Did Sylvanas killing Zelling actually change anyone’s mind? It seems like it was Blizzard’s intention to make Sylvanas having Zelling killed cause her to be less likable as a character.
But it seems like the people who already dislike Sylvanas will continue disliking her just as much as they had before, and the people who liked Sylvanas will continue liking her just as much as they had before.
Did anyone actually change their mind on Sylvanas because of this plotline?
I’m sure it changed some minds. But I’m also sure that others remain resolute.
It’s important to remember that a decent portion of “Sylvanas loyalists” (at least here on the Story Forums) do so out of a sort of spite, rather than genuine loyalty.
We’re upset at the direction Blizz has decided to take the story. Outraged, even. And so, when they seem to try blatant manipulation, such as this, in an attempt to turn opinions away from her, it only increases our zeal. Because our ire isn’t aimed at a character, but the writers pulling the strings.
Supporting Sylvanas is a refusal to accept the railroad that Blizz appears to be pushing us down. We know they seemingly don’t want us to back her, so we do anyway. Any attempt to sour her only makes us cling harder.
It’s not good. It’s certainly not healthy, not for us and not for the story. But at this point, a lot of people probably don’t care. The ships already on fire, so what’s the harm in sinking a little farther? We’re going to be unhappy regardless of what happens, so we might as well do what feels cathartic along the way.
It actually made me like her more.
I was not okay with helping Baine kill a tons of Forsaken/ Horde guarding Derek on that ship just so we could help the Alliance. Zelling took part in it as well.
Sylvanas put on a show for the Alliance.
I was sooooooo happy when he was off’ed, that’s one of many things she has gotten right.
I changed my mind when Sylvanas left me and Rexxar stranded on Tol Dagor with a mage and not giving us a ride on her cool new ship.
Technically she is doing you a favor if she left you with a mage. Portal > boat ride. Not her fault if the mage is selfish with the portals.
We could just point out what Blizzard is doing wrong and criticize them instead of taking this rebellious child approach.
You think blizzard actually reads these forums. Why would they want to leave their self congratulatory echo chamber?
I don’t see how Zelling’s death makes Saurfang a less terrible alternative, so no.
No amount of “Sylvanas bad!” is ever going to change how I see the story. Until Blizzard finds a way to make the alternative even vaguely appealing, it’s a waste. There is literally no price I will not pay to avoid another Honorable Savage leader.
Did a larger number of people here like or dislike his Zelling prior to the Derek plot?
You’re assuming we don’t?
85% of what we do on these forums is point out what Blizzard is doing wrong and criticize them.
The other 15% is memes.
Most Sylvanas fans here hate BFA Sylvanas and hated her long before she killed Zelling. They just want to like her again and refuse to support characters that are liable to kill her, like Saurfang and Baine.
Honestly of all the characters to aid Baine, Zelling makes the least sense considering he just got done betraying (and as a result causing a great loss of life amongst) the Kul’Tirans. He did this, presumably, to ensure his family was taken care of. As far as he knows he’s just taken this dramatic risk to help Derek despite possibly tens to hundres of Kul’Tirans having perished as a result of his very recent decision to help the Horde.
Other than that Zelling is a poor stand-in for Forsaken characters in much the same way Lilian is which is to say they were never loyal to the Lordaeron Forsaken or Sylvanas. If Blizzard wants to show the Forsaken turning against Sylvanas they’re better off showing a schism between Nathanos and Sylvanas.
When that finally, ever works let me know. It has never seem to in the past. If it did, there is a good chance we wouldn’t be where we are now.
I saw on Christie Golden’s twitter recently that the Blizzard writers are essentially banned, for lack of a better term, from reading fan fiction. I think it’s rare that story criticism gets back to them, but you can be assured that they got the message loud and clear in August (not that anything important happened in the lore last August).
Nah, I’m past the point of caring about what BFA Sylvanas does. It’s so over the top and forced that I can’t take it seriously. I just focus all my anger towards the two characters they’re trying to shove down my throat even though they’re also being written like morons. They’re morons I like less than my fav moron though.
No, it made me like her even more.
Not really no, and I liked Zelling. But my support for Sylvanas extends beyond the simple lines of this incompetent faction war narrative; I’m supporting the character to directly spite Blizzard’s intentions for me not to.
At this point the more Blizzard tries to insist that I hate Sylvanas, the more entrenched I am in supporting her. Out of pure spite for the garbage fire of a Horde story that they are pushing on us.
Whatever Blizzard tries to make me do, I’m now choosing the opposite.
I liked Zelling. He was one of the very few positives of the story for me. I’m not saying he’s unique. I empathize with a lot of Forsaken characters, so it’s not like he was breaking any particular ground there.
But, there were details about him that I appreciated. I liked that quiet moment after the Norwington Estate fight where, after the quest was done, you could follow him down the road and watch him just pause and consider the estate from a distance before continuing on (and eventually despawning). One of the few moments that I enjoyed in the Alliance war campaign was the fight on the boat where you can see just how hard he’s trying to stop you.
Sylvanas killing Zelling didn’t make me hate her. I didn’t feel sad. I felt cold. I felt even more disconnected from the story than I already was. I looked at it as the cynical ploy to manufacture an emotional moment that it was and I felt nothing but distaste for the writing team.
It changed nothing about my particular feelings about Sylvanas. Because the story team has failed to engage me as a “reader”. I’m disengaged to a purely meta level and on that level, I feel nothing but spite for every effort to make me agree with the direction they’ve decided to take this story in.
They’ve already failed to sell this story to me and cheap ploys like randomly murdering sympathetic characters aren’t going to change that.