So I know there has been lots of debates about the gender and sexuality of characters, but hear me out. I like good female heroes as much as the next guy, but you know what else I like? Variety and character. However, it seems like in Shadowlands, nearly every single female character is the exact same:
physically and emotionally strong and confident
has a stereotypical masculine role (physical warrior, leader, etc.)
has no special quirks, flaws, etc.
From Taelia to Draka to Ve’nari to the Accuser, etc., it feels like they are the exact same character with maybe some mild variance. It’s as if the writers were too afraid of any kind of backlash if a single female character was a little weak, crazy or silly. And this is just very, very sad.
The only charaters who are somewhat different are in Ardenweald like Lady Moonberry and Niya (which is, incidentally, the best zone in the game, and the writing quality is also way above the rest, as if a different team was doing that).
Because in the next patch they are going to add a dating element to the game, where you can date important lore character like Jaina, Anduin, Talia (lmao okay maybe not all them are important XD) and even dragons.
It’s the same with the male characters. WoW has never been a stellar display of character writing; don’t push your weird gender theory into it. But, sure, I’ll bite:
a strong-willed but rash young woman
a militant mother figure
an enigmatic Broker with uncertain motives
The three you listed are very different characters. The only thing they have in common is that they’re capable and prominent, which is a nice change of pace from a series that spent the last 15 years have its only important women be bikini models.
Well, if I wanted to talk about “gender theory”, I’d be talking about the loading screen instead which has 3 good female leaders vs 3 bad male leaders. That’s as on the nose as you can get.
Or the fact that 100% of the romance/affection among Shadowlands characters is gay. I have nothing against such relationships, but they aren’t 100% of the population, so it sticks out. (not that WoW was ever good with romance)
But I do feel like the writers don’t want to give females have any imperfections which would make some of them more memorable in more ways. There is no female character even remotely like the potion making dude in Maldraxxus or the Mad Duke, or someone like Runas in Legion or Lunk in Cataclysm.
Maybe it’s that I didn’t play Horde in SL yet, so yeah, I don’t know about that. I know it was somewhat there in BFA, but does it go anywhere?
As for Shadowlands zones themselves, there really aren’t any heterosexual couples (or any display of affection anywhere), even among the random the NPC’s.
Well, as much as they try to portray it differently, Jaina’s development as a character could be seen as that of someone with bipolar disorder.
Had her been some hormonal teen, said behaviour would’ve been more natural.
But for a woman in her late 40s, her mood swings would be more associated with that of someone with some kind mental illness.
Guess its not the sort of message Blizzard wants you to have regarding her character, but meta speaking…that’s often how it comes across.
Eh, no? Like, agenda aside, you have Devos, Lysonia, the Curator, General Kaal, and that’s just the first things coming to mind.
Devos and Lysonia are pretty much fallen and corrupted Kyrian that get smacked. The Curator is half-insane and has problems with her memory, to the point of being unsure where she is.
General Kaal seems to be a female Nazgrim, so whatever.
I am unsure what you meant, though. I might be wrong.
Being serious, it’s not just the female characters, the male characters have been onenote for ages, arguably the only good writing character wise was Varian and Anduins relationship, Genn is the stereotypical dad out for revenge, Malfurion hasn’t spoken since warcraft 3, Bane and Anduin are literally the same character and outside of Lor’themar getting some action I can’t really think of any notable or rememberable male plotlines going on
Well, you had some characters that were somewhat complex from WC3. Thrall, Jaina, Sylvanas, among others.
For an MMORPG I think it’s fine to have one-dimensional characters. So long as they aren’t in the forefront doing all the talking because then it becomes very apparent. I find the levelling to be particularly grueling in Shadowlands because of all the forced dialogues. With my first character I do try to listen to it even if I think most of it is awful, and with my second character I’m just rushing through… and there’s something really unsatisfying about rushing as well. You treat the game as a game and not as an immersive experience.
WoW’s shift to focus on story has done the game no services, in my opinion.
As others have pointed out, its not a female only thing. Malfurion, Tirion Fordring and Thrall are essentially the same character, just with a different color of magic.
Can you point out the difference between Baine and Anduin? I cant.