Helms deep. He blinded an army of Uruk-hai at helms deep.
He also chased off a bunch of Nazgul with light at Gondor when trying to cover Faramir’s original retreat, didn’t he?
Things heating up in the LOTR fandom tho.
That attitude of others was why I found it hard to stay with the grizzled pandaren ranger this guy was.
If its not people still hating pandaren (once got declined from a key because the lead thought pandaren were dumb), its forcing the happy-go-lucky stereotype down on us. Its often tedious at times.
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Yea, but that wasn’t really during a battle.
I’m being weirdly pedantic about this for no reason
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Yeah people get weird about Pandaren, IC and OOC. You’re hit with a range of reactions such as “lol you’re just Kung Fu Panda” or “Pandaren are supposed to be happy and goofy and wise” or “Ew you’re probably a furry.”
I’ve made three attempts to RP Pandaren with a dramatic angle and the first two only really resolved because I dragged then out of sight into private with a specific few people, and #3 just crashed and burned altogether.
Attempt #1 was a Mainlander, the son of a disgraced ex Shado-Pan whose life was in shambles and who lost his home when a piece of the Horde gunship literally fell on it
and this got me the classic dismissal of “siiigggghhh you rebellion RPers are so annoying :((((((( just don’t play Horde then yuck.”
Attempt #2 was an idealistic Huojin monk who left the isle in the default stock setting of jovial only to lose that exuberant positivity when exposed to the hardships of the wider world–this one was even stranger because I got shouted down for his darker moments… but then also called histrionic and annoying because of his better ones??? WHAT is correct then
Attempt #3 was a former up and coming pugilist on Shen-Zin Su but became a wanderer after his life and marriage fell apart when his adopted child died in a house fire and he was blamed for it by his husband’s family. I didn’t even get to the point of that detail becoming known before receiving the typical whining of “egh egh your panda is too downer your panda is too mean egh egh.”
Like, I’m so sorry I wrote him with a more involved backstory than standing around the wyvern’s tail trading bored racisms with strangers. I feel as though people just hate Pandaren in general too much for them to be very fun to explore outside their own communities.
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every time I tried to RP a Pandaren my characters keep ending up as this weird mix of Mr.Miyagi from the Karate kid, and Uncle Iroh from the last airbender.
But the sterotypes aside, even I noticed that everyone treats every single pandaren like they are this giant sunshine and sparkles alcoholics.
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Telandros lost friends and family as a direct result of the Horde’s actions. Much of his childhood village destroyed. He has as much reason as anyone to desire violent vengeance.
But he makes a conscious choice not to. It’s admittedly difficult, wrestling with the natural feelings of anger and despair at the state of affairs simmering in the back of his mind.
He essentially has to convince himself that peace is for the best, and he goes through with this struggle almost entirely because the woman he loves happens to be Horde-side.
Irrational feelings trying to disguise itself as cold rational logic? Perhaps.
My point is, that characters (yes, even night elves and Gilneans) can all be sympathizers for one reason or another. And many of these reasons are valid.
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I can understand wanting to be neutral, playing as I am a Ex-Alliance Turned Horde turned BACK to the Alliance operative in this character.
It kind of helps that I’m not a PVPer in the slightest, but Vanndrel’s got no vested interest in a long standing war with the Horde. Hell, Quel’thalas can sit and spin for all he cares about it now. He turned his back on a home he’d helped build for it and ultimately it resulted in him watching from a distance as the Horde blew that home to the ground with if not Quel’thalas’ tact approval then definitely with the terrible knowledge the Sunfurys had gleaned from Outland.
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as long as you’re not trying to be preachy and play it realistically, it’s not too troublesome
but the sympathizer characters that go “you should immediately forgive and forget about what they did to you” rubs me wrong.
people don’t forgive that easily. there are grudges irl that have been held for hundreds of years. or at least several decades.
what i wish i saw sympathizer characters do is sympathize with the victims, and try to direct their anger and pain to more peaceful things. instead of vengeance, use your motivation to repair your homes and make sure stuff like this doesn’t happen again. open avenues for a lasting peace.
“you are right to want to see the world burned down for what they did to you and the people you love. but don’t let it burn, for their sakes. for you, as well. it may feel like you are dead or dying, and that the only thing that can help anyone is to make them dead. but their deaths won’t make your pain go away. it won’t make what you lost come back.
you are right to feel these things, but these things will only continue the cycle of loss.”
sorta stuff.
instead of “oh teldrassil wasn’t so bad, get over it” or “forgive the alliance/horde immediately or you’re a horrible person”, try a more realistic or respectful approach.
half the time i feel people dislike sympathizer characters is a lot of the time a sympathizer character demands your character to act differently.
that’s just me tho.
happy monday.
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I think a big issue is that this is the kind of thing we are given in game. Not that I think you’re wrong, but can we really blame them if they take a page from the characters in game?
To play devil’s advocate I think it’s actually an interesting angle that could lead to character development. The preachy naïve idealist peace maker types are likely young or have by a stroke of luck not been really personally as effected by it all. Or maybe not as much. Sure, we could roll our eyes at such a person but there are these types of people in real life. Perhaps they are arrogant in that they think they have this magic solution to end the conflict. It’s not a character I’d personally play, but I think it can “make sense” and be something really interesting if the player themselves does it right.
That is a good point. But throughout my time in roleplay I have seen and experienced that a lot of a character’s views are usually stagnant on certain things - no matter how much you try to change them or prove them wrong. On individuals/players they can change, but very little comparatively when it’s a different topic.
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That mirrors real life though, doesn’t it?
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Yeah but most of us play the game and RP specifically to ESCAPE real life, if only for a bit.
Like for my characters narratively, Theramore has been a major component in every single one of them. I mean from Mists to Legion, I ran as a survivor of Theramore who routinely called Orcs “Piggies” and in lieu of 2020 would in no way be considered something that was “Okay” to roleplay.
But it was cathartic in the sense I’ve really lost any and all desire to play such a vengeance driven character ever again.
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Yeah there is a lot that goes in to that. It definitely mirrors real life, even if unintentionally. Most of the time we don’t change the minds of people and their deeply held beliefs. I don’t think people (usually) change based on a convo especially with stranger. I’m mostly defending that such a character is realistic and less that we should mirror real life in roleplay. I know that sort of sounds like a contradiction but for the latter I mean more the sense of people bringing actual events into game.
That’s the key part. As you see, I mention how doing it right is ultimately a fine thing to do.
I was giving a suggestion how to maybe do it better for some people, which is probably slightly the point of this thread. To see viewpoints that are uncommon and to potentially update your thinking or knowledge based on them. Or just to disregard.
But no, I don’t exactly want to blame someone for taking something from the game. I’ll just have to warn, however, that taking things from the game makes someone free of criticism or blame. There’s some really troublesome things in WoW that nobody should emulate.
You are likely correct in thinking a naive idealist is likely a fun dynamic if done right.
This archetype, if done wrong, is very annoying. Doing it right, however, can likely lead to some fun or interesting RP.
But I have seen it done wrong every time I’ve seen it, so that’s why I offer my subversion of the standard trope used.
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Za’tiya is absolutely a preachy idealist. But she’s far from naïve.
This self-righteousness is also meant to be a character flaw.
Not sure if that would fit under what you consider “doing it right” as opposed to “doing it wrong.”
Edit: And honestly, I doubt that whether an idealist preaching aggressively (“You must be peaceful or you’re a bad person”) or passively (“please channel that energy into rebuilding”) really matters to the average character bent on vengeance-- or the player writing them.
I’ve had characters and players both get vexed even when I have Zat use the latter approach.
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Honestly I’ve just dropped all pretense and made Bandalur a crass jerk. He’s a good guy to have around but he’s not going to make you lunch. He’s going to steal someone elses.
I just…cant be bothered with anyone else’s opinion. I’m sorry I called you a mean name Male Orc Warrior #4056. I’ll warn you next time.
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I mean, this is entirely fair since it also happens on the flipside.
A character can simply take a normal reaction and refuse to forgive an hostile action the other guys took against them and provide justifiable reasons to why they don’t wish to trust them while being peaceful and inward looking about it, but get chided because they don’t support total submission to the other side’s verdict.
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I’ve run into this a number of times. Sometimes, people want to do their character development over a longer period of time (spanning several years, rather than months) and so everything gets dragged out be it reasonable or not. It can be frustrating to run into.
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