A while back, we were having discussions over the plot of the game. Like ending the faction war. And someone pointed out that the writers didn’t seem comfortable writing red vs blue. Nothing with personal hang ups, they just weren’t good at it in a creative sense. And I 100% agree with the point made in the OP post, that all romances are ridiculously cringe in this game.
The fact that at the end of Legion they tried to keep ANY sense of Illidan’s romantic feelings for Tyrande proves it. They’re not technically a couple, but their ‘story’ is like the background to one of those friend-turned-murderer documentaries. And Blizzard has done smaller storylines like that in the past (one person’s one-sided feelings), and they’ve been great. But they’ve been treated as horrific instances where someone’s selfish wants end up causing a ridiculous amount of harm. Not an obscene glorification of obsession.
Not this ‘genuine’ romance bull pokey of ‘I will always love you even if you don’t love me’… Which is stupidly damaging, especially when you have younger, impressionable players. I get angry about how romance is portrayed in media for young adults in general, and won’t rant about it anymore because the grandpa in me can go on about it for years.
I don’t think I would be unhappy if Blizzard didn’t write romances in their game anymore. I think the last, genuine piece of romantic emotion they succeeded at portraying was during Grommash’s WoD animatic where he’s faced with… You know. The situation involving his mate/Garrosh’s mother. Won’t spoil it, it’s gorgeous, you should go watch it if you haven’t already. And there’s truly not that much romantic context, it’s more of a moral/emotional situation. But it WORKS. It’s believable.
There is no believable or satisfying romantic interaction in Legion, and this Sylvanas/Nathanos thing is just… Creepy. I know it’s self-insert fanfiction but it’s creepy. It’s weird. It’s so weird. And I think it would be better left out of the game entirely if it can’t be done properly. That’s NOT to say LGBT shouldn’t be included. It’s to say that if Blizzard perpetuates the level of irresponsibility and lack of awareness they’ve had FOR YEARS when it comes to writing romances then they shouldn’t do it at all.
Either that, or get someone in there that knows what they’re doing. Not someone that’s going to make it ‘omgsocute’ or ‘omgsotragicluv’ for the sake of making it… That. Get a storyteller in there that understands people.
(I’m serious, you guys, how romance is handled in a majority of modern, popular media legitimately angers me.)