[SPOILERS] SL Pre-Launch Interview – Morgan Day and John Hight

[TrueHorde]

https://www.gamerbraves.com/world-of...nd-john-hight/

Azeroth’s Most Wanted

One of the benefits of this linear story is that all players would get to witness the latest chapter in Warcraft’s most contentious character, Sylvanas Windrunner. The Banshee-turned-Warchief has had a prolific run in the past few expansions, leading both Horde and Alliance players uneasy about the character.

However John insists the team isn’t making this up as they go, and that these stories are planned out much further in advance than fans would think.

“We are usually planning our story arcs a few expansions in advance. So in planning out the story arc for Sylvanas, this has been going on now for a couple expansions, in Shadowlands we’re finally going to offer an explanation for a lot of her actions in both Legion and Battle for Azeroth”, John says.

” In Battle for Azeroth she did some things that really had folks upset, and that was by design”. he explains. “We wanted to have some controversy, and we wanted people to misunderstand her, because she has deeper motivations.

“And now that we enter into the Shadowlands, we get to discover what that’s all about. Her connection to the Jailer and the machinery of the Shadowlands being broken are all tied together, and she’s essentially created a pathway for us” he continues.

“We’ve now got to go in and be part of fixing the Shadowlands, and along the way will finally understand why she did what she did. And I’ll leave it to you to be the judges, on whether you believe her, her motivations to be good or evil, or in the best interests of Azeroth” he ends.

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More detailed information

https://gnn.gamer.com.tw/detail.php?sn=206667

[Varodoc]

I so can't wait for 10.0, when this annoying zombie will finally be out of the way. She has overstayed her welcome in the story. Give her her 3 minutes long sob monologue already, so that we can move on.

[Hugnomo]

Thank god. We've been waiting for any explanation of Sylvanas motivations and plans for years. We're finally getting into her character instead of continuing this cutout cartoon villain that they've been using as a plot device for so long. Well, hopefully!

[TrueHorde]

I so can't wait for 10.0, when this annoying zombie will finally be out of the way. She has overstayed her welcome in the story. Give her her 3 minutes long sob monologue already, so that we can move on.

much better than Anduin. he is the real winner, and will continue to win

[Claymore]

Oh god.

This sounds an awful lot like a "redemption arc" incoming. She "created a pathway for us"?

This is gonna have to be GOOD if they want to sell us on the idea that Sylvanas *isn't* just a big ol' evil bitch. I'm already a little bummed how generic the Jailer is seeming, but... well, I guess there's no gettin' off this train now, right?

[Varitok]

much better than Anduin. he is the real winner, and will continue to win

Anduin is the most consistent and well written character in WoW. He's had the most consistent arc.

[Varodoc]

much better than Anduin. he is the real winner, and will continue to win

I don't care about Anduin either, I want 10.0 to focus on the Light and Void and I can't wait for Alleria (the best Windrunner) and possibly Turalyon to play a large role in the storyline. Let us deal with this Shadowlands farce already, then move on to the REAL cosmic showdown -- the one between Light and Void.

[Vakir]

Welp, if that's implying what I think it is, that bodes very, very poorly.

It's not a personal issue that I have with Sylvanas that paints this, although I do hate her on a meta writing level, it's the fact that it doesn't even mesh with the story they constructed.

Sylvanas opened the path, but the art book now confirms that the Helm opening the path was the plan by the Jailer all along. It wasn't some independent decision.

Sylvanas works to yoink specific defenders which puts them in significant danger of being twisted to be a tool, whether she intended for them to resist this or not. The only reason Tyrande even evades this is out of pure happenstance, as we know she was able to kill the Mawsworn that targeted her. Sylvanas would have no way of planning this, so Tyrande's absence would mean we wouldn't even get the same events in the game as we're going to under Sylvanas' plan.

The only reason we GET OUT OF THE MAW to facilitate the entire fucking storyline is through a pillar made by the First Ones which confuses and surprises the Jailer, which means there is no sensible or logical reason that Sylvanas would have access to know that. So if she opened the path for us to go in and fix shit on purpose, she needs to have officially overtaken any existing character short of the Arbiter on lore knowledge and somehow had direct access to 1337 haxx0r powers to activate the beacon for us to leave the Maw in the first place.

Otherwise, what was the plan? For us to go in and fight our way into the Maw and just whack the Jailer? It's framed as an impossible and hopeless situation before we get literally Deus Ex Machina'd to Oribos.

But that doesn't even get into certain character decisions that just directly conflict with what they're implying. The tone of Sylvanas' actions aren't just coldly pragmatic, they're actively malicious. Burning Teldrassil to get enough souls to be strong enough to break the Helm to oppose the Jailer indirectly would be one thing. There's a way to present it while being ambiguous. But she pretty deliberately has a nihilistic outlook, it's a split second decision out of emotional lability, she forces Delaryn to watch out of spite, and believes "life is pain" and rejects any heroism or life that she had before. She's said she wants others to "serve Death, serve me." She doesn't even do things that are just fucked up like other anti-heroes/anti-villains, she is actively indulging and appreciating the malicious actions she is engaging.

This face just isn't the look of someone who did what they "had" to. Ditto relishing pulling a "you have won deez nuts" on everyone at the Lordaeron throne. This just isn't the character you wrote!

The only way the interview's words mesh with the internal logic of the story as of right now is if Sylvanas' intentions are to use the Jailer to outright wipe creation because "life is pain" and "life and death are unfair" and that supersedes his intent to simply take the World Soul and have his cake. Otherwise, this entire thing feels like a bloated and confusing Hail Mary to appease fans of the character while undermining the nature of what made her popular and also making no sense with the events they say led to it.

Hell, even on a player/faction meta reaction level, if this is leading to some kind of grand twist, it's a manufactured and lazy one, because they have forced every Tom, Dick, and Harry in a "heroic" role to unanimously hate her without even offering that ambiguity.

There's a way to tell that story and even make her tragic, to say "this person had no other way out and felt so hopeless and so broken that their only recourse was to try and break everything as a way to have true freedom and release." Buuuut if this was a giant elaborate keikaku to get us in and fix the afterlife, that is not the way to tell that story, chief.

[Lady Atia]

Did someone say Redemption Arc, Blessed Path of the Sylvanas ?

[Tarba]

The fact they were making up the story on the go without really thinking about it was a good excuse for their incompetence. But they are planing it. That's sad.

[Paula Deen]

Oh god.

This sounds an awful lot like a "redemption arc" incoming. She "created a pathway for us"?

This is gonna have to be GOOD if they want to sell us on the idea that Sylvanas *isn't* just a big ol' evil bitch. I'm already a little bummed how generic the Jailer is seeming, but... well, I guess there's no gettin' off this train now, right?

Yep. I gotta agree. I want the evil bitch dead. She doesn't deserve redemption. Ever.

[Vakir]

It's not even a redemption arc if it was planned that way. It's "good all along."

Any story can be told well, I guess, so it's theoretically possible to do a "redemption arc" where present Sylvanas is dragged through Hell and changes, but this isn't a redemption arc they're describing!

AUUUGH.

[Paula Deen]

It's not even a redemption arc if it was planned that way. It's "good all along."

Any story can be told well, I guess, so it's theoretically possible to do a "redemption arc" where present Sylvanas is dragged through Hell and changes, but this isn't a redemption arc they're describing!

AUUUGH.

The hell is it then? They specifically chose the words 'misunderstood'.

Its the same exact shit with Illidan three years ago. They retconned some turds and pulled out a corpse.

Except this time the turd committed genocide and, as of this point in the games life cycle, other than a brief series of skirmishes with her creator, has done NOTHING positive for the story.

This is like Garrosh except instead of a well made villain who was designed from the start as an arrogant young aggressor, we have an arrogant old aggressor the game is trying to pass off as a master of 5D chess.

Kill. Her.

[Lefrog]

Did someone say Redemption Arc, Blessed Path of the Sylvanas ?

All hail our banshee queen, savior of Azeroth!

[Vakir]

The hell is it then? They specifically chose the words 'misunderstood'.

Its the same exact shit with Illidan three years ago. They retconned some turds and pulled out a corpse.

Kill. Her.

You have it all wrong, I'm not defending this. I'm saying the story they're telling with her being "misunderstood" is worse than a redemption arc. It implies there was no need to be redeemed if that was Sylvanas' intentions. Which my long-ass post above establishes as...nonsense. Absolute nonsense. It does not mesh with her decisions up to this point at all and makes no sense.

With Illidan, they were fixing a vastly stupid misstep in TBC that happened a decade before, since he was OOC and horribly misused. (And again, that wasn't a redemption story, he was framed as kinda-good all along) With Sylvanas, there's no justification for this shit that I can even see, because these are actions they've been writing continuously over the last 3-4 years.

[Paula Deen]

You have it all wrong, I'm not defending this. I'm saying the story they're telling with her being "misunderstood" is worse than a redemption arc. It implies there was no need to be redeemed if that was Sylvanas' intentions. Which my long-ass post above establishes as...nonsense. Absolute nonsense. It does not mesh with her decisions up to this point at all and makes no sense.

With Illidan, they were fixing a vastly stupid misstep in TBC that happened a decade before, since he was OOC and horribly misused. (And again, that wasn't a redemption story, he was framed as kinda-good all along) With Sylvanas, there's no justification for this shit that I can even see, because these are actions they've been writing continuously over the last 3-4 years.

Gotcha. I misunderstood.

[Mehrunes]

Oh, yes, I'm sure they planned this story all the way back in W3 when they introduced her. That's why this story is oh, so consistent.

[Vakir]

Gotcha. I misunderstood.

Like, that's my biggest beef here with them. Not even just the morality or frustrating actions of a character. It's the total lack of internal logic of a story they JUST told.

If they wanted to throw any personal responsibility out the window and fanservice the shit out of Sylvanas "fans," many of whom won't like this either, have a damn party. They've done worse. But if the implications here are accurate, they already fucked up rules they just established.

Not, like, "we messed up a book we wrote 3 years ago, it's actually the Titans POV now, lol." They ACTIVELY FUCKED UP SOMETHING THEY JUST WROTE. LIKE, IN THE SAME PATCH LAUNCH.

von_karma_headslam.gif

[Xilurm]

” In Battle for Azeroth she did some things that really had folks upset, and that was by design”. he explains. “We wanted to have some controversy, and we wanted people to misunderstand her, because she has deeper motivations.

“And now that we enter into the Shadowlands, we get to discover what that’s all about. Her connection to the Jailer and the machinery of the Shadowlands being broken are all tied together, and she’s essentially created a pathway for us” he continues.

“We’ve now got to go in and be part of fixing the Shadowlands, and along the way will finally understand why she did what she did. And I’ll leave it to you to be the judges, on whether you believe her, her motivations to be good or evil, or in the best interests of Azeroth” he ends.

They can take their misunderstanding and shove it up their fucking ass!

[Magicon]

Oh god.

This sounds an awful lot like a "redemption arc" incoming. She "created a pathway for us"?

This is gonna have to be GOOD if they want to sell us on the idea that Sylvanas *isn't* just a big ol' evil bitch. I'm already a little bummed how generic the Jailer is seeming, but... well, I guess there's no gettin' off this train now, right?

said it all along that she will kind of be good (Just like how Illidan was)