Springtime in Azeroth - Season of Love (contains spoilers)

I feel that the prevalence of romantic relationships as a topic in the lore has noticably risen.

  • Tyrande and Malfu putting their relationship at the center of attention twice in two addons.
  • Genn and Mia’s relationship being explored more (BtS and later).
  • Mayla and Baine’s budding romance.
  • Sylvanas and Nathanos twisted love.
  • Gnome Sappy and her Goblin husband (BtS and later)
  • Anduin’s search for love as a topic (BtS and later).
  • Shaw’s secret crush (8.3 PTR - My guess in Flynn!)
  • Lorte and Thalyssra’s open flirting (8.3 PTR)
  • Rokhan and Talanji Thanks (Thanks, @Adítu)
  • Calia and Derek (Thanks, @Adítu)

…just to name what I came up with after a little thinking. I don’t think it’s major, but I do think there is a certain shift there. And since we have a certain Golden Girl near the helm of such stuff now, I guess we can all guess where that might come from.

Now I’m not necessarily against that. I think it can serve to humanize characters that elsewise are quite often reduced to their function (faction leader, for example). But some are feeling a bit random to me, and I’m especially not fond of interspecies-relationships where the problems that brings aren’t explored. So… I guess I’m still forming my opinion.

So, what do you think? Am I imagining the whole thing? Is it worse than I thought? Do you like it? Do you dislike it? Is it too h€tero-normative or your tastes? Do you want everyone to make love, not war?

Discuss.

You forgot Rokhan and Talanji !
( and I don’t blame you when it seems Blizz has forgotten about them as well, in favour of yet another elf love story :frowning: )

and Calia+ Derek of course.

Apart from that, love is always good and more love is always better I guess ? Especially after bfa.

I hope Tyrande will have her own child, before Blizzard will kill her!

btw, where is that kid Finel from the book?

Ooo that nice. Rulers of the 2 biggest world cities are now couple.
But I wonder, their children will be Nightborns or Blood Elves? :smiling_imp:

He got a lot of of options. Princess Tess, Taelia Fordragon, Lorna Crowley, Vanessa Vancleef, Valeera Sanguinar…

But what is real interesting, who will be husband of Jaina Proudmoore. Because she is about ~ 37 years now.

Twice? what do you mean?

Sylvanas and Nathanos twisted love.
barf !
lhttps://66.media.tumblr.com/febcc1c47debbdcba5cce97a3180d60c/tumblr_p83pmpzIDF1wcji28o2_500.png

What other elf love story? There is another one?

was talking about that one.

Without wanting to sound a misogynist, that’s probably because of Golden taking a more prominent role in the writing team.
Every single one of her novels has said kind of story shoehorned in one way or another.
Sometimes is weird, and most times end up cringy.
And sometimes it’s about giving certain character a more ‘dramatic’ scenario.

…but always fails for me.

I’m sorry, but I can’t care less about the love-life of fictional fantasy characters. There are ways to make that circumstance relevant to the plot at hand. But that seems to never be the case.

And it always falls short or lacking regarding trying to give depth to any character.
I mean, Jainas love-life made her seem unstable rather than complicated.
And the Goblin/Gnome thing was so forced it was eye roll inducing.

Edit: I’ll concede that with Tyrande and Malfurion the relation thing did give them more story and relevance in certain aspects (not all mind you, but some) regarding certain pivotal plots and events. And maybe the Arthas/Jaina one.

Thalyssra is a thirsty T H O T and we need to summon up a bubble again to contain the nightborne before it’s too late.

Even though I do concede the point that it’s finally two elves getting along and not an elf and human.

I wouldn’t agree with that “always”. Not even in WoW. For example, with Genn I really do think it helped to flesh his relationship with Mia out a bit, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of that.

And I do think giving Anduin either some romance, or make his romantic notions of marriage a serious problem is a good idea that helps the world feel real.

I also see absolutely nothing wrong with throwaway dialogue within the game alluding to romance, like with the Elf and Tauren leaders, It’s low effort and if nothing else, it adds a dimension to the character to speculate about. I’m quite sure that can be effective in enough cases to make it worth doing, especially with female players.

Where I agree with you are Golden’s romantic novel subplots. They often seem very randomly thrown in. But I actually feel that it might become a bit less random, now she is a constant part of the dojo. One problem those relationships had was always that it felt as if Blizz had gotten something on their plate they never really asked for. “So… Thrall has a wife now? Erm… Okay… I guess we have to put her in the game?”
The game never seemed to really know what direction to go with the new partners, nor did they have any plan of how to tie that relationship into the character development they were going with with their characters anyway.
Also, Blizzard was arguably even worse with romances that didn’t involve Golden. Just look at MalfuRande…

Since that was a bit rambly, back to the point: With Golden on the team it seems to me that the romances, and the focus on them have indeed become more consistent between game and novels. Some of them were still bad Ideas (yeah, I really hate that random gnome/goblin-couple who seem to have no identity outside of their relationship at all), but I do think that those that could work actually have a better chance of working now. And if they work, I’m sure they can add something to the characters as well as the plots they are involved in.

Not sure how you concluded to that but it makes sense as Flynn is the only thing Cool about Alliance. Great m8 to get drunk with!! But doesnt he have a secret crush on Taelia? Lets see

First of, its been long absent. I mean you cant have all these years of story without romance come on.

But second and most important, is that it allows for further drama. Whether one lover dies, betrays or is corrupted etc it can allow for very emotional story to unfold and “No Way!!” Reactions. So yeah, hope for the best

Yeah, I edited in some examples I do think that worked, but didn’t check the rest of the text. Should’ve said “most times”.

The problem I see with the examples you named, is that in Genns case, from my point of view, far from being the kind of depth one would expect from a Queen, Mia is presented as a token figure. The romance is, again, thrown as a simple gesture to make a certain target audience go “Awww…”. Nothing more.
She is less than Aggra.

With Anduin, BtS did present some interesting implications, but until we know what they actually lead to, it remains uncertain whether we will actually see a challenging and deepening plot that delves into the implications of it, or yet another “arm candy situation” created solely to make some people see a “cute couple”.
Or worst of all, going for a homosexual and absolutely forced relation in order for Blizzard to check that box in the to do list of their PC agenda.
(Nothing against said kind of couples by the way, just against the J.K. Rowling effect of throwing them at random to try and signal they are “hip” and “trendy” writers). If the story is to tackle said events, these should be relevant in some way or another to the story.

Given the above seems more like a rant more than an actual contribution, I’ll give my impression regarding the topic in a more concise way:

I do think that romance stories can bring some interesting bits to the story. But as the current list goes, few give any depth.

That’s not to say this has always been the case.
Some examples I personally think were great and complemented the story amazingly are:

Alexstraza and Krasus.
Deathwing and Sinestra.
Arthas and Jaina.
Malfurion and Tyrande (for the most part, and in moments like Valsharah).
Durotan and Draka (specially thanks to WoD).
Turalyon and Alleria (painful to admit).
Dagran and Moira.

These couples did have relevance regarding the kind of romance hey had. Neither side was shown as a prop or token for the other, and they had actual ramifications regarding the story.
Plus, their relation wasn’t thrown at players in a forceful way.

Drawing the parallels and similarities between these, will give people what I’m aiming at regarding my pov.

I love every relationship where humans are not hamfisted with other races just because.

Rokhan x Talanji
Thrall x Aggra
Bob x Thalyssra
Baine x Mayla

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Pretty sure it is that female rogue elf that just got a new model, even though she’s not even any important character to the story.
meanwhile Rokhan are best boi who’s been with us from start to end is still stuck in a basic model.

But yeah, pretty sure that’s who Shaw wish to know more about.

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I wasn’t entirely serious about Flynn, by the way. But I did feel that there might be some same-sex relationship planned somewhere and since they had a scenario together I just threw it in there… Until I was reminded that Blizzard “kind of” cares about the chinese market and what the chinese government thinks of them, though, so I actually don’t see any of these relationships getting spotlighted in the game…

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Let’s not open that can of worms!
Even the USA Government is reacting to Blizzard’s bending the knee to China x-D

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As a hopeless fan of romance and love stories and all that jazz, I am pretty stoked to see more love in the air. While I’m not exceptionally excited for any of the straight couples that are being set up at the moment (overwhelmingly “Yeah ok, cool I guess” territory for me, that stuff) I am so here for Shaw/Flynn! And Wranduin. Always been Team Wranduin and Saurfang says you can’t kill hope, so there we go.

So yeah. I’m definitely a fan. Gimme more, Blizz!

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I thought a bit about why I felt I disagreed with that… And I think it’s just a matter of differing perspectives on the medium.

You’re right, while telling a story you should make every moment count towards making it better. A movie or show that throws in 20 minutes of stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with the plot is obviously worse than one that doesn’t.

I just don’t see WoW like that and think making the story comparable to anything cinematic was quite a bad thing. For me it’s mostly a PC game. Yeah, the romantic stuff most definitely shouldn’t be stopping me from progressing my character, but I feel I am mostly here to explore the world, not to watch stuff happen on it. Thus I think the ability to explore details about characters that have no relevance to the plot is generally a good thing. It doesn’t further the plot, but it does make the world feel more alive. And at this point the plot is only something I mock, while I would genuinely still like to see the world become a place I would like to explore again.

That’s why I really don’t care about most of the relationships you listed, and actually do feel more for Genn and Mia, whose romance isn’t something forced in for the plot, but something that is created especially to make the world more alive, by making the characters in there feel more lifelike.

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Oh, from that particular angle i agree romance isn’t detrimental for the story. Quite the opposite.

My grip is when its made a focal point in the overarching plot that goes over this whole world-building.
In those cases, i do think that the romance in question should be a lot more relevant than the ones that are being thrown around as of lately.

I don’t need to attend to Thralls wedding as some key event amidst the Cataclysm, or to go over Jaina’s tenth romantic crisis in the novel that highlights a series of world-changing events.
There are cases where, if the writers truly want to write a romantic story, said story must be par on relevance to the plot they are putting aside to highlight it.

Like, really, i don’t give an F about Sazzy Whatshername and Griffek Mcgoblinface, while both the Alliance and the Horde are at each others throat with Azerite stuff or some key event regarding the future of the Forsaken.

My point is, that given smaller quests and while tackling “minor” stuff, romantic issues do indeed help widening the player view and making the whole experience more immersive.
But, if said romance is going to take the spotlight in such blatant way, to the point its thrown around amidst other relevant issues par on the Cataclysm, the war, or some other stuff, then it must live and grow accordingly to the setting its being presented in. It must be more relevant for the story and i a more direct way.

For example, i kinda liked the Waycrest “romance” in Drustvar. For both daughter (with the tragic wedding), and of course her parents.
But, going back to my previous case, both Aggra and Mia seem to be treated as mere arm-candy figures for both Thrall and Genn.
And that should definitely not be the case.

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Yeah, I think we can mostly agree in that.

Romance should only be part of the main plot, if it actually advances it. Especially now where they have their toolkit mostly figured out. Romance can fit in gossip options you don’t have to take, or open world dialogue you can actually walk away from, as well as side quests. If it’s mandatory, it better have a really good reason to be.

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