Exactly. I really REALLY wish the Horde could have someone on par. Both sides need someone that solid, grounded in plausible emotions, and not extreme. Genn is a vengeful grieving father (understandable!) but he isn’t going on murderous rampages overall.
He challenges Anduin (rightly) but isn’t trying to backstab him. He loyally supprots those who have been loyal to him (Tyrande+ Kal’dorei_ and advocates for their support.
What I would LOVE to see is perhaps a troll leader in the same vein. Nuanced but a strong figure with passionate but intelligent advocacy for his people and allies. Vol’jin felt like he was going that way for a while… but… yeeeaaaah.
At this point I’d be happy if I just had a horde character I could tolerate looking at but I’m not holding my breath. Seems pointless to hope for one that could have some kind of justifiable grievance at this point.
But I mean, the trolls have ALL the justification. Sadly, the way the story has been written, they are the only Horde people with a solid and really clear reason to be pissed off. And their past leader showed wisdom and calm. but Blizzard still falls into colonial and problematic mindsets in their representation of trolls, particularly Darkspear. So I don’t hold out a lot of hope, unfortunately.
But I can dream, right? I mean, they use an Afro-Brazilian inspired dance… they could draw from that history of resistance and rebellion in the face of exploitation.
They’d have to probably read some history though, heh.
What reason do the trolls have to be pissed off exactly? Other then Rastakhan’s death I can’t think of anything specific that was done to them and that wasn’t even the Darkspears.
Great question!
Well, the trolls are sort of the perennial raid punching bags, let’s be honest. I mean, whether it’s forest trolls being raided, or jungle trolls being raided, or northern frost trolls having to kill their own gods to protect themselves and THEN they get raided, trolls have really had a rough go of it in WoW.
They’re never really given to us as anything but a kill on sight target as a rule, but when you look closely at it, trolls’ history involves other people taking their land and stuff over and over again, and then they get painted as irredeemable monsters who should just really be exterminated for everyone’s good.
That doesn’t explain why the Darkspears would be pissed. They were even driven from their land by other trolls originally, so if anything they should be pissed at the Gurubashi. Also keep in mind that most troll tribes have always been portrayed as hyper aggressive to the point that they make the Old Horde look tame. You can maybe argue that they’re like that in response to outside stimuli, but there’s no proof of that and the natural temperament of their culture makes me think they were always like that.
Which I think goes back to the problematic way trolls have always been represented in the game, as I mentioned earlier.
In terms of Darkspear, they’re certainly had more than a few run-ins with Alliance and being pushed to the brink by a lot of people. I could see a leader there be a sane but stern voice mirroring Genn’s.
Genn is probably my favourite Alliance leader at the moment. I think by not being in the spotlight very often and instead being a perennial side character, he has avoided the puppeteering narrative hand of Blizzard and stayed consistent to his theme.
Also reminds me of Godfrey, who was allowed to be one of the better side villains, I imagine because he wasn’t intended to be a ‘big bad’ and thus wasn’t so constrained by the overarching narrative.
Why are so many of you calling Genn ``loyal’’? If Genn was loyal then my character might still be alive. He abandoned the Alliance in its most desperate hour. I want to see him apologize to the Forsaken for what his inaction did to Lordaeron.
Lordaeron, Quel’thalas and Dalaran were all utterly destroyed by the Scourge. It’s absurd to think that Genn marching his armies into the meat grinder would’ve made a difference.
You know, actually I really like Genn, he is a great wow character, you can understand him and his flaws
He is a great antagonist to the horde too, he can be respected for being passionate at the same time he can be antagonized for his agressions, lack of control and bigotry
We need more characters like him, like lorthemar, varian, tyrande, vol’jin and muradin(I could say the same for cata garrosh and legion sylvanas)
I wish Genn would actually suffer the consequences of his actions, but that is not on him, but the writers
I was with you until this bit.
I mean, Genn has without any question faced consequences. He lost his homeland, his son, and a LOT of his people because of his past hubris. He’s had one of the worst things happen in the game setting - he’s a father who has buried his own son. He and Saurfang both went through that and we saw - in beautifully animated cinematic detail - how badly it broke Saurfang to have to mourn his beloved son.
Definitely not a ‘never faces consequences’ character.
And to the other - I don’t want more Tyrande’s. I loved Tyrande in WC3, don’t get me wrong. But she’s been butchered by successive writers who couldn’t decide if she was a homemaker who just wanted to be a sweet priestess woman, or a vengeful killer, or something in between. The various named night elves have been almost TOO popular, and therefore their portrayals have differed so much between expacs that they’re pretty ludicrous.
The Worgen are in an odd position. Because they’re sometimes framed as the arch rivals of the Forsaken or at least Slyvanas and - yeah that doesn’t come across at all in the Forsaken story.
They’re a tough fight in Silverpine and probably get their best presentation as this more ruthless and brutal new side to the Alliance.
Then you really don’t interact till then until Stormheim. Where Genn and the Gilneans come off like a bunch of fighty pricks who attack you because of confusion about the events of the ill fated Broken Shore invasion.
That’s about it. The humans are decidedly seen as more of the Forsaken’s nemesis. The worgen are just kind of there, encountered only slightly more often than the Draenei.
Really I think the Worgen, paired with Nelves and Draenei, make a better foil for the Kalimdor Horde. They sort of invert the Orc’s wolf aesthetic, are English so they can bring that snobbish imperialist disdain toward the ‘backward savages’, and you could get some beast wars fun between them and the Tauren. Plus they’d be a good devil on the Kaldorei’s shoulder to the more peacewalking Draenei’s angel.
And while I do love the Halloween War aesthetic of a Forsaken VS Worgen fight - it only looks great in haunted forests. And only between them. Throw in Orcs and Humans and it looks like the scary things should be on the same side.
Side note; I’d play the ish out of an Otherworlds WoW where there’s a Forsaken, Worgen and more San’Layn styled Sin’Dorei faction. That’s the forces of Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Dracula together. They sure did menace Abbott & Castello so I’m sure they could give the Horde and Alliance the what for.
They’re definitely bad things to have happened to him, but they didn’t really come off as consequences for anything, as far as I saw. Yeah he walled most of his kingdom off, but that’s not really -why- he lost his land. It just prolonged it until Garrosh wanted a harbor and Arugal lost his marbles. It didn’t really seem like anything he brought on himself, but just outside stuff unjustly being pushed on him.
So the real question becomes who, if anyone, would you think could make a viable Genn-like Horde character?
I’d say Rommath IF his story got fleshed out. (has it ever been?) I mean, you could make people care if you had quests about how he faced the Wretched thing, whether he watched family members go Wretched, how he dealt with the fel magic, the sweet dark taste within his soul, and the purifying Light… and now perhaps questions about whether they sold themselves again. I mean, did some belfs get lightforged in effect?
I’d really like Blizzard to do more with the belfs. They have SO much good potential for nuance, tragedy, pain, loss, resilience, shame, self loathing, determination, faith and more.