Why?
Queteron, besides whatever âfall of the westâ statements, was only talking about the state of Azeroth as a nihilistic setting as opposed to the romantic, Tolkienesque Good vs. Evil that the setting once was built on.
If you try to imply that the Tolkien foundation of Good vs. Evil fantasy isnât Christian, Iâm afraid youâre misinformed.
Personal taste, but I atleast think it was very unimaginative when every 100th fantasy setting like Warcraft 1 was litterally just: âHereâs some orcs. Theyâre bad. Hereâs humans. Theyâre Knights and believe in Heaven. Hereâs demons. They come from hell.â
That was more or less Warcraftâs full extent of lore back then, and it didnât stand out from anything else until they begun to change that.
Theyâve changed it so far that thereâs no moral compass at all. Everyone goes to hell regardless of what they do and thereâs no redemption for your soul once you reach that unavoidable threshold. The Maw is pure nihilism.
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Iâm well aware, Iâm a big fangirl of Tolkien & I myself grew up Catholic. And I know that Tolkien was not only considered a very kind man, but was also very religious. It was a big part of his life & heavily influenced his works.
Warcraft has not the same basis beyond âHey, this is what fantasy is. Letâs do fantasyâ and later going âActually, we should think up some things ourselvesâ.
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I think itâs disingenous to imply only Warcraft as an RTS held the Tolkienesque view, though. Itâs been a core part of the setting all the way up until Legion that certain forces were simply bad and other were good in nature. When all the forces become something in between, they lose anything to play off of and become entirely muddled. Struggle as a whole becomes arbitrary because youâll never be fighting for the right side.
At least if some forces had remained binary, morally speaking, then those inbetween, like the elements, life or death, would still have something to play off of.
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I think Blizzard geniuenly doesnât think about it beyond âThis is kinda cool/darkâ.
Which I agree, is not a good thing. I prefer when they have a little thought behind things. I also prefer to see things work out for the good guys & the villians get their comeuppance.
Iâm not really disagreeing with that, as I have also made points before that I personally enjoyed it alot more when the Legion was clear cut Villians and the Light was good etc.
And not the âBut both sides are badâ narrative.
But I wouldnât chalk that up to âChristianity in the game is missingâ like the OP did. Just bad writing.
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Christianity, in the literal sense, of course, is not missing, because itâs not part of the setting.
But the core Tolkien/Christian theme of good acts outdoing the bad as a whole has very much been subverted if not removed.
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Morally grey only works when there are proper consequences for actions. There are none in most of wow so it simply doesnât work.
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People can of course be nostalgic for things. Different tastes are a thing. So is remembering past stuff. But turning it into a weird speech about how the reason things are now bad/no longer the same is because of Christianity not being as prelevant in the world, and how that is somehow factually bad for everyone, is not a good take.
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This will be solved if they delete Danusers favourite undead couple. (Iâm only half-joking).
And yet each expansion still ends in the heroes of Azeroth defeating a threat.
My eyes (you canât see them behind my mask, but theyâre there) flash a powerful shade of red.
And yet the heroes are consistently morally bankrupt and at times cruel.
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Iâll maintain that debates relating to religion shouldnât be put on the forum because it does put peopleâs backs up one way or the other.
Same with politics.
The story, good/evil and so on can be discussed very easily without mentioning anything else.
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Itâs not about religion so much as the underlying philosophy, and itâs for Blizzard to moderate, not you.
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By Sigmar⌠NO!
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Even in Tolkienâs narrative the characters had their own faults.
Okay. I thought I could delete posts on a whimâŚ
Yes, but the heroes werenât evil or cruel. Nor was the universe at large, which is what this debate about the setting comes down to anyway.
Boromir, who is no doubt the most flawed (Heroic) character we see in The Lord of the Rings specifically, overcomes his temptation in the end, laying down his life to protect Merry and Pippin and in that moment, he is free from the ring.
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