Sanctum of Domination Ending cinematic

[Smallfruitbat]

I didn't say it was good writing

[Every Pwny]

I knew it was going to be bad, but they actually surprised me with how bad they made it. The Jailer just letting them go at the end wasn't even the stupidest part either.

[Ivarr]

ok. but it still doesn't make sense to me. why would he do that? when everybody know that's one more things that's gonna help "us" defeat him in the end...

Even without any risk it doesn't make sense to expend that kind of effort merely to teach Sylvanas, who has been a loyal serve throughout, a lesson.

[mingarrubia]

Poor Arbiter. In the end she gets disenchanted without uttering a single word.

[Terrorthatflapsinthenight]

The writers actually surprised me with this expansion, they really surpassed themselves, it's even worse than BFA.

[sighy]

Tbh that's one of the huge isues with BfA, in general, as well(And Legion to an extent), where they decide to tell a story with Sylvanas as a key player, but then kind of don't really include her or her perspective. In favor of some random crap about old gods, which ends in a DBZ style laser blast xD

AS for SL Sylvanas they had showed her taking issue with some of the Jailer's choices, in cinematics... which is not great, but better than we got over the last several xpacs.

[MrLachyG]

Not a thread to hate on writers or anything like that. I'm just a bit amused as to why we don't have some more insights into why characters do what they do, and because of this, they come off as unrealistic, stupid. I feel that with this cinematic, Sylvanas going against Jailer would be justified, if it had some more background, insights to her struggle, thoughts etc. Probably a book will cover parts of it, but game itself just makes it look like she just randomly realized after years of serving the jailer, that "oh no, he's really not that good". Just lazy to miss this oppurtunity to have more info here and see more of her internal struggle leading up to this. We had some cinematics where we saw that she was not amused with some of the Jailer's choices, but thats it. And she's a clever character, like literally no one else thought that "yeah, the Jailer is gonna fight for some good free will, with some bad means, but overall wants to do good". And it's sad, we could have had some insights into how he convinced Sylvanas etc.

And for the jailer himself, he could have been such an interesting character, with some insights of what happened to him, why are his motives the way they are. But like nothing really. I love a good villain with some good background, where he thinks he's doing the right thing because of what happend to him and we get some personal connection on their reasoning, see some things from their perspective.

I think this is what made the first few expansions of wow great, that we had more ties to the villains, even tho their motive was not always clear or seemed very justified, but we knew more about them, their story. And now we get a new character out of nowhere, which would be fine, but no real connection to him over the expansion, some very generic threats and lines, and that's it.
I loved Jaina's story in bfa for example, it was personal, it moved her development further, her character felt real. Don't see why they couldn't have done something similar for Sylvanas here, and Zovaal.

I have a feeling we will find out a lot more over the coming weeks as the questline progresses.

[keelr]

I've come to the conclusion after watching the cinematic that Activision view World of Warcraft as a vehicle for the MDI and other 'e-sports'.

They seem to have stopped trying to write coherent characters, yes there are a few gems still in there but if you look at their posts they are making more of a deal about season 2 of Shadowlands than they are of seeing the next step in the journey of an iconic and much loved character.

Ppl on this forum for years now be like:
*random topic*
... So ive come to the conclusion that activision makes blizz do... and thats why wow is bad imo rn...

[Lord Pebbleton]

Duplicate thread calls for duplicate comment:

I love Zovaal's new appearance. Looks like a big Torghast Sauron. Also love how he stopped the arrow mid-flight and then looked at her like "listen here you little shit".

However I do hope that Thrall, Bolvar etc execute Sylvanas while she's lying there. There is literally, absolutely no need to wait for her to wake up before exacting justice after all the crap she has done. But I got a feeling that things will go differently

[Trollhammer]

Gonna be honest after playing FFXIV for a bit, I've come to the conclusion Blizzard writing recently is infantile in comparison

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Holy shit...Where he teleported?!

[BrintoSFJ]

Such a stupid character honestly, her IQ has got to be like 20 at this point.

Hey! My IQ is 20 and I am not that stupid!

[Nerovar]

The few positive things I can say about Sylvanas in this expansion, besides having arguably more depth than BFA to go with her 100 point lower IQ is that the animations are a lot better.

Also, she's been wearing skulls for fifteen years so that's not a tell. The whole plotline collapses because the guy barely even pretends to be anything but comically fucking evil at every turn. It's one of the funny aspects of the cinematic actually - when she calls him out, he isn't angry, just sort of confused, like he was surprised she expected anything else. Maybe if the Maw was running on autopilot and he was a prisoner going 'woe is me' it'd work marginally better but even then it's impossible to present this character as a viable schemer or even an average intellect when the story rotates around her trusting this obviously incredibly evil dude.

You know that we've really entered bizarro world territory when Sylvanas characterisation does a complete 180° every time a cinematic starts. Suddenly we go from evil villain who's taunting everyone with her evilness to misunderstood girlboss who just wanted to do what's right. I mean, we knew this was going to happen the moment we saw her talk to Anduin and give him these puppy-eyed looks but the actual execution goes beyond even my wildest dreams.

The fact that she's had these supposed doubts all along (throughout all the torture, mass killings and the subjugation of Anduin at her hands) but only decided to act the moment the guy actually had won is what really takes the cake. She had no qualms helping him collected all the infinity stones but suddenly changes her mind because the guy from the torture dimension who's using Domination magic and turned Kel'Thuzad and Ner'zhul into his servants said the bad word that reminded her of Arthas. For an emotionless undead she sure is prone to retarded emotional outbursts.

At least Blizzard gave us a lore explanation for how half the playerbase got Thanos snapped now.

However I do hope that Thrall, Bolvar etc execute Sylvanas while she's lying there. There is literally, absolutely no need to wait for her to wake up before exacting justice after all the crap she has done. But I got a feeling that things will go differently

No, you see now that the Jailer has won, her inside knowledge is the only key to defeating him and while helping us, she will logically earn her redemption.

[Sialina]

Gonna be honest after playing FFXIV for a bit, I've come to the conclusion Blizzard writing recently is infantile in comparison

I mean, FFXIV is really really really childish and you being the ultra god champion there isn't any better, it's just fresher in your eyes so you didn't get quite as jaded yet.

[starstationprofm]

And yet Kerrigan herself disagreed with your assertion.

Guilt. Facts speak louder than words.

Bucky Barnes also feels guilty for what he did even if he was mind controlled.

[sighy]

Well I guess you can explain why Sira and Dalarin. But for Sylvanas it is useless.

So Sylvanas from Cata until now was not Sylvanas. It's too long to say "I get your other half back."
Or it is even worse. Sylvanas is not Sylvanas from W3 .. In that case this Sylvanas does not intersect me. I like the Undead, not the High Elf.



It's so boring that if you didn't say it I didn't realize it and so irrelevant that I stop caring again XD

You're severely underestimating the degree to which her backstory was retconned xD

Recently they released a story, where Vereesa went searching through the Shadowlands for Sylvanas's soul and ended up having a chat with the jailer, who had a part of it, in basically the direct aftermath of the Siege of Silvermoon. So basically her entire undead tenure was the #NotSylvanas...

[starstationprofm]

Gonna be honest after playing FFXIV for a bit, I've come to the conclusion Blizzard writing recently is infantile in comparison

Ah yes, FFXIV where CGI cinematics have characters with a clear Japanese aesthetic that speak in cringe British accents while butt-rock music plays in the background as they anime fight.


That FFXIV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tyuIh12_HU

How can you watch this and not cringe.

[VinceVega]

Yeah that is currently my biggest problem too.

There are characters i really like. Flynn, Shaw, Tyrande, Shandris, Lorthremas, Jaian and even Slyvannas.

But the problem Blizz always has, is that they make twist and turns in their story seeminly out of nothing. Sure it is realistic that we do NOT know why Sylvannas does somethign until she tells us... but that does not make it ok if said thing is going on for 2,5 expansions with no explanation whatsover. In anything.
I hope she getting her soul back means she will tell the protagonists a bit more her motivations. And maybe Blizz will finally give us some answers instead of answering every question with another fucking question.

Like now: Did we learn ANYTHING new in this patch? Like at all. We still have not one bit of a clue what the jailor did and what he wants to do. ALso we have still no real clue why Sylvannas did what she did. We know now she did not care as much if it is evil becuase she had a split soul. But that is it.

Edit: As people are talking about it: FF14 story is still cringy as fuck, sorry not sorry. I take wow story over whatever FF14 does anytime. I still like to play it from time to time though.

[Jackstraw]

The fact that she's had these supposed doubts all along (throughout all the torture, mass killings and the subjugation of Anduin at her hands) but only decided to act the moment the guy actually had won is what really takes the cake. She had no qualms helping him collected all the infinity stones but suddenly changes her mind because the guy from the torture dimension who's using Domination magic and turned Kel'Thuzad and Ner'zhul into his servants said the bad word that reminded her of Arthas. For an emotionless undead she sure is prone to retarded emotional outbursts.

I feel like there's not enough emphasis on her snapping due to the parallel between the Jailer and Arthas, and having no shown problem with the idea of having the remnants of Ner'zhul at hand's reach, working with bloody Kel'thuzad whose resurrection came at the expense of everything she died to protect, or allying with the entity who created the Lich King and the Scourge in the first place.

It's so dishearteningly dumb, this whole thing.

[Lord Pebbleton]

No, you see now that the Jailer has won, her inside knowledge is the only key to defeating him and while helping us, she will logically earn her redemption.

The right course after everything she has done would be to gather the info, then kill her. But as Anduin would say, I guess wE MustN'T BEcomE LiKe HEr