Silvanas's story is coming to an end, but the official whitewashing effect is not good

It's finally over. For many years, Sylvanas has dominated the development of the plot of "World of Warcraft", and her long and tortuous storyline finally came to an end. Since 2018, this part of the plot has been full of controversy in World of Warcraft, and the protagonist is Sylvanas, one of the most popular characters in the World of Warcraft series.

Silvanas Windrunner has transformed into a narrative "black hole". Her storyline has become increasingly complex and cannot be linked together at all. "Competition for Azeroth" and "Shadow Kingdom" originally had many excellent content designs, but it has become much inferior. Before the story ended, Blizzard kept fans "waiting and seeing". They released Sylvanas's solo novel on March 29, and "World of Warcraft" also launched the 9.2 version "Eternal End". We can see the ending of the entire story, which can be regarded as a phased ending. Now, we can finally get a good look at Sylvanas and her long-term layout to see how her storyline is increasingly deviating from the development of the World of Warcraft series.

Why is the Queen's plot line getting worse and worse?

In 2018, the expansion pack of "Azeroth" was launched, and the tribal chief Sylvanas Windrunner did something that completely changed the World of Warcraft series: she ordered the burning of Teda Hill (Tree of the World), which supported the night elf capital, was filled with civilians that the alliance failed to evacuate.

In the game's narrative, the reason she does this is because of the war between the alliance and the tribe, she tries to preempt and protect her people. This move became the fuse of the war, and every evil deed of Sylvanas intensified the situation. Many tribal players hate this. Why do players suddenly become evil puppets who kill civilians, burn houses, and resurrect the dead to replenish their troops?

At that time, we were not sure about the specific reason. In 2019, the tribe fell into a civil war and Sylvanas successfully occupied the ruins of Lordaeron. We can learn the official reasons from players who chose to be loyal to Sylvanas: Sylvanas said that he had a longer-term and grand plan.

But afterwards, we got another set of rhetoric. In fact, it was the civil war initiated by Sylvanas at that time, because for some reason the souls of the dead were sent into the terrible maze to provide energy to the warden. Why? Who is the warden? Why does he need these souls? Why are there metaphysical problems such as soul fragments, secondary deaths and automatic teleportation of the maw?

It was not until 2020 that the official gave a more comprehensive macro explanation after the launch of "Shadow Country" and the plot was updated. By 2022 years, with Sylvanas's novel released, we finally found the answers to all the questions. For any story, this "toothpaste-squeezing" presentation is not the best choice, especially for this kind of plot that is flawed in itself. During the long wait, players have long held their own questions about the settings and the basic integrity of the character.

So what kind of setting is Sylvanas at this time? Why are players so shocked by this collapsed characterization?

Back to the starting point of the story

Silvanas first appeared in Warcraft 3, which was released in 2002. This legendary character left a deep impression on the player, and after that, she accompanied the player for 20 years. She was first a high elf ranger, when the Death Knight and the Fallen Prince of Arthas took the Scourge to attack Quel'thalas. In order to save his compatriots, Sylvanas fought bravely, but in the end these resistances were in vain - Arthas killed Sylvanas and turned her into a banshees, transforming her into a war weapon against the high elves. The initial setting of this character aroused the players' sympathy, and fans immediately felt deeply about this character, especially after she was transformed into a banshees and became slavery to Arthas.

We can't imagine this kind of trauma, but Sylvanas resisted it. She broke free from her master's shackles, took back the initiative in her body, and built her own kingdom with the power of the Forgotten, the survivor of the Alsace War. Although the Forgotten carry hatred and fear, they are also considered "free". Whether they want to use this "freedom" on the right path (such as helping the new allies of the tribe) or on the evil path (creating plagues to destroy creatures and the Scourge of Arthas), it all depends on their own will.

This is the plot before the update of the World of Warcraft expansion "Wrath of the Lich King" in 2008. At that time, Alsace was still the villain of the story. Sylvanas never attacked Alsace; instead, in the middle of the expansion, the tribe and the alliance united to siege the pass to the Lich King base camp. Some of the Forgotten Ones betrayed and attacked everyone with the plague without discrimination, almost killing Alsace, but also killed many friendly forces. Sylvanas regained his city, drove away the traitors, and played the role of supporters for the rest of the war.

For Sylvanas's character history, these are recognized objective facts. But the rest of the stories are not like this, either fans have differences about it, or Blizzard frequently eats books.

More chaotic storyline

For many fans, Sylvanas is a heroic and powerful fighter. In the war against the High Elves, she became a survivor. Although AlsaSi tried to murder and imprison her physically and mentally, but she still united these victims with the same experience to make them stronger.

The Edge of the Night is an official short story published in 2011 by Dave Kossack, in which he explores the emotional changes of Sylvanas after Arthas’s death, which also opens up her entirely new storyline. Since the Lich King is dead, she needs a new motivation.

At first, Sylvanas didn't care about this world, nor did he care about the creatures in this world. She has accomplished her revenge and achieved her goal, and now she has finally put down her burden. So Sylvanas went to Ice Crown Fortress and chose to end his life. After her death, she found herself trapped in the endless darkness and torture of the world of rebirth like Arthas, and was brought back by Wagri. These winged creatures can guide their souls and transform the dead into undead. So Sylvanas once again walked in the world of the living, shouldering two new goals: one, live at all costs, and avoid eternal wandering in the realm of fear; two, protect the forgotten.

After Arthas' death, Sylvanas became a moral grey character, and she did a lot of bad things for some "justice" reasons, such as protecting her own people, which continued until 2018. This is how players understand Sylvanas from the stories of "Fission of the Earth", "The Mystery of the Panda", "The King of Drano" and "The Return of the Legion".

At the beginning of "League Return", the former tribe chief appointed Sylvanas to become the tribe chief before his death. She went from a manipulator in the dark to a leader in the front stage, and she didn't make a breakthrough until the end of the "League Return" incident. The next expansion pack, "Azeroth", brought this character to a new direction and took us through four happy years.

But unfortunately, the subsequent plot has begun to deviate from the right track again. Sylvanas launched a war against the alliance, killing a large number of night elves, causing the army to burn the human city-state Kurtiras, and also killing local residents, imprisoning their own political enemies, torture the other party, and triggering a civil war, claiming that "the tribes are waste." Then she goes to kidnap the Alliance leader, control his mind, and make him enslaved by the warden (why does Sylvanas want to be loyal to the warden? In short, it took another few months for the plot to really explain the reason behind it). On any level, she became another Alsace, and the official even confirmed this in later stories.

Silvanas later realized that he could not trust the warden. But everyone knew this from the beginning because this guy only said some unnutritious lines, such as "death comes to the soul of your world" or "you can't stop death."

Even though, Sylvanas betrayed the Warden, who returned the fragments of Sylvanas's soul torn to pieces by the grief of frost. Her soul is broken?This is the first time fans know about such a thing, not to mention that this is an integral part of Sylvanas's storyline. After we stop the warden, Sylvanas is punished by himself, suffering in the Abyss, redeeming every soul lost, betrayed or tortured in the Abyss. This is not the worst ending, but the journey to that ending is too tortuous, turning Sylvanas into a character full of frustrations.

Where will the novel take us in the end?

The new Sylvanas novel by Christy Gordon, published in March 2022, has done its best to create a coherent story in the midst of chaos, and some of it is really fun to read. However, it is not much like it was created for the story itself, but more like it is to make the game events more coherent.

This book starts with Sylvanas's childhood and tells her experience as a general of Quel'thalas Ranger. The book describes in detail her death, her torture at the hands of Alsace, and her long journey for revenge. This gives us a lot of background information to get a better understanding of Sylvanas’s thoughts and her relationship with the people closest to her. The book presents some wonderful clips, but the same flaw is the whole book, namely, that it tries to forcefully change the reader’s perception of Sylvanas and his behavior. Now, the official has rewritten Sylvanas's life story, with the purpose of explaining why she committed so many heinous crimes.

The book also mentions the Warden, who has much more conversations on a certain page than the lines in the entire game. We know that he met Sylvanas during the "Edge of Night" incident, but no matter at any time, "Edge of Night" never mentioned this detail. The warden and his Wagri showed Sylvanas countless after-death worlds and carefully prepared a set of rhetoric that said that the post-death arbitration system was cruel and unfair and would break up the family and the people they loved. But in "Shadowland", we sometimes encounter people who reunited after death. Therefore, the Warden is described in the book as a cunning liar, because he shows exactly the afterlife world that Sylvanas fears most and does not want to see.

In addition, we also find that Sylvanas's younger brother has a crucial influence on her character and current motivation, but he has only been mentioned in his previous settings.

In the story of "Shadow Kingdom", Sylvanas kidnapped the alliance leader Anduin Wrien, and her sympathy for Anduin eventually became a key factor in her betrayal of the warden. Is this because she and Anduin have some special relationship? Well, barely, Sylvanas saw the shadow of her younger brother in Anduin. She failed to save her younger brother from war and death. But this design is too far-fetched, much like the explanation of forced insertion. This novel brings her younger brother to the readers for further explanationThe motivation for all Sylvanas's behaviors.

There are many problems with the storyline of Sylvanas, and this book is a product of compromise. Although to some extent, it does work, it is not necessary. Over the past four years, Sylvanas's story has completely lost control, and this obscure and complex story has almost dragged down the entire plot of World of Warcraft. The next expansion pack in the World of Warcraft series needs to recognize this and see if there is a chance to solve this kind of problem.