My perspective of Arthas was always sympathetic. He really didn’t do anything I wouldn’t have done prior to picking up Frostmourn. We can villainize him for how he treated his mercenaries, but honestly, I question the character of any person who wouldn’t do the same, if a gun was pointed to their family’s head.
In Arthas’ case… That really was his situation. If he did not give his soldiers a reason to stay and fight and defeat the scourge once and for all in Northrend, then Lordaeron was finished. I never saw Arthas’ fate as a product of his own actions, but as a victim of a diabolical plot by his enemies.
This might have been what Blizzard was trying to do with Sylvanas in BFA and Shadowlands. The problem is… well, there are a lot of problems with that, but mainly is… Arthas’ turning was very obviously communicated to us from the beginning. From Kel’thuzzard and Mal’ganis cryptic warnings, to clear changes to his attitude and behavior, to the inscription on Frostmourn’s Dais, and finally his final words to Mal’ganis.
Arthas becoming a villain should have been a surprise to no one when it happened. With Sylvanas, it is less clear. Was that point the moment of her raising? Has she been evil this entire time? I would say yes, given her actions as Banshee Queen back in TFT and Classic… They are just as unforgivable as what she has done recently.
Yet, we saw a significant character attitude shift in Cata, after she had died. Was the the turning point?
Were neither of these turning points, but like Arthas, were supposed to hint us at her changing disposition, and her turning point was actually the pact she struck with Helya? Much like how Arthas made a pact with Frostmourn to “Save his homeland”?
The problem is the character progression is not nearly as well thought out as Arthas’ was, despite it taking nearly twenty years for them to tell this story. Not everyone at Blizzard agreed on what Sylvanas was, and their sad attempts at nuance were merely lazy ways of appeasing fans. She was villainized when appealing to the Alliance, and she was glorified when it comes to the Forsaken, but in a lazy “our people are dying out” sort of way that doesn’t track with Forsaken identity.
And that is really the crux of the issue. Blizz did what they always do, and tried to recapture lightning in a bottle instead of actually putting work into making Azeroth feel like a real and nuanced place. They tried to retell Arthas’ story with Sylvanas, but Sylvanas lacks everything needed for that story to work. Hell, even having a “Ranger General” self is stolen from the Arthas novel, when Arthas had Ner’zhul and his young self acting as the Angel and Devil on his shoulder. They are literally just trying to retell a story we have already seen. And it’s falling flat because it is lazy and doesn’t make any sense.
I just watched Witcher season 2, and I feel like there is a quote there that perfectly summarizes what Sylvanas’ story -should- have been about. And what being undead in Azeroth should actually mean.
“You can’t run from the world. You can’t hide from it. But you can find power and purpose. A chance to survive the horror.”
