Says the Illidan fanboy. The dialogue in that cinematic was cringe, she shouldn’t have been killed off so easily because it’s hard to see someone as a threat when they’re easily beaten and they could’ve explored more interactions with other characters to show the depths of villainy if you want to go the villain route (eg; I would’ve loved to see Xe’ra interact with the Titans).
Not necessarily, it showed some good growth on Illidan’s part: “I own up to the crap I did in the past” without changing his personality. It is a rare thing to experience in stories while still being decent.
Her story does not show her off as a villain, but a heroic figure going way off rails.
She was fangirling over Illidan to the point that she blames the player character for being at fault for not being wise enough to not kill him. The quest even went the extra mile to consider if you never raided Black Temple by saying you need to take responsibility for simply benefiting by existing in a post-Illidan world. It was infuriating, and caused a lot of complaints on the forums at the time.
You’re quick to compliment Illidan for someone who’s not a fan of his.
All his dialogue in that cinematic was juvenile one-liners (especially “I am my scars!”, scars are part of you but it’s unhealthy to fixate on them).
You have quite a bit of viritol for a “heroic figure going way off rails”.
That’s it? That’s why she gets so much hate? That’s just bad writing and nothing to do with the character herself. Blame the writers, not Xe’ra, for that.
That is how her character was written.
We have seen no other iteration of Xe’ra.
It can not be bad writing, it is how Xe’ra was written from the beginning. Xe’ra fangirling over Illidan was always supposed to culminate in what we see in the cinematic where she was turned to crystals.
She was badly written from almost the beginning (finding Light’s Heart and learning what it is how it came here was okay).
Are you saying it’s bad to fanboy or fangirl over Illidan? Oh it’s okay when the players fanboy/fangirl over Illidan and whitewash him (you’re glad he’s back too and probably dislike him being killed in Burning Crusade), but when Xe’ra does it…
Because that is how she was written to be.
As I explained, there are no other iteration of Xe’ra, she was not existing in the past, her personality, her character arc, could not have been changed at all.
It was a poorly written arc and she was one of the most egregious cases of jobbing in WoW (alongside the Night Elves being reduced to the Horde’s punching bag and Thrall’s plot armor in Cata). Liking it doesn’t change that.
Illidan was retconned, Xe’ra was poorly written and will you tell me who your favorite WoW character is? I’m not going to mock them, I want to explain something.
Not just that. There’s also sudden plot powers coming out of nowhere in BfA and her using Frostmourne 2.0 to control Anduin but only turning on the Jailer when he said the word “serve”. Even putting Delaryn in the same position Arthas forced her into didn’t register on Sylvanas’ radar.
Xe’ra’s criticism of attacking Illidan is another example of such poor writing. Why didn’t she tell the other Naaru there not to kill him? They can communicate over vast distances.
Illidan is a whiplash character too, less of one than Jaina but more of one than Veeresa, and you liking the latest version doesn’t change that.
