Orc Females especially are unpalatable. They are always either SUPER masculine aggro, or super romanticized mothers. With a very small fraction of them ending up on some small spectrum in the middle. The Horde already has two absurdly underdeveloped representatives in both camp with Geya’rah and Aggra … Draka was a total waste of that role.
I expect some sort of Thrall-esk storyline revolving around her at some point, but even that’s iffy. Considering that her presence in tandem with Garrosh’s risks a return of quite literally the worst iteration of Thrall ever to exist. Mopey, dead parent stalker Thrall. Which … god was that a horrific experience in WoD. Worse and far more awkward than Green Jesus easily.
The only way I will come to respect this iteration of Draka is if she tough loves the absolute crap out of her perpetual midlife crisis son.
I mean if you want to argue semantics, sure. Forsaken also have used the Scourge aesthetic at times, it’s not like that’s completely out there.
Night Fae is my covenant, thank you. (Profile isn’t updated because of server and name change). It still does not look like a Night Elf zone no matter how much you want it to be. Night Elves have never had a scottish fae forest aesthetic.
Maldraxxus is scourge, not forsaken really. It is directly called the origin point of Scourge design. TBH the Forsaken really have no architecture, because it was all thematically designed by Sylvanas… and… yea…
…I will evade my soapbox on the dangers of making a race orbit around one NPC here.
I believe that might be because they tend to be written by men. It can be cringe worthy for sure.
I’m not arguing semantics. You specifically said architecture, which is very different from abominations. And the Maldraxxus architecture is as close to Forsaken architecture as Gilnean and Maldraxxus architecture.
Gilean and Forsaken? Yup, close.
Forsaken and Maldraxxus? Not even remotely.
Abominations and buildings? Stitches does not resemble a building, ma’am!
Mine too, so you’re welcome. (I assumed you were 60 already. The updates have been slow lately, took my profile two days to update).
I’ve seen many pictures of Scotland, but I guess I missed the ones of the blue and purple trees.
Y’know, I had thought for a moment with that Afterlives cinematic that we might actually have a chance to break the mold. With a female Orc that did balance subtlety and intelligence, with Orcish warrior themes. They could have so easily made her into this awesome, professional, calm military mind that prioritized and took pride in duty above all else.
But … that went out the window when Maldraxxus was made some bizarre free-for-all bloodbath world, and the House of the Chosen was exclusively ZugZug Warriors being braindead morons in a world that does not support “Honor”. Man … how much cooler would the Maldraxxus story have been if we were working for the House of Eyes with Draka instead?
I wanted General of Maldraxxus Draka … what I got was “Orc Smash” Draka.
Creative liberty has been taken as in every single fiction piece that was inspired by real world myths. It’s kind of expected, no? The Fae names and the fae vibe is very Celtic-inspired.
In a lot of ways the Ardenweald architecture reminded me far more of the Botani than the Kaldorei. They had a very similar all tree and plant concept, unlike Kaldorei arcitecture which uses both metal and stone elements.
Funny thing; I’ve never mentioned the night fae, or any NPCs. I’d be 100% team “night fae are not night elves just because they have night in the name and they behave very different”.
My arguments have been color palette and abominations. I mean architecture.
No one’s denying the celtic inspiration, but not seeing really how you evade the point that:
fae and fairies have previously been associated with night elves specifically (sprite darters, faerie dragons, spriggans, and dryads all are heavily associated with them)
the aesthetic (towering old growth deciduous non-tropical forest shoved through a cool color filter)
eternal night
have night elf parallels where they don’t really parallel anyone else, not even other elves
I don’t even think there’s Forsaken architecture. Forsaken architecture is incredibly distinct, and distinctly different than Scourge architecture. There’s no arguing that Maldraxxus is Scourge-City in theme, but there’s a hill to climb (and die on) if people want to say Maldraxxus is Forsaken.
But I see what you’re seeing. I should have been more specific.
“I haven’t been mentioning the similarities between Ardenweald’s native NPCs and the night elves.”
Nice dodge of the very non-jungle forests I mentioned which do not share the color palette.
Since we’re diminishing arguments down to make them rather silly, feels like your argument boils down to: “it can’t have a night elf feel if I don’t want it to, so plz stop saying it does because Scotland and Celt!!”
I could see why people would say Mald has forsaken vibes. Not architecture, clearly, but vibes. Undead everywhere, plague elements, necromancy… I could see getting forsaken vibes from that. Not that it’s a forsaken zone, but getting a forsaken-y feel.
I find it hilarious that the same people that say Ardenweald feels like a Night Elf zone also say Maldraxxus is totally not Forsaken and a-ok because there are so many parallels to draw between the zones and Night Elves / Forsaken.
As in both have a familiar feel mostly to players who don’t have a particular interest in said race. Maybe non-nelf players find Ardenweald Nelfy, just as non-Forsaken players find Maldraxxus Forsaken/Scourge adjacent.