It’s not the story blizzard wanted to tell.
“Heroes notwithstanding” can’t just be handwaved off, though. Mook soldiers are created by Blizzard’s whim and their numbers mean nothing. It’s completely absurd that Nathanos would report that the Horde is losing the war after Dazar’alor, yet Saurfang would be able to field a rebel army that might not be able to defeat Sylvanas’ forces with Alliance help? Hero characters are effectively all that matter and the Horde is facing effective narrative death with a depleted character roster. We know that Blizzard doesn’t create new Horde characters, it just kills them.
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The only hero missing from Sylvanas’ loyalist forces is Sylvanas herself – unless you also count Nathanos, which you certainly could after the way he manhandled Tyrande and Malfurion.
Thrall, Thalyssra, Lor’themar, Baine, Gallywix(?) are all part of the united Horde again. So unless Sylvanas was equal to them plus the Alliance heroes in strength, then the Horde should still be on par or stronger than the Alliance now.
I think you should take a long, honest look at the hero rosters for both sides and see if you can make that statement in good faith.
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I’m kinda biased and don’t think I could make an objective comparison. However, I also recognize that there’s no real measure to a heroes strength in stories.
We’re always griping about plot armor and being as strong or weak as the narrative requires, no? So I’m uncertain how I could reasonably compare them on their own merits.
My claim of parity in strength comes from what I’ve submitted in my previous posts, that the narrative tells us 1 + 1 <= 2 and now the equation has changed to 1 <= 2 +1.
I’m kind of skeptical of measuring strength in absolute terms, anyway.
I mean, if we say “The Yankees are better than the Giants,” does that mean the Yankees will always win? Not really. It’s more like they’ll win a little more than half the time, and maybe their season-long stats will be a bit better. Once you reach really high levels of performance, very marginal differences in context make a big difference, so it’s always uncertain who’s going to win.
Like, Nathanos beating Malfurion isn’t really any more shocking than a trash team beating a superbowl winner once.
The burning? I knew it far earlier than that, when she was trying to drown Gilneas in plague.
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That certainly is the lesson professional (e-)sports teaches us.
#Trash team
Eh, I never though Sylvanas was that great of a character. She was and looked cool for sure, but when it comes to being an actual character with motives and goals and personality she’s pretty one-dimensional. Saurfang and Thrall are much more interesting horde characters in my opinion, with moments of glory but also moments of weakness and doubt, and I think it makes more interesting and relatable characters.
So how I feel about Sylvanas as a villain? I’m pretty indifferent. I’ll beat her when she shows up in a raid and that’ll be that.
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Sylvanas has been arguably bad/evil since Tirisfal Glades in Vanilla. She’s just finally been ousted.
At this point, I’m so tired of her that I don’t look forward to her as a potential villain. I just want her out of the story, however unlikely that may be.
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i do not believe that sylvanas loyalists would be able to stand their ground versus hero characters like… almost the entire roster of superheros.
like… all what they would need to to is to get the focusing iris, protect the casters and wipe out orgrimmar… or i guess that the civillians would be the hostages? i don’t know.
but… whatever. i am fine with this as long as we never hear from faction war.
Illidan was always a chaotic neutral.
Sylvanas has been evil ever since Arthas turned her into a monster.
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The thing I wonder now is how long as Sylvanas been working for
“death” and feeding souls. Was it back in Cata when she killed herself and got the Valkyr? Or was it during the broken shore when this being manipulated Vol’jin into dying and naming her war chief?
How far back can we look back into the past can we look back and determine that she was manipulating the Horde into doing bad things to feed more souls to the entity?
Id say it was likely very recent as Jaina and Lorthemar said. She sounded genuinely concerned when Vol’jin was stabbed and in Three Sisters she couldnt bring herself to kill Alleria and Vereesa.
Honestly I think blizz changed the story half way this whole thing is a disjointed mess.
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We know this being manipulated events on broken shore though to kill Vol’jin. It wouldn’t have likely done that if didn’t already have an agreement with Sylvanas in place to feed it souls.
We also know from the three sisters comics she was serving that being then, As Alleria’s whispers warn her that Sylvanas is serving death. Just because she didn’t kill her sisters means nothing and likely just so she could torture them more.
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You and me both
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We know the void fears her not necessarily that she already has joined death. The void sees every possibility as true so they likely already knew she could be a threat even if it hasn’t happened yet.
I think it may have happened shortly before she got the Dagger.
The Comic is pretty clear that the void knows she serves the enemy of all, and then towards the end it warns her that she made a mistake and that sylvanas will claim them aka Turaylon/her Son. Even at the end of the comic Sylvanas states “They will serve death, They will serve me”. It also important to point out this comic is the first time she uses her new fancy Banshee powers.
I’m smug. I called it the moment it was announced that she was going to be Warchief. I’m also disappointed that Blizzard was really this inept and impotent to stick to a banal plot that anyone with two functional brain cells could deduce and seriously thought that we’d lap it all up again.
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Imagine thinking that Sylvanas was ever a good thing for the Horde storyline since Cataclysm.
I’d pity you if it wasn’t so damn funny.
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