#team sylvanas being done for good and no redemption

[ilianchant]

i s2g if they pull some shit like sylvanas getting redeemed bc the good part of her soul is trapped somewhere/the jailer having it i travel to california and punh danuser personally

[itsclydebitches]

Since you're probably the only person I follow here who plays WoW, I'm wondering; what do you think about the writing of Sylvanas in BFA and Shadowlands? A lot of people seem to be very unhappy with how the character has been handled.

Throwing these all together! It took me a while to get around to WoW asks because I was... playing WoW lol.

I'll be straight with everyone here: I'm probably one of the worst players to question about the narrative aspects, just because I've always been more focused on gameplay over story — or at least the in-depth story gained by listening to all the conversations, watching all the cutscenes, reading the tie-in novels, etc. MMOs are weird (and fascinating) in that it's so easy to be immersed in them while simultaneously bypassing 99% of the nuance. Do I know the basic setting, conflict, and goals? Sure. Do I know that such-and-such character yelled out this line as a callback to a fight three expansions ago? Not really. The non-linear experience of an MMO — dropping the game for large stretches of time, coming back in halfway through an expansion, doing new content before old content, exiting out of cutscenes because you've got somewhere to be, etc. — has created the unique ability to say, "I've played this game since its release and no, often I don't know wtf is going on." (Something that got even worse for me during Battle for Azeroth, actually).To put it in RWBY terms, I'm the happy fan entirely ignorant of the drama about Team RWBY's moral downfall, or the badly handled themes, and is just sitting in her isolated corner going, "That fight was so fun!"

All that being said and based on my established-as-shaky knowledge... yes, I'd say the backlash is very deserved lol. I haven't done the raid myself yet, but I've watched the cutscene and... what the fuck is going on with Sylvanas?

Her entire arc lately has been a bunch of cryptic BS that has little to no explanation attached. Honestly, I'd put money on at least part of my inability to follow the logic of certain arcs, or figure out what a character's motivations are, is simply because said logic and motivations don't exist/contradict/have plot holes/etc.

She suddenly decides that maybe genocide and enslaving everyone ever is a bad thing after the Jailer has basically made himself into an unstoppable god? Also, why is one of the least trusting characters putting so much insane trust in him, conveniently right up until the final hour when it's WAY too late?

HONESTLY, SYLVANAS, WHAT WERE YOU EXPECTING?

ZOVAAL WAS NEVER GONNA REFORM THINGS IN A GOOD WAY

HOW WAS THIS NOT OBVIOUS

I straight up want to revoke every writer's right to redemption arcs until they figure out how to actually do one properly

Between Emerald and Sylvanas I am slain

Her random change of heart results in her shooting the slowest, most telegraphed, useless arrow I've ever seen

It, shockingly, does nothing

So everyone is dead now, right? The Jailer has our heroes bound in chains, under his control, all set to take them out. He'll kill the only people capable of stopping him now, right?

Lol of course not because that would be smart

Instead he just leaves and also gives Sylvanas the piece of her soul back because? He's grateful???

Idk what's going on. It's all stupid. Lovelies in my inbox keep comparing RWBY to Final Fantasy, but let's talk about the writing similarities between RWBY and WoW: stupid villains, instant redemption, crazy high stakes with no real depth or payoff... it's a mess. The cinematic has 15k downvotes on Youtube against 4.6 upvotes. I felt vindicated upon noticing this.

WoW, I think, is good at small storytelling. I'm loving Shadowlands and (since the core gameplay rarely changes) a lot of that stems from my environment and short-term goals. I love gaining Ve'nari's trust and hunting down other cartel members for her. I love chatting with Theotar and sharing tea. Breaking into a hell-esque prison and helping unfortunate prisoners along the way? Excellent. Even the larger concept of an afterlife in need of reform, but that is ultimately threatened by the Jailor's idea of change, assisting and protecting souls in the four definitely not Hogwarts Houses afterlives is fantastic. It's just when WoW gets bigger and more ambitious that stuff really falls apart. Which, ultimately, is one of the reasons why I haven't put forth the effort to catch up on all the lore. I like the simple concept of being the Maw Walker, assisting friends and acquaintances with their immediate needs; less so the convoluted mess of whatever is going on in the cinematics.

... well, Anduin is the exception now. I need the raid to rescue my boy lol.