What do you good people make of Ranaan btw?
Do you mean the Researcher NPC in Zaralek Caverns (and Azure Span)? I loathe his personality and voice acting, it’s very obnoxious to me.
I wish he had been less zany after Azure Span, as the lack of seriousness sort of created problems that ended up with his friend having to sacrifice himself to save Rannan.
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Same, though I’m biased; he reminds me, in looks and ‘zany’ attitude, of someone on my course back at Uni.
Very much non neurotypical, but in the ‘This Sheldon character is so rude people will find him hilarious!’ way that… isn’t. At all. Tooth-achingly frustrating.
Ranaan is actually better than him, in that respect…
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Voiced by Taliesin Jaffe, who also voices Darion Mograine, Admiral Ripsnarl & Sarkareth apparently.
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This is true of virtually every character in Dragonflight.
Andestrasz gets a shout out for being the most insufferable, though.
Especially Chromie someone shoot Chromie please for the love of all that is sacred. But yes Rannan is more obnoxious than Chromie.
ALSO! Speaking of Dragonflight characters, why are there so many of these Dracthyr portrayed as meek or timid or giggly or otherwise mundane manic pixie dream girl “woke” writer self insert trope, when they’re meant to be Deathwing’s supersoldiers and an army bred for war?
Maybe he abandoned the project after realising all of his dracthyr superkillers wanted to be oversized bartenders or bakers in Stormwind instead.
Personally, I do not have an issue with this at all. Dragonflight’s core story, especially with the Dracthyr, is centered on identity and what it means for people. I think thats a nice story personally. Especially after something that was nothing but doom and gloom like Shadowlands.
I also think the Dracthyr makes sense for this too. Their whole thing is that they were created for one purpose, one that no longer is needed to exist & long since defunct. And they now need to decide where they fit in the world. Find themselves.
Plus, it works well with them able to shapeshift. My only criticism here is that the visage form is so limited.
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I think visages are a bad analogue for intrinsic identity, semiologically. They’re very… cosmetic.
I was happy to see Emberthal reject the need for them. Is that still a spoiler?
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Eh, Chromie notwhitstanding I don’t think much of Dragonflight’s voice acting was bad. Okay, scratch that, I also hate the introductory quests. You’re telling me, the Alliance’s expeditionary force is some mechagnome who’s randomly about to fall off the ledge of a wall, some Kul Tiran, and someone else I forgot? And then the researcher is another obnoxious (though I suppose, fittingly) gnome?
The first dwarf also has weird sound mixing, as if her VA had to record the lines in her bedroom or whatnot.
Honestly, the first few quests of the expansion were probably some of the worst in the entire expansion lmao.
Not sure I really noticed this, though. If anything, I found the Dracthyr and their voice acting to be one of the better parts of the expansion. It’s really funny how Sarkareth’s VA is the same who voices Rannan. I guess the fault is not with the VA, but just whoever decided ‘the most annoyingly obnoxious person ever’ is going to be the main guy you hear when flying around in the Caverns.
But Dracthyr being ‘super woke pixie dream girl’ tropes is confusing to me. If anything, it’s a little grating how they go on about being Neltharion’s silliest soldiers bred for war.
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I don’t think they’re too bad. As a mechanic, they’re fun if limited, as a narrative device, they work well enough, as some people really likes to express and find their identity by appearance and cosmetics in real life.
I agree with you though on the spoilers, I think it was really good to include that. It shows once again, what identity can mean to people.
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It pulls me away from the story when you have a cool cinematic with rows of badass dragon KILLAZ and then I’m meant to believe that within a span of weeks all of these people just decided to use real-life tumblr lingo etc? And this motif of SEARCHING for identity is very rarely present. Or rather, the struggle of finding an identity after being bred in a lab with the purpose of killing the world. It’s clumsy storytelling. I like the core concept and I like the identity motif, but I despise every single thing about the execution and also all of this gigglification of the game started taking place after the sex scandal so it’s essentially tokenism and virtue signalling, which I really wouldn’t care about if it wasn’t literally devastating a setting and lore that I love.
Also where’s the coarse, rough and rugged dracthyr in their coarse, rough and rugged visages? Where’s all the killaz who can’t seem to fit into society because they want to DO BATTLE AND RIP THINGS TO SHREDS and not just on account of some mysterious vague external influence but because they simply are that way? Maybe there’s a couple out there, maybe I haven’t done enough side quests.
Well, my remarks were more about the random NPCS that you see around the Isles and their quest/idle text.
Alexstrasza’s voice direction was terrible in Dragonflight. They had her speaking weirdly slow and measured, I’m guessing to try to project serene wisdom or the like, but it just made her seem really sleepy and a little bored.
As much as Wendee Lee sucks as a person, she’s a veteran voice actor with decades of decent performance, so it was definitely a direction choice, not an acting issue.
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He is apparently meant to be a huge reference to a character( I will guess the VA’s own) from Vox Machina/Critical Role. I can’t say myself as I have never watched it and don’t intend to(I’ve heard its good, but I just dont like the concept personally of watching other people’s campaigns. It does very little for me. I prefer playing).
But thats the whole point of their story. It’s more to them than simply being soldiers and tools of war. Especially when said war no longer exist, if it did at all.
Not at all. If you want to go contextual, you can draw parallels to Frakenstein here. Creatures created in a lab, by someone who didn’t consider them more beyond their creation. But still creatures with feelings and emotions, far beyond their creator’s thoughts and believes.
It’s a deep story and I think its a good one.
There’s alot of Dracthyr that are absolute badass. The ones you are referring to are maybe if you’re generous, like 5 characters. Most one-time side ones.
Also I will be honest, I am getting really off-putting vibes with all the buzzwords such as
It’s really rubbing me the wrong way.
Edit:
I think this is not really correct and kinda over exaggerating quite alot. Creating a dozen of more inclusive characters and a single expansion story about self-identity is hardly “devestating” a setting. Especially when it’s not even changing or altering any pre-existing lore.
It’s completely new stuff both in terms of location, characters and races. Nothing of what you previously loved about Warcraft has been touched. So it feels really disingenuous to get mad at stuff “ruining” what you love when its not even touching it.
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for the record its taliesein jaffe who also voiced darian mograine in shadowlands.
and yes your spot on hes a refference to a character talliesin played in one of their campaigns. the vast majority of their players are wow va’s afterall
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He does a good job as Mograine. So with Rannan its a writing and voice direction issue I think.
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I think he tends to a good job in general. any XIV veterans will also remember him as the original VA of Thancred before Peter Bramhill, who was arguably one of the better voiced scions of the time.
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In Frankenstein nobody likes the creature and he suffers for it. His search for identity revolves around him being ill-fitting and rejected on account of his appearance. Everybody likes the Dracthyr, they’re super hot, and everybody makes friends with them right away. Where’s the struggle, Lebowski? Also they were made with a purpose that they failed in, unlike the Creature who was made for the sake of being made.
- be made
- maker things ur lame
- maker shelves you
- wake up, get freed, immediately introduced into a new society that adores and comforts you
- decide to be a giddy research assistant to a goblin
Name two! And not as some weird challenge gotcha thing, I’m genuinely curious and want to go exploring. Like I said, I like the concept of the dracthyr but everything I’ve seen in practice disappointed me.
u DonT paY My sUb and therefor I decide what ruins something for me. I don’t mind a narrative revolving around a search for identity because I can very much relate to that. I don’t mind inclusivity because I know how it feels being left out and misrepresented in media on three different counts of association. What I mind is it being done in what I like to think is the wrong way. A way that I don’t appreciate, if you would.
Yes, much of what I loved about Warcraft has been touched and not just in this last expansion. There’s clearly been a shift in narrative and hopefully with the hack Danuser fired we can steer the ship back on track.
What rubs me the wrong way is Blizzard introducing characters into WoW who speak like they’re interdimensional travellers, having arrived there through a wormhole from an egregore of Twitter.
What also rubs me the wrong way is this subtext of accusation you’re touting. Did you mean to imply I’m some kind of deranged redpill bro? Ah, if you only knew. But I’ve talked about my personal life plenty enough on the forums before. All you need to know is that I am Crazymon, your gender neutral quasi-neurotypical forum blogposter.
Ok. 
There’s plenty of struggle. There is a strong divide among their own kin for one. And there’s a pretty big questline focusing directly on that alot of Dracthyr feel like they are not treated or viewed well by the dragons. There’s an entire rebellion arc focusing on that they feel underappreciated and “lesser” due to how many dragons treat them and disregard them.
Plus, Azeroth is a very fantastical setting. It would not make sense for people to go “Aagh, monsters!” upon seeing them. It’s not that type of world.
I’m gonna be a little lazy immediatly and say Sarkareth and Emberthal. In terms of minor characters, I don’t know the name of them exactly but many little sidequests involve often fairly burly looking, strong and imposing Dracthyr. Especially around waking shore.
No, but I also find that an extremly weak comeback and that’s all I say there.
You don’t have to agree with everything, this is more than fair and true. But what you perceive as the wrong way, others think is pretty good and correct. Like myself. But you speak or atleast spoke as if it was hard-fact that your viewpoint of this was the correct, and only correct one.
You say this, but I again then say, why are you then getting so angry and to be blunt, using extremely common alt-right buzzwords to complain about others being included? It feels like it is exactly the opposite if what you are saying.
There was alot of his story decisions and writing I did not agree with, but to blame everything on him and saying “WARCRAFT IS GOOD AGAIN!” without him is kinda weird. He did also directly write some stuff that people overall thought was very good and was well-received too.
We should also not forget that Metzen was heavily criticized as well before his original departure for many things. Alot of writers(and people) have both good and bad to them.
Good observation.
To be blunt again, based entierly on the very specific words you’re choosing to use and the things you’re complaining about, yes.
If you’re not and absolutely do not intended to be viewed as such, I heavily recommend thinking through how you phrase yourself.
Jumping in with a topic to very passionately complain about inclusivity either just exisiting(or being done wrong) and using some really specific & inflammatory phrases and words that are almost exclusively only used by a very specific group of people is a really good way to get people to think you fit in with said group of people.
Yeah
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“Woof.”
Faced with a type, some folks just melt.
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That’s the Dragonkin, who also latched onto the Sundered Flame because the SF were providing an alternative to the Aspects. Primalists also tapped into these woes as well.
Dracthyr as a whole suffer from MCU tier writing (thanks Danuser for ruining what could have been a great race conceptually). There’s no build up, there’s no tension its all instant payoff and gratification. It makes the recent visage day quest with Emberthal feel completely superfluous and out of place, the character has never experienced any sort of persecution or angst over what it meant to be a Dracthyr, that was resolved very early on and ultimately became the crutch on which said character pivoted on in Embers of Neltharion.
At the least we can expect less cosmicism and ‘muh feelies’ and more big epic threats and decent worldbuilding. Metzen is no genius but he knew how to get the big beats of a story right and how to work verisimilitude.
Speaking of which the
Are completely allergic to this concept. Everything to them has to be rooted in the real world you know? Can’t go five minutes without making some sort of vapid social commentary that adds nothing to the character and just jars your own sense of immersion and escapism.
And it’s leaking into RP as well. Just last night I’m on my mage trying to have a private conversation with another character and some bungling Dracthyr twitter roleplayer barges up to us and starts demanding an ‘apology’ because they were ‘offended’. Not personally offended but defending someone’s ‘honour’ offended.
They even went /e ignores the mage when I tried to input on the situation. Utterly vexatious sorts seem drawn to Dracthyr like the edgelords of eld were to Death Knights and Demon Hunters.
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