In Defense of Sylvanas Windrunner – or “Thanks, we got it, Blizzard!”
Warbringers:
Sylvanas, “Old Soldier”, that questline with Saurfang and Zappy Boi and
now “Lost honour” and Metzen. Thank you Blizzard, we already got that
you want people to hate that Sylvanas is warchief.
First she gets
this warbringers short, which basically made the whole Fandom mad,
because it showed her burning Teldrassil. Afterwards a beautiful
beautiful cinematic showing poor poor suffering Saurfang is released and
oh, how he grieves and mournes. Then we get spoilers for this
questline with Saurfang and Zappy Boi where it was originally intended
that the player just betrays Sylvanas because the player wants to help
poor poor honorable Saurfang and because Sylvanas is sooooo sooo bad.
Well, it’s pretty obvious where Blizzard wants to turn the player’s
affection – mainly NOT to Sylvanas.
The Burning of Teldrassil:
Saurfang is grieving
the fact that Teldrassil burned and shouts “There is no honor in this”.
And most of the fandom shouts with him and blames her for burning it –
while in truth it is actually Saurfang’s fault. But unfortunately many
people didn’t read the novella “A Good War” where it was explained. Let me break it down for you: Before
Legion, Alliance and Horde were in a stalemate, but the war against the
Legion greatly decimated both the Alliance’s and the Horde’s forces,
basically making both incapable of great warfare in the next few years.
They still have strong positions on all continents, but the battle on
the Broken Shore basically crushed both their naval forces – and their
powers in itself are so weak right now, that they are both not able to
reclaim the waterfront, making the high seas wild territory. And whoever
gets their hands on this territory first will have an advantage over
the other – and when both manage to maneuver themselves into a
stalemate, which by Saurfang’s prediction, is going to take years, they
lack the means and opportunities for decisive strikes. And
additionally Sargeras’s sword arrived and azerite appeares all over the
planet changed that and the one to get that ressource first would tip
the scales in his favor and crush what is left of the other faction. So,
of course, plans are being made to prevent that, or, in Sylvanas’s
case, prepare a harsh strike against the alliance before they do it. Her
words were to deal them “a wound that can never heal”. I’d love to
quote that, but for that I’d need to quote three entire pages. So please
read “A Good War” page 11 to 13. There it is explained completely why
exactly a plan like hers is needed. I think I’ve broken it down in a way
it can be understood, but I always like to give sources, so here you go!
But
what IS her plan, now? In short, assault Darnassus, kill Malfurion and
hold the city hostage. Which would basically lead to the alliance
tearing itself apart from within. Some would want to retaliate. Some
would definitely want Darnassus back. (That is, at least, her idea. By
taking Darnassus and killing Malfurion or Tyrande, the one surviving
will go enrage and definitely want to retake Darnassus, of course. Other
members of the Alliance will want to retaliate beforehand, encouraging a
direct strike against Undercity. In Sylvanas’s case here she thinks of
Genn Greymane, who, in her opinion, will not take it in good spirits
that the alliance wants to move to help Darnassus and forsake Gilneas
again, which would hopefully be freed with a strike against Undercity.
She can’t know, however, that in the alliance-story, Elegy, Genn openly
states that he is so grateful to the nightelves for giving his people
shelter after the fall of Gilneas that he would give his all to help
them. So this is a part where her strategy would have failed, but
that’s something she can’t know. I just wanted to mention it.) Let me quote this:
>>
“The boy in Stormwind will have a political crisis on his hands. He is
smart, but he is not experienced. What happens when Genn Greymane,
Malfurion Stormrage, and Tyrande Whisperwind all demand differing
actions? He is not a high king like his father. The respect the others
give him is a courtesy, not an obligation. Anduin Wrynn will rapidly
become a leader who cannot act. If the Alliance will not march as one,
each nation will act in its own interest. Each army will return home to
protect their lands from us.”
“And that is how you defeat
Stormwind.” Saurfang was in awe. It was brilliant. Destroying the
Alliance wouldn’t take a thousand victories. It would take one. <<
Saurfang
was the main strategist behind this, Sylvanas entrusted him with making
up the plan. Saying: It is his plan that is used during the battle of
darkshore. Keep that in mind for a moment, okay?
The battle
begins, everything kind of works and at some point Sylvanas goes to
confront Malfurion Stormrage, because one of the main goals was to kill
him. As already mentioned, Sylvanas wanted to wound the alliance.
Direly. And, well, Malfurion’s death would be a pretty big impact. At
some point during that fight Saurfang arrived and saw that Sylvanas had
problems – and heck it’s not a surprise, Malfurion is the greatest
druid ever – and out of reflex threw his axe into Malfurion’s back when
he saw the opportunity and wounded him, ending the battle. Sylvanas then left the killing of Malfurion to Saurfang, because, well, he did deliver the decisive blow. So now everything that’s left to do is killing Malfurion and the wound has been properly dealt. But
what does Saurfang do? He hesitates. He doesn’t want to. And when
Tyrande arrives and is justifiably goddamn fucking mad the chance is
gone.
And then Saurfang returns to base and is actually happy. He
is actually HAPPY he blew his own plan! His. OWN. plan! Sylvanas, of
course, is angry as hell but decides to go with it, because what other
choice does she have? If she now just leaves the alliance will be mad as
hell and retaliate as soon as possible, without being dealt more damage
than a destroyed village and a lot of dead soldiers. So she decides to
inflict the wound she wanted to inflict (As planned by Saurfang, just to
mention this yet again) by burning the tree. Saurfang is horrified and doesn’t understand why – and then Sylvanas explains it by…you know what? Here you go.
>>“There is no honor in this!” he roared at Sylvanas.
She
finally turned away from the World Tree. Her eyes were steady, the
anger within them gone. What was left in its place? Emptiness?
Satisfaction? Saurfang couldn’t read her now. Maybe he never could.
“They will come for us now. All of them!” he said.
“I
know.” She was calm, as though nothing were wrong. “They will attack
the Undercity in retaliation. You will need to plan our defenses. Begin
evacuating my people.”
He struggled to form words. Finally, pure hatred made him spit out a condemnation.
“You have damned the Horde for a thousand generations. All of us. And for what? For what?”
Her expression didn’t waver. “This was your
battle. Your strategy. And your failure. Darnassus was never the prize.
It was a wedge that would split the Alliance apart. It was the weapon
that would destroy hope. And you, my master strategist, gave that up to
spare an enemy you defeated. I have taken it back. When
they come for us, they will do so in pain, not in glory. That may be our
only chance at victory now.”
He wanted to kill her. He wanted to declare mak’gora and spill her blood in front of Horde and Alliance alike. But she was right. A wound that can never heal. That had always been the plan. And Saurfang had failed to inflict it.
<<
(Taken from “A Good War” by Robert Brooks)
I
took the liberty of highlighting the parts I deem most important,
because you know what? In my eyes, Sylvanas is absolutely right. This was his plan and his
battle. It was his part to kill Malfurion, because he delivered the
decisive blow – Sylvanas actually went with the orc tradition there and
let him have the kill, because claiming the kill of an opponent you
didn’t defeat isn’t honorable. She is in line with orc tradition!
Okay, he threw the axe into Malfurion’s back, which, of course, is not
exactly an honorable blow. No orc would say it is, least of all
Saurfang.
But it happened, because of his reflexes as a warrior. He failed because of his sense of honor. And thanks to that completely crashed the plan, like, completely
crashed it. He put his honor over the plan – and damn, Saurfang is a
master strategist, he knew what would happen if they messed up the plan!
– and thanks to him it took a nose dive directly into an active
volcano. So Sylvanas, frankly, had to improvise, because Saurfang
absolutely. fucked. up. If he had killed Malfurion Teldrassil would
have never burned. If he had actually followed his own plan, Darnassus
would’ve been held hostage but it wouldn’t be completely destroyed. So,
in my opinion all the people who hate Sylvanas and swear vengeance and
want her head for the burning of Teldrassil are wrong. The one who’s
actually responsible is Saurfang who, on the spur of a moment, crashed
his own plan completely and basically forced her hand in doing so. All the blood of
those who burned in Teldrassil is on his hands, not hers. He put his
honor over the plan and thus unified the entire Alliance against the
Horde, which was exactly the opposite of what they wanted to achieve. So please, swear vengeance to Saurfang and demand his head instead of hers, because all she did was cut the Horde’s losses. To conclude this part, let me quote the very end of “A Good War”.
>>Saurfang did not move for hours, not until the screams faded and the
flames had burned themselves down to embers. Before him stood a smoking
husk that had once been a great civilization. Inside him was a feeling
of despair, a feeling of shame. There was no haze of corruption now to
soften the horror.
Saurfang would remember this moment in his
dreams forever. He would relive this shame, and all the new ones to
come, over and over again.
You have led your Horde in the service of
death, Malfurion had said.
How could Saurfang face the soldiers he had
led into this war? How could he explain what they had done?
He couldn’t.
He would never know how.
But the burden would be his, always, until his
dying day.
As Saurfang turned away, he hoped that day would come
soon.<<
He doesn’t blame Sylvanas, because he can’t. This was his fault. And he knows.
And
instead of clearing this up through inserting the contents of the
Novella into the game where every idiot has access to them, we get the
“Old Soldier” cinematic where Saurfang is shown grieving. For the
unknowing it looks like he’s all “Oh no, I can’t believe what she did.
She’s so evil! I want to finally die!” while in actuality it is “Oh no, I
can’t believe what I did. I want to finally die.” (The Novella actually underlines this, too, because the last lines are literally: >>But
the burden would be his, always, until his dying day.As Saurfang turned
away, he hoped that day would come soon.<< ). But is this
ever made clear during it? No! All we see is poor poor Saurfang who
suffers under the decision the evil bad Sylvanas made. Although he
was the one to force her hand. Which is a fact that players who only
play the game without paying attention to the novellas, don’t know and
then proceed to hate Sylvanas for her “irrational” act.
Saurfang and Zappy Boi:
Then
the spoilers for the questline concerning him and Zappy Boi in 8.1 were
released and it became blindingly obvious, that Blizzard doesn’t want
to clear this up. They don’t want to rub it into the player’s faces
that this all happened thanks to Saurfang and not because Sylvanas
“suddenly turned evil” (In my opinion she is not evil and never has
been, but that’s a different topic entirely.). No, Saurfang, the poor
poor soul is treated like the tragic hero, the man who grieves for his
enemies and his lost honor and defies his evil evil boss – although he
was the spark that lit Teldrassil, so to speak. So in that
questline, Blizzard doesn’t even give you a choice. No, you just HAVE TO
help poor poor Saurfang and heroically betray evil bad Sylvanas,
because she is so evil. The option to sell them both out to Sylvanas was
only added later on, because people started to complain. AND
THANK GOD THEY DID, because, newsflash, a lot of people love Sylvanas.
Hell, I certainly do. And I don’t want to betray my warchief, because I
like her, despite her being fucked over by pretty much the entire game
and it’s creators lately. It’s pretty obvious through the game just
forcing you to go behind her back. Let me decide something like this on
my own, please? And additionally, for me it seems pretty obvious
that Blizzard only added this with a bit of frustration. How I come to
that conclusion, you ask? Take a look at the reward for the single paths
you can take. When you help Sylvanas and sell them out, you basically
get money and a pat on the shoulder. While helping Saurfang you get
several quests which all reward you money and gear and additionally you
get a toy! And you won’t get to know the rest of the questline with
Saurfang and Zappy Boi which is actually fairly long, while by selling
them out you literally only go to Sylvanas and that’s it. Are you
serious? And this is supposed to be a fair choice? Not to mention
that toy-collectors are going to have to take the Saurfang route just to
complete their collection. Great, Blizzard.
Lost Honor and Metzen
And
now we have the newest cinematic “Lost Honor”. Here we outright have
Saurfang yelling “She is destroying my horde, I want my horde back”. In
my opinion, she is not. And how about it, Blizzard? How about showing her side for once? She gets a warbringer short where she was forced
to make a damn radical decision she actually didn’t want to make and it is
never cleared up that she had no other choice and actually just tried to
limit damage – and Saurfang gets two stunningly beautiful cinematics
with emotional depth and captivating music? And all this talk about “his
horde”. Could it be more obvious who they want as next warchief? Well
gee, thanks Blizz. It’s obvious who they want you to root for and it
sure as balls is not Sylvanas.
And now on Blizzcon
Metzen crashes the Q&A and asks: “When is the horde getting its true warchief back?” and the answer is: “
Thrall? I’m gonna guess there may very well be a job posting up soon on
the Orgimmar war board looking for a new Warchief. And If there is,
we’ll call you.
“ Are you serious? Are you freaking serious? Thank you. We get it. We get you don’t want
us to like Sylvanas as warchief! Someone who didn’t want to be warchief
in the first place, by the way and was forced into that, too. We get it!
Don’t
get me wrong. I know this may sound very different in this post, but I
actually like Saurfang a lot and I like the style and feel of both
cinematics. Hell, I love them. But I don’t like how he is used by the
storytelling itself to prevent that people root for the actual
warchief, who is a damn cool character with an interesting story and now
threatens to drown in a wave of hate. The latter happening basically
because Blizzard tells the player to. And that seriously makes me sad.
Here’s
a wild idea Blizzard: How about you let people decide on their own who
they want to follow instead of fabricating opinions for us?
Me 