Garona, Malygos, and recent WoW changes

Community General Discussion
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Trigger Warning: Rape

Hi all,

In my spare time, I love reading lore-related articles on Wowpedia. It helps pass the time during slow periods at work. Not too long ago, I noticed a few lore tidbits that really make me wonder about Blizzard’s… priorities.

Recently, Blizzard changed a few paintings and quests to remove references to nudity and sex. I didn’t really agree with these changes, since they seemed like shallow gestures, removing flavor from the game. However, there are characters with less than savory backstories that were deemed “okay” by Blizzard during this purge, and it really made me wonder where Blizzard’s priorities lie.

Garona Halforcen is a half-orc, half-draenei assassin who was one of Gul’dan’s “breeding experiments” (a term used by a WoW comic). Her mother was Leran, sister of Maraad. Her father? Well, it is heavily implied that her father was a member of an orcish Bladewind Clan raiding party. He doesn’t even get a name. This backstory was so unnerving that the Warcraft movie rewrote Garona’s past, making Medivh her father.

Another pretty disturbing story is that of Keristrasza, the unwilling consort of Malygos. I’ll let Wowpedia sum up this one:

After slaying his consort and luring him into battle with elements of the red dragonflight, Keristrasza is captured by Malygos, who makes her his new consort. Malygos abused her constantly, branding runes into her body and using his powerful magic to bend her will, until she finally went insane.

Keristrasza was the final boss of a WoW dungeon, as the forced consort of a major villain in WotLK.

Now, I’m probably going to get flamed for this, so I’ll make it clear: I’m not for the removal of anything seen as “negative” in-game. However, I’m still puzzled why Blizzard took relatively minor things out of the game but didn’t change some of the more ghastly stories in their lore.

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she killed his consort.

murder is far worse than what he did to her.

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I always got the vibe that since we can get to that dungeon super quick after her capture then she’s just mentally broken without any physical abuse happening.

Villain still doing villain stuff but it’s also not in our face. The mental abuse happens off screen

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I don’t think that justifies it.

Also, some would argue a quick death is much better than drawn-out torture.

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OP first line was savage.

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lose a consort, gain a consort. eye for eye. seems about reasonable.

well her torment ended, whereas the dead dragon is still dead.

my point is simply that we’re completely cold to murder. we don’t care.
any lesser offenses however are tragedies. Pamela’s doll? tearjerker.

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There is nothing wrong with writing stories that have unjust components. People need to understand this

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I agree that “people” (I assume you’re referring to me) should understand that not every story is a happy one. But it’s 2021, and certain topics are much more taboo in all forms of media, even if “enhances” a character’s story (although in my personal opinion, rape and sexual assault should never be used to “enhance” a character’s story - if I was writing a story from scratch, I wouldn’t ever include them).

I guess I made this post as more of a this vs. that thread. Why did Blizzard choose to remove minor stuff but not major taboos? I only see a future where more undesirable content is removed from WoW.

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but is it really undesirable? how many had no idea it’s even there until this topic?

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Actually, as a victim myself, erasing it all and pretending it doesn’t happen is much, much worse. I’m so tired of troll posts demanding this stuff being removed when it wasn’t glorified at all. These were VILLAINS doing it. The entire point was that it’s WRONG. We defeat them in the end. If we didn’t defeat them in the end, yeah, it would be a problem. Or maybe even not then, if they got away with it, it would reflect realism, make people mighty upset, and remember that this horrible stuff happens in real life and people wrongfully get away with it all the time. The point of storytelling is to strike emotion. It isn’t a problem if it isn’t glorifying it.

But suggesting that this stuff all needs to be removed is a problem. Because again, erasing this stuff and not telling it as an issue in stories? It erases stories and gets people less inclined to talk about it as a real issue.

It gets super tiresome when people demand stories be ‘wiped clean’ when in reality, this stuff happens, is terrible, and yes, it should very well be talked about as opposed to being buried.

Edit: Oh yeah and I want to make it clear. Some posters claim the victim deserved it. No, they very much did not. That’s the point. So big yikes on that disgusting claim as well.

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Clap!! Good stories can manage delicate topics and also let the player/reader…etc know about the issue and why we must know about why is an issue and learn in order to avoid those in the future.

I was trying FF14 free trial and there’s a character " Eline Roaille"

Spoiler: When she’s capture:

People such as you take wealth and birth for granted! You think it your gods-given right to rule over others!

You know naught of our plight─the injustice that we lowborn Ishgardians must endure! To the noble lords and ladies, we are not people, but resources to be consumed!

I did what I had to do to survive─stealing, killing, even whoring myself! It is no fault of mine if fools imagined me a paragon when I joined the Flames!

I think that the development of some characters and showing mature topics depends on how the story is address to the audience

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thank you!

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Oh no, I’m not agreeing with you, and in fact I can’t stand you and your ‘justifications’ either, so don’t think I’m on your side.

I said my piece. I’m muting this thread before I get riled up even further on this subject matter. /mute.

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I do not know, I think removing both would be pretty stupid.

Villains are “undesirable”. That is why they are villains. The orc pillager was not framed as the hero in the story. It would be different. If Deathwing was framed as the hero for what he did to Alexstrazsa, I would think that would be a problem. But he wasn’t. It is very clear in the story that these things are bad.

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Fixed that for you.

You’re welcome.

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She has magical brands on her. Something tell me it was more then mental torture.

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I meant more there wasn’t any time for forced happy woo hoo fun time if you get what I mean.

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Think about it. What takes a whole lot less effort to change?

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Straight from Ion’s interview:

We made decisions on whether to leave some things standing, because they’re borderline, but we’re not looking to reinvent everything, turn over every single stone and rewrite 17 years of WoW.

Also, this:

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