Of course there is, unlike baine cairne was the embodiment of a gentle giant with tinges of noble savage he could really frick you up if you did the wrong thing, such intimidation is lost on baine for some reason the writers cant help make baine look weak and inneffective.
There is that time garrosh was setup on a false flag operation by some orcs, he was hanging out in orgrimmar getting his warchief tattoo and cairne came in demanding to see him, obviously that couldnt be since he was the warchief and a korkron tried to stop him but he didnt gaf since he was older than the horde, he accused garrosh of being a pussy attacking the aliance and breaking the peace trety while he answered if he ever attacked the alliance he would be upfront and would tell everyone without using such sneaky methods for the honor of the horde and that was the wrong thing to say, papa cairne pulled out his bloodhoof pimpspear, walked up to garrosh and beachslapped the heck out of him just as he finished getting his warchief tattoo for double damage then challenged him to mak’gora so he could stop being a pussy, as he was full of bravado garrosh said he wanted the traditional one where both contenders fought to the death while cairne just laughed cuz yea he was bigger and stronger than garrosh so he knew he was going to town, he humiliated him further by knowing even more than him about orcish traditions (caught garrosh wrongfooted about which equipment they were going to use and witnesses etc…), its a shame he got poisoned then killed aaaand thats how we got baine.
edit: Man it sucks the writers dont know how to make baine a good character without making him look so… mellow and weak, how many more times we need to rescue him? its a stark contrast with cairne and only makes us lament the loss of the latter.
This is one of the failings of the narrative, the powercreep of magic leaves normal warriors eating dust, i mean they could just give them a cool weapon or something to even the scales, or outstanding phisical abilities but nope.
I don’t see good things in his future. He was better written when Blizzard thought he’d be a villain.
In BfA he was this vaguely threatening trickster god that, by the end of questing, had wheeled-and-dealed his way into the Horde’s good graces and gotten Rastakhan to all but sign over his kingdom to the worship of Bwonsamdi. A somewhat sinister conclusion to the Zandalar story that makes sense in the context of him being initially conceived as a villain.
But then in SL he’s not a villain, he’s an ally, and suddenly his ‘pact’ with Talanji is meaningless and he’s instead acting like the court jester of Ardenweald, capering around the Heart of the Forest and sucking up to the WQ.
I think he is suffering from the same writing issues as all the other protagonist characters. They get mellowed out into these boring duds and lose what people initially enjoyed.
Honestly the main narrative has become a ridiculous soap opera that sign waves in quality between Kirkland brand Game of Thrones to a children’s Christmas play at the head injury ward.
Thankfully though the meat of the story in the game is usually pretty alright. Even in BFA I loved the adventure storylines in Zuldazar and Kul Tiras. I also thought the N’Zoth stuff was pretty good and could’ve been great if it had more time to breathe, instead of being rushed out to end that sinking ship of an expansion.
It was the war campaign I found pretty dull. Most of it’s about finding a mcguffin that the Alliance later steal. But I don’t really think it ever comes up too much either way. Pretty sure it’s biggest use was the Alliance making fog in Nazmir to obscure troop movement. Then the story limps along after the Battle of Dazar’Alor to end in a cutscene outside Orgrimmar, where Sylvanas turns into an evil fart cloud and zooms off yelling “SEQUEL HOOK!”.
Sort of the same case in SL. I love all the Covenants. I think their domains are all gorgeously designed and are, IMHO, the most creative and different feeling since Burning Crusade. They’re full of fun characters, perilous adventures and intrigue that we’re all slowly unraveling.
Then you have to go to some gray corridors and knock over some suits of armor to go find Baine or Jania. Who then just sit staring into space in Oribos so God knows what was so pressing about rescuing them. Then we get a lame cutscene where Anduin plays therapist to an increasingly outlandish Sylvanas. Who’s so inconsistently characterized in expansion to expansion if they say there’s secretly three Sylvanases (Sylvani?) it’d make more sense.
Frankly if it were in my power I’d kill off all of the major characters. Or at least have them phantom zoned somewhere for an expansion or two. Force the writers to beef up existing minor characters or invent new ones. Because I’m really tired of watching this writer’s pet soap opera.
TBH The Main Storyline of wow doesn’t need to be Good in the sense it will be the main draw, it just needs to be Adequate enough to keep players attention while they get to go and explore the setting they set up, since setting is almost always what Blizzard does best now.
And the set ups great. You go to Oribos, get the low down on what great turmoil plaguing the land we’ll have to sort out this time, then get a walking tour of the Covenants and learn what their shtick are. You pick your favorite and are off on one of four unique adventures with colorful casts of characters and even a special fun minigame.
But then at least once a week you have to leave these fascinating locals to go trudge around the Maw, fishing out souls. And it feels like a chore.
One of the biggest breaks between mechanics and storytelling I feel is your soul vaccum cleaner you’ve to fill every week for more renown. I find it amusing it refers to having to scoop up more of the bastards as an upgrade. It’s not, it’s just more busy work.
We’re rescuing souls unfairly tossed into perdition where they will be tortured into weapons. That should feel heroic. But instead I find it funny the Jailor gets more annoyed at me the longer I’m there. Buddy I don’t want to be here either, stop trying to slow me down and we can go our separate ways until you’re a raid boss.
Sidenote that this moment only occurs because he orders his air support away to go attack Alliance vessels. Garrosh, from the moment he got that peanut-headed model in Cata, was frothing at the mouth to destroy the whole Alliance.
Seriously. As I keep saying I didn’t play for 7 years after Wrath. But between Garrosh’s portrayal in that expansion, and Sylvanas’s in Edge of Night, I’m very confused why people thought they’d turn out differently.
Well outside Blizzard outright lying. But at this point I think we should all understand you can trust video game companies about as far as you can throw them. And as they’re an abstract concept that is to say not at all.
“you’re gonna serve Horde or be crushed beneth it”
Or that he sent wanted poster after your head before you proved yourself innocent.
I get why people would like Garrosh, but he was giving anything but a feel of security to me. He was insecure as hell, his hatreds and bigotry were absolutely bizarre, and lacked any background- because he was never harmed by those he despised so much. For his entire life, he was sulking in Garadar. Heck, we even had Dranosh Saurfang to compare, he didn’t exhibit hatereds as Garrosh did, and they were literally growing on the exact same yard and were in exact same age and had exact same experiences.
Add to that a sheer incompetence that he had to be lectured about tactical basics. And that he was wasting lives left and right.
Realy like Orcish orcs, I loved Nazgrim and Ga’naar. But Garrosh since his beginning was representing lots of traits I personally cannot stand.
So I was greatly relieved that he stopped being Warchief.
That potential would exist if he actually showed some growth and treated seriously other Horde members. But he only cared for the Orcs and expected for people to bootlick him.
That may very well be the Apex for why I do like Garrosh. Insecure and incompetent are realistic flaws for a character to have, flaws that make a character have depth. I had a lot I wanted to say about things like like about Garrosh, but I chose the one that made me laugh. His style of leadership was tantamount to a child, true, but it was fun to watch him take initiative in those moments. His calling Sylvanas a B**** and throwing Krom’gar off a ledge are great moments for me.