'War Of The Thorns' Novellas Incoming - Key Details Not In-Game

[Zeek Daniels]

The novel doesnt put her in a better light. Shes still the same no matter how you look at it. She wanted to crush the hope of the Night Elfs? And then what? Fact is she let millions of elfs burn to death, Innocent civilians. Shes evil end of discussion.

As to her General not wanting this to happen. I think its pretty clear from the game play and his refusal to kill Malfurion that he would also oppose killing innocents. And i think that this will play out in BFA on the horde side with him.

[The Stormbringer]

6. Sylvanas doesn't just throw a tantrum and burn the tree because Delaryn insults her. Her goal was to break the night elves' spirit and occupy Teldrassil by killing Malfurion. Because Malfurion escapes, and because of Delaryn's little speech about hope, she instead burns the tree to destroy hope (still evil, but it's Sylvanas)

She still changes her entire plan willy-nilly because of one elf's statement and last stand. Yes, Malfurion surviving may be a part of that, but mere moments before she was ready to go through with the original plan to invade. One dying elf shouldn't be able to change her plan, and she should've considered how the rest of the Horde would react to it, as well as the Alliance in general.

[Wildmoon]

I really hope they don't make Saurfang sparing Malfurion a direct consequence of Elune's interference. If he's having a character crisis, I don't want it to be derailed by literal deus ex machina.

I think the text leaves it vague enough. It's more like the seed of doubt was already in Saurfang's head but Elune steered him toward it more. I mean her light fills him with positive emotions.

[MoanaLisa]

Bullshit. They came up with this shit overnight when people went full berserk over the lame writing.

No. The novellas have been planned and written for some months now. You can blame narrative director Afrasiabi for what gets into the game and what gets assigned to the books/novellas.

[Hyral]

I really hope they can figure out away to break the horde in two and we can leave all those goody-two-shoes fake hordies behind to play with their sand castles.

Yeah! Drek'thar, Eitrigg, Rehgar, Saurfang, Broxigar, Grommash, Thrall, what a bunch of fake losers. Real horde kill civilians and their own troops, raise them as undead, and spread the plague!

Arthas would be proud of you. Gul'dan too actually.

[Florena]

I'll acknowledge it's a fine line to walk, especially for Blizzard. Plenty of people feel XIV is too story heavy, too many cut scenes, and too much text. WoW players have come to expect faster get-to-the-point action, but with Blizzard's heavier use of voice acting outside of cut scenes, I feel like they should have an easier time conveying the story without cut scenes and reams of text than Square does in XIV.

There is a line to walk, and out of game material to fill in some gaps is fine, but they really erred too far in the direction of 'quick action' in the war of thorns.

[Deleted]

Sylvanas is a dreadlord/faceless

[Deleted]

The novel doesnt put her in a better light. Shes still the same no matter how you look at it. She wanted to crush the hope of the Night Elfs? And then what? Fact is she let millions of elfs burn to death, Innocent civilians. Shes evil end of discussion.

As to her General not wanting this to happen. I think its pretty clear from the game play and his refusal to kill Malfurion that he would also oppose killing innocents. And i think that this will play out in BFA on the horde side with him.

Yes she wanted to crush the Night Elve's spirit, everyone knows that because that was the objective from the very beginning - but as has been stated here so many times, burning Teldrassil was not the initial plan, Malfurion was meant to serve that purpose. But now thanks to Saurfang sparing him, and Daleryn defiantly stating that her plan has failed, that option is off the table for Sylvanas, which renders the whole progress up to now pointless. It is Daleryn pointing out this reality to her that enrages her - not because it was bitchy or for point scoring, but because it made Sylvanas realise the only option to make this whole crusade worthwhile was to burn Teldrassil. Daleryn put her in a corner with regards to her options and from Sylvanas's point of view, burning Teldrassil was the only option left. This is what the novellas confirm and clarify, period.

[Zulkhan]

I really hope they don't make Saurfang sparing Malfurion a direct consequence of Elune's interference. If he's having a character crisis, I don't want it to be derailed by literal deus ex machina.

But that would be the only logical explanation. Saurfang is a not a teen orc, the guy fought several wars and countless battles, knowing full well that war isn't a place for cavalry and strickly honorable combat. In other circumstances I could have only imagined Saurfang feeling "dirty" but swallowing the feeling down, but here that feeling seems to have been used against him, the very kind of approach those treacherous Lightbound entities seem to resort to, when they want to get things going their way.

[Nobleshield]

Where are these novellas? Are they available yet?

[Soeroah]

Glad to see point 6. That was my interpretation the whole time, I never got the "Sylvanas is suddenly an emotional schoolgirl" meme.

Pity most people won't know about it due to it being outside of the game, though.

- - - Updated - - -

Where are these novellas? Are they available yet?

They're in the Collector's Edition and will be made freely available online (sans art) on the website once BfA launches, I believe.

I think someone just got an early copy of the CE.

[Saluna]

Where are these novellas? Are they available yet?

Not yet. Except maybe people who would have received an early Collector Edition?

[Raelbo]

The mob reaction was to in-game events which don't show Sylvanas backed into a corner. There's no Elune ex machina, just her throwing away total victory when it's within her grasp.

I didn't read the novellas. I haven't read Before the Storm. I didn't know anything about the Elune ex machina. Hell, I didn't even get around to even doing the quests yet (because reasons, real life etc). I would say that, compared to most people on this forum, I am a lot less up to date on all the literature on the topic.

So my reaction to the cinematic was based on what I saw in the cinematic. To me it was obvious. And no, it wasn't Sylvanas "backed into a corner". It's Sylvanas making sure she doesn't get backed into a corner.

Here's the thing about the current popular narrative regarding Sylvanas: People have been pre-empting a certain outcome. There is a certain monotonous theme going around the forums that just doesn't seem to want to consider what has happened in any other way because people want an excuse to be outraged.

[Sigxy]

It's amazing really how people whose only interest is trolling and hating the Alliance think they are the true fans of the Horde when they have nothing at all in common with what the Horde was supposed to be back in Vanilla.

I'm just gonna make a wild guess and say that these are people who clearly didn't play WoW during the days of "Thrall's Horde".

Either that or they were too young to bother the story back then and only got into it after this 'new Horde' showed up.

[Onikaroshi]

Yeah! Drek'thar, Eitrigg, Rehgar, Saurfang, Broxigar, Grommash, Thrall, what a bunch of fake losers. Real horde kill civilians and their own troops, raise them as undead, and spread the plague!

Arthas would be proud of you. Gul'dan too actually.

they weren't civvies, they were cockroaches. And if you're not willing to die for your cause or your faction, its not worth fighting for.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Can't believe they have to really emphasize that the story continues because adults fly off the handle and go full screecher mode.

Either way, can't wait to learn more.

And to all the simpletons thinking that this is somehow a "putting out fires"-move as far as the story itself goes, the story and the books have been finished for a long time.

[Grusalugg]

Edited. /10c

[Deleted]

Saurfang lacked the spine to execute one single order and thus killed thousands of innocent elves. Sylvanas did nothing wrong.

[ls-]

"He stood and brushed the dirt off his armor, shrugging away his aches and pains. Malfurion would recover, and when he returned to battle, he would make the Horde pay in blood. Saurfang was certain of it.
Still, a great burden had been lifted from his soul. It felt right that Malfurion had survived. It felt honorable."

Welp, "muh honour" is getting even more ridiculous at this point.

He acknowledges that his inaction will cost the Horde A LOT of lives, but he still feels right about doing it because of "muh honour", me > all, whatever floats his goat...

[Zulkhan]

So far anyway, we have the Mag'har hunted down by the Lightbound, then a Naaru and Elune respectively interefering in pivotal moments of the events of Before the Storm and the War of Thorns.

I don't know what's that supposed to mean yet but is quite clear that the "Light", or at least some of the entities based on it, is firmly forcing the direction of current events.