Wasting Rastakhan

Lore Story Forum
1

It really does stink that Rastakhan died. I imagine that just like me, plenty of horde players immediately latched on to him in BFA, such a breath of fresh air as a character. He was introduced as fundamentally flawed in that he was just too prideful and set in his ways, but man was he charismatic.

I can’t remember the last time blizzard made a character that fit that bill and was an ally. And I can’t help but feel how they killed him off before he had any meaningful interaction with the horde as a whole. Him just sassing his way through the war campaign as Sylvanas just goes further down the hole would have really made the whole ordeal more tolerable. Not to mention we never actually got any dialogue about how he and zul were actively antagonizing us for years, I would have loved to see him laugh it off.

Now, obviously he was targeted to die because, as the heart of the Zandalari, his death would push the recently beat down trolls into the horde. But I can’t help but feel that the same thing could have been done with a loa, or potentially multiple. Rezan dying to the alliance in a raid would have been infinitely more interesting than him walking towards zul just to fall over. Rastakhan’s anger takes over and he agrees to work with the horde as temporary allies to get revenge, potentially after sylvanas dips he considers it a more permanent alliance.

But he did die, and in his place we got Talanji, one of the safest characters I’ve ever seen. She’s a copy of her father but without all of the weaknesses and strengths. A notable point people have brought up is that Rasta would never have joined with the horde with sylvanas as warchief, but I would think that would have held true with Talanji as well.

It all just stinks, wish we could have him as an outside (and loud) voice for the new horde council. As well as him being actively hostile towards the alliance for sacking his city, a surprisingly lacking trait among the horde these days.

Side note: Zul was wasted too, those two had a beautiful bromance going, and if they had to make him a villain, he could at least lived the entire expansion, BMing and stroking his chin all the way to his death. But instead he died early, somehow completely soulless in uldir.

67 Likes
2

Faction War sucked literally all the good from BfA. Rastakhan died so the alliance could get a win against the horde (Which failed because he was both in the middle of the process of joining, and more importantly, did basically nothing to the alliance) It’s worse because Dazar’alor the city was also ruined for the exact same raid.

Zandalar in general is my vote for most wasted potential in BfA, and is a goo second place for most wasted potential in wow period, next to warlords. So many good characters or plot threads just wasted because of the raid tax.

51 Likes
3

For whatever reason, be it thematic, political, or otherwise, I think Blizzard wanted to focus on female characters for this expansion. You can see this everywhere: the three Warbringers, Jaina, Azshara, and Sylvanas; Katherine Proudmoore and Priscilla Ashvane; Taelia Fordragon; Lucille Waycrest; a titan construct named MOTHER helping to heal Azeroth’s wounded (female) world soul. I think that’s the real reason Rastakhan died: so that he could be replaced by a female character and reinforce that theme.

26 Likes
4

Don’t open this box.

17 Likes
5

Flushing the singlemost important troll in the entirety of the troll story for the sake of shock value is such an eyeroller.

17 Likes
6

We knew Zul was gone from the get go and I still couldn’t help but like him.

22 Likes
7

I think we’re missing a very important factor. The Zandalari are an allied race. There’s likely no intention of them being a major part of the plot and any Zandalari character will likely be presented in such a way that they play second banana to an existing Horde leader. Much like how Thalyssra is finding plenty of screen time, but only by sharing it with Lor’themar.

Rastakhan was always too cool, and too powerful, to serve as the leader of an Allied race.

10 Likes
8

To me, the most amazing part about Talanji replacing Rastakhan is that she’s pretty much immediately sidelined after taking the throne. No vengance arc. No further dealings with Bwomsandi. Nothing. All the buildup to replace king R with her, only for us to immediately go off and do Naga and Old God stuff and seemingly never return to Zandalar again.

51 Likes
9

Rastakhan was inviting a war into his home when he allowed the Horde, fresh off burning down Teldrassil, to stay on his island. Which they used to launch strikes on Kul Tiras and other regions of Azeroth (according to the Horde mission table). Strikes that the Zandalari themselves provided some aid for as well.

3 Likes
10

That’s actually pretty fair. Rasta could absolutely outshine most of the main leaders right now, which is likely a no-no for allied races. But the zandalari are actually unique in that as well, unlike the other horde allied races, the zandalari are in an equal alliance with the horde. Even Talanji wouldn’t serve UNDER Sylvanas, it had to be an equal relationship for them to join.

Obviously that doesn’t have any effects on game mechanics for allied races, but it’s a story point that could be used in the future. Such as Talanji disagreeing with the horde council about how to act etc.

8 Likes
11

Seriously. She was on the box art for a brief stint at least in an intense staring contest with Jania. No word on who won the other staring contest between that human and orc. Because BFA was so over the damn place not even the box art could be consistent.

I was kinda looking forward to seeing Talanji’s wrath. The Zandalari are depicted as having a truly awesome looking fantasy army- I wish there was an WC4 just to add them in. They have awesome gold plated vodoo dino rider stuff. I was kinda hoping I’d get to rampage through something on one of their T-rex tanks. Why even introduce a T-Rex Tank if you’re not going to let me ride one into battle? That’s just cruel. Instead though, well Nazjatar and now this N’Zoth problem.

How weird. Seriously spend all this time with the faction war story only to have it vanish like the second the much hyped powers of Zandalar and Kul Tiras officially step into the ring.

29 Likes
12

I’m arguing from a writing standpoint, it wasn’t satisfactory retaliation for teldrassil alliance side because they lacked emotional attachment to Rastakhan. Hordeside it was just a waste of a character,plain and simple. People who argue that “It’s not bad writing because it makes sense” fail to realise that writing isn’t just about what makes the most sense, but telling a story that people can be invested in and causes them to feel certain emotions.

23 Likes
13

Blizzard wanted to use him as fuel for talanji, of course.

Now i wonder if the opposite passed and talanji died instead as fuel to rasthakan story.
Would that be better or worse? Because it would mean that they created her just so she can die at the hands at the alliance and make the zandalari join the horde.

Basically a character created just to be throw into the thrash all in the hopes of “FActiON ConFlicT”
someone was going to die so the zandalari can join the horde.

please don’t.

14

But they didn’t, I honestly think Talanji was created because they wanted to kill Rastakhan.

We already know they were planning to raid dazar’alor from the moment they created the city, as it was designed with the idea it was to be a raid in mind, so it wouldn’t surprise me of they said “Wait, if we kill Rastakhan who will make the Zandalari go Horde” to which they were responded with “Throw in a princess because then we can pretend to be feminist”.

Talanji did basically nothing after the raid anyway, so i doubt it was to prop her up or fuel her fires as much as they used her as a band-aid to internally justify removing Rasta.

7 Likes
15

I want to agree with you because, my goodness, Thalyssra has been swiftly and efficiently shunted into the role of “Lor’themar’s arm candy.” Heck, Mayla never stood a chance at being anything but Baine’s. Rastakhan was simply too good for this world. And three of the Alliance AR’s most prominent members…aren’t actually members of those races.

But Jaina’s kind of the glaring exception, even if she could put on a few pounds if she wants to represent Kul Tirans better.

12 Likes
16

I loved Rastakhan immediately. He had that beautiful blend of arrogance and charisma that manages to make him deeply endearing and fun to interact with. That is a really hard balance to strike. It made him feel animated. Alive. More so than any Horde leader at the time. A lot of that likely comes down to his VA who sounded like he was legitimately having fun, but his dialogue was written well too.

His reactions to you clicking him repeatedly are fantastic. Those reactions alone are worth a thousand Baines in terms of sheer personality.

And I cannot express how much I respected him after his defeat at the hands of Zul the first time. You kind of expect him to get mopey and depressed and for his daughter to be the one to rally the people, but that doesn’t happen.

Rastakhan gets up after his near-death at the hands of an assassin and goes “Time to fight to take back my city”.

That is the truest expression of troll culture I’ve ever seen. He immediately accepts that he was weak and decides that it is time to get his mojo back. He almost seems glad for the challenge to wake him from his complacency.

I wanted so much to keep him as a Horde character. I knew he’d die because Blizzard’s writing is not even a little subtle, but it still stings as a wasted opportunity. I don’t hate Talanji, but she definitely didn’t get the sheer likability of her father.

I also loved his relationship with Talanji. Troll characters don’t usually get to be seen with their loved ones. They don’t usually get to experience familial joy and love like that because it undermines using them as loot pinatas. So seeing his love for his daughter was a breath of fresh air.

Ideally I would have wanted for Rastakhan to remain king of Zandalar and for Talanji to become the admiral of the Golden Fleet and primary liaison to the Horde. We’d interact with Talanji in most questing experiences like we do with Thalyssra now, but Rastakhan would rule the kingdom itself and appear only occasionally for cinematic cut-scenes and big events.

I suppose all I can hope for now is Talanji and Rastakhan are reunited in Shadowlands. That has potential to be a whirlwind of emotions. Love, betrayal, hurt, joy. Rastakhan left one Hell of a secret from his daughter.

Let’s hope Blizzard doesn’t ruin it somehow.

39 Likes
17

maybe they are saving a story arc post bfa.

but it would be honestly be pretty pathetic if she doesn’t have another apparition in 8.3 when bfa ends, zuldazar and kultiras is supposed to be the protagonist. and she wasn’t even involved in 8.2 or 8.2.5.
and we all know how blizzard loves to forget about zones and characters when an expansion ends.

3 Likes
18

I highly doubt this, because it is frankly, ridicolous to keep a characters arc completely unresolved for years when you have the perfect opportunity to solve it now.

6 Likes
19

Yeah, Jaina is the exception but Jaina’s always been a bit of an odd duck in game.

5 Likes
20

Shadow lands expansion could happen in the blink of eye real world time I guess making an unresolved character arc less problematic.