The split soul isn't what people have a problem with.Wain wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 8:25 pm Regarding Sylvanas's "split soul", some people seem to have reacted very negatively to the concept. But I think it makes sense.
There a lot of people who seem to believe that our minds, or personalities or "spirits" are inviolate, as if we simply "are who we are" and all our choices stem from that. But it only takes knowing a good person who has suffered a brain trauma in specific parts of the brain, like a stroke or tumour, or dementia, or even a strong mental trauma, to know that external events can change a person's behaviour radically, through no fault of their own. And even then it's not all-or-nothing: the personality changes can fluctuate, and the person can be aware of their behaviour, and even traumatised by what they've done (this is the most heartbreaking). Our personalities are fragile things, even when we think they're constant.
I see what happened to Sylvanas as the fantasy equivalent of that. Instead of "brain" we have "soul" but the effect is the same.
It's using the split soul to justify genocide and paint Sylvanas as Innocent and set up a redemption arc because she wasn't herself when she did it.
This was made worse with the Anduin cutscene. She said Arthas needs to be forgotten because of what he did - excuse me? You aren't guilty of YOUR crimes because you didn't have a part of your soul, but Arthas, who was quite literally corrupted, is guilty of the crimes he did when he isn't in his right mind? What even.