Fact is the Night Warrior itself was never a story they wanted to tell period. Which is why they said it was over in 8.1. Only after huge backlash, even from their top supporters, they realized that wasn’t nearly enough. And now instead of actually rewriting the story to accommodate the Night Warrior they are instead just writing the Night Warrior around their already previously written story. This is why the Night Warrior and Tyrande have had literally zero consequence on the entire story since 8.1.
Seriously Remove Tyrande, The night Warrior, and all their scenes from everything since 8.1 in BFA. Does it change how the story went at all? Sylvanas still fights Saurfang, she still smokes away, people still chase her down, she still breaks the helms, people still follow her to the shadowlands, hell even souls are still freed because we were doing that before we ever found Tyrande. The Jailer still get’s the sigils, and the covenants still re-make their sigils very easily. None of this changes if we remove Tyrande. She has had literally 0 impact on the entire story since 8.1.
You cannot write a compelling and interesting story if you are not willing to let the characters in it have at least a small impact. Blizzard isn’t willing to do that and they are hoping this literal pure definition of filler, devoid of all plot and consequence, is enough of a bone to players to get them the accept this horrible story.
“Look everyone! Tyrande is doing stuff! See! Look! Pretty visuals! Please ignore the fact that she has accomplished literally 0 things with this power that is killing her as we’re not willing to diverge from the story we wrote for Sylvanas and everyone else which never included Tyrande oir a resolution for her or her people ages ago. Aren’t we so great!? LOOK!”
Tyrande was there for the opening scenario, where she was unable to stop a dead archer and his two valkyr(something we watched a group of farmers shank) from raising their targets and getting away. So her fancy new power literally accomplished nothing in said scenario. And she promtly never showed up in game again until Shadowlands, where she has accomplished nothing with said power that is now killing her. Was it supposed to count for something?
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It’s just possible that they thought Sylvanas was more popular than Tyrande (and she might have been before the War of Thorns) and that people would be excited for a long form story about Sylvanas, and fans clamoring for Tyrande to have an impact on that plot goes against years of planning - so they are trying their best to accommodate the people that want to see more Tyrande without compromising the overall story.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but I do think if you set out to make compromises in a narrative like this no one is ever going to be entirely satisfied no matter how many cuts or bandages you put in place.
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Yeah, nah, she just stopped everyone else and one shot killed an entire military unit.
This game isn’t just about you. It isn’t a giant night elf power fantasy.
Horde players play the game, too.
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Why does Blizzard refuse to ever show Sylvanas or Nathanos at any state besides smug and gloaty in a fight?
Is there no other emotional state they can show?
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Never once did I expect that. I just hoped that Tyrande wouldn’t end up losing, like she did. High expectations, I know.
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Ysera showing up to pretty much save tyrande as her power wains is pretty significant as she was always connected to the night elves. What did you want ysera to roast both of them like marshmallows? And clearly more to be seen with elune that’s why the had sulvanas say the line about her goddesses bargain failing. And clearly more to be seen with the jailer and Sylvanas about Nathanos after elune taunted her with it. Everyone in the world knew neither of them were dying here since they show up in the raid coming. All a bunch of whiners.
Did she lose? Sylvanas was not there to fight her, and she didn’t beat Tyrande up or anything. All Tyrande failed to do was stop Sylvanas from leaving after she had served her purpose as a distraction for Anduin.
As far as I can tell Tyrande didn’t ‘lose’, she just ran out of steam.
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Sure didn’t look smug and gloaty when tyrande said shed take her head just like she took his.
Lol she was smug and gloaty for the entirety of the video except for when Nathanos is brought up.
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I feel like people were expecting her to die – even though she is supposed to be the final boss of the raid in the same patch.
Which in retrospect - was an unrealistic expectation.
We knew she wont die.
I don’t think even the most staunch NEFPA people are complaining that she didn’t die.
What we didn’t expect though is that once AGAIN Sylvanas is gloating, being smug, trolling in a fight and when she is done she poofs away like every other time she has done.
I honestly did not expect her to fight Tyrande 1 on 1 with little to no difficulty before getting tackled from behind.
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See Im going to disagree here – because we didnt know the Mawsworn had still won at that point regardless (because of DK Anduin). She had every reason because she basically took away Tyrande and Ysera away from that area to allow Anduin to do his job.
It makes sense for the character and the plot to her have the moments of weakness but return to this prideful/smug guard knowing that she will still live and that the job has been completed.
Not sure why a smug gloaty Sylvanas is a requirement for being a distraction.
Why couldn’t she struggle little more? Get tossed around while she barely blocks or dodges attacks? It would have humanized her a little.
Why does Sylvanas must always make everything look effortlessly easy? Its boring. She is basically a bad DMs pet character who wins at everything because somehow the DM always rolls a nat 20.
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I really didn’t have any issues with the cinematic. It was pretty good, but I do agree that it didn’t really push the Night Warrior side of the story. It did however, push forward the Jailer’s side a bit.
Some in the thread have said that Elune took away the NW power at the last minute to keep Tyrande alive. I am not sure that is true, isn’t there like still an entire quest line going with Holm Highmountain finding other NW to share the power with in order to save Tyrande?
That is failure. Sylvanas did exactly what she set out to do, and Tyrande didn’t even manage to injure her in any meaningful capacity. And then Sylvanas just threw Tyrande off when her powers waned.
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You know even if Tyrande had injured or killed Sylvanas, by that point she had already accomplished what she set out to do. There was no way Tyrande could have succeeded of ‘stopping Sylvanas from doing what she set out to do’ was the only way she could keep from failing.
No, but she could have beat her up badly, force her to flee desperately. That’s all it would have taken, but even that was not to be.
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I think its fine that Sylvanas accomplished her goals.
The problem is really how effortless she made it all seem.
Like was that really necessary? Yall remember wrath of the Lichking? When Arthas got blighted? He was clearly in pain and furious with Sylvanas but he still was the big bad final boss no problem.
So why is the smug edge queen a constant presence? What purpose does it serve than to frustrate us?
If the purpose was to frustrate us why do it on the one time we get the NW power display? Really in poor taste imo.
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That happened halfway through questing at the start of the expansion though, not right before Arthas was going to be the last boss in the next raid. They still had the entire rest of the expansion to build him back up as this unstoppable force (in the Halls of Reflection) and capable of undermining whatever threat the Horde and Alliance posed against him (in The Argent Tournament).
It would have been fine to show Sylvanas struggling or hurting before now, but when we’re just about to have her as the upcoming raid boss, they want to make her look powerful and elusive.
Well, yeah, of course it’s to frustrate you. It’s supposed to make you want to take her down all the more. That’s the point - it’s getting you ready for the upcoming boss encounter.
(Although at the end there I think she come off as weirdly more sad than smug. Nothing lasts…)
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