So umm...what is going on with Thrall and Jaina?

[Kelisaria-kiljaeden (Kelisaria)]

unless Blizzard is willing to introduce something very real in the WoW universe: adultery

Other adult things they introduced into WoW:

1. Implied gay relations of several super minor background NPCs.
2. Literal prostitutes in Suramar.
3. Drugs, alcohol, and sex.
4. Surprise sex.
5. Patricide.
6. Genocide.

Adultery would just be another on the list.

[Verdre-silvermoon (Verdre)]

Sounds like you might be a little unaware, it’s definitely flirting, unless the woman in question is SUPER touchy-feely and even then it still is probably flirting.

I’ve had relatives do that for me when things were going bad in my life. I’ve had female friends do that for me as well. A way of saying “If you need a shoulder. If you need someone to talk to. I’m here.”

Knowing their long history together, it comes across more as a concerned friend.

Exactly, I’ve had the same happen for me, by both female relatives and female friends. Ones whom there was never any indication of sexual tension between us.

It’s basically Blizzard pandering to the audience, making us think there is something going on that their history doesn’t support.

Also, she was never doing anything with Arthas. She respected him before he went Lich King. Perhaps there was a certain amount of love, but you can have a platonic love. Then he made bad choices, went Lich King and all that. The things she did in regards to him afterwards was based on her memories of the man who she loved.

You CAN have platonic love for a member of the opposite sex. You can also have a platonic love for a member of the same sex without being considered gay/lesbian.

[Sibille-frostmourne (Sibille)]

woman touches your arm

She HAS to be in love with me

In reality, arm touching is CLASSIC flirting behaviour. By comparison, a hug is much more likely to be platonic. I mean, how often has that happened to you, and it was just platonic? How often have you seen it happen to people you know, and it was just platonic? In my experience, it would be VANISHINGLY RARE.

In a piece of fiction like WoW, overt actions or interactions of this sort are what is known as narrative signalling. They always MEAN something. They never mean NOTHING.

[Lokhir-arathor (Lokhir)]

It’s not happening. If thrall cheated on Aggra it’d literally ruin his “Green jesus” vibe that blizzard is so desperate to maintain. Personally, I’m annoyed they even brought him back. I despise thrall.

[Alyssra-moon-guard]

We haven’t seen Aggra in awhile, perhaps there will be some upcoming lore development that will allow a romance to happen.

Also possible that they will go for a bit more realism and just show some sexual tension and/or possible affair (emotional or otherwise). An emotional affair would make sense, would Aggra understand the emotional burden of leadership?

[Sibille-frostmourne (Sibille)]

It’s not happening. If thrall cheated on Aggra it’d literally ruin his “Green jesus” vibe that blizzard is so desperate to maintain.

I’m not sure they are. In fact, I’m pretty sure that Blizzard are pretty keen to humanize their characters. Although, in Thrall’s case, I suppose that should be ‘orcize’.

[Vicktoria-area-52 (Vicktoria)]

Janina and Thrall?

I just threw up in my mouth a little

Please no

[Kypookins-baelgun (Kypookins)]

It looks like it!

[Sibille-frostmourne (Sibille)]

You fanfiction shipping creeps need to make real life friends so that way you can tell the difference between a romantic gesture and one of concern.

Oh, lighten up. People secretly ship characters all the time. This is just a bit more out in the open. Just have fun with it.

[Pyrenithia-frostmourne]

Thrall and Jaina shipping, it happened in WC3 and it is happening now

[Funkflex-tichondrius]

Human and Orc relationship?? Ewww

Thrall is human-raised though, maybe he identifies as a human male and jaina sees that in him. kek.

[Ariyote-bleeding-hollow]

Ok-I can’t be the only one getting 5th grader girl sleepover vibes from this forum, talking about crushes like,
“Eww-Jake is so ugly!!”
“I know right, Becky-have you seen the way he looks at her.”
“Hehehehehehehehe!”

[Alyssra-moon-guard]

Well…Blizz was the one who put a close-up shot of Jaina touching Thrall’s arm. They clearly wanted some discussion/hype

[Fortuna-sentinels (Fortuna)]

Also, she was never doing anything with Arthas. She respected him before he went Lich King. Perhaps there was a certain amount of love, but you can have a platonic love. Then he made bad choices, went Lich King and all that. The things she did in regards to him afterwards was based on her memories of the man who she loved.

I was under the impression they were an “old flame” kind of situation. You know, they’d known each other as teenagers, when they were both still training for their respective positions, and they had a thing for each other… and now that they’re adults, they have to decide if it’s right for them to start that back up.

And then Arthas went nuts, of course, but that’s a whole other story.

[Asotcha-azjolnerub (Asotcha)]

Plus, with all the boats getting sunk at the start of this last patch, everyone is in the mood to build ships

It was nice character development though, recounting all the crazy crap that brought them through to that point. Its been a long time (Since early MoP) when we lost Theramore.

My prediction is that somehow before the end of this, Thrall somehow gets caught up by the KT police, and they know its a chance to take out someone who helped kill off Daelin, since Thralls pretty famous.

Jaina will have to find some way to either engineer some really convincing faux-execution or some other thing to keep KT from turning on her, since everyone will be expecting her to try and step in somehow.

Its easy to imagine Sylvana’s 4D chess coming into play in creating this. Either a ‘win’ or a ‘loss’ would directly benefit her–either in getting rid of Thrall or destabilizing Jaina.

[Astazuri-bleeding-hollow]

Arthas is rolling in his grave

Shame on you

[Sasskia-wyrmrest-accord (Sasskia)]

Adultery would just be another on the list.

As others have said, I HIGHLY doubt they’d have Thrall ‘cheat’ on Aggra. I think the looks/touch was just to lay some narrative groundwork so anything that happens between them later out doesn’t just ‘appear out of nowhere’. If they did go the Thrall X Jaina route at all, 100% Aggra would be killed off first (which frankly wouldn’t be a huge loss since she’s so boring a character). Also the gnome, I’m not a dude Strange as it may seem, women play this game too.

[Cangremon-dalaran (Cangremon)]

I’ve seen that arm touch before. It’s usually right before the back rub.

[anon34894233]

We all saw that flirty arm touch in the cinematic.

Back in high school I’d have agreed with you. Now I’d just say it meant literally nothing.

[Juuhachigou-tichondrius (Juuhachigou)]

I think its funny how people say its just a friendly touch. Try to explain that to his wife if she was standing there. Even if it was with friendly intent she will not assume that at all.