I find it interesting that everyone seems to feel that Thrall's role in Cata was overdone (and there are some fair arguments for it), but that his place wasn't all that different than Tirion Fordring in Wrath, and yet I don't recall seeing such a backlash. There's actually quite a few similarities. He's a neutral hero with a long history fighting against everyone's common enemy, he's wicked powerful and wields a legendary weapon, more than half of questing in Icecrown revolved around him, he had a whole faction associated with him, and he was really the star good-guy of 3.2 and 3.3. IMO, all the complaints about Thrall could easily have been levied at Tirion Fordring not a year and a half ago.

My point is, from Blizzard's perspective everyone seemed to like putting an Alliance character into the neutral spotlight to be the grand opposition to the bad guy, and attempted to do something similar with Thrall. I guess I just don't understand why TF's near-ridiculous exposure in Wrath was all that different from Thrall in Cata. Malfurion received a similar treatment.

As for Tyrande, I agree that she needs more love, though I have to say I can't stand her new voice. I don't ever recall complaining about voice acting before in WoW (or any video game, I wiped for months on Sindy and it never bothered me), but the voice and the character just don't seem to align for me.

Tirion didn't have the Dragon aspects telling us that "there's no hope without Tirion" every 2 hours, a personalised questchain of his wife parroting his name, or power upgrades to be the saviour of the world.

@N-train:

At no point in Vanilla, TBC, or Wrath was Tirion Fordring part of the Alliance. I understand he was a neutral questgiver, giving quests to Horde as well as Alliance. He would not kill an orc just for coming near him.

Thrall, on the other hand, was the LEADER OF THE ENTIRE HORDE.

Their situations are in no way, shape, or form equivalent.

@N-train -

It's simple: Tirion Fordring was presented as a neutral character from Day One of Vanilla. He's just like the Wildhammer dwarves were prior to Cataclysm: not a member of the Alliance. "Human" =/= "Alliance", and the former Alliance of Lordaeron, of which Tirion *was* a part, is *not* the same as the current Alliance. Tirion started out in WoW offering quests in EPL that could be done by both Alliance and Horde players, and his neutrality continued into the founding of the Argent Crusade.

Thrall, on the other hand, *created the entire Horde faction* and was its supreme leader for many years.

It boils down to one guy who has always been neutral for the life of WoW, and one guy who was firmly of one faction and is now trying to be made "neutral".

Race does not automatically equal faction, except in the case of player characters.

@Al

So...what? are we suppose to have lead characters who have no way to affect the outcome of the story.

The PLANET! is...EXPLODING! The E-N-T-I-R-E PLANET is going to DIE. It didnt even need to be thrall. someone was going to be forced into that position. Thrall was just the most sensible person for that role since he is possibly the most powerful shaman on the planet and the person with the widest variety in experience. THe reason he was able to think of ideas that others could not.

Its just like the definition of a fake mary sue. its Someone that seems like a Mary Sue until you realize that everything about them fits perfect.

All it is , is people disliking having a character they cynically view as "The evil selfish company who makes this game"'s pet character becoming crucial to the the story hes been a part of for years. Just a buncha hipster knee-jerk reaction to your classes "Chosen Hero" trope.

CharacterS would be great.

With the planet exploding, I'd think they would have every Shaman there. Nobundo, Muln Earthfury (poor guy got one appearance: Thrall's wedding), all the Stormcaller red-shirts from the 80-85 zones. How about people who've actually dealt with Deathwing in the past, and the Demon Soul? Rhonin made more sense than Thrall, and Khadgar ripped off his plating with sheer will-power back in the day. Tirion had to share the stage with Darion, Brann, Rhonin, Bolvar, the Saurfangs, Garrosh, Varian, Thrall and the Forsaken.

Malfurion, Jarod Shadowsong and the Ancients popped in for one zone, and then never bothered us again. As for "The reason he was able to think of ideas that others could not", this is the same doofus who left Gallywix in charge of the Goblins, Sylvanas in charge of the Forsaken, and put Garrosh "Punchy McDouche" Hellscream in charge of the entire Horde. Pardon me if I don't see much talent in his forward thinking.