If that plot was good and made any sense it would have been azshara who torched that tree, lol. Would have made her role WAY more involved.
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Commonality among humans is such an absolute myth. We are all so different in our core beliefs and feelings and reactions to things that it’s truly a wonder we manage to co-exist.
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So why include him at all then?
I am a great fan of Tolkien’s, and particularly LOTR of course, but once we had a lot of fun with some friends by listing all the weak or downright lame points in LOTS. We found dozens.
Sauron is no more compelling a villain than Zovaal. He does not even appear.
Elves are absurdly privileged, and often unsufferably arrogant and snotty.
Conversely, orcs, trolls etc are all born evil with no choice or hope of redemption.
Hobbits, after a life of wielding only knives, forks and spoons, do heroic deeds and slay plenty of enemies in situations where their enemies should have made mincemeat of them. One hobbit is worth a dozen orc soldiers, who have dedicated their lives to war.
And so on.
But Tolkien wrote and published his books before Internet forums existed. 
And indeed we don’t manage.
This patch probably has some of the best in game cinemantics they’ve ever created on a technical level.
But it’s pretty hard to argue against the criticisms people have of the plot. I don’t think they did anything particularly bad with the Anduin cinematic. But I’m not about to stand up and defend it because SL’s plot overall has had a very poor reception. For good reason.
That cutscene was amazing when I watched it for the first time. In 2016. In FFXIV. Where they stole the entire cutscene concept from.
The new cutscene:
- Doesn’t mesh with the lore established in Shadowlands (Saurfang should be in the Maw; Varian should be in one of the covenant zones, I would guess Maldraxxus, both points owning to when those two characters died and what was happening to souls at the point of death)
- Doesn’t tell us anything about how Anduin breaks the Domination magic affecting him
- Includes excessive monologuing from the worst and least-deserving character there
- Focuses the scene’s ending on “hey look it’s an Arthas cameo” instead of the story at hand
- Doesn’t include Bolvar - the man that raised Anduin while Varian was missing
- Doesn’t include any Arthas commentary from Jaina (his lover) or Uther (his mentor), only Sylvanus
Tell me again why this was a good cutscene?
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2 things
- That wasn’t Saurfang and Varian’s souls
- Jaina and Uther both gave their commentary in WOTLK - they have nothing to say we don’t already know
Really? Two spirits appear to someone while we’re in the realm of the dead and your response is to think “those aren’t souls”?
yeah? literally never showed up anywhere in shadowlands, varian got disenchanted, saurfang’s soul is literally a drop from sylvanas in the last raid, and they are the same color varian was in the manduin cinematic during legion. its obvious if you paid attention but some people would rather complain because they need everything spelled out to them
Agreed. I really enjoyed the cinematic, though I wish it was a smidge longer.
Folk are mad their chosen favorite bad guy didn’t get the hero treatment. Arthas’s story and his impact on those around him has been gone over from multiple perspectives already. Jaina moved on a LONG time ago. Uther made his peace with his actions toward Arthas after breaking free of the Jailer. The only person there who hadn’t gotten closure with Arthas was Sylvanas, which is fitting considering how closely their character arcs paralleled.
You have issues, then. Just sayin.
Exactly. I thought the cinematic was great right up until this
Here’s how I saw the cinematic - Arthas soul crystal was imbued into the mournblade and as the domination power increased to keep Anduin controlled, slowly bit by bit what remained of Arthas deteriorated. The images were one of two things: either a final vision granted to Anduin by The Lights grace or a manifestation of their personas by Anduin’s mind to remind him of what he fought for.
The two manifestations being “imbued” into Anduin’s arms was chilling and helped give him the strength to tear the mournblade in two. Anduin has always been a very powerful vessel for the Light so it’s quite possible that the Light itself allowed Varian and Saurfang to appear and to offer the words that Anduin needed to hear. Both Saurfang and Varian were bathed in yellow auras which to me means they were direct manifestations of the Light. Perhaps before Saurfang and Varian were both killed that the Light saved their souls from obliteration.
Sylvanas admitting that she became just as soulless as Arthas was a huge growth moment for her character. It doesn’t absolve her of the past wrongdoings but seeing her willing to take responsibility for her actions is something new.
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The part that focused on Anduin wasn’t bad, but the part with Sylvanas, with Arthas… not so much.
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What I want to know is, will Sylvanas still be blue when we all return to Azeroth?
She has her soul back now so she shouldn’t still be blue, right?
Why is this so funny lmao
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I would rather all the writers get fired and replaced with good ones.
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It was great all the way until the last little bit. I wasn’t expecting Arthas to make a grand comeback and take up the Throne as leader of the undead or anything, but I also wasn’t expecting…this.
It’s not bad but it’s not good either.
It’d be wise if they forget her crimes, would it?