SOMETHING'S NOT QUITE RIGHT...

The thing is, I hate being manipulated emotionally. I am typically cynical and skeptical of most things, particularly when it’s meant to evoke an emotional reaction. I’ve already been evaluating what both sides are doing and why, and I feel like motivations are weak on both sides but more believable on Sylvanas’ part thus far. I don’t know why Anduin makes the uncharacteristic move to interfere and sabotage the Horde’s mining operation in Silithus or why he acts like it represents an open declaration of war on the part of the Horde. But then, I don’t really care about Anduin in particular. Maybe he’s working though his daddy issues, it’s just not my concern or interest.  Sylvanas anticipating Anduin’s rush to aggression seemed odd, but I don’t really know the timeline. Maybe my character talked to her after she discovered Anduin had sent spies and saboteurs. Blizzard likes to pit the factions in conflicting storylines (airship attack in ICC, anyone?) so it’s difficult to parse out canonically what is happening when.

The Warbringers: Sylvanas cinematic was upsetting. Mainly because I felt the intent was to make me angry at Sylvanas, and at the same time her action (reaction, even more stupidly) was such a ridiculously stupid move militarily that I felt like the entire cinematic was inexplicable. The consensus of people upset with the cinematic seems to be that it represents shitty writing on Blizzard’s part. That is such an amazingly unsatisfying answer to me, and I sincerely hope and choose to believe that a more complete picture will emerge as the story progresses to launch.

Here is what I know:

    NElf:  “You can kill us, but you cannot kill hope.”

                Sylvanas: “Can’t I?”

By burning their tree? Uh…no? No, you can’t. I know this, there is absolutely no way that Sylvanas does not know this. As a matter of fact, she acknowledges it in a subsequent quest later: “The Alliance will retaliate. They will come for us. For me. For you.”

EXACTLY. Burning Teldrassil won’t kill hope, but it will galvanize and unify your enemies against you, so there’s that. 

She then attempts to rationalize the attack: “But they ARE bleeding. Their anger will prove a weakness, not a strength, in the war to come.”

Uh, no. Just… no. The entire theme of Warcraft from the beginning has been “Unite, or die”. The Orc clans had to band together, different races formed the Alliance, both sides worked together to defeat the Lich King and the Burning Legion. It’s just ridiculous to imagine that THIS time, the Alliance will actually be weaker as a united group who now has one clear purpose. 

Here is what I think:

                This is not Sylvanas. I know that sounds like a hypothesis crafted by Ancient Azerothian Theorists, and I am usually the first person to answer those hypothetical questions “Could it be possible that…” with “No. No, it couldn’t. Just no.” I am, again, cynical and skeptical and if the actions taken by Sylvanas in that cinematic made any damn sense at all, I wouldn’t be grasping at straws. Honestly, though, I kind of have no choice, because there aren’t clues being dispersed to discover what is actually going on, or some group of insane super-sleuths like the Lucid Nightmare group would already have figured it out. Seriously, the puzzle that led to that mount involved using the damage of three pet battle attacks. I pet battle all the time and I couldn’t tell you the amount of a single hit. Or most of the names. Really, it’s kind of frustrating that these people aren’t working on solving climate change or something because holy shit.

Or:

                Sylvanas is being controlled by something or someone else. Mind control is a priest thing, yeah? It doesn’t seem like Anduin’s style, but then again, neither did the spying/sabotaging in Silithus, so maybe? Maybe someone not involved, though, that just wants the two sides to fight. Velen? I don’t really see what would be in it for him. Is Wrathion still wanting a war after Legion? Or is he satisfied with the way everything turned out? He definitely wouldn’t have a problem with meddling, though. 

 

That’s all I've got. I really hope it doesn’t turn out to be another “Hush, Tyrande” or “I’m just proud of my king *sob*” because I wasn’t prepared to like BfA but that doesn’t mean I want to hate it, either.