.
Humility vs Doubt.
Malfurion and Tyranda understood this. Illidan did not. Nor did Azshara
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Considering one of the first things Illidan does after being freed is try and crack a hole in the planet just to destroy the Lich King I dare say Malfurion was not in the wrong to lock that lunatic up.
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It’s worth keeping in mind that while we don’t know the exact specifics in all iterations of the event, according to at least one - and the most detailed - version of the sentencing of Illidan, the imprisonment wasn’t entirely Malfurion’s decision. Illidan had basically murdered several night elves and badly wounded Jarod Shadowsong for yelling at him when he made the new Well, so Maiev and numerous others were demanding his death.
It was Jarod who opted for imprisonment instead; at that time Malfurion wasn’t really delivering edicts just yet, so he was basically letting the aggrieved party decide Illidan’s fate, and Jarod seemed to think indefinite confinement was more merciful than the summary execution his sister demanded. Perhaps because he saw Illidan’s actions as driven by addiction rather than straight-up malice and thought Illidan could still be rehabilitated in time.
And to be fair, while the exact text escaped me I recall one of the novels indicating that Malfurion had repeatedly visited his brother over the ages, trying to convince him to recant his actions, suggesting Malfurion was deliberately fishing for some hope of redeeming Illidan and, perhaps someday, ending his punishment. But Illidan remained spiteful and utterly convinced he’d done nothing wrong which in turn prolonged his incarceration indefinitely.
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