The leader of the Horde in World of Warcraft is increasingly resembling Arthas. Patch 8.1 brings new parallels between Sylvanas and the Lich King.
The development of Lady Sylvanas Windrunner is a source of constant discussion in the World of Warcraft community. While some players celebrate her devastating campaign, other fans believe that Sylvanas is becoming more and more of a cliché villain. Still others think that Sylvanas is slowly but surely becoming what she has always hated: Lich King Arthas.
War of the Thorns was the beginning: Already with the War of the Thorns, there were some parallels between Arthas and Sylvanas. Arthas killed Sylvanas and then effectively forced her to watch the destruction of Silvermoon.
Sylvanas did something similar with Delaryn, positioning her head so that she could watch the burning of Teldrassil.
Both Sylvanas and Delaryn are ultimately resurrected as undead (Delaryn only in the course of Patch 8.1).
At least we have the certainty that Sylvanas will not simply end as a raid boss.
Perfection in Undeath
Sylvanas is increasingly on a campaign where she transforms everything and everyone into undead and no longer shows consideration for individual races. In Patch 8.1 Tides of Vengeance, she not only raises humans but also night elves and even a blood elf, despite this being strictly forbidden by the leader of the blood elves, Lor’themar Theron.
The Lich King Arthas also dreamed of a world where everything had succumbed to undeath to withstand external threats, such as the Burning Legion and the Void. Therefore, he wanted to lure the greatest champions and make them servants of the Scourge.
More Parallels in Patch 8.1
The YouTuber Bellular pointed out several other parallels between Arthas and Sylvanas in Patch 8.1. There, Derek Prachtmeer is forcibly brought back to life by Sylvanas and states that he wants to be “mentally reprogrammed” – that is, subjected to brainwashing.
For this purpose, Derek is hung on a wall, chained with shadow chains, and is apparently permanently subjected to manipulating magic or other substances. This can be seen in this video starting at the timestamp (07:30):
Who also hung a prisoner and tried to break his will? Correct, Arthas Menethil as Lich King. He hung Bolvar Fordragon above his throne and tortured him for the duration of the entire raid.
There are now too many parallels between Arthas and Sylvanas to still speak of mere “coincidences”. Where Blizzard wants to take this story is still uncertain.
What do you think of Sylvanas’ parallels to Arthas? Are they clearly noticeable and will certainly have consequences? Or is it all too contrived?
