Taran Zhu - a Big Disappointment

[Eazy]

Taran Zhu, lord of the Shado-pan.
To be honest when I met him first time he looked awesome for me, a lord of a ninja elite forces on Pandaria.
But the only problem was that in the time progression my excitation of him was going down.
He was sending his students to fight instead of doing that himself(daily quests), he was possessed by the Sha of Anger, eventually he lost his fight with Garrosh, who almost kill him. In the end he spared Warchief life and got him on the Trail of Pandaria,[SPOILER] and then he escaped.
The potential of this character was totally wasted for me, the only "badass" thing he said is:
"Your father dabbled in powers beyond reckoning. Where is he now?" (in the alternate timeline on the Draenor, duh?)
What do you guys think?

[Deleted]

Taran Zhu is a joke really

1. He can barely handle a few bugs without us
2. He gets taken over by a Sha and nearly dies
3. He gets beaten by a Thunder King minion and nearly dies
4. He gets beaten by Garrosh and nearly dies
5. He talks BS in order to get custody of Garrosh
6. He bloody loses Garrosh

[Trassk]

Agreed. I made a thread about Taran a while ago, and frankly, he's a character who lives off of the aspect of having done only one or two badass things, but outside of that nothing else he's done is really badass overall.
He is also a character of extreme double standards. It was HIM who got corrupted by the sha, but also him belching about how the outsiders are all weak and easily swayed by there emotions. We were the ones who fought against the pandarens ancient enemy the mogu and thunder king, but he kept telling us (the horde far more then the alliance) they had to go, leave the vale.

Yet, in a complete counter to this without any explanation when it happened, he barks at Garrosh about how other members of the horde have shown there worth.. so when he he learn this? When we saved his ass countless times?

Yeah, Garrosh destroyed the vale, but it was him and his followers. We destroyed the old gods heart and more of less freed pandaria from its corruption.. where he didn't really do much else but insult garrosh, get stabbed, then came and took him away when we already defeated him.

He kinda sucks as a character.

[wych]

Taran Zhu is a joke really

1. He can barely handle a few bugs without us
2. He gets taken over by a Sha and nearly dies
3. He gets beaten by a Thunder King minion and nearly dies
4. He gets beaten by Garrosh and nearly dies
5. He talks BS in order to get custody of Garrosh
6. He bloody loses Garrosh

This, Taran Zhu is an awful awful character.

All 3 times we saw him in a serious fight he lost and nearly died, I wish they would have killed him off. Maybe Garrosh can slice his head off and take Gorehowl back

[Faroth]

Of course, alternatively, if he was as bad ass as you likely imagined he should be, we'd be whining that we didn't do anything.

Keep in mind the bitch fit players threw over Tirion Fordring actually having a large role in finishing off Arthas while simultaneously calling it BS that he was frozen in ice the whole fight.

I can't tell if players want the NPCs to be supreme bad asses that handle everything for us so we don't have reason to run instances or if they want them to be completely irrelevant and never take part in the events.

[Trassk]

Well my vote for pandaren ruler goes to Cho anyway. Cho at least never overstepped his ground, and always had a far more positive outlook on things.

[Combatbutler]

I liked him, he finally told us what needed to be said, we are pests and wherever we tread war, destruction and misery follows.

[Faroth]

Well my vote for pandaren ruler goes to Cho anyway. Cho at least never overstepped his ground, and always had a far more positive outlook on things.

Cho was voiced by Jim Cummings. He's infused with awesomeness.

[wych]

Of course, alternatively, if he was as bad ass as you likely imagined he should be, we'd be whining that we didn't do anything.

Keep in mind the bitch fit players threw over Tirion Fordring actually having a large role in finishing off Arthas while simultaneously calling it BS that he was frozen in ice the whole fight.

I can't tell if players want the NPCs to be supreme bad asses that handle everything for us so we don't have reason to run instances or if they want them to be completely irrelevant and never take part in the events.

There's different ways of dealing with it, Akama and Maiev played roles in the Illidan fight but you didn't feel at any point that you weren't doing anything.

Tirion's involvement in the lich king fight felt ridiculous and was an awful deus ex machina, felt like something you'd see in DBZ or some other anime.

[Trassk]

I can't tell if players want the NPCs to be supreme bad asses that handle everything for us so we don't have reason to run instances or if they want them to be completely irrelevant and never take part in the events.

well, this is where world of warcraft fucks up its own story 99% of the time, because blizzard tries to find balance to make the player feel special in it, well still trying to develop lore characters.

Imagine in a situation, where police have a gunman cornered in a house, and you have a 15 year old egging the police on to kill him. So the police turn round, give the kid a gun and tell him to do it, they will follow his lead. But it plays out they shoot the gunman anyway, and the kid complains because he wanted to do it, or they they saved his ass from being shoot by the gunman.

Wow will never give a fair balance between the fantasy of the game, and the playerbase that plays it. Get to far into the story developing itself, the player complains its not about him, do to much where the players involved and the lore characters are not, and the player says the lore characters are useless and the stories shit.

And this is why things seemed better in vanilla, because the tone of the lore characters in wow vanilla was next to nothing, and the player got to feel like they were special.

[Travio]

Well my vote for pandaren ruler goes to Cho anyway. Cho at least never overstepped his ground, and always had a far more positive outlook on things.

We all know Cho is a bronze dragon in disguise anyways.

But yes, Taran Zhu is a large pile of fail. He tries to explain the lessons of Pandaria to us, only to not heed those lessons himself and repeatedly getting his ass kicked for it. It's no wonder he became possessed by a Sha, and even after it was defeated, he still held on to those same feelings.

[Faroth]

well, this is where world of warcraft fucks up its own story 99% of the time, because blizzard tries to find balance to make the player feel special in it, well still trying to develop lore characters.

Imagine in a situation, where police have a gunman cornered in a house, and you have a 15 year old egging the police on to kill him. So the police turn round, give the kid a gun and tell him to do it, they will follow his lead. But it plays out they shoot the gunman anyway, and the kid complains because he wanted to do it, or they they saved his ass from being shoot by the gunman.

Wow will never give a fair balance between the fantasy of the game, and the playerbase that plays it. Get to far into the story developing itself, the player complains its not about him, do to much where the players involved and the lore characters are not, and the player says the lore characters are useless and the stories shit.

And this is why things seemed better in vanilla, because the tone of the lore characters in wow vanilla was next to nothing, and the player got to feel like they were special.

Think I have to agree this falls under my general label "Blizzard doesn't believe in moderation."

I mean, think about heroics. Wrath they get faceroll, "make them harder pleaze," Blizz swings all the way to "every heroic is Shadow Lab" in Cata, "too hard!," Blizz goes to "faceroll with nobody ever seeing the content, AoE everything heroics" in MoP.

Same thing here. They don't do moderation too well.

Saurfang got Horde players really pumped up in Classic with essentially one real appearance where he did something.
For me, Tyrande set herself apart as the only racial leader to take action in Classic during the Anh'Qiraj Gates questline in Moonglade with Eranikus.

BC had Thrall and Rexxar appear and have a little bit of involvement, Alliance lore figures were just quest givers so Horde was okay (only okay) and Alliance was lacking on that spot.

Wrath was pretty damn good, I thought. Bolvar appearing in a quest to save you and some soldiers by emboldening you, not by handling it himself. The Wrathgate did good by both sides. ICC wasn't too bad up until Lich King, then it's arguable. I actually liked Tirion being so easily frozen and a last desperate attempt being all that saved him. Hell, he didn't even defeat Arthas, he got a lucky hit and the naaru-forged blade defeated the Legion-forged blade. The souls of Frostmourne defeated Arthas, not Tirion, not entirely us.

Cataclysm and MoP it became heavily focused on the lore figures and the players took a real side role.

[Deleted]

"Your father dabbled in powers beyond reckoning. Where is he now?" (in the alternate timeline on the Draenor, duh?)

*high fives the OP*

[Molestron]

This, Taran Zhu is an awful awful character.

All 3 times we saw him in a serious fight he lost and nearly died, I wish they would have killed him off. Maybe Garrosh can slice his head off and take Gorehowl back

As opposed to...I dunno...Thrall ?! He is disabled by the archbishop (There is only PAWAH!) in the dragon soul dungeon and the players must kill the archbishop, he is fucked up in the starting event of Firelands and turned into various elementals and needing the player to rescue him, and Garrosh kicks his ass in SoO.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Garrosh kicks his ass in SoO.

Yeah but messing with the elements. He knows he wouldn't be able to win. Garrosh knows it and he's a coward for it. But then again people would whine if Thrall had his powers and that he would be a Mary Sue.

[demonlock666]

How did he survive being strangled by a chain, impaled by Gorehowl, then left to die next to an exploding Sha well? I would've thought he died if I didn't saw him alive with a few bandages in the end cinematics later on.

[Deleted]

Taran Zhu is a joke really

1. He can barely handle a few bugs without us
2. He gets taken over by a Sha and nearly dies
3. He gets beaten by a Thunder King minion and nearly dies
4. He gets beaten by Garrosh and nearly dies
5. He talks BS in order to get custody of Garrosh
6. He bloody loses Garrosh

YOu dont see the pattern do you? hes so bad ass he NEVER dies! ^^

[Sky High]

he is almost blatantly marginalized in his role in MoP, all things mentioned so far are true. but that is what happens when he is part of the backdrop in terms of story.

[Dead_MAX]

I liked him, he finally told us what needed to be said, we are pests and wherever we tread war, destruction and misery follows.

That's why he is still a badass in my eyes. No matter what, he always was there to stand against something bad. (Thunder king, Sha of hatred, Garrosh) He always said exactly what he thought. (Opening the Vale, digging in the vale) But when others didn't agree with him, he did not force his will and walked off pissed....

His voice was his power...not his weapon (well ok, his weapon was kinda wierd). Exactly fitting this expansion. Well played Blizzard.

[Vongimi]

Think I have to agree this falls under my general label "Blizzard doesn't believe in moderation."

I mean, think about heroics. Wrath they get faceroll, "make them harder pleaze," Blizz swings all the way to "every heroic is Shadow Lab" in Cata, "too hard!," Blizz goes to "faceroll with nobody ever seeing the content, AoE everything heroics" in MoP.

Same thing here. They don't do moderation too well.

Saurfang got Horde players really pumped up in Classic with essentially one real appearance where he did something.
For me, Tyrande set herself apart as the only racial leader to take action in Classic during the Anh'Qiraj Gates questline in Moonglade with Eranikus.

BC had Thrall and Rexxar appear and have a little bit of involvement, Alliance lore figures were just quest givers so Horde was okay (only okay) and Alliance was lacking on that spot.

Wrath was pretty damn good, I thought. Bolvar appearing in a quest to save you and some soldiers by emboldening you, not by handling it himself. The Wrathgate did good by both sides. ICC wasn't too bad up until Lich King, then it's arguable. I actually liked Tirion being so easily frozen and a last desperate attempt being all that saved him. Hell, he didn't even defeat Arthas, he got a lucky hit and the naaru-forged blade defeated the Legion-forged blade. The souls of Frostmourne defeated Arthas, not Tirion, not entirely us.

Cataclysm and MoP it became heavily focused on the lore figures and the players took a real side role.

Haha yeah, they loooooooooooooooooovvvvvveeeeeee to swing the pendulum ALL the way to the other side whenever they do anything. Its a really odd philosophy. Sometimes it needs it though so it works in those cases.

And however much I did think it was kinda silly that tirion stays frozen the entire fight, only to "JK FREE" at the end, I actually overall LOVED the story of the fight with the Lich King. It is by far my favorite fight lorewise in the entire game. The only fight that we technically lose heh. I would have preferred he get distracted by having to fight something else off (maybe a frostwyrm drops in and grabs him, and at the end he crashes its corpse into the throne), I believe people would have complained because thats the same thing Akama did in BC.