[SPOILERS] Why do you hate Illidan?

[Zandalarian Paladin]

It just doesn't make sense to me.

It's fine to have characters that are above everybody else. I mean, there always have been some heroes in pretty much any story - hell, even in the bible we have a man who can split seas in two and a man who can live outside his body!

So when I see people being angry at Illidan being such an important character, I don't get it. His story make sense. It's not as if he was born overpowered either. Honestly, if you've followed his story, you'd know that Illidan is probably one of the characters who suffered the most and I don't speak of the Tyrande part.

We all knew that the story was bigger than the Burning Legion too. I mean, hell, the VOID is the biggest enemy in the universe. That's where old gods are created. And with Azeroth being a she-titan who has not yet awakened, it's more than just the bad guys on Azeroth. We're beyond that at this point.

The burning legion is just the beginning and we will need stronger characters than just us to wipe them. If that mean that we have to empower some heroes, why would that be a travesty?

[Deleted]

I love illidan

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Sorry I had to be the first to reply in this
I am with you mate 100%

[Aaldrus]

If that mean that we have to empower some heroes, why would that be a transvestite?

Uh. I think you might have been going for "travesty" here.

On-topic: Illidan comes off as really edgy sometimes, which is why I assume a lot of people don't like him. Ultimately, he strikes me as a pretty interesting character. A questline in Legion shows some of his backstory, which is pretty great to see play out ingame.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Uh. I think you might have been going for "travesty" here

Yep, autocorrect can be an arse sometime.

[Florena]

My only concern is that they'll gloss over the bad he did. He did some bad and messed up stuff along the way, and I don't want it swept under the rug to go on about how special lidan is and how he's so misunderstood and he's the only one who understands the true threat of the legion.

[Arrashi]

Honestly he really needs more red. Like a red strip of hair and coat. That would make him true member of team edge along shadow the hedgehog, dante and that chick from kill la kill.

[Raetary]

i dont hate illidan, but i dislike holy illidan, the senpai of xe'ra.

[Qualia]

Friendly reminder from 4ch gentlemen that 99% of MCs can be hated, cringe-worthy, shitty and classified with one or more negative terms.

[Deleted]

Friendly reminder from 4ch gentlemen that 99% of MCs can be hated, cringe-worthy, shitty and classified with one or more negative terms.

Illidan is not a MC
but if you think he is then tell me why

[Qualia]

Illidan is not a MC
but if you think he is then tell me why

Eh, he is definitely the main character in his story and one of the main characters during WoTA, RoC, TBC, and soon during / after Legion. A MC is just someone who plays important role(s), has a major purpose, and / or impact the story. It isn't limited to the protagonist(s) either, why isn't Illidan one?

[Jademist]

I don't hate him. And after reading the novel I have grown to respect him and the sacrifices he had made for his people and for Azeroth as a whole.

[DemonHunter18]

from where did you get that people hate him??? I mean, I understand that people hate him now because of that holy crap going on.

[Grenzstein]

I like him even more after the novel. He is the only one with the balls to do what is needed: open a portal to Argus and put an end to the Legion leadership.

[Wildmoon]

I did like him as a character. I don't like him now. You confuse being important with being ridiculous. Khadgar is important. Medivh was important. Malfurion was important. Aegwynn was important. Then there were Thrall and Med'an who were destined out of nowhere to do X because of whatever reason.

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My only concern is that they'll gloss over the bad he did. He did some bad and messed up stuff along the way, and I don't want it swept under the rug to go on about how special lidan is and how he's so misunderstood and he's the only one who understands the true threat of the legion.

They are not glossing over them. They are retconnig them to make the actions actually justified which is worse.

[Deleted]

Eh, he is definitely the main character in his story and one of the main characters during WoTA, RoC, TBC, and soon during / after Legion. A MC is just someone who plays important role(s), has a major purpose, and / or impact the story. It isn't limited to the protagonist(s) either, why isn't Illidan one?

Because he is no way near perfect he is a manipulating, opportunistic, backstabbing piece of shit that needs an ass whooping now and then and that is why I love this character just because he is the protagonist, the chosen one or whatever you want to call him does not mean that we will acknowledge him as the ultimate hero he is chaotic good, kills people to save more people, while a MC saves everyone with his/hers unstoppable superpowers

[Aeula]

I don't hate him. Not yet anyway.

Once he becomes a paladin I will definitely hate him.

[Deleted]

My only concern is that they'll gloss over the bad he did. He did some bad and messed up stuff along the way, and I don't want it swept under the rug to go on about how special lidan is and how he's so misunderstood and he's the only one who understands the true threat of the legion.

It's complicated in my eyes. Yes, some of his actions were outright not in the "good" or "pure good" category, but they were the most effective solution to the problem at hand, most of the time anyways. Illidan doesn't sit tight and wait for the sissy's to jump in and preach good. If he sees an opportunity he takes it and acts. Sometimes a morally questionable/black decision is better than the morally correct/white one when it comes to the effectiveness of the outcome. He really didn't need redemption. Every black decision he made, all the bad he did, was -for- Azeroth at the end of the day, which is a white/morally correct outcome.

And that being said, I actually like that we are the ones that Xe'ra wants to teach, instead of Illidan. We went in for the kill on him, based on the (IC) info we got from a broken draenei, that really just (selfishly so) wanted his shitty Temple back, thus also getting us involved with a chick that fanatically wanted him dead just to keep up her Warden honor of bringing him to "justice". Neither we nor Akama and Maiev did something morally white by killing him, no matter how some of his actions can be perceived - which brings us close to Illidan as the PC. We didn't know it, sure, but objectively speaking, we wanted to defend Azeroth and ended up killing one of it's most stalwart defenders.

It makes the PC look much more "human", in my eyes - instead of being the always-so-perfect mary sue hero, we did make mistakes, with echoing consequences that now catch up to us. With the PC and Illidan alike, there's more grey than anything else. Same shit with Gul'dan - everybody fucking knew that releasing him is the worst idea you could come up with - but it was really the only choice to shut down the portal, nevermind that we did trap ourselves with "Darkness Incarnate" on the loose, in a world where canonically probably even butterflies are savage beasts, nevermind that it was filled with Metal Gear SMOrcIt Orcs. And what did we get out of that? We gave Gul'dan a chance to overthrow Grommash, summon Archimonde and jump-start the Legion Invasion on Azeroth.

I agree with some of the others, that most of the hate probably comes from the mental image of a Holy Illidan. But I'll hold my judgement on that whole deal, until I actually see it with my own eyes - it's Illidan afterall.

[Qualia]

Because he is no way near perfect he is a manipulating, opportunistic, backstabbing piece of shit that needs an ass whooping now and then and that is why I love this character just because he is the protagonist, the chosen one or whatever you want to call him does not mean that we will acknowledge him as the ultimate hero he is chaotic good, kills people to save more people, while a MC saves everyone with his/hers unstoppable superpowers

You don't need to be perfect, or be able to save everyone his your power in order to be an MC, though. Even an antagonist can be a main character as long as you play an important part to the plot. A main character doesn't need to be a / the hero him/herself.

[Florena]

My wariness largely comes from the retcon in the story. Now, I don't hate Illidan. I'm just wary about where the story is going.

In BC he was a raving lunatic who went mad after being beaten by Arthas and even shouts at you in one quest about how 'not even Arthas could beat him' or something to that effect. Sure his story wasn't handled well in BC. But the writers certainly did not have these grandiose plans about him trying to invade Argus back then. That's all been retconned in. And that's where the heart of my issue lies. I don't mind when the PC messes up. My issue is that they're retconning this mistake into something we did years ago to try and paint Illidan in a better light and this feels kind of forced. I'm glad they're giving Ilidan more story but I'm not a fan of them retconning his portrayal in BC. Xera says we're complicit in Illidan's fall? Well guess what so are the Naaru. A Naaru was leading scryer and aldor forces in the siege. Guess what Xera that menas the Naaru were also complicit in it. These new developments don't feel like an organic expansion from what we saw in BC, it feels forced in. And they portray Illidan as being the 'only one to really understand' the true threat/scope of the legion.

Gray characters are interesting when their darker actions are called out and questioned. If the story ends up glossing over the bad things Illidan and his followers did, such as enslaving the Broken, that detracts from the story and character overall. When you sweep the darker deeds under the rug they become less interesting. I'm not judging the story as a whole until we actually get the whole picture, but I'm seeing some signs that I'm not going to like where this goes. The one light of hope I've found is that one of the two second in commands DHs get in their order hall is someone who acknowledges that Illidan strayed too far and shouldn't be followed blindly.

[Wildmoon]

It's complicated in my eyes. Yes, some of his actions were outright not in the "good" or "pure good" category, but they were the most effective solution to the problem at hand, most of the time anyways. Illidan doesn't sit tight and wait for the sissy's to jump in and preach good. If he sees an opportunity he takes it and acts. Sometimes a morally questionable/black decision is better than the morally correct/white one when it comes to the effectiveness of the outcome. He really didn't need redemption. Every black decision he made, all the bad he did, was -for- Azeroth at the end of the day, which is a white/morally correct outcome.

This was never true in WC3 nor the trilogy. I agree with the fact that he doesn't need to be redeemed. Illidan as a character thrives on the the fact he was selfish and power hungry. He could work with anyone if he shares the same goal.