As I said, it’s my opinion, but I simply can’t get around a character whose trademark trait is a complete shallowness that best case scenario is about an acting mouthpiece for the absurd and incongruous moralist speech that tries to force down our throats this second round of Horde existential crisis.
Unlike Nazgrim, or other characters who grew into their roles, there is close to zero background or relevance to Zekhans character.
He does nothing except being Saurfangs yes-man, and not once has he even remotely had any sort of attempt at reconnecting or even acknowledging the race he is part of.
He is, as of now, an extension of Saurfang. A mere prop that has been thrown into the mix to voice the concerns and views that would be to awkward for Saurfang to voice himself. It’s like they gave him his exclusive fanboy and a physical representation of the kind of message that Blizzard is trying to pass players. His personal cheerleader.
Sorry but I can’t take that seriously enough to consider it a valid alternative or route to appease me when it comes to Darkspear development. Specially when the serious characters that have an established background and aren’t tied to the “clever messaging” Blizzard wants to lecture us about regarding war, are being sorely neglected or ignored.
Yeah, I started buying the whole premise of his character as one with potential. But patches have passed, and his most relevant trait is still him waving his pom-poms behind Saurfang.
And given the overall theme of the expansion, I’m just unwilling to give Blizzard the benefit of doubt anymore.
I don’t want to settle with shallowness and “potentially great stories”. I want good characters. And I don’t want to wait until Blizzard feels like turning their memes into such.
Ps: Sounded super salty hahaha. Not the case btw, and I understand if my view isn’t widely shared. These are just my thoughts.
Ps2: Sorry for derailing your thread Wimbert. I’ll try to refrain from now on.
I see him as promising good character and very relatable. He is not Saurfang’s yes man as he stood up to him in the cinematic that properly introduced him.
And what “patches had passed” you speak as if he appeared over and over but he didn’t - he appeared only once to save the guy that saved his life. PC also oved Saurfang one for Borean Tundra after all.
I agree that his placement was odd and it was done in purpose to make people more eagerly side with orc but that is just one case, one appearance - I do find it hysterical to want to kill a character because of that. We don’t know how it will continue. And I find it welcoming that there is youngling as a new char.
You complain that he is not showing proper race narrative. Well Darkspears started off as orc side kicks for years their narrative was shared with orc narrative to this day people are stuggling to understand what it means to be a Darkspear as devs themselves for many years didn’t know that. And I’d question if they still do seeing how they handled Vol’Jin.
I don’t see him as shallow when he shown that he is standing against greater odds and that he is capable of questioning authorities not just Sylvanas but Saurfang too. He is deffinietly more Darkspear and More Horde than Zen’Kiki a character that was introduced as a joke and his entire niche was to be funny.
Zekhan was planned ahead for cinematics they were not aware that he would gain such popularity and people are meming about plenty of already established characters. Sylvanas has more memes than Zekhan but nobody calls her meme character.
So I agree witith Wimbert and Aditu that this judgement is wayy to harsh.
Don’t worry on my behalf, it soesn’t look as if I overlooked much information about the patch, and the discussion will be what it will be. And I would much rather see Team Saurfang discussed here than Sylvanas or how exactly Night Elves will be negatively affected no matter what happens.
Lets just agree to disagree, as my opinion is basically founded on my own views and I presume you have yours too.
I’ll just add, that regarding this part:
I may have been a bit hyperbolic when I first talked about him. I just feel like him dying would have the same effect on me as Saurfang losing a hand (as I consider Zekhan but an extension of Saurfangs character and story).
It’s not as if I’m wishing his death. I just wouldn’t mind it happening.
Gave up on expecting something good coming out of said sort of characters. Call it BfA fatigue if you will, but I’m just tired of “waiting and seeing” while hoping things might come around in the future.
Night Elves had a victory in Darkshore, and forsaken troops left all Night Elves territories. Moon turns back to white, and Elune like with Ysera takes all the souls of dead Kaldorei in to starts. Including Delaryn and other traitors too. Such an incredible act of forgiveness.
After that Malorne together with Malfurion cast some spell, and we see finally the thing that this game didn’t had for a long time - The power of the Life! Trees start to rise, with flowers and e.t.c Everything becomes alive, transforming Darkshores in to a second Ashenvale forest.
In the end they show a ship, with Night Elves civilians coming back home. And a little baby “Finel” looks on all that nature, holding a hand of Tyrande.
And this music on a background:
But knowing that most of the Blizzard team are bearded Hard Rock fans, with a tattoo of a scull, probably we will see that the land is dead. Darkshores will become a new home for some undead monsters.
Well, it is not impossible that something similar will indeed happen and imagine, I wouldn’t begrudge you that in the least.
Everyone deserves to have good things from time to time, and certainly, we all deserve better storytelling than what we got in bfa. Even the undead monsters
Well, we’re at least at the stage where we can expect no more real changes on the PTR. All new features are accounted for, with the exception of the hidden War Campaign. So while it doesn’t have to drop next week, it could drop any week, and the patch notes do seem like a real hint.
Not that this is a big hint, but I do find three things mildly interesting:
It’s Team Saurfang. Baine and Thrall aren’t mentioned. That might underline that they are support staff in this conflict and not main players. That, or they just used it as a shorthand…
Same for the Alliance. The big name is Anduin, Jaina isn’t mentioned.
“Banshee Queen” Sylvanas. They aren’t even calling her Warchief here.
But yeah, if the War Campaign is ending, it sounds as if the war is ending. That seems to imply that the result will be something the Alliance as a whole is willing to accept. Which opens the way to make the factions less pivotal for the game, in the future at least.
Well, I would at least hope that they burned their hands on BfA enough never to go for an “open faction warfare” scenario again, and at least learn to stick to little conflicts instead of genocidal world wars…
