Oh, Sylvanas; these days just saying your name prompts all sorts of discussions about the way that World of Warcraft is handling your storyline. They are not positive discussions. This will no doubt remain the case with the latest set of explanations about her storyline and characterization offered by lead narrative designer Steve Danuser in a brief Q&A on the character, in which he notes once again that the story developments should not be seen as Sylvanas becoming whole or a different person:
[S]o now that those two pieces of her soul are back together, it doesn’t mean that one of them is gone. The Banshee Queen is not gone, the Ranger General hasn’t taken over; it’s that those two pieces are having to find a path forward and they have to become one entity and one soul, not this fractured thing.
This is rather in contrast to what the cinematics and dialogue seem to imply, with Sylvanas being horrified and disputing that the atrocities committed were really hers, but let’s not quibble or we’ll be here all day. Danuser also states that the final conclusion will be played out in a portion of story that was deliberately held back from testing, so all of this will definitely reach a conclusion. Whether or not it will be a remotely satisfying conclusion remains to be seen.
