World of Warcraft: new cinematic ends the Sylvanas saga

With the new raid Sanctum of Domination from World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, the Sylvanas saga, around which the story of the MMO has so far revolved, finally comes to an end. But not in the way many players would have liked.

After a really long wait, Blizzard has finally released Patch 9.1 and the associated raid for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. As usual, there is a cinematic at the end of the raid, which introduces the rest of the story. If you want to experience the raid and the story for yourself, then you shouldn’t read any further here.

At the end of Sanctum of Domination, the mysterious Jailer and the Banshee Queen Sylvanas deliver a showdown for which many players have been waiting for a long time. The story of Sylvanas was an important point in World of Warcraft’s past and gamers and meme enthusiasts have thought of a number of possible deals for them. Will she die? Will we get a redemption arc? The former is not yet certain, but all signs point to a redemption arc, which many players have already predicted.

After Sylvanas learns that the villain she has worked with for the last few years is actually evil and she tries to attack him in a laughable act, the Jailer gives her the other half of her soul back as punishment. She probably lost this when she was defeated by Arthas and turned into a banshee.

According to current theories, Sylvanas, who we have come to know and love, is actually only the evil half of her soul, which should probably explain all of her deeds. It makes a little more sense if you’ve followed World of Warcraft’s history from the very beginning, but not too much either.

Many players expected this development, but are still rather dissatisfied with the overall situation. Sylvanas’ numerous crimes cannot simply be forgotten for most and a redemption arc simply makes no sense for many if you know the motives for Sylvanas’ deeds. Also that the banshee queen, who is known as a master strategist and very intelligent adversary, was surprised that the jailer, who has enslaved numerous souls, wants to enslave even more souls, is simply silly for many. At least not one other important character of the Horde was killed just like that, because too many of them don’t have any left.

How exactly things will go with Sylvanas and whether her punishment is determined by one person alone, we will probably find out either in the course of the next updates or in a book.