The point at which people feel the necessity to bring out of its context whatever menial act of evil they can find, is the point at which it becomes apparent that they are grasping at whatever they can.
Half the list there is comprised by either menial acts that almost every character in the setting is “guilty” off, or the randomised iteration the character had in BfA, that required of writers to discard past development through retcons, or downright ignore whatever virtue this past attitude was accompanied with.
Having a hard time reconciling the “She disobeyed her superior” with “She is obviously a villain beyond redemption”.
If you do, well, you may want to take a look at the rest of characters in the setting.
Cba to tackle the rest of reasons separately because they all fall under the aforementioned groups of either “She stole some candy”, or “She behaved as a psycho after writers suddenly made her into one”.
Neither of which poses what i’d call a logical development towards villainy.
If you do, then i guess that you see it coming if Tyrande bites it because of that one time she talked back at Anduin. Blizzard just needs to add a sudden twist that retcons the fact that she was defending her people, and introduce some newfound deity that had promised her Superpowers in exchange for her absolute loyalty and the heads of a thousand dead orc orphans, or whatever.
No, i do not.
Have you been around Maldraxxus lately? Have you seen what both factions do to enemy third parties on a daily basis?
Glad to know that.
Fortunately, that hasn’t been the case for Sylvanas neither.
Thats because we have inner monologues in which she clarifies such as being the case.
You would’ve known if you had informed yourself beyond the usual, and biased stance of the recurrent Sylvanas Hate Mob.
Well, to be fair, you do try to “inform” yourself. If only to grasp at your own interpretation of stuff like:
Which apparently serves to define the entirety of a character, out of some vague interpretation of some words (you know Alleria calls Void Elves arrows too, right? It seems to be standard Windrunner speech for soldiers under them), but couldn’t care enough to check on 200 page novels that expand deeper into her feelings.
And contradict your stance about her not caring for them.
Want me to quote said bits to prove further just how wrong you are?
She indeed does. Initially.
She also tries to avoid the deaths of her nephews, sees it as an act of mercy, and fully pardons/understands her reaction later on in a comic.
Again, grasping at whatever act you can find and bringing it out of context does wonders if you have blinders thick as a wall. Not as effective in order to sell on a logical/natural character progression.
Turalyon tortured an orc, and then did the same with a mother in front of her child.
Tyrande was willing to sacrifce the entire Nightborne rebel faction as fodder in order to take Suramar. And then took on a dark power willingly.
Guess that would be enough to turn him them into villains, right? No other context needed.
The Article itself has links to the Q&A that clarifies such. As well as the Wowpedia link for the Jailer that tackles the Valkyr deal.
God, you can’t be any more obvious in how you are now grasping at anything.
Like, mate, its known that Blizzard had to retcon Sylvanas. There is no doubt about it.
Here, take if you wish the MMO transcript. Literally wrote down all the Q&A:
https://www.mmo-champion.com/content/8823-BlizzCon-2019-World-of-Warcraft-Q-A-Panel-Recap
Q: Did the Jailer see Sylvanas as a threat?
A: We will find out during the story that Sylvanas’s dealings with the Jailer started when she threw herself off of Icecrown in Edge of Night. She helped Varian in Legion as a way to thrust herself into a position of power.
The second bit is yet another retcon. In the novel we also have the bits where she has an inner monologue that expresses how affected she was regarding Vol’jins AND Varians sacrifice, how she DIDN’T want to be Warchief, and how she blames the LOA for appointing her as such.
The paragraph above, on itself, tears down the very premise behind the overarching plot of both BfA and SL. Like, to the absolute ground.
Want a quote on that too? Its from Before the Storm.
No.
I’m explaining how the mere act of not being willing to follow certain orders, isn’t on itself an indicative of being a villain.
No…
We already had a plot around Tyrande in Valsharah and Suramar.
We also had one regarding Malfurion in Cataclysm.
We had again another one in BfA in Darkshore.
And we have yet another one in Ardenweald.
I know that you just keep grasping at whatever, but if you want i’ll spell it out simpler if only to make it dificult for you to act disingenous: It was a narrative arch that gave them a distinctive additional customisation option with heavy lore implications.
And happened exclusively, and only, for them and nobody else.
No.
The story is being ruined for the Forsaken because its demonising and rejecting core traits that made up a big chunk of their racial appeal for players.
And throwing under the bus, both representatives these players had grown attached to, and the exponents that could’ve continued the traits that had defined the race.
Because the losses they had, compared to the ones Orcs or Forsaken had, are on a whole different scale.
Night Elves went through a major narrative loss that Worgen, Gnomes, Blood Elves, Maghar, Tauren, Draenei, and almost every other race, had gone through at some point. (I’d argue that the Maghar losing the entirety of their planet was a bigger one, but you don’t really care, right? They are orcs after all.)
How exactly was it handled on a story level? As a way to further several aspects of their story, prop their protagonists to major roles in the overarching plot, and without severely harming the basic traits that make up the race (in fact, it accentuated stuff like their savagery, and their bond with nature through Ardenweald).
Now, how was the villain batting of Garrosh and Sylvanas go for Orcs and Forsaken? They suffered a similar disaster as the Night elves, Gnomes, et al…BUT, it was also accompanied by a thorough removal and condemning of the core values that made up either race.
Are you proud to be an orc that values strength? Nope, we are going to kill off said foundation by crapping on the legacy of the entire faction and proclaiming that the only time they behave “apropriately” is when they do so under an Human-influenced outlier.
We even went back in time in order to crap even more over their legacy as a species.
To the above, we also add the systemic removal of every major narrative driver that could’ve pushed the race lore forward: Nazgrim, Zaela, Garrosh,…
What relevant characters are left in order to push whatever story is left after said disaster swept over their race?
With the Forsaken, we have the exact same scenario: the major loss accompanied by the systemic removal or rejection of every core value the race had been having up until then.
And of course, the villain batting and killing of the protagonist characters that could’ve served to push their story forth.
In their case, it becomes even more alienating, as they are presented with characters that either act anathema to their previous characterisation (Calia), or are forced B-liners with close to zero actual development and minuscule ties with the actual faction (Voss).
I know both these texts will fly waaaay past you. But well, had some free time and felt like expanding.
TLDR: No, the losses aren’t even comparable.
NEs loss was that of some vague population number in a setting that has never cared about population, whereas the Forsaken one specifically aimed at crippling them narratively by shooting at the very core of what had defined them up until now.
Sarcasm is a much healthier approach than your apparent inferiority complex that urges you to condone obvious bad storytelling if only for the sake of lashing out at a fictional character.
But do not worry, i’ll be there when said story approach swings back, and hits other characters.
See ya in the next “Why did Blizzard Villain bat Tyrande/Turalyon/Velen/Anduin?! They sure hate Night elves/Humans/Draenei!!” thread.
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