Did what he had to in order to protect his people during the War of the Ancients, is locked away, decides to help his people again anyway before being banished. In his banishment helps create the demon hunters for the future and is killed off in time by the heroes. Returns to life in Legion, doesn’t care he was killed by heroes and is right back to business saying “What’s up guys, been awhile. Where’s the Legion? How’s it going Maieve?” Gets proclaimed the chosen one, says screw that and we’re all in this together before nuking the light. After the job is done, peaces out and says “Ya’ll got it from here, take care.” And chooses instead to 1v1 Satan for eternity.
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Yes Illidan is one of the best written characters that they haven’t ruined during WoWs mid storytelling.
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I don’t think people realize how nuanced his character was. Especially given what he taught Velen in Legion, too.
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What did he teach him?
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The winning factor for me is the voice acting.
Liam O’Brien is so good, has a great voice for it, also like his other stuff I’ve seen in Anime over the years.
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That blind faith will get you enslaved by the legion when you could just whoop butt
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What Redrum said, basically, “Faith don’t mean jack squat without action.”
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Imo illidan is one of those accidental hero types of characters. One very key trait of who he is is that he always thinks whatever hes doing is the right thing and the ends justify the means. His addiction to power, fame, and glory has lead to alot of pain and suffering, much of which has to be shouldered by malfurion and tyrande as they are more or less the reasonable friends of that trio. Illidan has killed many of his own allies in pursuit of what he sees as the greater good but he rarely, if ever considers the actual consequences of his actions and it often falls on his friends to explain his actions for him as to why he killed his own allies in a battle, or slaughtered villages on his quest to find the tomb of soakgeras.
Basically everything he does serves his quest for power or to feed his magic addiction while he justifies to himself that its for the greater good, and nothing anyone says will ever convince him. Its only by circumstance that alot of his actions end up being net positives. In a way I think illidans meant to represent the destructive power of addiction on an otherwise good person. He still has the idea of being a good person but almost always wraps his good deeds in a packaging of indulging in magic or gloryhounding.
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Wasn’t Velen the one of the three Eredar that was not blinded by a promise from higher power?
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Yeah, but Velen was also pretty naive when it came to his faith in the light. He believed the light held all the answers, and that by simply having faith it would guide them to victory over the Legion. It’s that blind faith that the light would protect them that likely lead him to so much future loss down the road. The draenei getting genocided by the orcs because he didn’t take action against them or properly explain their reasoning for being there. Simply hiding away on Azeroth, not wanting to take the fight to the Legion and being more passive than aggressive. Illidan was like, “Screw all that noise. KEY OF SARGERAS ACTIVATE! BOOM, we going to Argus boys!”
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Oh this was the “your faith has blinded you, there can be no choosen one”
Im still trying to find out, in the scene where he claps Guldan out of existence, why the spaceship os leaving, and why guldan find it “impossible”
But Velen was guided by the light which gave us the ship. And it was the light that delivered the Army of Light. When the two had dialog Velen had already led people against the Legion many times. It was Velen who chased Kil’Jaden back to Argus saying ‘No more’.
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What does that have to do with blind faith in the light?
Yeah, the reason Velen says, “No more running! No more hiding! I must finish this!” Is because he himself acknowledges his past actions of being more passive, and relying too heavily on prayer, faith, and the light to protect them. Yeah the light has been useful and ultimately they wouldn’t have succeeded without it, but where he and Illidan primarily clashed was the idea that sometimes you’ve gotta play dirty and be just as angry and aggressive as your enemy to succeed. Velen never enjoyed the idea of that sort of tactic or mindset, but realizes Illidan was right by saying, “Our survival was never in faith’s hands.” to Illidan at the very end when they win.
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Because Velen doesn’t sound blind to the light to me. He makes his own choices, he isn’t sold by a higher power fully.
I do not agree with this, Velen has fled, yes but it has always been in an under dog situation. From Azeroth arrival he has always been a leader in combating the Legion even before Illidan was present to him. And in WoD we see he is at the ready to make the ultimate choices to fight and not run.
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the guy is the only creature who ever one-shot a naaru… and he did it on camera.
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Did it for tyrande.
He did it to try protect himself mostly and to capture/convert demons to his army.
He ticked off KJ and the legion was going to come looking as he failed to take out the frozen throne.
the soul boss in bt was supposed to be the gift to the BEs to free them from arcane addiction but he just used it to convert demons.
He did everything fort tyrande his “world”.
Wha? no he refused to be a slave or anything other than who he was hence i am my scars!
He just wanted to troll and make sure he stayed there for good.
Illidaddy is missed.
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Sorry I don’t listen to human paladins.
Uther turned to blue smurf who cries all the time.
Tirion died screaming believing the light would save him.
Arthas got turned into a brain-dead emotionless ball thing.
Turalyon imprisoned his wife cause the light told him to do it.
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