This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Danel: Okay, I've seen it before, but it's something I've never understood: How is the Lich King an expy of the Witch King? Apart from the similar name, what exactly are the similarities?
Roland: Certainly he has a similar visual appearance and motif. He also shares with the Witch King mastery over the undead. But I think calling him an Expy might need some more justification; personality-wise (insofar as we know anything about the Witch-King's personality) they're not much alike.
- Fighteer: Aren't we using "Expy" incorrectly here? According to the Wiki canon, Expy refers to a "transplanted version of a character from a previous work by the same author," which doesn't seem to apply. More proper would be to identify Arthas as a Homage of the Witch King, but even there it doesn't seem to fit.
Also, I've decided to peg Sylvanas as Lawful Neutral. This is primarily because I don't feel that Lawful Evil quite matches the way they tend to portray her; while she's quite ruthless, she has a lot of scruples and her potential for redemption and residual goodness are regularly used to tease the players. The only time Sylvanas herself has ever received a formal alignment was in the RPG books, and these are, by necessity, something on the order of simplification- having read them myself I felt they really didn't make a good case for her being out-and-out evil.
That, and she's been the beneficiary of a lot of Character Development. If anyone doesn't like this interpretation of her, well, I'll admit it may possibly be Fanon rejecting an Informed Attribute.
Charred Knight: From everything I have seen the original character assesment was when Blizzard pretty much protrayed the Forsaken as the Scourge with Free will, as Sylvanas is probably the character with the highest amount of character development (only Tirion is close) I would say that she started out Lawful Evil but became Lawful Neutral by the time of the Burning Crusade. All signs point to her help of the Blood Elves being genuine, and when she argued for the invasion of Northerend she respected Thrall.
Danel: I'll be honest - I've never understood the love a lot of people seem to have for Illidan. He's an arrogant, treacherous wanna-be Evil Overlord... so I simply can't understand how anyone can argue that he's True Neutral. Sure, he just wants to be left alone... to enslave Outland and rule over it's inhabitants! He may well be the nicest of the villains, but he's still an Evil Overlord (rather an Omnicidal Maniac or The Virus, which is a step up).
Where does all the Illidan love come from?
Fighteer: Illidan is a classic Woobie. It's easy to forget that he brought all of his troubles on himself, starting with his refusal to give up his magic addiction and compounded by the extreme lengths he went to in order to serve it. He's intended to be sympathetic in that we can see the horrible events of his life that got him to where he is. However, we're also supposed to understand that he's essentially lost any "human" qualities he may once have had in his burning desire for revenge on everyone he perceives as having wronged him. Sure, maybe if he'd had an intervention ten thousand years ago, he might not have gone down the path he did, but it's clearly too late for that now. He has to be killed because he's beyond saving. He's truly one of the more tragic villains, much like Kael'thas.
Roland: Also helping Illidan's case is that unlike other villains he has accomplished genuine good over the course of his career- good nobody really seems to acknowledge. A big example is the Felwood; Illidan slew Tichondrius in the only way anyone apparently could, but instead he was driven out as a monster. In short, Illidan wanted to be a hero; it's the way others have treated him, combined with his own mistakes, that have helped drive him down the path of evil.
Farseer Lolotea: You forgot to mention that Varian is Lawful Stupid.
Chris X: Good God, Skippio! Seriously, if you're the only one who thinks that Jaina is a Mary Sue, then keep it for yourself, don't make it a fact that everyone needs to know. I think it's been rebuked in here and here that she really is far from a Sue. Just because being a Sue in ONE NOVELIZATION THAT IS PROBABLY UNOFFICIAL, doesn't mean she is a Sue.
Kerrah: You people are discriminating against oldschool Warcraft one and two era characters. I find it sad.
Narvi: Well, what do you expect? They're only three characters (Medivh, Admiral Proudmoore and Khadgar) left who are of any importance anyway. If you find it sad, add them yourself. It's not like they've really done much in recent years anyway; though I'd keep a watchful eye on Khadgar.
Kerrah: I expect this to be a character list for the Warcraft series, not Warcraft III and WoW.
Kerrah: Who here had written that Varian is the successor of Terenas Menethil? That mistake made my day.
Fighteer: Probably someone writing from memory, without immediate access to the reference material. Not that I would ever do such a thing.
Neo_Crimson: Added a bit more on Rexxar in the characters page. Though I was too lazy to write a proper discription.
