Sylvanes Windrunner. I know who she is now. What I see in the recent story is an evil powerful woman bent on destruction of everyone. I also noticed that she fights with bow and arrows but also with a lot of powerful magic spells. A Magic Ranger?
Well I got curious as to how she got this way. I don’t remember the lore, her history. Her story. So I went online to find out more. below is what I found. Made for interesting watching
So if you don’t know her story please watch and enjoy the video.
Ok. So what do you think? Is Sylvanas Windrunner A Evil Monster or A Tragic Victim?
Please share your opinion.
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A pile of misshapen garbage that somehow became the immortal center of Warcrafts story at the whims of arrogant writers.
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Given I know her history since the beginning (Minus whatever books set out and released throughout WoW, only Warcraft 3 and WoW is all I know her history). She is definitely a victim no matter what, I don’t like how they made her out to be for Shadowlands, especially with how it all “Ties in” from previous expansions even if she is more “Tolerable” with how its going to be in 9.2.5 but the damage is done. I get it but…bleh… Its all lukewarm at this point for me.
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WC3 to Wrath Sylvanas was a tragic victim (especially if you go by the original version it was the apocotharies that were doing the evil deeds)
From Wrath on Sylvanas is an evil monster. Especially if you go by Afrasiabi’s comments about Sylvanas being behind the Wrathgate and evil all along.
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She was either brainwashed by the Jailer, or she wasn’t.
The devs have written it as if she wasn’t.
I think that is absolute nonsense which makes zero sense.
But hey, the story is complete. It isn’t open ended. She’s been written as a free-agent who committed these crimes and that’s how I see her, despite every ounce of logic telling me she is actually just a victim.
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One does not exclude the other.
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She is 1000% a victim.
She wasn’t a whole person when she did bad.
If she was it would be another story.
But with half of herself gone, she is no more responsible than someone who got drugged against their will.
That’s why the story makes me so sick.
They cannot make a story where someone is such a victim and then make them need to attone at the end.
Since half her soul was gone, and the part that was was so horrified at what she did.
I dont see much difference between her and a sexual assault victim.
Only in this story we are meant to hate her.
Makes me sick if I’m honest.
Want her to be the bad guy?
Don’t put in the soul split story.
Want her to be innocent?
Absolve her of her crimes.
But the middle ground is just awful
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Watched the video which gave pause for thought. Then I watched the Nobbel87 videos which, with parts 4 and 5, cover most of the tale. I don’t buy the retcon of the ‘half a soul’ business. The first is a long video with lots of references to the books, comics and warcraft games, but might be worth a watch. The other two go from MoP through BFA to and some ways into SL.
As for your question, I’m currently leaning towards victim who became a monster. Nobbel87 has some interesting speculation comparing what he thought at the end of the first video to what he currently knows in part 5.
She is both. One does not make her less than the other.
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Sylvanas is how you turn a potential great character of the series to one of the most hated. At least she had an ok ending to me.
She’s both… an evil monster and a tragic victim of horrible writing. She’s a near perfect example of how to ruin an interesting character though.
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Sylvanas is a tragic victim. No, not a victim, she’d hate that word. Just tragic.
She was also a monster. She used that word herself, and will atone for that as much as possible.
Don’t listen to the too many haters. They don’t know mercy, nor real ethics.
both…neither…one, then the other…depends upon the day, the xpac, the writer etc. Her character is spaghetti in a blender at this point. I just want to see an extinction level event in Azeroth where all of these horribly written characters will die and we can start fresh, hopefully with a good storyteller.
Did we show mercy to Arthas? We snuffed out his existence.
Out of all the villains we’ve killed, Sylvanas is the only one that deserves mercy?
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She uses her personal tragedy to hurt other people. She’s one of the worst kinds of monsters.
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Once they gave her the spotlight on all the lore in Legion they ruined her completely, she should have stayed a behind the shadows character kind of like how she was in wrath. She wasn’t meant to be warchief or muse about life and death she was a vengeful and ruthless killer. I think the wrath era sylv would have hated the shadowlands era sylv
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Mercy and ethics are generally incompatible. Morally speaking, Sylvanas deserves whatever punishment she receives and death would not be over doing it, she is not Kerrigan. However, the writers have chosen to give her a story, a poor one at that, of atonement. Despite their almost complete lack of talent, I think even the writers realized that redemption was not possible.
All that being said: May the Dark Lady watch over you!
Semper Fi! 
Sylvanas is a tragic victim of horrible writing.
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But there is no reason to go by his statement, since we have learned he was burning the place down as he was being pushed out the door. And the new Sylvanas novel states otherwise, and that is now the actual canon. So his statement was probably what he would have intended if they let him stick around. But it isn’t the case because he was let go.
