Despite the several commentators who have questioned whether it is possible for video games to have anti-heroes: Illidan Stormrage is a textbook example. He is also a textbook Messiah. His work is genuinely the salvation of everyone who lives on Azeroth, from the greatest threat to their existence: the Burning Legion. His body is literally broken, twisted, a tool for subjugating demons. He has been rejected by society, suffering with relatively little complaint the mistreatment of his own brother and sister-in-law. He has been betrayed by his erstwhile followers: Kael'thas, Lady Vashj, and Akama. Yet he presses on in his salvific quest. The reader expects a vindication and a heroic death.
But in what way is he an anti-hero? The man has never heard of consent. He takes what he needs without asking, without consideration for how people feel. He does what he knows needs to be done, assuming that everyone is out to stop him. He is self-centered in his understanding of how others think. He believes that everyone is either with him or has no other purpose than to oppose him. The things he asks for are not things anyone would easily give up, that is true. However, there are very few things a person will not give up to ensure the safety of their loved ones, and that is the prize that awaits at the end of Illidan's work. Yet, he won't tell anyone how he plans to stop the Legion. Quite the contrary, he leads everyone to believe it is impossible. They think he is Don Quixote, and so of course they refuse when he asks for things they care about. This toxic masculinity doesn't help him in his quest: in fact it gets him killed.
By the players of World of Warcraft: the Burning Crusade. You enter the Black Temple, Illidan's base of operations on Outland, and you slaughter him for his shiny weapons. You are there with people you have no reason to question, on orders from your superiors. And besides, surely there is someone better to use the powerful artifact weapons he wields? After all, Illidan is crazy and working with the Legion after all right? The constricted nature of video game narratives is a useful tool in the hands of Blizzard developers for this story. The story they are telling you, the player, isn't wrong: it's simply not the entire story with all the details put in. The crucial detail here is that Kael'thas and Lady Vashj are indeed working with the Legion, but not on behalf of Illidan.
It is not incorrect that Illidan has in fact abused Akama's trust. Akama, who is goading you to kill him. The Legion uses machines that run on souls, and Illidan has stolen one of them. These powerful machines are necessary for creating and maintaining portals to and from worlds. Illidan can use these portals to strike at the Legion's strongholds, and to steal the Sargerite Keystone: which can take him to the Legion's home. Illidan then goes to the burial ground of Akama's people, a place called Auchindoun, and takes their souls for the machine. Now, Akama's people are the draenei: refugees from the Legion. They have fought the Legion for thousands of years, and experienced the Legion's cruelty firsthand many times. As a shaman, Akama has the ability to talk with the spirits. Illidan, working with Akama, could have asked if they were willing to give up their existence in order to fight the Legion. He might well have been able to talk them into doing so.
If the machine processes an unwilling soul, the experience is painful. If the soul is willing however, the pain is less or perhaps even nonexistent. The power of souls is known and used not just by the Legion, but also by the good guys: the Titans, and their mortal followers. The machines of the Titans seem to function in exactly the same way as the machines of the Legion. Nor does this fact seem to be unknown. The paladins back on Azeroth know this is the case, because they use such a machine. They also use a burial ground as their source of power: but in one respect what they are doing is different. They are willing to have their souls used as a source of energy. Illidan, older and far more well versed in magic than they are, ought to know this as well. So, we cannot excuse his actions by saying he was unaware of the available alternative. Furthermore, if Illidan had asked for Akama's help and the draenei had been allowed to consent: then Akama would have had no reason to spring Illidan's nemesis Maiev out of jail. Because Illidan assumes that the draenei would not consent, he both tortures thousands of people and gets himself killed unnecessarily. Yet, as he falls he turns over onto his back with his arms spread out. The camera then flips to show him lying on the ground, his body making the unmistakable shape of a cross. His body is imprisoned hanging in a cruciform position as well. Make no mistake, Illidan is a Christ figure.
Now, Warcraft just like any other fantasy story reflects our world. It reflects and comments on the socio-political context in which it takes place. We thus cannot fail to read in Illidan a damning indictment of the modern Evangelical Church. But, not one that is created out of any malice towards the Church. Look up any video of former WoW developer Chris Metzen. He usually has a cross around his neck. No, this is what we would call constructive criticism. That is, the critic intends to improve the thing being criticized by pointing out it's flaws in a respectful manner so that they can be corrected. Much like Neil Gaiman's tongue-in-cheek depiction of the multiple Christs at Easter's tea party in American Gods, writing Illidan as an antiheroic Christ figure is a comment about the way that some churches' selective overlooking of some scripture passages characterizes Christ as bizarrely entitled and arrogant: thus encouraging a toxic masculinity. Illidan is the Christ of the Evangelical churches.
The irony is, he recognizes his flaw in everyone except himself. His nemesis Maiev is no better than he is, taking without asking because she knows it's the right thing to do. He hates her for it. He complains about Kael'thas taking power without asking. Likewise the Prime Naaru X'era. A Prime Naaru is a crystalline creature, they seem to have the power level of an archangel in this universe. What makes a Naaru "prime" is her ability to create other Naaru, which also gives her greater intelligence and an explicitly female gender. X'era is no better than Illidan, she takes without asking and tries to make her plan happen without asking if everyone is okay with it. She tries to force Illidan to give up his demonic powers. He doesn't want to, he suspects she wants to control him (which is true). He ends up killing her over it. But this is a character that brags about forcing the hand of fate. He is hypocritical and arrogant.
Yet this final confrontation with X'era, or perhaps the amalgamation of all his confrontations with people he has wronged, seems to have changed Illidan. The very next thing he says, shows that he no longer believes himself to be the sole savior of the world. He explicitly denies the truth of X'era's prophecy that there is a single savior. He says that we are the only ones who can save ourselves, and we have everything we need already.
A daring thing to say when a man is trying to chop you in half, as High Exarch Turalyon is (more on him later). But he's right. The Prophet Velen confirms what he says, that their faith and their strength are more than enough. Illidan is content to be one among many: and indeed even follows the High Exarch's orders. The last time we see him in the game, he is not sacrificing himself for the good of others. He is a warrior, staying behind to take a crack at the enemy he has been tracking all this time: the titan Sargeras. His cruciform appearance is gone: instead we see him with his blades unsheathed. If he's about to go down, it will be fighting. The death of a warrior, not a Messiah. He also admits to his brother and to Tyrande, as well as to the player, the mistakes he has made along the way. He leaves it up to them to defend the world. He is no longer a Christ figure, but he is a better man. When we consider satire, it is usual to first try the hypothesis that it is satirizing the most powerful people of the time and place when it was written. Thus, it seems reasonable to read Illidan's story arc as a satire of the Evangelical churches, since they are the most politically and culturally powerful Christian organization in America (Blizzard's lead developers are all American). This matches up, Evangelicals do actually present a bizarrely arrogant and demanding version of Christ in their interpretations of scripture due to their selective reading and cultural filter.
Or at least, they did. To some extent the vision of Christ in the Evangelical churches is still a representation of what would outside of that context be called "toxic masculinity". But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the way in which change is occurring. Blizzard has a bizarre habit of predicting current events in their stories: and this is one of those moments. In June this year, the Southern Baptist Convention (the Southern Baptists being the biggest of the Evangelical churches), acknowledged that they had treated women unfairly over the past century and half. They admitted they had protected perpetrators of sexual abuse, and that they had encouraged behaviors that led to rape. They recognized that women should be allowed to have leadership roles in the church, and that they should work on discerning which roles those should be with the input of women from the community. That is, the men realized that they could not do the salvific work that is the church's duty on their own. They needed the help of the women. They needed to be content to be one of two. Life imitates Art.
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