I watched this cutscene and thought what bullshit. Anduin is appealing to Sylvanas‘ conscience? The woman who turned a dying elf to face her home tree so that she could watch while Sylvanas torched her entire family?
Zombies are as zombies do, and Sylvanas has always been that Sylvanas. Saurfang‘s challenge of Mak’Gora exposed her, but she was that way all the way back to the beginning when she was the architect of the blight that would destroy all life, a plot she blamed on underlings after the plot failed at Angrathar.
She is a rogue, an agent that works at her own games, games that are never fully exposed to the observer. I don’t know what her game actually is at this point, but if Blizzard has Sylvanas give into conscience and transparently sacrifice herself to save Anduin from the Jailer? If that is what Sylvanas’ storyline has been leading up to, then I am seriously disappointed in Blizzard.
Postscript
I found the above in my drafts. I jotted those sentences down immediately on watching the cutscene in-game. Bellular’s gushing about it when I went looking for the specific scene (which I still can’t find online) almost made my physically ill. I was pissed. Now that everyone who is playing has witnessed the end of the Shadowlands expansion, I can publish this without worrying about spoilers. I’m more annoyed than I am pissed about the finalized story arc. I mean, okay, soulwarping. It happened to Uther so sure, it could happen to Sylvanas. Why does she think she hasn’t been following, hasn’t been obeying, hasn’t been serving, when all that she’s done for the entire time since being made into a banshee by Frostmourne has been by the design of the Jailer/Zovaal?
Okay, okay. Most of us don’t know we’re following predetermined paths, paths that we set ourselves on earlier in life and never notice we’re on unless we are forced to change them, but still. “I will never serve”? The lady doth protest too much, methinks. There are cutscenes missing from the video I found to embed above.
This cutscene is the best for the whole expansion, possibly the best of all of the sixteen years of World of Warcraft’s existence. Second runner up is this scene of Anduin finding the strength to throw off Zovaal’s control by channeling the valor and honor of the two other people who wielded his father’s sword.
At least they took the taste of that first cutscene out of my mouth.
