I treat this small page as my personal feedback board where I add my concepts and thoughts. My subscription is out for over a year as I lost connection to this game and I no longer feel I could enjoy it. I was one of those fellows that paid a lot of attention to the story of the game and I was willing to put blind eye on many mistakes but then Warlords of Draenor came where I couldn’t wrap my head around it for many reasaons (I will probably refer to it later), and then Legion expansion event afterwards.
Vol’Jin’s death was the last straw for me. It’s not like I was his biggest fan or just liked him just because he was a troll – I liked his development in Mists of Pandaria and I wanted to see how far he can go with proper spotlight and attention given as he had some cool concepts about him that could be pushed further. His biggest issue was that he was always neglected in favor of ther more popular heroes so I was awaiting to see how it would be to see him getting atention similar to what Garrosh was given or Varian even. But nope, his development ended faster than it began, and the way he was disposed off was so insultingly stupid that it became a meme.
So the question is how can I treat the story seriously when writers themselves don’t? The trailer from 7.3. opened old wound and made me once again ask the screen “What was the point?”. I don’t see it at all. Why building him up from Cataclysm to become leader of the faction, make a book about him and put so many resources to flesh him out just to throw it off like some ragdoll. Why killing him in a way that completely contradicts his development and general characteristic he had so far?
They just thrown whatever reason to kill him and went with it. Forgetting that:
-Vol’Jin had a huge character progression after assasination, he was written to be far more careful and chose to keep the scar from wound on his throat as a reminder to always stay on guard.
– then he was fighting for a really long time head on against Zandalari warriors, showing incredible stamina, agility and caution.
And then on brokenshore he was killed like some unexperienced rookie and not seasoned fighter that he is. Not only that – a beginning priest quest for artifact weapon asks for curing the fel infection. What Vol’Jin had was cureable.
Writers also completely forgot that Vol’Jin had pact with Loas – so not just Bwonsamedi, Loa of the Dead, but other prominent ones like Shadra. He was meant to be their vessel to carry out their will. But nah again – why bother?
And even that broken tusk – this is a bone, it doesn’t break that easily – especially troll one. Many source materials claim that trolls are extremly sturdy, durable and hard to kill. And yet the game itself is showing something completely different, we faceroll through their capital cities and easily kill their prominent leaders. ( I will also refer that in the future) and the only developed character they kill in very humilating way.
It feels that this plot was written by someone that hates this particular character as even his funeral is handled completely wrong. Not only Darkspears were not in charge of handing it’s Chieftain’s remains but his body was also cremated which is against troll customs as they mummify and bury their dead.
But what is the most insulting is that this whole Broken Shore scenario and cinematics related to this event were focusing mainly on Sylvanas, she was the one who had major spotlight on her, and it was given at Vol’Jin’s expense. I really don’t mind for other leaders to have their time, I’m all for it, but not like this. Not when a character that is supposed to have much bigger role (Warchief) is neglected/ ignored so she could be shown as the competent and badass one. What is saddeing the most, even the scene where he finally kicks the bucket is also focusing on her rather to give him honors and show the fate of his tribe- as y’know after 12 years of development devs didn’t bother to build up Vol’Jin’s replacement that could take over the tribe. But then again, who cares? We have Illidan, Sylvanas, and now Alleria with Turalyon, so people will be thrilled, right? Let’s just forget about that insignificant but playable faction and move forward.
But I can’t.
His death can posibly mean death to a serious troll story development, it’s the end for a dream to unite all troll tribes or have at least some insightful connection to Zandalari. Now we’re at point zero, where once again we need to build a character from scratch to be recogniseable, and that takes time.
Good story writer uses all character’s potential before disposing him off, but Blizzard is more concerned about giving attention to heroes that were lucky to have quite good story about them in Warcraft 3. When they were given time and attention to be built up. You have to give character time to progress if you want for others to like it too, and you do it by writing good story for them.
I will add some conceptual stuff to adress how I think it should be done, but for now this should do.
Edit:
Oh man, I noticed that someone summarised it in much shorter way. Thank you sir.
Zandahan 