I believe you’re right and that they’re going for this, but there’s so many problems with how they’re executing this comparison with Arthas.
1.) Arthas was convincing as an enemy of both the Alliance and the Horde. Arthas dropped plague on both cities. Arthas killed indiscriminately. Arthas was so powerful, the Horde and Alliance needed to unite to even have a chance at stopping him.
2.) Sylvanas, not so much. Sylvanas genocided an Alliance race - with the Horde dutifully supporting her. But since Saurfang grumbled a little bit and took off his shoulder pads… we’re supposed to somehow give this parity? Like, the Horde have to suffer just as much? Terrible framing, terrible writing. She’s the Horde Warchief - you stay loyal to your Warchief, you get to slaughter Alliance. There was no option for Alliance players to have Arthas be their King and have the Scourge become bannerman of the Alliance to mercilessly crush the Horde.
It’s a false comparison.
I believe the writers were going for what you say - they want Sylvanas to be Arthas. Their execution is just very sloppy and unconvincing.
Arthas dropped plague on both cities. Arthas killed indiscriminately.
Sylvanas literally Blighted her own troops and then raised them as mindless undead. She also ordered a number of her own Forsaken killed because they wanted to be with their families.
Even back in Wrath, she planned the Forsaken attack on the Wrathgate, which killed just as much Horde as it did Alliance.
If you’re referring to the Undercity for the Blight - not really. She gave all her troops gas masks. When she raised them up, they were not dead from the blight.
And yes, she’s evil to the Horde who don’t support her. If you’re loyal to your Warchief, you have nothing to fear from her. You have your free will… and you can earn her trust. Not like Arthas who literally mind controlled every undead beneath his command.
Not saying she’s a swell dude… but she’s not Arthas. It’s a false comparison.
Were you even there at the Battle for Lordaeron? She didn’t give anyone gas masks until AFTER she had launched the Blight into her own troops and raised them into mindless undeath. And they were definitely killed by the Blight, as evidenced by the fact that all their flesh had melted off and only left skeletons, because that is what the Blight does.
Also, killing anyone who shows anything other than blind and absolutely loyalty isn’t really giving people free will bud.
Okay, ease up bud. I checked the cut scenes - you’re right. From the Alliance perspective, however, you don’t actually see it happening. You see blight rolling out from Lordaeron. You only know it’s happening because Anduin tells us: “She’s killing her own troops” (great example of telling, not showing - top notch storytelling and pretty much the staple for Alliance)… then you see new undead attacking you and we bravely turn tail and run like idiots.
Regardless, that still isn’t parity with Arthas who is an enemy of both Horde and Alliance. Sylvanas used siege weapons against the Alliance with some of her troops as collateral. She’s a bad guy, but not equal to Arthas.
If this is the case, she is the poorest parallel ever.
The main thing to all of this, Arthas had an objective, as far as Alliance involvement, we have no clue (not sure if it’s been shadowed on Horde side other than to ‘kill as many as possible’).
Sylvanas has an objective. It’s the exact same objective she’s had since the Valkyr brought her back to life after her suicide in Wrath. She wants to master death so that she can keep from ever having to face eternal torment in the afterlife.
I’m fairly certain everyone noticed the Arthas parallels that Blizzard bludgeoned us over the head with. When people are saying she’s Garrosh 2.0, we’re not talking that she’s literally the exact same as Garrosh.
What people mean is that it’s yet again another Horde leader who a lot of people liked being turned into a mustache twirling villain for the sake of an incredibly contrived plot so that way the factions have a reason to hate each other again.
That’s why she’s Garrosh 2.0. Because we’re yet again doing another faction war that people hate with an unsatisfying conclusion. The fact that she also happens to be doing the same things as Arthas is just in addition.
Sylvanas has been evil since the beginning. Before Wrath, all she cared about was killing Arthas. After Wrath, all she has cared about is keeping herself from perma-dying. BfA hasn’t suddenly “turned” her into a villain. She has ALWAYS been a villain.
Sylvanas has been evil since the beginning. Before Wrath, all she cared about was killing Arthas. After Wrath, all she has cared about is keeping herself from perma-dying. BfA hasn’t suddenly “turned” her into a villain. She has ALWAYS been a villain.
Correct. She has always been a methodical, conniving villain. That’s why I said mustache twirling villain. None of her 5d master chess strategies should have worked, because every single one of them relied on other people grasping the idiot ball.
You’re absolutely right, she had a very interesting purpose in the story. A sympathetic character who had a great evil done on her, who has since been consumed by what it has done to her, pursuing her objectives with great focus. That’s not who we got in BfA. We got the “Ayyyy lmao” saturday morning cartoon villain Sylvannas.
I’ve been saying she’s Arthas 2.0 from the beginning too. But ‘warchief going corrupt/evil’ seems to automatically be labelled as ‘Garrosh 2.0’. Heck, Sylvanas even specifically targeted a noble elf ranger (that she struck the killing shot to no less) who ‘defied’ her and died valiantly trying to protect her people/home from an invading army for raising into undeath out of spite, just like Arthas did to her.
I think it’s rude to Garrosh to compare Sylvanas to him
For one Garrosh is infinitely better developed, even if his heel turn to villain was very much rushed, throughout Cata he had a very specific, but clear version of the Horde, and treachery wouldn’t be tolerated
Heck, he was wise enough to keep a close eye on Sylvanas and her Blighting tendencies, and certainly didn’t like the use of Val’kyr
Throughout BFA, with the sudden appearance of her mysterious super banshee powers, her motivations are extremely unclear, outside of seemingly helping the Old Gods with something
Do wish we could go back in time and have a more satisfying ending to the Garrosh saga
You’re right! She isn’t Garrosh 2.0. She’s gonna turn out to be Xe’ra 2.0! She’ll pull out all kinds of justifications for her previous actions and tell us how stupid we were thwarting her actions that had far reaching goals that we couldn’t even comprehend. Then she tries to fill us with her death energy only for Anduin to shout that “Azeroth is for the Living” and light bast her. Afterwards we’ll shove her corpse into some artifact that enhances our gear.