If Sylvanas was ugly, would she have made it this far?

[YUPPIE]

I am not really joking. If Sylvana wasn't a shapely elf wearing slutty clothing and more along the lines of a rotting corpse or Banshee, would she have made it this far to where she was in the story or would Blizzard have disposed of her long before?

Just because I honestly wonder how much Sylvanas appearance plays into her rabid fanbase.

[Nuggsy]

I am not really joking. If Sylvana wasn't a shapely elf wearing slutty clothing and more along the lines of a rotting corpse or Banshee, would she have made it this far to where she was in the story or would Blizzard have disposed of her long before?

Just because I honestly wonder how much Sylvanas appearance plays into her fanbase.

There is nothing wrong with liking evil characters. My issues are with her fans that make constant excuses for her and act like she's a good/caring leader. But to answer you question, no. I think if she was just some rotting dude named Frank she'd have way less fans. She's passed Garrosh levels of evil and it's only a matter of time before she breaks up the Horde like he does - at least if the other leaders have any common sense whatsoever. Yet she's a hot elf babe that makes a great imaginary wifu so lets ignore all her bullshit.

[MechaCThun]

I am not really joking. If Sylvana wasn't a shapely elf wearing slutty clothing and more along the lines of a rotting corpse or Banshee, would she have made it this far to where she was in the story or would Blizzard have disposed of her long before?

Just because I honestly wonder how much Sylvanas appearance plays into her fanbase.

And now all of a sudden Anduin resembles a younger Brad Pitt.

Interesting...

[Goldielocks]

All three Windrunner sisters suffer from this. They've all outstayed their welcome and people still put up with their bullshit because they're hot elves.

[AwkwardSquirtle]

She'd have fans still, I'm sure, but maybe not quite as many.

[ohwell]

I mean is any faction leader "ugly" by their own people's standards? I mean about the only ugly leader really would be Gallywix and he should have been tossed a long time ago considering he's done worse things than Sylvanas.

[Kyphael]

Are there really any ugly female characters in Warcraft? I mean, main characters. The Windrunner sisters, Jaina, Alexstrasza and Ysera (humanoid forms), Tyrande, are all pretty hot. I mean I know there are characters like Moira and Aggra, but they're more or less supporting characters.

My point is, all main female characters are hot because especially in fantasy, the writers don't make "ugly" characters the main heroes.

[Blizzard Moneybot]

I think the better question is 'If Nathanos was the leader of the Forsaken and not Sylvanas would he come close to the popularity of Sylvanas' and the answer is definitely not.

Somehow her dull writing only made 10000 times worse by Christie Golden is deemed 'interesting'. I guess when leveled against the puke that is Alliance writing and Anduin it's relatively interesting, but in general it's a piss poor revenge story. There are a bunch of interesting paths the Forsaken could've taken, but the only two seem to be regaining HUMAN POTENTIAL or being pathologically vindictive. Blizzard sucks at writing.
How about Undead that like to hunt treasures of the Titans and re-engineer the curse of flesh to keep themselves from falling apart or improve their bodies? Oh no, can't do that something something interesting ideas blah blah actually provides friction with the Dwarves and thus has some basis in the mindless faction conflict. Coz Undead (humans) can't possibly have ANY interest in their Titan origins. Nah let's make them no different from the Scourge in action, but then say some bullshit about 'choice' and say 'morally grey'.

[Fritters154]

All three Windrunner sisters suffer from this. They've all outstayed their welcome and people still put up with their bullshit because they're hot elves.

Well, Alleria was out of the picture until the later half of Legion. I don't think Blizz was willing to kill any of them off before writing their reunion (which became a poorly drawn/written comic). Now that's done, let the killing commence! I expect Vereesa and Sylvanas to be dead by the end of BfA, with Alleria carrying over into whatever void-centric expansion comes after.

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My point is, all main female characters are hot because especially in fantasy, the writers don't make "ugly" characters the main heroes.

"ugly" women basically don't exist in fantasy. Women in fantasy are tall and slender with big boobs, generally wearing provocative highly inefficient clothing/armor. Unless of course they are a non-human/elf race. Then they can vary a little from that standard, albeit while still maintaining many proportion aspects seen with elves and humans.

[Blizzard Moneybot]

generally wearing provocative highly inefficient clothing/armor.

I'm still curious how metal armour is a good defence against a fireball or glob of flying lava. Seems more like your own portable dutch oven. But alas a topic for another thread...

[Athorha]

I think blizz wants players to like her for being bad... hence why she's attractive. It's also easier to make a "bad guy" likeable, if they are attractive.
Illidan has always received fairly positive reception... Malfurion not so much, despite being polar opposites in how they carry out actions.

I'm fairly certain any writer understands what implications are being made when they make a character noticeably attractive, and there's nothing wrong with chracters being given more leeway because of so... it's entirely intentional.

[Fritters154]

I'm still curious how metal armour is a good defence against a fireball or glob of flying lava. Seems more like your own portable dutch oven. But alas a topic for another thread...

I guess maybe only having bikini armor would help there?

[Blizzard Moneybot]

Malfurion not so much, despite being polar opposites in how they carry out actions.

Malfurion is touted as one of the strongest beings on Azeroth yet in combat he's a wet noodle who needs Tyrande to save his dumb ass. Illidan never had any such problems, hence his popularity. He also wasn't endlessly smug, he got results, said 'YOU'RE WELCOME' in a sarcastic tone and moved on.

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I guess maybe only having bikini armor would help there?

Enchanted bikinis that repel fireballs and lava bursts would be awesome. I'd wear them to the beach and never have to worry about a sunburn.

[cocomen2]

Funny thing but all that sylvana-hatred began when Blizzards changed her model from sexy naked-belly to rough leather armor chestplate, all these kids betrayed their waifu.
If serious ugly Sylv. would be dead in wotlk , in same way as Vol`Jin by random mob.

[Goldielocks]

Well, Alleria was out of the picture until the later half of Legion. I don't think Blizz was willing to kill any of them off before writing their reunion (which became a poorly drawn/written comic). Now that's done, let the killing commence! I expect Vereesa and Sylvanas to be dead by the end of BfA, with Alleria carrying over into whatever void-centric expansion comes after.

That is a good point, but I'm just sick of Vereesa's moral grandstanding and Sylvanas' Garrosh 2.0 attitude. Even being out of the picture for a large amount of time, Alleria comes back and basically acts just like Vereesa in regards to the Horde vs Alliance conflict. This shit got old years ago.

[Fritters154]

That is a good point, but I'm just sick of Vereesa's moral grandstanding and Sylvanas' Garrosh 2.0 attitude. Even being out of the picture for a large amount of time, Alleria comes back and basically acts just like Vereesa in regards to the Horde vs Alliance conflict. This shit got old years ago.

My hopes for Alleria all revolve around her disowning Turalyon and Arator or watching them both die. They hold her back from the void lorethat is clearly going to drive her story forward. She is acting like the standard Alliance side leader right now while Legion set her up to be possibly the most interesting leader within a faction going forward. She NEEDS to be a central figure in the eventual void expansion and joining a faction war doesn't make any sense for her character (spent 1000 years fighting the Legion and is probably the most aware character of the void threat). Alleria should have remained as a neutral character trying to prevent the factions from killing each other like Thrall has done in the past.

If anything, she is nowhere near as bad as Turalyon though. He is the typical alliance paladin leader that we've already seen, albeit with less personality to his current iteration than Uther or Tirion.

[Static]

I think she'd still be alive and have a lot of fans even if she's ugly. Had Sylvanas been a male, though, he would've been dead a long, long time ago.

[Mellrod]

I'm still curious how metal armour is a good defence against a fireball or glob of flying lava. Seems more like your own portable dutch oven. But alas a topic for another thread...

Well in games like Divinity: Original Sin 2, all forms of armor (light and heavy) provide some form of protection against magical attacks in the form of magic armor. This is represented by a sort of force field around the character's body that appears when being hit my magic projectiles and attacks to absorb the bulk of the impact.

This kind of thing has basically been my head canon for most other fantasy games and stories ever since seeing it in Original Sin 2.

[Alydael]

I am not really joking. If Sylvana wasn't a shapely elf wearing slutty clothing and more along the lines of a rotting corpse or Banshee, would she have made it this far to where she was in the story or would Blizzard have disposed of her long before?

Just because I honestly wonder how much Sylvanas appearance plays into her rabid fanbase.

I think if she was ugly not as many people would like her (as obvious as that sounds).

She isn't the first person to get ahead because of her "looks," most of the celebrities cashed in that way.

It doesn't matter that she is undead since she is just a fictional character.

[ello]

I believe character design contributes to the popularity of any character, Sylvanas is no exception. Not just the female characters, but males as well. I noticed the popularity of Saurfang, Baine, Vol'jin etc go up when they got model updates. Which make sense, we as humans like to look at things that are aesthetically pleasing. Nothing wrong with that.

However, reducing Sylvanas' character to a sex object is an incredibly lazy way to pretend she has no legitimate appeal as a character outside of her design. The fact that you would do it so readily speaks poorly of you.

Besides, Sylvanas is not a scantily clad character anymore. She is either more or equally covered as Jaina, Thalyssra, Alleria, Alexstraza, Vereesa, Liadrin etc.

Also this thread is pointless. @Aucald please save us.