[REDACTED] Returns! (SPOILERS)

Ah, all right. I see where you’re coming from. That wasn’t the intent, no.

I’m merely saying that while our current Warchief is Terrible, Thrall is still Bad. You can like Bad things. I like plenty of Bad things. But Thrall is still Bad.

Because an actual part of the Elemental Bonds questline was Aggra figuring out that Thrall wanted to settle down and have kids? And female leads doing the emotional heavy lifting so the male leads can remain stoic is kind of a tired trope?

Fair, god knows I’ve written things people misinterpreted in a really bad way :cold_sweat:

I guess where we diverge is that I’ve never seen Thrall as very stoic? He’s not as expressive as, let’s say Chen Stormstout, but I just saw it as something he was struggling with talking about with her. I have things I struggle to talk to people about, and I’m probably as far from stoic as a human being can be. Idk that whole questline gets a lot of crap, but to me it (for lack of a better term) humanized him a bit. That was just my take at the time.

3 Likes

That’s a reasonable take and my take does not diminish yours.

But, to me, it read like coercing the players (particularly the Alliance players) into the first of many instances of helping their enemy. Except instead of helping the enemy to, say, destroy a greater enemy, it was helping the enemy to figure out his fee-fees.

I also don’t really count that as humanizing, since it was basically Aggra sorting out his feelings for him (which, as I’ve said, is a fairly worn-out trope at this point) and then him coming back and saying “yeah, that.”

Also, there was a big to-do about him wanting to make peace with his enemies during that questline, but he…didn’t really do that, either.

I guess what I’m trying to convey is that I see your point, but it didn’t quite reach the level of humanization that I would have liked to see and I found the lack of follow-through kind of frustrating.

1 Like

I think Quinn’s summed up my argument more than well enough.

In the end, it all comes down to the fact that Thrall’s a good character, in my opinion. My opinion isn’t gospel, in fact my opinions are often disagreed with here. But it’s my opinion that Thrall’s a good character, he’s no longer “green Jesus”, and he was the coolest Warchief the Horde ever had. I’d like that back again.

3 Likes

Not gonna lie, seeing Thrall back again gives me mixed feelings.

As much as I laughed at the Thrall ‘killstealer’ memes, it did make sense for the big, powerful NPC to do that. Our entire campaign in that part of the game was literally positioning Thrall just so, all so he could Fire His Lazar at Deathwing and it still didn’t entirely work.

My salt primarily comes from his refusal to accept his role in the corrosion of the Horde under Garrosh, but on the other hand it adds some much-needed emotional, well, landscape to Thrall. He’s proud of his people, he’s confident in their ability to carve out a place in the world without him, and he honestly believes his course of action was correct.

And he’s both right and wrong on all counts.

He’s not perfect. He’s mortal, fallible, trusting of the wrong kinds of people due to his belief that everyone can change for the better.

Having Thrall show back up after Legion, that he’d spent all that time trying to help from the sidelines, knowing that the last time he tried to save the world it ended very, very, very badly for everyone on the planet, he tried to be the supporter and not the hero.

And then he stepped down and sought to live a quiet, humble life with his family and just stay away from the politics and wars and everything he’d been involved with before.

And then Sylvanas started a arms-race for Azurite, which is literally killing the planet faster than anything that has come before it, and now she’s actively trying to murder the few pro-peace leaders left within the Horde.

Yeah, he needs to step up and get back in the game, if only to knock Sylvanas and her supporters off their perch and preferably into the Shadowlands to stop Azeroth being killed. I doubt he’s coming back for the Horde, I really doubt it after all that has happened and all both he and we, the characters, have experienced and may come to feel for each other, but it is nice to see Go’el/Thrall step back into the fight one last time.

5 Likes

I think that’s what redeemed the Green Jesus thing in my eyes, even if he hasn’t accepted responsibility.

Thrall’s one of the best written characters in the game with very obvious flaws, who’s made some very stupid decisions… but is ultimately a really well-meaning guy.

4 Likes

Thrall’s better than what we’re currently dealing with, but I’m not super enthused. So long as he stays on that side of the faction fence and doesn’t try to drag me to another wedding I’m cool.

6 Likes

Are you implying Baine is the other woman?

1 Like

Well. He has more chemistry with Baine than he does with his wife, so why not.

7 Likes

Zing! :point_right:t2::sunglasses::point_right:t2:

Damn, that’s like, actually a REALLY good way of seeing things and I love that perspective.
cheer

2 Likes

I’ll forgive Thrall if he shows up and says: “how the heck did you guys fall for this stuff again?

1 Like

“Look, the Horde got ruined, and it wasn’t even your fault this time!”

1 Like

“Hey, hey guys. Remember that time we had to rebel because our leader was tyrannical, cruel, and outright genocidal?”

“Yeeeeah…?”

“Do you see any similarities to now?”

“Um…?”

“I’ll give you a hint. What starts with T. And was destroyed. To start a war?”

“Theramore!”

“… Anything else?”

“Nope. I got nothing.”

Thrall bashes his head against the walls of Orgrimmar. “Ugh, why am I helping these people?”

8 Likes

(Repost because I accidentally hit delete instead of edit and I’m an idiot.)

“I leave for FIVE MINUTES , GUYS!”

During the whole rebellion he keeps mumbling “I just wanted to retire on my farm with my family and live a nice quiet life…THEN THIS SH[T-rating]T HAPPENS!”

3 Likes

“Why do you guys only ever invite me over when we have to overthrow a tyrannical Warchief foolishly installed by a maniac?”

3 Likes

wouldn’t it be funny if thrall got a new model just to appear in a historical scenario for orcish heritage armor and he actually does nothing in the current plot

1 Like

I must admit, I would die laughing.

That said, if the racial Orc armor is another variation of the Grunt armor, I will be annoyed.

1 Like

They tanked the plot to soften us to Thrall’s return :thinking:

2 Likes

I am just dying to know what people were deleting now …

2 Likes