Why the Shadowlands trailer is hated - a 150 word essay

[Adunai]

1. People hate Sylvanas because they disagree with the direction of the BfA story (or they are not getting the deeper lore Pyromancer is talking about - Azeroth is a prison for Azeroth, and so on).

2. People hate Sylvanas because she's a woman and a dominant one at that.

3. People love the Lich King because he was once cool when it was Ner'zhul, Arthas and Frostmourne (although Bolvar is no Arthas and doesn't have Frostmourne).

4. People love Bolvar because Blizzard had been building him up throughout Legion and BfA.

5. Frankly speaking, the cinematography is utter garbage. Face it, it's just a fight between two people. And one of the most basic rules for a good story is that a character should suffer for the pleasure he gets - but Sylvanas does not.

So, in a word, people are just fanboying the Lich King for some reason HARD, and fanhating Sylvanas equally HARD, all tied together with honestly an objectively boring cinematic on par with MoP, Legion or BfA. Throw in some glorious anti-feminist incel rage and blind nostalgia for Arthas (although it's a noname Bolvar insetad), and you have a perfect storm or a witch's brew.

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

1. People hate Sylvanas because they disagree with the direction of the BfA story (or they are not getting the deeper lore Pyromancer is talking about - Azeroth is a prison for Azeroth, and so on).

2. People hate Sylvanas because she's a woman and a dominant one at that.

3. People love the Lich King because he was once cool when it was Ner'zhul, Arthas and Frostmourne (although Bolvar is no Arthas and doesn't have Frostmourne).

4. People love Bolvar because Blizzard had been building him up throughout Legion and BfA.

5. Frankly speaking, the cinematography is utter garbage. Face it, it's just a fight between two people. And one of the most basic rules for a good story is that a character should suffer for the pleasure he gets - but Sylvanas does not.

So, in a word, people are just fanboying the Lich King for some reason HARD, and fanhating Sylvanas equally HARD, all tied together with honestly an objectively boring cinematic on par with MoP, Legion or BfA. Throw in some glorious anti-feminist incel rage and blind nostalgia for Arthas (although it's a noname Bolvar insetad), and you have a perfect storm or a witch's brew.

1. Not sure who Pyromancer is, so can't discuss the "deeper lore," but It's definitely a fair assumption that if someone didn't like the Sylvanas arc in BfA, they wouldn't like where they direction continues to lead her.

2. That's an issue in every situation where a woman takes a central role. I wouldn't say it's why everyone (or even a plurality) of people dislike it, but again, fairly safe assumption.

3. The second half feels more like your personal ranking of the various Lich Kings than a reason, but "People love the Lich King because he is cool" is a fair reason for people to be upset at the Lich King both losing and being effectively destroyed.

4. While I agree with this to an extent, I want to add that myself, and for some Vanilla-BC Alliance players I know (can't speak for everyone on this,) Bolvar was the guy. We didn't have a king, we didn't have a warchief. The most recognizable characters from the WC3 era were all dead or missing, and he was the dude in the throne room. His arc in Wrath was one of the more memorable questlines in the game, and seeing his character evolution is always nice.

5. I disagree with the cinematography being "utter garbage," I felt it was one about on par with the cinematics Blizzard usually puts out, and enjoyed it a fair bit more than the Sylvanas v. Saurfang one.

Your points are likely contributing factors, sure, but I wouldn't call it the end-all reason why some people dislike it.

[Ophenia]

I agree with the similarity with MoP cinematic, which is imo the lamest too, but BfA had the « waw » moments (for the horde/alliance, banshee scream, mass revive), and Legion had a great voiceover from Varian which made the cinematic great

And Sylvanas is objectively poorly written, that has nothing to do with her being a woman. People hated Green Jesus for nearly the same thing, and afaik he is male

Stop using « incel » every 5 minutes, that only transform all your arguments into garbage. We can perfectly hate what a women is doing for a lot of reasons other than her gender. Please understand that.

[Relapses]

So, in other words, people have opinions. And you have opinions... about their opinions.

Huh. How about that.

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

So, in other words, people have opinions. And you have opinions... about their opinions.

Huh. How about that.

Man, that's way better than my post responding to his stuff (not sarcasm, genuine).

Can pretty much call it a day here.

[Queen of Hamsters]

So basically, you've confirmed that people are hating on new stuff for this game same as always, and water is wet.

Good on ya.

[Eazy]

No, people don't like that trailer because it's just bad writing.

Anything else to add?

[Relapses]

Man, that's way better than my post responding to his stuff (not sarcasm, genuine).

Can pretty much call it a day here.

You'll have to excuse my lack of enthusiasm about the 30th fucking thread I've seen whining about Sylvanas.

[Godric]

Throw in some glorious anti-feminist incel rage and blind nostalgia for Arthas (although it's a noname Bolvar insetad), and you have a perfect storm or a witch's brew.

??? Incel rage? Where? Do people just scream “InCeL!!” because they don’t have a counter arguement? If anything, Sylvanas is the fake woman that keeps incels from feeling so lonely. The writer who wrote himself in as Nathanos is living proof of that, so stop using such nonsense.

Also, offscreening Sylvanas’ power creep is what most people are pissed off about, my guess.

[Zyky]

This doesn't qualify as an "essay" btw.

[Carnagefiend]

4. People love Bolvar because Blizzard had been building him up throughout Legion and BfA.

<snip>

So, in a word, people are just fanboying the Lich King for some reason HARD...

OP: Legitimate reason people don't like the cinematic.

Also OP: Who knows why people don't like it.

[Fallen of Lordaeron]

You'll have to excuse my lack of enthusiasm about the 30th fucking thread I've seen whining about Sylvanas.

I wasn't being sarcastic. Your answer was perfect and all that needed to be said.

[owbu]

This is an essay on why you dont know what an essay is, but I'm too lazy to count my words.

[GreenJesus]

Part of it was the move set didnt match what I thought they would use. The fight reminded me of naruto pain fight where it was outrageous for the sake of it (i.e. throwing giant rocks at each other). How did Sylvanas launch a rock that size at Bolvar? Did she use a shadow clone or a substitution jutsu to dodge the rock bolvar threw at her during remorseless winter? I was expecting chains of ice, or even summoning one of the dead red dragons the death knights killed in legion or even a mix of fire and ice. What happened to the fight against his army? She solod the entire scourge and arthas without suffering a scratch? It felt like a very lazily designed fight. I bet just throwing a rock in a straight line is easier to animate than unique moves. What happened to the death knights of Acherus like Kultira and Nazgrim? Did they abandon him?

[ercarp]

1. People hate Sylvanas because they disagree with the direction of the BfA story (or they are not getting the deeper lore Pyromancer is talking about - Azeroth is a prison for Azeroth, and so on).

I hate Sylvanas because her character has been completely butchered over the years. They keep putting her in the limelight and acting like she's about to do something big, and then nothing happens. Stormheim plot went nowhere. BfA plot went nowhere (she was AWOL half the expansion). Well, now it finally looks like something major might be happening with her character, but that's not going to get rid of the sour taste in my mouth. At this point I'm just sick of seeing her, period, and the writers are to blame for that.

2. People hate Sylvanas because she's a woman and a dominant one at that.

Sorry, is this a genuine point or a failed attempt at baiting a gender war in the comments? I can't tell. I'm sure there is an extremely minor percentage of the playerbase that genuinely hates seeing women in positions of power, but most of us simply want a good story with interesting characters. So far, Sylvanas has failed to deliver on that.

3. People love the Lich King because he was once cool when it was Ner'zhul, Arthas and Frostmourne (although Bolvar is no Arthas and doesn't have Frostmourne).

Hmm, you're close, but not quite. I don't really see the Lich King and Bolvar as the same character. Your fourth point would be more correct in my scenario.

4. People love Bolvar because Blizzard had been building him up throughout Legion and BfA.

Bolvar's story is super tragic when you think about it. A former hero of the Alliance burned to a crisp by dragonflame who chose to forgo the peace of death in order to keep the Scourge in check. He even explicitly told Tirion not to tell a single soul about his sacrifice, because he didn't want people to live in fear anymore. Now that is an interesting character who I want to see explored, and seeing him get taken out by magic chains without being able to put a single dent on Sylvanas... Well, it's unsatisfying to say the least.

5. Frankly speaking, the cinematography is utter garbage. Face it, it's just a fight between two people. And one of the most basic rules for a good story is that a character should suffer for the pleasure he gets - but Sylvanas does not.

I kind of agree with you there. The fight wasn't cool, they skipped Sylvanas having to fight the undead army protecting Bolvar, and it was over much quicker than it should've been. And then there was the anticlimactic ending of Bolvar losing and Sylvanas being a smirking edgelord as always.

- - - Updated - - -

??? Incel rage? Where? Do people just scream “InCeL!!” because they don’t have a counter arguement?

That seems to be an unfortunate trend these days. And once you list off female characters you actually find cool or interesting, their argument shatters to tiny little pieces.

[hermansen]

It was bad because we've had enough of Sylvanas (and not because she's a woman, fucking christ) - she had no adversary AT ALL. The idea that she got über powerful behind the curtain makes this cinematic null and void in the eyes of the fans.

And yeah people love the Lich King and expected more of him (and that's not because he's a man, wth is wrong with some of you people, I swear some of you have daddy issues)

[Justpassing]

How is this an essay?

[Calfredd]

Yes, main reason is that she's a woman. If they had, I don't know, insert_male_character instead of her (building him up the same way since Legion), the reaction would've been exactly the opposite. Gamers can't stand women if they're not sexy and submissive.

You either forgot to mark this post as sarcasm and people will take you seriously or you are serious and I pity you.

[LarryWithTheWeatherReport]

A huge majority of the fans actually loved the trailer. In my opinion, it's the best one yet.

[Shelly]

1. People hate Sylvanas because they disagree with the direction of the BfA story (or they are not getting the deeper lore Pyromancer is talking about - Azeroth is a prison for Azeroth, and so on).

You can tell that when she says "This world is a prison." that she's not talking about Azeroth but about life itself can't you?