Hot take, but am I the only one who watched the cinematic and didn’t get the instant doom and gloom post death threats on Twitter “Sylvanas is absolved of all guilt and nobody blames her for what she has done” vibe?
Like she herself establishes that everything she has done, she did willingly. Every choice she made was her own as she was a consenting partner in this. She was certainly manipulated, and when she realised that she doesn’t get to enjoy the preferential treatment anymore, she stopped vibing with the plan to eradicate all existence, because she would have to be a servant which she didn’t consider herself to be before.
When Zovaal returns her soul, he literally says that he’s abandoning her to the wolves at the door to be judged for the she herself pulled off. For all the talk about how “the maker’s plan is unfair,” that’s only the case if you go around committing genocide and then pikachu face like a psychopathic narcissist when the consequences of your actions catch up with you.
We’re all anticipating the direction that it’s going to go in, that’s all. The cinematic itself is fine in a vacuum, and all of its beats are fine in a vacuum. It’s just awful when you combine it with the rest of the narrative and as soon as you do that, you can start making cynical guesses about the direction that the narrative is going to go in.
And the saddest part about this is that so far, a lot of the cynical guesses have been extremely accurate. At this stage in the narrative, Sylvanas isn’t absolved of all guilt, but it’s easy to see how the story could go in that direction.
I mean sure it may not be the “Doom and gloom redemption story” right from the get go but they’re setting it up or leaving themselves some room for it to potentially happen.
You can say that this Sylvanas is a different one from the one we’ve known because she’s “complete” but that’s a lazy deflection “I’m sorry your honor, my client pleads insanity and incompleteness of soul that caused her to commit all of her actions up this point.” will not satisfy anyone, but it’s one that has a strong possibility to happen.
It’s very handwashy IMO, them going with a War Crimes 2.0 situation doesn’t really cut it either, what can anyone really do to Sylvanas to make her pay for causing an galaxy wide ticket to all souls straight to the maw? What punishment can she be held account? And let’s not forget the possibility of them going “Oh no what we need to inflict upon Sylvanas is justice, not vengeance.” Sure Zovaal is mostly responsible but her hands were there right next to his.
Right now we don’t know anything, but we’ve been pretty on point regarding predictable directions of the narrative so yeah… A redemption attempt seems like the most likely of moves from Danuser&co.
Thing is, personally I don’t find that kind of cynicism enjoyable. It’s a lot easier to enjoy the game (because that’s all it is in the end) for what it is if you don’t taint your own enjoyment of it with cynical hypotheticals and what ifs.
Could that happen? Yeah. Will it? We don’t know. Based on what we see in the cinematic, it wasn’t my first thought. Zovaal and Sylvanas both know she willingly participated in this and he leaves her for the others to be judged for her messed up actions
On April 26 I made this opinionated piece of mind/rant about how we were denied seeing the point of view of two characters after being away for so long, but if I understand the latest scene correctly and that Sylvanas soul is back, her memories returning from before being killed by Arthas, does that mean we will see this? But from Sylvanas’s point of view?! Wow. I just… I don’t even know what to say, or even think, at this point. However…
My guess is a few things I can see they’re taking this:
Sylvanas being controlled by the Jailer is the same thing as when Tyrande became the Night Warrior. Both couldn’t control themselves, and therefore, a loyal bond will be formed between the two as the Jailer leaves and teams up with Elune.
Or: Afterwhich Tyrande’s people would demand justice, and so does the Alliance. Tyrande says that Sylvanas wasn’t herself and that’s okay. If Tyrande thinks it’s okay, then everyone will back down. Maybe someone will pop up, maybe Maiev would question this decision but Tyrande will say that she has made her choice, causing an even deeper rift between the two, and Maiev storms off.
As speculated by someone else (as I won’t take credit for this): Tyrande wants justice regardless, and a short trial will be formed but each Faction leader forms a circle, each member saying what good or bad Sylvanas has done. Now, despite it seems to be nearly all in favor for Sylvanas’ death, it will all come to halt: Either she states that she doesn’t remember what she has done/it wasn’t her, or pressing matters need more attention and the decision is postponed. Sylvanas takes up her bow and she’s ready to defend what is hers again. She may end up sacrificing herself, and everyone will believe that she did a good thing in the end.
anyone else really hyped to see the celestials put up a whole trial only to pull the rug out from everyone at the last moment and say ‘haha actually all the accusers were on trial here’ again
sorry no, thrall is actual green jesus and jaina is currently in a nice phase, you’ll have to wait until she enters another mean phase
she herself pulled off. For all the talk about how “the maker’s plan is unfair,” that’s only the case if you go around committing genocide and then pikachu face like a psychopathic narcissist when the consequences of your actions catch up with you.
posting to save my life 