Should’ve been a Shandris and Delaryn team-up story, which could also serve as a vehicle to give the Kaldorei Dark Rangers a place within Kaldorei society.
Because as it stands now, they’re Kaldorei Sentinels but Death and with Necromancy.
High Elven Dark Rangers have a proper function and place within Forsaken culture. Kaldorei Dark Ranger are just… Around, I suppose? They can take watch when the Sentinels sleep, or something?
Huh, iirc they never claimed mindcontrol, though? Not even in interviews?
Sira flat out states in Shadows Risings that she was returned forcefully without wanting too, and they had some guy during the same Blizzcon when they announced Sylvanas had unlimited Val’kyr say that the night elves were being controlled. (That said, I believe the guy was not a story dev but some upper-management).
I think Sylvanas could have worked as Warchief. In fact, if they absolutely had to stick with Vol’jin getting shanked in Legion, I could easily see tying in new threads that would lead into things in BFA that would also make that less obnoxious.
A ‘Ok, I got Vengeance… what now?’ story arc is good, actually. Trauma and moving on from that trauma are good and interesting story arcs, and there’s multiple facets that could have been worked on here. The livings reactions to the Forsaken. Sylvanas still feeling that she failed her people as Ranger General. Being suggested as Warchief when she had no real desire to be responsible for such a large group - again.
Tying in both Darkspear and future development (imagine devs working a few expacs ahead on an overarching story. Lol. Lmao, even), bringing in Bwomsamdi in Legion to cut a deal with Vol’jin, having him step down as Warchief but stay alive, and also tying the Shadow Hunters closer to their patron would’ve been an interesting angle, I think. Having the Darkspear and Bwomsamdi as a direct inversion of Zandalari and Rezan, and the latter being indebted to the former by Vol’jin and Bwom saving Rezan as well as Rastakhan would have been some neat plot beats.
Sylvanas realising that, yes, she can’t Go Back, but she can move forward, continue to care for the Forsaken, find ways to help/cure other undead left over on Azeroth, and can even care for the other peoples of the Horde (even play on the sounding-selfish ‘These are MY people, you will not harm them!’ angle) works both for Legion and leading into BFA, ideally a BFA that does the sensible thing and has the likes of Genn and Rogers being the warmongers (and somethingsomething Old God influence, thank you very much)
Frankly, I’m quite happy calling it as Blizzards short sightedness, or outright creative incompetence .
I mean, Lillian wasn’t a Horde leader back then and had they “Off’ed” Sylvanas back then, perhaps it would’ve saved us from the Lightforged Undead Calia Menethil, Queen of Lordaeron disaster… (And the CHampion of the Pallid Lady).
Instead, they could have had Nathanos step up to lead the Forsaken, perhaps with his version of a Desolate Council, since he didn’t seem specifically against the idea of the Council, and then have the current members bar Calia in it…
“People wanted Sylvanas gone, so lets replace her with the guy who did everything she said and was the closest person to her”
In this alternate timeline, people would be asking why they killed her off just to replace her with a man that has the same personality but that has none of the WC3 historicism to him.
Varian’s story was finished after he soulmerged himself so maybe he should’ve died immediately after returning instead of getting a new arc.
Velen’s story was ended with Legion, so he should’ve died there.
Jaina’s story was done with Arthas, so she should’ve killed herself right next to Sylv, I suppose.
Mekkatorque’s story was done at the end of Vanilla Gnomeregan, so he should’ve died there.
Malfurion’s story was done at the end of Emerald Nightmare in Legion, so whoops, he’s dead. And I guess Tyrande’s not really got any major story beats at that point without her husband, so we can off her too while we’re at it. Does Shandris have any story? Nah, so she can go. Triple kill.
Never see this sorta stuff brought up for any character other than Sylvanas.
I can’t speak for everyone but the reason I wanted Sylvanas gone is because she seemed to just have the world’s most absurd plot armour that was blatantly only there because Blizzard wanted to try and do some sort of redemption arc with her.
For a character that we were repeatedly told was incredibly intelligent and morally grey, she seemed to just do the most blatantly evil things from Legion onwards, while possessing the intelligence of someone scanning through the quest texts. “I will never serve” after two expansions of conscious servitude is the single worst bit of writing in WoW if you ask me and it’s not even close.
Whenever Sylvanas was on screen it was like being in RP with that one person who thinks they’re the main character when in reality everyone else is there for literally every other character - with exception to the obsessive fans that will literally overlook every character flaw because #girlboss.
I’ve said it before and I’ve said it again that Sylvanas should have just been written as a villain - someone willing to do absurd and horrid things to the living to protect the forsaken and keep them content. Instead she’s doing it all for “the greater good” but all that boils down to is being the right hand man for Warcraft’s least interesting villain, Thanos from Temu™.
The Forsaken deserved better and the Horde absolutely did. Both sucked during Sylvanas’ tenure as Warchief.
Also Jaina got a lot of flack for going “NO NOT LIKE THIS” and teleporting out of Dazar’alor and desevedly so but that was literally Sylvanas entire thing from BFA through Shadowlands. So lame.
Except until BFA this simply was not a thing.
She was on par with the rest of the Forsake for having a Questionable Morals streak a mile wide, but given a lot of people still actively wanted to put the Forsaken back in the ground, as opposed to the Orcs who had had a reawakening and redemption arc and then went back to “Actually, maybe just a bit of Bloodlust, as a treat”, even that didn’t feel particularly agregous.
You look at Sylvanas in the intro of Legion, the quests there, and tell me “Yeah, this was totally pre-planned as a Villain arc, we know what we’re doing!” isn’t utterly laughable from the devs.
I’d argue even back then - was it really necessary to voluntarily raise people into undeath in Silverpine, or to blight Gilneas into an uninhabitable wasteland?
To me that’s a villain, but that’s not a critique - I enjoy villains, I enjoyed percieving Sylvanas during Cataclysm’s quests as a villain. A villain with perhaps noble goals but a villain all the same. So Blizzard’s insistence that she wasn’t always struck me as odd like
Let her be a villain so she can turn the forests of Darkshore into parking lots. Don’t hold her back with anti-hero or “misunderstood” labelling - let her be the force of destruction that the writers seemingly wanted her to be. (This is more of a joke - I know she isn’t a cartoon villain but honestly she’d have been a better character if they just committed to portraying her as the puppy stomping seal clubbing murder machine rather than “not servant” to the jailer)
I think they could have done BFAs plot in a slightly different direction - have a Horde civil war rather than have the Horde and Alliance team up for Siege of Orgrimmar 2.0. It’s a similar outcome but at least then the Horde is given agency over it’s own future rather than getting a slap on the wrist from the Alliance and told “don’t let us catch you doing that again!”
It’s not a massive improvement, but I think it’s still better than what we got. And yeah, it’d draw comparisons from when Vol’jin went against Garrosh but at least there’s a chance to take it in some different directions.
That’s like saying “Nobody minded Thrall as Green Jesus during Cata”.