Okay, I’m not trying to be rude, or dismissive, or anything. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, mine is just mine.
But what actually is the appeal of Zul’jin? Because, honestly, his feats aren’t that impressive, by Warcraft standards. I really don’t consider him a legendary hero, he just hasn’t done enough for me to consider him that good.
He’s less of a Kael’thas tragic character, and more of a Lei Shen one. Most of the things I see people reference him doing was established around the time he died, not from WCII. In WCII he appeared in one mission and wasn’t mentioned again outside the manual.
It surprises me he has as many fans as he does for doing so little in Lore before the patch were we raided him came out.
That’s just a reference.
Mostly cause, the Darkspear hate the Amani, and did so even when Zul’jin was leading them.
Long story short, the trolls of WCIII were originally going to be Amani, so the ‘Zul’jin’ stuff made sense. They were going to be his trolls originally. But it changed midway during development, and the lines referencing Zul’jin got left in. The troll /charge is likely just a reference to that. Considering we never see the Darkspear mention Zul’jin out of that, I doubt it’s a reference to him.
Any amount of time spent seeking the extinction of another person seems like plenty. Also the amani are not super good guys themselves. They captured and tortured plenty of elves.
I there’s a quest in Eversong where a Jungle troll (I think he’s Darkspear, but I’m not confident in that) solicits your help in escaping Amani captivity, and his logic is “hey, we hate the Amani just as much as you do.” That and the Gurubashi and Amani Empires never liked each other supposedly.
If they break up the factions and let us group freely then it will work just fine. It would even play into that story really well. But that’s pure speculation at this point.
The Darkspear hating Zul’jin wasn’t a thing until BC decided to make Zul’jin an enemy of the Horde.
Before that all we had was the /charge and the Darkspear dialogue from WC3, which without any further context leaves us to assume the Darkspear held Zul’jin in high esteem. As well as dialogue from a Hakkari priest who counted Zul’jin as a troll hero in the same breath as Vol’jin.
We were also allied to a forest troll tribe back then, and their NPCs spoke as if Zul’jin would one day return as a part of the Horde.
A lot about Zul’jin didn’t really exist until TBC.
Before TBC, Zul’jin appeared in WCII for a mission, and that was it. We had a brief paragraph in the RPG books that he was missing, his description in the manual, and scattered mentions of him throughout Vanilla WoW. He was also apparently a Revantusk tribesman but that appears to have been retconned?
He didn’t get actual characterization until TBC, until the Tides of Darkness novel (which was released during TBC), until the Gods of the Amani and the patch we killed him.
That’s what I mean when I say he wasn’t really that much of a character. He had a few lines about who he was, but most of what we know about Zul’jin now was decided/created during the expansion we killed him, and after.
That’s why I compared him to Lei Shen rather than Kael. I don’t see Zul’jin as a character that was built up and ruined, but rather a character with a bunch of cool characterization built up in the same expansion we ended him.
Of course he did. He dismissed all non-troll heroes as being inferior. I’m not saying he wasn’t a troll hero, I just don’t think he was all that interesting before the patch that we killed him in, and his feats didn’t make him legendary hero.
We still are. Actually I think the Revantusk tribe joined the Horde in Cataclysm.
There was probably plans there but scrapped in favour of Blood elves joining the Horde which I think has greater story potential.
Random note;
You think Zul’jin had plans to rejoin, or at least ally with, the Horde? He seemed really offended when the blood elves joined the Horde. Like, part of the trailer was devoted to how much he hated it.
I don’t remember which came out first but I am pretty sure I read Tides of Darkness before Zul’Aman came out. I could be wrong though, it was a long time ago.
But I did love Zul’jin’s characterization in that novel. Orgrim’s first meeting with the forest trolls is one of my favorite parts of the book, and was a big part of why I rolled my first troll character back in BC.
Here’s the thing. None of the troll heroes were much of a character. We had nobody. At all. Vol’jin was a footnote in Vanilla, Rokhan was a generic quest giver who I am pretty sure wasn’t in the game until Wrath, and Sen’jin was dead. Troll fans were entirely void of characters we could really get behind or talk about. Zul’jin was similar to Rastakhan in that they were mostly hyped in the background which built anticipation for them. It is all the troll fanbase had.
In a world where the blood elves didn’t join the Horde? It would make sense. I’d imagine him to be very suspicious of us given how Orgrim did him dirty in the Second War, but we’d be his best chance at getting his homeland back and he wouldn’t have many options.