I don't get why people expected Elune to be all-knowing. Most denizens of the Shadowlands didn't even know what was causing the drought till we showed up. Yet a deity of life is expected to be? We wouldn't expect this kind of all-knowingness from other pantheons like the Titans. They weren't even aware of some of the other 5 cosmic powers, caught by surprise by demons and Void Lords.It's also been super surprising to me to see so many people conclude Elune wanted the tree to burn, or even caused it. Even though she clearly states "In the wake of tragedy", meaning "After something terrible happened". All she did was guide the souls onwards. None lingering as wisps or vengeful spirits.People also expect her to have saved her people, but how would she have done that? She's not all-powerful. How could she have shielded 100.000 people from their miles-high home disintegrating in flames around them?I also see folks arguing hatefully that this helps set up Sylvanas' redemption. I don't see how. Sylvanas murdered those souls to send them into the Maw. Elune didn't know about the Maw, and so didn't save those souls by making them wisps or something, sending them all onwards. If anything, the situation just became even worse, as Sylvanas' actions doomed even more souls as a result, bringing a goddess to tears.
If we consider the statement of the Primus that Elune is the counterpart of the Winterqueen in the Life, then their powers should somehow also be shared. The great cycle needs balance, while it may not matter as long as lifes will be "correctly" shared between the afterlifes or reborned into reality again, sometimes there will be some small imbalance. The problem lies that all life went to the maw and be held captive there, creating a great imbalance. So the power of the Pantheon of Death was clearly weakened but also the power of Elune / Pantheon of Life should be weakened as their worshippers or whatever would remain dead and not being reborned.
Ridiculous to paint this in a positive light. I don't know anyone who found that cinematic satisfying narratively. Arguments for why it "all actually makes sense" exist but at the end of the day if the majority of people don't like the way you're telling a story. You are doing it wrong.
I wonder, with the fact that Elune is the Winter Queen's counterpart, maybe the anima drought is affecting her as well. The last actual intervention that we see Elune do is taking Ysera and we know that this happened before the drought started. Life and Death typically need to be in balance and with the drought affecting the Winter Queen and the realms of death, it could easily be throwing the other side of the cycle (life) out of wack as well.
Editorial suggestion: the word "seem" or "seems" appears 22 times in this feature. Take it out and you automatically have a stronger piece of writing.
The enitre point of this cinematic was to say you should never seek justice and just move on, in addition to showing that Elune is mostly just a clown and doesn't even realize what she is doing, she didn't even know the night elves went to the maw despite Tyrande being there. She was capable enough of taking the choice away from Tyrande in the previous cinematic, but then gave her a choice of "vengeance" where she wasn't in a position to get vengeance so her choice was mainly just :"die" or move on. Making Elune incompetent and making Tyrande no longer mad about Teldrassil is all in service of Sylvanas's redemption arc and has really nothing to even do with the night elves other than to tell them their goddess is very incompetent and really doesn't know what she's doing. This also concludes the night warrior arc where the night warrior did absolutely nothing and was entirely irrelevant to the plot of the last two expansions.
This is a thoughtful, well-written analysis. thank you.
Honestly, am I the only one who doesn't see any Sylvanas whitewashing here?Besides, the way I saw that choice was either "go out in blaze of glory trying to kill Sylvanas, maybe you succeed, maybe you fail, you die either way" or "hold back and work with others on dealing with the Jailer and reincarnating the NE souls". At no point does Elune ask of Tyrande to just forgive and forget about Teldrassil, merely put it on the backburner.I just hope the "Sylvanas redemption arc" if it ever happens ends with a massive door slam and Sylvanas being gone from the story.
Yo, why no article on JAB being axed? Come on Wowhead, I had to go to mmo champion for the source..
Notice how there is no Justice option. Just vengeance vs renewal. When you realise that Night Elves were just anima batteries for Ardenweald, She doesn't even view her favorite chosen children as anything other than useful tools. Did we not learn anything from Velen and the Naaru from Legion?
Wasn't there some story in the Legion from the Naaru about the fact that Elunes power is almost gone?
> I struggle to believe that we are seeing Elune at her fullest potential, her most powerful. Which leads me to wonder - why is she in the state that she seems to be in?Well there were a number of night warriors present, no? I didn't get the feeling they were all from our universe. Perhaps while the Winter Queen is a single entity in Ardenweald, her counterpart Elune is divided over all the universes, with each only having a small fraction of the whole?
Love the analysis and I'm in saddened by the toxicity in the comment section, though not surprised.
Thanks, this is a good, even-keeled and thoughtful analysis. One of the few.