Quoi? Comment vous dites, mon amour?
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Omelette Du Fromage.
Omelette Du Fromage?
Omelette Du Fromage!
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Lol I was trying to mistranslate “I’m sorry, my French is very bad” on purpose, but my spellcheck changed Francais to Franchise and I left that in. Very interesting how that was translated “literally” though, definitely hilarious.
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But, but…
I really am Miss Croissant!!
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That was 100% cute ngl.
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So, with that new Goblin description, it looks like they’ve learned nothing.
“The goblins’ craftiness and greed make them masters of mercantilism.”
“Honing their inherent cunning to a razor’s edge, the goblins hope to use their explosive inventions to rule the world – or at the very least own a profitable percentage of it.”
Jewish people wanting to rule the world is a well-known antisemitic conspiracy theory. It’s more known than the well-poisoning thing.
I wonder if whoever wrote this was in that Discord server with Nebu.
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I get the complaints and all, but what do you want the goblins to be? Their entire lore is about them being greedy or self destructive.
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I’d settle for “not antisemitic stereotypes”.
I’m not Jewish myself so I won’t speak for them on this part, but I personally feel that if Blizzard can’t stop piling on the antisemitic tropes maybe it’s time they took a long hard look at the race and decide if they need to be changed in some way so this stops happening.
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Let me ask this, is there anyway you can portray the goblins as reckless capitalists, without being antisemitic?
Nope. Unless we rewrite the how goblins have been so far.
Yes.
Here’s the thing: their physical appearance is already a wrap because it’s a product of 4 centuries of antisemitism in Western European fiction/folklore
But narratively, you can, for example:
- Rely more on Goodfellas/Scorcese type themes
The Trade Council should be canon and should feel like the ending scene of Mobsters (1991) where Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, and Bugsy Siegel set up The Commission to unify/organize the Italian and Jewish Mafias.
Mafias are quite literally the pinnacle of 20th century capitalism because they’re the product of New Rich upwards mobility and capital accumulation due to criminal enterprise born out of laboral pre-union informal syndicates based on ethnicity.
- Add some more humor due to the NY Metropolitan Area accents, with popular references therein from NYC based comics (whether explicit like Marvel or DC’s Gothan) or NYC based TV Shows
If you organize the Trade Council and flesh out the mafia hierarchy of the cartels, maybe some characters can be based on The Nanny, maybe another can be based on Harley Quinn, maybe another can be based on Snookie
Imagine if the Bilgewater Cartel’s “clean up” crew was run by a Goblin named Fiona Fine (Nanny reference) and Ari Chino (Ariecchino, Italian version of Harlequin, Harley Quinn, etc).
Imagine if one of the Hobgoblins was actually smart and was called King Needle (King Pin reference, Marvel) and was the Cappo of the Venture Co
There’s literally so much
- Bilgewater Cartel, since they’re the Horde Cartel, and Steamwheedle maybe (Since Gazlowe, how did that work???) can have some internal conflicts
Could have Boss Mida (reference to King Midas) could stay being the die-hard Greedy “screw the environment” Goblin secondary leader under Gazlowe, but maybe introduce a new character cuz Liz Hungry (referencing Saint Elizabeth of Hungary who gave up her wealth to help the poor), have her be the Happy Go Lucky Preppy Peppy Always Excited “Green Capitalism” metaphor (maybe we can have a magnetic tram running from Org to Echo Isles to Mulgore to Tanaris, Heaven forbid), maybe give her a corny motto voice line like “I’m always HUNGRY for Progress, tee hee” saying “progress” in a mildly unsettling way
- Formalize their role as the bankers of the Horde for all the races; replace the NPCs in all the banks in all the capital cities with Goblins, add some Goblins therein
Maybe add two NPCs, Lawrence Miditchy (Lorenzo Medici reference) and Shelly Redshield (Amschel Rothschild reference, but genderbent, yolo) to run said Pan-Horde banking system but don’t make them evil.
- ADD SOME INTERNAL GOBLIN CONFLICT VIA GOBLIN UNIONS, HEAVEN FORBID
The line between “Jewish Reference + Italian Reference” and "Antisemitic Trope" is crossed when you *checks notes * declare on the official race page of the Goblins for the WoW Website that Goblins only care about the total exploitation and destruction of Azeroth via explosives because they are hell-bent on world domination and ownership of the planet.
Center the Goblins on:
- Mafia (Italian + Jewish 20th century Scorcese & Co)
- Popular NYC-based Characters (The Nanny! Harley Quinn! King Pin! Maybe even Spiderman!)
- Self-aware Satire of Late Capitalism (both the Robber Baron Exploitation Capitalism of old and the new “Green Capitalist” Imperialist)
And steer CLEAR of:
- Any character design centered on hyper-obvious 20th century antisemitic trope
- making any of the “top”/main Goblin leadership evil/villains
- Claims of world domination and ownership of the planet on the official website or books otherwise
And this is all just stuff I pulled off the top of my head typing right now.
And by no means am I some sort of creative genius, Christ.
23 Likes
Oh, I really like this. I’m picturing a goblin outlaw rogue character (very) loosely based on Daredevil, working to undermine the Venture Company.
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Not Spider-Man. He’s a well-known enemy of goblins.
EDIT: Okay, am now imagining a rogue Nerubian running around a goblin-populated area picking them off one by one.
G Gonah Goblinson: HE’S A THREAT! A MENACE! I NEED PICTURES! LOOK OUT! HERE COMES THE SPIDER-MAN!
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A Goblin Lawyer who defends the Steamwheedle Cartel Union against the Venture Co who worships the Light but by night is a crime fighting vigilante trained by the Shado-Pan?
I’m sold.
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I’m not american so the notion that goblins are jews is lost on me. I’d always seen them as caricatures of new york gangster types, - as seen on tv.
What I will say though, is that their description as hell bent on world domination is a little inaccurate. World domination has never been their thing. Its beyond their scope. Cornering the market is more in line with their goals and aspirations.
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Well, none of the antisemitic stereotypes Goblins use originate from America, I don’t think. For example, the notion of an international jewish conspiracy dates back to the thirteenth century, but became much more popular with the publishing of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Yes, I agree. I was very surprised to see this.
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So…incoming goblin characters based on “Sex and the City”? Or “Seinfeld”?
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So, thinking about Goblins being antisemitic again, it’s kind of weird how they made one of them a National Socialist reference in Uldum. Could have chosen a different race for that, or not made one at all.
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I still weep for the original version of Uldum which was supposed to have Explorer’s League vs Reliquiary fighting for titan relics as the main plot instead.
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Why have in-game race development and world building providing equity between the factions so we don’t have to keep relying on Alliance groups being Neutral when you can have memetic Fascist German Goblin vs Indiana Jones Human references that perpetuate logics of Evil Horde and have Alliance Groups being Neutral?
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