So, I was sitting back and enjoying some Dragonflight and it dawned on me, while the story has been great, something is missing.
Where’s Thrall?
I get that Cataclysm’s overarching plot had some questionable choices in it, but a heavy part of the main story of the expansion revolved around Thrall aiding the Aspects as the World Shaman by serving as a discount Earth Warder.
Now we have the Aspects regaining their Aspect powers (still unclear what that entails aside from regaining eggs) that they lost when he was on the same piece of rock, evil shaman are attacking the Dragon Isles, and we even dealt with what was left of Deathwings legacy and established a new Aspect of the Black Dragonflight.
and Thrall’s chilling in Durotar, bringing back Orcish culture for a heritage armor quest (which technically counts as Thralls appearance for this expansion, continuing his chain of being in all WoW expansions)
I mean, I get he wants to retire and all, but now that I notice his absence, I question how I didn’t notice it sooner.
Despite the fact that he had no connection to Deathwing whatsoever and was shoehorned into the Aspects’ Story for no reason.
There were better opponents for Deathwing: Khadgar and Krasus for instance.
Deathwing did not need to be killed by the Dragon Soul honestly.
Thrall was only inserted into the Story for Metzen’s Family Story Questline. Khadgar could easily be used for that instead with Krasus as an example of what he wanted.
Khadgar wanted a Family and Krasus had a Wife and Children. There was so much potential except there were so many drunkards around the usual workplace that no one was available to send Metzen proper suggestions.
I’m sure if a teetotaler such as my self were working on the staff I would have suggested Khadgar and Krasus and if I were aware of the no conflict in the dojo thing I would have taken advantage of that to get Metzen on board and perhaps(through some of the Nexus’s Arcane Energy) revive Anveena as well though still make a note on how the Nexus has a million times more power than the Sunwell itself just to make Anveena seem tiny in comparison to the Nexus.
I would also remove Thrall from Twilight of the Aspects and ensure that Family would be the focus with Krasus suffering the loss of Caelestrasz his Son, Kalec having a piece of Anveena that she can be revived from(as mentioned in Night of the Dragon), Khadgar dwelling on the Past while Nozdormu obsesses about the Future and Ysera suffering the loss of Eranikus.
Never knew about Khadgar wanting a family being a plotpoint. My point about Thrall was less-so that his role in Cataclysm was good and moreso that it’s strange that he isn’t here after it already happened.
Also bringing up Krasus reminds me of other issues that Cata had, such as killing off Krasus in a BOOK and keeping Rhonin completely off screen, only to then kill him in ANOTHER BOOK in the following expansion. (Granted, they also only ever did anything in books, but c’mon)
To this day, the most Blizz has ever had those two important lore characters do on screen is have Krasus offer like 3 quests and have Rhonin give a speech (an admittedly memorable speech) and blow up as an npc in Theramore.
Having Thrall fill the role as “Temporary Earth Warder” was a seriously cheesy take. They simply wanted him as the big hero for Cataclysm and nothing else. I can’t say whether or not they realized this, but it’s best they are leaving him and several others out of the Dragonflight story.
In regards to what he’s up to these days, I imagine he splits his time between representing orcs on the Horde Council, trying to help Durak figure out what he wants to do with his life, giving Rehze pony rides (or would it be wolf rides? ), and trying to get Aggra pregnant with their third kid.
No.
It’s beyond ridiculously stupid that it’s okay and celebrated for Alliance characters to do this sort of thing, while we shun Horde characters for it.
Agreed. But if you’re referring to Khadgar and Kalecgos, well… Khadgar’s been neutral friendly to both sides since his first appearance in WoW clear back in BC. It’s hard to think of him as an “Alliance Character” anymore. Hell, the dude even refused to fight against Horde during the 4th War because he felt it was wrong to fight against friends.
Just because Kalecgos got frisky with an important Alliance leader once doesn’t exactly qualify him as Alliance.
It would be nice if there were similarly neutral Horde origin characters that were given some spotlight time though.
Why do people use this sort of logic? Maybe it could be different people with different opinions? I certainly do not celebrate the fact that the Alliance characters dominate neutral story lines. That does not mean Thrall is interesting or that his ubiquitous presence makes up for the lack of Horde involvement.
The Horde has other characters.
You are right that when it comes to neutral stories, the Alliance gets featured too often while the Horde is ignored - but Blizzards answer currently is just to have Thrall show up, as if he is the only person in the Horde. I am sick of Thrall being every where, and doing everything, and always being right. WoW sometimes feels like :
“The Alliance Show featuring DJ Thrall and his background dancers”
That does not mean I am celebrating about Jaina, or Kalec, or Bolvar, or Wrathion being the Alliance biased NPCs that the Horde has to take orders from.
I think the Black Dragon storyline did a good job of at least acknowledging the different philosophies present. As well as using Characters that the Factions have some ties to - Wrathion for the Alliance and Ebonhorn for the Horde. While Sabe could be supported by all sides based on his actions - sort of the middle ground as far as Factions. A Human visage but good friends with Rexxar. Not every storyline can be written with 3 PoVs being expressed.
Thrall has always been portrayed as being in the right, and everyone who comments otherwise has been in the wrong. At best, even the times he has been shown to be “wrong” it was about how bad he feels he was and needing other characters to go “Nah bro, you’re still pretty cool!”
The forums here may find him tiring and think otherwise, but that’s never the intention Blizzard is making.
Aren’t you forgetting about Cow Anduin? He has shown up everywhere, mostly just to be Anduin’s Tauren hype man, for the past few expansions.
That said, it’d be nice to have some characters like Lorthemar or Gallywix show up and do something as a major expansion lead as opposed to Thrall or Baine.
As an old Thrall fan and a Horde player during Cata I would’ve rather this over what we got, faction bickering be damned. The whole Go’el garbage permanently ruined Thrall’s character.
It definitely, did, at least for me. He worked better as a shamanistic warrior who was sensible but could kick heads in when neccesary. In Cata he just turned into a hippy, completely changed his iconic look, got married to a character void of personality that was created solely to be his wife, and his character has been completely directionless since it ended.
Not sure where you are getting this idea that Aggra is “devoid of personality”. Sure she was created to be Thrall’s woman, but she still went on to become one of the primary shaman of the Earthen Ring, recently getting Farseer status.
All she needs now is some moments to punch things without Thrall nearbye like Draka has been.
And I can agree with the notion that Thrall’s “World Shaman” days weren’t exactly his best, but he’s back in his warrior garb now so there wasn’t much lost.
That’s not a personality, that’s a status. The only personality trait I can ascribe to her are generic orc ones like… fierce and loyal I guess. She has no character arc or any actual development because she only exists to be Thrall’s arm candy.
In other words you want her to have Strong Female Lead Role status in some development like Draka had in Shadowlands. Or at least do something cool beyond just being Thrall’s wife. I get it.
She’s in the same boat as a couple dozen other characters, but, sad to say, Blizzard doesn’t have the time. They’re too busy planning out Tyrande’s next big cutscene moment and Anduin’s big comeback tour.
), and trying to get Aggra pregnant with their third kid.