Blizzard,
some feedback on Faerin Lothar’s character, the impressions she gave me while interacting with her.
For the purpose of this feedback I am going to ignore any DEI points scored with her design, ignore the real world culture war taking place in the western cultural circle and just focus on the character as-is in the World of Warcraft:
1). I like her. She is very earnest, positive and direct - disarmingly so.
2). I categorize her as a ‘bloomer’ sort of a person - she seems to acknowledge the negatives in the world around her and she purposefuly acts in a way to challenge the ‘dakness’ / evils / injustices of the world around her.
3). Her interactions with General Steelstrike are baffling - from what I understand she is a rank-and-file Lamplighter, not a high-ranking officer of that elite force, yes?
Why does she even get an opportunity to speak to the General then? - isn’t that way above her paygrade?
4). How come she experiences no negative consequences for speaking out of line to the supreme commander of the Hallowfall expedition?
Assuming Great Kyron protects her from the worst of the fallout, she still should be informed that the way she acts in front of the General must be more tempered, even if just for the sake of maintaining proper decorum and discipline.
5). With things being as they are, no rational explenation is given for why is her behaviour tolerated without ANY repwrcussions at all.
6). I like how her earnesty is portrayed as hot-headedness at times - however, again, she suffers no negative consequences of her more impulsive behaviour - her decision to disregard the Gensral’s commands and engage the kobyss with the intention of saving taken prisoners is a heroic act that comes with absolutely no repercussions.
I think Faerin’s acts of heroism should come at a cost - a cost not payed by her, bur maybe by others. For instance- her heroic example could inspire some other soldiers into following her, only for said soldiers to die.
With things being as they are, Faerin’s heroism is inspiring but also ‘cheap’ - it comes at no cost to her or the people around her. Aand as life teaches us, everything has a cost.
7). Faerin’s refusal to use a new prosthetic is baffling from a strictly logical standpoint.
Her dismissal being based on the ground that it would take her time to relearn how to function with the prosthetic rings hollow.
Yes, of course it would take time - but it would be time well invested. Time she should invest for the sake of herself and her comrades - more capable Faerin is a better Faerin.
Her disability is a disadvantage on the battle field and that is a fact - she might have managed to reduce its impact on her life and her efficiency, but her disability’s impact is only reduced, not completely nullified. She owes it to herself and her fellow Arathi to be the best possible version of herself and that includes the prosthetic.
Faerin’s declaration that she is proud of learning to manage her life while being disabled has nothing to do with the question of using the prosthetic - it is a question of efficiency, not her personal belief system.
In this case, Faerin’s pride is a flaw that prevents her from making the right choice and I like that.
Of course, her behaviour can also be a defensive mechanism hiding the fact that she is simply afraid of changing the existing status quo in which she feels comfortable and safe - that’s the impression I gathered after the scene with the blacksmith.
This crewping fear can be further exploited as an interesting character trait - what makes it even more interesting is the fact that in most media the fear of changing the relevant stability attained by a disabled person eith how they function isn’t a well explored topic.
All in all, Faerin is an interesting character.
The biggest weakness of her current writing is the lack of consequences for any of her actions - the way she talks to the General or her heroics.
I hope that the writing team will not shelter Faerin from said consequences - only by experiencing them can she continue to develop as a character.
I hope this feedback reaches the relevant team.
