The following has been a worry of mine since October:
However, the source of my fear has been the idea that Tyrande would kill Saurfang. And obviously that is not something to be worried about any more. Though, of course, the new fear comes from Anduin’s line about Tyrande being lost to vengeance.
However, what I said before remains: The last thing the Night Elves need is to be thrown under the bus for the faction wars to continue after everything that’s already been done to the Night Elves.
So, instead, I will posit a hopeful thought instead:
Sylvanas has admitted to be working with Azshara. There was a fair amount of complaining about Tyrande’s and - to a lesser extent - Malfurion’s absence in Nazjatar. And now Tyrande was pointed out to be missing from the end of the War Campaign - and Malfurion was, as well, despite the fact that Malfurion’s one-liner in Terror of Darkshore was “Tell her: We Are Coming.” And with Azshara still alive, Blizzard has the opportunity to correct both of these mistakes, and have BfA wrap up with Tyrande and Malfurion leading the charge to come after and take down both Sylvanas and Azshara in one final content push.
Horde can come, too.
Will Blizzard do this? I do not have much hope. But they could.
It does seem like it might just be Tyrande and Malfurion going after Sylvanas. Shandris and the some of the Darnassian forces are in in the army at Orgrimmar.
Those two alone probably enough to take Sylvanas down regardless of what power she has claimed.(the horde has nobody else who would stand a chance except maybe Loa Vol’jin or thrall if he gets his powers back but ahts a big if.
The rest of the Alliance can deal with N’zoth in the mean time.
So either the night elves never get vengence on sylvanas herself and bevome a joke of sorts or they do or nearly do and that causes her big deathy death death plan to eork and are a joke and used to say all vengence for any reason is bad
My big hope with their recent absence is that Blizz is setting up Tyrande and Malfurion for something big. Given that they and Sylvanas are “stealth” character types, their rivalry happening in the shadows, outside of the big army battles, would be pretty great.
Going off the post-war NPC talk in Boralus linked from Wowhead I think Tyrande/Malfurion (maybe even Genn?) would be going after Sylvanas in 8.3 with the intention of just taking her down. Ordinarily, this would probably be fine since she is no longer Warchief and thus whatever bodies are piled as a result of this are not tied to the Horde or the Horde PC.
However this is BfA and there is still the matter of the Sylvanas loyalists and things such as the datamined Undead Night Elf Priest + the new Night Elf dark rangers like Delaryn. I could easily see something where going after Sylvanas results in conflict with the Sylvanas loyalists, with the peace-loving Horde/Alliance caught somewhere inbetween.
I don’t know if this conflict results in Tyrande becoming a raid boss because if they do that they might as well throw in Malfurion as well. But I can easily see it leading to cracks in the Alliance. Having to step in and stop Tyrande, and by extension putting him between the Night Elves and their vengeance, and possibly by extension the Gilneans and Genn, could be the start of cracks that from the Alliance side, start the breaking of the cycle for the Alliance.
Also as a side note Anduin has freakin’ short term memory; XD, did he not remember both Tyrande and Malfurion clearly standing on the deck of his shiny new ship in the 8.1.5 Kul Tiran race unlock questline? Which very clearly comes after Tyrande is sent off to Darkshore.
If Tyrande and Malfurion were to save Azeroth from Sylvanas’ grand scheme by outmaneuvering her in a game of stealth and wits, it would do a lot to redeem BfA’s weaker points.
It would give Tyrande vindication and purpose while giving the Kaldorei back the claws they deserve.
It would also add some nuance to the “vengeance is always bad” BS—no, it’s not if you’re dealing with someone like Sylvanas or Azshara. Sometimes you need to put the rabid dog down.
Sylvanas is clearly headed towards expansion end-boss capacity now. And that means:
A) Something will power her up immensely (c.f. Garrosh in SoO). We’ve already seen evidence of this in BfA.
B) It will be up to a large band of plucky heroes (i.e. us) to deal with her.
I could definitely see Malfurion and Tyrande being involved, but it will be up to us to stop her because Reasons.
Doesn’t mean they’ll fully succeed, either. Sargeras’ ultimate plan was not to stab Azeroth, but to wipe out all life on Azeroth. Sylvanas can fail in her goal of bodies filling streets all the same.