Does Sylvanas finally make sense to you?

[Jastall]

Eh, The Forsaken had been raising people into undeath long before Sylvanas got her Val'kyr. Like the Scarlet Crusader who then became the innkeeper in Brill. Besides, Forsaken always were mired with "Scourge but worse because they are doing such stuff of their own will" aspects.

Sure, but it became a lot more on the nose post Cata, and that's without mentioning the endless debates around said free will which is a can of worms I refuse to open here. Plus Sylvanas and the Forsaken had somewhat sympathetic motives in the form of taking vengeance upon Arthas, whereas after his death they (and, especially, her) basically commit all these atrocities for their own benefit.

That's not to say every playable faction or character has to be sympathetic of course. But I also think both the race and its leader steadily lost any of their potential depths to just become the Horde's resident assholes who do asshole things.

[Mehrunes]

Genn acted on a suspicion at Stormheim-- in the end, a pretty correct one, but that was still wrong of him.

But in the end, it worked out because it stopped Sylvanas from enslaving a Titan Watcher after striking a deal with Helya. That's not to say Genn is completely faultless, but it feels unwise to mention Genn's acts there, as you're simultaneously bringing up Sylvanas'

Nothing of that has anything to do with the point. Though the assertion that Genn acted on suspicion is wrong. Genn said multiple times after the attack he doesn't have a slightest clue about what Sylvanas is after and he pretty much said out loud that he's going to attack the Forsaken fleet no matter what even before he left Stormwind, making it rather clear he was acting on his raging hatred for Sylvanas and the Forsaken and nothing more. Not that it was Alliance's business what Sylvanas does to Eyir since they're not the world police.

Anyway, as to the point, you claimed that Sylvanas has always been a consistent character making sense, with the consistency being about how she throws a tantrum whenever something doesn't go her way (while throwing off-hand remarks at people who didn't share that assertion). Yet this here example shows someone fucking Sylvanas over more than anyone else sans Arthas and instead of acting the way you said she simply stood in place and did nothing. Which kinda doesn't mesh with your claim about Sylvanas there in more than one way.

[Powerogue]

Also Aucald. This is not dialogue written with a sense of self-awareness. It's not that Calia referencing what little she knows about Voss doesn't make sense, it's actually in isolation a good line, it's Voss's polite, meek response to what should have been a very sore spot and a clear demonstration of her unfamiliarity. This is another case where the writing is unintentionally making a point and that point is how completely alien and ill-fit this bint is to relate to any of the Forsaken. The demonstration of how that's clearly not the intention is that she's later treated as being manifestly competent to guide not even the Lordaeronian undead, with whom she at least has some tangential link by virtue of their history while alive, but the night elf undead with whom she has precisely nill in common. This is not a scene meant to show she's out of touch - it's meant to show us that she knows the way and that Voss, here as a stand-in for the prior Forsaken apologizes for the race's prior characterization. That it's Voss, a character who wasn't even part of the state until this expansion, is the one to do it while the entire rest of the Forsaken are absent just drives the point home.

It all comes down to where they go from here I suppose. Still holding onto that hope for the awkward conversation:

Calia: So, what happened to your father?
Voss: He trained me for years to hunt monsters, only for me to become one myself. He sent his men to hunt me down, but I hunted them, burning them from the inside out one by one. When I saw him again, rage overtook me and I tore his throat out before hurling him from the top of the tower.
Calia: That's....nice.

[Super Dickmann]

It all comes down to where they go from here I suppose. Still holding onto that hope for the awkward conversation:

Calia: So, what happened to your father?
Voss: He trained me for years to hunt monsters, only for me to become one myself. He sent his men to hunt me down, but I hunted them, burning them from the inside out one by one. When I saw him again, rage overtook me and I tore his throat out before hurling him from the top of the tower.
Calia: That's....nice.

It'd be a good bit of black comedy, which we've only had with the Nazmir guys in this expansion.

All I'm saying is I can't see Calia signing off on the horse-plaguing valve.

[bullseyed]

This hasn't been her end game ALL ALONG. This is something that did not begin until she "died" after falling from Icecrown. This fact has been stated numerous times. And while I think they have been ramping her up to be TOO strong, but sort of makes some inane sense with the Jailor (though, if I am being honest, they didn't have the Jailor concept in mind prior to Legion.)

Also, where the hell do you find the time to post so many threads. Jesus Christ...

Agree with most of this.

The main thing though is that her "plan" doesn't maybe make the most sense anymore. Like... she was supposedly trying to make war to cause deaths because the souls were feeding some kind of death god. And we thought that death god was going to come smack N'zoth for us, and that's why she was making deals with Azshara, and even supposedly wanted us and Nathanos to die.

But then she didn't try to stop N'zoth at all in the end. Why?

It seemed like she saw the void taking over the death realm when she died at Icecrown, and she wanted to stop the void so death wasn't all messed up. But now she's serving a death god (maybe) to try not to die... to do what? She rips open the Shadowlands so we can go there and... help her not die? Fix something wrong with death as a process? Wouldn't the death god she serves not like her bringing us to Shadowlands?

Just seems like we're missing a lot of information.



I also feel like the whole Wrathion thing in raid was important. We might not actually beat N'zoth, we might just think we did because we're still in a false reality. Maybe death didn't "work" for Sylvanas and she saw the void when she died because what we think is death isn't actually death, it is just us escaping the vision. Maybe we've been in Ny'alotha for a long time, Matrix style. That would make sense on why "death will set us free" because that's how we unplug from the Matrix.

It would also throw back to the Nightborne living under the fake sky bubble while fel had really destroyed their homeland thing. Just a bigger version of the concept.

[Aucald]

It could have happened, but firstly all available evidence including dev statements suggests she's acting of her own volition and in a state of awareness, including how Nathanos as her confidante is aware of the extent of her plans and doesn't suddenly believe his lover has made a complete 180. Take for example urging Sylvanas not to hesitate and thus jeopardize her plan, presumably referring to not being tempted to take the helmet, which we see she's tempted by given how she looks at it and waxes about its power. We have every indication Sylvanas is an actor in control of her own actions.

"A Good War" shows us that Nathanos isn't quite in lock-step with Sylvanas on all things, similar to "Before the Storm" when he explains the state of affairs in the Undercity and gently reminds Sylvanas of the dangers of power vacuums (which always struck me as him softly upbraiding her for being a bit careless with her own adopted people). Since my outline of events doesn't involve a drastic 180 as you put it, this isn't really germane to the model at hand. Influence is also not tantamount to controlling someone's action as you can push a person in such a way that they'll do what you want them to (even if that thing is manifestly not in their best interests) with them thinking all the while that it is indeed what they wanted to do all along.

The main problem with your argument is that it has no textual backing, it's unfalsifiable - yes, Sylvanas could be mind-controlled as of BTS, but I could just as easily claim that Sylvanas achieved meta awareness like Deadpool in between Legion and BTS and thus everything in BTS was a deliberate misdirect to throw off the reader and possible in-story mindreaders. In fact, the Sylvanas is meta aware theory is superior because it has more powerful explanatory abilities - for instance it covers why Sylvanas doesn't execute Baine or Malfurion or why she's so confident no matter how dire the situation. That would be because she's aware of her and their role in the plot and thus knows that no matter how hard she tries, she can't kill them as they're contractually immortal, nor is she in any danger since she still has a role to play in the story.

I agree, but then I also think your argument is self-sealing and assumes a great expanse of otherwise unknown quantities - where I am theorizing elements that close the apparent gaps and inconsistencies, you are assuming nothing exists in those spaces and decrying the narrative is irreparably broken. As I've already said many times, I don't know what the story will be come Shadowlands, so my modeling is definitely in the vein of speculation and hypothesizing - and there's nothing at all wrong with that, in my view. I do, however, think it's bad form to *know* that more story explaining these gaps is forthcoming and simultaneously cry about the gaps existing in the first place - especially when it's a very real possibility that the seeming inconsistencies will be ironed out in the end. It would be like reading the penultimate book in a trilogy and then decrying that the series didn't end very well and a bunch of stuff was left unexplained, all because you deny the final book exists or don't want to read it.

I do not believe Sylvanas has achieved meta-fictional awareness of her role in the story, however; I find the very concept to be farcical. The reason Sylvanas didn't execute Malfurion is because she callously wished to rub Saurfang's face in his own seeming "dishonor," and the reason she doesn't kill Baine is because he'd become something of an obvious lightning-rod figure among the Horde leadership and she didn't want to make him a martyr (and she also uses his imprisonment to ferret out Saurfang and the other dissidents in her court). Both cases are consistent with her previous behaviors.

We indeed do not know if Sylvanas knows that death does not always default to the Maw. It could be that Sylvanas assumes that deaths always end up in the Maw and thus she's doing nothing wrong since she's just speeding people up to the fate they'd be bound for anyway, hence referring to the inhabitants of this world as nothing, because she's under the genuine impression that all their actions are meaningless as they go to Death anyway. In turn, that if they go there anyway then she might as well benefit from it, hence dealing with the Jailor. However, it could just as easily be that the reason she calls the world a prison is not because she doesn't understand the nature of the Jailor or of the Shadowlands but that what she takes issue with is the Arbiter - the concept of an omnipotent decider of every soul, consigning them to fates beyond their choosing on the basis of criteria they can't know until they've died and that she deems breaking this arrangement is in itself good (as well as benefitting her personally).

Possible, or it could be another matter entirely - remains to be seen.

There is little reconciliation to be had between a situation wherein Sylvanas knows ahead of time of their demise or, failing that, is apathetic about it, something that mind you I'd have no issue with believing of pre-BTS Sylvanas, as much as I enjoy that bit of characterization from the book, and the same situation where the only thing that keeps her from dying out of purely sentimental reasons - which she knows takes her to hell, is because of the Warchief's order. She either cares enough about the post, the man and the organisation to do this or she doesn't. We now know it's the latter, but that leaves a gulf of explanation to be had as to how she ventured from Point A to Point B. Once again, I'd have no issue with the idea that Sylvanas would, playful as she is with Varian within the game and as she quite rationally sides with him to avoid the Legion's victory, abandon him if it was more practical to do so, but this simply isn't what BTS provides. Likewise, her regard for Vol'jin. I'd have no issue with Sylvanas considering Vol'jin taking the post a joke given the balance of power between him and her at the end of Mists and the elf-troll feud, but that's also not the direction they went with. Once they've introduced the element, they need to tie it in - they've yet to do so.

You read *a lot* more out of Sylvanas' brief eulogizing of Varian in "Before the Storm" than I did. For me, it seems more like a recognition of grudging respect for the man who sacrificed himself so others may life, an ironic echo of Sylvanas' death at Arthas' hands in the Third War. I certainly didn't feel Sylvanas suddenly had a deep well of feeling for Varian or Vol'jin - merely that just view their loss as a waste to both the Horde and the Alliance. She may well have even relished the chance to go toe-to-toe with Varian when it came time to culminate her own plans based on whatever she the Jailer might've been cooking up, if indeed they were at this point in time. You posit almost as if Sylvanas were friends with Varian due to the Broken Shore, when really they were nothing more than enemies with a grudging respect for one another's prowess in battle, one warrior to another you might say. As for having yet to do so, that information is likely due soon in Shadowlands.

Stormwind is literally nothing to her or to the high elves. Her even approaching Stormwind for help (something itself absent from the original telling but only added in by Chronicle might I add) is strange, since while Sylvanas was cosmopolitan as compared to more elves, her bigger ties where with Lordaeron, hence her able to lead Lordaeronian humans, not with Stormwind. And if the grudge which again, never played the slightest role when it comes to her view of Varian, were such a big deal to form the core of her motive, then it'd do for it to not be dismissed out of hand. When it comes to 5, the sole motive given in BTS pertains to Forsaken immortality - that leaves room for expansion, albeit it'd have to tread pretty carefully for it to not be something she should've thought about at the time, but not for revision. As for when it comes to 6 and 8, there are two gaps here that don't jive - I can easily buy Sylvanas transferring her view of the Forsaken to begin to encompass the Horde as a whole, but without the sentimental aspect as a bulwark to be secured so that she can endure. But while BTS manifestly doesn't work as the retcon to her post-Cataclysm and even pre-Cataclysm management of the Forsaken that it is, it works even less in light of BFA, because the person who's so obsessive about micromanaging her henchmen and is personally offended when they choose death and grieves internally on their behalf because she extrapolates their rejection with her own is not the same leader who would drop them. BTS Sylvanas would cling to the Forsaken because that's what the basis of that destructive relationship was.

I disagree completely on that score. Post Third War Sylvanas would've had as little love for the Horde as she did the Human kingdoms, given that the Horde in the Second War put Quel'Thalas to the torch and their Troll allies wouldn't have gone over well either due to the High Elves' long struggles with the Amani (and "Shadows of the Horde" show us that the Alliance doesn't really differentiate between tribes of Trolls when it comes to being prejudiced against them). It makes sense that when desperately looking for allies that Sylvanas would go for her former allies in the Alliance over her more recent enemies in the Horde, at least initially - and then on having them ruthlessly murdered she'd go to the enemy of her new enemy, so to speak. Lordaeron was also previously a client-state of the Alliance as well, so it also stands on the score. I've already stated my view that the take on Varian seems way too overblown, and probably doesn't factor into any of her decisions at all in "Before the Storm," other than being a dramatic set-piece between her and Anduin early on at the Gathering. Sylvanas also doesn't strike me as a micro-manager, either; especially not in light of the fact that she permits not one but two coups to start under her leadership - first the one that comes to head with Putress, and another minor coup in the form of the Desolate Council. Sylvanas prefers to plot and scheme under cover of shadow, moving about pieces as she needs them, but disdaining non-important pieces as non-existent, at least until they come back to bite her (e.g. Zelling in BfA). None of these are the signs of a micro-manager.

This is not dialogue written with a sense of self-awareness. It's not that Calia referencing what little she knows about Voss doesn't make sense, it's actually in isolation a good line, it's Voss's polite, meek response to what should have been a very sore spot and a clear demonstration of her unfamiliarity. This is another case where the writing is unintentionally making a point and that point is how completely alien and ill-fit this bint is to relate to any of the Forsaken. The demonstration of how that's clearly not the intention is that she's later treated as being manifestly competent to guide not even the Lordaeronian undead, with whom she at least has some tangential link by virtue of their history while alive, but the night elf undead with whom she has precisely nill in common. This is not a scene meant to show she's out of touch - it's meant to show us that she knows the way and that Voss, here as a stand-in for the prior Forsaken apologizes for the race's prior characterization. That it's Voss, a character who wasn't even part of the state until this expansion, is the one to do it while the entire rest of the Forsaken are absent just drives the point home.

Not sure what you mean by a "sense of self-awareness" in this context. Voss doesn't make an issue out of Calia's woolgathering because she wants Calia for something, and she's shrewd enough not to sweat the small stuff when setting up a crucial introduction of sorts. Also quite possible that Voss' father may not have always been so terrible, and she may have memories of the man he was prior to him getting a head full of Nathrezim corruption after the fall of Lordaeron courtesy of Balnazzar. I don't think Voss would expect Calia to be familiar with her or her plight, either; considering it happened well after Calia had fled Lordaeron and was basically thought to be dead by everyone else, Forsaken or Human. The scene is meant to show Calia is a caring individual, and she tries to build a bridge with Voss based on their history (as one would expect), not fully knowing or understanding the nature of that history for Voss as, well, she's not omniscient by any means. Similar too with the Dark Rangers - there's no expectation they share anything but undeath in that tableau, but that's enough, really. I am not quite sure what you're looking for in that scene. I think it has become an element of rumor and in-game speculation at this point that Calia has some kind of affinity or ability to soothe the damaged psyche of the undead as she did with Derek, and that's the capacity she is called to be there in.

If you have an issue with Voss suddenly being the Forsaken figurehead, I'd kind of agree - but I think that down to the fact that there aren't many prominent Forsaken who could do the job required of the current leader of the Forsaken. Most of the ones we know are probably staunch Sylvanas loyalists or dead. Voss was both close to the inner circle by virtue of her role in BfA and uniquely placed to serve in the role despite her own misgivings about it. That her place seems rather quickly achieved isn't that big of a deal - as Sylvanas had her eye on Voss since Cata it scans she'd try to bring her in whenever it became feasible to do so.

[bullseyed]

Not only does she still make no sense, the entire lore makes no sense by now.

Agreed. We find the dagger and empty it... then Sylvanas finds out and gives it to Azshara... who wanted to do something with it but bailed instead... and it seems to not even defeat N'zoth. Why? What was the plan?


I think Sylvanas was "helping" Azshara rebel, assuming N'zoth would kill Azshara for rebelling. That makes some sense. But she supposedly also wanted Azshara to kill us... which means a full powered N'zoth would be free to conquer the world, which makes no sense. Sylvanas said N'zoth would serve death, but how? She doesn't seem to be ready to take him on 1:1.

So if things went according to plan... Azshara kills us, N'zoth kills Azshara... and then what?

[Powerogue]

The main thing though is that her "plan" doesn't maybe make the most sense anymore. Like... she was supposedly trying to make war to cause deaths because the souls were feeding some kind of death god. And we thought that death god was going to come smack N'zoth for us, and that's why she was making deals with Azshara, and even supposedly wanted us and Nathanos to die.

But then she didn't try to stop N'zoth at all in the end. Why?

Because she was the one who brought us to Azshara to release N'zoth in the first place? It's almost like she's not a good person.

[Aucald]

Agreed. We find the dagger and empty it... then Sylvanas finds out and gives it to Azshara... who wanted to do something with it but bailed instead... and it seems to not even defeat N'zoth. Why? What was the plan?


I think Sylvanas was "helping" Azshara rebel, assuming N'zoth would kill Azshara for rebelling. That makes some sense. But she supposedly also wanted Azshara to kill us... which means a full powered N'zoth would be free to conquer the world, which makes no sense. Sylvanas said N'zoth would serve death, but how? She doesn't seem to be ready to take him on 1:1.

So if things went according to plan... Azshara kills us, N'zoth kills Azshara... and then what?

Current thinking is that N'Zoth kills a whole bunch of people bringing about Ny'alotha and those souls go directly to the Maw and the Jailer to have their anima harvested for whatever it is the two have planned. N'Zoth takes Azeroth, but the Jailer is fed a smorgasbord of anima and becomes god-like in power, and so does Sylvanas due to having some of that power directed her way.

[bullseyed]

To me they assassinated the character

She was evil yes, but she wasnt a complete monster. She actually cared about the forsaken. And to some degree, the horde. Just look how she is very distressed when Voljin is stabbed

Then they ruin her and just says «She lied all along» lmao

That and when she is made Warchief she's completely shocked and humbled.

- - - Updated - - -

Current thinking is that N'Zoth kills a whole bunch of people bringing about Ny'alotha and those souls go directly to the Maw and the Jailer to have their anima harvested for whatever it is the two have planned. N'Zoth takes Azeroth, but the Jailer is fed a smorgasbord of anima and becomes god-like in power, and so does Sylvanas due to having some of that power directed her way.

Ok, so she has power. To do... what?

Go kill N'zoth and try to bring us back to life? Wouldn't that drain her power?

Roam the planet, barren of all life, for eternity?

Hang out in the Shadowlands doing... nothing?



The purpose of all of what she did was to save her people (and the Horde) along with herself. Seems that was just forgotten about in the writing.

- - - Updated - - -

Because she was the one who brought us to Azshara to release N'zoth in the first place? It's almost like she's not a good person.

No, we were supposed to die when the ships smashed into Nazjatar according the the stuff from the new raid.

- - - Updated - - -

It was assumed she was going to be a great warchief. Why?

Because she seemed like she'd actually try to win the war instead of filibustering to a stalemate.

For a little while it even looked like she was going to take over all of Kalimdor and leave the Alliance over on EK (and then maybe take over EK too).

[Aucald]

Ok, so she has power. To do... what?

Go kill N'zoth and try to bring us back to life? Wouldn't that drain her power?

Roam the planet, barren of all life, for eternity?

Hang out in the Shadowlands doing... nothing?

The purpose of all of what she did was to save her people (and the Horde) along with herself. Seems that was just forgotten about in the writing.

Unknown what she plans to do, as that is apparently an element to be unveiled in Shadowlands's story. Given her stated views in the pre-expansion cinematic she seems to be of the mind that the current system of life and death is itself a "prison" that she plans to overthrow, which may entail she plans to destroy the Jailer and the Arbiter and/or supplant them as the new goddess of the afterlife or some such. Perhaps she's thrown in the towel on saving Azeroth or the Forsaken, or perhaps the Forsaken were never more than a means to an end for her and she's moved beyond their usefulness. Even as of "Edge of Night" all the Forsaken ever were to Sylvanas were a means to an end to begin with - first she used them as weapons against the Scourge and the Lich King, and then she used them as a means to protect herself from True Death (and going back to the Maw, presumably). She cares little for them, though, and likely nothing for the Horde as it was always always an alliance of convenience from her perspective.

[Reinhart11]

It's pure nonsense that doesn't make sense even within the expansion it's introduced in terms of informing her decision-making. The writers themselves didn't know that'd be her motivation in the tie-in book meant to hype the expansion it was to be revealed in. Things like evacuating civilians from Undercity instead of letting them die, intervening in Ashenvale to save 'thousands' of soldiers, when letting them die would serve her goals better, being frustrated in her own mind about Malfurion - whom she allowed to survive, when killing him and torching the tree would maximize the body count.

And this is only within BFA itself. It goes without mention that Sylvanas wasn't helping send more people to hell when she was mass-raising undead in Cataclysm or trying to acquire Eyir for her explicitly mentioned purpose (in her mind) to make the Forsaken immortal, ergo unable to go to hell and thus enable to empower her.

There was no grand plan. Sylvanas' heart's desire in Edge of Night was to survive and to preserve her subjects to ensure that survival. Her heart's desire in BTS was to destroy Stormwind. Her heart's desire in BFA is to kill as many people as possible. I am going to go out on a limb here and tell you that her goal will change in Shadowlands as well and there too we will be told that all along it was something else entirely.

I think its pretty likely that Metzen had other plans for the war between the factions in BfA and thus for the characters. Saurfangs reaction to Sylvanas "For the Horde" made no sense whatsoever, because i don't think that Saurfang is that good of an acter, because on the later story, at that point he already had planned to betray the Horde and hopes Anduin defeats Sylvanas for him. The BfA reveal cinematic has a completely different tone compared to most of all the whiny cinematics later in my opinion. And the War of Thorns Sylvanas as well as the one in the book makes no sense at all combined with the Sylvanas we see throughout BfA. And its a fact that Metzen was responsible for the first cinematic and probably the pre event story. That was his last work for Blizzard. Not that Metzen is a superb author, as he fucked up the story of WoW from MoP up to Legion as well, but i think the current writing team at Blizzard have vastly different ideas and plans for characters and the story. They also seem to have no interest in older villains like the Burning Legion and the Old Gods anymore, if you see how fast they wasted these factions(although Metzen wasted the Burning Legion himself, the big bad he personally had built up since WC 1). I wonder what "genius" moral lessons they have will have in store for us in Shadowlands.

[Soon-TM]

What I found interesting about Sylvanas (and the Forsaken) was that she seemingly tried to fight her natural undead tendency towards genocide and uphold her old life morals. Her story post-WotLK could have been her fighting a losing battle against the undead genocidal tendencies (it could even be revealed that the Jailer is the source of these tendencies to begin with). Instead the story team seems to have chosen a path of the one-dimensional sexy shounen anime super-villain which is an incredibly disappointing take in my opinion.

After seeing the blatant LotR ripoff in the N'yalotha cinematic, I have come to the conclusion that the current batch of writers doesn't respect even the works of others, let alone their own.

[Yarathir]

Thats not exactly what he was arguing though.

I know. Horde players are really desperate to hold on to the Stormheim thing because it's one of the few things they have.

[Daevelian]

I know. Horde players are really desperate to hold on to the Stormheim thing because it's one of the few things they have.

This is why i wish we were getting a Chronicle V4, so we could finally put an and to the whole GeNn'S InTeL iS nOn CaNoN thing they love to spew.

[Yarathir]

This is why i wish we were getting a Chronicle V4, so we could finally put an and to the whole GeNn'S InTeL iS nOn CaNoN thing they love to spew.

Oh, no. Then they might have to go back to just Taurajo and the "Purge" of Dalaran.

[Huntaer]

This old intro shows the forsaken have no real loyalty to their new allies (the horde).
Sylvanas might have been planning this for a loooooooooong time.

[Verdugo]

I know. Horde players are really desperate to hold on to the Stormheim thing because it's one of the few things they have.

This is why i wish we were getting a Chronicle V4, so we could finally put an and to the whole GeNn'S InTeL iS nOn CaNoN thing they love to spew.

What the hell are you two talking about. He is asking why this unstable bitch isnt killing crippled Genn in a fit of rage and instead she just stands there calmly.

[Destinas]

The problem with Sylvanas' lore was that it was created and entirely crafted around the identity and story of Arthas from WC3-WotLK. After he died, they really had nowhere to go, so they immediately made her the dark mirror of him in Cataclysm. Ever since then, they've just kind of had her gain powers randomly with no explanation until they decided to write up the lore for BfA going into Shadowlands. It didn't work, because they clearly didn't have a pinpointed direction for her lore until now. For instance, on the Legion website it stated:

The Forsaken's ruthless leader is a formidable champion of her people. But with the Burning Legion's invasion, the stakes for the Dark Lady have never been higher. Should Sylvanas perish, her demise will be the beginning of her eternal damnation. All that stand between her and this doom are her Val'kyr, yet few of these spirit guardians remain. As her fate edges closer to the abyss, Sylvanas must decide how far she'll go to protect her people... and whether they're more precious to her than her soul.

Which, we didn't really see much of that other than her deal with Helya and Sylvanas attempting to subjugate Eyir, which was never mentioned again. And, in the end, we never saw any sort of development that connected Helya, the Pillars of Creation, and the defeat of the Legion together in Sylvanas' story. They would wait for two more expansions to really dive into her entire character. Which, most of her machinations were entirely helped by the Legion's arrival (like her becoming warchief, "feeding the machine of death" and so on), so that entire description above makes little sense now.

Had Sylvanas not been a racial leader/warchief of the Horde, it would have been a much more cohesive story for her. She could have been in the shadows, doing all kinds of mysterious things, and people would have just assumed that Blizzard was saving her for later. Instead, people constantly asked (argued) about her intentions in Cataclysm, SoO, WoD, Legion, Edge of Night, Dark Mirror, Before the Storm, Teldrassil, and the rest of BfA. It also wasn't a good look to have the Horde play "leader musical chairs" again because of her. It makes sense, but it puts a bad taste in everyone's mouth - fan of hers or not.

[Varodoc]

This is why i wish we were getting a Chronicle V4, so we could finally put an and to the whole GeNn'S InTeL iS nOn CaNoN thing they love to spew.

Not really. They'd just use the argument "he should have waited until the Legion invasion was over, then politely confront her through letters to ask her why she did that, and apologize if he sounded too rude or he didn't mind his business" more often.