Tamsin 'Mary Sue' Roame

Community Discussion
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I’ve dropped some hints about the ‘Mary Sue’ point here and there, but, apparently, they haven’t been received by the community, so I suppose I could write it down in a more clear and systematic way.

Before we go any further, if you’re wondering what a ‘Mary Sue’ is, some references, so that I don’t have to explain the concept, for example:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

So, what are the signs here? To begin with, let me point out the most blatant superpower — Immunity to Censorship, on which I shall elaborate below.

First, take a look at this, for instance, while rather innocuous calling someone a ‘witch’ gets censored elsewhere (especially if that ‘someone’ is the Mary Sue Main Character in WoW, let alone some ‘politically correct connotations’, eh?) — what’s more, isn’t this whole shebang supposed to be considered super ‘family-friendly’?

Additional reference:
https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Dreadlich_Tamsin#Sounds

Second, as we know, at some point, namely Patch 14.6.0.31761, a number of cards have received new arts (reference below) — either less gruesome (Deadly Shot, for instance) or more prudish, all in line with the ‘bright, vibrant, and colorful’ art style befitting dino movies targeted at five-year-old kids (self-plagiarising here a bit, sorry, but what of it), once again, all of it very ‘family-friendly’, apparently. In that case, however, what’s up with all those ‘horryfying skulls’ and such here? Gimme Nemsy with peaches instead!

https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Patch_14.6.0.31761#Card_Art_Updates

And the ‘prudish’ part — yeah! While Jaina (of course, this, yes) was forced to alter her signature looks, known since WC3, and don a hijab, here’s a blatant case of so-called ‘absolute cleavage’. Or is even a minor detail, hardly qualifying as ‘fansercive’, a big no-no on a normal woman, but anything goes on a corpse? In that case, I must say you have… unusual tastes, art directors and censors. :smirk:

Being a censorship Houdini is not the only notable quality, though. How about all those audio lines — LOUD, lengthy, unskippable, more irksome than a battallion of Annoy-o-Trons and resembling bungled attempts at being hammy, to the point of the metaphorical ham rotting and reeking? You can squelch your opponent, but you can’t, for instance, squelch that opening remark, which makes those Warlock bots even more repulsive with that hero skin — it’s probably my biggest personal peeve regarding the subject. :grinning:

It’s that one, I think:
https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Dreadsteed_Tamsin

Finally, am I the only one who sees a bit of a ‘Simpcaller’ case here, with elements of lazy plagiarism? :face_with_raised_eyebrow: Let me cite something from TV Tropes:

Simpcaller

World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth expansion had Nathanos Blightcaller. An Ascended Extra, he was abruptly uplifted from a nobody undead hunter to one of the central figures of the expansion (even getting a more attractive redesign). He popped up constantly on the Horde campaign side, to the point that he seemed to be leading every other battle, most of which ended in victory, and was constantly treated as a huge threat and the one man Sylvanas trusted, with no small amount of Ship Tease between the two. The crowning pinnacle of this was managing to defeat Tyrande, a major figure who had been supercharged to the point of basically being a demigod and who was in the process of avenging a genocide on her people (causing the plotline of said vengeance to basically fizzle out), despite apparently being nothing more than a fairly skilled undead with a bow. Steve Danuser, one of the main writers of the game, became infamous in the fandom for roleplaying as Nathanos on Twitter. The fan backlash towards Nathanos was so universal that he was ultimately killed off around the start of Shadowlands, though he still had the time to do some Evil Gloating.

Yeah, even I, not a WoW player, know of such terms ---- and that tells something, I guess. :grinning:
Reference:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/CreatorsPet/VideoGames

One more small remark: if you’re wondering what the purpose of all this writing is, what I am trying to achieve, let me tell you: why not do it? Writing is a good exercise for the brain, if you ask me :grinning: , as is formulating your thoughts more or less coherently.

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So what you’re saying is Tamsin is a Mary Sue? I don’t really think she is considering how the storyline went in United in Stormwind, she did show signs of regret when she had to fight her sister, and she sucks at every other type of magic except dark ones like necromancy (Not sure but I believe she was failing her classes in arcane stuff). As for auto lines, I pretty sure squishing the opponent makes it so you don’t have to hear those. Overall this post seems to be a weird hate for Tamsin, maybe it’s just some PTSD from the demon seed questline coming out. Who knows?!.

1 Like
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I haven’t touched this part, but fine, I’ll gladly discuss it.

First, let me cite a passage from wiki:

A Mary Sue is a character archetype in fiction, usually a young woman, who is often portrayed as inexplicably competent across all domains, gifted with unique talents or powers, liked or respected by most other characters, unrealistically free of weaknesses…

This is hardly academic, but, I think, having a lieutenant of the Burning Legion as your pet qualifies, doesn’t it? By the way, I’ve read somewhere that, had the developers known about the upcoming cross-over, it could have been Diablo instead ---- which would actually be more cool… Or Kazzak, I dunno — I heard some players brought him to Stormwind, using some exploit, which would at least have been a cool reference.

Another one: how about being widely respected and lamented (after an untimely and oh-so-tragic death — another hallmark of this kind of character, by the way) by virtually all other mercs (you could check, for example, the ‘Rokara vs Tavish’ tavern brawl), despite no obvious reason for it at all?

https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Tavish_vs._Rokara#Dialogue

On the contrary: wasn’t this one, as befits a Mary Sue, supposed to be KT’s prize student? Since when, by the way, had Ol’ KT shown this kind of attitude towards any living being, except Mr Bigglesworth, that he’d even teach his particular secrets to yet another body for zombification experiments?

https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Failed_Student

But, of course, a ‘Mary Sue’ case would merit an exception, wouldn’t it?

Speaking of other types of magic: what do you mean and which one would you expect? If you remember Sylvanas’s story, for instance (yes, this one again — to be fair, I’ve perceived the subject as a B-version of that trend in WoW, with elements of nearly direct plagiarism), weren’t her old Nature things failing her after taking control of her dead body again, so that she had to resort to her necromantic or banshee ‘dark ranger’ stuff? Just curious… Although Forsaken can also be Priests or Mages, actually…

PS I’m not familiar with the part about the Arcane class, could you please specify?

Not the screeching opening remark at the start of a match or ‘automatic’ emotes.

You could say that, perhaps… But who likes cringeworthy Mary Sues shoved obtrusively into one’s face — or some sloppy work by those writers, piling up all the worst cliches to a point where it looks like a parody of a parody in a post-parody world? How about actually doing a good job instead, as they have occasionally done?

Ha-ha, good attempt! Fortunately, I don’t play Standard or Wild… Played against this one in Cariel’s BoM, if memory serves, where it didn’t even get completed — that’s about it, though.