I didn’t know who she was before BfA and her hype. I have no idea what else she’s written. And she could be the most beloved fantasy writer of all time, the only thing of hers I have read was “A Good War” and, frankly, anyone could have written it. Nothing about it stands out.
I’m fine to give her every accolade she may deserve for her OTHER work, as long as I can attach a quote I picked up in a Literature class: “not everything Shakespeare wrote was great.” Because the WoW stuff is terri-- edit-- no, it’s not “terrible” that’s too strong. It’s just average. My use of the word “terrible” is that she came with such a strong recommendation that getting just “average” from her feels hugely disappointing.
Qyburn is on Sylvanas’ payroll
My understanding of the situation is that she’s average at writing, but that finding an average writer who cares enough about the universe and lore to write for it without major holes is pretty difficult. Star Wars and some other licensed properties had some really good stories, but also a much larger base of appeal to a lot more writers, and there was still a LOT of shlock. Getting a competent writer who actually cares about and is invested in your world can be hard.
Also, I believe BfA was mostly plotted out before she arrived on the scene. By writers who were neither competent, nor cared about the world and its lore.
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The main thing I remember from the Arthas book was that, if you played a drinking game based on how many times Arthas either says, or thinks about the fact that, every enemy they kill is another soldier for his army…you could get pretty well smashed by the end of the book, and that was only half of the book!
Not really. /shrug All i remember is Horde players sending her death threats for having the audacity to put an Alliance banner on her twitter page.
Aside from that, I dunno. I wasn’t even aware she was supposed to be some “awesome” writer. Maybe they should let her take over more, most of the problems atm seem to be with Dansuer and his hard on for Nathanos and killing NE’s.
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Seriously? Look I like the Horde (Thrall’s Horde) but seriously let Alliance lovers show their love too. Jeez.
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IMO it’s an issue of unclear motivation rather than a “plot hole”, which does make it a problem because of lack of information.
The facts are simple, for SOME reason, newly risen forsaken choose to side with Sylvanas. I think most of us can get why the NE Forsaken would turn against their former people -i.e. being Forsaken by Elune, the despair of death, misanthropy related to dying, your brain becoming pudding, etc- What we really don’t know is WHY they join Sylvanas.
And I think there are two options for this:
A) Mind-control: Forsaken have always being touted as “having free will” but even back in Cata this was heavily contested as newly risen Humans did the same that NE’s are doing now, getting risen and joining Sylvanas, with only a few examples of some turning on her. It has been consistent that newly risen forsaken overwhelmlingly are just ready to switch sides, why? Is it a form of Mind Control? Something lesser like mental manipulation or a compulsion? It could go from either magical to simply psychological, from a legit charm spell to just taking advantage of their warped minds: the nihilism of undeath, and thus all there’s left is to stick together and snuff out the living. Cause here’s the thing, most people still try to analyze this from a “living” perspective. Life was a dream, and death is the “truth” and Sylvanas woke them up from the lie. Almost like a metaphor for deep clinical depression where everything is meaningless.
B) They saw something beyond the veil. They choose to side with Sylvanas because they saw something else far more horrible, something that threatens all of existence. They have free will, but their mind is still so warped that what Sylvanas did to them doesn’t even compare to the true horror that’s to come. She might have “wronged” them, but there’s a true enemy out there and Sylvanas is the only one out there trying to stop it.
Well, technically you could have said the same about Sylvanas ages ago.
Tyrande and Malfurion have been failing the night elves for many many years now. Where was Tyrande as her tree and people burned? She took Malfurion and fleed to Stormwind like a coward. They failed their people, so it’s super easy to see why Sira and Delaryn would feel forsakened.
I see it as a culmination of events. She worships and serves Elune with Tyrande being the liaison. Teldrassil fell, where was Elune? Even Tyrande questioned Elune when becoming the Night Warrior. She told Elune that if she wasn’t granted the power of the Night Warrior, she would no longer serve Elune. This was the only way.
Even right before the burning of Teldrassil, where was Tyrande? She arrived late just to scoop up Malfurion.
Meanwhile, Delaryn Summermoon fought the Horde to the end with no help from Malfurion or Tyrande? Where were they when they needed them the most? Where was Elune?
Tyrande was supposed to get the Night Warrior powers and remove the Horde from Darkshore? Where was she when Sira fought the Champion of the Horde and Nathanos? Where was Elune?
I could see how it can be viewed as a betrayal from their ends. If your faith and your leadership forsaked you, would you not be angry?
the corner they are painting themselves into here. Oh crap we have a slave army. Hey writers…fix this.
Look…they have free will went the writers.
So why aren’t they going DK and going for the people who made them undead? Or dare I say acting like Sylvanas.
When the power of the lich king started to wane, she lost the mind control. She didn’t go you know I dig this new life. thank you arthus.
Nope…She had a big chip on her shoulder, pay back list from hell and at the top of it was a name. Name was Arthus. She hates the (living) world…but she also hated the dude who did this to her.
None of the “free will” turned are doing this. Which is odd. LIke with Sira…he’s right there. nathanos is right there. Ace his butt and then do the “oh I am forsaken…” bit.
As even DK’s who shook the mind control said yep…life sucks. But if I can get me a piece of Arthus, I can scratch that off the bucket list at least. Then I will kill any living idiot who is stupid enough to get in my face about being undead. Arthus was still the top of that make em pay list.
I’m willing to accept Sira’s lost faith in Elune after being rendered an endangered species overnight. That’s understandable.
But there’s kind of a large gulf between that and “serve the people who did it while I gleefully murder everyone I ever cared about”. Sylvanas is brainwashing and her free will line is bunk. That should’ve been obvious the moment the Forsaken stopped shouting “For the Horde” in basically every scenario they’re in.
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Same reason the scourge could strike people down and resurrect them and send them after former friends. If you are resurrected a enemy combatant you are gonna twist and corrupt their minds as much as possible unlike when they are dragging the dead out of graves in Deathknell.
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What I can find from this is that Sira waited for Tyrande and Elune to help her in her time of need and when they did not show up she assumes they abandoned her and wants nothing but revenge. Which is strengthened of what Sira says after she gets raised to become forsaken.
Golden wrote the Alliance novella “Elegy” not “A Good War”. I actually really enjoyed AGW and thought Elegy was syrupy garbage.
^^This right here… BUT; I do think they could have given us more “meat on that bone” in terms of explanation, especially when we have a theatre quality cinematic of King Bieber and Saurpuss having their Bro-Mance in the Stockades. Sorry but I just can’t get my head around devoting the effort/resources to such a pointless cinematic.
I’d rather see resources being dedicated to better storytelling in the game or cinematic episodes that portray key moments like, say, Night Elf Lore Hero’s dying, being resurrected and defecting to the Horde… then what we currently have in-game would be perfectly acceptable.
Just this Orc’s opinion, mind you.
ZugZugg!
I felt embarassed when I saw those 2 night elves immediately brought back as Forsaken. It was just so outlandishly stupid that it wasn’t impactful like I’m sure Blizzard was going for. It felt like they just had to shoehorn something in to give the Horde a win with no regards to good storytelling.
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scourge (and sylvanas’ bulk methods) are a different mechanic from the ways DK’s and now how the rangers are made.
that’s the issue…its a method that keeps the turned more “intact”. And in theory more stable mentally.
At the battle of andorhal a now freed horde DK meets a former brother in arms. fights them to a draw. And in a face to face meeting says screw it, this piece of crap town not even worth it.
He kept some semblance of his former self. Enough to see this victory would come at too great a cost. Made a command decision as he would have in life.
Sylvanas did not like this, sends him off for “reeducation” as I recall. Punchline being in retrospect…she should have listened to him here. alliance’s side of this battle later on is killing several valkyr.
At this point…Sylvanas could probably use those like 10? valkyr we kill really. She burned lots of resources for a pointless battle. Seems the free will DK she corrected…was right.
Why there has to be mind control here and not just what happened to me, oh well I will just kill the other side.
She is using a modififed process that makes DK’s still be effective in battle as fighters and tacticians. They also truly think for themselves. She clearly does not like this.
Actually no, I don’t<?> That was my first time even hearing about the woman. I was, however, already firmly in the grips of ‘barf-in-mouth’ mode regarding the absolute disaster that is Anduin, which I’m told was largely her fault. Tha’s all I need to know about her. Everyone is so upset about how Sylvanas has “developed”… Seriously?
Ya. Sylvie is a mustache twirling cartoon villain now, I get it. That’s disappointing. Anduin, however, is an absolute disaster. Take every cheese-ball, over-the-top-good-guy character you’ve ever seen in a Disney movie, turn your television to the Hallmark Channel, collect all of those “good guys” too. Put them all in a Roman Bath house for 3 days and boom; King Man-Baby is born. Worst character ever in this game.
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It’s called bad/hack writing by Steve Danuser and Alex. Alot of stuff doesn’t make sense. Alliance looses key figures only to fuel the crappy Sylvannas story that Alex wants to push. Sylvannas didn’t willingly aid Arthas after he raised her as a banshee due to his powers with Nerzuhl. Yet Sylvannas isn’t even the one that raises the two elves, its the horde players that use the valkyr. Start questioning now if its worth even getting any new warcraft books that come out after dealing with this bad writing. Because you can sure bet that the new books will have alot of it. It also doesn’t explain why Sira and Delarn don’t turn against the players that raise them. Sira gets killed by horde players but then is raised by them? Doesn’t make any sense at all. Spread the word about the bad/hack writing in BFA so players can start to question if its worth following any story.
8.3 Be ready for more bad writing when Sylvannas unleashes something to turn the tables on the alliance. Possibly even nulls Tyrandes new found powers.