Well for one, you are already proven wrong with one of your earlier theories, we already see a glimpse of the cinematic of which I can only assume will include Tyrande: https://youtu.be/UWuVLKgXzKo?t=5
Maybe, but it seems more likely to me that they just want it released around the time of Blizzcon. Christie is a very fast writer like many contract mass market fantasy/sci-fi authors, I believe she’s written Warcraft novels in as few as six weeks before.
Although as someone mentioned on another site, she has a hand issue at the moment so maybe that’s slowing her down. But I do think it’s just a Blizzcon thing.
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I suspect - but hope I’m wrong - they’re saving the Light stuff for its villain-batting in the next expac.
And Patch 9.1 will not be the last we’ve seen of Sylvanas.
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oh gawd plz no …
flash back of kerrigan redemption crawlen up my stomach >,…,<
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Oh yeah, Sylvanas is going no where.
Personally, I hope all this is just a dream N’zoth is plaguing on all of us since we stepped foot in Ny’alotha… 
The book will be before 9.2 patch, where Sylvanas will be shown as a hero. In 9.2. Sylvanas together with Anduin (2 souls, since their bodies are dead), will help us defeat Jailor.
Alliance will forgive Sylvanas, because the Horde will forgive Anduin. I guess that is Blizzards plan.
A well-established mass-marketable character that drives merchandising and branding on a global scale, with a massive fanbase, with a unique backstory, an OG Warcraft 3 branded character, a former faction leader and former racial leader who has been the face of Warcraft for years.
Of course she isn’t going anywhere. The marketing department at Activision-Blizzard would sooner throw the entire writing team under the bus than allow them to kill off The Banshee Queen in a .1 raid.
EDIT: Without Sylvanas there is nothing else to market in Warcraft. A lot of “fans” want to get rid of the faction war so no more “Orc vs. Human” storyline…and no more “Sylvanas” storyline…and so many people are tired of the “cosmic threats”…if you remove all three of those things Warcraft just becomes a boring, generic fantasy setting with absolutely nothing to make it unique. WoW has never needed to stand out as unique more than it does now.
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I think you’re giving blizzard to much credit there.
I mean they added black people and asian people and Brown Nondescript™ people last year, whip scars to Thrall with 9.1, the idea someone in Blizzard who is culturally competent and aware of the meta-implications finally has enough power to make them realize some things need to change isn’t an unreasonable theory
I’m willing to bet that they’re just changing the parts that make Sylvanas look bad or remove them.
I wonder how the Burning of Teldrassil will be rewritten and how they make “Elegy” and “A Good War” non canon
Before the Storm was retconned almost immediately by Battle for Azeroth, Sylvanas’s own internal monologue in Before the Storm is retconned by A Good War and Elegy. Her internal monologue conflicts in both stories, and conflicts with her motivation in Shadowlands.
Nothing matters.
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i’m sorry what proof you have she is a well-established mass-marketable character that drives merchandising and branding on a global scale?
game is losing subs by the droves , lore is at a all time low , half of the new lore doesn’t fit or make sense
lore wise she is literally a general that slowed down arthas … uhh cool i guess?
if anything Thrall / Arthas / uther / tyrande / Illidan / etc… had more reason Lore wise why this game became popular
she was pretty awesome during her banshee queen years
but with this current trend of what the writers are turning her into
i’m pretty sure the majority just want her to be gone at this point
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Bikini armor.
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Tyrande has taken that throne now.
Biki goth armor is so 2012.
We are in the swol magical girl era now old man.
I think you’re stuck in this forum, Sylvanas is everywhere, she’s the face of modern wow, ppl doesnt care about the past anymore
I somewhat disagree with this. I think Thrall, Arthas and Illidan are the more marketable chars than Slyvanas, even with her bikini plot armor.
Slyvanas, much like Jania, (etc) have always been side characters to this game, hell even Garrosh seemed more markaetable than Slyvanas.
Unless these characters are made into Expansion End bosses, with their face on the box cover, they will never be able to claim that same spotlight.
(BfA and Shadowlands have both been awful cause that final patch boss feels “unknown.” Many stuck around because they knew eventually they would face Arthas, that’s what kept WotLK so popular.)
Azshara, Jania, Slyvanas, and whoever else feels disposable because they are not the “big bad.” She’s a .1/.2 patch boss, nothing more.
Again, I slightly disagree. I think what makes WoW interesting is each zone, each quest giver, having a unique experience for the player.
The Big Bad only exists to tie into the endgame, to give more players a chance to connect with and group together to defeat.
Slyvanas is bad “Big Bad” because she’s all over the place with bad writing. It isn’t a “grey” character that was forced to burn Teldrassil because she had a gun to her head, she just did it to do it, without any REAL explanation so far, and is now showing remorse cause poor little Anduin got Mind Controlled? It makes no sense.
Cosmic Forces are bad because it makes it so nothing ever feels as a threat anymore. How does an Old God feel worthy of being an end boss once you have slain a Pantheon or Titan? How do a pack of Boars not feel tedious once you’ve slain Sargeras?
That is just bad foresight.
An example is Ulduar’s final boss Yogg. Ulduar was great because in order to defeat Yogg, you had the assistance of his titan keepers right next to you buffing you, something completely missed in the Argus fight. It keeps a sense of being mortal tied to the game.
I think that fact that it is World of Warcraft is what makes it unique. There’s an art style, a lore, familiar characters and places.
Nothing had to happen after the way it did after Mists, for it to spiral this out of control.
Hindsight is 20/20, but during MoP, they could’ve opened up the Dragon Isles with Wrathion, which causes a new Dark Portal scenario leading to WoD. Using the power of the Bronze Dragon flight, Wraithion opened a portal into an AU Dreanor…
Legion happens as it did, but the end boss is an Avatar of Sargeras, not a titan soul. The titans, Illidan and Velen help us seal him away…
- 7.0 - Gul’dan
- 7.1 - Mephistroth (Dreadlord)
- 7.2 - Kil’jaden
- 7.3 - Avater of Sargeras
BfA begins with N’zoth corrupting Anduin, who Greymane influenced to attack Undercity. Slyvanas’ abandons the Horde, Zol’Jin tells the Horde to seek out the land of Zandalar… Horde vs Alliance Expansion.
- 7.0 - UC Raid (Slyvanas)
- 7.1 - Battle of Dazar’alor (Jania)
- 7.2 - Uldir ( G’huun Filler/Old God set up)
- 7.3 - Battle of Stromgarde (Shadowform Anduin)
Insert Nazjatar expansions here, instead of Shadowlands
- 9.0 - Crucible of Storms (Lady VashJ)
- 9.1 - Xal’atath
- 9.2 - Sword of Sargeras (Madness of Magni)
- 9.3 - Azshara
Insert Old God Expansion here, Freeing Azeroth
- 10.0 - Ny’alotha Rises
- 10.1 - Whatever
- 10.2 - Whatever
- 10.3 - N’zoth (Azeroth is purged of corruption)
You’ve successfully kept the storyline grounded over the past 4 expansions, no cosmic forces, no Slyvanas crap, etc…
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I’m not trying to distill your whole post to a single idea, but it’s a good opportunity. I’ll say what everyone is too scared to say. Dragons are boring. They are basic. They are well-trodden territory as of Cata (not to mention in the fantasy genre as a whole). Only the forums cares about the Dragon Isles. Whatever was interesting about Wrathion died in BfA along with every other major plot point.
Sylvanas and Jaina were OG Warcraft 3 characters. Garrosh was a side quest in two expansions and in the fore-front for an expansion or two then reduced back down to a side-quest character in his death.
Sylvanas and Jaina are not comparable to Garrosh when it comes to the wider world’s understanding of Warcraft.
No one outside of World of Warcraft knows who Garrosh is. Sylvanas and Jaina are both instantly recognizble symbols of the Warcraft IP.
The problem with being a super fan of an IP is that you forget that there is a wider world out there that does not obey the rules of Youtubers and forum zeitgeist.
Oh yeah, you are 100% correct, Red Dragon, Blue Dragon, One Dragon, Two Dragon can get old pretty quick.
I’m just stating there was opportunity to keep the story well grounded and fixed on “smaller” (read: familiar) conflicts still based on Azeroth. They could’ve stretched the BfA story line out into 3 expansions while making all the bosses feel like a threat.
I mean, MoP could’ve ended with Varian actually killing Garrosh and sparking the Human vs Orcs campaign all over again.
Again, 20/20 hindsight.
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Totally agreed. There was no reason to jump into making the cosmic the mundane. It seems to be just a lack of creativity, a desire to emulate Everquest’s path, and whatever the story team has against conflict (a story they keep trying to tell and keep failing at).
My only issue is a lot of people’s suggestions for future expansions and how to bring Warcraft’s story back down to earth…are terrible. They would make the story so boring and uninteresting. I know a lot of games these days are harvesting wood to build a cabin but my god would that make for a boring MMO (and it has made for multiple, boring, failed MMOs).
I’m always going to advocate for interesting story decisions. Going up against generic cosmic threats is way more interesting than Thrall and friends sit around Orgrimmar thinking up ways to show how much they are besties with Anduin and how sorry they are for waging a war in warcraft for an expansion.
Yeah, I’m not all for holding hands, and even a conflict war can get old after awhile.
But I’d personally take the mundane over the cosmic forces as I feel that leaves very little left to the imagination of “threat.”
WoW is foremost a video game, so we are always going to “win.” But that has always felt like it could come at a cost. A hero slain, cities burned, new corruption, new plagues, etc.
Where do you go after killing the literal God of Death? Do you just circle around the Cosmos killing every god you meet, hoping Zo’vaal has rebuilt his forces by time you circle back?
Are we going to grow into Pantheons ourselves and conquer our own worlds? It kills that sense of anything below GOD TIER matters. =/
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