Did I do the clickbait right? Anyhow, a lot of people have been debating the idea that the Night Elves that were turned and accepted their new fate goes against all forms of character development and twists the narrative in a bad way, but I wanted to add one thing that is often skipped over in these discussions…
Their death and rebirth as Undead was not just a transition that occurred within a few minutes. Death, seemingly, doesn’t work so linear with time that it’s experienced in the same perception as that of the living. While only minutes occurred during the ‘living’ time, it could have been an extensive amount of time that occurred while in their limbo status. They mentioned how Elune had abandoned them. What if, during their death and limbo status, they experience what felt like years of this “void” like plane between their preferred spirit realm and the living realm. That, by some twisted doing of Sylvanas or another entity, or just by the actual abandonment of Elune, they had to endure what felt like an endless, circular, torture of limbo.
I don’t know for sure, but I’m going to say that I can conceive of reasons why they might have felt betrayed and without hope. I mean, go back and read how Syllvanas described her re-death after finishing off Arthas, and how it felt for her. It has some odd parallels.
True, Tyrande and Malfurion would both have some amount of hatred pointed at them right now. Despite what they could and couldn’t feasibly do, there are going to be a small amount of people who scorn them for not being able to protect the thousands that were burned to death by Sylvanas.
If you lost everyone in your life in a horrendously cruel and barbaric burning… your children, you spouse… wouldn’t you have second thoughts of what god has your back?
This is a good point, but there’s one problem with it. As Elune’s chosen, all Kal’dorei carry with them the promise of becoming a wisp and joining with their ancestors to make the forests grow. They know this. It’s a cornerstone of their culture.
No matter how long the darkness of their death, they would be able to hold onto that knowledge that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
The only way to take that faith away from them would have been to establish that Elune had actually abandoned them, by showing perishing night elves not becoming wisps after the Night Warrior ritual.
Actually there is the fact that its been discussed, as canon, in books, that when a person is first raised as an undead their views of the world become skewed and damaged. They blindly follow orders, only to later wake up and realize what they’ve done.
Also, there are lines in books that indicate that Sylvanas CHOSE to grant free will to the Forsaken. IE “it was a mistake to grant them free will.”
In short, its very likely that the Night Elves being turned into Forsaken in Darkshore have been brainwashed by the process.
This also happened during Legion, where the undead elves didn’t realize the truth until you killed them. Because they’d been brainwashed by the Legion. They saw Horde and Alliance as actual “demons”.
I don’t think the perception is wrong because as players we die all the time. In WoW time moves the same as it always have, be you living or dead.
As for the actions of the Night Elves that have been turn I am all for mind control. It is not some over the top type of mind control but a gentle twisting of goals and whisper of loyalty. Every Night Elf accepted becoming undead for a reason but if the process of becoming undead twists that reason on purpose then you may get this as a result.
In the end they will have someone or something lift the fog and they will be like the forsaken of old. This is my hope but it could just be bad writing, it is a toss up.
This is an interesting theory you put forth, though I feel it’s worth pointing out that if you have to go into vague, mystic headcanon to justify a nonsensical plot, then it’s probably likely that the story is bad.
Quite probably…but would I really then throw my allegiance in with the very person directly responsible for killing everyone in my life in a horrendously cruel and barbaric way? It’s far easier to see them coming back as hostile to both sides, than to see them willinging join their murderers.
I think the original poster means psychologically the perception of time slows down as one approaches death. I know there’s a word for it, lemme see if I can look it up.
Yeah, ‘time dilation’. It triggers in moments of intense fear and danger, increasing the sufferer’s awareness of minute details. It’s likely caused by a surge of adrenaline.
If you’re seriously trying to rationalize that there’s a single non-brainwash step between Sira thinking her goddess abandoned her, and turning into an insane killmonster out to murder everyone she ever cared about of her own “free will”, you’re probably a Westboro Baptist.
“It’s only alpha. We have to have faith.”
“It’s only beta! We have to have faith!”
“It’s just a bad patch! We have to have faith!”
“Okay, this expansion was bad. We have to have faith that the next one is better.”
I appreciate your optimism, but faith without evidence is daunting. Faith in the face of evidence to the contrary is depressing.
Oh, I did not mean what I said in an optimistic way. Just in order for us to believe that are going with the time dilation angle we have to have faith in Blizzards storytelling. If you have faith is up the player. I have seen enough…questionable storytelling from Blizzard to not have that much faith for in game story.
Maybe the Val’kyr are capable of doing that but we see Sira and Delaryn raised right next to us so there’s not a whole lot of time for brainwashing to occur. Like with Derek Proudmoore it looks like an arduous task that takes a while. I don’t think they can just snap their fingers and have people brainwashed.
Undeath changes you in more ways than physical. It warps your attitude, your personality, and often even your loyalties. You’re like a hollow shell of your former self dragging itself along with the same memories, but you’re not the same person.
Essentially, Sylvanas doesn’t need to mind control you, she just needs to turn you mentally ill so you’ll make choices your living self wouldn’t. Yes, I believe all undead are just mentally ill.
You are thinking about a complete and total brainwashing but just twisting somethings would not take that long. If the Val’kyr can raise the dead I am sure they can do that level of brainwashing quickly.
Well, they haven’t shown anything with Sira or Delaryn that points to it. The same Val’kyr have raised people before that go on to not affiliate with the Forsaken or Sylvanas. So why wouldn’t she do this to everyone if she had that ability?
If I remember right, the process of reanimating someone into an Undeath state means improperly attaching their soul back to their mortal coil via shadow magic.
Basically it takes a truly mentally strong individual or a good deal of time after the fact to come to terms with Undeath.
Well, there is a bit of an assumption in your statement, and I would say it’s in your second paragraph. We don’t truly know if there is suppose to be a time between their living life and their transformation. Perhaps there isn’t suppose to be one? From what I gathered, any time in Limbo in World of Warcraft is a fair bit of torment on the soul.
Also, there DOES seem to be some sort of entity interferring with this process, whether it is Elune going back on ‘her’ world or if it was something more sinister in the background, they did appear “abandoned” by their own perception. Either they new, immediately, on death that they were abandoned or they were left lingering in the afterlife for such a long duration that they felt abandoned; I’d even surmise there might be something about this and Sylvanas’ deal with Helya? Who knows.
Afterlife in WoW seems pretty hectic, got Bwonsamdi collecting souls, Helya stealing souls, I dunno if N’zoth has a tentacle in afterlife stuff. Like every race in WoW has their own interpretation of the afterlife and they’re all true.