It’s like they buildt her up in a book, and in-game only to write her off as Thralls Baby Maker.
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That’s exactly what they did.
Because Blizzard’s writers have…issues with writing women.
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It very much seems that way, she never had any relevance with anything beyond Thrall or MU mag’har (but I guess even then she didn’t do much in-game).
They certainly have issues writing Orc women to be sure. They’re either hyper aggro, or they’re hyper motherly … or somewhere on that spectrum in between. They don’t really veer from this unless they’re like a cannon fodder cultist. Though I do have some hope for doomguard General of Death Draka smashing Thrall’s vision of a picturesque mother to pieces.
As for what happened to Aggra, she was sort of turned into the Yoko Ono of the WC3 Beatles; as she constantly does annoying crap like reminding us that the only reason Thrall is with the Horde is because he feels guilted into. Like she once again does in the damned SLs intro. Aggra, he is the son of Durotan and the hopes of Doomhammer and Hellscream. He’s meant to be a great Orc Chieften. He can do that and be your children’s father, and should take pride in both.
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Orc women aren’t special in that regard.
Women in general are either hyper peaceful voice of reasons, hyper aggro voices of conflict, accessories to a male’s storyline, or completely irrelevant to the plot and exist as background noise.
There is no in deviation from this.
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That’s true for the most part.
Which again is sort of why I really hope the focus with Draka is on her being just an immensely calm, competent, collected general of Maldraxxus who takes duty and loyalty very seriously. And one that takes pride in that. Have her have become a person that does not fit Thrall’s romanticized vision of her, which sadly the AU version he met only reinforced (which, weirdly, from the sounds of it, AU Draka really veered from that perfect orc mother stereotype the years following WoD?)
The writing of WoW is also weirdly Eurocentric as well … but that’s another topic.
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What is this meme? Why is this a thing all of a sudden?
Blizzard has writing issues period. Women characters aren’t spared anything that isn’t also affecting how dumb the rest of the characters are.
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There’s also this disconnect between what blizzard finds Cool and interesting vs what the actual players find cool and interesting and blizz still tries to ham-fist their version down our throats the first chance they get.
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im surprised orc women fight at all
i think orc women would be like spiders that eat the males, giant broodmothers that spawn never ending grunts and peons
It’s not really a meme. It becomes obvious when you look at it through observation.
Jaina has been an accessory to Arthas’ story until he became the Lich King and outgrew here. Then she became the hyper peaceful one until Theramore where she became hyper aggro, and as she calmed and went back to peaceful, where she’s now an accessory to Anduin’s story.
The 2 of the the 3 Windrunners are only important because of the human men they are sleeping with, with the last being the hyper aggro loose cannon.
Aggra was introduced as the sharp tongued Shaman who gave Thrall no sh–, until they got married and then she’s so unimportant she only shows up sparingly go remind us Thrall isnt single.
Compare that to most of the prominent male characters, whom have character relationships beyond who they are boning.
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I dunno, man. Based on the particular way you structured your post, you clearly think that Blizzard is at least partially misogynistic in their writing. I think you’re confusing writing you don’t like with “Blizzard cannot write women”.
Aggra is wholly irrelevant (perhaps an issue in and of itself? personally, I’m happy for her lack of screentime), and I disagree with your assessment of the Windrunners, and Jaina’s story was just whack in general; nothing to do with her sex.
Oop. This is grasping at straws at best, and downright incorrect at worst.
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(Commentary): I think the problem with Aggra is that she is heavily connected to Thrall’s story, and Thrall hasn’t been featuring prominently for a while. Not only that, but Thrall and Aggra are parents, and so someone needs to be raising their children. This becomes a problem, because when Thrall is needed for a plot and Aggra could be involved, she has to remain in the background to watch the children.
(Speculative): Either Aggra needs a plotline of her own, or Thrall and Aggra need trusted friends to look after their children. Who knows? Maybe when Shadowlands ends, Draka comes back to Azeroth, and Grandmother can watch them sometimes while Thrall and Aggra do stuff.
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Eh i think what has been said has been said already, Blizzard writes women either as STRONK INDEPENDANT WOMAN or housewife/babycare
how dare women have a personality!
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I think they quietly shuffled her offstage for two related reasons: because they were semi-retiring Thrall, and because she and her role in his plotline were so unpopular. Someone here recently compared her to Yoko Ono in terms of OG Horde fan reaction to her. And Alliance fans complained a LOT about attending Thrall’s wedding. Putting her onstage would just have started all of that all over again.
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I do think a majority of the women are written badly, but I don’t think this is necessarily a “Blizzard can’t write women” problem. Blizzard can’t really write men all that well either. And when they accidentally write a good male character, like Rastakhan, they drop him so fast.
The main issue is there really wasn’t that many women in the story to begin with. We had Tyrande, Sylvanas, Jaina, and Onyxia as the most visible, while the rest of the main cast were all dudes. They’ve slowly built up the female cast, but some of them are still starving for screen time, like Geya’rah. I feel like I’ve spent more time with every leader on the opposing side than I have with her.
On the other hand, I think some of the better written characters are female. Moira is pretty nuanced by WoW standards. Dwarven politics are easily the most interesting part of the Alliance to me, and she’s the reason why. And we also have Valtrois, who I think is just great.
Aggra though, she’s a dud. I really don’t care if she ever becomes plot relevant again.
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Yeah, cause all the strongest, most important characters in WoW definitely aren’t women…
Oh, so they’re only 4 COMPLETELY different character archetypes. How one-dimensional of them…
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I am reminded of what happens when women become darkspawn in the Dragon Age games shudder.
Not really. If there is any issue about orc women it is that generally we don’t have many of them in the story. However we have two orc women who break this mold:
Exhibit a:
An orc warrior that is competent, not hyper aggressive and did what had to be done even if it meant the loss of her sister.
Exhibit B: https://wow.gamepedia.com/Rulkan_(alternate_universe)
Wise and was actually willing to see the Iron Horde(and Velen) for who they truly were. She is also interesting because she is actually a positive Mag’har character for the Alliance to befriend.
That is idiotic. It was THEIR love story. They both were equally affected by the events of their love affair and in Jaina’s case was a cause for one her traumas. And Arthas never “outgrew” Jaina. You even find her locket kept by him!
That is partly because Thrall isnt important and she does have kids she is suppose to take care of. She does appear here and there and whenever she does she is made to be a competent shaman/fighter.
Again another false statement. Alleria was the first name Alliance NPC you play with in BTDP. She was the one who found Turalyon/Danath. She and Khadgar were the ones who killed Deathwing(in the RTS at least) and even in the retcon portion of Warcraft 2 novel she was her own character who defied her people to do what she thought was best for her people!
As for Vereesa, she and\ Falstad were just as important as Rhonin in stopping Deathwing. And later she was just as important at stopping Sinetra. Not to mention she created an organization that basically defied what her husband wanted. The Silver Covenant was created to oppose allowing the Horde back into Dalaran(you know the city her husband controlled).
Like Yrel, Moira, the Windrunner Sisters(plenty of relationships there not related to their lovers), Tyrande, alexstrasza, Ysera. And that is ignoring all the new female characters added in Legion and BfA!
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/shrug
A handful of examples with questionable relevance do not change my opinion all that much I’m afraid.
As I stated before, I’m fully aware Blizzard can write good females. I’m also aware they can and do squander them.