Alright. Here we go. Last night was hectic and a lot to unwrap so I basically have my own novel here, like damn.
So this one specific thing out of 6+ years of nothing else is literally the only citation everybody is using as “confirmation” from Blizzard that Chromie is trans.
He could be a tomgirl, he could be a drag queen, he could be very feminine, he could be someone who doesn’t care, he could be so many other things but the ship everybody is setting sail here is that he is trans and they are using this one post that could just as easily confirm every other thing I listed above.
https://i.postimg.cc/mZpQ4Cnv/IHE81C9.png
Do you have any idea how many people he had to clarify what was going on? That a Dragon who was initially referred to with male pronouns and is now being referred to BY Blizzard, not Chonormu himself, with female pronouns going forward to prevent confusion?
Chronromu never said anything himself in lore, in-game or otherwise, not even in the Visage Day story, that he specifically preferred female pronouns only and would not accept ever being referred to as male, nor did he say anything himself about identifying as female.
Steve Danuser didn’t say anything about trans or transgender in that post and Blizzard’s effort to prevent confusion about who is referring to who with the pronouns was by basically saying Chronormu is just going to stick with she/her from now on.
Again, the character never said this himself, it was the narrative to prevent confusion with NPC dialogue in-game for players towards this eccentric and querky Dragon that enjoys being the unusual as a male by having a female visage compared to how the rest of his brethren typically go about it, their visage’s gender typically matching their own but Chronormu decided to have fun be a little weird [In the funky and humorous sense] and have a visage gender that didn’t match his own. That’s it.
The post Danuser was replying to [Which yes, I found],:
https://i.postimg.cc/XYJ8C51W/post.png
Steve never pointed his response directly to any transgenderism that they asked about, clarifying only in a very generalized direction that would answer all the other questions people have asked as well and the confusion people had about the pronoun bit and have had for years.
It would be very hard for players to keep track of the pronouns if they kept switching back and forth between he/him and she/her, not knowing who was referring to who, not just in the story but in the in-game dialogue regarding anything with Chromie/Chronormu.
So Blizzard just had to stick with one, they literally CAN’T, for the sake of preventing confusion of players, in the game itself switch back and forth. So it could be said just as well that this is why the female pronouns are being used for both his visage and dragon form whilst he still sticks with his name of the male naming convention.
Thus it is done for the purpose of preventing player confusion, not necessarily because he is transgender. I mean it would be confusing for new players and players unacquainted with the lore and personality of Chronormu as to why this Gnome in the story is being referred to as a he/him when they appear to be blatantly female and thus naturally would use female pronouns. And he is in his visage form pretty much permanently for player convenience as an NPC for Chromie Time. Does that make sense to anyone? Anyone at all?
The gender naming conventions for Dragons in WoW isn’t some fluid thing. It is and has been set in stone with the lore of knowing what gender a Dragon is ever since Warcraft 3. So much so and for so long that Blizzard cannot just get rid of that and have one character with a wave of the hand completely dissolve as a whole that the naming convention means nothing now even though it’s been so consecutively strict for what it’s purpose is for two decades. Chronormu still refers to himself with his male name.
This confusion with Chromie and this story has been going on for years, not with all the transgender folk wanting any kind of certainty or confirmation, because entirely there is no confirmation still even though people keep thinking Danuser’s Tweet is when it’s not. I’m talking about the confusion people have had who only want to know what the hell is going on and can’t keep track with the pronouns among other things like his name and being of the male naming convention for his Flight.
They are not unisex names, they are literally defined by gender representation and he still uses his male one and has referred to himself in dialogue with it when he doesn’t have to, so it’s completely a choice that he does not make, because for all accounts he still completely identifies with himself as male.
THIS all is what was being cleared up, nothing was being confirmed.
This book is not new like many people are freaking out over, Blizzard should be ashamed for treating it as such like it’s never existed before, it’s been around for quite a while now. Danuser never said it was newly released, he just said it was released on the WoW website. Nobody pays attention to how they abuse these little details nobody bothers to notice knowing full well that they have literal psychologists on their team that know exactly how people will interpret it and make a big deal out of it
Folk and Fairytales of Azeroth is the book the Visage Story comes from. It was released last spring in May of 2021. You can go on the Wowpedia websight for it and literally see Visage Day listed with the included stories, or hell you can even go to Steve Danuser’s Twitter and see it. It’s not new. They just brought attention to it on the forums to hype up for Dragonflight.
I can use Twitter posts too, proving as well with the dates they were posted that this confusion from the general player base, and the story’s existence, has been going on and been around for a long time. This forum is just a convoluted mess of insanity.
https://i.postimg.cc/m2zH7SNT/Twitter-Posts.png
Gender fluidity makes sense but it equally makes sense that Chronormu with his eccentric personality just enjoys playing around as a female Gnome whilst being a male Dragon because he loves being the unusual or odd one out and unique. That’s all, that IS his canonical personality and other Dragons in-game have stated it in NPC dialogue. Not trans, not queer, just loves having fun being querky. He is still a male.
If Blizzard themselves somehow “confirmed” anything, then why are so many people still asking questions and are confused and uncertain? Because the truth is, that damn Twitter post from Danuser is literally the only thing anybody is using when as I’ve stated he was replying for many people and clearing up a confusion that made it difficult for the general player base to follow along with the story and to prevent in-game confusion as well.
There are limitations to freedom of what can be done and what actually is in the reality of the lore. Because at the end of the day this is a video game that thousands of players all over the world play where there can be confusion, uncertainty, complaints about not knowing wtf is going on and what is what.
So there are things they can’t really do like switch back and forth between male and female pronouns in game dialogue referring to Chromie, they have to stick so strongly with a certain factor such as sticking with she/her while being a bit more confined from any wiggle room to express the fact that he still a male Dragon despite this.
I’m waiting for that in-game dialogue or something where Chronormu is proven to not be trans but instead is revealed to be a male that identifies as a male and enjoys very much playing around as a female and female pronouns.
You also have to remember that Chromie is regarded as eccentric even by Dragon standards, one definition of eccentric meaning strange and unusual in a humorous way. I always loved this about Chronormu, he’s not afraid to step outside of what is typical just for the cute and ditzy fun of it.
Personalities can step outside of what’s considered normal just for fun, this doesn’t mean he is trans. Just playful and ditzy, like his Gnome avatar that he represents these character traits about him, as a Dragon’s visage literally is decided as such on Visage Day.
One Twitter post I saw also stated:
https://i.postimg.cc/3RWnQvp9/multiple-personas.png
Which can also be a very accurate assessment.
In conclusion… Steve Danuser isn’t any kind of super mature professional who can go above and beyond to care about these kinds of topics from a sincere stand anyway. A quick browse through his Twitter shows that really he just says and does things to come off as “hip with the kids” and appeal to our cringey humor so he can seem more relatable. In other words “profitting” off of whatever will draw people to him/the game/lore/company whatever:
https://i.postimg.cc/JtCs4Nk8/Uber-Mature-and-Professional.png
Take it as you will but nobody can say that I haven’t done my research.
I guess im FADSHIST. I dislike bandwagoneers.