Zul'jan pathetic story / darkspear beard customization is missing yet / troll players suffering

Community General Discussion
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I just finished the questline, and then I read a bit about the expected future, and I am not happy at all. Right when the Midnight expansion was announced and I saw the Zul’jarra - Zul’jan sibling duo, I felt it in my gut that Zul’jan would be turned evil. I find this endlessly cliché; you guys screw over every single troll character. Vol’jin was killed, Rastakhan was killed, and now the exact same fate awaits Zul’jan? We are talking about an interesting, complex character who embodies Amani pride, anger, and ferocity. He could have had a grand journey from hatred to some form of understanding, and Arator’s self-sacrifice could have been the perfect catalyst for that.

Instead…
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…I have to read that he will most likely die in the next raid. At least all the datamined dialogues and files point directly to this. The only faint glimmer of hope is that he supposedly helps reseal the freed evil snake deity back into its prison at the very last second. But that is simply not enough, and I know I’m not alone in this disappointment. This is pathetic.

A TOTAL WASTE OF CHARACTER POTENTIAL. On top of that, Arator’s sacrifice is completely spat on, and the fanaticism of that neurotic Turalyon is proven right. If you want to kill Zul’jan off, there are a thousand more acceptable ways to do it. For example, he could have died during a joint fight with Arator against the Void. That would have deepened the relationship between the two peoples much better than the current Zul’jarra - Liadrin “girlboss” scenario.

I don’t know who the idiot was who came up with this umpteenth, boring, and endlessly pathetic “going crazy” excuse for a storyline, but why do you have to humiliate every single good troll character in such a vile way?

And are you deliberately messing with us, troll players? Most of the Amani models have beards, Vol’jin has a beard, a bunch of official concept art shows trolls with beards—yet Darkspear customization STILL doesn’t have them, even though we’ve been begging for it for over a decade.

This game sucks, yet I keep playing it, even though it only frustrates me.

Look, if Blizzard is hell bent on executing another fan-favorite troll leader, I demand emotional damages in the form of a kiss on our wounded souls and some sexy troll goatees as the bare minimum compensation.

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Morale of the story, roll a night elf, the superior branch.

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my main is a troll and i dont care.

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I totally agree with you. Zul’Jan just rejected the hug it all out storyline and they killed him for it. Blizzard has no media literacy.

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You knew as soon as he was introduced he’s going to cause something big and be either a raid boss or a dungeon boss. As i said on another thread same old. WoW’s story is as predictable as a (British) soap opera.

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As people pointed out in the other thread about this - all of this was set up well in advance, all of this was predictable, and all of this makes sense as a character arc. And I’ll repeat what I said in that thread too: a storyline makes sense and follows the established characterisation isn’t the same as a story that is desirablr or compelling.

It’s frustrating that a character like Sylvanas is allowed to continue unliving despite the multiple warcrimes and existential threat posed on a cosmic scale, that she can come in as an awful deus ex machina plot device to keep Arator and Vereesa alive and single handedly fight off the antagonist of the expansion and have an unearned moment of heroism - she gets to do all of that despite everything she’s done over years of in-universe atrocities.

What does Zul’jan - who’s name is only one letter off from Zul’jin hoho we are so clever in our foreshadowing wink wink - get to do? Well we get to know him over Zul’amans quests, where he acts rashly but does seem to genuinely care about his people’s future, at least as far as I remember- then he becomes a villain through the manipulation of another and… dies. That’s it. No amends, no chance at redemption, no development, no future where he offers some grounding and scepticism to his sister’s optimism - he’s just dead.

Does it make sense? Yes, as a storyline it one hundred percent does. Is it a waste of a potentially brilliant character and deeply unsatisfying to anyone who hoped this character would finally buck the trend of the Amani being vilified?

Yes.

I’m sad.

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Hey, that’s offensive!

…To Coronation Street!

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How is the character potentially brilliant. It’s a story template Blizzard has used time and time again. Side quests like Hogger and Gamon have more originality.

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You have a relative of a previous lore character and a major part of the leadership of the Amani who holds significant sway over the tribe and a rival voice to Zul’jaras new found faith. You have someone that is able and willing to push back against the sin’dorei, despite their current co-operation and someone who could have had a compelling character arc of redemption or rehabilitation. Instead he’s just another goon.

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When did this happen?

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The end cutscene of March of Quel’danas. Maybe “fight off” is a strong word - she fires an arrow at Xal’atath, they both do some (in my opinion) very cringey back-and-forths, and Xal’atath retreats because of course she does.

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She had to, the door was closing.

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I’ll be entirely honest the second I saw that arrow fly and that awful one liner from Sylvanas I kinda tuned out the rest of the raid and/or cinematic. I’m sure it’s justifiable, and if you like it, good for you - you’re not wrong if you do, but for me personally that moment absolutely killed what was otherwise a decent (albeit rushed) story.

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That’s what door wedges are for. They work for magical doors too!

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we killed the wedge.

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Could have been a fight off.

Could have seen Xal’atath and Sylvannas duke it out for a few seconds until Xal suddenly escapes through a narrowly closing door.

But nah, can’t make her look like she’s struggling.

There’s a reason why the Hallowfall end cinematic is still the best Xal’atath cinematic feature for me. Felt like she was still powerful, scary and domineering despite her trump card being scratched badly.

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Absolutely - I really thought that would be the turning point for her. Like, she’s always filled the role of a temptress - whispering power to those who seek it before ultimately betraying them once they’ve served their purpose or are proven too weak That should’ve been the point where she pivoted, realises she can’t manipulate Alleria as she thought she could, and goes full mask off - at least in my opinion.

If everything before that point could be compared to the illusion of Sif in Ulduar, messing with things from the sidelines - then the moment after that should’ve been her Yogg point where she starts actually trying to kill everything. Ah well.

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Blizz writing Zul’jan off like that just shows how little they know about their own playerbase. I do like Zul’jarra however I get the folk who’s complaining about the “girlboss” energy yet again.

For me the most outrageous aspect is that Blizz hasn’t even considered making the Amani playable race but gave us the forest hippies on steroids, the haranir.

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Nah, they’re setting up Sylvanas as being he savour just wait for it.

During the March cutscene Xal’atath was startled when Sylvanas arrived. Her arrangement with the Jailer must have given/made her some sort of kryptonite against the void.

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Don’t think it’s kryptonite per say. But Sylvanas does represent one thing that Xal’atath seems to fear - death. And it seems understandable if we take what she told Nexus King as half-truths instead of outright lying (which would be in line with her character, she rarely lies outright when truths and half truths are equally effective tools). Everything Xal’atath does seems to go towards her goal of securing her continuos existence at the top of the food chain.