I’ve agreed with your description and assessment of Sylvanas’ powers and motives in all ways so far, except for one; she may not have been as powerful during the Battle of Lordaeron as she is now. She spoke of an arrangement with Azshara, and I wonder if she might have received a boost of strength then. From the Queen or her master, perhaps?
Then again, she might have been feigning a lesser status during the earlier battle…no one can say for sure. There are after all, various theories as to where her new dark power actually came from. Helya, Yogg-Saron or N’Zoth are all possibilities.
Two things; first, if you think this discussion is the nerdiest thing on the internet, then you haven’t seen much of the internet…and secondly, if you really believe it’s dumb, what does that make you as a player of this game?
[quote=“Voidreaper-kaelthas, post:151, topic:312199, full:true”]
Listen carefully what Saurfang said to Sylvanas of her “defeats” and how no matter how much she “tries”, she always losing, especially with the Horde and Forsaken by her side. Sylvanas knows she does not “need” the Horde or the Forsaken. She’s powerful enough to slaughter in the thousands, Lordaeron, Undercity, etc. She’s a Ranger General, top elite warrior that has not been matched…yet. [/quote]
Saurfang is just as much a warrior as Sylvanas. But there is a difference- Sylvanas is an archer- always has been. This has never changed. Saurfang is a swordsman. Yes, weapon specialties matter. And you can’t block a 2 handed sword with a dagger- especially when your focus is bows. And to have her block them as if the blows mean nothing? Like she’s bored? No. Not against Saurfang. Blizzard mocked the legendary warrior. They reduced him to a mere peon. He means absolutely nothing now.
Sylvanas did need the Horde. She has fought against them from the shadows many times- remember- she was behind the attack on the Wrathgate- that was her doing though she denied it later. She has always ALWAYS hated the Horde, but she couldn’t lose their protection. She’s been killed before- made bargains and came back. She fears death more than anything else in the world. If you don’t know that, you don’t know this character. She knows that she’s not immortal- she knows that she’s not redeemable. She’s skilled yes, but underneath all that plot armour, she’s the biggest coward in Azeroth.
Tyrande is not the only one who can defeat her. And what we saw tonight was Sylvanas’s plot armour. Genn fought against her in Legion, remember? He took her down to a stalemate. So is Genn now too able to make Saurfang look like a child? Is Genn that strong? So strong that he can fight Sylvanas to a draw while she’s able to slap Saurfang around like she would a child?
This is what we call plot armour. When Sylvanas’s power waxes and wanes to the demands of the story. When she can get matched by Genn one day and then be bored while parrying the blows of Saurfang the next. This is not good storytelling. This is bad storytelling. This is Batman beating Superman bad storytelling.
And yet Genn punked her bad in Legion. I guess Genn is stronger than all of the Horde.
What part of her having brand new OP mysterious magic did you not get.
This was not some random display of strenght she made. It baffled the greatest mages that were present. She was not this strong before so I’m not sure why you are talking about her battle with the wolf.
You can dislike that they decided to give her such power, but she has them. And saurfang got the first taste.
Again, weapon type and size do not matter compared to power. We block and parry blows from giant powerfull monsters all the time. Why would she be unable to block a 2h? Because its a cinematic? It fits with the gameplay, WoW is not a medieval combat sim.
I’ll admit, seeing Sylvanas blocking the swing of an axe from a huge orc didn’t look right. She wasn’t even deflecting the the blow, it was just a static block with a dagger
I am actually quite happy with the way Blizzard handled Sylvanas, to me she is clearly an evil witch, but gave the Horde player character the right to side with Sylvanas if they wanted to, so it’s more up to you if you supported Sylvanas or not.
In terms of virtue signalling and politics, I think Blizzard is handling the politics well, I mean it’s a good compromise to give the player more choice in who they are supporting, on my Horde character I just supported Saurfang and his allies and that was it. I mean it’s not like we are being streamlined into a story where we have to support the evil witch, though people that feel Sylvanas is a good character are certainly welcome to do so.
I think that actually would be a good step forward for an mmo, to have more choices as to which faction or individual you are going to support, I would certainly like to see more of that, because if that’s the case rather than feeling a certain story or political ideology shoved down our throats, we will feel more in control of the world around us…
So I do think there is a lot of potential here.
Oh and by the way…I expected Sylvanas to either give justification as to why she did the things she did, or to simply become another Garrosh, I did not expect her to simply rage-quit the Horde and call it nothing lol my gosh what an exit!
She didn’t lose, Malf had higher health when Saurfaung came up. It still shows she has gotten a significant power boost
Also in the short story a good war, there battle is described as long and a light show of magic in the distance. Anyone that understands who Malfurion is knows this isn’t a small feat… i can’t think of a single alliance or Horde leader that could 1v1 Malfurion.
I’m pretty sure based off of Saurfang’s face when Sylvanas screams “The Horde is nothing. You are all nothing.” he knew he would die, but he intended to do so. His goal was to get Sylvanas to show her true colors and get the Horde to abandon her. At the beginning Thrall even says “It’s time.” and then Saurfang and Anduin talk about the path he’s been set down, and the fact that they knew how it may end.
This also explains why the Forsaken sentinel that was present at the battle opens the gates to Orgrimmar to allow not just Thrall, and Saurfangs body in, but Anduin as well. Even some of the Forsaken have turned their back on her.
The Worf Effect
Want a quick way to show how dangerous one of your unknown characters is? Simple, make them do well or win in a fight with a character that the audience already knows is tough. This establishes them as willing to fight and marks them as sufficiently dangerous.
Hopeless Boss Fight
This is a boss with [Nigh-Invulnerability], if not sheer invulnerability outright. Odds are good you won’t be able to damage or hit him at all — he’ll quickly reduce it to [Scratch Damage] or just ignore it outright as he launches [One-Hit Kill] (if not [Total Party Kill] attacks on your team, and if you aren’t able to run from this battle on turn one, it’s [Game Over] on turn two. [Or is it?]
This scene failed at:
Willing Suspension of Disbelief aka: Suspension Of Disbelief
Any creative endeavor, certainly any written creative endeavor, is only successful to the extent that the audience offers this willing suspension as they read, listen, or watch. It’s part of an unspoken contract: The writer provides the reader/viewer/player with a good story, and in return, they accept the reality of the story as presented, and accept that characters in the fictional universe act on their own accord.
An author’s work, in other words, does not have to be realistic, only believable and [internally consistent] (even the last requirement [can be relieved to some extent]. When the author pushes an audience beyond what they’re willing to accept, the work fails in the eyes of [that particular audience]. As far as science fiction is concerned, viewers are usually willing to go along with [creative explanations] which is why [people don’t criticize your wormhole travel system] or [how a shrinking potion doesn’t violate the laws of matter conservation], but even in the more fantastical genres, suspension of disbelief can be broken when a work breaks its own established laws or asks the audience to put up with too many things that come off as contrived.
You cant say that. Blizzards writes 2 conflicting stories. One in game. One in the Books. That way Sylvanas fanbois can point to whichever one makes her look better to say she isn’t losing.
It keeps their waifu dreams alive but really screws up the story for the rest of us.
I don’t understand WHAT is so hard to understand about this. Sylvanas is a creature of Magic and undead, there is no way of measuring her “strength” in comparison to Saurfang. There is no straight line to draw and say oh she is a small undead High Elf so she is physically weak, no. She is probably physically stronger then ANY or ALMOST ANY brute beast of muscle and bone. It could have been a Tauren Or an Ogre or perhaps even Gronn (who knows) and she probably would take them with ease.
This is not a comparison of a marshal duel between say Saurfang and Vareesa where it would be hard to imagine her winning any other way then staying away from him because they are made of the same stuff skin and bones and muscle.
See above.
Yea we get it, you didn’t like it but that doesn’t mean it didn’t make sense.