If nothing else, she’s canonically pretty damned strong. I don’t think there is a single character more multi-specialized than her; with only Vol’jin coming close. Rogue, Warrior, Mage with purple immolations and teleports. She is also very much one of the few characters left standing that does embody the Forsaken existence and Free Will; its just both of those things ironically kept her apart from them for all this time. There are worse choices if Blizz puts the work in.
And yes, as you said, she’s specialized in hunting Paladins. Which is rare.
We’ll see if that gets remembered at all, though. Her big showing in power was Cata questing, so there’s a chance she’s just a rogue now because the writers aren’t interested in exploring the abilities she was presented with back then. Or even continuing to depict them.
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I mean talking about what she was created to be in EoN is to talk about stuff that is no longer relevant. Trying to pick out comments here and there and use them as defining descriptions of her is useless when, in fact, the most defining aspects where hidden and are still mostly unknown.
When the story that was the basis for Sylvanas’ motivations and goals is now blithely said to be missing parts absolutely critical to those motivations and goals, nothing you can quote can have any weight. Really, and argument based on how she has been presented can be countered by just supposing some hidden element that hasn’t been revealed.
I mean, normally this would be unfair, the story is what it is. Except that Blizzard has just done exactly that. So either you play your game ,or you accept that they have retconned Sylvanas’ story prior to BfA into irrelevance.
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I’m not even sure how much of mess blizzard made of Sylvanas’ lore. So much was ham fisted into her existing lore, while also not explaining what her end game plan is frustrating to say the least. The only thing we definatively do know is she wants to break death and Set us all free…from what, no one knows.
Well, if she’s following classic FF villain wisdom, she’s grown from simply wanting to avoid her own afterlife to having it out for the very system that she see’s as unfairly putting there in the first place. She’s a nihilist, so obviously she see’s what was a prison for her as being a prison for everyone; they’re all just too stupid and “hope-ridden” to “see the world as it really is”.
That being said … still pretty sure she’s being played and she as only convinced she was destined for the Maw by her bestie and those Primes. She looked way too smiley in that trailer for it to not come around to backfire on her.
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Hmmmm I like the sound of it… Uther The Plague Bringer.
This is what I thought too.
The Devs comments that she first encountered the Jailor was in EoN, but the only character of import that she interacted with was Annhyide. The Dev’s comment was also unclear as to what that interaction involved.
It could be a recon to the book but it still works and doesn’t actually change anything in the book. Everything in the book would still happen exactly as the as the book states, only thing that changes is the meaning behind her conversation with Annhyide, and even then only slightly.
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In the story trailer she mentions that life and the afterlife are unjust. Not sure about the first part, conceptually (I mean, it’s correct, life is unjust - but what she means by it I don’t know), but certainly the Shadowlands are a morally bankrupt, abominable way to treat immortal souls, who you have supreme power over. If her aim is to tear that down, that part of her plan I think certainly counts as a form of salvation.
It’ll remain to be seen if it turns out she’s a pitch black anti-hero or just another classic 'Went Crazy For Power’™ Horde faction lead.
Again, the all important question: Does her narrative resolution get scored in minor or major key? Enquiring minds want to know (so they can play it and then unsub either way).
I don’t think Slyvanas being a clever [REDACTED] was any real hint to greater villainy.
The Forsaken very blatantly view raising people as freeing them from the grasp of death. Which SL thus far is making seem outright justified. I read that as more Garrosh’s annoyances because it seemed like Gilneas was if anything an attempt to grind the Forsaken into nothing.
It doesn’t even kind of make sense. Tirisfal’s shore is right there if you want to build a big port in the EKs and Murlocs are the only hurdle there, as they are for literally every shore.
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Pretty much. We have never really known much about her Primes. Especially Annyhide. Their deal was always way too good to be true. They had all the power in the world in that bargain, and all they wanted was for their chains to the Lich King to be transferred to her. And even then, its only until she screws up in some way and they’re forced to take her place in eternal torment? Wow … such a great deal for them…
Retcon or not, it doesn’t matter because it can be made to work. At least in this particular bit of content. The Primes are clearly agents of the Jailor by now, since Heyla apparently is too. If they are, then regardless of how new the Jailor is … since we nothing about them or their origins prior to being imprisoned by the LK, there is no canon to break. On top of all of this, we also know nothing about Sylvanas’ deal with Helya either. Its all in a haze.
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Ah I see you are a corpse of culture as well.
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Seems a bit misogynistic on Blizzard’s part doesn’t it?
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Your capitalist realism is showing. Its inevitable our systems will improve in a manner that better fits to the human condition.
shrugs Communism and systems like it rely on the whole participating. One person decides they deserve more than the rest and it crumbles. You’re expecting an entire society to put aside greed and ambition for the good of the whole. It won’t happen.
Again:
- A character who was praised as acting like Nathrezim by actual Nathrezim in WC3.
- A character who’s relationship with her Forsaken up until the fall of Arthas in EoN was revealed to be nothing more than a façade; with her simply using them as tools than discarding them.
- A character who’s only response to being asked why she’s not the Lich King in Cata, was that she “did what she did for the Horde”. Which was super suspect then, and false now.
- A character who made still secret dealings with a crazed, bitter Titan Watcher in Stormheim and uttered a direct homage to Arthas’ famous “A New World Order” when he murdered his father. But only to the Alliance PC. She then did nothing else the entire expansion.
She’s been a horrible person for ages. Even if there were other sides to her character, the major parts of her characterization that could have led to BfA have been long established. So, either she’s been “misogynistic” for like a decade, or the expectation is Women aren’t allowed to also be awful people. Even ones as “dark side of the spectrum” as Sylvanas has always been.
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Famously, communist states crumbled at the first sign of resistance. None of them lasted past the first thought someone had of greed or avarice.
Hang on, actually now that I look again I’m reading here that many of them were formed through revolutions where there were lots of people who decided they deserved more than everyone else, but they were overruled. Huh. Hey, reading further I can even see that plenty of them are still going in some form today, even, even with the capitalist hegemony leaning on them heavily! Wow, Bolivia even just overturned a foreign-backed coup to restore their worker’s party. Crazy stuff.
On-topic: I’m not sure I agree with the assertion that the Undead are getting ‘dumpstered’. We got to Monster Mash all over the Alliance at Lordaeron as well as Darkshore, which was a lot of fun. Those enagemenets ended in retreats, sure, but there weren’t really any consequences, and if we count Belmont’s re-appearance we came out ahead in actual Forsaken (rotten zombie human) characters. Got gold, got a plaguebat, got to laugh in everyone’s faces a bunch.
In WoW terms, that’s hardly being dumpstered. Especially for the Horde, where being used as the antagonist means you really have to count your wins in terms of the friends, memories, and mass graves you made along the way.
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!No?
You really don’t know what that word means, so you?
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I see nothing wrong with Lillian Voss becoming at least the interim racial leader. She has all the aesthetics, general backstory beats, and the mindset of a quintessential Forsaken. Calia Menethil, on the other hand, has no real reason to prioritize the horde over the alliance. The method of her resurrection was weird and doesn’t endear her to her supposed race, and after Arthas, I’m not sure many Forsaken want anyone with the last name Menethil inhabiting Lordaeron anymore.
I personally would rather have someone leading the Forsaken who’s worked with/alongside them for multiple expansions than some chick with the right surname who just cartwheeled onstage after doing nothing for the majority of the game’s narrative.
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She took an anti-bullying stance against the undead one time so we must crown her our queen. 
She’s the sister of the single most reviled man in the Forsaken’s cultural consciousness. She was off playing Uno somewhere while the people she claims to identify with were fighting and dying to end the Lich King’s reign, and she’s super buddy-buddy with people the Forsaken are, at best, suspicious and wary of.
We don’t stan.
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She ‘‘took an anti-bullying stance’’ because she views them as her people. She gave up her life for her people. Their rightful heir willing to put her life on the line for even a small group of them.
She is the sister of a man corrupted by the Lich King, that wasn’t Arthas.
She may have ‘‘been off playing Uno somewhere’’ but she still came back when she thought there was something she could do to help.
You’re right she is ‘‘buddy-buddy’’ with the alliance but after the events of BFA I don’t see that being as large of a problem. Especially now that Anduin leads the alliance.