"Redeeming" Sylvanas versus "Absolving" Sylvanas

I understand that wiping out all of existence, as per the Jailer’s desires (and thus, Sylvanas’ desires) has no possible justification. None. No amount of trauma or secret lore can absolve that.

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I guess it depends if it turns out to be that two dimensional a plan. When you have beings able to affect time, matter, energy, life, etc thinking that the only way forward is down is not necessarily going to be the case. It’s a bit like space; there is no up or down in space, there is just direction. That’s why knowing more of what is going on for her and around her will be interesting to discover.

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Interesting, yes, but justify what they’re doing? It absolutely will not. Whatever is going on, whatever the Shadowlands really are, nothing justifies their means. They have both done objectively evil things. IDK why this is so hard for people to accept.

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It’s not a matter of justification, it’s what the eventual outcome would be.

Let me posit one example - time. What if the outcome caused some effect on time so that everyone who died in Teldrassil came back to life as time was reversed and the effects undone? I’m not saying it would or will, but that’s an example of what I’m talking about. Of if we were returned to Azeroth which is ‘reset’ so all the death and destruction hadn’t happened. So if, say, Sylvanas knew that none of the deaths she caused would matter because the outcome would be that all those deaths would be undone, would that make her any less ‘evil’?

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There is a world of difference between starting the process of redeeming or validating her and doing the Deus Ex Machina she was right all along approach. If we saw her grinding out a path so challenging all but her would fail but through sheer tenacity she pulled through I think more of the player base would respect her path.

Everything so far has seem such a cakewalk for her it almost seems to bore her. When finally called out and scratched she goes Super Saiyan 9000 , one shots one of the greatest warriors ever and takes off like superman.

The story has over played her moustache twisting villain role in such a way that some people think it has to be an oversell to be able to play a gotcha she was always good twist.

I just want the Sylvanas from before this Jailer nonsense back, the one in the BFA cinematic screaming For the Horde, rallying an under dog faction against annihilation from a force that was seeking to wipe them from existence.

Instead we are getting a Sylvanas the director thinks is a win even if a large part of the player base will feel betrayed in the end. They see any strong emotion as equaling investment in the story. Keep the strong emotion negative for long enough and people will look elsewhere to find something to care about.

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I mean, that’s a fair point, but the possibilities for her completely undoing all the suffering she’s caused are VERY limited. Time travel/turning back the clock on things is so overdone and cheesy, so tbh, I wouldn’t put it past the writers. I think that’s really lazy, and feels like grasping at straws to save everybody’s fav. :confused: Her window for redemption is pretty much closed, barring some huge rewind of her actions.

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A lot of Warcraft is characters and even the player character doing objectively evil things. My character bashed humans planted in the ground like plants skulls in with a shovel. Is that “evil”? :smiling_imp:

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Please pretend silly side quests are the same as overarching storylines. It’s very helpful.

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Yeah. Yeah, that’s evil, dude.

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Okay, my character participated in the War of Thorns, watched Teldrassil burn, attempted to kill Tyrande and Malfurion, and murdered Sira on the beach in Darkshore.

coughAlso sold out to N’zoth for a neat eyeball hatcough.

Not to mention all of things all of the NPCs like Saurfang, Illidan etc. have done. Objective evil is not so objective in Warcraft.

Jaina attempted to drown everyone in Orgrimmar, Tyrande murdered her fellow Night Elves to free Illidan, etc. etc. etc. There’s a million examples.

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Still not quite as evil as trying to wipe out all of existence. :confused: Sylvanas is literally the worst of the worst, and yet I keep seeing people trying to defend this, with promises of “just wait and see!” I shall! And continue to see what I have always seen; a bitter, angry, evil witch who is absolutely the most deserving of punishment out of any character in the entire game. They have built her up to this point to BE that, and yet the fight against this idea persists. “She’s got a plan, just wait!” :roll_eyes:

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This feels a lot like picking hairs to try and skirt around the topic. Sure, the other people in WoW have done bad things. Some might even be considered evil.

Sylvanas is waging cosmological warfare to obliterate life and then deprive them of their unlife. There’s not really anyone who’s done anything as objectively evil as that. Not even your edgy character.

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This feels like a lot of assumptions. “We are breaking a system that has always been flawed and remaking it into one that is just” is not exactly “obliterate life and deprive of unlife and unmaking existence”

All I know is the Jailer is clearly deprived of his original purpose by the Arbiter and the Eternal Ones and that the magic that is used to dominate the Zovaal, Anduin, the Lich King etc. all emanate from the Primus, not Zovaal.

As another poster said, use your imagination.

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She’s aiding the guy who takes all the souls who go to him and breaks them down into tools to raid the other realms, oftentimes killing as many of the inhabitants as he can - which, mind you, is true death. Her entire purpose for burning Teldrassil and starting the Fourth War was to send as many people to him as she can. There’s not a lot of assumptions there, that’s just what she did. I’ve already explained this to you once.

Also I don’t know why you’re contrasting things like Jaina trying to drown Orgrimmar or Illidan subjugating Outland to her - nobody is trying to say that those things weren’t bad, but the existence of those actions doesn’t negate Sylvanas’s own.

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“All that you see, all that you know, will be undone.” That doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for “maybe we’re really the good guys!”

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Depends. If the Shadowlands is fundamentally flawed, which it is, then there is plenty of room for interesting storytelling yet to come.

I do not believe it will be as straightforward and frankly boring as “Jailer and Sylvanas evil evil evil boring evil evil lolraid dead the end.”

/shrug

Maybe its wishful thinking on my part, but good lord what terrible storytelilng to setup all of these interesting questions about the Arbiter, Zovaal and the Eternal Ones and then just…don’t use any of it for anything interesting. I have more faith in Blizzard than that.

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The Shadowlands aren’t perfect, but the Jailer is objectively worse. His entire MO revolves around destroying souls permanently, and he doesn’t plan on stopping in the realm of death. And Sylvanas is helping him.

You should prepare to be disappointed in your headcanon.

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Okay. Why leave Baine, Jaina, Anduin, and Thrall alive? Why leave his “siblings” alive when he takes their sigils with little to no effort? Why does the Arbiter and her cult fuel a lie about its “purpose” and why do the Eternal Ones not say what they did to Zovaal? Frostmourne’s magic came from the Primus, not the Jailer. We know that from the cutscene where he takes the knowledge of it from the Primus.

Too many questions unanswered yet to come to definitive conclusions.

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Don’t know. Don’t really care either, cause it doesn’t really change what I’ve already said. The enigmatic parts of his plot don’t change his openly barbaric actions and unenigmatic motivations.

There’s not really a way to spin this so the Jailer’s the good guy here, my guy. If someone shoots up a mall, but he leaves everyone in Starbucks alive for some reason, I don’t really care what his reasoning was. I care that he did it.

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Their motivations don’t matter if they LET everyone THINK they just want everything destroyed. “We’re trying to help! But we’re not rly gonna tell you why! Sorry! :confused: It’s really important, and will eventually help all of existence, but for now IT’S OUR LITTLE SECRET.”

Like, really?

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