I mean, it’s not like people even in-universe have been pointing out the villainness (or villainnification) of Sylvanas since Cataclysm.
And be replaced by who, lol? I v. much doubt you would be happy if your favourite character was killed off in a short story which were all largely 8 “pages” long and one of which was a canonised fanfic lol.
There’s a stark contrast between how the prior CDev team and the current handled her. In Tides of War she argued against Theramore because the retaliation in Lordaeron would be too much for the Forsaken to handle on their own. You have so -much- internal monologue that, whether she liked the Horde or not, the Forsaken were here people and she at least cared for them and their survival.
And then Danuser and Golden turn up, “but who did Wrathgate -really-?” 
There’s a subtle difference between being antagonistic and being dick dastardly, Chieun.
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I feel like she blurred that line well before BFA.
I disagree, she was incredibly antagonistic. But she was never “DEATH FOR THE SAKE OF DEATH” like we’ve seen her being developed in BFA. They even inadvertently retconned their own pre-expac novel with this absolute garbage.
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Nathanos, Lillian Voss, literally anything that could have taken some work, perhaps with little content but build upon it over time. I agree that killing her off in a book was not wise either.
We need Godfrey at this point since he was the only one who got past that plot armor.
Who, at that point in time, was only rly involved in a tiny quest chain.
Lmao, the original undead shonen anime character. Absolute garbage.
XD
Oh I am not arguing with that. What BFA did undeniably do was turn bad to worse in a very poorly handled manner.
I must say, the speculation ‘Who’s behind Teldrassil??’ was the biggest joke I’ve seen in WoW’s story ever. So pathetic.
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No character should be antagonistic to the other faction, or even actively work against them. Baine Bloodhoofs only please!!!
I miss Varian and early Cataclysm Garrosh.
Back when Blizzard realised there were different character archetypes than peaceful hero and warlike villain.
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I can only imagine the sheer howling if Sylvanas had actively suggested installing a puppet leadership of another part of the Horde because she wasn’t a fan of the existing one (whom she tried to assassinate), and only got talked down barely by someone she was fond of.
Meanwhile Varian is all “I’ll try to assassinate another Alliance head of state and replace them because it’s politically easier” and everyone forgets about it.
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I mean, wasn’t there a lot of howling about that too?
I definitely seem to remember it not being well-received.
Not really, no.
Meanwhile Anduin actively subverts the Gathering he set up and everyone blames Sylv when it goes south.
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He’s also the reason why the Bilgewater Cartel is in the Horde; what with the “no witnesses” order to Thrall’s kidnapping.
Also, I think people would be howling if Sylv physically split into two different people and was granted some <insert other race’s demi-god’s weapon> because she’s their incarnation or something because ???.
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I definitely seem to remember there being howling about it, and I played back then. Not as much because Varian otherwise didn’t do as much crazy stuff, of course, and because dwarf fans are a dying breed.
When you order the killing of refugees fleeing from a natural disaster but you’re still not a villain. 
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Not sure Varian had that in mind specifically when he made a “no witnesses” order.
But would he have still done it had he known though? Yeah for sure.
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The King we needed, not the one we deserved…
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Just sick of the same story told from Warcraft 2 tbh bros.
Up until this day I utterly despised Varian and still despise Anduin.
I howled like crazy at Varian in MoP, hell even in WoTLK, he just randomly showed up and got given command over the whole Alliance when Magni or Muradin was the far better choice.
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I really don’t see why Varian’s actions in The Shattering are somehow an issue. I mean, this wasn’t just a case of Moira being the legitimate heir to Ironforge – he acknowledges as much in the novel – but her simply executing a coup. She was essentially trying to take over the second largest city in the Alliance and wasn’t approaching the situation as Magni’s daughter, but as the ruler of the Dark Iron Clan. Varian/the Alliance had every right to interfere imo, and the solution ended up being a very good compromise.
Maybe you could argue the dwarves should’ve reached that solution on their own, but there’s no way that would’ve happened – they’d just have ended up in another war if the Alliance’s de facto ruler hadn’t stepped in.
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