Orwenya is the lastest among many, but she exemplifies a long running trend of Blizzard being totally unable to make a single night elf/druid-esque character remotely interesting. They all spout the exact same platitude-style lines, are hyper focused on the plot with no real hint of personality or character growth, and often have subpar- voice direction. It’s incredible to see characters Blizzard really has down, as simple as they are, ie the goblins, and then Orwenya like a complete void spouting the plot at you. Malfurion (in-game, though he at least has a great VA and had more agency in Cata), Ysera (an absolute nothing character), Tyrande (extremely varied but her SL and DF performances are just dismal), all the other 2-3 line druid characters like Runetotem (more nothing than nothing could be), are just complete wastes of potential. What is going at Blizzard when it comes to writing this style of character?
I think a lot of writers just don’t like writing about druids. They constantly try to avoid this class. There are no major druids character in Woltk or Shadowlands. Weak writing in Val’sharah. They gave away the emerald dream patch to the Aspects. So why do druid themes appear so often in the game? Probably because of the popularity of the class, not the willingness of writers to write them.
The problem is it’s hard to write a completely coherent story around MMO constraints, especially with staff coming in and out and the series not having one main lead with a consistent vision.
Well Orweyna is pretty hot, and cinematics show off her chest. I think that’s all Blizz really cares about.
It’s always going to happen with characters that are obsessed with duty/serving some greater power. They don’t have personalities because they never get to explore their own personal desires and have no actual agency since they’re always working on someone else’s behalf.
In Orwenya’s case it’s her goddess.
Going by the ending of the Undermine story it seems we will follow the Ethereals into the Rootlands where the other Haranir are.
The savage and uncaring aspects of nature certainly never get addressed. Closest I’ve seen is the Botani. Even the Unseelie Court of this world is basically just more hippies, but twilight colored!
Druids is cooked.
I think you dont understand the character of Orwenya, just by reading your post i really feel like you did not play or either you did not pay attention to the character and its plot.
Orwenya is a character that we saw must fight her tradition to save the world, and i dont really see why you feel like the character is not having its personnality while it does have its inner fighting between saving the world and being rejected by her people.
You’d think an entirely NPC faction would be allowed to embrace the “red in tooth and claw” aspect, but eh
Unfathomably boring and told in a way that isn’t interesting or engaging. This claim that people don’t read that plot and that’s why they don’t like a character or storyline is really lazy.
Orweyna isn’t seen after going to fetch Alleria.
Orweyna also has Green Eyes…
If the Harranir Goddess is inside Beledar and Beledar is a fragment of K’aresh and also the source of the Ethereals sent to fetch the Dark Heart then the Harranir are going to be the next Villain Faction alongside the Ethereals.
“The vassal of Life disguises treachery. Beware the eyes of green.” - Il’gynoth(Ny’alotha)
Il’gynoth was right about the Circle of Stars and the Diamond King being made a pawn so this will likely be right as well.
The Ethereal Enemies and their Harranir lackeys are going to be interesting Villains to say the least.
Especially when it turns out that they should have listened to Orweyna when they had the chance as Beledar will fall from it’s perch after the Goblins are done on Siren Isle which means the Black Blood will be pumping through Elun’Ahir’s Roots and spill right onto Beledar when it’s in the Day Phase causing it to hemorrhage Azerite(which Beledar’s Crystals are described as being similar to).
All eyes being opened is simply Mortals realizing that the Denizens of K’aresh the Cosmic Realm of Light duped Magni for their own ends.
Furthermore the eyes of Mortals will be opened regarding Arcane: Just because Order most commonly manifests as Arcane does not mean the most common Arcane Energies are Order: They are Shadow(as confirmed by Voidwalker Pets saying the Shadows reach out to Suramar).
Light and Purple Arcane are exposed for what they truly are all because no one amongst them listened to their Life Magic-using lackey who says the Black Blood is a problem.
End result: A chunk of K’aresh imbedded in Azeroth’s Crust is conquered by the peoples of Azeroth and the Life Magic-using Expert on the dangers of Black Blood winds up dead at our hands alongside those who ignored her because no one listened to her.
Bonus points as the Black Forest created by the Black Blood that Orweyna warned her people about will be our base of operations when they turn on us.
It seems to be common for WoW Villains to lack competence.
Azeroth is her goddess. That was already confirmed.
Thats totally your opinion thought, yet you try to sell it as a thing Blizzard do often.
I find her story engaging and i think she was being good during it and the character itself is interesting because it shows you that blind wrath agaisnt the people who use technology to exploit ressouces could cause more damage to the Earth.
Orweyna is a good character.
ESO and FFXIV would beg to differ.
The ‘MMO’ cope is a disproven thing you can tell a perfectly fine story in the confines of a MMO…
You just have to actually take the time to do it.
Blizzard is too lazy yes.
We had little glimpses of this in Terror of Darkshore. I still think the scene of Malfurion burying orc alive is the most metal death on screen we ever see in wow, next to Illidan burning Gul’dan.
FFXIV has had consistent leadership from the start (or at least the start of ARR), doesn’t have dual factions, and as far as I’ve heard as a non-player, the new expansion isn’t exactly beloved.
As for ESO, I’ve played maybe 30 minutes of it so idk.