Five lore problems with Thrall

Lore Story
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Thrall used to be a awesome character up until WotLK. Now there are some mayor problems with Thrall as a character that need to be addressed before he can be a part of the game again. Here are some important points:

He is Green Jesus: In the world of Warcraft he is a peace loving hippie. As a faction leader for the Horde he has no motivation to wage war and drive conflict. So he will always run against to the overarching story. For a big-testosterone-filled-muscle-orc he seems to be less aggressive then our fallen-defender-emo-lady.

He is a prima donna: Thrall is a complete attention-wh0re. First he is a honorable Warchief, then he is an old warrior looking to retire, then he is a failure, then he is a world shaman, then he is a family orc, then he is daddy-issue-ridden sidekick, then he up and abandons the Horde completely. For fck sake Thrall! Get your crap together!

He has an ongoing identity crisis: Thrall has gone through more outfit changes then any other character in the game. I donā€™t even have as many different outfits in real life. He is like one of those teenagers who goes through ā€œphasesā€. First the Emo phage, then the skater phage, then the Goth phage, then the hippie phage, then the lumbersexual phage etc. The art department seems to be enabling his non-sense. Pick a lane and stick to it Thrall!

Thrall is impotent: In Warcraft 3 Thrall was a wolf-riding Warchief with a legendary hammer and cool looking armor that sparked lightning from his face. In the latest PTR build he has none of these things left. He gave away his hammer, his title, he is walking around on foot and is basically topless. Why is Thrall a hobo now?

Everybody still loves Thrall: Including me! We love him for what he used to be, but not what he is now. But Thrall could still just walk up to Sylvanas and say: ā€œOk cool, I want my throne back now.ā€

And Sylvanas would say: ā€œYes! Please take it!ā€. Sylvanas never wanted the Warchief title and everybody wants Thrall to be Warchief. All Thrall has to do is say the words ā€œIā€™ll be Warchief againā€. Yet he is just dancing around the issue saying ā€œToo much power, such a burden to bareā€. What utter and complete nonsense Thrall.

Get your act together Thrall!

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None of these are lore problems. They seem more like personal grievances about his character developement.

If Sylvanas really did not want the title of Warchief, she would probably have given it away by now.

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In the book ā€œBefore the Stormā€ Sylvanas states to herself that she did not want to become Warchief and that she prefers to operate in the shadows. She is torn between ruling the Horde and ruling the Forsaken and that she has trouble finding a balance in between these things. She does not state this to other characters in order to save face. This was a part of her inner monologue.

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Ruling Horde or ruling the Forsaken. Why donā€™t turn the Horde into Forsaken to solve both problems?!

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Actions speak louder than words, especially the ones you tell yourself.

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With some of your points I only have a vague idea what you are getting at (ā€œan old warrior looking to retireā€? What?).
Others just seem trivial (clothing choices? Really?).
Others are just wrong (Thrall was perfectly willing to wage wars for his people, even against innocents. And stopping Garroshā€™s war had a lower priority for him than his world-saving businessā€¦ He is pro peace but he never made unreasonable sacrifices for it).
And then there are some where I do agree but actually see it as a positive (He is a young man who is looked to as a savior not just by his tribe, not just by his people, not just by his faction, but the world. And now he has a family of his own and some major failures on his list. He SHOULD have an ongoing identity crisis. Also, lowering his powerlevel is a good thing.)

Strange post.

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Donā€™t ya guys want the same warchief for every addon?

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Thrall has a character arc and a branding problem. Illidan is instantly recognizable visually and thematically while still keeping a strong character arc. Thrall keeps getting new character arcs every expansion while getting completely reinvented visually every time.

The only thing that is keeping Thrall from becoming a completely different character every expansion is Metzenā€™s voice acting and the fact that he is an orc shaman of some kind. Everything else about him is constantly in flux. No thread is followed through to the end. Thrall is not a character in the story. He the teller of the story. He never makes difficult decisions.

He is the center of every story he is in, but we never see the end of any of his arcs. He just triggers multiple different larger arcs. We donā€™t see him living with his family or trying to stop the Bleeding of Azeroth as the World Shaman. His motivations are not his own. He just does whatever is needed to drive the overall plot forward. Not his personal plot.

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I disagree there, had no love for him pre-cata and only disdain for him post-cata

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This is a lie. He may be the worldā€™s powerful shaman, as Malfurion is the worldā€™s most powerful druid or Gulā€™dan was the most powerful known mortal warlock, he isnā€™t a god. The strength displayed in Cataclysm was primarily through the Dragon Soul. Heck, WoD outright displayed his original struggle to commune with Draenorā€™s elements.

Things happen in life, people can change. This is hardly something to hate him for. This makes the guy more realistic and relatable to a degree, even if it does seem to happen more often than expected. Granted, Azeroth is not Earth, so things are not bound by our limits.

Again, people change. I could suddenly turn to religion and suddenly start wearing a robe and a hat, then I could change again and start wearing voodoo clothing. Or on a more realistic manner, I could be wearing one type of uniform for a job, then leave and get a new uniform to represent the new job I got.

Circumstances had made him leave as Warchief. He didnā€™t leave the Horde to save the world solo, he left so he could aid those trying to prevent it from dying. His wolf was confirmed to have grown old so she actively canā€™t carry him into battle anymore. His hammer was given to a worthy champion after he was still grappling with his emotional aftermath of WoD with Garrosh. His new gear seems to represent his birth clan which could be a story for itself. Maybe he went to see Drekā€™thar to learn exactly why he is struggling, and besides, clothes are bound to get highly damaged during years of fighting. Perhaps he needed some new ones.

That is true, but a lot of people do like his past AND present form. That is not a crime.

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Does anyone else remember Warcraft 3 where Thrall tried to avoid conflict with other races unless he had to?

Like the mission where he told Grom not to antagonise the Humans which he did then Thrall slated him for it as it wasnā€™t necessary? Or when Thrall and Jania had their shake alliance hold together despite everything their races did to each other?

People seem to forget that Thrall was pretty peaceful even back in Warcraft unless he had no choice or no alternative. And I hate how this stigma of him being changed was somehow in WoW when it was also in Warcraft 3.

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What I liked about Thrall was his ability to hold dispar cultures together with a combination of mutual respect, understanding and a set of grounded and defined rules that set the terms with which each race lived with one another.

If they manage to bring all that back into the faction without making it subservient to Alliance desires or demands, all hail Warchief Thrall.

If not, Loktarā€™Ogar and to hell with everything. Iā€™ll cleave my way into Kul Tiras with my Zandalari, impale and destroy whatever Lightforged settlement I find with my Maghar, and destroy and feast on any Worgen I find on my Forsaken.
For as long as the game choices allow me to.

When not, Iā€™ll switch back to not doing so and kill Sylvanas or whoever they want me to for a dope mount. And as regretting as I might feel for offing the last iconic WC3 character, I wonā€™t mind that much.
One of the few perks of my ongoing cognitive dissonance.

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I have to say Thralls new Model looks dashing to me.
It feels like he has finally come full circle wearing his dadā€™s Fur.

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Yes, but it comes at the expense of his other characteristics and takes away from Durotan himself. Thrall is too much of a copy of his dad now and is missing references to his past.

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correction, ruining the Horde and ruining the Forsaken.

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Sounds more like your own personal disapprovals of Thrall to me but alrightā€¦

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Or why donā€™t we turn Forsaken into Horde?

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A lore character with personal flaws, what a tragedy its almost as if its what makes them interesting.

im sure you would prefer a character like talanji who is perfect and also extremely boring.

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I agree, personal flaws are good and make the character more relatable.

From Cataclysm to Warlords of Draenor, Thrall was a Mary Sue character. He had no flaws and was all powerful. In Legion he was stripped of all power which made things a little more interesting, but then he disappeared and that arc was cut short. The narrative was left incomplete.

This is why Iā€™m excited to see Thrall return. Iā€™m hoping for a payoff to narratives that were left incomplete. We need closure for existing narrative arcs and a continuation of the Horde mythos.

Telanji is also currently a Mary Sue character. She can do no wrong and is essentially just an embodiment of diversity and black culture. She cannot not be humbled by any force and this gives her seemingly unlimited power. She will never show any signs of weakness - because the current political and cultural landscape wonā€™t allow it.

At least Thrall has the potential to be brave now. He has everything to lose and is potentially the underdog in terms of ability. This is what makes his return more promising then his previous iterations.

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Indeed Thrall is a very ā€œcompleteā€ character in a way and one of my personal favourites.

But in the end he is a failure of a Warchief and a success as the Saviour of Azeroth. He managed to bring everyone together, but he failed in ruling them properly, failed to choose the right heir and it cost him Cairne among others.

So while he represents a nice time, he also represents old, failed, outdated political tactics.

He is more of a champion of the Horde character now as Rexxar is who will always be there to support the Horde but he is sadly not fit to rule

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