Why does Sylvanas not look dead?

[Ohvul]

I like to think of the undead as the old people with back problems. Sylvanas and Arthas are the two kids with scoliosis feeling like they rule the world, doing everything they can to hold back the pain that awaits all the dead. Then bam once she hits 63 there goes her hip and then her shoulder.

[Zuben]

The same reason Argonians have tits and Death Knights all look like living people with bad eyesight. Fanservice. If you're asking in lore, Arthas kept her body around to torture her with it, keeping it in an iron coffin to preserve it. Given he kept a vial of her blood around to take into his Jeffrey Dahmer trophy cabinet it necessitated it be kept in good enough shape to allow this. When Arthas was distracted by Illidan attacking the Frozen Throne, she nabbed the body back and then maintained it to sell figurines look good because she's vain and if you were a zombie you'd prefer to look like a (morally) grey model instead of a shambling corpse.

The undead campaign of Frozen Throne starts with corporeal Sylvanas as a leader in Arthas's forces, so I guess he granted it to her for whatever reason. The book didn't say why iirc.

[Super Dickmann]

The undead campaign of Frozen Throne starts with corporeal Sylvanas as a leader in Arthas's forces, so I guess he granted it to her for whatever reason. The book didn't say why iirc.

Yeah, the book is itself a retcon. In WC3 there was no explanation. They just thought it'd be cooler if she were an undead ranger instead of a banshee. They were right too.

[Leodok]

It probably started with the mentality of "character is female, therefore must look sexy", but Nathanos, Calia and Derek show us Blizzard also just doesn't like the undead model and refuses to use it for any relevant character.

[Eazy]

^
Some kind of people wouldn't like to do things.

[Clone]

Probably the same way DKs don't look decayed. It's worth noting that blizzard has a tendency to cheap out on assets and her banshee model in WC3 is most likely because they didn't make a dark ranger model at the time. Her reclaiming her body is made up to justify the change.

[cparle87]

Problem is the Doylist argument is the primary reason- the lore one is just made up afterwards.

Look at the name of the forum subsection you're posting in if you need a hint which of the two arguments people want to have discussed in said forum. It's not a difficult concept.

OT: As for her supposedly increasing beauty she's been working for the Jailer since Cataclysm, one of the closest beings to a god of all death in the franchise. Whereas the In the Shadw of the Sun descriptions were in early Wrath, the point at which she wouldn't have the most time to rot and break down before she began getting upgraded. Like Nathanos getting upgraded Sylvanas has probably been enhanced as far as it is possible for an undead to be.

[Jastall]

^
Some kind of people wouldn't like to do things.

She looks so much more cool and fitting to her station as Banshee Queen, though. The design is fanmade, but I like this Sylvanas far more than any of her canon incarnations.

[LemonDemonGirl]

^
Some kind of people wouldn't like to do things.

This is what she should look like after Saurfang beat her, not just having a thin scar on her face.

I wish DKs looked this gross too lol

[Razion]

According to the cutscenes we have of her death, she should be run through but yet hasn't been depicted as such. Her not rotting is more her state of reanimation so soon after death, and not having to deal with the Plague. She wasn't zombified, she was raised.

[Nathreim]

The stronger the undead the better they tend to look. Thats why Death Knights also look better than say ghouls. Also Forsaken look bad because their model was based on undead who had been rotting a while before being animated.

[Razion]

I don't feel this matches up. We've exploded human corpses in Western Plaguelands into Forsaken-looking shambling corpses immediately after they died, and they weren't dealing with the plague in the meanwhile.

Not all Val'kyr seem to reanimate the same way. In this instance it was way more sloppy than other Val'kyr or Arthas' method of making DKs. Here I figured they were making rushed shock troops like minutemen and didn't have the time or power to make proper full power clean power infused reanimations.

Also worth noting Corpse Explosions from many Scourge mobs can and will cause disease and Plague, so this method may be a case of infusing a lot of Plague as a way of reanimating. (Granted, Val'kyr typically don't have much involvement with Plague, though.)

[ClassicPeon]

Every forsaken has some characteristic that he/she's dead. Rotten, maybe a broken jaw, missing eye, bones showing etc.

But not Sylvanas. She just looks like a purple elf.

Is it just coomer bait, or is there some lore reason I've missed?

She isnt a forsaken undead she is a banchee. So...

[Xykotic]

Maybe its Maybelline?

[czarek]

She could be patially a demon so demon could use any form.

[omeomorfismo]

Again: Even if we take ALL of the details regarding Sylvanas' unique situation into account...

They then made ALL Dark Rangers not decaying, regular looking elves with red eyes. (I'd say "paler skin" as well, but Elves already had entirely pale skin.)

So unless they're arguing that every single Dark Ranger followed the exact same process Sylvanas did (they most certainly did not), the reason is almost assuredly "Because it looked good."

they did. every dark rangers is a former rangers that, after being made a banshee, possessed their original corpse...
thats until cata, were the dark rangers included the troops trained by nathanos

[Martymark]

The male gaze

Lesbians have eyes too!

[The King in Yellow]

Because Undercity has excellent corpse-doctors/plastic surgeons.

In all seriousness though: fan-service probably.

[loras]

Every forsaken has some characteristic that he/she's dead. Rotten, maybe a broken jaw, missing eye, bones showing etc.

But not Sylvanas. She just looks like a purple elf.

Is it just coomer bait, or is there some lore reason I've missed?

Better necromancy means more intact appearance.
Death Knights use the same principle, it's why you can distinguish between i.e. human and forsaken death knights.

Also there is the issue of vampirism being able to "heal" undead forms through various means. Forsaken can cannibalise and leech life a little, death knights have various life draining abilities and later on the San'layn seem like they might be the perfected form of what the Scourge first tried with Sylvanas.

[mizeri]

maybe elven bodies takes longer to rot /shrug