I’m kinda at least vaguely hopeful we’ll get more from Talanjii. I really loved the interaction between her and Zekhan in Shadow’s Rising.
And to this day I’m wondering how tusk beauty standards is.
Because our zappy boi is ogling her dainty tusks with pointed interest. So is it generally seen as the feminine ideal for lady trolls to have tiny tusks or is that just Zekhan’s personal preference? Because no shade I know men who prefer gals with smaller, assets, as well.
But what of the reverse?
Because when I was RPing a Forsaken dissident Apothecary living in the Pools of Vision I joked that the Highmountain boys were turning heads in Thunderbluff and some Mulgore Tauren men were asking in hushed tones if he had any potions that could offer some horn growth.
And now I’m legitimately wondering if that isn’t the case for boy Troll tusks, as the female Zandalari have a /joke about finding it adorable the Orcs call their larger than average lower canines ‘tusks’.
I think alternate universe Doomhammer. For how much of an impactful legend the character is in the main universe, he really did get done dirty in WoD.
Aegwynn as well. Died in a terrible comic for a now retconned character. I’m not even sure what her canon death is now.
The king of all terrible deaths in WoW has to be Vol’jins though. Apart from how blatant it was that they killed him solely for the sake of parity for the Alliance, most of his death cinematic is spent by showcasing how awesome Varian is after Vol’jin is unceremoniously killed by a random felguard mook.
The Alliance side of the cinematic doesn’t even see Vol’jins death, while the Horde side watches 100% of the Varian wankoff session.
Rasta as in ‘Hey what’s something Jamaican’ and Khan as in ‘What’s another word for King?’.
Honestly I would’ve liked him more if his name was just Grand Puba Carribean.
But I actually did like the character in the short time we knew him.
I genuinely think Talanjii would’ve been better received if they gave her any personality beyond “Vaguely stern and right about everything”
She got some great characterization in Shadow’s Rising where we see she’s competent but still a young blood in WAYYY over her head who has seriously and irreversibly screwed a lot up. But in a forgiveable way as she kinda just had her father’s brutal death, the fate of an empire and it’s allegiance to a global super power dropped in her lap all in the same day.
Rezan’s the one who gets my goat. Because seriously what could POSSIBLY be cooler than a Golden Tyrannosaurus King of Kings who’s so badass he grants you immortality by just pulling up on the reaper whenever it’s your time?
Not only did they make him go out like a complete punk, falling for the most obvious trap in the universe, but then they had the audacity to make us watch him wither into dust in the Maw.
And sure Vol’Jin got the new Loa of Kings designation but that is a truly bizarre scenario. Vol’Jin’s never struck me as kingly. He’s a revolutionary not an Emperor.
Also you know who else got done unreasonably dirty?
Anduin’s mom. I think her name was like Tiffany or something?
Anywho I was fully expecting her to turn up in SL. As this is a character everyone says Anduin takes after. Who got the most memeworthy death in all of Azeroth.
The red carpet was rolled out to make this friged queen a real character with an actual impact on the setting, and we got nothing.
hei, zul’jin was not villain bat, not in any case or form, people will not like this but Zul’jin was even prio wow a men who killed woman and childs without mercy, who raided qt and liked to kill the elves. Elves that don´t do anything against him in the first places, their only sin was to live there.
this is not villain bat, this is his story and charakter from wc2 onward. so he was allways THIS
Its complicated. For starters, Zul’jin was not even born when the exiled Highborne settled in Quel’Thalas. He wasn’t even around for the Troll Wars.
Zul’jin was born into the decaying Amani Empire that had made it’s entire purpose the genocide of the elves. From the moment he was born, every tragedy, every bad experience, was tied to the elves. It should also be said, the Rangers didn’t exactly just let trolls go by if they spotted them. For both sides of this conflict, the other was kill on sight.
Warcraft 2 was not exactly a novel when it came to its characters. We got enough of a background and understanding to know their motivations, but not much else. Zul’jin’s motivation was to reclaim ancestral territory taken from his people by the elves thousands of years before he was born, and to annihilate them to ensure the prosperity of the Amani. His methods were cruel, barbaric, and savage, but this was Warcraft II we’re talking about here. It was the trope manifest.
By the time we get to WoW, we’re seeing characters developed and expanded upon. Even Darkspear Trolls had voice lines about Zul’jin. He could have been written as a sympathetic character, or even given a redemption. His story could have gone anywhere. Blizzard chose the loot pinata course for him, but it could’ve as easily been something else. Imagine if Zul’jin had come to the Horde because some young jerk rose to prominence and wanted to go after the Horde and it’s new allies.
Anything was possible. Blizzard chose for Zul’jin to be a villain. It was not out of character for Zul’jin either, but I’d argue it’s still a case of being hit with the villain bat, because he could’ve been anything at that point.
TBH thats elf lore and it fits pretty well, they act all high and might but at the end of the day they are just like anyone else, they placed their city on a troll graveyard and corrected me if i’m wrong, never tried to talk with the Amani (Although they would probably be killed before even walking in the door) but know the Amani Empire is located in a Horde city so i’ll love to see what happens there XD
Elves deserved to be killed. They stole the land from the Amani. You just don’t tell native americans to let it go Just because their genocide happened hundreds of years in the past. The US government was forced to cede territory so they can have their ethno states where white people don’t live.
To this day I want to know what exactly went wrong with his arc. Because I am positive there was some sort of behind the scenes kerfuffle at CDev that led to him being just the saddest sad boy on Azeroth instead of the heir apparent to the Forsaken.
We see in ‘Before The Storm’ he is given pause by Sylvanas’s order to massacare their own people. Then in the Burning cinematic we see his initial reaction to the bombing order is akin to Saurfang’s; stunned silence. Then in the Battle of Lordaeron he needs some TLC from his Baenshee Queen to pull the trigger on the ‘blow up our own capitol’ plan.
You cannot look at me with a straight face and say this was not intended to lead to some rebellion arc where he’s finally had enough.
Could’ve been a cool story where this guy in an objectively abusive relationship finally stands up not just for himself but for his people.
Like how cool would it have been if mid Derek Proudmoore prison break you run right into him and realize he already had the same plan. But one a tad more tactical than ‘Let’s have the least conspicuous Horde leader literally bull in a China shop his way around a clandestine operation’.
Then, at the finale of the Gates of Orgrimmar, instead of ??? Forsaken woman just side-eyeing Sylvanas you could’ve had Nathanos just officially joining the rebellion.
And then,
Instead of that asinine scene where 3 armies completely forget about the Banshee Queen’s ability to, ya know, FLY, we get that Point Break scene (because ya know Blizz loves their inexplicable 80s movie references) where he has her but cant bring himself to take the shot;
Ah well. A lot of wasted potential but at least he went out as he lived. Sneering all the way and not-at-all bothered by being man handled by a strong elf lady of questionable sanity.
This reminds of a WoW machinima by CaptainGrim. In it Varian questions and attacks Saurfang over why he appears to Anduin in Shadowlands when trying to resist the Jailer’s control and he brings up Anduin’s mother Tiffin.
I agree that her absence from Shadowlands was another thing wrong with it.
