#goel

“You are Thrall, son of Durotan,” she said without preamble.

“I am,” he replied.

“A filthy name. Here you will be called Go’el.”

The bluntness of her statement took him aback slightly. He had not been ordered around for many a year, not since he had proved his worth to the Frostwolf clan and to Orgrim Doomhammer one night long ago.

“Go’el might be the name my parents intended for me, but fate chose otherwise. I prefer Thrall.”

She turned her head and spat. “A human word that means ‘slave.’ It is not fit for any orc to bear, least of all one who claims to lead us—even the ones who don’t live in his world.”

Thrall’s nostrils flared at the insulting gesture, and his words had a sharp edge to them. “I am warchief of the Horde, shaman, and I have made the Alliance fear the name that once meant ‘slave.’ To them, it now means the glory and power of the Horde. I would ask you to use the name I have chosen to keep.”

After this, Aggra doesn't at all respect Thrall's wishes whatsoever, and continues to call him Go'el. From what I've read, Aggra called him by Thrall only two times since they've met, and one of those times was when he wasn't even present, and it's said mockingly to boot.

Thrall does his best to stick up for himself, but he's given no support from anyone else. Geyah, his grandmother, even starts calling him Go'el despite knowing that Thrall doesn't like it.

The thing that pisses me off so much is that we know from the Twilight of the Aspects novel that despite the time that has gone by in between the two novels, Thrall still has a problem with being called Go'el, during an argument he has with Aggra.

As always, she used the name his parents had given him—a name he himself had never used, given to him by a family he had never known. Suddenly, although she had used it a thousand times before, this time the name made him angry. “I am not Go’el!” he growled. “How many times must I tell you to not call me that?”

Although Thrall may have "let" Aggra call him Go'el (aka he stopped arguing with her about it or only rarely brought it up), he has not really accepted it. To him, it doesn't fit him, and he's already got a name that he's gone by for his entire life, and he likes that name, so why should he change it?

The thing is, is that I'm not against letting Thrall use his birth name. It's just the fact that the way that the novels have been written, and the way that both Aggra and Thrall have been characterised has done a piss poor job in allowing it to happen naturally.

Thrall doesn't want to be called Go'el, but Aggra does it anyway. Thrall argues his reasons for keeping his human-given name, and does a pretty good job of it, in my opinion. Then he just kind of…passively accepts Aggra and Geyah calling him by his birth name by not saying anything else about it until the next novel, where he quite clearly shows that yes, he does still have a problem with it.

There are two things that I think could make this much better.

#1. Thrall does not passively accept being called Go'el. Any time someone calls him Go'el, he corrects them. He does not accept the disrespect, and refuses to take no for an answer. Because this is not about politics or saving Azeroth, where you can disagree and have a different opinion. This is about his own name, something that only he owns, and no one else. This is something that affects him and only him. He is called Thrall and that is the end of the discussion. Aggra realises she's crossed a line that she shouldn't have and apologises, and doesn't do it again.

OR

#2. Aggra does not blatantly disrespect Thrall. Instead of saying that his current name is filthy and that it is not worthy of an orc, she instead tells him about his birth name, what it means in orcish and what it could represent if he chose to use it. Thrall, as he is preparing to go on his vision quest (and during it), can naturally come to the decision on his own that he feels more like a shaman, more in tune with the elements and more like himself when he is called Go'el. If he is to use his birth name, it has to be something that he chooses himself, not something that is uncomfortably forced onto him.

Probably half the reason I'm so pissed is because, in a way, I'm projecting my own feelings about being deadnamed as a trans person onto Thrall, a character who is almost in a way, being deadnamed. He did not choose the name Thrall himself, but it is not his birth name, and though the origins of the name Thrall are purposefully humiliating and dehumanising, he makes this name into his own. He molds it to fit his image, and thus he makes people fear and respect the name Thrall. He likes the name Thrall, and he makes that quite clear.

Go'el is his birth name, and though he has never been known as Go'el (until Aggra decided he should be), even after he learns of his name, he decides not to use it. He's uncomfortable with being called by a name that does not fit him and that he's not used to. He corrects Aggra when she calls him by it, and is obviously displeased by her blatant disregard of his feelings about it.

The thing that rubs salt in the wound so much more is this line.

“Does he still go by that hateful slave name?”

“He does,” Geyah said, unperturbed by Aggra’s seeming rudeness. Aggra knew Geyah had realized long ago that it was easier to direct the elements to help one than it was to curb Aggra’s sharp tongue. “And that is his choice. Perhaps you can ask him why he so chooses when he arrives.”

Aggra says that maybe she will ask him, but she never does. At the start of the Twilight of the Aspect novel, Aggra and Thrall are arguing with each other, and Aggra tells him that he does not listen to the people around him, and even as they argue, she says that he is not listening to her, and what she has to say.

It is incredibly hypocritical of Aggra, because she never listened to Thrall's request on calling him by his preferred name, and she did not bother to even try and understand his reasons for keeping his 'slave name', like how Geyah suggested her to do.

My trans ass is just pissed off and yes I’m projecting, but it hurts to see Thrall being so blatantly disrespected and ignored and ways that I have been. Thrall never gets to decide on his own if he likes or wants to use the name Go'el, and people around him are consistently ignoring his desires, his wishes and his requests. They ignore his reasons for keeping the name Thrall, and they disregard how being called by either names makes him feel.