How much different would Illidan be if he had reluctantly (putting it nicely) accepted X’era’s offer? Would he had let Sargeras live and be imprisoned or tried to kill him in his newfound zealous devotion to the religion of the Light? Would the rest of the DHs still follow Illidan after his conversion?
I think Illidan would be a super version of Turalyon…
I don’t think we can really answer this question. The specific effect of Lightforging on personality isn’t something they’ve dug into.
What comparisons do we have?
Regular Draenei vs Lightforged Draenei? The latter are more warlike, obviously, but attributing that to the Lightforging itself is anachronistic. The Draenei who would later become Lightforged separated from Velen’s group specifically because they wanted to continue the fight instead of running. They were already self-selected as warriors before the Lightforging aspect was introduced.
Old Turalyon and New Turalyon? They’re don’t seem all that different, really.
New Taralyon comes with scars and extra grizzled appearance.
The 1,000 year old Draenei weeb Turalyon isn’t a character concept I particularly like. But I kind of have to like him because he is voiced by Travis Willingham.
On Lightforging, Turalyon’s character didn’t change after being Lightforged. Afterwards, he still sided with Alleria and even disagreed with Xe’ra at times. So if Illidan accepted it willingly or “reluctantly”, he’d still have the same personality and the level or object of his zeal wouldn’t change (Illidan has been a zealous guy since youth - zealous for magical power, zealous about ending the Legion, zealous about individualism and egoism).
As a result, I think Illidan would learn more about and experiment with his Light-given powers and use them for demon-killing. I think he’d probably want to learn more about the cosmic conflict, and the Army of the Light members would want to learn about him too. He might have questions for the Draenei, and especially Xe’ra. He might reflect on his motives and journey and grow as a person or become single-minded.
Even if he was successfully Lightforged unwillingly - instead of that “Eye-Beams go brrr” cinematic - he’d still go that route, just with the hope of undoing it, unless he found the powers too useful to discard. In that case he’d probably adjust to it or resent Xe’ra for successfully Lightforging him, depending on how useful he found his new powers.
I think he’d be more likely to want Sargeras dead, but the things is it’s not Illidan keeping Sargeras imprisoned, it’s the Titans using Argus’ power. So they might have something to say about Illidan’s actions if he tries to disrupt that.
As for the Demon Hunters, I think they would be conflicted. Those more devoted to Illidan would follow his lead, and some might even seek to get Lightforged. Those less loyal to him wouldn’t or they’d refuse due to ignorance about the Light. Some might seek to get Lightforged or refuse it due to the aforementioned reasons or the Sunk Cost Fallacy - refusing to give up an investment even when it’s rational to do so.
X’era wasn’t Lightforging Illidan, s he was attempting to make him Lightbound and a creature more under her control.
Here’s one bit of evidence against your claim; Xe’ra said the same words when Lightforging Turalyon that she did when trying to Lightforge Illidan… and Turalyon didn’t become “a creature under her control”. Now are you going to contribute to the thought exercise, or did you just comment to play contrarian against me yet again?
Turalyon was lightforged before X’era was recovered. It was also a volountary process not a forcible hijacking of another’s will. And from the Mag’har story we have seen the operational diffences between Lightforging and Lightbinding which what was done to Y’Rel’s people.
That’s making an assumption that X’era’s process was the same. Which it wasn’t because Turalyon was Lightforged by trial and process not Bound by the one step zap that X’era tried to impose.
X’era was not the sweet gentle chandelier of th other N’aaru she was powerful and had the r uthlessness of a true idealist. She tried various means to break up Alleria and Turalyon going to the extent of imprisoning the former.
If your average N’aaru was Kosh, she was very much Dark Kosh (and for that matter so were the majority of Vorlons in B5, Kosh was the real outlier.)
Lightforging is the process using the Forge of Aeons, hence the whole… forging part of the name. What X’era was doing was Lightbinding, in an attempt to make her prophecy happen as opposed to letting things progress naturally. In doing so, she very likely ruined any chance of that prophecy happening, as there’s a possibility Illidan would have been convinced to undergo the trial of Lightforging and come out stronger than ever. But, as we’ve seen, the prophecy she referred to was one path, and it wasn’t universally accepted even among the naaru.
Illidan’s greatest strength (and weakness) can be summed up as:
Everyone: Illidan no.
Illidan: Illidan YES!
Lightbinding would have removed that agency and thus that strength in the first place. His personality would not have been left intact, unlike Lightforging, and he would have lost a lot of his more unique powers, like his sight, given that those are… well, pure Fel.
Read the short story “A Thousand Years of War”, or listen to the audio drama version. Xe’ra literally says the same words when Lightforging Turalyon that she says when trying to Lightforge Illidan. “Lightbinding” is at this point nothing more than fan theory based on the Mag’har’s name for the AU Draenei and a certain amount of edgelord bias.
Xe’ra could’ve definitely done a better job of explaining her position to Illidan… but then Blizzard would’ve had a harder time making her the punching bag for their edgelord power fantasy 
The lack of communication between Naaru on that prophecy is a plot hole, especially since they’re capable of telepathic communication over interstellar distances and Xe’ra outranked the Naaru who helped us fight Illidan.
“Lightbinding” is nothing more than an assumption based on fan theory. Turaylon was Lightforged by Xe’ra herself in the story story “A Thousand Years of War”, look it up, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsaobgFiiso&ab_channel=WorldofWarcraft
Xe’ra’s neither cuddly sweetheart nor heartless fascist. Now can you, Drahliana, get back on topic and explain what you think Illidan would’ve done if he was Lightforged?
I think the idea is that if Illidan became lightforged before The Legion was routed, there would be an imbalance of the cosmic forces and Light would stage a coup, gaining control of reality and potentially destroying it.
Some characters in the Shadowlands are less subtle about this dynamic, but it has always been a theme of The Light since Vanilla.
We saw a pretty direct example of this outcome when Xe’ra led Yrel to conquer all of Draenor in The Light’s name in her timeline. It’s the best timeline, if your complexion is a summer. Nothing but white robes and gold tattoos in their future
there is a difference between lightforged and lightbound?? It seemed until X’era was killed, Turalyon and his company can be seen regaining their own individuality as the light drained from their bodies…
Am I wrong?
The Mag’har questline gives me a very different view of the Lightbound as those are your primary antagonists.
Do you unquestioningly accept everything in the Mag’har recruitment scenario? And what does that have to do with this thought experiment about Illidan?
No that’s not what happened. In a Thousand Years of War, Turalyon and Lothraxion both challenged Xe’ra’s opposition to Alleria in person. Plus Turalyon tried to avenge Xe’ra after Illidan jobbed her and neither he nor the Draenei ceased to be Lightforged. Lightbound is nothing more than fans head canon, a popular fan theory but only a theory nonetheless.
Some fans just want to fight Light fanatics, lore and canon be damned. Some do it because they want to “keep the war in Warcraft” by any means necessary. Some do it because they’re fans of groups on the opposite side (Eg; Horde stans, Void stans, Orc stans, Illidan stans). Some do it because they’re edgelords. Some do it because they’re edgelords using the Light as a stand-in for something or someone they oppose in real-life and fighting it is a power fantasy for them. And sometimes it’s a combination.
Removing the Good vs Evil from the Light vs Dark or Law vs Chaos is a trope that dates to Michael Moorcock and his whole Eternal Champion meta-concept… It’s a deconstructive trope that shows like Babylon 5 leaned pretty heavy into. It’s also a rejection of the idea of “inherently good or evil” races.
It was alo pretty much the foundation of the series “Lucifer” and heavily used to effect on latest interpretations of Krypton and Jor-El in the Superman franchise. And of course used heavily on the Jedi Council in the prequel Star Wars series. It’s a sign of the rcognition of how much the White Hats we used to take for in real life have a lot of grey on the brims.
Why do certain people keep inserting race into discussions that have nothing to do with race?
And this deconstructive trope is also a sign of contrarians, ideologues and worse trying to undermine moral values for their own personal agendas.
the Lightbound are a more militiristic faction within the Light. More militiristic than the Scarlets. They are subverted antagonistic paladins instead of subverted antagonistic priests. Priests have a duality among them, paladin’s don’t. Paladins are the perfect faction for totolitarianism. We struggle to define abstract concepts like Justice vs Retribution (that’s a big one) Justice is moral, retribution can be twisted into vengence as we saw in Uther’s arc. With the wrong person leading them, and no one to stop them, the Lightbound can be villians on par with the Legion.
For real. The thread says “thought experiment”, but that seems a bit of an inflated moniker. Almost as if there is some outcome to be gleaned. This is more of a “what if?” situation.
Anyway, it is hard to say.
If Xera was able to hold Illidan down and force her self on him, Illidan might be mad, especially if his personality is not overwritten. Even if the Light was a powerboost that healed his scars, he would likely not be thrilled about being ignored.
I am sure he would try to kill Xera, anyway. He would view her as the threat she was, and a threat to others. He likely would just bide his time and wait for the right chance. Maybe even act loyal until her guard was down.
Xera and her “no means yes” ethos are not representative of moral value to be upheld.
Illidan fighting to preserve his consent and personal autonomy over his body and fate, when he is assaulted by a being who wishes to force their will upon him - that is a moral value that should be upheld.
The bad naaru got zapped because she did not understand the word “no.” She was not a paragon of morality. So you make no sense.
No I mean this subversive treatment of “Light good, dark bad” is part of the contrarian agenda. And part of Blizzard doing that was their shoddy writing with Xe’ra to make her the punching bag for edgelords to project their parents/teachers/authority figure of choice onto, which is part of why that cinematic is so popular.
You make no sense with that strawman argument about Xe’ra, who’s neither “paragon of morality” nor “bad naaru”. If anything, Xe’ra seems to be morally grey or akin to Judge Dredd, since both are the kind of characters who believe in order — personal, systemic, peace, three of them or either — above all else. They will always seek to obey and preserve order, even to the inconvenience of themselves and others, and even if they themselves admit the law in question is an annoying one. Plus, Xe’ra’s kind of hard to trick considering she could read minds (maybe not impossible, but wouldn’t be fooled by someone “acting loyal”).
You hijacking of terms like “consent” and “personal autonomy” and trying to frame it sexually to manipulate people with emotional arguments doesn’t fool me (it’s actually pretty creepy of you keep conflating Lightforging and sex, Cursewords).