Is Sylvanas the most evil character ever in WoW or just misunderstood?

[TheramoreIsTheBomb]

Evil:
Created a plague to wipe out not only the Scourge but all of the living as well.
Created a plague to wipe out the Worgen
Used the Val'kyr to raise Undead like the Lich King
Allied with literal WoW Satan
Started a war involving the cosmic powers of Death
Used living humanoids to experiment on and then experimented on DKs after WOTLK
Manipulated hundreds of people in believing she cares about them only to amass to millions of people years later and abandon them all together after claiming they are nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Used the Forsaken as "arrows in her quiver" *sic*
Burned Teldrassil leaving millions dead and thousands homeless
Committed genocide against the Night Elves
Committed genocide against the Gilneans
Committed genocide against wild life
Allied with Azshara to kill as many people as people causing N'zoth to be free and also kill as many as possible
Started a war to kill many people as possible
Gassed her own civilain's city leaving them homeless
Abandoned her boyfriend to be killed
Killed Saurfang
Wanted and tried to kill her sisters ..three times. [MoP, BfA x2]
Manipulated the Forsaken to worship her as a savior and deity cult like figure.
Killed Calia and many insurrectionists
And she killed Sparky too.

Neutral:
Called for a tactical retreat on the Broken Shore which caused many Alliance deaths including Varian Wrynn and Tirion Fordring* (Could've been saved if we would've killed Gul'dan and rescued him from Krosus's pool)

Good:
Gave the Forsaken a new purpose
Protected their ancestral homelands
Avenged Vol'jin ..technically speaking by sending Horde heroes to help Nightborne, aid Kirin Tor, and to kill Gul'dan.

[Electric Lighter]

I mean clearly not the most evil more just chaotic dumb.

She isn't evil so much as so incompetent that everything she does is nonsensical or self defeating. Its like how jaina's mood swings push the plot. She is less a character then a reason for the player character to do things.

[Soon-TM]

She isn't the most evil character, even if only because she's so dumb that she can't help but to shoot herself in the foot - and not just once, but time and time again. Yes, it's a common theme among WoW villains, but it has never been as remarkable as with Sylv gurl.

The mere fact that she can somehow be considered an actual threat instead of just being laughed out of the way is sheer, unadulterated author favoritism - to the point that she isn't actually a character, but just a tool to make things happen. Which is one of the core reasons why she's one of the biggest Mary Sue's in the current lore.

[Myradin]

She's not the most evil, she's just been able to get away with a lot since Cata and onward.

Before then she was fine.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

I don't know anymore to be honest. I think she just went through a lot and became what she is now.

[Zuben]

She has her dere dere moments, so while quite evil not the most evil. Gul'dan is the most honestly evil character in Warcraft imo, followed by his bosses Kil'jaeden and Archimonde.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

Sylvanas: Literally, time after time, does acts of horrendous evil


Blizzard's attempts at 5D chess writing: misunderstood and "morally gray


/queue Thomas the Tank Engine theme, shitty flute remix

[Varodoc]

She's evil.

And that's why we're talking about a "redemption arc".

Because she's evil and needs to redeem herself for her evil atrocities.

If she weren't evil, there wouldn't be any "redemption" talk at all. How can you redeem yourself if you haven't done anything wrong? You can't.

Blizzard never said she's morally grey. I wish people would stop spreading this nonsense. Blizzard said that the HORDE is morally grey. Blizzard never pretended Sylvanas wasn't evil, that's why they're now planning to have her redeem herself after a lifetime of miserable mistakes.

What Blizzard kept saying throughout BfA is that she has a "masterplan", but now it is revealed that all her plans and projects were actually all borrowed from the Jailer. It is the Jailer who formulated the masterplan. Not Sylvanas. Sylvanas is just a pawn, she's a weakling who borrowed all plans from the Jailer.

And that's why she's now having regrets and second thoughts about the plan. She didn't formulate it. She didn't formulate shit.

[Chloe the Maid]

Sylvanas was perfect as a side character. Giving her a main role was the worst thing they did to her character.
Some characters are just not made to shine under constant spotlight.

[Galathir]

Both. Blizzard will make up some random "ends justify the means" bullshit about how she was really meaning well, looking at the greater picture, but that doesn't change the fact that she commited a genocide, specifically targeting innocent non-combatants, knowing full well that every single soul would be sent straight into Azeroth's equivalent of hell.

[Mic_128]

Sylvanas was perfect as a side character. Giving her a main role was the worst thing they did to her character.
Some characters are just not made to shine under constant spotlight.

Especially since that without her, the Horde are going to lose that "shades of grey" pretty quick.

[Orby]

'Inconsistent' is more the broad term I would use. Its not so much her character and more her direction :P

I have never bene a fan of Sylvanas since her introduction in Warcraft 3. Some Kerrigan knockoff I always thought. Only waiting for her to become space god and we complete the set.

[Aleksej89]

she is the lamest character, that is for sure.

she goes between "evil bitch" and "angsty teenager" on a regular basis depending on how Daloser feels atm.

[huth]

Neither. She's definitely evil, but not top of the pile.

[KOUNTERPARTS]

It'll probably end up being that Sylavanas and her mantra of "death claims us all" and whatnot is her way of reasoning that, it's better to be killed and sent to the afterlife instead of dying and then being raised into undeath.


Even though for years she's been dealing with undeath and the like, she (maybe?) absolutely hates it and aims for everything and everyone to just be... completely dead. Not just mostly dead.


The Jailer's quote in the 9.1 cinematic saying "death was not made to be in chains" further makes me think this. The concept of being a state of undeath, necromancy as a magical practice, and further inside of the Shadowlands having such order/structure and the Jailer being a prisoner of the Maw himself... it makes sense the Jailer is able to indoctrinate her further.

[ulululu]

TLDR: the character is incredibly misunderstood and i can't blame the players for it, because the key parts of understanding the character are hidden in novels, short stories, tiny quest texts, and a bunch of incredibly poorly portrayed BFA story beats. the writers have a solid character who i adore, but you have to jump through a million hoops to be here with her rn.

It's just context, there were several cruel dictators in the history of mankind - they were all just misunderstood, right?. I went through mostly all of them as well - she remains evil stil. Evil and without any purpose.

[Phyrexia-KulTiras]

she is the lamest character, that is for sure.

she goes between "evil bitch" and "angsty teenager" on a regular basis depending on how Daloser feels atm.

She is the representation of the playerbase.

But how anyone sees her any different then evil, is beyond me. Its in the same level of defending serial killers for having a rough youth.

[Maxilian]

She's not good, she's evil, or at least just extremely selfish and self-centered to want to excuse herself in the lack of agenda by pushing everyone into the "Noone have free will" thing, when even she doubt that's true, shown by how she doubted when talking with Anduin, though IMHO is something most people would do (justify their actions one way or the other, even more when it have gone so far, that's more about justifying your existence)

[ONCHEhap]

She's Chaotic Stupid.

Pretty much a 4 years old idea of a mean character

[Wangming]

Actually this got me thinking WHO is the most evil character? Not the Old Gods, definitely. They are just parasites with very little actual agency. Most other villains have been corrupted by one force or another. WoW has a limited number of badguys who are under no form of mind control or corruption and still do nasty shit.