Give you an inch and you take a mile.
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And in your mind, that automatically makes those relationships romantic? Crimeny. I have friendships, both male and female, that go back decades with no romantic inclinations whatsoever.
Seems to me like your idea of romance is a bad Harlequin novel. You should read more.
I understand but I would ask this: when it comes to thematic writing, is physical representation truly necessary?
Iâll use Harry Potter as an example. Thematically, the books were about the hardships of navigating a strange environment (adolesence) while being burdened with the task of defeating evil (the expectations of adults and impending adulthood).
Name me one person who has not gone through similar life experiences. If people can relate on broader life experiences, does physical representation-outside of very specific circumstances-truly mean anything other than appearances which are, by definition, shallow.
Youâre not wrong; itâs all superficial, and we are all human at the end of the day. I think it comes down not to the fact that there is representation but more to the lack thereof: a conspicuous absence. If there were no straight relationships represented in the game, then I donât think there would need to LGBT relationships either. However, the fact of the matter is that there are high-level straight relationships in the game, so there need to be a few high-level LGBT relationships shown as well. Would it be so horrid to have a gay king or a lesbian queen? Or a king who used to be a queen or vice versa?
And for the record, kudos to everyone who has said they are sick and tired of making straight cis people feel comfortable. In the last 1,500 years of Western culture, straight people havenât given a d*** whether we feel comfortable and many in power have in fact been largely hellbent on making us feel UNcomfortable. Please, someone explain why I should care about their feelings if they donât care about ours? I honestly wish straight cis people could feel the hurt and anger and frustration and fear that we feel for just one day.
To bring this all back to the topic at hand, nobody should have to feel alienated when playing a freaking game. Straight people already dominate our real life; are they so greedy that they have to dominate our in-game world too?
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Thatâs all any of the couples in this game are. Why do you people only have a problem with it when theyâre LGBT?
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You donât own the inch or the mile to give in the first place. Weâre done asking permission, and itâs hilarious that you canât handle it.
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I am confused, isnât Mathias Shaw one person?
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Aviela trolls so of course they get stuff wrong
Iâm only speaking for myself as is appropriate but given Blizzardâs âsuccess rateâ with writing straight relationships, do you really trust them to write anything other than a mockery of LGBT relationships?
For me, itâs not about the people involved in a relationship, itâs about writing said relationship well and in such a way that everyone can relate to in one way or another.
This is what builds understanding. Again, it comes down to relatability and writing; none of which I trust Blizzard to do well.
But thatâs just me.
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Theyâre doing fine with Shaw and Flynn.
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Meh. I think that entire relationship came out of left feild, too much so for my tastes. Itâs certainly plausible, for sure.
But thatâs part of the hamfisted, shallow nature of Blizzardâs writing I despise. Itâs fanfic levels of bad.
Blizzard Writer1: âHey, these two characters with no prior connection have a few moments of Odd Couple banter in a single scenario! This could really lead to some smart writing!â
Blizzard Writer2: âOMG FANBOY/GIRL!!! THEYâRE GAY!â
It makes no sense without any other build upâŚat least to me. Not a knock on the relationship itself, just poorly executed. Even Madeline Roux stated the mandate was to make the pair a same-sex couple was a corporate decision which explains a lot.
Or maybe, in a game populated by murderous, gold and loot greedy egomaniacs, Iâm just expecting too much from Blizzard. But at the end of the day, if it scratches an itch for some people, who am I to say, ânoâ?
That is so entirely disingenuous. No one is expecting WoW writing to suddenly be the next literary masterpiece.
But thereâs certainly something to be said that this argument only ever comes up in LGBT threads as a way to discourage their inclusion.
The idea that LGBT stories need to be written to quality above everything else already there, is nonsense.
No one looks at the writing in this game and goes, âtHiS iS HoW aLl StRAiGhT PeOpLe aRe.â
Our relationships donât have to be held to anyoneâs standards, just like none of the current ones are.
Trash LGBT stories can exist alongside the trash non-LGBT stories.
Pretending they need to be something more to create âunderstandingâ is just asking for permission that no one actually has to ask for.
We donât need to be âunderstoodâ - your comfort levels with us is not our concern. Weâre not harming anyone by existing, and weâre not harming anyone by telling our stories, so weâre definitely not going to accept being held to a âhigher standardâ just to be âincluded.â
If someone wants to write better LGBT characters then they can. Iâm completely happy with my trash video game writing - because I know the difference.
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No one writes a relationship happening in two seconds. They build it up enough in the book while leaving just a little for folks to fill in the blanks themselves if they wish
Their relationship is still new which is kind of why I like it.
Any decent writer is gonna be giddy watching people come up with fanfics from their scenarios.
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Iâm sorry but how exactly do you think gay people start relationships?
How do you think anyone starts relationships?
I havenât been with my bf since birth. We literally "had no prior connections and had a few moments of âodd couple (seriously?) banterâ and decided to get to know each other better.
Do straight people form relationships before they meet each other? I donât understand how this
Perhaps you misunderatood which is entirely my fault so Iâll clarify.
Did you meet your boyfriend and say, âHey baby, letâs be a couple even though we just met!â or did you meet, take your time to get to know one another before committing to a relationship?
Because thatâs how the shaw/flynn relationship feels built up, random and with little to no interaction (and I stress this as well) in-game.
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People⌠Shipping is bad⌠do not ship.
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Iâm gay and I have been playing WoW since around 2008/9 at the end of BC. I would love to see LGBT representation, but I also donât think that LGBT characters are excluded from the game. The reality of it is that no characters in WoW are sexualized and we donât have narratives about lore characters romantic interests (sure, a few, but just couples like Thrall/Aggralon).
Who are we to say who is straight and gay in world of warcraft? Blizzard doesnât have to tell you, just use your imagination! Arthas can be our imaginary gay lover, in my world of warcraft after he put the helm of domination on, he became gay and took over Azeroth because he didnât want any more straight people there. Any game can be gay, as long as you have the imagination to MAKE IT GAY! 
We donât need cheap tokenism. Natural LGBT couples are going to happen without forcing them.
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Seems to me that Arthas would make a rather distant and emotionallyâŚwaaaaait for itâŚwaaaaaaiiiiiit for itâŚcold lover 
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Eh shipping is fine when itâs reasonable. In Hazbin Hotel for example thereâs a very popular character that happens to be asexual. His creator gave permission to the fandom âYou can still ship him with folks itâs fineâ
Itâs when people ship real people that we got a problem. I used to do that as a teen because I had no characters of my own at the time. I put a full stop to it once I started working on my own stuff.