And that way he handled it is riddled with the corpses of people who trusted him.
On a more Meta level, there is just the absurdly cruel reality that the MU Orc roster is just plain decimated. If it weren’t for Thrall and (I assume) Rexxar coming back, the most developed characters they would have left is Eitrigg and friggen Cromush. The rep situation with even the main Horde race is so bad that they’re shoving Garona into the Horde like she’s a regular. And they aren’t even the worst off with what they’ve done to the Darkspear and Forsaken…
Functionally speaking, Thrall can’t go anywhere. There is no one to replace him anymore. That well is run dry. And if Cairne and Vol’jin can both be tribal leaders and be canonical fathers, so can Thrall. Hell, Vol’jin’s duty to his people is so strong its even persisted through his death, and he’s taken it upon himself to accept the expectations and last will of Rezan now too. Which could very well lead him to fulfilling Sen’jin’s prophecy. How’s that for Duty?
Is Thrall really so weak he can’t do what his closest friends have done? To the point where many of them laid down their lives for the duty he abandoned? Even Jaina has returned to her Nation and is helping to lead it now. She’s accepted her duty, one even she thought she threw away.
2 Likes
I’m in the crowd that Thrall has done a lot for his people to make any mother proud, but deciding to found their capital in a rocky wasteland as some kind of atonement, then bouncing back to vibrant Nagrand to have his own farm, not cool. “You guys still need to atone, but not me, I’m retiring.”
5 Likes
On a meta level, yes. It is drop-dead stupid how they just tore through the Horde’s roster for the sake of S H O C K F A C T O R and didn’t even think of how they’d replace them as plot devices in a story that must continue.
This isn’t a problem in the Alliance storyline, since Varian was immediately replaced with Anduin. The Gilneas story has Crowley, Tess and Mia if Genn dropped dead, any combination of Malfurion, Shandris, Maeve, etc if the Night Elf story ran into any complications, what have you.
So it leads to this awkward situation of;
“And that’s a wrap.”
“Sooo… how do we continue telling this story? (for example, the Forsaken.)”
“We’ll use another character to push the narrative. Who do we have that can do the job?”
“We have, uh… shifts page. Again, and again, and again. Oh. Oh no. No no no no no.”
“LITERALLY ANYONE, STEVE, LET’S GET THE BALL ROLLING.”
Lilian Voss and Calia Menethil fills the void of Sylvanas and Nathanos, with glue, spit and duct tape. It is clearly not a good fit.
Thrall has to stay, because they just killed off the only other orc who’s been relevent to their story: Saurfang. Eitrigg has done a combination of ___ and ___ but who could forget ___ and he’s an OG. He’s even more in this game with Thrall and he just doesn’t do anything.
But, in a story sense, were this not a problem, Thrall eventually hanging it up and going home in his elder years isn’t so bad, as long as he actually prepares the contingencies and infrastructure to actually ensure the Horde can function without him.
3 Likes
The Horde is just in such a crap place right now.
Everyone talks about how orcs are overdone, but the only times orcs show up are usally denigrative in nature. Saurfang is made lesser, morally and physically. Cromush is an idiot with a stupid name. Thrall is made as this milquetoast leader who doesn’t really want to be there, even though the death of Saurfang was supposed to have shown him that he didn’t get to hide anymore.
I wish that orcs got treated half as well as night elves do. Their leaders never die, they get a minimum of one zone an expansion (including rewrites and retcons to force them where they have no business being), they get to turn their nose up at their allies and their allies have to accept it. They get all of the moral and physical authority. You have to quest with them, whether you want to or not.
Orcs have just been this forgotten bone for so long now and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to change here.
This isn’t even touching on how Forsaken have absolutely nothing now that Tirisfal is lost and Sylvanas and Nathaniel hecked off and betrayed them.
5 Likes
Well uhm… The mag’har leader whose name escapes me calls thrall go’el.
“Thrall” is just a terrible name. itm eans a slave, a servant, a creature who is barely regarded as a being, whose life and death is completely in the hands of another.
And yet, it is still somehow better than “Go’el.” At least, aesthetically speaking.
“Thrall” sounds like a name an orc would have. it comes out as a growl, Thrrrrrrall, sort of like conan saying “Crom!” it’s different enough from standard orc naming conventions to convey that Thrall is not quite the same as other orcs but close enough that he’s still an orc.
But Go’el sounds like mush. Like the noise someone makes after spooning three whole pudding cups into their mouth. It has absolutely no “orc aesthetic,” even when pronounced correctly (with a proper glottal stop!) I mena look at some other Frostwolf Orc names…
Durotan
Draka
Gruunda
Tal’Kraa
Drek’Thar
Zuura
Galvangar
Aggralan
Rokkar
You see how these work? Lots of hard consonants and R’s. Most (not all) male names end in R.
“Go’el” ain’t it.
Maybe Drek’Thar needs to put his dentures in so he can let Thrall know his name is actually Gorrar or Go’Krel or something like that.
1 Like
I’m pretty forefront about a revamp, reboot, something. Look at the Blackrock clan. Orgrim(Okay) Doomhammer… Well that’s a pretty specific family name. And the Chieftan is Blackhand. Not a nickname, that’s his name. That’s his name. Is his hand somehow darker than everyone else’s? His children are Rend and Maim. I guess he wanted psychopath sons.
I’m all for keeping to the source material, but when are making your game in the pre-information age, need to adapt. ‘Captain Deathkill’ isn’t going to be as well received to millions as it was to couple of close friends.
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It’s a bit different taking on yet another name given by someone else and then finding out that you had a proper birth name that you never knew about.
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You shut your mouth about my boy.
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Thrall has more of meaningful name than Go’el name.
Well that’s because Thrall took what was a negative name and made it into a positive through his actions, Go’el is only synonymous with Thrall’s worst character arcs and holds none of the positivity that Thrall earned.
2 Likes