#also shoutout to sylvanas being unsure if baine would support the forsaken | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eighthdoctor · 11 months

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What about Lor'themar? He still talks to her and isn't incompetent. They're practically best friends by Horde standards.

Ehhhhh sort of. I'll pull the relevant Lor'themar quotes:

Sylvanas could command from the rear, but that’s what Lor’themar is for. She’s far too useful in the front lines to seclude herself, and she…trusts…Lor’themar. Mostly. Enough. He can handle command.

“Without you to lead? Who did you leave in command, Lor'themar?” “Who is a competent, if not inspired, general.”

Proudmoore snorts. “Would she listen to Lor’themar if he told her to fall back?” Under her eyes, the Stormwind infantry moves forward and the orcs charge without waiting for orders. To the rear of the Horde a figure just identifiable as Lor’themar begins gesticulating angrily. Geya’rah listens to Sylvanas because she values her own life. Lor’themar doesn’t inspire that sort of fear, and Geya’rah, like so many orcs, suffers from an excess of honor and a remarkable lack of sense. Grudgingly, Sylvanas says, “She would not.”

Will Baine and Lor’themar care enough about the Forsaken to support their position? She can’t say.

So what can we take from this?

Sylvanas is comfortable leaving Lor'themar in command of the Horde army, even though there's no real sin'dorei presence and so he's technically outside his bailiwick. She has faith (borne out in Interlude 1) that he won't get too creative or reckless and will do the best he can, but she also doesn't believe he can keep Geya'rah in line.

Overall: Pretty good confidence in Lor'themar as a military leader.

Unfortunately: Approximately zero confidence in Lor'themar's willingness to go out of his way to help the Forsaken.

In other words, Sylvanas trusts Lor'themar to help her when it's in his own best interest. She does NOT trust him to do anything even moderately inconvenient that would benefit her, which is fair because he wouldn't.

Trust is easy when you're trusting someone to do something that benefits them. It's much, much harder when you're hoping they'll put themselves at risk to help you.

#blorbos from my games #the power to manipulate belief #asks for ts #Anonymous #also shoutout to sylvanas being unsure if baine would support the forsaken #guess who doesn't know he's on a boat right now #that'll be a fun surprise for her later #worth remembering that at this point in bfa literally every horde leader EXCEPT geya'rah (hysterically)#is at least privately considering What If A Different Warchief #this includes lor'themar #(and thalyssra. who has instead been nerdsniped into helping.)#anyway so to come back to the original ask:#in addition to the obvious reason to not date lor'themar (wrong gender) sylvanas is also not willing to be vulnerable around him #she knows that he'll use that against her if things go badly enough #while with jaina she can't. not. she STILL thinks jaina would use it against her but she can't stop herself #she also KNOWS that lor'themar thinks she's vaguely unstable #(this is to be fair to him a vast step up from everyone else who wouldn't use 'vaguely' there)#she knows he is waiting for her to go fully insane; to be the scourge again #(SHE is waiting to become the scourge again; it's that or the maw)#so the idea that now. now we're getting to jaina looking at sylvanas and SEEING HER AS SHE IS.#not as she was; not as rumors; not as her worst actions #just as a complicated and deeply traumatized person #THATS super new

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