So, 30 seconds into Shadowlands and I’m already disappointed. The racial leaders of both factions are present at the Frozen Throne, with the exception of those abducted by Sylvanas. Where are Aysa and Ji? Shocker, yet another time the Pandaren aren’t represented. So much for the Horde’s council eh?
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Not all the leaders are there. Case in point neither Overlord Geya’rah, Mayla, or Kiro are present in either. So I figured the three of them were holding the fort, as it were, while the others went to Icecrown meeting.
And at the very least, as the faction representatives within the embassies, Ji and Aysa will start the ball rolling for any new allied races joining the factions.
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I know I said this in another thread, but it merits a repeat: there really should have been a fully rendered cinematic of Ji punching a dinosaur in BFA. Just imagine if they did that. It would have saved the entire expansion, and everyone would have been like “well, most of BFA sucked, but that cinematic of Ji punching the dinosaur tho!!”
Nope, they don’t care about pandas anymore. The best and greatest wow character, Chen Stromstout- his only appearance was him trying to get some beer, so he could get wasted. Ultimately, I can’t blame him, because BFA made me want to get wasted too: that’s probably what all the Pandaren are doing at this point. They are way to hung over to be going into the Shadowlands, and you cant blame them.
They do need to be utilized at some point. I don’t know why they’re being written off like they are- and that’s part of the reason I’m not a huge fan of the new allied races- there is a scarcity of spotlight, and there’s only so much to go around. There were already races that were on the story back burner, and they just added more to the stovetop.
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Need to ask China for every time they use Pandas
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Look at how bad the story is, and be grateful your race is left out of this mess. I’m certainly glad Kiro was smart enough to stay home and play his flute.
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Unfortunately to me it seems like Blizz have almost given up on Pandaren. Due to their unpopularity they were sort of doomed, lore-wise, from the start. I genuinely wouldn’t be surprised if Aysa and Ji were fully left as background characters from here on out. /shrug
“Huh? Who are those two?” - The Blizzard story dev reading this thread
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Blizzard hasn’t done anything with the pandaren since mop and probably won’t do anything in the near future either kind of sad since pandaria is one of the only times they’ve done something new with warcraft since warcraft 3.
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I’m surprised they had as many faction leaders there as they already did. Your leadership are being kidnapped and you gather them all in one place to make it easier if they get attacked? That was silly.
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maybe they can invent zoom via portals to be less vulnerable to pandemics and flying ghost people.
I think the Pandaren are in this extremely awkward place where they exist on both factions when they really shouldn’t. That isn’t to say I think one faction makes more sense for them than another. Almost any race could make sense on any faction just going by established precedent with existing playable races.
The issue is the Pandaren don’t have a story to tell.
In BFA, they might’ve had one if they’d been Alliance only. With the Zandalari joining the Horde, the Pandaren could’ve become a front-and-center force for the Alliance on Zandalari out of the hope to prevent any future resurfacing of Zandalari power in the world. Instead, there are Horde Pandaren, so their history with the Zandalari needs to be overlooked to make sense of it. The story that was possible, just couldn’t be told.
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I don’t know about anyone else but I literally have no interest or investment in the Pandaren leaders at all. I understand they’ve gotten practically no love but if anything they should’ve got it in Battle for Azeroth. I don’t really see their place in Shadowlands.
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I agree. Cute race and all, but they do kind feel out of place on both factions and in game.
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They have about as much presence as any “leader” that is not currently in the story’s spotlight. Even then, while I adore the Pandaren and Aysa/Ji, they are not really on the levle as Regent Lord Lor’themar, or Trade Prince Gazlowe. They are master monks who happen to be the representatives of the native Pandaren populaces of their faction.
So yes, they are important to the faction especially now that they are also the official ambassadors, but they also don’t hold the same…I do not know how to explain it.
But realistically, it doesn’t make sense for every leader to be in Icecrown and they are not. We see Aysa and Ji appear in leader gatherings throughout BfA, so they are not forgotten.
The missing leaders include for Horde
Lilian Voss, Overlord Geyarah, Mayla Highmountain, Kiro, and Ji Firepaw.
For Alliance,
Velen, Moira Bronzebeard, Falstad Wildhammer, Turalyon, Fareeya, Umbric and Aysa.
While I love to see every leader appear, they were likely offscreen still dealing with the very present scourge in vital Alliance/Horde locations.
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Personally I do wish we could see more scenes were every leader is present! It was one of the things I loved most about the Catacylsm pre-patch because it was the first time every faction leader was in the same room just talking. I enjoy when leader(or at least representatives) of each faction get together.
One way to possibly put it is that the pandaren (especially the Wandering Isle pandaren) don’t really have a cohesive government as it is, so Aysa and Ji aren’t really heads of state with any actual power over the rest of their people. More than the other player races (except possibly the vulpera, who are basically a bunch of variably scattered or disconnected camps and caravans in Vol’dun, any number of whom may not have actually joined the Horde) they’re really just spokespeople for a bunch of individual pandaren who chose to join the factions of their own accord. They don’t represent a “state” because the land they’re from and the people therein didn’t actually join either faction at all.
Consequently, having them regularly present at what amount to strategic meetings between faction leaders in the same capacity as the other racial leaders would actually be a bit strange, because technically they don’t actually have the armies and resources of a nation at their disposal to contribute to such arrangements.
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And at best, Aysa and Ji could speak for the relatively small population of Pandaren from Shen-Zin Su. With the new starting area, there’s no reason at all to assume all player Pandaren come from the turtle anymore, making the use of Ji and Aysa as the official Pandaren spokepersons even more problematic. Pandaren aren’t just split across the factions, they also have a split in their backgrounds.
I don’t find it particularly incongruous. The Pandaren are unique not just because of their bi-factional status but because they are the only factions that are neither “powers” nor refugees. They don’t have a government or nation backing them like the Nightborne, nor do they have to band together for mutual support like the Vulpera. The Horde and Alliance didn’t court them - in fact they were largely unaware of their existence. Neither did the Pandaren leave their island out of desperation. They left because they outgrew their island and they joined the Horde or Alliance because that gave them backing, context and a base from which to operate. Maybe even because their ideologies were a good fit for individual Pandaren.
They are the closest to the pure adventurers that our characters are supposed to be. It would not surprise me if individual Panden saw themselves more as Pandaren or even Horde or Alliance than as Tushui or Huojin. So they have less need of racial representation. Which makes their representatives less relevant.
So I can see why their represtatives don’t feature so heavily on leadership councils. They seem to have found their niche as generic emissaries for their factions to new races. And maybe as “morale officers” (they both remind me of Neelix for some reason).
That said it wouldn’t bother me if they showed up more on leadership councils. But neither does it bother me that they don’t.
Didn’t a bunch of main landers join the Horde and Alliance. In Kun-Lai summit.
Some farmers helped each side, though it’s unclear if they remained tied to the factions in any official capacity after the events of MoP. We don’t really see hozen or jinyu in the ranks either, so it’s possible none of the native Pandarian allies of either faction actually officially joined and may have just remained on friendly terms.