The Goldenisms of Warcraft: Sylvanas

[Micâh-moon-guard]

Something about cars not being hard enough because horses and cars are named after people, it’s really weird

[Yorae-moon-guard]

@Alynsa-wyrmrest-accord

I think the fan perception of her in this moment is also tainted by how much work the book had to do. The effluent stream of lava eel vore biowaste, shimmering in the moonslight that was the Shadowlands narrative needed to be cleaned up in a book not even intended for that.

We needed retcons explained, motivations explained, historical events recontextualized and re-explained, and more all because the game itself forgot to even consider them. Because without them, even a cursory examination of Sylvanas as a character makes no sense.

Golden not only had to write her book as her book about Sylvanas, she also had to write her book as the A plot of Shadowlands.

In a way, that’s why Golden has my sympathy on this book: She had to dodge bullets and compensate the incompetence of an entire writing team to tell a story in game.

I have not read the book yet as i am waiting to see if there will be a french translation before buying the english one but for what i’m reading in different topics, Golden managed to write something correct out of this mess at least.

Another thing to take into account: The involvement of the writing team.

I remember that Roux wrote somewhere that for Travelers, the Cdev asked her to remove the final encounter against Mueh’zala because of the events of Shadowland.

Now think about it: If we have such an intervention in a minor book, what do you think happened with a book as major as Sylvanas ?

What ideas (good or bad) came from Golden or from the writing team? Did the later made heavy changes or not?

It’s easy to put all the blame on Golden and her writing style, but don’t forget that at the other side, there is also the writing team who check said book (in theory) and can ask changes.
And we all know how “good” they are with the soup they gave us with the main story of Shadowland.

i would have like to be a mice to see who came up with one idea or another and how they work to write something.

[Evelysaa-moon-guard (Evelysaa)]

Basically anything that isn’t a major plot point comes from Golden. Characterization, minor plot points, etc. There was an interview with WoWhead where Golden confirms this. There are times where the writing team disagrees with her on what to put in but she’s usually able to convince them. There’s very little that she isn’t allowed to do.

[Zuleika-hyjal (Zuleika)]

Also, let’s not forget that Golden is on the writing team now. That likely gives her more pull than Roux, Brooks, or any of the other novel writers.