Pretty much. I have many issues with Calia, chief among those being her current iteration essentially invalidating not just the Forsaken’s entire history with the Horde … but their entire history as actual Forsaken. However, I could see her be made to work IF Blizz actually invested in Voss as an equal counterbalance. With the former representing who these people were in life, and the latter representing who they have become in Death. But … that’s going to take time.
I have this awful feeling that Calia is going to get a character arc in SLs. One that revolves her search for her dead child and husband, and one that likely ties into her Brother (or even Dad). My issue here is that while these sort of stories can result in character growth, they don’t actually deal with the massive deficits her character has as a SOLE Forsaken leader. Or a Horde leader for that matter. But Blizz being Blizz, and Calia clearly being in their comfort zone for writing, will probably conflate growth in general for the right type of growth…
The WC3 Horde is the one people remember and like for a reason, and Thrall is one of the only Warcraft orcs people remember outside of more hardcore WC fans. He’s iconic.
Yeah, nothing more fascinating than playing a weak, ineffectual villain who gets away with most of the stuff they do because of plot-convenient and game mechanics requiring it. Truly riveting…
I feel all of this spot-on. A great, carefully considered post. Some people go in weird directions with their Baine hate, for instance. The character is easily salvageable.
Its even more frustrating when you realize that they have so little idea how to make her their leader, that they’ve instead made an entirely new cast of very recently dead Alliance characters to interact with. Rather than any of the few Forsaken reps that still exist. Like, Tattersail and Velonara should be easy-er … but even they haven’t had a moment with her. Let alone the hardliners like Belmont, Faranell, Lydell, etc… That doesn’t even touch on her almost always going through a proxy like Voss to even communicate with the Horde reps…
This is an apparently potential Horde Racial leader who ONLY has developed relationships with Alliance characters? Wow … way to really sell that idea that Blizz is super adverse to actually building up and writing Horde characters. That deep decade of neglect wasn’t a coincidence.
So … get the trio of Rokhan, Rexxar, and Nazgrel back; with Rokhan getting real Darkspear leadership growth? Develop Gazlowe into the Horde Gob leader he was always supposed to be? Have Baine finally turn into the Cairne we all sort of want him to be? Get Thrall back to his WC3 roots, and combine the Warrior with the Shaman? Have Jin go full Loa and stay a regular part of the Troll Horde roster, and start fulfilling Sen’jin’s prophecy? Sounds like a good plan.
The BEs have bled enough Red over the years under Lor’themar that I’m pretty OK with the Horde Elven groups. We just need someone like Voss developed into a lasting Forsaken leader, and we’d be in good shape. Even if Calia also has to be a part of that equation in some way.
I’m primarily an Alliance player so I’m not sure I can offer as many story moments Horde players and fans would enjoy. That said there is one that I can think of that would honestly have most Horde players (and in fact Warcraft players) cheering.
While traveling players uncover a wounded soul that follows us around. It is badly weakened and unable to assume its original form. Through a quest chain players are able to heal the soul enough to learn that it was one of the souls that had been slain by Frostmorne. Bolvar further deduces that this soul may be able to be restored and if it can then perhaps it would be possible to heal other souls in the Shadowlands gaining valuable allies in the fight against the Jailor.
The Jailor becomes aware of our actions and decides to have Sylvanas destroy this weakened soul. Thrall joins us as we fight to stop her but are wounded/incapacitated in the process. As Sylvanas is about to strike at us the soul reforms, grabs a nearby axe, and runs towards the Banshee. Thrall looks up and calls out, “is that you Dranosh?”
“Yes,” roars Dranosh Saurfang, Varok’s son who fell at the Wrathgate, “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, FOR ALL THESE YEARS!” With that he drives Sylvanas back forcing her to retreat. He then turns to the players and calls out, “Rise up sons and daughters of Azeroth! The tide turns now!”
Just look at any threads that have been posted here over the last 2 years about siding with Sylvanas or hating on Thrall and Baine and count the number of horde upvotes supporting these stances compared to opposing them.
If these forums alone aren’t good enough then check comments on wowhead Twitter and reddit and you’ll find the same sentiments being echoed.
The information we have available to us as players suggest most horde players prefer Sylvanas over Thrall.
You’re the only poster I’ve seen in months with this opinion. The Sylvanas story has become one of the worst things that’s happened to the lore/story of WoW ever (this coming from someone who once thought she was awesome). Dead boobs and edgelords are getting old.
I think part of the reason that existing Forsaken characters have mostly gotten left in the dirt is that they may have felt like they hit a wall with them. There were two big angles to take the Forsaken after classic and – I say this with openness to be corrected as I never played the Forsaken much and dealt primarily with them as questgivers in more general hubs – it seems like they overwhelmingly went with the cackling banshee route over the gothic tragedy. It’s reflected in their architecture, which is frequently ramshackle. Not only have they mined the crap out of that, despite the undead being the most human-like of the original four Horde races, they’re not even close to parity with the blood elves.
I feel like they’re gearing up to give us even prettier Forsaken – both characters and architecture. A more dour and sepulchral Lordaeron overcity cured of the plague and a reborn Teldrassil, both mingling life amidst so much death, would be engaging faction capitals for a future cosmic expansion.
IDK, just random spitballing here, I guess. I agree with all the discussion laid out here (countless times before) about the problems Calia represents, but I try to keep in mind that game dev writes more of the metaplot than the actual writing team, so I’m trying to see if there’s a game function (current or future) that she’s intended to be answering.
Guess that would mean more players want to go back to Warcraft 3 era horde then. Ya know since they actually play their opinion matters…they didn’t quit because the obvious evil undead chick ended up being evil
#CriticalThinking
Sylvanas and the forsaken from the start of Vanilla we’re going to end up being a big problem down the line, simply because they didn’t fit anywhere. More of the horde today has more in common with Thralls Horde than anything Sylvanas or her fans ever wanted for the faction. Not that I’m against the forsaken in anyway, I love the forsaken, they have just always been in an odd place lore/story wise.
