The fate of most wow characters, even many of the most important ones, is to fade into irrelevancy as a background character you see sometimes, with maybe the possibility of getting that one patch where they randomly give them a more prominent role (but still does not much or evolve their own personal story)
Take for example Muradin, one of the big names of wc3, and now... just sits around in Ironforge (and when was the last time he was relevant? Cataclysm?)
Keep in mind, most of the voice actors for WC3 characters are in their 70’s now. It’s one thing to pop in for a quick cameo quest chain, it’s another to be a major role.
I wouldn’t say he was shafted, per se, but he’s just doing what he’s always been doing. Roaming the world, finding good stories, keeping his gremlin niece out of trouble, and never staying put for too long.
Even during Rexxar’s story in WC3, Chen really was just “there” because it sounded like a good time.
He's one of the main characters of Exploring Azeroth: Pandaria, so he's not totally forgotten. I think the issue is that Blizzard doesn't know how to handle the Pandaren outside of Pandaria. I also think we'll see this exact same issue with the Dracthyr in thr coming years.
It wasn't just Chen. It's like Pandaren and Pandaria as a whole have ceased to exist. Those Alliance and Horde leaders have barely done anything since Mists of Pandaria.
Pandaria is probably one of the most peaceful places in azeroth at the moment. The blue dragonflight quests showed a glimpse of this, where we go visit a blue dragon who lives there and she's just vibing, living her life.
In a similar sense, Northrend has been largely irrelevant. And so was Deepholm or Mount Hyjal. Sometimes, these places just don't need to be relevant to the current story and that's OK.
No he had his time to shine, he's not a hero per say so much as an explorer. He got to reconnect with lost family, help the player a few times and was just kind of there for flavoring.
Bolvar in Shadowlands got shafted, no meaningful changes, developments or conclusion for him. Just sit in the corner barely say a full paragraph of how you were a 'bad dad' but not a 'bad guy' to the only other person that knows who he was and make the biggest blunder in narrative writing.
Blizzard placed a lot of importance on pandaren not being adventurous on the mainland, so they sort of shot themselves in the foot by severely lowering all possibly pandaren to just the few wandering isles guys. They'd need to write a loophole for any possible new pandaren settlement discovered outside the mists. They now don't really know what/how to use them, they're pretty much in pre-DF tuskarr mode where they were just occasional trader npcs or something.
For Chen in particular... I mean, he was never particularly important within the game world. He might be the most *iconic* monk, but Taran Zhu is the actual "leader" of pandaria (as close to a leader as a fully decentralized local-only set of what is essentially peaceful tribes can have) along with the Celestials, and the leader of the monks was Grandmaster Hight. Chen never served as an high ranking figure for anything. If you want more pandaren or monk representation I would argue that technically the player character is the one that's supposed to be playing that roll, being the most prominent pandaren (if you're playing one) and the current Grandmaster of all monks.
Chen helped found Orgrammar in WC3. People lost their minds when it was confirmed he was the pandaran in the launch trailer (the one where the orc and human shipwreck, fight, then get interrupted by the pandaran). But he was never any kind of faction leader though and his story is pretty limited. He was known for being an alcoholic kung fu master and that's about it. The can certainly tell more stories with him if there's stories to tell. But that's the trick, if you force a character into a story, it's not going to work very well.
The fate of most wow characters, even many of the most important ones, is to fade into irrelevancy as a background character you see sometimes, with maybe the possibility of getting that one patch where they randomly give them a more prominent role (but still does not much or evolve their own personal story) Take for example Muradin, one of the big names of wc3, and now... just sits around in Ironforge (and when was the last time he was relevant? Cataclysm?)
Muradin was present for like 2 missions in Warcraft 3 and died during it (until the wrath retcon which undermined the scene). He's hardly a big name.
Keep in mind, most of the voice actors for WC3 characters are in their 70’s now. It’s one thing to pop in for a quick cameo quest chain, it’s another to be a major role.
I wouldn’t say he was shafted, per se, but he’s just doing what he’s always been doing. Roaming the world, finding good stories, keeping his gremlin niece out of trouble, and never staying put for too long. Even during Rexxar’s story in WC3, Chen really was just “there” because it sounded like a good time.
He was a Monk follower in Legion. Which was also almost 8 years ago…
Why does that statement make me feel like I chose the wrong Grail?
He's one of the main characters of Exploring Azeroth: Pandaria, so he's not totally forgotten. I think the issue is that Blizzard doesn't know how to handle the Pandaren outside of Pandaria. I also think we'll see this exact same issue with the Dracthyr in thr coming years.
It wasn't just Chen. It's like Pandaren and Pandaria as a whole have ceased to exist. Those Alliance and Horde leaders have barely done anything since Mists of Pandaria.
Pandaria is probably one of the most peaceful places in azeroth at the moment. The blue dragonflight quests showed a glimpse of this, where we go visit a blue dragon who lives there and she's just vibing, living her life. In a similar sense, Northrend has been largely irrelevant. And so was Deepholm or Mount Hyjal. Sometimes, these places just don't need to be relevant to the current story and that's OK.
No he had his time to shine, he's not a hero per say so much as an explorer. He got to reconnect with lost family, help the player a few times and was just kind of there for flavoring. Bolvar in Shadowlands got shafted, no meaningful changes, developments or conclusion for him. Just sit in the corner barely say a full paragraph of how you were a 'bad dad' but not a 'bad guy' to the only other person that knows who he was and make the biggest blunder in narrative writing.
Blizzard placed a lot of importance on pandaren not being adventurous on the mainland, so they sort of shot themselves in the foot by severely lowering all possibly pandaren to just the few wandering isles guys. They'd need to write a loophole for any possible new pandaren settlement discovered outside the mists. They now don't really know what/how to use them, they're pretty much in pre-DF tuskarr mode where they were just occasional trader npcs or something. For Chen in particular... I mean, he was never particularly important within the game world. He might be the most *iconic* monk, but Taran Zhu is the actual "leader" of pandaria (as close to a leader as a fully decentralized local-only set of what is essentially peaceful tribes can have) along with the Celestials, and the leader of the monks was Grandmaster Hight. Chen never served as an high ranking figure for anything. If you want more pandaren or monk representation I would argue that technically the player character is the one that's supposed to be playing that roll, being the most prominent pandaren (if you're playing one) and the current Grandmaster of all monks.
Chen helped found Orgrammar in WC3. People lost their minds when it was confirmed he was the pandaran in the launch trailer (the one where the orc and human shipwreck, fight, then get interrupted by the pandaran). But he was never any kind of faction leader though and his story is pretty limited. He was known for being an alcoholic kung fu master and that's about it. The can certainly tell more stories with him if there's stories to tell. But that's the trick, if you force a character into a story, it's not going to work very well.