I bought this book and was so excited about it. I stopped reading about midway. I'm not sure if it was the format or just the story. I became uninterested in it. I felt it definitely wasn't one of the better ones.
Holy geez this story is horrible.
Cry more that you lost the 4th war nerd.
so we get a cutscene in game where Free Sylvanas weeps about how she had no control over how awful and wretched and evil she was under Zovaal's control and then we get a scene in the novel where Controlled Sylvanas is actually deeply compassionate and caring, believing wholly that she is doing "the right thing" for the entire known universecool
To be fair, we already knew this years ago. The writing typcially goes: *This happens.* Then the fan reaction is split up. Some react with *That is bad writing because that shouldn't happen.* and others go *There must be a reason why this happened, let's get our theories out there.* And then that first group returns with *Ha, copium!* or whatever the buzz word is for that current expansion. Then later on the reasoning is revealed and camp one says *They had to rewrite it because fans hated it* and camp 2 just goes *I figured it would be something like that. Nice.* I had imagined, it's somwhere in these wowhead comments from BFA, that she was told the lie that all Forsaken go to hell because of being touched by necromancy or the mourneblade. And so she was fighting to break a system that would do that. It was very close to the truth, though her motivation was more about the bonds of life being severed by death permanently and not being okay with never seeing her loved ones again. I do not believe that the Shadowlands has bad writing. I've enjoyed the lore. Instead I have two complaints that, from my perspective, would have made things more enjoyable for me.First, I don't like the cosmic scale of things. If you save a child from a burning house and a crying mother thanks you, it's impactful. If you save 1.5 trillion souls from the Maw, then it's less personal. My brain has trouble blanketing empathy of that scale. I would cry if you kill my brother but not some alien on a planet that I just learned about. I'm glad to be going back to Azeroth with it's famailiarity and bonds next expansion.Second, and this is a big one... I don't believe we need to mask our storytelling and try to tantilize people. These aren't mystery novels, and the pacing of MMO stories in general is really ill equipt for these 'Wait until the last chapter reveals it' type stuff. We'll wait literal years and by then be bored or have forgotten the story. Like, if we knew he pact with Zovaal. If we knew her decisions and why she made them, it wouldn't have detracted from the story. We would go back and forth between *Well, she's going it to SAVE everyone, they just don't see that* against *But can't you see this is the evil route to do things? Akin to Illidan murdering 100 to save a 1000*. She was right, though. Her methods and allegiances were wrong but she was right. We all die, afterlives exist, this isn't your final moment. When you get to live in the Shadowlands for a billion years, then whether you live for 50 or 100 years on Azeroth shouldn't matter as much in the long run. However, if that eternal resting place keeps you away from the bonds you made in life or worse... misjudges you. Like a robot not factoring in empathy and sending the undead to the maw instead of Revendreth (Like what happened to Sylvanas despite Garrosh and more getting redemption for their atrocities).In the end, the Shadowlands are better than when we found them. And if you're not satisfied with this ending or the expansion at all? I'm not gonna try to convince you that you're wrong, just like you can't convince me that I don't love it. :p It's not my favorite, far from my least favorite. In the end, we're just fans on a fan site. Even if you're grumpy about it. <3
"Delaryn will understand when she is reunited with her family in the Shadowlands!" Sylvanas thought. "Raise her into our ranks! She will not find mercy in death." She commanded, without a shred of irony. So instead of letting her die and eventually be reunited with her loved ones Sylvanas chooses to take that choice away from Delaryn and have her trapped in a rotting shell to fight alongside the people who massacred her friends and family. 10/10 at least we get confirmation that Sylvanas has the strategic skills of a goldfish
Okay, so it's, once again, it's the same "I will save you by destroying you all" plot point that we've been reliving ad nauseam throughout the history of the Warcraft franchise. So freaking groundbreaking, Blizzard, bravo!