I love Warcraft. I love the world, lots of the characters, the magic, so much about it.
This thing with Sylvanas, though… Man. What a gut-punch. We thought at first she was loyal only to the forsaken. Then that wasn’t true, and we thought she was doing terrible things to secure the Horde’s future. Then that wasn’t true, she was out for herself. But then that wasn’t true, she was working for the Jailer, and she’s a for real baddie and needs to be defeated… But then that wasn’t true, it wasn’t the full Sylvanas. Her soul was broken, and now that it’s fixed she’s a good guy again. And we’re gonna have to work with her. After everything that’s happened.
The overarching theme of Warcraft, as it stands now, seems to be Nihilism. Nothing matters, least of all motivations or morality. And I don’t think I want to dedicate thoughts and time to a story where that’s the driving point right now. I want to defend my imaginary home. The idea of losing is conceptually exciting, but I don’t want to be told the fight was meaningless.
My sub expires in a couple months. I’ll get my money’s worth, but… It’s not set to renew. At the very least, I think I need a break.
I honestly think the worst part is I still legit have no clue what Sylvanas’s motivations were. What was she trying to do specifically again by working with the Jailer?
She was fine with superhell as long as she wasn’t in it, but Zovaal let slip that he’d control everyone, which was a real game changer because “everyone” includes the one person that Sylvanas cares about, which is Sylvanas.
That’s fair. A lot of the community got very invested in the “Sylvanas has to die” meme over the last year or so, long after it was extremely clear she wasn’t going to. I think there are certain content creators partially at fault for that. Reddit CJ’ing etc.
Enough people are sick of Sylvanas that they really SHOULD kill her, or at least remove her from the narrative, for the sake of her character as well because her current trajectory risks putting her in the Med’an camp of characters that the community hates.
That’s because after Cataclysm Blizzard wisely decided to tone down the Thrall presence unless he really, really had to be there. And even then there was still irritation when he showed up, like in WoD.
But Thrall at the very least had the saving grace of being a good guy that was allied with the players instead of an antagonistic troll who spent the last 3 expansions jerking everyone around.
I’m actually more interested now in seeing where things are going, but I’d be lying if I said it was not the morbid fascination akin to watching a train wreck unfold in slow motion.
Things are going to either be really interesting or an absolute mess eight months from now.
I never said she had to die. I would have liked to see her lose in some capacity, though. I think that’s a reasonable expectation of a raid boss, at least. She was utterly unscathed in the cinematic. Like the fight didn’t even matter. The only “Bad” thing that happened to her is also going to be the vehicle for her absolution.
The same can be said for Jaina in 8.1 though, she didn’t have a scratch on her. If people really had a problem with it, and no offense if Alliance posters specifically really had a problem with it, they should have said so then.
Jaina wasn’t involved in any prerendered cinematics post-raid, so we never got to see her, but the quest text and dialogue made it explicitly clear that she was badly injured in the fight.
Please don’t bring faction into this. Sylvanas left the Horde. That’s not what this is about.
Not really. She was back in Stormwind telling Anduin how moving against the Zandalari would make them “no better than the Banshee Queen” and then immediately after that starred in several more cinematics for the rest of the expansion. She was never convalescent.
Also Sylvanas is a Horde character, she has always been a Horde character, she will always be a Horde character. Do not let anyone here on the story forums or in the community convince you otherwise.
It’s kind of hard not to given that the vast, vast majority of Sylvanas’ historical crimes have been directed at the Alliance specifically, usually done in the name of the Horde. There was always palpable irritation among Human, Worgen, and Night Elf fans that her crimes weren’t being treated with the weight they deserve on account of her affiliation with the Horde, and this new development is being received the way that it is in part because it rubs salt in those wounds.
Yes Really. She could still walk and talk, but she was obviously hurt. The game went out of its way to establish that she was roughed up after the fact.
In-game dialogue directly contradicts this.
“The Horde is nothing. You are all nothing.”
Please. Let’s not do it.
I get that, but for the sake of the conversation, specifically, I’m willing to simplify it to “She’s done both sides dirty”