I just remembered that Benedictus’ famous quote “There is no good. No evil. No Light. There is only POWER!” is stolen from Harry Potter.
Now it’s canon, not that that’s a bad thing.
So are the schools of Arcane Magic in Dalaran. Also we know for sure that Necromancy isn’t a form of Arcane Magic, though it can apparently be done with Order magic.
Also Elune is clearly based on Selune.
What else is just blatantly stolen?
Who in turn stole it from other sources, such as Moorcock. It’s a trope almost as old as dirt.
Tropes are one thing. Whole quotes are another.
It’s a partial quote just as the Potter line is a partial quote from other sources. "There is no good, no evil… etc so forth is hardly original in the Potter scene. I remember it from a scene in Dark Shadows and I’m sure it wasn’t original back then.
Let’s be honest though. “Go’el” is far more likely to be a Superman reference than it is to come from Hebrew. Also is “power” part of the quote from Dark Shadow too?
And where do you think Kal’el came from? The creators of Superman were Jews who fled post-Weimar Germany.
WoW (Blizz games in general) have always gone heavy in pop culture references.
There’s nothing new under the sun, but there are sources where people are more likely to look at.
You’ll probably tell me next that Forgotten Realms use symbols from Kabbalah.
Shadowlands is just planescape, its basically the same
Blizzard does. Where do you think Lilith comes from? Although a french game developer had used her first for the original version of In’ Nominee. Tyrael is another name made to use the el suffix which you generally find in angelic names. He’s the only Diablo angel to use the “el” because out of the lot, he’s the only true hero.
Actually the Blizzard word is “poway” going by the pronunciation. And there are other differences that don’t make it a “whole quote” of the Potter line.
I think there is “Ripped off” and then there is “Inspired by”
There are a lot of parallels between Selune and Elune, but I don’t think we can say it is a full on rip off. Elune is both Selune and Shar, if Shar was a benevolent Shepard of the dead rather than an evil and capricious demon.
But in a broader sense, you’re right. A lot of WoW is rehashed fantasy tropes and ideas. Even Prince Arthas is a “What if King Arthur was evil”
The Forgotten Realms symbol comes from Kabbalah. That doesn’t mean Blizzard got the six schools of Arcane Magic from Kabbalah. They stole it from Forgotten Realms.
Semantics.
And your reaches to try to hang a plagirism card on Blizzard are pedantic.
Blizzard, taking the ideas of others?
Ripping off worldbuilding you say?
Why, what would ever make you say such a thing?
Unless of course you looked at Westfall. Or the dragon flights. Or the green Orcs. Or the variations of elves. Or the Dwarves. Or… this could go on for a while.
At the same time, I wouldn’t call those ideas stolen. More, creatively acquired through homages and rule of cool logic than anything else.
To quote Steve Jobs. “Great Artists Steal.”
Original ideas are as rare as hens teeth. It’s the expressions that are unique. ArchBisiop Benedictus making his speech ending in “poway” is nothing like the scene in Harry Potter, which is in turn nothing like others that use the same trope. Look for uniqueness in expression, not the content.
The whole power line is even in Star Wars. Episode 3 infact.
At the end of the movie with Palpatine hits Windu with force lightening he yells Power…Unlimited Power!
Ripping off is a very dangerous term.
Inspired by, or referencing something are the better terms.
Every fantasy is either inspired by or purposefuly avoid Tolkien elements nowadays, thats just how it works.
Thats just media in general.
Exactly. Author’s barrow ideas from each other all the time and have for as long as there have been stories. Just look at any mythology for the many examples that have been adapted or rewritten over the course of millennia.
Nothing is new, everything has been done before. You could probably find ancient stories with tropes we still use today
Where authors and people in general tend to get themselves in trouble is when they copy something word for word without changing anything.
As long as someone adds their own unique twist to it, they usually avoid any sort of legal trouble