Not at all? Maybe you just didn’t play during Legion or didn’t look at any of the reactions? It’s certainly a common sentiment. Literally just look up on google “Xe’ra Illidan Consent” and you can find loads of people making these connections.
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I think he’s not so much getting a pass as having that part of the story forgotten and/or soft-retconned. As Poised said above:
Illidan is a fun character to work with whether you’re allied with him or you’re fighting him, BatBoy is always great at chewing the scenery. X’era doesn’t have those fun elements so she doesn’t have a “fan base”.
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If those geometry fans could hear you they’d be very upset.
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If it’s such a common position then I’m sure people in this thread will start showing up who have it. Otherwise you’re just kind of talking to nobody.
I did search “Illidan Xe’ra consent” out of curiosity and to be honest. All the top results read like people cracking jokes.
I would say forgetting about it is getting a pass lol, also it’s not a soft retcon at all it’s just head canons, Blizz has absolutely never said that he didn’t do any of the bad things that we saw him do in Outland, only that he was doing something bad as means of defeating the Legion for the “Greater good”, almost like forcing a “gift” on someone in order to make them better at fighting the Legion could be seen as doing something bad for the greater good… 
Yeah there’s just generally a difference between stating you like one character more and stating one characters actions as being more ethical than anothers.
It’s almost like Xe’ra was a zealot and a nutjob. She’s “Illidan did nothing wrong” personified.
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I was referring to us, the fans; the writers were expecting US to kiss Illidan’s hooves.
And Illidan is a prime example of the narrative rewarding characters like that.
People have said that sort of thing in the comment section for “Rejection of the Gift”, as well as on other threads about Illidan and Xe’ra, some of which I have made. He’s pointing out double standard fans have between Illidan and Xe’ra, one other people - including myself - have noticed. Shall I link them?
Xe’ra was a lot like Illidan, but with less flaws and more virtues.
- Both wanted to defeat the Burning Legion by any means they could
- Both recruited an army from different worlds to do so, including demonic members (like Lothraxion).
- Both had a “my way or the highway” approach
- Both had an army of loyal followers motivated by higher purpose (Xe’ra with Light worshippers, Illidan with a cult of personality around him)
- Both recruited champions to play a key role in their plans
- Both were the underdogs against the Burning Legion
- Both have been accused of mental instability
- Both tried to force a change on someone else who repaid them for it by killing them.
Here’s some food for thought
Illidan’s crimes;
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- Betraying the Night Elves to join the Burning Legion
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- Killing several elves during the War of the Ancients
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- Making a new Well of Eternity
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- Killing the elves who confronted him over the new Well (Illidan has a habit of killing people who come between him and magic he likes…)
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- Wiping out Night Elf villages with the Naga in Frozen Throne
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- Collateral damage from using the Eye of Sargeras
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- Using magic to forcibly split Akama’s soul and enslave the Broken Draenei
Xe’ra’s crimes
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- Imprisoning Alleria for using Void magic on the Xenedar (how dare Xe’ra enforce rules on what is and isn’t allowed on Xe’ra’s own ship lol)
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- Trying to Lightforge Illidan by force
Clearly Xe’ra was a better person than Illidan, even if she’s less popular.
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I don’t hold that position and don’t really care what people in other threads or parts of the internet say. It just seems weird to start a topic shadowboxing against people who are not here to defend their position instead of coming at the topic from a more neutral position. Nobody is saying Xe’ra is a worse person than Illidan because of issues of consent or whatever.
She’s just, y’know. Boring.
Is this really unambiguously a “crime”? A lot of elves benefited from him stealing that water from the original Well of Eternity.
It’s not about you holding the position, we know you don’t. The point is others do and it’s wrong, which is what OP, myself, and others are pointing out.
And look at the comment section above. Some people are definitely saying she was worse than Illidan.
The Well of Eternity was what let the demons know about Azeroth in the first place. And a major factor in Illidan’s decision to make a new one was his magic addiction (plus he killed some of the elves who confronted him over it). Even if we remove that one, the other six points still stand.
The Dragon Aspects making the World Tree Nordassil over it was their way of cleaning up Illidan’s mess.
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Well, after the first invasion the demons already knew about Azeroth. So it’s not like another one would make a difference, they DID invade the planet again several times, after all. Especially since Sargeras was specifically interested in Azeroth because of the slumbering world soul (a fact that post-retcon Illidan was made aware of, I think?)
But given the information the Elves had at the time, I can’t blame them for thinking another Well of Eternity would lead to another invasion, and that putting a tree on top of it would prevent that.
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True. That first invasion happened because the demons used the Well to locate Azeroth. It was in that invasion where Sargeras learned of Azeroth and became infatuated with her.
Yes, plenty of people have said this or loosely implied this. You can keep repeating they don’t but they do, sorry. I’m sorry you don’t… I guess? I saw what I felt was a consensus among a non-trivial portion of the community that I felt was hypocritical and I made a thread about it. I don’t think it’s necessary for me to approach it neutrally as I don’t feel Xe’ra’s actions are completely equivalent to Illidan, generally being less immoral, I’ve also said multiple times that there’s no issue with saying you like one character more than another.
I just think it’s stupid to stick for people to stick their heads in the sand and act like Blizzard has retconned things you see with your own two eyes in the game. Which a lot of players seem to feel Blizzard has.
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As I mentioned before, I don’t think anyone seriously thinks Xe’ra is more wicked than Illidan or even remotely that close. I think it’s as simple as people like Illidan as a character more.
Example: Freeza is my favorite villain in the Dragon Ball verse. I actually like him more than Goku however I fully acknowledge its by the character itself, not the actions or intentions of the character.
RIP Akira Toriyama
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The way quite a few people have gone on about that Naaru in the past, or criticized those who called it out such as myself, says some of them seriously thought she was worse. Some may have changed their minds now, but they used to go on about her like that.
For example, look up Xe’ra in the forum search engine and see what comes up. Or take a look at this thread, and to a lesser degree this one, and you’ll see how much rabid hatred some WoW fans held for that Naaru;
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Sort of. Obviously, you don’t forget something that makes a strong impression, so there is an argument that people must not have cared too much about Illidan’s crimes in TBC. But TBC was a long time ago, and not one of the most popular expansions. Players may not have touched it in a while, and the details kind of blur together.
And since, as you say, it was Vashj who was actually doing the slavery, it’s more of a mental leap to “remember to blame Illidan” for it.
No, but they didn’t go out of their way to remind us of all of them in Legion either. Don’t forget, not everyone who played Legion also played TBC. Some of them joined the game later and never even visited Outland. So they’d be relying on the information presented in Legion regarding what Illidan actually did during that era.
There’s also the fact that the storytelling in TBC was less polished and engaging than later expansions. The Slave Pens were a justification to put more enemy variety in a multi-winged dungeon that otherwise would have been mostly naga enemies and isn’t really explored much outside of that.
Illidan’s big moment exploding Xe’ra was a narrative and emotional climax that had been built up to for a while.
Looking through the first thread you linked and so far - not seeing any “rabid” hatred. Some people saying she’s obnoxious and didn’t care for her, some people saying she’s an amoral cosmic force that doesn’t really fall under good or evil, and some people saying that rigid inflexibility leads to evil eventually.
But ‘rabid hatred’ ? Frankly she never had enough of a presence in the story for anyone to have such strong of a reaction to her.
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I remember a lot of Xe’ra hating threads, but I’m sure they disappeared with the old board. People objected to her trying to tell them that they, the PCs, were too mean to Illidan back in the day because he was just sooo speshul. They were totally convinced that she was the voice of Blizzard trying to shove a retcon down their throats, and they didn’t like that. However, all that died down pretty fast after Illidan exploded her.
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Xe’ra was more of a programmed construct than a person, which would explain her inflexibility and inability to adapt to input,such as Illdan’s repeated refusal of her “gift”.
I think that trying to judge whether one was “better” than the other is an exercise in pedantry. Both were monsters in their own way and the world is better off without them.
Illidan however is a lot more fun to read about because he’s more than just a vehicle of prolonged exposition and obsessive control freak. He has other dimensions and a built up body of lore whereas Xe’ra was really just a long cameo. He’a good villain when he is a villain and an interesting nuance when he’s put in the anti-hero role. Illidan unlike Xe’ra had a path of character development, a journey that we walked through with him.
Whether it’s reading his farewell letter to Tyrande, or listening to him howling through Outland those are slices into a character with depth.
Xe’ra doesn’t have that depth, she’s frankly simply just not that interesting a character. Colossus in The Forbin Project shows more personality than she does and that’s saying something.
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Yeah but that’s definitely not a retcon, soft or otherwise.
No I don’t think so, Xe’ra did like, literally one vaguely bad thing that people poorly and hamfistedly try to connect to a really really bad IRL thing. Illidan committed numerous atrocities. The stuff with Alleria is pretty justifiable as well.
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