Haven’t seen much discussion of this.
Thoughts?
My main one is “Really? ANOTHER Alliance hero as the universal questgiver for everybody? Do we have to?”
Followed by “Is Blizzard under the assumption that we don’t notice that he’s yet another in the parade of Alliance-themed ‘neutral’ characters?”
He hasn’t been an alliance character in years, and has made an enemy of paladins and dragons.
Personally, I don’t really think of Bolvar as being much of an ‘Alliance’ character by this point. Sure, that’s where his origin lies, but his defining and first truly significant moment occurred with the Wrathgate, where he was fighting side by side with the Horde before that went pear-shaped. He’s been way more impactful in WoW lore as the Jailor as the Damned, so I can’t help but see him more as a neutral figure.
He’s a far different case then say Alleria, Turalyon, or even Khadgar. At least, that’s my two cents.
I just don’t want a world character at all.
At least when I switched between alts on either faction, most characters stayed on those factions, so while my Hordies would hear Nathanos quite a bit, my Allies would only occasionally hear him.
But I always heard Magni and it became annoying. His voice being grating didn’t help.
It somewhat bothers me that no matter what Covenant I choose, I’m going to constantly hear Bolvar asking for Amina or something on all four toons.
What Horde figure do you think should be neutral? I wouldn’t mind working with Baine.
It shouldn’t have hard to have had Vol’jin or even Bwonsamdi set up as the Horde equivalent of Bolvar.
Actually, I think it would have been cool if we could have worked with someone from the days before there was an Alliance or Horde, for this expansion. Opening up the whole history of Azeroth gives us a unique opportunity, and I feel like it’s being wasted.
Who would fill that role? A titan? Naaru? Wild God? At least two would annoy Horde fans.
Ooh, how about the first Dark Troll to turn into a Night Elf? Ties to both sides, in that case. And we could have a cool flashback cinematic about how it happened. Plus, he/she would have been in Shadowlands for a very long time and would have observed a lot of changes firsthand.
To quote myself from another thread:
I anticipate Bolvar will be as irrelevant to the actual story as Magni was to BfA’s.
The Horde Player Experience:
Being commanded by Khadgar of Dalaran in Legion. While riding Malfurion and being sassed by Tyrande.
Being commanded by Magni of Ironforge in BfA.
Being commanded by Bolvar, Anduin’s baby sitter, in Shadowlands.
What could be next? Anduin allowing his prisoner to escape and sow discord among the Horde, to the point where the High King makes a victory speech in Orgrimmar?
Oh… that already happened.
Since WoD our “main character” of the expansion has had ties to the Alliance. They’ve already seeded Alliance characters into having more prominent roles in at least in a voidy-cosmicy expansion.
The Horde needed to have characters being built up like ten years ago.
i don’t think bolvar could be considered an alliance character anymore.
Now if we do have taelia involved then the thing would be different,i guess.
because it seems like she will be become an important character in the alliance in the future.
100% horde players would still call this alliance character
Other then having an Alliance flavoured past, I think the more sad part of Bolvar becoming the Magni is that it kind of removes all the tension his character had generated from Legion.
EDIT: Changed a tense.
For real, Bolvar hasn’t really been Alliance at all since wotlk.
I swear to god if I see eye to eye with Kat on something that means y’all definitely messed up.
Suppose it was Cairne, out of nowhere.
He’s been dead since just slightly after Bolvar. Died doing something both factions would largely approve of- stopping a guy the players would stop in a raid later. Just like Bolvar. The only real difference is, Cairne’s been full on gone.
That said, so has Bolvar in all but the technical. Few knew who the new Lich King was, and he certainly was far more edgy than he ever was as regent.
I wouldn’t mind Cairne at all. It would be nice to see the guy again. I also don’t mind Bolvar, or rather, the Lich King. Calling either of them a member of their modern factions after so long seems a little hyperbolic.
Zzzz 
I can’t speak for Horde mains, but as an Alliance main, I never really saw Khadgar or Magni as ostensibly Alliance characters during their tenure from Warlords to BFA. I can understand why one might however - all three of them at one point or another were major power players AGAINST the Horde at one point or another. But for me, I feel as though the three of them have spent much time in the story having their faction ties superseded by the neutral duties, to the point at which I don’t quite see any of them rejoining either side.
But again, I’m not really the one affected by this.
I just don’t want a world character at all. I don’t think Magni was done well in BfA, and Khadgar grew tiresome after he had the role for two expansions.
Thrall also grew tiring back when he was the world character in Cata.