So... About Sylvanas

[Deathisfinal-gnomeregan (Deathisfinal)]

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

Ranger General Sylvanas would hate what she made the Forsaken into, not the forsaken themselves. She turned them into the worst versions of themselves through her messed up cult of personality.

If this is were we are with the conversation please enjoy this thread I created in July:

Ranger General Sylvanas future interactions

As we’re all internalizing Ranger General Sylvanas I want to take a look at potential interactions. I believe that Sylvanas will feel remorse/regret for what she did when she became a victim of Frostmourne’s dark magic and had her soul ripped to shreds. Even though she had her soul manipulated and twisted by Zovaal; the Ranger General will need to gather herself and move forward. As much as I want Ranger General Sylvanas to stick around I don’t think she’s gonna last long. Even as the Banshee Q…

enjoy

[Kagehiro-zuljin]

Incoming punishment being wearing the Crown of Wills to set all the Scourge free and properly attach their souls. WEEEROOOEERRTUIOOOOHDHHJIOOOOGF!!!

Don’t worry, Nelf fans, Tyrande will say something like “I will never forgive you and if you do it again, I will end you. Well. Going back to Hyjal now, peace.”

[Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord]

Turning people into blight chucking butchers is a good thing?

Sometimes, I worry about you, Man.

[Renautus-arathor]

I don’t think you really know who Sylvanas is, but that’s not my problem.

I’m over here with renewed hope because I can see her future story laid out before me and I like where it’s going.

[Raselle-kargath (Raselle)]

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

Ranger General Sylvanas would hate what she made the Forsaken into, not the forsaken themselves. She turned them into the worst versions of themselves through her messed up cult of personality.

Well, she tried.

Part of the Forsaken narrative (spotty as it’s been) is that her efforts in that regard haven’t stuck as much as she’d like. While monstrously bitter, detached and twisted individuals exist, on average the Forsaken are just too attached to their old lives in various ways to completely abandon what came before as she’d have them do.

So while a lot of high-ranking Forsaken (which incidentally manifests as a disproportionate number of Forsaken questgivers) got where they were by turning into the sort of hateful, amoral monsters Sylvanas could use running things in her name, the citizenry at large are apparently a great deal more nebulous in that regard. They’re hardly the exact same people they used to be, but she couldn’t seem to reliably make them hate and disdain their former selves the way she did her living self either.

[Kagehiro-zuljin]

The cinematic itself is actually good. Reconciling her soul and touching Uther’s briefly is nicely done, it’s just… you can’t block out the sea of feces we have sailed to get here.

[Vandraeda-kiljaeden]

I have to say I really love the details of the Ranger-General armor, they’re beautiful! There’s also something I find very aesthetically pleasing about how much volume the fletching on the arrows takes up, I’m not sure why.

I noticed in the cinematic that either Blizzard brought back Piera Coppola to voice Ranger-General Sylvanas, or Patty Mattson is doing a wonderful job imitating her. I didn’t expect them to try to acknowledge in the actual story that Warcraft III Sylvanas sounds different than current WoW Sylvanas.

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

The details of a gold and blue Silvermoon in the background was really good; its how this half of her remembers it I suppose.

I hadn’t noticed that, good catch!

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

She already said herself she did unforgivable things and will have to face judgement for her crimes.

Moreover, Uther agreed with her.

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

It will be interesting to see how the amalgamated personality of the Banshee Queen and the Ranger General comes out.

I’m looking forward to finding out, and I say that as someone who wanted Sylvanas dead and for Blizzard to just commit to her being an unrepentant villain, because I don’t want a redemption arc. That said, I think that perhaps I’ll need to distinguish between redeeming the character in-story in the eyes of the other characters, which I think is unlikely and don’t want to happen, and redeeming the character in the eyes of the players who’ve hated the story arc she’s had lately. I still think that latter is also unlikely, but with this cinematic, I think it’s slightly less unlikely than it was previously.

I was a fan of Sylvanas, and moreover the potential that I saw in her character throughout Legion, up until I saw her Warbringers short, which horrified me both because of Teldrassil, but also because all that potential was tossed in favor of Afrasiabi smugly saying that this was the true Sylvanas. With this cinematic, I have a tiny sliver of hope for the first time since Teldrassil that maybe my feelings on Sylvanas by the end of the expansion won’t just be sadness, anger, and wistfulness for what could have been.

@Katiera-moon-guard

Tuvic NOOOOOOOOOOO

You beat me to it!

@Raselle-kargath

They’re hardly the exact same people they used to be, but she couldn’t seem to reliably make them hate and disdain their former selves the way she did her living self either.

Yep. Then, on the flip side of this you have Lilian Voss, who does disdain her living self, but not just because she was living and is now undead.

[Amadis-draka (Amadis)]

@Deathisfinal-gnomeregan

Banshee Queen walks off like a boss without a single scratch on her pretty little head

Saurfang literally left a scar on her face. It’s still there on her new model.

[Deathisfinal-gnomeregan (Deathisfinal)]

What a minute, is that Patty voicing RG Sylvanas?!?! Say word!

@Amadis-draka

Saurfang literally left a scar on her face. It’s still there on her new model.

Why are you like this Amadis!!! lol jk <3

[Doness-kargath (Doness)]

Is that a reference?

[Akiyass-moon-guard (Akiyass)]

Yeah, A predictably tone deaf direction for Blizzard.

[Deathisfinal-gnomeregan (Deathisfinal)]

Actually the direction is perfect, cdev isn’t grossly blaming the victim of Zovaal and Arthas.

[Amadis-draka (Amadis)]

CDev is having Ranger General Sylvanas blame herself for what Banshee Sylvanas did, because Uther said so.

[Vandraeda-kiljaeden]

I believe Katiera is referencing Tuvix, a character from a particular Star Trek: Voyager episode.

[Akiyass-moon-guard (Akiyass)]

Predictable shoehorned way Sylvanas can push the responsibility of her actions into someone else. And predictable for Blizz making the Nightelves a basic plot device for a story they have no role in.

I would be disappointed if I didn’t see this coming.

[Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord]

…what? But she literally accepted responsibility for what she herself called unforgivable crimes, and that she needed to face punishment for those deeds. The Banshee Queen was still part of her, even if it horrifies her that is true.

[Radomir-wyrmrest-accord (Radomir)]

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

…what? But she literally accepted responsibility and that she needed to face punishment for those deeds

We don’t know what ‘punishment’ means yet. If it means she spends the rest of this game’s life in Revendreth and out of the story then maybe that’d be okay.

[Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord]

I suppose we will find out in the Epilogue, tbh.

[Deathisfinal-gnomeregan (Deathisfinal)]

@Kaileath-wyrmrest-accord

…what? But she literally accepted responsibility and that she needed to face punishment for those deeds. The Banshee Queen was still part of her, even if it horrifies her that is true.

I predicted this as well. RG Sylvanas is already being the person/hero I knew she would be.

[Akiyass-moon-guard (Akiyass)]

Tyrande is not even present… one would think she’d have a vested interest in this.

The reason is because the Night Elf side of this story is done, as far as Blizz is concerned. They were never meant to be anything more than a convenient plot device, their deaths only serving to make people sad.