Oh dearie me
We are all at edge of our seats.
Anyway as someone who is fat and dumb IRL I have a dissertation here about the problematic presentation of the Ogres
Part 1 (Chapter 1 (Subsection 1: On Farting in Warcraft 2))
What chapters are you devoting to the Chris Farley dance?
I plan to put the results in part 5, chapters 13 through 27 (Fatshaming in a Macro-Sociological Context and the effects of Capitalism on Ogre-Culture) once I get the results back from the lab.
You need to get it peer reviewed first you fool.
Iâve been trying to find some other fat idiots to help me with that but theyâre too busy posting about Warcraft lore on the internet
Sorry, me was born with big brain! But me drink enuff beer, and brain go smoll smoll. Me be redee to peer review in⌠half a bottle.
Blizzardâs stance on pro-capitalism can be seen in Ogriâla. The dumb and fat Ogres (eg Americans) become enlightened via Apexis Crystals, the Ogres newly created form of capital and path to salvation. This represents Blizzardâs view that it is only through money that the downtrodden and oppressed can rise up. This capitalist view is reinforced in Warlords of Draenor via the quests involving apexis crystals, where the players engage in a time consuming grind which prolongs player activity and justifies the $15 a month fee. Auxiliary examples include the physical weight of Gallywix and the silliness his character entails, proving that Blizzard views its dumb and fat playerbase as a joke which seeks atonement from the company through giving the corporation monthly payments.
I expect to be given credit in your dissertation or I will sue you for damages equal to a yearâs worth of World of Warcraft game time.
Well Bolvarâs skin was blackened after the dragon fire. He is like a reverse Michael Jackson, or that Rachel Dolezal lady.
nods gravely VERY problematic
I think Bolvarâs hammer is named PepsiBringer
When Bolvarâs skin is changed from white to black, the next time we see him he is in chains, being held captive by a white man sitting on a throne. Yikes.
Unironically given Taelia is kinda tan, I am in fact confident Bolvar may be retconâd to be black partially because Blizzard forgot Bolvar is simply crispy due to dragon fire and not originally darkskinned I wouldnât put it past the devs
I think the biggest issue is the tendency to play on this whole idea of âtribal/vaguely mongol likeâ = More prone to war and evil than cultures that had plenty of war and crimes against humanity to their name just in shinier and more familiar uniforms, and this comes heavily from not really explaining things like the support for Sylvanas so it comes across as simply in their nature, and the heavy handed Evil Warchief plotlines ending up putting more blame on the Horde even when the Alliance seemed to have had a role in escalation.
Portraying a super idealistic take on Medieval Europeans and making goodness just easily come to those that ally with them is going to cause questionable narratives when âsavage culture is acting too savagelyâ is resorted to in order for a faction conflict to be justified.
I disagree.
The Alliance is as dark as the Horde if not darker.
Taurajo? The Purge? Monsterous acts.
Try not putting all the weight on one buttcheek.
Technically Arthas is kinda blue-gray by then so I think he skirts by.
Honest answer? Yeah, kinda. But that comes with a lot of older franchises, WoW isnât any kind of exception. In fact, a lot of its stuff comes more from vanilla WoW than Warcraft 3, which for the most part didnât rely nearly much on cultural tropes.
Doesnât make the entire company, franchise, or dev team racist. At this point, after this many years, itâs a lot of working with what theyâre given, and Iâd say that in recent years, Blizzard has done a lot better job at representing real life equivalents much better, Zandalari are the best example of having more nuance than their Darkspear counterparts in vanilla. Might be a bit slow, but theyâve absolutely made progress with it.
Honestly, Taeliaâs look was one of the first indicators to me that the whole âCalia and Bolvar are her parentsâ theory was off. Not that I wouldnât put it past them, but a pale blonde girl and a pale redhead guy donât usually mix to make a tan skinned black haired girl. Would be interesting to have her actually be mix-raced (by real life standards) if she ever gets a unique model, WoWâs pretty lacking in that department with human and human-like races.
I personally never understood the romanticized version of Europe that companies like Blizz and such haveâŚ.Itâs almost like they donât realize Europe was a pretty dark place to live at one point and the Vikings/Celts and other groups were at times conquerors and could be major dicks.
ButâŚthatâs me and thatâs all I got