Why have the writers so unrelentingly humiliated Bolvar Fordragon?

Lore Story Forum
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The greatest series of humbling gut punches any major lore character has ever received from the writers is the humiliating narrative forced on poor Bolvar Fordragon.

He only wanted to be a hero of the Alliance. He gave his all to this end.

He was burned by the dragons’ fire and hideously deformed into a blackened, eternally smoldering husk.

He was relentlessly tortured by the Lich King and helplessly strung up in chains, full spread eagled over Arthas’s throne in degrading fashion to be gawked at.

When he was eventually rescued, that’s how he was found.

Having zero belief that life could ever offer him any comfort again, he convinced Tirion to place the Lich King’s helm upon his head, cementing his fate to exist in that place forever as lord of the scourge to keep them in check.

Then, one seemingly random day, without so much as a text of forewarning to expect a visit from her (how rude), Sylbarfas Windfarter drops in for tea and proceeds to absolutely, unceremoniously, unequivocally roflstomp Bolvar in the ever lovin’ ground without so much as a single bead of sweat.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Bolvar discovered she didn’t even want his precious power, as was his suspicion. It meant nothing to her. She literally ripped the helm off his head and destroyed it right in front of his astonished face.

So much for his last grand sacrifice.

After licking his wounds a bit, Bolvar appears in Korthia offering a quest… for the player to go kill Sylbarfas – since, you know, he couldn’t… and that failure is the singular reason any of us had to come to SL in the first place.

This character has suffered.

16 Likes
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I was pulling for him in the sl intro. It’s obvious he had the crappy blue honor gear while Sylv was in all 252 conquest gear stomping him like a noob.

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It’s got nothing to do with gear.

Banshee Dark Rangers were just broken on that patch, while Lich Kings were garbage.

For some reason Blizzard nerfed the Lich King class by taking away the Frostmourne passive entirely, but in the same patch buffed the Banshee Dark Ranger class with the Death Infused passive?

They couldn’t balance things properly to save their life.

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I didn’t think much of Bolvar or care too much about him until Legion. He was just some Alliance cur who hogged the spotlight - like Jaina, or Genn, or Anduin… the list goes on.

But in Legion, I started to dislike him. I had a DK, and he was rather menacing. I got the feeling that the DKs were getting ready to take him out if needed. He was kind of a jerk.

But I further soured on him during BfA. He is awfully rude to the Horde Champion.

When we go to ask about Voljin, that fool Bolvar says to us : “go now or stay forever”

I wish I could throw that in his face every time I see him. I would mock him at every turn.

“Remember when you said I would stay forever… looks like I just had to wait for Sylvanas to come, and snatch off your weave.”

“How’d it feel to get your weave snatched by the Banshee Queen?”

“Maybe if you sat down and had a conversation about Sylvanas, when we came and asked, we could have been ready. But you wanted to be a grumpy edgelord, and threaten us…”

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Ya but the gear could still help when she goes for the double tap aimshot on Bolvar from stealth. Instead of popping icebound fortitude he faced tanked it like a noob.

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In what way? The only time you really saw him as a horde player was his death. Then his voice throughout ICC.

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He had like five minutes of screentime in Wrath, then promptly never showed up again until Legion - he was literally absent from the game altogether for three expansions over the span of eight years.

I don’t know what hogging the spotlight is like where you’re from, but he certainly did not.

28 Likes
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Bolvar could have played it better for sure, but even if he did I don’t think he wins.

Banshee Dark Ranger was just an overloaded class, especially with the bonus abilities that the Death Infused passive gave them. Because of course a big stat buff passive wasn’t enough, they needed to tack extra abilities onto it as well.

I mean Banshee Dark Rangers had access to:

  • Huge defensive CD that also provides great mobility, which she didn’t even need to use (Banshee Form)
  • An offensive ability that also doubles as a defensive ability if you time it right (Black Arrow)
  • A defensive ability that’s basically equivalent to Rogue’s “evasion” (We’ll call this one “Screw You Bolvar”)
  • Absolutely broken new CC ability (Chains of Domination)
  • Big AoE ability that she also didn’t even have to use (Banshee Scream)

What did the Lich King class have access to?

  • A version of “Army of the Dead” without a timer? Cool my guy - my Unholy DK can do that, LK not having a timer on its ghouls really doesn’t matter that much in reality
  • Minor zone control in the form of (Frost Fog)? Nice, the Banshee Dark Ranger just pops their version of Evasion - GGEZ
  • Offensive CD in (Ice Pillars)? The Banshee Dark Ranger could pop (Banshee Form), or just smurf on you and time their (Black Arrow) right - saving their major defensive CD

And that’s the class Blizzard felt the need to nerf?

Yeah, I don’t think Bolvar ever stood a chance - he was stuck playing a trash class that Blizz clearly didn’t care about because he refused to reroll. Meanwhile Sylvanas was on the flavour of the month class that just received huge buffs in preparation for the next expac.

8 Likes
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My guess simply existing. If you exist and you are an alliance character then you are hogging the spotlight.

He did say to never return at the end of Wrath.

Legion was different at least for DK’s as he invited you back. Fire mages got the same treatment horde players got in BFA pretty much.

But lets never let facts get in the way of a good rant.

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During the Wrathgate. He had to make it all about him.

Yes - I know Blizzard made that choice, and that is my point.

Blizzard made the Alliance arrive earlier than the Horde, and also, Bolvar goes on in the lore as the Questgiver he is today - while Dranosh fell and became a Raid Boss.

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Okay… and so because Blizzard framed the Wrathgate around the Alliance, the faction (other than the Forsaken) most hurt from what Arthas did… is somehow hogging the spotlight. From who exactly?

One cinematic. Out of an entire expansion = hogging the spotlight. Dude you are crazy and messed up. Thrall and Garrosh, along with Jaina were major players in the Ulduar Trailer. They were hogging the spotlight!!! REEEEEEEE!!!

Hell, with the stuff we learned about Bolvar from BFA, it gives even more reason why he was the focal point of the Wrathgate cinematic. The dude lost his wife to the scourge and gave his daughter to Daelin to keep her safe.

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Ah yes. He had to make it all about him by… checks notes… not dying as quickly and leading his own forces into battle. God, the narcissism of it all. Mind you, Bolvar WAS meant to die in that battle - fans who just had attention span enough to not care about which color the character on screen at the time was wearing just reacted positively to him, so they gave him an additional two minutes of screen time at the end of Wrath.

Look, I get that anytime an Alliance character is on screen your brain just turns to mush, but c’mon. You’re being extra silly here, and you’re someone who’s prone to saying silly crap.

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Yeah Alliance is hogging all the spotlight, you could really see it with the 6 or something sad orc CGI cinematics we got in BfA.

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Bolvar even had to be a little scene stealer with Tirion. Tirion had the crown, but here comes Bolvar, with his own idea to give himself more screen time down the road.

Seeing Bolvar humbled in the cinematic intro to Shadowlands was at least some recompense for his shenanigans.

I love how in Shadows Rising, he is described as having dumb wonderment as Sylvanas breaks his precious toy. That actually seems to fit.

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You do understand that Warcraft characters don’t have fourth wall awareness, right?

I’m not even sure YOU have fourth wall awareness.

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You do realize that had nothing to do with who arrived first. Dranosh was the idiot who charged at Arthas and got rekted because of it. Even if Dranosh arrived first the ending would still be the same. Both of them dead. One from leeroying Arthas and the other from the plague / blight unleashed by the Forsaken.

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At this point I think Cursewords is just bored and wants to troll. No-one can be that stupid. At least not willingly.

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Afrasiabi wanted Sylvanas to be super evil, and hated by the playerbase at large.

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They don’t care, that relevant information doesn’t fit their desired narrative, so they will continue to choose to ignore it.

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You really are full of it aren’t you? How many times must we tell you that we know that Sylvanas’ character arc throughout legion, BFA and Shadowlands was terrible because of Alex and his petty revenge plot.

But that doesn’t fit YOUR narrative. Because you love to say something toxic, then play the victim when people call you out for being toxic. Accusing them of being sexist etc on false grounds. Not everyone who proves that you are wrong with evidence is being sexist. Not everyone is out to get you, nor is there some grand conspiracy. You are basically acting like Thadeus does when you do that. And not everything in the game is sexist. Saurfang saying that Sylvanas ruined the horde is not sexist. Given that he and others said the same when it came to Garrosh.

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