The implementation of the WoT didn’t rule that out, and I see no sign that it wasn’t Afrasiabi’s intention for that to be the case. He certainly did nothing to make sure the story pointed in any other direction—except possibly the direction where she does it as a temper tantrum because Delaryn sassed her, which is if anything worse.
That would fall under different implementation of the WoT. Afrasiabi could have given us reasons that made sense when he was implementing that story beat, but he didn’t. That is part of why it is such a disaster.
That still doesn’t work for me. In the first place, there are two Night Elf demigods, not just one. And in the second place …
He was around, as far as we can tell, until patch 8.2 was well into development. That is much too late to provide sensible reasons for an event that happened before 8.0. When you are in a subscription-based model, you have to consider the short-term experience of players, not just long-term.
Furthermore, we have no reason to think he was at all interested in giving Sylvanas sensible reasons for the war. By all appearances and going by the things he said in interviews, he wanted her to be an unregenerate monster.
However, I’m just curious enough to bite on this: What sort of revelation do you think could have come out in patch 8.3 that could retroactively save the WoT as a story?
Also:
What do you mean by this? Do you really think the writers are still going to backpedal and say that someone wasn’t who they appeared to be during the WoT, or that things didn’t happen the way we thought they did?
It’s so weird because we are outright shown that N’zoth’s minions are capable of making us perceive entire armies incorrectly. To the point where you bomb the Wastewanderer base because you see an illusion of it being overrun by silithid.
So I just sort of assumed that was setting up a plot twist that would explain why massacaring the Kul Tirans and Vulpera in Brennadam and Vol’Dun straight up does not happen in the Red / Blue questlines.
You could even keep SL and Sylvanas’s storyline. Why wouldn’t she want N’Zoth to encourage more reprisals?
I really thought this had to be the case as they encouraged you to play both sides of the storyline. Because if you do that you start to realize a lot of this just ain’t adding up.
But turns out it was just lazy design and inept storytelling. So that’s fun.
I dont know. But, I think it actually was all to the end of the prepatch cinematic. Everything Sylvanas did was meant to create an atmosphere where there was a strategic possibility of her successfully seizing the helm of domination and breaking it. Aside from the abandoned Azerite stuff. Obviously, Azerite was supposed to make you ambitious for some reason, and maybe Azeroth was an imprisoned old god? Idk, but I think its pretty clear BfA was an old god expansion from the beginning. But I digress…
And I’m not even in the same position as you. I really really liked BfA. I liked the war of thorns. I liked the old soldier. I loved Zandalar and Kul Tiras. I loved the way all my favorite classes played. I liked Azerite Armor. So, I dont think WoT needed to be saved retroactively. Sylvanas redemption or vindication is a moot point for me personally. But I despise Shadowlands. Shadowlands makes BfA worse.
Had it turned out, that everything Sylvanas did, was her chaotic evil method of ensuring that she would be able to get her hands on possibly the most evil artifact on the material plane, and destroy it, shattering the veil so that we could pass through and kill the guy who invented the scourge and domination. Kill the guy responsible for all the war on Azeroth. (The Primus in league with Denathrius after imprisoning Zovaal). Had it turned out that it was all Sylvanas’ deluded desire to free us all… Yeah, I think that would be better.
Because literally just get a job at the Argent farms or lumber yards directly to your north if you want to toil Lordaeronian soil that badly.
Deciding to do it under the flag of Stormwind is a pretty blatant decision that shows they do not respect that the Forsaken are also fighting for their land.
Too tired to have anything of value to add to the current conversation beyond: Tirisfall has always been my favourite starting zone.
At one point my friend called the Cata revamp as the “nursery”. It stuck with me, because it felt just kind of like that for new undead. I am also banging pots and pans that Blizzard doesn’t forget Lilian Voss is a badass, and she takes some sort of leading role in the Forsaken going forward.
Those Night Elves models weren’t using the Night Warrior skins, unlike the ones in Darkshore and Boralus. They were probably not part of Tyrande’s Army of the Black Moon.
Agreed. I think that would have been cool, and as far as looks I don’t care if she looks like a frozen human instead of typical forsaken she’s like a death knight with free will then, but less moody. I still would have really enjoyed that scenario you described.
The weird thing is they were wearing what I presumed to be Nelf heritage gear. The female model one looked just like the Nelf Druid from the OG cinematic.
So imagine my surprise when I learned recently that the Nelves don’t have heritage armor. But the Belves are getting 2 already apparently?
Really hope the Forsaken’s is that Deathguard armor. Always loved that look.
I’m hoping to unlock Velved on my Nelf DH soon ish.
I’ve so many voidy things from Horrific Visions but they don’t really look right on any of my characters. I tend to go for a more raven aesthetic on my undead Priest for Shadow because it feels more on brand with the CotFS. Who have stuff like stained glass with skulls and Sith Pope hats so a dark angel vibe seems better.
I do love me cosmic horror though and intend to RP a frothing at the mouth Cthuly Cultist Velf SPriest.
Still poking through Lovecraft and Chamber’s works to see what name I could steal and make sound Elvish by adding in unnecessary ae’s.
And why do they think their claim trumps that of the Forsaken, the vast majority of which are Lordaeronian?
There’s situations where both an undead and human have a legitimate claim to the same entity. Like with Alexi and Weldon Barov.
This is why I’ve said before the Undead VS Human conflict doesn’t need to be some war of extermination. They can just fight for the same reasons most actual wars break out. Disputes over territory and resources in that territory in particular.
Gotcha. I definitely thought you were attempting to say the fleet wasn’t an issue at all, so that makes more sense. I’m not 100% on whether the Alliance/Kul Tiras followup didn’t occur because Anduin ordered a halt or if the lead in to Nazjatar happened quickly enough that it wasn’t feasible.
I do think the Kaldorei can solo what is left of the Horde in Durotar. That’s what they’ve been doing in Northern Kalimdor offscreen. They don’t even need to storm Orgrimmar—just boxing them in there would be a death sentence. You can’t feed a population on rocks and sand.
If the Nelves were being written true to their lore, the Horde would have had a rough go at this even while in prime fighting fettle. The War of Thorns was very costly despite the bulk of the Kaldorei army being gone, and that was the full weight of the Horde going it alone. Even that only happened because the Wild Gods were no match for Sylv’s infamous narrative singularity effect.
Seriously: Dreadlords did it. They were on the payroll for Zovaal and making dupes of every cosmic force in all of Creation. They had a vested interest in pushing Sylvanas into Zovaal’s camp. They are tailor-made to manipulate events of this scale to scapegoat others into desired outcomes.
Sylvanas not actually being the villain everyone thought she was would have preserved her and been an easy lane into hating Zovaal instead of him just being a vague blob of garbled boss one-liners we’re fighting because other Eternal Derp Ones vague insistences.
