Draka is a stupid choice to try to make important in Shadowlands

[Fistfighter]

Why would Thralls presence in SL need to be justified?

He is one of the highest ranking hordes if not the highest ranking orc alive. He has been an off/on main character in warcraft since wc3. We have seen him and his parents in movie. His accomplishments are the stuff of legend.

Why are people acting like he is a has been? Isnt it just to justify you hating on wow lore?

Because Thrall already had about 12 full storyarch conclusions. The character is already completly dried of any potential, each time they drag him out of literal retirement just to have a familiar name on the roster. The dude retired like 6 times already, just let him be, he cannot do anything interesting anymore, he's done it all already.

[DemonHunter18]

Draka calling us mortals smh.

[Claymore]

Maby she was put there to chain a story with her son... Thrall...
You know... Developing more the story... Helping him regaining his powers back...

Thrall already got to meet his mother once. I think you're probably right, that's there INTENTION for her, but I also think that it is... well, problematic and a tad irresponsible, on top of just being a waste of potential.

First off, Draka is a nobody. She was a nobody in OUR universe (in Rise of the Horde, she's not even some particularly noteworthy warrior), and she was equally unimportant in the Alternate timeline. That doesn't make her "bad", but she's ultimately not important, and in an expansion where were are delving into the literal afterlife of Warcraft, we should ONLY be interacting with People of Great Interest.

Orgrim, Grom, Broxidar, Lothar -- there are countless choices that would've been EXCITING choices to see! And yet somehow, Draka is the ONLY one that makes the cut? And again, given that she magically became a Rogue in the animated short, I also believe she was intended to be Garona.

The "problematic" part is that Thrall, who has already lived a pretty full life and dealt with so many trials and met so many people, the idea that it's going to take his mother -- who was NEVER a part of his life -- to "fix him" is kind of a shitty message, imo. It's the same problem I had with Jaina's storyline in BFA; I think it was great seeing how vulnerable Jaina was around her mother, but I think it would've been much more meaningful for Jaina to have to deal with the fact her mother doesn't love her, rather than "oh Jaina just has to win her over, and everything's peachy!".

Just my two cents.

[Dalheim]

I haven't met her yet, but I sincerely hope she isn't voiced by the lady that does EVERY SINGLE female orc voice for once.

Draka is voiced by Lenore Andriel - who voiced her in Warlords of Draenor.

She's not voiced by Lani Minella, who voices Zaela and other female orcs in general.

[TheVaryag]

Honestly, this is just so, so baffling to me. Draka has fuck-all to do with anything or anyone. Nobody cares about Draka, nobody WANTS to get to know her. She is utterly meaningless and unimportant to the lore.

Trying to make her into some major player in the Lore is just a dumb move.

My personal pick would have been having the Four Horsemen be our "guides" into each of the four new Covenants, as that seems a lot more thematically appropriate. But hey, aside from looking super weird and blue, seeing Uther again could be exciting. A good Maldraxxus counterpoint to that, in my opinion, would've been Alexandros Mograine. He would've had far more to offer the story, and brings a reputation with him all the same.

Or hell, if they really wanted an Orc, why not Orgrim Doomhammer? Hell, his name is practically a perfect fit for a "Necrolord". I could also see Grom Hellscream (which admittedly, I'd be excited for, if only to hear his WoD VA pick the mantle back up).

Draka is just SUCH a weird choice, I can't possibly imagine what they hope to achieve, other than some forced "mother-son moments" with Thrall at some point.

Eh... I dunno. Just seems like a wasted opportunity, and I have zero interest in "learning more about her plight".

Still waiting for Blizz to explain why she ain't a skeleton or big buff dudet like the other Necrolords, and where's Durotan. Isn't she curious about that too, what -did- they tell her of Durotan's fate? Or even Go'el, does she feel the need to rebel and runaway from the Shadowlands to find her son? Can she even do that and survive without being outside of the Shadowlands for too long? Or maybe she can and just needs to feed on anima like a weird Death Knight... THAT would be interesting to find out.

But for that, we'd need actually good writers for Blizzard. And until their "Gameplay first, Story second" mantra ends, we can't do shiz about it story SHOULD BE FIRST, with the rest of the games elements surrounding it like a sun. You build the game around the story and it can grow naturally, but nobody told Blizzard and clearly Steve Deneuser or Chris Metzen never heard of World building or story telling beyond their lil' Blizzard bubble.

[Dalheim]

Still waiting for Blizz to explain why she ain't a skeleton or big buff dudet like the other Necrolords

Because you can choose to keep your old form.

Lady Vashj could have chosen to use her night elf form in the afterlife, she chose to stay a naga because it was in that form that she was recognized and rewarded for her cunning and resolve, as opposed to being a simple handmaiden only valued for her beauty as a night elf.

[Darknessvamp]

Because you can choose to keep your old form.

Lady Vashj could have chosen to use her night elf form in the afterlife, she chose to stay a naga because it was in that form that she was recognized and rewarded for her cunning and resolve, as opposed to being a simple handmaiden only valued for her beauty as a night elf.

Isn't their current form just a flesh golem that they chose to have made in their desired form? This is what I don't get about Maldraxxus, there's some parts that say they can just choose their appearances and other's that say it's all fleshcrafted and Maldraxxians have some sort of 1Up system where their souls can be popped out of their flesh golem when they 'die' and another can just be made to contain it. Like with that slaughter daughter character that you have to Build-a-bod for after she lost her previous one due to 'dying'.

[Dalheim]

Isn't their current form just a flesh golem that they chose to have made in their desired form? This is what I don't get about Maldraxxus, there's some parts that say they can just choose their appearances and other's that say it's all fleshcrafted and Maldraxxians have some sort of 1Up system where their souls can be popped out of their flesh golem when they 'die' and another can just be made to contain it. Like with that slaughter daughter character that you have to Build-a-bod for after she lost her previous one due to 'dying'.

Not sure.

I guess some are simply constructed and their souls shoved in - and thus can get a new body if they need/want one. No idea how it works though..

[Swnem]

Many of the old characters are shoehorned in.

In a realm where no one ages, it is unlilely that the kills of the last 10 years or so rose up to places of promince. These cameos could have been new characters. The cameos could have been grunt level soldiers. It all feels a bit off.

[Cronovey]

Thrall already got to meet his mother once. I think you're probably right, that's there INTENTION for her, but I also think that it is... well, problematic and a tad irresponsible, on top of just being a waste of potential.

First off, Draka is a nobody. She was a nobody in OUR universe (in Rise of the Horde, she's not even some particularly noteworthy warrior), and she was equally unimportant in the Alternate timeline. That doesn't make her "bad", but she's ultimately not important, and in an expansion where were are delving into the literal afterlife of Warcraft, we should ONLY be interacting with People of Great Interest.

Orgrim, Grom, Broxidar, Lothar -- there are countless choices that would've been EXCITING choices to see! And yet somehow, Draka is the ONLY one that makes the cut? And again, given that she magically became a Rogue in the animated short, I also believe she was intended to be Garona.

The "problematic" part is that Thrall, who has already lived a pretty full life and dealt with so many trials and met so many people, the idea that it's going to take his mother -- who was NEVER a part of his life -- to "fix him" is kind of a shitty message, imo. It's the same problem I had with Jaina's storyline in BFA; I think it was great seeing how vulnerable Jaina was around her mother, but I think it would've been much more meaningful for Jaina to have to deal with the fact her mother doesn't love her, rather than "oh Jaina just has to win her over, and everything's peachy!".

Just my two cents.

She actually does have some developed lore in the graphic novels that were released with a bunch of short stories; the entire point of her character is that she was actually born frail and sickly and overcomes these things through hard work and dedication to her Frostwolf tribe by completing a bunch of trials laid out to her by a shaman, becoming powerful enough that Orgrim asks Durotan who she is and that he would claim her as his wife if they were of the same tribe.

Unfortunately, none of that information is available in game at all which makes her really feel like a nobody character when there's actually a little backstory there.

I do feel like she was probably an odd choice though and I'm hoping that we get more information in later patches that explain why she was the one chosen to represent the story of Maldraxxus. The problem with some of the other characters listed here like Grom or Orgrim is that they would probably have gone to Revendreth because of his pride, similar to how Garrosh is there right now. Pride is a very common trait in orcs and especially their warrior-type characters so I'd imagine that a lot of them probably end up in Revendreth (if not some other Shadowland zone we haven't seen yet).

Honestly I'd have preferred that they just make Vashj the main character of the zone and had Draka as the side chick instead. I feel like it would have made a much more compelling and relatable story, especially if there's a reunion between her and the redeemed Kael'thas at some point later in the expansion with some dialogue about working together under Illidan or the players telling them of Illidan's revival and his "completion" of his mission against Sargeras. Would have made for a really cool moment to wrap up a story a long time in the making and tie it all in a nice bow for now.

[Edit] Especially because my personal theory is that killing Argus at the end of Legion is what broke the "machine of death" as he was the Death related Titan and judging by the Arbiter being shut down by a big flash of red and Argus going big red in the mythic (and thus canonical) version of the raid fight before being killed, my best guess is that the soul of Argus is the reason that the Arbiter stopped working properly. Giving Vashj and Kael'thas a summary of what happened with Illidan (which I assume they'd be interested in since they worked toward the same goal for a while) and thus revealing the fate of Argus to them and figuring out that the reason everything stopped working is that with their help, it would really tie it all together nicely.

Feel good moment for them seeing their master's mission completed, reveals the reason things are fucky in the Shadowlands, and ties it all together with where most of the death realm stuff began. Hell, you could even say that Sylvanas had the whole thing planned from the beginning of Legion when she met with Helya and that it was all a part of her evil genius master plan and that Helya instructed her to find a way to kill Argus if you REALLY wanted to pull it all together conveniently.

[Bovinity Divinity]

It's kinda dumb in the first place that out of the multitudes of the dead across the eons and stars, the important figures in the afterlife just happen to be all the same people we personally knew and interacted with over one tiny sliver of time on one tiny planet.

[Adam Jensen]

Doesnt matter how hard you try, but Draka is just not interesting. She is not cool and never will be.. she is doomed from the start just like that horrible Talanji character.

Draka sucks.

You know how forgettable BFA is?

I read your post and immediately thought "who the fuck is Talanji?"

I honestly, for a moment, forgot Princess Talanji existed. And five minutes after this post, probably will have gotten back to having forgotten her.

[Triceron]

Also because if they didn't use Draka then every prominent lore figure in Shadowlands would be a human or an elf.

OP just suggested a bunch of other prominent Orc characters that could have been used. The point is Draka isn't the only non-human/elf character they could have went with.