Illidan was not a good guy

[AngerFork]

I'm doing the Netherwing reputation right now, and viewing this within the context of the whitewashed Illidan from Legion has opened up some new perspectives for me for things I didn't think about too much before.

Illidan is working together with the fel orcs of the Dragonmaw clan who are enslaving the Netherdrakes and the broken Draenei. You can even see an Illidari Eredar Lord among his forces. And it also reminded me that in the Black Temple you can find fel orcs and even Teron Gorefiend, who is a death knight.

None of this is new, but looking back at Illidan's story in Legion, it's just such an extreme mismatch between his character in TBC and Legion. And none of this is explained properly. The character is always made to feel stupid about ever having confronted Illidan in the first place.

But in TBC there is really nothing good about what he is doing and he is working together with the worst kind of people, while also committing atrocities against some of the most innocent creatures.

It just really makes no sense. Illidan was a bad guy and all of that is being completely ignored in Legion.

IMO, I feel like you and I saw very different things in Legion. What I saw with Illidan in Legion was someone who was trying to stop Sargeras and would give anything to do so, and who could not care less about how he did it. Enslavement, questionable allies, atrocities against the innocents...it's all considered something those involved must sacrifice according to Illidan. As pretty much every Demon Hunter we've seen will remind us, "I've sacrificed everything, what have you given?"

This is very much the same Illidan we saw in BC and we see in the Black Temple. He's working with demons, he's working with the Naga, he's working with Teron Gorefiend. Every ally, every person he works with, everyone he enslaves...all are targeted towards the singular goal of taking out the Legion. We didn't know about the Demon Hunters he sent out, but otherwise Illidan near as I can tell hasn't changed. The Illidan book shows this in great detail.

As for why he's suddenly a good guy and working with us...well, we're fighting the Legion. We've shown our power, we've created our Orders, and we've responded to the greatest invasion the Legion gave us with the greatest resistance they've ever experienced. We are an army of skilled fighters who will stop at nothing to protect our home and take out the Legion. We're exactly what Illidan has wanted this whole time. Plus, we're definitely far easier to get along with than demons & fel orcs. There's no reason for Illidan to back off of the fight.

If anything, I'd argue Illidan's refusal to work with the Light to destroy the Legion is the most surprising part of his character in Legion. He's willingly traded freedom for the power to destroy the Legion before, and this power had a specific plan that had been envisioned to truly destroy the Legion. It was the right move for him IMO, but a surprising move given his character.

[OrcsRLame]

In fairness, this really only exists as a problem for TBC. Classic WoW's story was all about your character's rise to power and much more localized threats, mostly taking place in the Eastern Kingdoms, but with three notable global-scale threats (Ragnaros, Ahn'Quiraj, and Naxxramas) that establish your character as a new hero fit to walk in the shoes of those who came before. TBC is when multiple popular characters from the RTSes were heavily promoted and shown off as raid bosses, and the narrative forced to fit that--it helps that none of Illidan's commanders nor Illidan himself were particularly good people, with Kael being the most moral of the bunch and even he caps out at unscrupulous survivor.

They learned their lesson, though, at least for a while... then along comes Legion and the hamfisted whitewashing of Illidan because they wanted to present the Light as 'just as bad' as the Void after decades of the Light being generally-benevolent; I assume this sudden plot twist happened because the devs noticed how popular dark fantasy settings were becoming at the time (before burnout kicked in) and they wanted to twist and bend WoW to fit when WoW was always high fantasy with dark elements beforehand.

To me it's not whitewashing when TBC is the only problem.

Illidan was a hero in WC3. He's a hero in the Illidan novel and a hero in Legion. TBC is the only time he actually does anything bad and it makes no goddamn sense with what came before or what came after.

Just imagine for a moment if Illidan were a real person. Imagine if you just casually asked him, "Why did you do these terrible things in TBC?" Could you even imagine what his response would be? I ask this because I've played all the games, I think I know his character pretty well, and I can't actually think of what he would say if he were giving an honest answer, because his actions in TBC simply don't make sense for his character.

I think there's a lot to criticize Blizzard over concerning writing. How they handled Illidan in Legion ain't one of those things. TBC is the problem is how I see it. I see Legion and the Illidan novel as just retconning TBC and that's how I'm going to think of it because TBC's story was hot garbage and it deserves to be retconned.

[Musta]

do you ever heard the concept of "anti-hero" ?

[Scottyjscizzle]

To me it's not whitewashing when TBC is the only problem.

Illidan was a hero in WC3. He's a hero in the Illidan novel and a hero in Legion. TBC is the only time he actually does anything bad and it makes no goddamn sense with what came before or what came after.

Just imagine for a moment if Illidan were a real person. Imagine if you just casually asked him, "Why did you do these terrible things in TBC?" Could you even imagine what his response would be? I ask this because I've played all the games, I think I know his character pretty well, and I can't actually think of what he would say if he were giving an honest answer, because his actions in TBC simply don't make sense for his character.

I think there's a lot to criticize Blizzard over concerning writing. How they handled Illidan in Legion ain't one of those things. TBC is the problem is how I see it. I see Legion and the Illidan novel as just retconning TBC and that's how I'm going to think of it because TBC's story was hot garbage and it deserves to be retconned.

Exactly, the "whitewashing" for TBC was just trying to not toss the lore of that expansion out entirely.

[Powerogue]

Both Akama and Altrius The Sufferer put that together, they just built on that in Legion. It was very convenient that they had done almost no characterization for Illidan in BC.

He enslaved Outland (which we knew) to use its resources to ravage the Burning Legion (which was unclear. I've always taken that the miniature invasion of Azeroth barely outside the Dark Portal was specifically trickery on the Legion's part to lure us into Outland and make us think Illidan was the one invading us. Also fits with the Scryers being sent by Kael'thas rather than Illidan.)