What did you think of Old Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond?
“I can’t believe I used to be that green.”
Old Bruce Wayne to Bruce Wayne as Batman
“Epilogue” Justice Leage Unlimited.
Nothing really makes sense.
However there is a but.
We don’t know Sylvanas motivations yet.
What does she want to change? What can’t we chose? The afterlife? Well that’s true. Is it something else?
Pretty sure Sylvanas was in the Maw. She initially refused to go along with what the Val’kyr wanted her to do, so they took her soul to the Shadowlands.
How do we “know” that. Edge of Night doesn’t read that way to me. The Val’kyr probably took her directly to the maw, but maybe the Arbiter did send her there.
But who took her there, and how she got there really doesn’t matter. Her problem is that she was there at all.
Because, as you noted, the Arbiter’s System can be bypassed. It isn’t that the Arbiter isn’t fair- it’s that the entire cosmos as a whole isn’t. Why would you allow yourself to fall through the cracks of a fallible system? Because it might work out okay for somebody else…? At least it might for a while, before their soul is devoured by a void god or some other invader, or by the devourers that are in the Shadowlands already.
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I think this is a flaw from the Sahadowlands. At least if you lived a “good” live.
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Because you really don’t have a choice in the matter?
You live in a Crapsack World… Just be glad that it isn’t that of Warhammer 40K.
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I agree on this but my honest take? Blizzard will do that as they’ve few cards left in their deck to play a correct the course of said character.
For me, even if she gets sealed at some sword or pod a la Rita Repulsa and we get a break of her…that’d be sweet.
TBF, the arbiter sent Uther to Bastion despite his soul was wounded and literally nobody cared about it. Honestly It’s a miracle the SL haven’t been destroyed or conquered, then again it likely works as a draedra realm so impossible to take even if another god steps in to take it.
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Call me crazy, but Bastion seems one of the best realms as far as being able to treat a wounded soul goes.
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You are making a bold assumption that she knows this. In fact, it makes relative sense that she’d see the system as flawed and the Arbiter needs to go down if she doesn’t know; and thus blames a faulty system for sentencing her to the Maw. I’m not even sure that she was aware that it was possible for powerful enough death entities to steal souls from their destined afterlives to one of their choice. Which would make sense of her cursing the Loa and Jin for making her Warchief in Shadow’s Rising … because she didn’t know that Mueh’zala and the Jailor were behind Jin’s death and whispers.
In essence, she doesn’t know. She blames the faulty system that she thinks put her into the Maw, when in reality it was probably her Primes responsible for that. Who have always been suspect as hell. And since she figures its an inevitability that she’ll end up back there again … why not help bring down the System as a whole? And the guy trying to do it?
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I think the worst thing about the Shadowlands is that you aren’t able to see your loved ones again unless you get lucky and/or under special circumstances like right now. Alexandros Mograine still loves his wife deeply, but he’s probably never going to see her again.
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I be callin’ you crazy elfie. And seeing how it spired out of control, I guess the place didn’t have the best healthcare program in all the Shadowlands
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We see Night Fae, Kyrians, Maldraxxi and Venthyr all over Oribos! I even saw a Mortal Spirit changed by Ardenweald into the shape of an Animal in Oribos!
Before the Anima Drought all Souls outside the Maw and Revendreth could travel wherever they pleased! The place they were sent to by the Arbiter is their starting point on the journey in the Afterlife!
All Souls have freedom aside from the Sinners in torment and can choose their home as they see fit!
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Sylvanas Motivations haven’t made sense for a long time cause she has been written by too many different writers who had no consistent plan for her.
It is why she doesn’t make a very compelling villain because her history and actions don’t line up with her current goal.
So she doesn’t want to end up in the Maw, so she teams up with the Villian running the Maw although he was probably the one who sent her there.
Hates all those who lead to her death, Cool so she will team up with Kel’thuzad who was the reason and architect of the invasion.
Want to reunite with her sisters and bring them over to her side. Instead kidnaps random leaders from all over Azeroth.
Her actions also make no sense either, why did she need Bwomswamdi dead? Why didn’t she turn the zandalari against bwom before he was their patron Loa? Why did she want to capture Eyir instead of killing her outright? none of it is explained its just her making stupid decisions so she fails.
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When did she learn this?
Uh, we do?
While we know Arthas wasn’t meant to go to the Maw, where was it established that NOBODY goes straight to the Maw? I don’t remember that.
More than one NPC has talked of the “new order” that the Jailer is suppose to set up. We have been told nothing of what they have been told. Without that, we can’t really know why they found it persuasive.
Again, the question is. Does she know this though?
Does she even know that it was even possible to snag a soul from its destined afterlife to a chosen one before the system broke? Because there are only a handful of instances like that that even we’ve been aware of. Arthas with Devos. Illidan with Helya. Jin with Mueh. And presumably, Sylvanas with likely her Primes/Jailor. A lot of her actions and dialogue make more sense if she just doesn’t know.
As for your other points:
- She targeted almost exclusively peaceniks that were suppressing conflict on Azeroth. Or Tyrande, who’s the only known story character so far who has twice broken the Jailor’s chains even Bolvar couldn’t escape (or equally possible, she was actually targeting the peace oriented Feathermoon and Tyrande got in the way). Both of her sisters are Hawks. Both pretty unstable tbh.
- She wants Bwon dead because he’s been exploiting a loophole in the arbiter system to funnel the souls of the Trolls directly into De Otherside. Which subsequently means that beyond the power he’s sacrificing to actually do that, he’s not being weakened by the Anima drought like the other Afterlives overseers. The guy is like the only “deity” maintaining his power base and hording souls.
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The fact that she has never second guessed this after learning that he has armies of forsworn/Valkyr that can pluck soul from where they were supposed to go. Then they can deliverer them straight to the Maw for the jailer should have probably raised some red flags.
Makes no sense, Why would she target the one person she already knows is far more powerful that a Standard Forsworn/Valkyr. She didn’t need to capture the peacniks, the scourge had been unleashed and is more than enough to wipe out azeroth, especially now agents from the maw can lead them.
It was just an excuse for Golden to use her favorite toys in Shadowlands.
However that doesn’t explain why Muhzehala just didn’t deal with him? Why did Sylvanas have to send a nobody ranger to try kill a loa when there was essentially a far more power Loa capable of dealing with him.
Only after the Arbiter system broke though, and AFTER she created a direct link between the Maw and Azeroth. And outside of the Mawsworn Val’kyr created by Helya, none of the Maw’s forces can even leave the Maw at all; which is what Kel’Thuzad’s research in the House of Rituals was about finding a solution for in the Necrolord Campaign. In short, none of this attributes to the idea that those Maw forces could do any of that prior to the system falling apart. Or that Sylvie would know the contrary.
As for Mueh, to be honest … I think its perfectly possible she does not know he’s in league with the Jailor. Truly, if you look at how Mueh is operating, its pretty on the downlow. He’s relying on exclusively his own power and worshipper soul stockpile in his dungeon. I am also unclear just how much power Mueh’ even has in the material world anymore with what Bwon implies about his “being forgotten”.
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This has been my impression as well… but also that anybody who was raised as undead got a ticket to the maw, regardless of the lives they led. I guess the Helm and Frostmournes connection to the maw would validate that. I don’t see why her suicidal vision would be false.
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It’s too high stakes for me to really have any heart in it, but, from what I’ve gathered, she’s not raging against the machine of the afterlife, but destiny. That fate is woven and no-one is actually in control of their life, and that their afterlife is the sum of their punishments for doing as they had to.
It’s eh. I really just can’t get myself to care. BFA ruined her as a character entirely and no matter the reason now, it doesn’t seem good enough, and it seems like something no mortal should actually even have a hand in. It should be something well beyond anyone’s comprehension of the scale and complex machinations of its design.
I don’t see why Sylvanas would question that at all; after all, she’s allegedly the one to make that possible. She helped break the system to those souls would go to the Maw, and the only evidence we, the objective observer have, that it is even possible is Word of God from the devs that Sylvanas ending up in the Maw was because of the Jailer’s actions, and Devos bringing Uther with Arthas’s soul to the Maw. The former we have no clue how it even actually played out, only the end result was Sylvy ended up in the Maw because Jailer wanted it. The latter is explicitly an event so unprecedented, it only occurred due to another manipulation by the Jailer (sending Frostmourne and the Helm to Azeroth, COD the nathrezim) and was the foundational event that created the forsworn Kyrians.
Because she didn’t try to capture “the peaceniks and Tyrande”; she tried to capture the people most able to stop her plans. Jaina, Thrall, Baine and Anduin are the living beings who literally brought an end to her rule over the Horde, and Tyrande stopped her at Darkshore. Also regarding Tyrande, she’s easily the one person on Azeroth who was angry enough to chase Sylvy all the way to Hell for her vengeance (which she literally did), and personally powerful enough to probably end her. Yeah, you’re gonna make a play to take that piece off the board ASAP, even if the attack is likely to fail. Because even though likely to fail, there’s a chance it might not.
Because Sylvanas is not an idiot, according to the narrative at least. You don’t wager everything on one dude succeeding at his mission. You wager everything on numerous plans and contingencies when those plans don’t work. Wars aren’t won because of a single battle plan.
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