Seriously? She committed genocide, there's no master plan against the void that would necessitate that, at all. "This is War" she snipes at Saurfang as she gasses her own troops. Some of her people don't like and her want want to join with the rightful heir to their kingdom which Sylvanas took over, so she she murders them? And then lies to the Horde about it? None of this is grey, it's black, deceptive and can't be redeemed by some stupid greater plan. She should clue some other people in on it, she's burning bridges that can't be rebuilt ever, and no hackneyed redemption arc can redeem her for all these war crimes she's committing. If people actually worked together, you can achieve things, like defeating the Legion for example. Illidan was still a reckless jerk to the very end, he instilled no hope nor did he provide real support to the effort, just raged about the Legion and then went off to play babysitter to Sargeras who certainly wasn't weakened by being pulled back by his brethren who themselves were all weak after the torture and Argus fight. Illidan was evil, he really could have tried to talk to literally any one on the horde and alliance side, but instead he kept draining the only real water supply on Outland for vague reasons, he had Kael (who went behind his back for the legion sure, but the original intent was there anyway) to drain Netherstorm of all its arcane power which also destabilized it. He mutilated and broke the orcs under his command to be better fighters against the Legion, but all of this could have been avoided if he wasn't a glory seeking narcissist who believed only he could do it. He chose to be a tyrant and continue destroying the remains of a planet, he chose to murder his fellow moon guard, he only works with someone if he can't avoid it. The big picture is the people of the worlds, if you destroy your own world to defeat an enemy how entirely useless are you? This works for Sylvanas too, if she murders everyone and raises them so they are immune to the void, she still dooms the planet. Neither of these two are remotely redeemable. They are at best extremely pragmatic, at worst horrifically selfish, we still know a good chunk of Sylvanas' motivation is to keep her from going to hell by creating a massive meatshield of zealous/brainwashed undead.
Hard to say Blizzard's not repeating themselves. Looking at the past:Repeating stories with a faction rebelling against another or someone in the main story going "crazy". Quite often it leads into a dungeon or raid.Vanilla - Scarlet Crusade -> Scarlet Monastery, Defias -> DeadminesTBC - Kael'thas -> The Eye/Magister's Terrace, Illidan -> Black TempleWotLK - Ebon Blade, Scarlet Onslaught, Putress -> Battle of UndercityCata - Archbishop Benedictus -> Hour of Twilight, Magatha, Archdruid Staghelm -> Firelands, Deathwing -> Dragon SoulMoP - Garrosh -> Siege of Orgrimmar, *Technically the Pandaren overthrew their slavers (the Mogu) in the past which was a major plot point of the storyWoD - Grommash, Cordana -> Vault of the Wardens (Legion)Legion - Demon Hunters/Illidan, Xavius/Ysera -> Emerald NightmareBfA's looking like Saurfang and Yrel will join that list. And Blizzard wants us to think they'll do something different with Sylvanas when EVERY expansion has the same story? Sometimes MULTIPLE times? Some expansions it played a much larger role than others as well. Blizzard's not being coy. They keep repeating themselves. And it's not just with the story. It shows in their decisions which they often repeat. Armor sets? Sunwell, ToGC, LFR in WoD, now BfA. Flying? Attempting to force players into content they dislike?Only other option they have is have Sylvanas become a valkyr herself becoming a queen of light (and undeath) which would then just make her a repeat of Kerrigan who saw redemption. Or Sylvanas ends up losing her body forcing her to take another ... which ends up Calia's who possibly willingly gives herself to Sylvanas to help save the Forsaken (technically her own people) and settle the fight over Lordaeron ... temporarily anyway.Yeah, Blizzard's totally not going to either have Sylvanas become a raid boss or get redeemed. /sarcasm It's not like they haven't done this same story a dozen times or better before or anything.
I don't think there's any problem with Sylvanas being evil. Considering her backstory, it makes far more sense then her clinging to a silver lining of mortality... Why would she care for anyone but her undead? That makes her evil, yes, but not in the eyes of 'her people'. If anything, killing all of the horde and re-raising them as undead would probably be practical and sensible from her point of view. The real problem remains the lack of storytelling in the game itself. You shouldnt need to read a novel to understand ingame plotpoints. Three NPC's talking about honor and the events at the tree hardly screams the outrage that lorewise some of the horde should be feeling. The alliance rallying over the destruction of darnassus makes sense, but the horde once lordearon's capital is destroyed? That place wasn't habitable for other races for decades now.
A story is told within one medium. Side materials are just that. They're tertiary side-stories, or they're supposed to be. If I have to go digging around comics and novels and movies and sticker series to know what you want me to know, you failed, and implying that it's the players fault that your story doesn't work for most of its (ostensible) target audience means you failed twice.(A) Tell the story accessibly ingame(B) Stop doing interviews about it(C) Either learn how to tell a side-story or stop making tertiary materials