I don’t really like Lilian much. But she is something. We don’t have any major Forsaken characters that look like Forsaken. At least her time with Zelling in BfA can somewhat explain her softening attitude.
I had that issue with Sylvanas and Nathanos - they looked nothing like the playable race (after Nathanos gets his upgrade). It just irked me that all the other races have leadership that represents the playable race, EXCEPT the Forsaken.
So whether Lilian is interesting or lame, I cut her slack for being Forsaken and looking like the rest of them.
Still, Blizzard can’t help themselves, and dumps Calia and Derek to replace Sylvanas and Nathanos. They don’t pretend to develop current Forsaken Characters… they just basically add new ones who look nothing like the Players…. again.
Tess has a similar issue. She isn’t a Worgen but she now leads the Playable Worgen. In fact, she doesn’t want to be like the Playable Worgen.
You hit the nail on the head perfectly. It’s such a simple, obvious, surface-level writing flaw and I don’t know how this could have possibly happened twice.
The only thing I can come up with is that Blizzard is just completely incapable of humanizing anyone who isn’t human (or a human with pointy ears).
“From here on now we will be the forsaken and we will slaughter anyone who stand in our way!”
Sylvanas windrunner leader of the forsaken.
Wanting this back in the forsaken but i don’t think that the new leaders have this kind of atitude.
We also have to remember Gilneas isnt all Worgen- theres still a lot of humans in its ranks. I dont think we need to force a story about worgen with Tess when it truly isnt about wirgen at all. Its simply about the Kingdom of Gilneas, which isnt completely uniform population-wise.
And the Forsaken are a council with 3 “regular” forsaken, Velonara for the Darkfallen, then Calia(and Derek) for the more pristine looking Forsaken.
You can expect whatever you want; doesnt mean itll happen or should happen. If people care about the Worgen, and therefore thhe Gilneans, you would think theyd value a story about their nation, even if an unafflicted Gilnean takes the throne.
Leaders often dont entirely represent their people. Alleria isnt cursed to void appearance like most Ren’dorei, the Lightforged are led by a Human. The Mechagnomes now have a King that is from across the Ocean. A Steamwheedle goblin rules over the Bilgewater now. But that doesnt make the story bad because theyre not perfect representations of some of their people, the story shouldnt be bent just to suit that goal either.
Hmm… Which ones ? Who does Calia represent on the council exactly, besides herself (and her CHAMPION) ?
Sure, but the playable race isn’t “kingdom of Gilneas”, it’s the Worgen. The werewolf people. Hence the desire from Worgen fans to have a Worgen racial leader, especially in a game that historically conflates, as we’ve been discussing, racial lore storylines and racial leader chardev storylines.
Than I guess judging by zitgas standards, horde players can stop complaining about wanting quality stories because screw wanting a consistent story. Right guys?
That would be fine in most stories, but video game stories and WoW in particular are different, in the sense that :
Representation often amounts to seeing the Racial Leaders doing stuff in cutscenes, cinematics, or questing.
At least Blizzard took the time to give a little exposition from Gazlowe to explain it. And that isn’t a great example, because he looks like the playable race. So it isn’t the same criticism, as while Tess is Gilnean, she is not a Worgen.
Having a consistant story somehow requires the Monarch of Gilneas to be afflicted with the curse?
Genn is still going to be a major player in the Alliance- he says that he would now be able to focus more on it. And we still have other Worgens around like Darius.
But it just seems overall we fundamentally disagree. I just dont want the devs to force the story in a direction just because some say that is how it should be.
When the playable race is literally called the worgen? That’s a yes. Would be nice to have leadership that looks like the race your playing, especially if blizz intends to make them the new face of the race
I understand this perspective, especially from an in-universe perspective.
But, from an out of universe perspective, we have a playerbase who chose a race called “worgen”. The only playable race that canonically hails from Gilneas (outside of RP) are the worgen.
So, it stands to reason that a lot of people would want the story of Gilneas to focus a bit more on the worgen.
I think the obvious next step for Gilneas is for Crowley to be officially recognized as, like, “Lord Protector” or something. Give him a fancy military title that puts him roughly on the same tier as Tess and eligible to represent the Worgen going forward.
Thanks. I’m just tired of people who aren’t invested or even interested in the race that I love telling worgen players what we got currently is good enough
Because if I suggested they be okay with the terrible decisions blizz made for the horde, they would be the first ones to freak out
This is true, but leaders are still expected to at least represent the themes of their people. When the whole theme of the (playable) people is “cursed” and the leader is not cursed, it’s hardly surprising that players are unhappy with this.
It would be the equivalent of putting say a living lordaeron human in charge of the forsaken and than acting surprised when forsaken fans are rightfully angry and displeased by said choice but than telling them to just accept it because there are living lordaerions somewhere