Because they do. Regardless of intent.
3 Likes
You didnât specify in the original post that they needed to be playable though.
So my point still stands, arakkoas and ethereals did it first.
The point is being represented the playable selection.
Because stories are a way for us to analyze real life things in an âsafeâ environment?
Warcraft, starting at least in Warcraft 3, have had real world issue crop up in its story. From the bigotry and necessity of war. To the unfair treatment of women.(yes ironic considering what has happened)
1 Like
More than that, WoW has been a social engine until itself with gendered presentation from day one.
A suggestion to the mods:
The Story Forum should not be a dumpster for GD threads. A decent chunk of the GD threads that get tossed in here get deleted anyways. Since that is their end fate, why not just delete the thread from the start and save yourselves a bit of work?
2 Likes
Iâm guessing the thought is the deletion of an active thread would be controversial. But once it dies here? No one will mourn it.
1 Like
Not entirely true. Whether the thread gets locked and the person banned depends on which group of people find the thread offensive or hateful these days.
It should be put in the Entertainment section of Off-Topic.
Interesting read.
Canât say Iâm personally to knowledgeable about this stuff so I canât really comment on the gender neutral, fluid ideas.
But I think itâs interesting theyâre doing a race that just doesnât really have sexual dimorphism. Hell they might not have a sex period, thereâs not enough lore to say.
Though tbf as Azeroth just doesnât have much in the way of sexism the concepts a touch less interesting. There was plenty in the old lore but honestly I canât fault them for just declaring stuff like that and anti LGBT sentiment to be non existent in this world. Weâve seen how well they handle other heavy subjects and yeah, wise to decide not to touch that.
Plus it does kinda work. Azerothâs been under constant assault from cosmic threats for like a decade now. I think that kinda non stop war effort would obliterate any sort of gender norms. No time to be prejudice in an all hands on deck situation and thatâs all this world experiences. Otherwise though a society that just does not have a concept of gender or possibly even sex could be pretty interesting.
In regards to gender fluidity or transition Iâve often wondered what the Forsakenâs attitude to all that is. Weâve seen they have to take a literal approach to body building and at least in BtS it seems like you kinda have to work with whatevers avaliable. A blacksmith who managed to lose his arm in a smelting accident has to make due with a softer hand hypothesized to be an artistâs.
And that got me wondering about;
A. Has any Forsaken had a Ship of Theseus style existential crisis?
B. Do they even have a concept of gender at this point?
Because theyâre clearly making do with whatâs avaliable and while they might have a very different idea of sexual preference I canât picture them not taking a guy/galâs leg or arm if thatâs all theyâve at that time.
Blizzard certainly will never touch on that and frankly Iâm not the best person to play around with that idea. But Iâd certainly be interested in reading a story about that should somebody decide to take a swing at it.
5 Likes
Completely agreed. I donât read fiction to be comfortable with the content. I want to be challenged. I want the content to make me uncomfortable. I want my mode of thinking to be different when Iâve finished.
1 Like
Itâs depressing honestly because thereâs a lot of older science fiction books that play around with ideas like that.
Hell Vonnegutâs Slaughterhouse 5 have aliens that can perceive a whole spectrum of genders and also see through time. This was released in the 1960s. 7 decades on and Iâd not be surprised to hear thatâs been banned from school reading lists for encouraging this or that. Because heaven forfend we encourage people to think about stuff.
The most dangerous question is, âWhy?â
Good fiction prompts you to interrogate your own belief structure. Either you come out on the other side with a newfound appreciation for how justifiable your beliefs are in the face of questioning, or you wind up actually altering those beliefs and growing in a different way.
1 Like
I would think no because souls canonically objectively exist in the WoW universe. Your soul is what makes you you, not your body.
On the OP: It seems we could have avoided a ton of argument and bother if people on all sides would just allow for subjective applicability. I.e. just because a particular group may find that a story has special resonance for their lives, that doesnât mean their lens is the only way to see it. And just because other people donât see it through the same lens, that doesnât mean the group with the particular resonance is wrong to see what they see. Stories can mean different things to different people.
3 Likes
Thatâs ultimately what I was trying to get across when I said:
But I can see how that might be taken differently. But as I posted before:
Eh. I personally think even âundeniably coded for the queer communityâ is potentially overstating it, as it implies the story elements were specially created for one specific group and that therefore their experience is intended and privileged above anyone elseâs. Without a direct statement from the devs, we donât know for sure that this is the case.
1 Like
And a direct statement would void the premise entirely. 
the fatal flaw in your theory is the assumption that Blizzard did something right
3 Likes
Fair. I just donât think that you can make assumptions about intent based on the information we have.
1 Like
I think we can make assumptions about intent, particularly when you look at the social media of the developers that directly had a hand in the creation of the race. We canât confirm those assumptions, though.