Sounds very alike to how a High/Blood Elf of mine was, similar situation with an arranged marriage. He became very close friends with his wife although their relationship was never more than platonic once they had their children. Afterwards they agreed to remain a pair for political purposes but pursue relationships to their own enjoyment.
And then the Scourge happened.
Yeah its very jarring to see people create this whole other “nation” of humans from Stranglethorn that just doesn’t exist. Tenuous settlement was present until the humans were driven out by trolls.
I feel like it ends up being it’s own insensitive/racism when people roll dark-skinned humans and rp them either as arabic sultans that act like they are from Disney’s Aladdin or as tribal jungle natives.
Especially when it’s often done with a very very tone-deaf approach.
…And then they had to ruin her with a non-russian-speaking VA horribly butchering all her russian voice lines >:(
This, along with most other emotes of literally every base race up to Cata, is the curse of carrying the decaying mass of circa-2004 outdated designs, out of fear to upset people who after decade and a half still can’t let go of the silly nelf bounce, the tauren scratching their butt every 3 seconds, or oh my god literally all base race animations are old and bad.
It’s usually pretty clear when somebody operates out of lore-established factional divides and grudges, and when somebody is using WoW RP as a safe getaway to explore their edgy worldview based on diligent studies of works by angry middle aged men on youtube.
If there’s none of that malicious intent, it’s just a question of tone. It can be tricky to write heavy themes like war/genocide/hatred in a pretty out-there, high fantasy and cartoonish world that warcraft is, without accidentally leaning too hard on tropes and references people can find cringy or jarring.
…Which is why I think Hearthstone is the better Warcraft tone-wise don’t @ me
Hearthstone OOZES personality with every expansion (Aside the tommygun wielding italian-american mobster Goblins, that overplayed trope and character can stay outside) and while it is often extremely goofy and more lighthearted, many of the ideas from it could easily be worked in to WoW, the best example imo being the inclusion of the Tortollans, who originally were just a Hearthstone race in the Un’goro expac.
I think for some backward reasoning, people assume that others will judge them if they do not play a Asian-coded Human character with a Japanese/Chinese name IC, for some reason or another. I will once again personally echo what I have said before on the Forums.
Regardless of skin colours, all Warcraft Humans are Humans, there are no Asians, Whites or Blacks as extremely diverse ethnic groups, they are all Humans in the Warcraft setting and you really, REALLY should not always have to feel like you need to make somesort of overblown character inspired by other media, just because their skintone is not white. ( Darker-skinned characters defaulted to being from Stranglethorn/Tanaris/Uldum specifically being one), because often, the character ends up becoming a caricature of mostly fetishizied “Exotic” features and other points for the character, that will most of the time just take people out of the experience.
I do think taking inspiration from other media (In moderation) is not a bad thing, but it comes down to how you implement it into the Warcraft universe.
I hated how they made the Tortollans be from Zandalar, instead of Un’Goro, would’ve loved for them to update Tanaris and Un’Goro to appear like their hearthstones variants!
Also, “One Night in Karazhan” world event ala Winter Veil, but replace Medivh with Khadgar.
So he’s finding time for himself . . . . to go on a treasure hunting road trip with Flynn. . . . because he wants to get to know Valeera better. . . .?
Shaw x Valeera = boring, no alchemy, forced straigth pairing of two copy pastas
Shaw x Flynn = quirky, lots of lore, funny questlines and two clashing yet complementary personnalities for the fun
I ship Valeera and Anduin. Or Taelia and Anduin, in case the elf-human power couple won’t happen (even if Valeera is the darker side of Anduin’s goodytwo shoes).
