Shadowlands.
8.3 is disappointing because of how short and anti-climatic it feels and really does not do N’zoth any justice. It does not feel like a good, satisfying, win.
The Shadowlands intro cinematic is just poorly written and extremely over the top in a bad way with no sense of power scaling and the thickest (least three or four c’s) plot armor I have ever seen in a very undeserving way.
EDIT: And, you know what upsets me the most? It could have been good. It could have been REALLY good!
She could have brought her loyal Dark Rangers and Nathanos so it wasn’t just her VS the Lich King.
She could have taken some damage herself or at least her armor could have been battered a bit to look like it wasn’t an effortless fight.
She could have, instead of pulling this chain’s move out of nowhere have instead pulled out the Lantern that Greymane broke, showing that it had been repaired through the guidance of the Jailor or something instead of JUST suddenly having these unbreakable chains from nowhere.
They could have left out the Dragon Ball Z levels of strength where Bolvar and Sylvanas are flinging massive, multi-hundreds of tons chunks of Saronite at eachother either with weird psychic powers somehow pure physical strength.
They could have had Sylvanas use some kind of artifact or ritual to break the Helm of Domination instead of tearing plate armor, MAGICAL plate armor, apart with her bare hands as a ranger who has gone on record to express how vastly different her physical strength was compared to a Tauren like Baine in Warcrimes.
That… THAT is what upsets me about all of this, it could have been an AMAZING cinematic but instead it comes off as poorly written fan service with no consistency in terms of character power in a fight that betrays Sylvanas as a character and turns her from being an agile archer and tactician into a Shonen Manga villain.
I know there are a lot of Sylvanas “loyalist” fans out there who melt down any time anyone criticizes here but I complain BECAUSE I loved the character. I loved what Sylvanas was, she was smart, she was cunning, she knew how to use her troops and surroundings to her advantage, she was evil to the core in the best of ways and she had a very good motivation both pre-ICC and post-ICC and it has seemingly been flushed down the drain.
Yeah, I was upset when Garrosh got this treatment but at least it felt more believable given his past and his anger issues as well as the way Thrall dropped everything on him. Sylvanas though and how that cinematic panned out is just utterly insulting.
Sylvanas has been ruined for me and I only hope that she dies in Shadowlands. I do not think I could find enjoyment in WoW moving forward if she is “redeemed” at this point.
She has thrown her character motivation, doing everything she can to survive and stay in the shadows, to the wind and has made nothing but very dumb and out of character decisions since the BFA Pre-Patch.
I honestly gave it a chance thinking it was going somewhere because if you did the pre-patch event on both characters it felt like someone was manipulating things in the background because there were inconsistencies. Things like the Civilians being killed in Ashenvale when the Alliance arrive even though on the Horde side you are specifically told only to target enemy troops and specific targets.
Paired with all the Old God hints I was expecting a “N’zoth was behind all this, pulling the strings to stoke the flames of war” type deal.
No, instead Sylvanas has just lost her senses completely and the Shadowlands cinematic encompasses EVERYTHING wrong with how the character has been handled.
Man… its so upsetting… Its really very upsetting that such an iconic and veteran character has been handled like this.