Blizzard went into overtime to make sure we all knew Sylvanas was BAD, m'kay?
Like Anduin, who had lunch every day with the orc who destroyed Jaina’s entire CITY, including the head of the Kirin Tor, an Alliance commander who headed up the defense of Stormwind and assorted other heroes of Azeroth - oh, and threw a giant bell on top of him and broke every bone in his body - that Anduin? Had to also say Sylvanas was beyond redemption and should be ended.
The first person ever to get the Official Cinnamon Roll threat of a death sentence: Sylvanas! Not the orc who actually planned the taking of Darkshore and Teldassil. That guy was honorable. Especially when briefing the squads of rogues on how to sneak through the area and murder guards in civilian villages so the army could easily move their war machines through the area. He was the honor the the whole horde! Which means supporting the war until captured and not doing shit until the Alliance king literally guilts him into it.
And then to seal the deal on the Alliance side, we have Jaina. Who shouldn’t have pitied Sylvanas as much as admired her for doing what Jaina did not - try and actually STOP Arthas. (And nearly do it, too.) Jaina, who wept when she got her locket back because she always KNEW there was something of Arthas left in the Lich King, even though he, well, literally flooded the world with mindless undead - many of whom are still enthralled to the latest rendition of lich kingness and murdered countless brave warriors as well as endless helpless civilians - she also had to say aloud that Sylvanas is the worst, y’all.
Jaina the “peace at all costs” diplomat who was all like “that wasn’t the Horde,it was Garrosh,” then changed her mind because you know, WTF is it with the Horde common soldiers happily committing genocide whenever a warchief says so and then we kill/ capture/ chase away said warchief and the Horde says, oh, wow, we never liked them anyway and we’re all cool now, right? The Jaina who, if Varian had taken the moment to “end the Horde” would have actually saved all the lives spent in alt-Draenor and this expansion, ditto the whole “lemme drown Org because fuck you all, just fuck you for ruining every single speech I ever made on how we could have peace.”
Jaina is right back to “Nah, it’s the warchief. I am sure the people of Brenadam remember how Sylvanas was personally pinning mommies to the walls of their houses while their children sat crying in the street, it sure wasn’t a bunch of eager orcs, trolls and goblins with incendiary bombs or anything mercilessly killing unarmed civilians.”
Actual scene from a Horde target site which has zero strategic value in a region that hosts a fortress of fighters and several major ship building industries:
But wait - there’s more! Just in case you didn’t get the Alliance memo on how uniquely bad Sylvanas is, you can literally poll the other HORDE leaders and famous NPCs after it’s revealed the leader of the Tauren has conspired with the Alliance against the warchief in the midst of a war. And guess what they tell you?
Lor’themar, who served with Sylvanas when she was Ranger General said something like, “Golly, she’s, uh, controversial. I’d do something but she’s probably threaten my people. Who were her people once. Huh. Awkward.”
Thalyssra: What Lor’themar said. Also, could you ask him if he likes me?
Mayla: This doesn’t feel good. I should have stayed home.
Rohkan: This is bad. We have to stick together. Sylvanas is making that hard. Not Baine, who went behind her back to free an important prisoner.
Talanji: He should have a trial, later. Does the Horde have trials? Maybe I should have asked about these details.
Rexxar: I’m gonna tell everyone I know! Which is mostly animals, because I have no people friends. Also, Jaina sucks, even though she let me kill her dad. We have to do war because she’s got blood on her hands. I am sure I heard that somewhere. Maybe it’s just lady people who are bad.
Garona: I’d totally do what Baine did, but maybe later. And sneakier. But we shouldn’t do anything now because Sylvanas is the worst and everyone should be scared of her.
There are literally two members of the Horde Celebrity Council who stand with Sylvanas.
Geyarah (actual quote): “She is no orc, but the warchief shows strength by punishing that tauren who deceived and betrayed her. Those who lack loyalty also lack honor.“ (WHAT?? There’s honor in loyalty? NO WAI. She must be from another planet. Oh. Right.)
and, that sterling tower of Moral Virtues…
Gallywix. Who just wishes he charged more for tickets. Last seen burning paperwork and running from Org to locations unknown.
Now, I bet we all remember how all the Horde leaders also had such sentiments about Garrosh while the player characters were gearing up to beat him like a rented kodo, right? How they all told player characters - IN GAME - about how they didn’t wanna participate in the destruction of Theramore?
(Canonically, only Sylvanas, Baine and Eitregg objected to making Theramore a military target. And of the three, only Sylvanas deliberately held back troops and support, sending a token number of Forsaken to represent her “cooperation.” Baine personally led Tauren and Darkspear troops against both Northwatch and Theramore, even though he got pissy at Garrosh over little things like enslaving elementals. He DID send a warning to Jaina, which allowed her a little time to evacuate some civilians and call for help, but in fact, Garrosh was depending on him to do that, luring greater Alliance leadership to the area so he could drop a nuke on him because HONOR, dude. Honor is about bombing the shit out of a little port city in a swamp.)
Sylvanas was deliberately scripted to be opaque in her motivations and schemes, and to be denounced by characters who defied physics in trying to give villains the benefit of the doubt and excuse past bloodshed - and by her own faction.
And her loyalist players, who were promised a different story did indeed get some different quests in the Org show-down. And then a personal scene with her afterward, where she literally said she didn’t care about living things and only pitied the Forsaken, and then she walks off. Well, that was dramatically satisfying! (And the topic of the first wow fanfic I ever wrote, LOL.)
And it’s not even OVER! You too can take a walk through Org and watch a few Forsaken and an elf or two being paraded through the streets as chained prisoners for supporting the Evil Banshee Queen. Hear NPCs try to throw customers out of the AH and bank because they supported her. You know. Their warchief. Who supposedly had a much larger army at her back when the rebels showed up. Certainly no orcs, Tauren or trolls are in chains. Huh. Imagine.
But just like all those Garrosh supporters who were imprisoned and scorned when he…
Oh, green-jeezuz fuck, why do I even bother?
