Given hints that Thrall might have a major role in the major expansion, I thought it a good time to post this. While thinking about the lore, I realized that Illidan was to Legion what Thrall was to Cata;
- They both got titles from other characters to try and make them look better (“Child of Light and Shadow” and “Chosen One” for Illidan, “World-Shaman” and “Savior of Azeroth” for Thrall).
- Both are the darling of at least one major dev.
- They both got an expansion where they’re hyped as having a pivotal role against a major villain who threatens the world (the Burning Legion/Deathwing and the Old Gods).
- Said expansion sought to prop them up in various ways.
- Both have a quest to restore their soul after a major villain sundered it (Illidan’s soul was trapped by Gul’dan and Helya, Thrall’s soul was split by Fandral).
- Both had the player characters learn pivotal moments of their backstories through quests.
- Swathes of prior lore were retconned to make them look good/better/less bad.
- Long-running characters are used or dumbed down to shill them (eg; Khadgar, Velen and Turalyon for Illidan, Malfurion, Hammul and the Dragon Aspects for Thrall).
- Both have an over-the-top cinematic where they beam another character to death.
- Both end their expansion with a happy for-them ending and entering a new phase of their lives.
- And more…
Both characters had similar story elements in Cataclysm and Legion respectively. And yet the story beats done with Illidan were mostly well-received while the same story beats for Thrall weren’t.
Why?
idk about horde fans, but i remember alliance fans disliking having to answer to a horde character which is rich
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idk Thrall’s an orc and therefore Horde by association whilst Illidan is a Night Elf and therefore Alliance…
In all seriousness though, good question. I don’t know the answer to that. 
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Largely this :
To frame the point - Faction bias.
While being a member of a Playable Alliance Race (kaldorei), Illidan has never been a member of that Alliance in particular. That helps deter a bit of hate from the Horde fanbase, while giving him good feelings among the Alliance fanbase. It softens his edges, as it were. Makes him a Chaotic Neutral Agent.
If - or when - Illidan takes sides, he will likely side with his brother and his crush, and thus, lose Horde fans. But so far, he has straddled a line between Factions.
Thrall on the other hand… he is basically “the new” Horde incarnate (as far as that goes in a video game). The Alliance Players chafed under his narrative, and Horde fans who care nothing about Thrall had to stomach is drama.
When it comes to deep seated Fanbase divisions, Illidan is more accessible.
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That was because for most of Cata the Alliance was losing things left and right and until that point in time, no Horde had actually had to answer to any Alliance leader either.
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One is an outcast from their people and has never actually been a member of either faction, the other is the actual literal founding member of The Horde in its current form.
That and I was never forced to attend Illidan’s cringe wedding. Though the whole “I am my scars!!” thing wasn’t much better. Neither were great chapters in Warcraft history, however I like and miss Thrall more.
I feel like the narrative absence and subsequent mishandling of Thrall post-cataclysm was far more detrimental to the story and setting than sitting Illidan on a shelf in space.
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Way i see it, if i’m being forced to work under some alliance adjacent person i’d rather it be someone like khadgar or illidan since neither of them are actually alliance but are close enough to be relevant, as oppose to working with jaina or tyrande who are just there to actually spit on me while they force me to help them
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I remember most people eye-rolling at Illidan’s quests. But overall, I think his reception was more popular, which I theorize to be due to some combination of these points:
- A lot of people wanted Illidan back, and therefore were willing to look past the overdramatized “has no one suffered as he has” setup.
- Illidan was dead, not just absent, so people were willing to overlook more bad writing just to get the character back at all.
- The melodrama in his return was presented to the player through Xe’ra, rather than presented as direct observation of past events (and the direct observation still made Illidan look like his old, self-absorbed personality), so people could pin criticism on Xe’ra for being a fangirl rather than on Illidan or on the writers for the new presentation.
- Illidan then beats up that lecturing melodramatic character, and many players are too relieved not to hear her anymore that they’re willing to overlook exactly how it was handled.
- Illidan was not a former playable faction leader, in an expac where that playable faction was actively invading and killing the other playable faction because he merrily left it in the hands of a grabby psychopath.
- Illidan still had characters in-universe who disliked him and were allowed to keep disliking him without that stance signifying their new villainhood, so players felt more like they were allowed to still dislike Illidan without the game berating them for it.
- Illidan had other characters like Velen to share the spotlight with, and didn’t completely eclipse them, so non-Illidan fans still had someone else they could focus on.
I’m one of the people who was very annoyed by Thrall’s sudden main character-ness in Cata, but I think that the best response would have been sharing that spotlight with a few other characters rather than removing Thrall from the stage. I’d be happy to see him come back and get to do epic Horde and shaman things, alongside other hero characters doing their own epic stuff.
And as a point in the more recent conversation, when it comes to working with opposite faction characters, my gold standard is Bolvar and Saurfang from the Wrathgate: they share cinematics, their cool moments are shown to both their own side and the other side, they show respect for each other, but neither is presented as better than the other. I don’t think the player should have to work only with the opposite faction’s characters or directly under them - we have enough characters in this setting that there can always be a faction intermediary.
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Given that this was also hinted for BfA and Shadowlands and didn’t happen in either of those expansions, I’ve come to have an attitude of “I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Whose darling is Illidan?
The fact that Illidan was never the leader of the Alliance likely has something to do with it.
I do think there was a way to have Thrall take a neutral role that wouldn’t have antagonized Alliance players. He would have had to step down and start working with PCs on both sides for an expansion or two first. But they didn’t (couldn’t?) take the time to set that up. It also probably would have helped if they hadn’t villain-batted his replacement.
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“We came here to restore the first world tree, why are we not doing that right now???”
I wonder if the Thrall quest putting Nordrassil’s current level of health and vitality in a grey zone is part of why they keep ignoring it.
I think it needed to go both ways. They honestly may have intended it to. Metzen -did- push really hard to get Malfurion back, basically getting an author to just axe the giant threat they’d built up in 1 book just to facilitate it. And you kinda see a self indulgent mutual respect scene when they meet at the Nordrassil part of Thrall’s quest. Like in retrospect, Malfurion did also kinda lead the charge in a zone and a patch, which really isn’t -that- far off from Thrall. But Thrall was kinda the sole mortal focus when it came to be bigger threats. Firelands… is kind of an inconsequential patch at best.
You mean they needed an Alliance equivalent to Thrall for Alliance characters to interact with? It’s true that this may have gone over better, but it’s slightly galling to hear that after I’ve spent so many expansions following Alliance characters around without getting a Horde equivalent.
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Cool. Thanks for the particularly detailed assessment. I’d be happy to hear more perspectives, I really like yours. About point;
- Squares with what I know. I know Metzen thought Illidan was done dirty at the end of Burning Crusade and was also one of those wanting him back (I personally could’ve gone either way).
- I think this ties into point one, but it makes sense given the fervent desire to see him again.
- Ironic, since some of the same people who hate Xe’ra’s fangirling over Illidan also fanboy or fangirl over him themselves (quite the hypocrisy). It’s strange that they’d blame Xe’ra as melodramatic rather the writers who made her that way.
- That’s definitely one of the reasons.
- Makes sense that his lack of “Alliance or Horde” presence opens things up.
- While this reason makes sense and is a good point, I’m not sure how much it applies. Look how much hate Turalyon got from certain fans for daring to be angry that Illidan killed his commanding officer/guardian angel of the last 1,000+ years (all those people clamoring for Turalyon to go the Light fanatic villain route - even big WoW channels like Bellular jumped on that bangwagon).
- That makes sense, though they did dumb down Velen in his argument with Illidan. I hated that he criticized Velen for not “making a stand” when Illidan himself bent the knee to the Legion the first time they showed up (He’s known as “Betrayer” for good reason).
I share your feelings about Thrall hogging the spotlight in Cata, and agree with your solution to it. I feel the same way about Illidan as Thrall in Cata and, until now, couldn’t understand why there was the clear double standard.
Afrasiabi’s darling. He was in the director’s chair for Legion and that stuff with Xe’ra was his idea too (plus, he was the one who gave the interview about it).
Other than that, Metzen was also eager for Illidan to make a comeback and didn’t like what happened to him in Burning Crusade. But Metzen wasn’t in the writer’s room or (unlike Afrasiabi) the director’s chair.
The whole Child of Light and Shadow thing. Xera got it wrong. She got the wrong elf altogether.
Think of a man, his father is a champion of Light. His mother embraced the void.
C’mon folks.
Arator Windrunner.
He is literally the child of a light and shadow.
Blizzard really screwed that one up.
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I have speculated on that too. But I blame the writers, not Xe’ra, for missing such an obvious thing. Especially since Xe’ra knew about Arator and had recruited his parents.
The writers passed over Arator because they wanted to shill Illidan then pull a cringe twist that’d give Shyamalan himself whiplash.
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They kept hinting at Arators importance through out BC and in small bits spread through out the expansions. Now though.
Blizzard: “wHoSe ArAtOr?”
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Illidan returning was met with people smiling with their mouths open and clapping.
Arator returning to the narrative would be met with confused murmerings.
Not everyone. For one, I was merely curious about Illidan when I first heard he’d have a big part in Legion. Besides, even the Rejection of the Gift cinematic has its downvotes.
True, Arator wouldn’t have been as a big a draw. But now, Illidan has had his curtain call and Arator is ripe with potential.