does Illidan have some mental or social disorder (serious)

[tommyhil622]

Illidan, Jaina, Slyvanas, Varian, Garrosh, Alleria, Bolvar (post burning) most of these main characters have shown some sort of phychological issue BUT, can human psychology be applied to them? when many aren't even human...

[Pebrocks The Warlock]

Its ok to be not stable after all of it, but why he become so Ugly, i mean Legion cover image of him (pre meta i think) slender elf with big wings and horns but damn in-game face (after meta) looks like someone trolled and failed his plastic surgery. I can bet if he was so ugly on cover .....

What race becomes beautiful after becoming a Demon? Demonification is known to be grotesque, I'd say he got lucky compared to others.

[Clone]

That would be an understatement. He's a wretched elf-demon hybrid who mutilated his body, you tell me.

Kinda reminds me of Alleria who tainted her body with the void.

[Selastan]

Yes, Illidan is insane. That's why he had to be stopped in BC. He was going to destroy Northrend in order to kill the Lich King, damn the consequences. The consequences in this case being blasting open a portal to the Shadowlands if the helm was destroyed, freeing Yogg-Saron if his prison was destroyed, and breaking the Nexus and whatever consequences that would have. He recreated the Well of Eternity, which has been of use to absolutely no one, only serving to attract the Burning Legion as everyone feared it would, once in the Third War and again to the Sunwell in the Burning Crusade. He enslaved all of Outland by withholding the biggest source of water, used the souls of the draenei dead as a fuel source, and destroyed an entire planet. We know Argus itself housed innocents, so Nathreza likely had millions of innocent souls hiding from the Burning Legion. It was Illidan's portal to Argus that allowed Sargeras to reach Azeroth, and even though the Burning Legion was stopped, it caused untold damage to Azeroth to do so. Silithus, Azerite, the War, and even indirectly the events of Shadowlands, all because of Illidan's reckless single-minded pursuit.

The entire premise of the Demon Hunters is flawed. Using the abilities and tactics of the Burning Legion to defeat them...that just makes two Burning Legions.

[GreenJesus]

Kinda reminds me of Alleria who tainted her body with the void.

shhh... we don't say that name unless you want to summon ... him/her.

[Super Dickmann]

Illidan was in isolation for 10k years and was an orbiter before and after. Yeah, he was socially incompetent. Not so much as Medivh though, who's idea of trying to prevent the apocalypse was barging into leaders' homes and raving like a lunatic about how the end is nigh.

@Feanoro

Yeah, the problems with Baine are legion, but the main ones are an in-story incoherence and the difference between what we're told and what we're shown. We're told Baine is this exemplar of peace who can also kick ass and who represents his people best, but all we see him do is sulk, act subversively and fight his own side, without equivalent help to his side when they're heroes. We're told he's strong, but his Shadowlands appearances pretty much show what we expect - first we see of him he gets dropped like a rock by the big bad for being shit and we have to rescue him. Next we see him he gets dragged back into Torghast and when we rescue him the second time, when he's back in Oribos he just sulks in a corner. He comes across as weak and subversive rather than strong and heroic which is why he fails so much of his target audience besides just irritating me, who's very much not part of that.

What's more, unlike Anduin, who's framed by how much he's lost to war and conflict and so his desire for peace makes some sense, if not much, Baine has gained everything in his life through violence - his people have a home at all because of the orcs and force of arms and he's been saved multiple times by war. Baine's very, very few interesting portrayals, like in War Crimes, play upon this - with Baine as someone who's holding back a massive amount of unresolved anger, possibly because of that contradiction and that he's just holding it in. But this too has basically gone nowhere.

[Varodoc]

Kinda reminds me of Alleria who tainted her body with the void.

Alleria did not grow wings, hooves, or horns, she does not look like a circus reject like that worthless goat-man Illidan. In fact, she can literally look like a normal elf if she wanted to. I will admit I chuckled though.

Plus, Alleria did not want to be corrupted by the Void. She was infested with it while on a mission to a Void-corrupted Legion world. It was an incident. Meanwhile Illidan mutilated himself for the sake of power. He let Sargeras burn his eyes for the sake of power. He consumed the malevolent skull of the filthy orc and became a beast for the sake of power.

You could have compared Illidan to... ugh, Garrosh, I guess. He turned himself into a disgusting monster with that Old God heart. But definitely not Alleria.

[YUPPIE]

Yes, Illidan is insane. That's why he had to be stopped in BC. He was going to destroy Northrend in order to kill the Lich King, damn the consequences. The consequences in this case being blasting open a portal to the Shadowlands if the helm was destroyed, freeing Yogg-Saron if his prison was destroyed, and breaking the Nexus and whatever consequences that would have. He recreated the Well of Eternity, which has been of use to absolutely no one, only serving to attract the Burning Legion as everyone feared it would, once in the Third War and again to the Sunwell in the Burning Crusade. He enslaved all of Outland by withholding the biggest source of water, used the souls of the draenei dead as a fuel source, and destroyed an entire planet. We know Argus itself housed innocents, so Nathreza likely had millions of innocent souls hiding from the Burning Legion. It was Illidan's portal to Argus that allowed Sargeras to reach Azeroth, and even though the Burning Legion was stopped, it caused untold damage to Azeroth to do so. Silithus, Azerite, the War, and even indirectly the events of Shadowlands, all because of Illidan's reckless single-minded pursuit.

The entire premise of the Demon Hunters is flawed. Using the abilities and tactics of the Burning Legion to defeat them...that just makes two Burning Legions.

it's stuff like this that makes him interesting because it's hard to tell if he's a villain or a hero. In Legion, he wasn't that bad.

[Isilrien]

He just really likes one-liners.

Or those who are prepared.

Back on tangent:

I think his background explains his behavior, as others have already suggested.

[Plehnard]

He spent 10,000 years alone, locked in a cell...

Getting poked by Maiev all the time.

[Zig Zug]

it's stuff like this that makes him interesting because it's hard to tell if he's a villain or a hero. In Legion, he wasn't that bad.

These are all perspectives.

No one ever believes they are the bad guy.

[YUPPIE]

These are all perspectives.

No one ever believes they are the bad guy.

does Illidan deserve the contempt he gets from Malfurion though

[Mic_128]

He would sacrifice everything as long as it wasn't his things

Illidan has a number of problems, but he was just as willing to sacrifice himself. He sacrificed his eyes, his body, his standing in the Highborne, his relationship with his family and loved ones, his soul, and at the end, himself.

Playing Classic, I've come across that bit of story where Malfie states that Illidan is fixed on reliving his battle against Arthas time and time again, and that in his mind, it was him who had won.

That sounds quite close to schizophrenia to me.

It also got retconned away.

[Saltysquidoon]

Illidan was an arrogant pompous asshole (which is a grade a way to get people not to agree with you even when you are right), willing to compromise his principles to achieve his goals. In a setting that runs on hopeium from a race that essentially opposes his views on essentially every level (due to the cultural correction caused by the WotA).
I suppose in that sense he has the social disorder of not being able to read the room.

Remember though aside from the now non-canon lore hiccup in TBC he's always been presented as an anti-hero whose objectives have always ultimately been for the best. It's just that his methods are portrayed as either necessary evils when they work or pointlessly destructive shortcuts when they don't.

does Illidan deserve the contempt he gets from Malfurion though

No, he doesn't. That's part of the tragedy of the character, that malfurion and tyrande are (well were in a post burning world) so self-assured in their ethos that Illidan had to be wrong they couldn't see when he was right. It's actually abysmal that legion never addressed this conflict properly, especially after is revealed he essentially saved the universe.

[huth]

Yes, Illidan is insane. That's why he had to be stopped in BC. He was going to destroy Northrend in order to kill the Lich King, damn the consequences. The consequences in this case being blasting open a portal to the Shadowlands if the helm was destroyed, freeing Yogg-Saron if his prison was destroyed, and breaking the Nexus and whatever consequences that would have.

He was going to do that in TFT. By BC, it's been a few years since that plan failed and he was doing... well, nothing of notice that we knew off at the time. The Naga and Blood Elves under Kael'thas were largely doing their own thing. We also have no reason to assume he even knew about either of those former issues, with only the Nexus possibly being known. And since he was targeting Icecrown, Borealis might not even have been affected noticeably.

[Cyanu]

I would disagree that those don't have a few screws loose.

Jaina
Legendary flip flopping between hippy and warhawk. Up until BfA and her flip flop back to hippy, you could reasonably argue it made sense, if poorly presented. She held to her ideals in the face of great costs (sacrificing her father and thus homeland and family), only to see those ideals get her followers blown to bits, leading to her warhawk phase. That made sense, but "oh it's all just Sylvie, never mind! We cool, Horde!" is insane.

Anduin
Despite all evidence in front of him, he clings to the idea of a good Horde (as per his standards of good) to a point way past stubbornness. He's shown himself completely willing to throw his allies, people, bodyguards, and even friends and family under the bus in pursuit of "redeeming" the Horde. His savior complex is off the charts.

Baine
The problem with Baine (and @Super Dickmann, I'm attempting to present this as much a fair representation of our perspectives as possible) is not that he seeks peace. He's effectively the WC3 era Jaina in that goal, the problem is that he's a sneaking coward about it. Ironically, Jaina had more balls about her peace efforts than Baine does. On topic, he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes (granted, the story rarely presents them as mistakes) and it could be argued he has a bizarre mix of complexes. He believes his morals are superior, but not enough to act on them until absolutely forced to do so and even then tries to get out of it. Maybe a simultaneous superiority and inferiority complex?

Lor'Themar
Claims to live to serve his people, has anyone who disagrees mind controlled or removed, sees no conflict. Slimy opportunist with no real viewpoints other than survival, completely willing to go along with anything, no matter how morally repugnant, if it means he's not a target. I don't know the proper label for such, but he can't be entirely all there.

being wrong or flawed does not mean they have a disorder

[Xilurm]

That would be an understatement. He's a wretched elf-demon hybrid who mutilated his body, you tell me.

No no, what you meant to say is, "a blind half-night elf MONGREL!".

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What race becomes beautiful after becoming a Demon? Demonification is known to be grotesque, I'd say he got lucky compared to others.

Succubi and Shivarra are basically seduction incarnate. But I don't know if those count since they were demons to begin with, as far as we know. Eredar maybe? The Eredar Twins in Sunwell Plateu were basically consorts.

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You could have compared Illidan to... ugh, Garrosh, I guess. He turned himself into a disgusting monster with that Old God heart. But definitely not Alleria.

Actually I'd compare him more to Arthas. He sacrificed his soul for power, by taking Frostmourne. Garrosh just got corrupted by Y'Shaarj.

[Bumkin]

He loved a girl and that girl loved his brother, that alone can damage a man, also his bro is a douchebag who bullied him and imprisoned him for 10k years

[huth]

Succubi and Shivarra are basically seduction incarnate. But I don't know if those count since they were demons to begin with, as far as we know. Eredar maybe? The Eredar Twins in Sunwell Plateu were basically consorts.

Eredar barely even change. Mostly just grow larger and different skin tones.

[Xilurm]

Eredar barely even change. Mostly just grow larger and different skin tones.

Yeah, probably because of how powerful they can be. They still become demons though. If they die their souls go back to the twisting nether as opposed to regular Draenei.