The Forsaken & Horde Deserve Better Than a Sylvanas Redemption Arch

Lore World's End Tavern: Role-play and Fan Fiction
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A lot of us recently saw a spoiler cinematic from 9.2 about Sylvanas, and we are collectively moaning in disappointment. Among much of the Forsaken and Horde community, there is a love for Sylvanas as a character, but also an acknowledgment of the severity of her actions. Many of us want to stand justice for her actions, and certainly don’t want her to lead the Forsaken. Yes, many of us like her character and are not going to shy away from her facing well-earned justice for acts of attempted mass genocide and even the wholesale murder of her own people (see the Desolate Council book and what she did at Arathi).

Yet we have sinking the gut feeling that Blizzard will just shoehorn her back in charge of the Forsaken and we see a lot of signs pointing to that. The most glaring warning sign of this is that Blizzard is NOT building up new leadership to replace Sylvanas with.

-Are Voss or Calia in any cinematics this xpac? Nope. They could have been.
-Are Voss or Calia in any major quests, or raid content? Nope. They could have been.
-Is Calia just helplessly wandering around in Orobos doing nothing effective, talking about how she doesn’t know what to do instead of stepping up as a proper leader should? Yup. Calia could have easily been involved in much of the content but was not included.

-Has Blizzard had tons of chances to include new Forsaken leadership in content, and not? Yup.
-Is Sylvanas doing the whole pity humble approach to her crimes which can make her more sympathetic to the player masses? Yup.
-Is there a shift in the writing dynamic to make her less responsible for her horrific actions? Yup.
-Is Sylv a moneymaker for the company? Yup.

Let’s hope in 9.2 we finally can see lore figures worthy of leading the Forsaken like Calia finally step up.

It is very disappointing to see that Sylvanas will be potentially shoehorned back into the leadership role of the Forsaken regardless of her horrific actions against all of Azeroth and even the Forsaken. The Forsaken themselves have little reason to welcome her back, certainly, after the events that took place in Arathi in the Desolate Council book (a good read btw).

PS - It’s okay to like Sylvanas, and not want her to lead the Forsaken due to the severity of the established canon lore of her actions. It’s okay to like Sylvanas, and to want her to see proper justice. The end.

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Yes,
Let her burn like my beloved home. Tie her to a stake and let me fire the first Burning Arrow to ignite the spark. Let my Kaldorei brothers and Sisters join in as she has to watch her undead life creep closer as the flames build into a brilliant blaze. Her screams of pain will lull myself and others to sleep every night as her punishment fits her crime all too well.

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I don’t think most of the fanbase like Calia Menethil.

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Blizzard has botched Calias recent story, it was not always this way. The point still stands, Sylvanas should not lead the Forsaken anymore.

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5

Sylvanas is ruined as a character. I’ll say no thank you to a redemption arc as well.

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i agree on killing sylvanas. we should have executed her as a way of bringing some semblance of peace between the horde and alliance, at least for a short time. i was hoping that the shadowlands would end with us killing her, reincarcerating the jailer, and returning the cycle of life and death to its normal status quo. restoring the system to how it is supposed to be would have been a great victory. burning teldrassil was an unforgivable crime and i say that a loyal lifelong blood elf. i would have supported a garrosh redemption arc before sylvanas, and i f-ing hated garrosh.

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I will never accept Sylvania being alive. I will lobby for her death until the day I die. Actions have consequences.

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Actions have consequences.

True, but not always those you’d expect or even desire.

Having said that, I don’t see any evidence that Blizz intends to restore Sylvanas as leader of the Forsaken nor that they are looking to “redeem” her in the manner that some are suggesting. In fact, the referenced cinematic seems designed almost exclusively to assuage fears that they would do so.

Having empathy and understanding for a villain and her actions are not the same thing as forgiveness and forgiveness (an act of the wronged) is not the same thing as redemption (an act of the wrongdoer).

Don’t get me wrong. Blizz doesn’t have the best track record with successful story delivery these days but they seem painfully aware of the community’s apprehension that Sylvanas’s crimes will be cheaply painted over.

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I agree with you but Sylvanas gets neither. Genocide is a depraved act that will get no quarter from me. The one does not outweigh the many.