World of Warcraft®

"To stand in the way of nature is heresy, even when nature is destructive."
Malfurion Stormrage was the first of the mortal druids on Azeroth, and the night elf who initiated the mainstream use of druidism among the kaldorei people ten millenia ago under tutelage of the demigod Cenarius. Through Malfurion's guidance, the night elves successfully halted the Burning Legion's first invasion of Azeroth during the legendary War of the Ancients. In its aftermath, he became the greatest of the world's archdruids. Malfurion Stormrage is the twin brother of Illidan Stormrage, as well as the loving and beloved husband of the high priestess of Elune, Tyrande Whisperwind. Together, the two have represented the highest leadership of the night elves ever since the fall of Queen Azshara and her Highborne caste.
Malfurion is often referred to as Shan'do, which means "honored teacher" in Darnassian. Connected deeply to the ebbs and flows of life on Azeroth and bearing ages of responsibility and wisdom, Malfurion is one of the mightiest and most venerated mortals of the Warcraft universe.


I see that from all that hate on the forums that people generally do bot like the great druid, But why...?He's one of the reasons why Azeroth is here!What do you have against him?Please..tell me I'm new here!You might aswell show me the ropes!

You must be new around here!

I'll shorten most of the arguments by saying, he cares nothing for the safety of his people, and willingly lets them die while not even lifting a finger to save them. He hardly even tries to protect his own wife when she comes under attack.

03/18/2014 08:14 AMPosted by Madelynn

He hardly even tries to protect his own wife when she comes under attack.

can you blame him?

03/18/2014 08:10 AMPosted by Elthrendas

"To stand in the way of nature is heresy, even when nature is destructive."

Regardless of the person, the above quote is disgusting in every way. As a real person, I believe that we can, and are obligated to, alter the course of nature if it means saving lives from destruction. I have no respect for Malfurion if this horrendous quote is from him.

Because he has silly bird arms.

I still have some affection for Furion, but:

1. His solution to 90% of problems is to blow up a country.
2. His kneejerk antagonism to Illidan (and to be fair, Illidan is also a tool) undermined the one chance we had at destroying the Frozen Throne before Arthas ascended to full power as the Lich King.
3. He's pretty consistently a jerk to his wife; I have no real idea why they're together.
4. He's just generally preachy and arrogant, which are terrible traits in a teacher. Is he still considered a teacher? Who are his students? Has he taught anyone anything in the last ten thousand years? Or is he like those professors who haven't done research in a decade but hang on teaching a single course with enrolment of like four people for three months a year so they can keep calling themselves Shan'do?

03/18/2014 08:27 AMPosted by Harkanon

2. His kneejerk antagonism to Illidan (and to be fair, Illidan is also a tool) undermined the one chance we had at destroying the Frozen Throne before Arthas ascended to full power as the Lich King.

It would have also flooded the world and killed off the Taunka/Frost Dwarves and probably release Yog Saron

03/18/2014 08:27 AMPosted by Harkanon

Has he taught anyone anything in the last ten thousand years?

Hamuul Runetotem

Do you mean Stormrage the character or Stormrage the book?

I don't think people hate Malfurion per se. I think a lot of people hate what has happened to Tyrande as a result of Blizz trying to develop Malfurion.

Malfurion has always been depicted as suffering greater or lesser degrees of emotional constipation. Tyrande had to practically hang a sign around her neck saying "I love Malfurion" before he even really noticed. And he was always pretty cold and aloof towards his own people. Even to the point of living as a semi-hermit in the days immediately prior to the WotA.

He has also always been blunt to the point of rudeness, even with Tyrande. The real issue is how Tyrande and others have handled it since WC3. In WC3 when Tyrande decides to free Illidan Malfurion says no, even saying he "forbids" it. Tyrande replies by telling him to piss off and only Elune can deny her anything. That was an awesome scene because it showed Tyrande as an independent woman able make leadership decisions.

Since WC3 Tyrande's independence has been sacrificed repeatedly for the sake of male characters, not just Malfurion. Tyrande was a well-beloved character and seeing her personality mutilated into a 2D old-school Disney princess that needs saving and guidance from a man to function is insulting to a lot of us.

Every male character that Tyrande interacts with on a personal level gets some of this hate but since Malfurion is the one she interacts with the most he gets most of the hate.

03/18/2014 08:39 AMPosted by Aurric

Do you mean Stormrage the character or Stormrage the book?

The Character.

03/18/2014 08:40 AMPosted by Telonis

I don't think people hate Malfurion per se. I think a lot of people hate what has happened to Tyrande as a result of Blizz trying to develop Malfurion.

Malfurion has always been depicted as suffering greater or lesser degrees of emotional constipation. Tyrande had to practically hang a sign around her neck saying "I love Malfurion" before he even really noticed. And he was always pretty cold and aloof towards his own people. Even to the point of living as a semi-hermit in the days immediately prior to the WotA.

He has also always been blunt to the point of rudeness, even with Tyrande. The real issue is how Tyrande and others have handled it since WC3. In WC3 when Tyrande decides to free Illidan Malfurion says no, even saying he "forbids" it. Tyrande replies by telling him to piss off and only Elune can deny her anything. That was an awesome scene because it showed Tyrande as an independent woman able make leadership decisions.

Since WC3 Tyrande's independence has been sacrificed repeatedly for the sake of male characters, not just Malfurion. Tyrande was a well-beloved character and seeing her personality mutilated into a 2D old-school Disney princess that needs saving and guidance from a man to function is insulting to a lot of us.

Every male character that Tyrande interacts with on a personal level gets some of this hate but since Malfurion is the one she interacts with the most he gets most of the hate.

/gasps
Eeeeeee!
/hugs

03/18/2014 08:40 AMPosted by Telonis

I don't think people hate Malfurion per se. I think a lot of people hate what has happened to Tyrande as a result of Blizz trying to develop Malfurion.

Malfurion has always been depicted as suffering greater or lesser degrees of emotional constipation. Tyrande had to practically hang a sign around her neck saying "I love Malfurion" before he even really noticed. And he was always pretty cold and aloof towards his own people. Even to the point of living as a semi-hermit in the days immediately prior to the WotA.

He has also always been blunt to the point of rudeness, even with Tyrande. The real issue is how Tyrande and others have handled it since WC3. In WC3 when Tyrande decides to free Illidan Malfurion says no, even saying he "forbids" it. Tyrande replies by telling him to piss off and only Elune can deny her anything. That was an awesome scene because it showed Tyrande as an independent woman able make leadership decisions.

Since WC3 Tyrande's independence has been sacrificed repeatedly for the sake of male characters, not just Malfurion. Tyrande was a well-beloved character and seeing her personality mutilated into a 2D old-school Disney princess that needs saving and guidance from a man to function is insulting to a lot of us.

Every male character that Tyrande interacts with on a personal level gets some of this hate but since Malfurion is the one she interacts with the most he gets most of the hate.

A lot of this. It doesn't help that whenever they DO try and recall the WC3 persona, the results are either Tyrande being wrong, or TYrande being bailed out by Malfurion (Seriously, the Seeds of Faith Shandris t hing was pathetic., Tyrande was a "legend" for her healing ability).

And then his just plain douchebagness.

03/18/2014 09:19 AMPosted by Ferliona

03/18/2014 08:40 AMPosted by Telonis

I don't think people hate Malfurion per se. I think a lot of people hate what has happened to Tyrande as a result of Blizz trying to develop Malfurion.

Malfurion has always been depicted as suffering greater or lesser degrees of emotional constipation. Tyrande had to practically hang a sign around her neck saying "I love Malfurion" before he even really noticed. And he was always pretty cold and aloof towards his own people. Even to the point of living as a semi-hermit in the days immediately prior to the WotA.

He has also always been blunt to the point of rudeness, even with Tyrande. The real issue is how Tyrande and others have handled it since WC3. In WC3 when Tyrande decides to free Illidan Malfurion says no, even saying he "forbids" it. Tyrande replies by telling him to piss off and only Elune can deny her anything. That was an awesome scene because it showed Tyrande as an independent woman able make leadership decisions.

Since WC3 Tyrande's independence has been sacrificed repeatedly for the sake of male characters, not just Malfurion. Tyrande was a well-beloved character and seeing her personality mutilated into a 2D old-school Disney princess that needs saving and guidance from a man to function is insulting to a lot of us.

Every male character that Tyrande interacts with on a personal level gets some of this hate but since Malfurion is the one she interacts with the most he gets most of the hate.

A lot of this. It doesn't help that whenever they DO try and recall the WC3 persona, the results are either Tyrande being wrong, or TYrande being bailed out by Malfurion (Seriously, the Seeds of Faith Shandris t hing was pathetic., Tyrande was a "legend" for her healing ability).

And then his just plain douchebagness.

I prefer him over Tyrande, I mean would you rather have Tyrande or Malfurion, who would save the world?

Hated that condescending, sanctimonious d-nozzle since WC3. Know how sometimes someone you've never met walks into a room and you're just like, "Oh I'm gonna hate this person, I can tell..." that's how I felt about him the first time he appeared on screen.

03/18/2014 09:34 AMPosted by Elthrendas

03/18/2014 09:19 AMPosted by Ferliona

...

A lot of this. It doesn't help that whenever they DO try and recall the WC3 persona, the results are either Tyrande being wrong, or TYrande being bailed out by Malfurion (Seriously, the Seeds of Faith Shandris t hing was pathetic., Tyrande was a "legend" for her healing ability).

And then his just plain douchebagness.

I prefer him over Tyrande, I mean would you rather have Tyrande or Malfurion, who would save the world?

Tyrande.

Malfurion will only save the world if the methods conform to his beliefs.
Tyrande can and has cut her way through former friends who disobeyed her orders in order to increase the chances of saving the world.. And ohh.. Look, doing so resulted in closing a second Dark Portal and cutting the Legion off from Azeroth, enabling Malfurion to blow something up again.

Malfurion is preachy, two-faced, disrespectful, and for christs sake he tried to order Tyrande to leaver her daughter to die.

If they change everything else about him, if they somehow retcon "every thing else he's done", that alone makes him trash

He's bland, he bends the entire night elf storyline to be about him and his own Infinite Wisdom, he has no solid motivations or personal desires or characterization outside of what the writers need him to be in order to advance the plot, he's condescending, his flaws are constantly glossed over by the narrative, any traces of doubt or guilt he might have is almost immediately written away the narrative assurance that he did the Right Thing, his character design is tacky.

03/18/2014 09:34 AMPosted by Elthrendas

I prefer him over Tyrande, I mean would you rather have Tyrande or Malfurion, who would save the world?

Technically both HAVE saved the world and EACH OTHER. It was Tyrande that led the last, desperate defense of the World Tree to buy Malfurion some time to complete his spell. Jaina's and Thrall's forces had already been overcome or routed.

But you proved my point. A lot of us on this forum are old-school WC players from back in the WC2 or even WC1 days. We know the lore and some of us literally grew up with these characters. The fact that someone would even ask if Tyrande, who was a complete badass and once billed as the greatest military commander in Azeroth, could save the world really shows how badly her character has been mutilated.

It makes us sad, frustrated and angry. Those emotions are transfered onto Malfurion, unfairly for the most part but there it is, because so much of Tyrande's mutilation was done for the sake of making Malfurion look better.

I think this can be benefited by noting as far as D&D alignments go:

Tyrande: Neutral Good

Malfurion: Neutral Neutral (True Neutral)

As far as the motivators for the why each does a thing, well, I'm not certain that's been anything past lightly hinted at. One was a great leader, the other is more animal than Night Elf, and is apparently slowly forgetting to think. Both are under the writers' pens, keyboards, etc; the issue is, great writing takes consideration.

I also liked the post by Telonis, that's pretty well spot on, nice job.

03/18/2014 08:20 AMPosted by Galka

03/18/2014 08:10 AMPosted by Elthrendas

"To stand in the way of nature is heresy, even when nature is destructive."

Regardless of the person, the above quote is disgusting in every way. As a real person, I believe that we can, and are obligated to, alter the course of nature if it means saving lives from destruction. I have no respect for Malfurion if this horrendous quote is from him.

His quote means he isn't going to use his druid powers to stop wolves from savaging a young deer because its painful and violent, or stop a storm so that people can have a nice wedding day clear of rain.

He isn't saying "Even though the Cataclysm happened, I REFUSE to help any refugees or heal the injured because nature happened to them and I don't do anything against nature."

Plus... exactly how do you think we can alter nature? Genetic engineering is the only thing that comes to mind, cloning. What else is possible?

On Topic though:
I dislike Malfurion because he is purple-Jesus. Like Thrall, but purple. Thanks to their over the top lore, Malfurion is god and is way too strong. The problem is, they decided to wake him up.

Now they have Alliance Racial Leader, that is obligated to protect the forests (Ashenvale) and destroy those who disrespect nature (Everyone on the Horde - Taurens and maybe trolls.) and since Furion is so strong, he could do that.

Problem is, then there would be no Horde and the game needs to continue. So, instead he does NOTHING which ruins his character, and makes the story suck even worse. It would be better if he died, so that they wouldn't have to worry about incorporating him into the story and have people laughing when people murder his wife he loves so much... And he doesn't even move.

In other words, short-sighted writing.

He wouldn't be as hated if he was an actual neutral character. Stay in Moonglade, and have a story about his divided loyalties between his wife and student regarding the factions.

He wouldn't be as hated if as an Alliance character, he actually helps out his faction and race. Especially the Worgen, which he is supposed to feel responsible for.

He wouldn't be as hated if his relationship with Tyrande was actually explored. We don't know why they're together, when they're so dedicated to their beliefs that differ from each other.

Instead, he's a Night Elf leader while being neutral, and he comes across as either neglectful of Tyrande at best, controlling and rude at worst.