There’s a tinge of that to Raistlin, though he was more power-hungry and jealous from what I recall. I can’t think of anyone that fits the bill in Faerun off the top of my head.
Darth Vader wasn’t the first fallen hero character ever made
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Not saying he was. The other dude is the one who connected Arthas to him. Alynsa put forward more likely inspirations for him.
^
You’re the one trying to box this into Anakin and Vader exclusively. You can pick whatever fallen hero and dark lord comparison you’d like, I really don’t care. Vader is the most recognizable by far, however, complete with a Palpatine stand-in manipulator in Ner’zhul.
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You used the phrase “inversion of the chosen one trope” don’t pretend you weren’t talking about Anakin. The prophecy did not exist until the prequels. Take the L.
Christ… Why would I say Anakin/Darth Vader/Anakin-Darth Vader?
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I’m’a go nitpicky.
Well, as we were starting to see Vader’s time as Anakin, I could see him watching those movies and saying “hey, we hardly ever get to see the corrupted hero’s time as the hero, like we’re seeing with Anakin. Maybe we should try that!” His writing has always been heavily influenced by pop culture of the time he’s writing, so it’s not as unlikely as it sounds.
There’s also the whole killing your allies part. We knew since A New Hope that Vader was responsible for the fall of the Jedi, which could be a parallel to Arthas killing Uther (and… Didn’t the Silver Hard kinda fall apart around then? My WC3 memories are vague). And the Light being less Earth Christianity and more akin to the Force in that it was a, ahem, force started around WC3 IIRC.
Parallels certainly exist, but unless Metzen writes a tell-all book about what inspired him to write what, we’ll never truly know.
Dang it. Maybe I’m just thinking of something else.
You would be hard pressed to find a more universally recognized example of a fall from grace Dark Lord outside of Darth Vader, barring maybe Lucifer, but that’s getting more into Sargeras/Zovaal comparisons.
I’m honestly kinda shocked no one fits the bill in Faerun. Greenwood grabbed more than his fair share of generic spools of thread himself. Manshoon was very much a Darth Sidious figure. I guess Fzoul turning on him could be kinda Vadery, but Fzoul was never a good dude.
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I was honestly initially thinking it had to be a Krynn character scratching the back of my brain. The whole Fallen Hero Who Saved His People By Killing Them bit, but I’m starting to think it was… Err… This is awkward…
… An NPC from a D&D game I played in that was just set in Krynn…
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Seems fair enough to me. IIRC most of the books were novelizations of their home games. I might be making that up. I should probably double-check that.
Edit: looks like they might have concepted out a lot of things and then played it in-person rather than the other way around.
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IIRC, it was a mix of both. They created concepts, wrote them for the book, tried them out for their game, and so forth. Kenders specifically were a creation of one of their players, based on how he played his halfling (Tracy Hickman said it at a con I went to like he’d answered that very question hundreds of times).
Actually, it just sets a boundary that she will not be bullied by intimidation tactics.
If you think that’s dodging an argument, you are probably the one using bad debate tactics.
Metzen got a lot of inspiration from DnD, Dragonlance and Doomhammer. This game was a nod to his favorite DnD author as well as supposed to be a Doomhammer MMO.
Thats… not how that works.
To hearken back to one of the most famous redemption arcs in pop culture, killing Emperor Palpatine didn’t absolve Anakin Skywalker of the deaths of every soul on Alderaan, or the younglings in the temple.
Redemption isnt a zero sum thing. Its just a story where the writer convinces us that a person who has fallen from grace, transforms into a good guy again.
Edit: didnt realize everyone was beating the Darth Vader drum already. I feel so unoriginal 
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Anakin helped create the empire and he redeemed himself by playing the pivotal role of bringing that empire down and then dying like a gentleman right after.
Sylvanas kinda plays a pivotal role but not really and she kind of dies but not really.
Starwars is clear cut ad simple while wow is none of that.
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Whether or not she is redeemed is irrelevant to whether she can be redeemed.
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Oh absolutely she can. Its a magical world and you got reality making machines and gods who are ready to help.
And actual redemption is totally possible but instead they opted for this half measure.
I mean her atonement will take as long as the souls down there in hell suffer, so her journey being as long as possible is actually bad. The most optimal and humane for the Victims is if Sylvanas finishes the job as soon as possible.
But the faster she accomplishes this the less her redemption is worth because she didn’t pay enough.
Its like a rich drunk driver runs down an entire family and gets two years for it. A mockery of justice.
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I really dont like the judgement. It is way too sunday morning. I would have preferred that it went something like this…
Arbiter Pelagos : Then you know in your heart to whom you must answer.
Sylvanas : I submit to the judgment…of Lillian Voss.
Arbiter Pelagos: Wait what? You wronged Tyrande!
Sylvanas: Tyrande? Tyrande is still alive. Her husband is still alive. What I did to her people she’d have done to mine. Even my people in life were not spared the wrath of her and her kind. I owe Tyrande nothing… but Lillian Voss, was brought up a victim, used by her father to fight against monsters like me, and I rose her, against her will, into undeath. She only wanted revenge and I brought her into the fold with promises of free will, and I betrayed that. I have wronged Lillian Voss and the Forsaken people. Tyrande can choke on her stupid owl.
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Indeed Sylvanas has hurt a lot of people.
Here is my proposition. Everytime she finishes a sentences she gets back right infront of the arbiter and gets judged by every single victim and a new sentence.
Can you at least start throwing in some oddball, off-the-wall comments that would at least send someone, if not Alynsa, to the internet to figure out what you said. Makes things more engaging for the rest of us.
Because if this goes on until some one drops dead of old age we are going to be here for awhile.
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