This is something I’ve been thinking since people first started suggesting him after Vol’jin died at the start of Legion, but I never saw anyone else voicing the issue. And now that he actually has the job I think it’s something I want to get off my chest.
I don’t dislike Rokhan. But I feel like his promotion to chief of the Darkspear doesn’t really work? It feels more like it was fueled by out of universe reasons than in universe ones, like he just got the job because he was a name players recognized. Because in the story we never really saw him having any sort of important position in the tribe. He was a recurring soldier but he was never once shown to be part of the Darkspear leadership unlike, say, Gadrin or Vanira.
So when people would suggest him, and when he did get the job, my response has always been “But why? Just because we know who he is?” It feels like if Cromush became the leader of the orcs.
The Horde has always venerated war heroes, for good or ill. I mean Garrosh of all people was given the job of Warchief because of his lineage and his war hero status. If anything, I’d say this is par for the course.
It’s name recognition. Because beyond Vol’jin he’s literally the only Darkspear of import with a history in the franchise. That’s how starved for characters the Darkspear have been and why killing Vol’jin was a horrible idea.
Master Gadrin is all good, but he’s also old enough to be Vol’jin and Zalazane’s mentor. That probably puts him around Sen’jin age. Old characters are not what the Horde needs atm as they tend to… die. As for Vanira, she has even LESS than Rokhan to her name. She would need a LOT of time to develop her personality and character.
Rokhan is leader because he’s the best we have and likely the best we will ever have with Blizz’s track record of Troll characters. I will agree that he felt rushed into the position, but that’s likely because they realized they couldn’t have the Trolls sit leaderless for another expansion.
The fact that you went with Cromush over Nazgrel heightens my disappointment with Blizzard for leaving Nazgrel in Outland.
To be honest it doesn’t bother me that Rokhan became Vol’jin’s successor. I do feel that it should have been handled better but I’m content with it, largely because he’s one the main known Darkspear after Vol’jin. Plus Rokhan has always been one of my favorites.
I still find it weird how she’s suddenly representing them on the Horde Council. It was one thing for her to join up with the Horde in BfA but another to suddenly leading a faction that she joined. The only reason I can think of having her lead is that Blizzard hadn’t determined who among the Forsaken is with the Horde or Sylvanas when they made her the safe bet for Forsaken leader.
I feel that Nazgrel still has more lore but dread that he’s going to remain in BC limbo.
(Commentary): Rokhan becoming the Darkspear chieftain never bothered me because he, like Vol’jin, is a Shadow-Hunter. Shadow-Hunters seem to be extremely important to Darkspear culture in a spiritual and political role. The only issue with Rokhan is that he was never groomed to take on political roles for the Darkspear. That said, some of the best characters in the game are the ones who have had power thrust upon them.
Because rather than develop other, already established Forsaken characters like Belmont to groom them for leadership, they’d rather make a character who historically has a hatred for necromancers join the race that regularly raises the dead and have her lead them.
Nope, and I feel exactly the same way you do. But there’s really nobody else to fall back on. I don’t think any more of Gadrin or Vanira, for that matter. They’re all just…worthless. Random NPCs you leave behind when you outgrow your newbie zone and forget about. That’s basically all the notability the race gets.
I think Zen’kiki gets more screen time and character development than him prior to BFA. Blizzard was probably just fluffing up Rokhan to try to stave off the “who?” questions when they’d stick him in the warfront and say he’s the new Darkspear leader.
The idea of him leading doesn’t bug me, but the way he became their leader does. He doesn’t get something actually involving his people choosing him, or talking with the spirit of Vol’jin and getting anointed by him to lead. What he got was a casual conversation with Baine, where his 2/2 failures in the Fourth War were brought up as reasons why he’s a good leader, and he begrudgingly accepts the post if he haaaas toooooo.
My first character to 60 in Vanilla was a Darkspear Rogue, and my Main is a Zandalari Druid. I am a big Troll fan. It doesn’t bother me much.
He was important in WC 3. He was around ever since. He is a good bridge between elders like Gadrin, and younglings like Zekhan. He is experienced. He helped in Nazmir and Arathi - though his efforts weren’t exactly victorious in all instances, he did his best. The Alliance won Arathi because Blizzard thinks “it felt right”, and the Alliance feint at Nazmir worked because Blizzard wanted it to. It is hardly through his mistakes or his fault that those efforts ended up badly.
He has shown to garner the respect of his fellow Horde leaders, and proved pivotal in gaining the trust of the Zandalari, as well as in helping free Baine with his little stealth totems. While also not being flagrant about it, to spare his people any further torment from Sylvanas.
I think he has a lot of experience. He makes sense enough. I agree, he got there because there are very few named Darkspear with any impact on the story. But he has been there since WC 3 and been involved in alot of the tribes efforts.
It doesn’t bother me at all. It makes sense.
Not to harp on Voss, but it makes alot more sense than her leading the Forsaken. She was introduced in Cata. She wanted nothing to do with them. Her membership among them was sort of vague. But here we are, with her representing them in the Epilogue cinematic and dealing with Calia. The Forsaken really got a raw deal in BfA, on many fronts.
It’s egregious in my opinion. Lilian was just the closest Forsaken lying around with an established voice actor. That’s the character’s only qualification to lead the Forsaken, let alone speak for them the way she does with Calia (that entire conversation is absurd on so many levels).
Gazlowe is another one that is pure “fan” service. We are robbed of a flawed but interesting character in Gallywix to replace him with another milquetoast peacenik. At least Gazlowe put in the work over the years to earn his position, unlike Johnny-Come-Lately Lilian
Rokhan is an interesting character and could be an interesting leader for the Darkspear, but not under the current writing regime where even Bwon’samdi is being made out to be a Teddy Bear. At least Rokhan earned his Horde stripes over time.
Edit: what’s clear is that these leaders are being chosen for Meta reasons, not because they have interesting stories to tell. Even Rokhan was just like “Okay I guess so, sure”
A lot of the replies seem to be along these lines and that’s exactly what my problem with it is. He was chosen for meta reasons and it makes sense when you look at it out of universe - he really is the only Darkspear that’s even halfway notable - but in-universe I don’t understand why he was apparently the first choice when he’s never shown himself as part of the tribe’s heirarchy.
Lillian is probably not going to be the forsaken leader once the Calia storyline gets going. I actually kind of like her as the rep for the Forsaken because she “gets” it. She’s basically what the forsaken should be without Sylvanas. Not sunshine and rainbows, but not really evil.
I like Gazlowe but like you said, I don’t see a whole lot of mileage in him being an ethical goblin. I guess if their plan is to not make the goblins a real focus of the story anymore its a safe choice.
That’s kind of a big problem with this whole expansion.
The Horde has precious few actual relevant characters because Blizzard refuses to introduce new ones or develop underutilized ones to balance out the ones they’ve spent forever slowly but surely killing off. The Darkspear arguably have the worst of it – Vol’jin and Rokhan were literally their only two notable characters, and only because they dusted off the latter just in time to kill the former the next expansion. It’s just recently that they now have Zappiboi, who’s barely a character yet.
At the same time, in BfA a number of underutilized characters are starting to come back and be utilized… in the expansion where that makes the least sense. Almost none of these characters should want anything to do with Sylvanas’s war, whether than be for altruistic reasons or ones of established personal loyalty. Rexxar, Eitrigg, Garona, Voss, and I’m sure there are more I’m forgetting, have actively become worse characters just because of meta laziness on Blizzard’s part.
All this leader succession stuff should have already been dealt with, before dealing with it became a narrative headache to be solved with a blatant meta cop-out.
