There’s always going to be weirdos shouting “Everything is fine”. This is a video game community, you know? I just ignore the ones who are clearly arguing in bad faith and try my best to find common ground with the genuine ones.
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And you know, honestly, I’d very much rather the game be less big character-driven. If racial leaders were somewhat distant rulers who don’t frankly show up on the front lines and whom you only get to see during formal speeches and national celebrations, then them not being representative of their people wouldn’t be nearly as problematic. But things being what they are…
Tbh, I for one still find Gazlowe leading the Bilgewater to be pretty annoying, cuz everyone knows the only reason why he was appointed Trade Prince was that Blizzard was like “Ok, Gallywix gone. So, let’s check the A-list Bilgewater cast for replacement… Wait, there’s no A-list Bilgewater cast ??? Oh well. Gazlowe’s a Goblin right ? And he doesn’t hate the Horde right ? Let’s just go for Gazlowe”. I’m crying over the missed opportunity of giving the title to Sassy Hardwrench everyday.
It’s about damn time they develop Bilgewater characters and culture, and emphasize what sets them apart from the Steamwheedle. But that would imply for the writers to start seeing value in the Goblins besides for comic relief purposes. Which… you know. Quite the challenge here.
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Well to be fair, we don’t know how much longer Genn is really going to be around (he’s tied to Anduin’s story as kind of a father figure and an advisor, so Genn basically has some death flags there), and I don’t think Blizzard has recorded a new line of dialogue for Lord Darius since Legion, meaning that he probably doesn’t currently have a new long-term voice actor at the moment. Hopefully they settle on a new voice actor for Lord Crowley if they currently don’t have one so they can actually use the character more.
Worgen characters also tend to not be used much after their initial introduction, with one of the few Worgen characters who almost consistently shows up in new expansions being Fiona of all characters (Fiona was introduced in Cataclysm, and has since shown up in WoD, BfA, and Dragonflight).
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It amazes how a small group of people on these forums refuse to understand this basic point.
Like, I get it if it doesn’t bother you, or if you have different tastes and priorities in a story.
But some folk in this thread, and other threads, just refuse to even acknowledge why OTHERS are bothered by this stuff. And it’s insane. I literally had someone say they “cant wrap their head around” why anyone would dislike Callia or Tess. When I tried to explain it they just plugged their ears and blocked me XD
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God, I was having a good time living inside your brain up until that point, but now I am forced to depart.
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I agree with this 1000%.
But until then, I understand why people want their leaders to represent them.
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Are you really trying to say I’m discussing in bad faith?..
That is overall an issue with most races/nations in the past in regards to secondary characters, though i think theyve been getting better with shoecasing the various races and having other characters appear. Can only hope they continue to improve in that department.
Genn is such a popular character though, i envision him lasting a bit more- maybe eventually having him pass away naturally due to age.
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I promise you Zitga:
I wasn’t thinking of you at all when I said that.
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With you there, and I don’t even know why they decided to get rid of Gallywix anyway, unless they just wanted a kinder, gentler goblin leader.
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Well yeah that was exactly the reason. Especially considering Gallywix had a hand in the Fourth War
Gallywix was truly one of BfA’s worst casualties, and a strange loss at that; I can’t imagine the devs have more fun writing Gazlowe. He’s a nice enough guy but so boring compared to his predecessor.
Pity the writers kind of forgot that MoP’s Gallywix was, surprisingly, smart enough to scrutinize faction war as cost-ineffective and knew better than to hand a mad warchief ultimate power.
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I’d argue that the two show the same issue on opposite parts of a spectrum; Both characters have very little development into high level roles.
The difference is that while Calia has been a character only since Legion Tess has been a character since Greymane’s short story in Cataclysm.
Like it’s extremely weird that people didn’t expect the daughter of the current leader of Gilneas and his heir presumptive wouldn’t end up leading their people. It’s just she’s somehow had next to zero development in a decade.
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BfA was chock full of these. “Let’s introduce or really flesh out these Horde characters with some amazing personality and then kick them out or kill them off!”
Gallywix, Nathanos, Rastakhan…
And in general Blizz is just replacing any remotely edgy leader with someone who will fall in line and hug the opposite faction. It’s been happening for years. Replace Cairne with…Baine. Replace Sylvanas with Calia. Replace Gallywix with Gazlowe. Replace Varian with Anduin. Replace Tyrande with Shandris. Replace Genn with Tess.
I can’t fathom why the writers want to write the same character in 10 different bodies.
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So does that mean I, as a Kul Tiran Human should want an actual Kul Tiran (model wise) as my racial leader? Instead of skinny Jaina.
Lady Ashvane was there.
Maybe the Horde can help Captain Owings become the Pirate Queen of Kul Tiras.
For the sake of representation.
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I mean yes.
Literally none of the heads of the houses of Kul Tiras are Kul Tiran models
It’s ridiculous
It’s silly
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I would say you have every right to want that.
Do you want it?
But it’s not just about the aesthetics here—it’s the themes. Sylvanas never looked like a typical Forsaken, but she reflected their themes quite well. And Tess Greymane looks like a worgen would in human form, but she doesn’t reflect worgen themes.
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Of course. Everyone should have a racial leader that represents the race they’re playing and one that looks like said race.
Or most people dont care and I think generally most people like Jaina as a leader and thinks it “makes sense” she leads. Body types be damned.
Similarly, Moira makes sense to lead the Dark Iron even though she is not one of them. Hell, Turaylon is the leadef of Stormwind even though he is not from Stormwind or even a typical Stormwindian.
The themes of the worgens are they are all Gilneas first and formost. And like it or not Tess represents Gilneas and their path to a new future.
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Genn’s been wanting to hand the crown off for years, it’s pretty heavily implied he’s only stuck around until now because he sees the fall of Gilneas as entirely his fault and needed to fix it before getting rid of his burden. So him giving the throne to Tess isn’t exactly a surprise…
The crux of the issue isn’t that she’s not a worgen, it’s that Blizzard hasn’t shown the curse to be anything other than ‘cool werewolf powers’ in over a decade. In Cata it was described as a curse, shown to be a curse, constantly dancing on that line of losing yourself to total rage and animal nature. Hell, the player character is implied to have, once they turned, killed or afflicted their own friends before running off into the woods. Worgenism is implied to have been bad. But outside the heritage chain, which was vague, it hasn’t been shown as such.
That said, her being queen is fine, mostly because Genn isn’t actually going anywhere. If anything, she’s going to be shuffled off and Genn will be the one who is front and center still. In a generation or two, there will barely be any worgen among the Gilneans in any case, but anyone who thinks we’re going to be seeing Tess over Genn when the Gilneans are called on to fight is being silly.
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