I feel it fitting to post this on my first character I ever made in WoW and the first character I saw Sylvanas for the first time on. It was around 15 years ago I started playing WoW and made an undead priest as my first character. I didn’t know anything about the game so I spent my time running around and learning as I went. I remember getting to Brill and seeing those awesome undead horses on display and wondering if I would ever have one. After awhile I eventually made it to Undercity. Not knowing my way around the place I roamed until I found things of interest and after awhile I finally found Sylvanas. She was the first boss status character I saw and the first horde leader I saw. I became instantly interested in this character and wanted to know the lore about her.
After learning her story, I knew Sylvanas was going to be a very important part of not just my own WoW experience, but to the story of WoW for years to come. After a few expansions I said to myself that I hope Sylvanas becomes warchief of the Horde one day. Sure enough I played WoW long enough to see that happen. I wasn’t sure where they were going to go with Sylvanas after that point but I was interested to see what happens next. After seeing the events surrounding her unfold in Legion and then into BFA I started to become worried. I never imagined Sylvanas would take such an evil path to accomplish her goals. I wasn’t Ok with the idea of her becoming a WoW villain after I had followed her story for this long. While I have no idea of what is going to happen next with Sylvanas I am interested to see Shadowlands unfold and find out what does happen next. Will Sylvanas ever be a part of the horde again? Will she have a path of redemption? Or could it be there is something we have not seen that will bring more light to the situation at hand going forth. We will begin that journey tomorrow and time will answer these questions. I will say I can’t imagine WoW without Sylvanas. She is one of my favorite characters and I think it would just feel wrong to not have her a continuing part of WoW’s ongoing story. At the same time I also feel like we are in for quite the experience filled with lots of twists and turns. I’m a little worried but also very excited to see what happens next. I look forward to starting this new journey tomorrow in the Shadowlands and see what lies next for Sylvanas and WoW’s future. I can’t wait!
She’s a horrible character. Since Wrath, she’s been written as a waifu for certain self-insert staffers at this company.
She’s also the most evil character in the history of the game - including Arthas. Not only does Sylvanas not have the “but I was merged with the Lich King and had my soul stolen by Frostmourne” excuse to fall back on, but she’s actively funneling innocent souls into WoW’s version of hell.
Funneling.
Innocent souls.
Into hell.
Why… why… would you want to redeem a character like that? This isn’t Arthas, where he presumably COULD actually repent (if given the opportunity to go through ‘the system’ like other souls [and I believe, btw, that he would repent almost immediately, based on the end of WotLK]) - this is a lady who has actively and consciously chosen to commit the most heinous deeds and crimes imaginable, without any mitigating circumstances. She’s just that mean.
No. I want Sylvanas dead, removed, and her soul destroyed. Both in-universe and out of universe, she’s a blight.
Me ideal end fer Sylvanas: She’s tryin’ tae escape tha Maw at tha end, when tha soul o’ Blightcaller, cast aside (Forsaken if ye will), flies up and pulls her back in with him fer all eternity.
Well theres still a statue of her in Brill with that character model. She did become warchief and a model update for that story change was fine though I can’t remember if they updated her before or after this.
She’s been written into a corner. I felt all throughout Wrath that Arthas deserved a redemption arc: that his friends abandoned him at the gates of Stratholme, and that - while his fall was ultimately his own fault - had Jaina and Uther actually recognized that desperate moment for how critical it was for the future, and stayed by his side, things would have gone very differently for everyone. Sometimes, the most heroic act is to mitigate evil, rather than to wash your hands of it and walk away as it festers openly (also, given what we know about the plague now, Arthas was actually right at Stratholme. There wasn’t any saving those people - a clean death really WAS all they could be given). Jaina and Uther abrogated their responsibility not just as leaders, but as friends by walking away and dumping it all on Arthas.
I also think there were hints dropped throughout Wrath that indicated that Arthas’ actual soul was in deep, tortured turmoil, and that, given the chance (were he not merged with Ner’zhul), he would right the wrongs he had caused. Still, the writers didn’t give us that chance to save Arthas’ soul - they felt he had gone too far; that he HAD to die. And yet, Sylvanas is supposed to get a pass?
There has been absolutely zero indication of struggle for Sylvanas. We’ve seen her briefly recall her own death (as she condemned thousands of other elves to identical suffering, thus implying that she felt and still feels nothing)… and the rest of her actions have all involved starting/lengthening wars to funnel souls to the Jailor, thus strengthening them both. There’s no Frostmourne; there’s no Mal’ganis; there’s no Helm of Domination. This is JUST SYLVANAS being an arrogant, self-obsessed jerk who believes that her personal agony not only exceeds that of every other resident of Azeroth past, present and future, but that everyone deserves to be condemned because she cannot move past her own death.
I’m sorry, but there’s no answer here but eradication.
…Except in Before the Storm where some humans actually did accept their Undead Relatives…and Sylvanas ordered them, Human and Undead alike, killed for it.
My ideal outcome is that she loses everything. Her power, her strength. All of it. Becoming an outcast of the world. Maybe later down the road in a few expansions of her in isolation we are introduced to the new sylv. A more humbled person changed.
I have no current love for her. I was no loyalist. But I had a very similar experience to you when first playing wow. The first mount I ever bought was the green skeleton horse.
It would be nice to find out she has been a puppet or maybe a sort of red herring thinking she was doing bad mcbads, but it was good.
