Certain spoilers from the 9.1 thread remind me of what another MMORPG did, a little too strongly.
Spoilers for 9.1 of WoW and 4.0 - 4.3 of that other MMO
So Sylvanas has a fractured soul, much like Uther - and it's being implied that should the soul of Sylvanas be restored, the resulting Sylvanas will be one who took no part in any of the evil deeds that the Sylvanas we know perpetrated. In short, an innocent version of Sylvanas who did nothing wrong.I’m strongly reminded the moral dilemma surrounding a villain from the Stormblood expansion, someone called Yotsuyu. She served as the governor of her homeland on the behalf of its imperial conquerors, but she hated her own people and tormented them at every possible opportunity. Over the course of the expansion, it is revealed that she became this way because she endured a whole bunch of trauma at the hands of her native culture. In the end, she’s left to die in a building that collapses into a river after she’s defeated.
However, she shows up later in the expansion, having been rescued from the river but having suffered severe head trauma that left her without her memories. The good guys are forced to debate whether this amnesiac Yotsuyu - or ‘Tsuyu’ - should be punished for her crimes or whether she should be given a chance to live a new life, free from trauma. Being the good guys, they choose the latter.
Unfortunately, the machinations of another villain cause her memories to return, and believing herself unworthy of the kindness of the good guys, she contemplates suicide. However, she’s quickly reminded of the cruelty she suffered at the hands of her own culture and is unable to forgive her people. So Yotsuyu forces the player to fight her one last time and in her final moments, she kills one of the characters responsible for most of her suffering. In the end, she dies satisfied and it’s all very tragic.
This feels like Blizzard is stealing a lot of notes on “how to make a villain sympathetic after they have done a lot of heinous stuff.” But there’s a lot of differences, at least in my eyes.
- Yotsuyu’s entire story was told over the course of a single expansion. The story of Sylvanas is almost twenty years old at this point.
- Yotsuyu’s introduction, initial defeat and the reveal that she survived the collapsing building were all shown in 4.0, a single patch, making it clear that this story was planned from beginning. Meanwhile, the fact that we have never gotten any inkling of Sylvanas having a fractured soul makes this story feel like it’s contrived, as though it was invented in the past couple of months for the sole purpose of redeeming Sylvanas.
- Yotsuyu’s story had a beginning, a middle and an end. Her ‘redemption’ wasn’t just a bit of fan service to justify keeping a beloved villain alive, it was done to make the players consider a moral quandary and ultimately ended in heartfelt tragedy. Though I can’t speak with certainty, the redemption of Sylvanas feels like it will serve no purpose other than to keep a fan favorite character alive and justify not killing her. I can’t imagine this good, whole Sylvanas with her soul united being killed off for the sake of tragedy. This writing team just doesn’t have the guts for that, in my opinion.
- The level of contrivance is a little different too. Amnesia through head trauma is a little overdone, but it’s simple and it’s believable. The amount of hoops that Blizzard needs to jump through in order to create a Sylvanas who hasn’t done anything wrong however, is utterly absurd. I saw the term ‘retcon-plothole-pandemonium’ somewhere and that perfectly describes most of Shadowlands, this fractured-Sylvanas plot included.
- The final death of Yotsuyu grants closure to everyone in the audience, no matter what side they were on. People who loved her and hated her all got what they wanted. Yotsuyu got to experience a little joy in her life as Tsuyu, but she also received the punishment that she deserved in the end. I can’t see Blizzard doing anything with Sylvanas that will give the people who dislike the closure that they want, unfortunately. She’ll come out of this fully redeemed and/or alive, and that will leave a lot of people very frustrated.
A talented writing team can make a villain who has done a lot of evil deeds sympathetic. Villains can be very tragic and nuanced characters when written properly. I just don’t trust Blizzard’s writing team to achieve that with Sylvanas, not at this point.
In short, I’ve lost all faith in Blizzard’s ability to write a compelling story. I’d put this in the 9.1 thread, but I’d rather keep any discussion of non-WoW games confined to Pet Peeves.