WoW morality shouldn't be based on character popularity

So, as it turns out, ICC was possibly retconned to have existed before Arthas came along (unsure on Ner’zhul), built by Dreadlords.

3 Likes

Ner’zhul building the citadel is in Chronicles and I think already was old wc3 canon

1 Like

WC3 Icecrown was a pillar of ice with chains in a glacial floe.

4 Likes

Either way, Chronicles does state that the scourge built ICC over the years that Arthas slept on the throne. :wolf:

Where you getting it might be older than that though?

Looks like Scourge + Dreadlords built it under Ner’zhul’s direction during War of the Spider. So the Forge of Souls tapping into the world soul does at least make sense.

Side note: I feel like using the blood of an Old God to construct an engine to tap into the World Soul should have profound implications that are not good.

2 Likes

Oh. That’s pretty neat I suppose. I’m guessing that new info if it is cannon is from the fight with Zooval when he turns the Soul Forge on? :wolf:

It is one piece in a litany of random acts that all hinged on a pile of heroes from Azeroth killing things at specific times that failed to predict those same heroes stopping him, but yeah

2 Likes

So more randomness from blizz in some unhinged attempted at connecting them together. Gotcha :wolf:

Zovaal had Arthas build Icecrown and the Forge of Souls just before Wrath of the Lich King then had him seek out a Moral Soul and since Arthas saw his Paladin identity as the pinnacle of Morality he sought out Paladins first seeking Tirion but finally settling on Bolvar before being killed because his ego was too great for Zovaal’s use of Domination at the time(as Danuser stated Zovaal was refining his techniques) and thus drew the world’s greatest champions to his throne room.

Zovaal’s minions failed because he hadn’t refined his techniques at the time. He still hadn’t fully refined them when we killed him as Anduin ultimately escaped himself.

Whether Zovaal could have refined the techniques better and faster if the Primus hadn’t engraved his own Runes of Domination on him messing up Zovaal’s own Mind: probably.

Zovaal as it was was left with learning how to refine Mind Scrambling to control Minds while his own Mind was Scrambled to the point where it didn’t realize it needed to be Unscrambled to think properly!

Drust have a good understanding of the procedure as Gorak Tul somehow discovered it long before Frostmourne and the Helm of Domination’s forging and had centuries to study it with an Unscrambled Mind.

All who fell to the Drust’s corruption have been completely unsaveable! Those controlled by the Witches they corrupted may be saved but those the Drust themselves have Dominated with Mind-Warping Domination are completely under the Drust’s control! If the Drust were the ones controlling the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne their wielders would have been more mindless than Anduin!

They retconned that between War of the Spider and Chronicle Volume III. The Scourge and Dreadlords built the citadel as part of their campaign to bring the Nerubians under heel, evidently.

1 Like

And yet, in the Three Sisters short story, Sylvanas conspired to have Alleria and Vereesa killed before having a last-minute change of heart and calling off the assassins.

Last I checked, my argument referred to morality in WoW, it’s not all about Arthas, so it is your rebuttal that fails.

Citation needed for those “decades, even centuries.”, especially since we don’t see when or how Alleria got out.

Sometimes it sounds like you’re going “OH NO, THE CHARACTER I PROJECT MY MOST HATED AUTHORITY FIGURE ONTO AS A PUNCHING BAG ISN’T WELL-WRITTEN OR A MONSTER. MUST SUPPRESS DISSENTING VOICE!”

I mean, seriously… :roll_eyes:

2 Likes

Except you made the point to contrast Arthas and Sylvanas, and attribute a different treatment of Sylvanas, that being some form of morality, as resulting from her popularity.

That is failed logic, because the more popular Arthas (arguably the most recognizable person in the entire franchise, and thus more popular) would be, following your reasoning, treated as also morally just.

2 Likes

Also: Elf. I’m not saying the imprisonment was just or necessary in the first place, just that even before the wacky time hijinks that somehow allowed her human husband to also not age during the 1,000 years they were fighting alongside the Lightforged, Alleria had a radically long lifespan. What’s a few decades, or even a couple of centuries?

Good points. iirc Turalyon was made immortal by Lightforging, and centuries passed before Alleria started even dabbling in the Void. I strongly suspect Alleria broke out or was freed, we don’t see - nor are we told - how Alleria got out.

Also imprisonment with a condition of release is less bad then attempted sororicide (murdering one’s own sister) by Scourge blight, but look and compare how the characters responsible for both are treated.

1 Like

I think the problem is exacerbated by not simply being tied to the characters’ popularity, but how popular the characters are with the writers/developers rather than the audience (who to be fair are diverse in taste). Golden playing favorites for example.

5 Likes

That just proves my point. For example, with fans, Xe’ra wouldn’t cop anywhere near as much blind hate as she does if either she was a popular character or hadn’t “dared” to clash with popular characters. As for the devs, it’s been clear for ages that the devs play favorites and I’ve always said Xe’ra seemed like a punching bag, if not a flat out stand in for some disliked authority figure from their lives (not good if you have big plans for the character).

That and the whole “humanoid” thing - especially in regards to WoW’s female characters. If Xe’ra looked like, for example, Akroma from Magic the Gathering - https://images7.alphacoders.com/336/thumb-1920-336307.jpg - rather than the cluster of crystals and runes, she wouldn’t get as much hate either (or at least, would’ve been included sooner in discussions of WoW’s treatment of female characters).

I wonder if certain people are going to take the link I posted out of context…

1 Like

I don’t actually mind Edgy Boy shattering Xe’ra so much as it all sort of came out of left field- even with the Illidan cut scenes she makes us play through, we don’t really get enough time to see her as a full character before she acts out of (what is presented as her) character and gets the axe. I think it would have been better if, instead tried to force her will on him the instant they met, she’d asked him several times during the Argus story play-through. Like, she gets either more insistent or just confused why he isn’t falling in line with her ‘glorious ideas for him’ so we see the outright conflict between them coming. Maybe we even get dialogue options with her, her asking us our opinions on Illidan, how best to convince him peacefully?

4 Likes

If Liam O’brien had not absolutely murdered the VA in that scene, I would have probably hated it.

(Just to be clear, I’m praising Liam here)

5 Likes

Or maybe the two could’ve discussed this while his soul was housed in Light’s Heart.

That’s exactly my point and one of two reasons I keep bringing that naaru up. Xe’ra wasn’t a character, she was a plot device, and a poorly written one; especially since for all people’s complaints of how WoW treats female characters, they ignore the female character who was literally sacrificed to give a male character “cool points”.

The second reason is that she’s a prime - pun intended - example of the perils of using popularity to determine morality in the story. But most people don’t look past that, they’re blinded by “she tried to Lightforge my precious edgy boi”.

Plus Illidan jobbing (are you familiar with wrestling?) Xe’ra makes her look weak and undermines her power and also her threat level if we’re getting an AU version of her as a future cosmic-level villain.

The voice acting is one of the only two things I didn’t hate about that cinematic.

2 Likes

Regarding Xe’ra “acting out of character”: but she wasn’t though.

You know why people think everyone in Legion was all retconning Illidan into some misguided hero? It wasn’t everyone. Khadgar questioned his judgment, Velen did too, and Maiev still treated him like a criminal. The only person whitewashing Illidan’s past?

Xe’ra.

Xe’ra was the only one reframing Illidan’s crimes as some “noble sacrifice”, up to and including enslaving people. Illidan wasn’t even whitewashing Illidan. As long as the end goal of the Legion was achieved, every means was justified because of those ends.

Only Xe’ra was out there saying “guys, Illidan’s not bad at all, you jerks!!”

Xe’ra justified slavery as a noble sacrifice. It’s not out of character for her to still justify it when she’s the master.

20 Likes