I’ve read most of the World of Warcraft books. And it just frustrates me how much is excluded from the game. It’s almost as if at times I’m reading about completely different characters. And most of the times I am.
A prime example is Sylvanas Windrunner. In the context of the game, Sylvanas is as Garrosh put it, a total B. She is this way because in the game, she shows very little emotion. The majority of the dialogue we see either in quest texts or cut scenes, really portrays the character in a vastly different light than some of the novels and short stories.
One of the short stories that shows this, which is available on the story portion of the website, is Dark Mirror. It is a story about Nathanos Marris and Sylvanas. It details their relationship. After reading this story, it showed that Sylvanas had a heart, a very black heart, but a heart. It was a nice development for her character. But on my horde character, I never see that side of Sylvanas.
Recently all she does it yell at me. Then she yells at others too. Then she complains about alliance mendling.
Sylvanas in the content of the text outside of the game is a very human character. She has fear. She has a love interest that she is willing to kill for. She is someone who is relatable. But in the game? I barely know any of that!
I’m just confused as to why you have my character picking up poop for quests instead of learning more about the story?
100% agree. I dont care enough to read the books and usually find somewhere to give me the important bits. The books should be about side adventures or about characters that are going yet to be introduced to the game not a way Blizzard can retcon their story.
While I agree I’d wish the actual game would reflect events/character development in the books, Before the Storm came after Dark Mirror and that was when it showed her murdering her own Forsaken (even the majority of the council who were loyal to her) because they might still have hope of being reunited with their living families and quote, “Hope is an infection, I have to cut it out before it spreads.” Which granted, does reflect in game with her being triggered by Delaryn’s mention that she can’t kill hope and her responding by murdering a few thousand innocents. So yeah, she’s still an evil biznatch. But hey…at least she was willing to sacrifice a good chunk of one of her val’kyr’s power to make her boytoy a more attractive corpse, so that’s something I suppose.
It’s far easier to just progress a solid line of questing with little character depth and add all that extra stuff outside the game as complementary background in small short stories.
I think the same principle in making movie adaptations should hold true here.
If you want to change, add, or remove something in order to make a more cohesive adaptation, that’s fine – but you should never rely on your audience having taken information from an outside source to make basic sense of the media they’re currently digesting.
Blizzard tends to forget its own character developments. Since Christy Golden started writing her character at the end of Mists she has turned into a rage monster who cant control herself. She doesn’t get her way she goes on a murder spree. Old Sylvanas would have welcomed peace because that keeps her safe. She wouldn’t be pushing a war. I suppose she could have changed after jumping off icecrown but that story shows she will do anything to stay alive because she knows whats waiting for her. So why is she starting a war.
Also dont like how they changed Forsaken to be frail and afraid of damage. They never cared before. Thats the reason they have cannibalize. They use the flesh and blood of others to repair the damage. Undead in Warcraft is considered by alot to be a higher existince. The whole reason the cult of the damned exist. Now they are weak and rotting? Why would anyone want to turn everyone undead if they just become weaker and just decay away.
Quoted for great truth. I should not have to call a friend of mine to find out why something in a movie happened because I didn’t read a book. The same goes here.
The way I see it… If Sylvanas was going to start a war, she would have been a lot more subtle and devious about it - stringing the Alliance along until it was too late to stop her from stabbing them in the back to devastating effect. Her plans would have at the very least been better than “I’mma solo the most powerful druid in the world!” - have Nathanos laying in wait to shoot him in the back, or some goblins to spray him down with pollution (Malfurion’s basically Captain Planet, right?) - something!
If Saurfang hadn’t come along, she’d be dead and this whole plotline scrapped. If Tyrande had tied a bell to her increasingly damsil-in-distress-esque husband and showed up before Saurfang, she’d be doubly dead. So much left to chance and dumb luck… is this really the canny, cunning WarChief we were promised in Sylvanas…?
Even in victory, even winning the War of the Thorns, all she really did here is get off the first punch in a war she and Saurfang both agreed the Horde couldn’t win thanks to her temper tantrum.
…
Honestly, I’d be okay with her as a villain… if she was a good villain. If she was a smart villain. If there was more to her than just villainy, as the OP highlights. But this … Saturday morning cartoon schtick is beneath us all.
If I’m to loyally serve a villain, then damn it, I demand a better quality villain! Sylvanas isn’t cutting it, and I just hope we deal with her here and now instead of having her double down on her Garroshness and survive to see the next expansion.
I always love when people are discussing in-game content/possibilities, and that guy always shows up and announces how it could never possibly happen because some guy wrote some book five years ago wherein a footnote could be found about some obscure, semi-canonical lore reference that must now and forever bind the laws of the World of Warcraft – y’know, the game upon which the books are supposed to be based. You may have done all the game’s questlines, but this guy knows the fur density of a Worgen’s buttcrack down to the decimal.
Personally, I don’t find WoW’s in-game writing appealing enough to want to sit down and read extra books on the subject. The Halo games did that exact same crap, and I managed to snore my way through two books before realizing how much more riveting it was to watch paint dry. If I want to read something, I’ve already got a few classics on the shelf that I still need to finish.
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