Do you think Jaina or Sylvanas is the stronger and better-developed character?

[Super Dickmann]

In terms of narrative impact, Sylvanas is tied to worse, less coherent stories and along with Anduin has resulted in the current wasteland that is both her own race and the entire Horde. But if judged purely as a character, it's a different story.

Sylvanas has gone in several shit directions but she has at least gone somewhere. Jaina has only gotten more and more powerful while ending up exactly where she started on poor reasoning and her story has stayed solely in Square 1. Every fault that can be levied at Sylvanas, from schizophrenia to ridiculous power level to the narrative twisting to allow her to succeed and fuck over her enemies can be aimed more so at Jaina, with the added benefit that Jaina's story has next to no tie in what what passes for the overarching plot. Sylvanas took a backseat in her own Garrosh-ing expansion. Jaina is not only the only raid boss to win unreservedly, but is backed by her opposing faction in the very next appearance and then pops up in Azshara instead of the Night Elves and in all of Shadowlands instead of Genn, Tyrande or literally anyone who has the least bit of a meaningful tie in to death or opposing Sylvanas.

[sykoex]

I think they do a better job of making Sylvanas a relatable character. It seems like there are so many fans who feel that she is empowering, identify with her, and see her as a role model. It doesn't feel the same with Jaina.

[BaumanKing]

Sylvanas has gone in several shit directions but she has at least gone somewhere. Jaina has only gotten more and more powerful while ending up exactly where she started on poor reasoning and her story has stayed solely in Square 1. Every fault that can be levied at Sylvanas, from schizophrenia to ridiculous power level to the narrative twisting to allow her to succeed and fuck over her enemies can be aimed more so at Jaina, with the added benefit that Jaina's story has next to no tie in what what passes for the overarching plot. Sylvanas took a backseat in her own Garrosh-ing expansion. Jaina is not only the only raid boss to win unreservedly, but is backed by her opposing faction in the very next appearance and then pops up in Azshara instead of the Night Elves and in all of Shadowlands instead of Genn, Tyrande or literally anyone who has the least bit of a meaningful tie in to death or opposing Sylvanas.

Do you think Jaina will also be shoehorned into Light/Void expansion? Since she's Anduin's auntie and all.

[Super Dickmann]

Do you think Jaina will also be shoehorned into Light/Void expansion? Since she's Anduin's auntie and all.

I would bet my entire net worth on it. She was there to confront Azshara instead of Tyrande and she's now going to be a centerpiece for the Sylvanas raid boss. This despite the fact that she has 0% in common with Azshara except Kul Tiras being menaced by naga while Jaina was off in hell and her never having traded a line with Sylvanas. Her entire role in Shadowlands is completely perfunctory and so is Thrall's for that matter and neither should have a role in the raid over people like Tyrande, Genn or even fucking Lilian or Bob who have an actual connection to Sylvanas.

[Jackstraw]

Better developed, probably Jaina.
Power level wise eh. Their powers are as plentiful as the writers need. Jaina got a whole Shadowlands intro of lip service from basically everyone, mobs included, with great care gone in showing how strong and powerful and mighty the lord admiral is, but on the other hand Sylvanas is the Jailer's avatar.

There's no saving both of them to be honest. The current writing relies on them way too much to the point any other character not named Anduin is just not important or left to stroll around.
Jaina will hold any and all supporting role, with Thrall playing second fiddle no matter the situation as the Horde tag along. No matter if currently there's just better magic users in the roster, or characters who could use some more prominence.

Hell, why is there no proper villain to stand in Sylvanas' place too. Why Ashvane had to bite the dust in a couple second.

To sum it up, they're even. Dead stars turned into black holes, devouring everything as they float over the story.

[Aleksej89]

sylvanas got butchered after warcraft 3.
the horrors arthas committed upon her are nothing compared to what blizzard has done with her character in wow.

[Soon-TM]

To sum it up, they're even. Dead stars turned into black holes, devouring everything as they float over the story.

Come to think of it, this is such a common trope that it has got its own name. I liked this bit especially:

This is fairly blatant author favoritism in effect, with the author using his or her effective position as God of the story to carry the character through by her hands. In the rare cases when Sue fails, it will usually be a temporary setback that will either prove advantageous in the end or else just serve to hammer in the point of how special the character is. These failures can often involve just as much Deus ex Machina as her successes, setting up events in which she logically shouldn't fail.

Because of this, the character just ends up rather boring to witness. Heroes might be naturally predisposed to winning and some villains might never seem to be taken care of, but Black Hole Sue does away with anything resembling logic to prop up the characters. It stops being a story and just becomes more like a fictionalized resume of improbably fantastic deeds.

the horrors arthas committed upon her are nothing compared to what blizzard has done with her character in wow.

This is definitely sig material

[Jackstraw]

Come to think of it, this is such a common trope that it has got its own name. I liked this bit especially:

Oh man, does it fit to a T.

Think about it: the Lord Admiral cannot be constrained by the Maw. She gets hindered by the Maw, which is shown to be not powerful enough, but she can't navigate it effectively. Can teleport, albeit in limited capacity. Can defeat the twisting corridors with absurd ease but can't escape them. Her powers cannot overcome the McGuffin/ Deus Ex.

It was grating to assist the entirety of the Ebon Blade fall in droves, just to see Jaina annihilate the Mawsworn. And Darion was so quick to immediately tell me how strong Jaina was, and immediately address her as her title, obtained by overcoming an admittedly pretty interesting introspective arc that ultimately fell into nothingness.

Sylvanas after her butchering is the same. She cannot escape her own misery and outsmarts everyone because yes. Her relationship with Nathanos superseding her affiliation with her Forsaken, her bulwark against the darkness, because after her reconceptualization that's all there is left for us to witness: a super smart power couple to feed the now tragic anti hero Sylvanas could become.

And it's just not interesting anymore.

[bloodmoth13]

Sylvanas was a great character till she got the spotlight, and whoever took the reigns of her story just drove it straight into the ground.
Jaina was a pretty safe character till she got the spotlight (with theramore) and she started to look interesting but they kind of half assed that story and never took it to its conclusion. There was so much potential there.

Neither are good imo, but sylvanas is definitely worse. We still dont have a fucking reason for all the shit she has done, at least jaina going insane kind of made sense.

[DemonHunter18]

Jaina is a far better character.

strength wise, both are all over the place but even Deus Ex Jainchina cannot overcome Betanuser' waifu.

[OwenBurton]

Jaina, at least she has had some sort of natural character progression in first seeing her father as the villain when she was young and blue-eyed but then come to realise that there is a lot more to the world and conflicts than that. Which is pretty decent and believable for being wow.

Om the whole neither is really particularly intriguing, but sylvanas is definitely the worse one, especially since they seem to be going for a kerrigan redemption which was an atrocious idea in sc but would be even worse in wc.

Jaina and Sylvanas have not even directly interacted thus far. Of course, neither did Tyrande and Sylvanas, neither seemed to even really acknowledge the other's existence for most of the past several decades. So Sylvanas attacking the night elves from a certain perspective did seem very out of the blue (yes, they were Kalimdor's greatest defenders - but Sylvanas had never shown any interest in their lands or people before, she was all about self-preservation in the Eastern Kingdoms), it was almost like the tauren suddenly attacking the gnomes, because they thought it was necessary.