Tag: sylvanas windrunner

biggest-gaudiest-patronuses:

people talk about women being ‘emotional’ and ‘overreacting,’ but you don’t see a woman making an arch-nemesis out of an albino whale and obsessively chasing it down like a lunatic for 585 pages

No, but in the lore of Warcraft, we have a woman bring about a worldwide catastrophe because she wants to be a goddess. And we have another woman committ genocide on a whim over a 10,000 year old disagreement over magic.

Sylvanas has ALWAYS been Evil

So a while back, I made this post about how Sylvanas’ excuses for her unprecedented attack on the Night Elves were bullshit. One of the people who reblogged the post blamed Blizzard for Sylvanas’ popularity and not the fandom.

Today the last chapter of the War of the Thorns, the burning of Teldrassil, was released, and all the Sylvanas fanboys are out in force. Some outright applaud her actions (likely the same ones who defend Garrosh’s destruction of Theramore), usually involving marshmallows in some form or another; another more vocal and larger group of the Sylvanas fanboys are decrying Blizzard for “bad writing” on behalf of her.

In answer to the second group, let me just ask you if you found the writing in Mists of Pandaria to be “good.” If you answer yes, then I don’t want to hear you bitching about “bad writing”, because that expansion was the pinnacle of garbage-tier writing from Blizzard (with the trend continued in Warlords of Draenor and especially Legion).

As far as Sylvanas goes, she has been evil since The Frozen Throne. While obviously her part of the narrative of that game was only to play Kerrigan to Arthas’ Mengsk and knock down Lord Strawman, it merits looking into how she behaved herself in her small part, for it colors her future actions as well (and this is also the last time that Pierra Coppola voiced her: i don’t care what any of you say, she’s a superior Sylvanas to P.J. “gargles razor blades” Matheson).

In an attempt to remove the dreadlords from Lordaeron and establish it as her base (strange why she wouldn’t just go back to Silvermoon, especially since this was before Burning Crusade when the Horde became full of pansy little fairy-bois), Sylvanas finds herself short of forces. Even after using her banshee magic to control the local wildlife of Lordaeron and bringing Varimathras to cower beneath her, she is not able to have enough forces to destroy them all. After defeating Detheroc, she makes a pact with the intolerable Lord Strawman (whose only existence is to make the Alliance look bad and have the Blood Elves leave said Alliance): she saved him from the dreadlord, so now he will help her take back the Capital City of Lordaeron, after which she will give it to him. Varimathras even comments later that he knows that Sylvanas has no intention of giving Lordaeron to Lord Strawman after they’ve claimed it, which she affirms, saying that he is a means to an end (this is proven to be correct by the end of her part of the campaign). This sets the stage for betrayal and treachery toward her allies as part of her character trait. It also shows her pettiness, since she holds Lordaeron out of spite to Arthas: it is after all his kingdom, and what could sting more than having an enemy hold the jewel of his crown?

Cut to classic World of Warcraft, where out of the blue, Sylvanas – an elf – is joining the Horde, which is made up of Orcs – who slaughtered the Elves and burned their forests in Warcraft II – and Trolls, who are the ancient enemy of all the Elves. It didn’t make sense! Even in the game’s manual, it states that Sylvanas is only allied with the Horde out of convenience. This heavily implies that she intends to betray Thrall, Vol’jin and Cairne the same way she betrayed Arthas and Lord Strawman (she was even working on her own strain of the plague of undeath beneath their noses!)

All the signs in Wrath of the Lich King pointed to exactly that betrayal, even down to the Hand of Vengeance faction being led by Sylvanas and responsible for the administering of the plague in Northrend. Then she played her hand too early at the Wrathgate, hoping to kill the Lich King and severely cripple the armed might of the Horde and Alliance, and failed, having not taken the Red Dragonflight into consideration. But by this time, Sylvanas was already a fan-favorite and so Blizzard, unwilling to commit to the story they had already started – and which must have generated some negative feedback among beta testers, many of them likely Sylvanas fanboys – did a sloppy writing job and made her advisor Varimathras the one responsible for the plague. They even went out of their way in Cataclysm to remind the Undead players that she wasn’t involved: because playing through Northrend, you’d get the idea that she DID do it…because she WAS responsible!

But then Arthas dies and suddenly the reason for her existence ceases to be. So without an object to direct her hatred at, what does Sylvanas do? Well, Christie Golden (and nobbel) would have you believe that she’s afraid of the void and wants to do everything within her power to keep herself and her people from that. But the game doesn’t quite tell the same story: in Gilneas, she uses the people she apparently “cares so much about” that she’s “willing to become a monster for them” as cannon fodder just to get past the Greymane Wall. Gee, I haven’t seen this much love of a leader for their people since Garrosh stabbed Krom’gar in the back in Stonetalon for the sake of political posturing, when in all honesty, he needed those druids out of the way, since they would have opposed his clear-cutting of Ashenvale. And as for Sylvanas, she uses them as cannon fodder so much that now she has to use val’kyr to stack the decks in her favor: but apparently is such a “wise” and “caring” leader that she loses all them by Legion. Also her statement that she “serves the Horde” is meaningless, since she serves herself first and foremost.

For the next several expansions, she played only a token role (and even less in Warlords of Draenor), but then finally emerged from the doghouse where she had been hiding since her failure at the Wrathgate…only to do just what she had been doing at the Wrathgate! I mean, if you wanted to convince people that you had nothing to do with the Wrathgate, then why go back to brewing the same damn plague that “your adviser clearly stole out from under your very nose”? But that’s not the case: I don’t know what kind of ganja Vol’jin be smokin’, but it must be some POWERFUL stuff for a troll, who even admitted on his deathbed that he doesn’t trust her (ages of hatred will do that to you), to knowingly give the rule of the Horde to a treacherous witch like Sylvanas! I mean, her first act as Warchief was to have everyone retreat from the Broken Shore (i must have forgotten the ‘save our sorry asses’ clause of “lok’tar ogar”, but then again, Elves have always been more human than Orc). Of course her fanboys will argue that “oh but the Horde would have been destroyed if she remained.” Well, this highlights the poor writing of Legion: if the Burning Legion had managed to wipe out the armed might of the Horde and the Alliance so easily on the first go, why were they dragging their feet after the Broken Shore, allowing us to empower these priceless artifacts, and become strong enough to not only defeat them, but push them back to their own world and fight them on their own ground? Also, I don’t think the Horde and the Alliance were so soundly broken, especially since the tattered survivors were indeed able to push back the Legion’s invasion efforts on Azeroth prior to Dalaran being teleported to the Broken Isles.

But let’s not get too deep into the mess of Legion’s poor story-writing, we might fall into a Suramar and Illidan-shaped plot-hole. Back to the true evil here. Her fanboys will argue that “Genn Greymane was the aggressor against Sylvanas on Stormheim”, which…is utter bullshit. If you actually bothered to pay attention to the quest-line, she sets sail to Stormheim FIRST and antagonizes the Alliance once she sees them. Also Genn Greymane has plenty of good reasons for wanting vengeance upon Sylvanas.

And then there’s this…the conclusion to the War of the Thorns…

…where Sylvanas at last shows her true colors, the side of her that I’ve seen since Warcraft III, but all of you chose not to see, blinded by your delusions of “grey morality”: that Sylvanas is no different than 90% of the goths and introverts that I’ve met in real life. To wit, that they feel that they’ve been hurt by the world, so fuck the world and fuck everyone else in it.

Sylvanas has always been evil, and fuck whatever bullshit excuse taliesin and bellular give for her actions. The “morally grey” line has been done to death, and it needs to stop. I know I shouldn’t put the cart before the horse, especially when it comes to Blizzard (after all, Legion started out 8/10 and by 7.3 had become a 4/10, thanks to the illidan fellatio-fest, moral relativist bullshit, and story that was falling apart at the seams), but I sincerely hope that Blizzard grows a pair of balls and sticks with their decision. If Sylvanas is under the control of other entities (like the old gods), then that would be the possession trope and it would rob her of any agency (and would be the same mistake they made with the Scarlet Crusade). But maybe I’m not being fair: who knows, Blizzard might grow a pair? I mean, it’s not like they showed their lack of balls by giving in to the whiny fanboys with the nostalgia servers. Oh, wait…

Sylvanas is a Warmonger!

Despite what Blizzard said in the Death Knight’s class hall campaign in Legion, coming back from death must make you insane. Sylvanas Windrunner went from a Ranger-General doing her duty to defend her people in Warcraft III to a straight-up monster who wants to create a world only for the Forsaken. Now with the launch of the Battle for Azeroth pre-launch event, known in lore as the War of the Thorns, Sylvanas has at last shed the mask she had been hiding behind since the Wrathgate and revealed herself to be another warmonger of Garrosh-proportions (then again, Blackhand, Gul’dan, Ner’zhul, beta Grom, and Garrosh, all prove that the Horde – old, new, iron, what have you – is a war machine that eats up the land in order to sustain itself and has only one ethic: might makes right).

Now of course, on account of the immense popularity of the character and the progressive narrative they have been adhering strictly to since Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard has been doing damage control for Sylvanas’ reputation ever since the lore information on Battle for Azeroth was leaked. The first amount of damage control came back in Wrath of the Lich King, when Blizzard – after leaving a paper-trail leading to Sylvanas – turned tail and blamed her dreadlord advisor for the betrayal she had been planning ever since joining the Horde. Recently, with the 8.0 patch and the pre-launch events, the narrative has been to depict Sylvanas as a “caring” and “sacrificing” leader who “only wants the best for her people” and is “forced to act” in response to “Alliance aggression.” All this Hitler-talk aside, the plain fact is that Sylvanas instigated the war, and the impending genocide against the Night Elves with the burning of Teldrassil, on a lie; that the Alliance was stockpiling azerite on Teldrassil.

Now I will demonstrate how Sylvanas’ defense for her indefensible actions is bogus and asinine.

Here is a map of Azeroth. The green X in the bottom left of the map represents the location in Silithus where the Sword of Sargeras pierced the ground, and where the largest quantities of Azerite are located. The red circle represents Orgrimmar, and the blue circle represents Stormwind. The dotted lines represent the quickest way by sea for either the Horde or the Alliance to reach Silithus and the Seething Shore, where they can acquire Azerite.

As you can see, despite Sylvanas’ claims to the contrary, the Alliance does not control Silithus. In fact, after the destruction of Theramore at the hands of Garrosh, the Alliance has no holding in Kalimdor south of Ashenvale. The ones who have the monopoly on Azerite are in fact the Horde; not only to they have the quickest sea route, they also control the land and air routes in southern Kalimdor. Therefore her statement that the Alliance holds the monopoly on Azerite is a lie!

Repeat:

Her statement that the Alliance holds the monopoly on Azerite is a lie!

This map indicates possible attempts by the Alliance to divert Azerite to Darnassus, as Sylvanas uses as her defense for her genocidal actions. The black X indicates the point of interception. As you can see, the Horde, owning the seas around Kalimdor, would have very little problem fielding ships to intercept Azerite transport to Darnassus, either with their own ships going south, or around the north of Kalimdor to intercept the Alliance ships as they approach the island.

Let me iterate in very strong terms that the Alliance holds no ports in Northern Kalimdor. The mountains are too sheer to provide an adequate berthing around the northern end of Kalimdor.

On the other hand, the Horde knows that the Alliance has no safe port for them on Kalimdor, save only for Darnassus. Therefore, as this picture shows, it would be expedient for the Horde to cut off attempts by the Alliance to use Darnassus as a stockpile by simply sending ships there to blockade the tree. As you can see, it would take them less time to send ships to blockade Teldrassil than it would for the Alliance to arrive from Silithus to Darnassus.

But of course, let’s pretend that luck is on the Alliance’s side and they manage to get a ship to Darnassus without being intercepted by the Horde navy (surely they have invisibility spells for that purpose?). Now the Alliance has to pull double duty just to get one shipment of Azerite from Darnassus than they would have to if they just went back the way they came!

By bypassing Darnassus altogether, the Alliance conserves manpower and ships in order to get the prize back to safety. The other way, the Horde has more time to blockade Darnassus or intercept any ships that may leave the lesser World Tree (keep in mind, they control the waters around Kalimdor).

Therefore, Sylvanas’ statement that the Alliance is stockpiling Azerite in Darnassus is a lie.

I repeat:

Sylvanas’ statement that the Alliance is stockpiling Azerite in Darnassus is a lie!

Of course, her defenders would ask “why would she lie?” I mean, it’s not like she covered up her involvement in the Wrathgate when all the evidence pointed at her and NOT Varimathras. We all know she had absolutely NOTHING to do with that!

But in truth, there are a lot of reasons why she would want to commit genocide against the Night Elves (and let’s be honest, that’s what it is: Night Elves aren’t reproducing, and since the Nightbourne joined the Horde, there really isn’t any hope of their numbers increasing). The first and foremost being the age-old enmity between the Night Elves and the High Elves/Blood Elves over the use of magic. After the War of the Ancients, the Night Elves outlawed the use of magic. But a select number of them conjured up a magical tornado and threatened to wipe out the rest of the Night Elves if they weren’t allowed to practice magic: these were exiled to the east, and over the years devolved into the High Elves. The High Elves have always hated the Night Elves as a result of this, and when the Sunwell was destroyed and the High Elves became Blood Elves and saw that the path they had chosen ended in ruin, they chose rather to accept victimhood than admit that the Night Elves were right about magic. On account of this, they joined the Horde; furthermore, they also stoked the fires of distrust among the magic-addicted Nightbourne after a similar event happened between them and the Night Elves, thereby bringing them into the Horde. With the hatred for Night Elves rekindled, the Elven leadership of the Horde would find striking a blow against the Night Elves a tempting target. While the Forsaken can reanimate as many as they want, the Night Elves cannot reproduce.

In conclusion, despite the back-pedaling and damage control by Blizzard and Sylvanas fanboys (ie. bellular, taliesin, nobbel, etc.), the evidence is clear: Sylvanas made an unprovoked attack on the Alliance with no other aim than to slaughter the Night Elves (if not bring them to outright extinction) and kill their spiritual leader Malfurion Stormrage.

World of Warcraft – Your Fav is Problematic: Sylvanas

Sylvanas Windrunner, the hillary clinton of Azeroth. In that she has proven time and again that using people and then killing them when done with them is not beneath her. In life she was the Ranger-General of Silvermoon, the home of the High Elves, and sister of Alliance heroine Alleria Windrunner. After being killed by Arthas during the Third War (Warcraft III), she was resurrected as a servant of the Lich King. Because of Illidan Stormrage’s attempt to destroy the Frozen Throne in the aftermath of the Third War, many of the Scourge were separated from the control of the Lich King: Sylvanas was one of them.

After being separated, she recruited those former Scourge who were also separated and formed the Forsaken, with the promise to slaughter anyone who stood before them. After ruling as the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken in the ruins of Lordaeron’s Capital City for most of World of Warcraft, she was recently made Warchief of the entire Horde during the events of Legion.

Why she is problematic:

Despite misdirection from the official story, pre-Cataclysm quests in Old World zones showed that the Forsaken were working on a plague to kill both the Undead Scourge and the living. Even in the Arthas novel Rise of the Lich King, it is shown that she is actively overseeing the production and testing of this plague. All of this came to its culmination at the Battle of the Wrathgate, where Forsaken forces ambushed the Horde, Alliance and Scourge forces, deploying the plague upon all of them.

As the Lich King survived and the Horde and Alliance were not seriously weakened, Sylvanas saved face by putting the blame of the assault on her advisor, the Dreadlord Varimathras. No one would doubt this, since Dreadlords are notorious for their cunning and deception, and he is also a demon, formerly of the Burning Legion. Furthermore, Sylvanas forced him to kill his former Dreadlord ‘brother’ Balnazzar (who apparently didn’t die: go figure), so it seems that he is the perfect scape-goat upon whom to lay the blame for a coup. A demon known for deception, with an axe to grind against Sylvanas, Arthas and all of Azeroth: it’s an air-tight case.

Now, like Arthas before her, Sylvanas is attempting to create more undead Forsaken for her army, while continuing production on her new plague. I don’t know about you, but i will never recognize this monster as ‘Warchief.’