Whether or not an in-game race is a representation of x or y is entirely dependent on the real life elements present in the construction of that race’s aesthetic, culture, and myths
Tauren are REPRESENTATIONS of Dine, Objiwe, etc
Tauren are not REPRESENTATIONS of Nahua, Wayuu, or Mapuche
Tauren are not REPRESENTATIVE of Dine, Objiwe, etc
Something being a Representation is when the Object serves as a stand-in via aesthetic/signifying of a Subject
Something being Representative implies that the Object is Subject.
I was technically born in Tromso. But my parents migrated to the US when I was very young. I still have duel citizenship, and I travel to meet family regularly.
I mean, my family is mostly from Ireland and Italy, so like, how dare I feel a connection to the worgen, based on old Celtic/Pagan stories, plus the whole Harvest Witch thing they had for a while.
And the nerve Baal, the sheer nerve of you feeling a connection to the trolls/Tauren due to your ancestors/culture.
I mean…I can’t believe she is actually saying this out loud. Some things are best kept behind closed doors
I am not talking about Trolls there. I am talking about the racist history of Afro-Caribbean portrayal. Which, sure, some of the portrayals of Trolls tie into. My point was, I seriously doubt he feels attached to those aspects.
I lived in Cork for a year. Was pretty nice, although regrettably I didn’t do much sightseeing. I did visit the Blarney Stone though.
I remember feeling self-conscious about my accent and tried to keep quiet, although nobody ever gave me trouble over it so it’s not like I had anything to worry about.
I have one (1) Irish ancestor that came to Colombia during our revolution because the early Catholic Republics all supported eachother. ODonovan from Tipperary!
Nothing survived except Fairy Myths that mixed with local stuff (fairies in the tropical forest lol)
Oh and “Black pudding” is a Colombian staple breakfast food (morcilla) because of the Irish fun fact
Congrats in realizing the narrative… cause a writer doesn´t actively puts information designed to “endear” the character misbehaving if they want to enfatize the behavior is bad and/or flawed in the first place. If the goal was to portray both Alleria and Turalyon as “flawed” individuals susceptible to cross moral limits thanks to bigotry/prejudice/vengeance motivating them, then making the Orc Female literally attack them is completely pointless and unnecessary, period.
I repeat: as a writer one doesn´t put stuff designed to justify questionable behaviours/choices unless the goal is indeed to diminish the impact those very behaviours/choices themselves have in the narrative and “positively buffer” the characters somehow towards the readers (in this case, us).
That was what made the whole event so painful for me, cause it was yet another example on the stuff the writers in Blizzard HQ are willing to cross (in this case, the bening image of protective motherhood) in order to “softcore” actions that can reflect “badly” on the Alliance image.
Dear, no flaw will ever work after the atrocious moral limit the writers MADE the Horde cross, period. They literally used the “G” word to describe the actions of the whole faction, and we as the “player” representative of it will fortever be tainted by this narrative choice regardless on how much we agreed / disagrees with it when it happened. At the end of the day Horde indeed acted worse and as coherent natural consequence, they will be forever subjected to deserve “worse” from a “irl modern moral” PoV.
And you don´t think THIS (keeping the moral status quo of the factions in the story and worse, the narrative based upon this moral comparison) is a problem for the Horde when they´re condemned to forever be depicted as “less than / worse” than the Alliance?
Cause I say THIS is the actual problem.
Ergo why imho an actual solution is to finally cut for good with this “moral comparison between factions” BS and let both factions develop truly independently from each other. The point made in the most highvoted post in Kyalin´s thread of these same forums: the Horde can´t continue “owning” stuff to the Alliance and need to become better for themselves and the players attached to it, rehgardless on Alliance characters / players opinions about it.
Dude, Sylvanas IS irrelevant. She WAS irrelevant at the time too. Let´s analyze the cinematic (so you actually get my point): in that indeed the Orcs -worse, a “morally correct and respectable Orc” indeed reclaim the place as the military spear, the ones that “jumped first” to defend Azeroth… and how did they got rewarded for their heroism?
With Dranosh being depicted as a flea that Arthas stomped almost carelessly -looking quite ridiculous in retrospective and almost as an example of useless savage trope- while his faction literally stabbed him and his buddies in the back in a colorful display of cartoonish villainy. The cherry on top was ofc his Alliance counterpart (Bolvar) being depicted as more resilient to the point he became the “Jailer of the Damned” while Dranosh became “generic Arthas minion No. 654316346536465”.
So come back to tell me getting depicted as the “heroic spear that jumps first in battle” is TOTES the answer to make the Horde look “better”.
Dude, the color of your background is IRRELEVANT for me. What actually counts are the words you post.
And frankly, what I´ve seen coming from most of your posts is an “appreciation” of the Horde similar to my own “appreciation” of the Alliance (ergo, you couldn´t care less, period).
That depicted them as fools that act first, think later and by consequence the reason they get killed as cannon fodder thanks to it.
Sorry, not “grateful” about getting the fool imprudent bat instead of the cartoonish villain one for variety.
What, Varian for once acting like a decent human being and not pitching more warmongering over a father grieving his fallen son?
Cause that´s basic decency. Not impressed.
/evilly smirks
And pray tell, how did that “particular” speech ended up being used and reflected in BfA, hmmm?
Incorrect, The Horde simply wasn´t portrayed as “in the face cartoonish evil” back then. From Cata onwards the “evil” actions just became more prominent -and the idiocy too, I mean remember Twilight Highlands intro Horde side? That WAS embarrasing to watch.
Didn’t you and I actually go back and forth over the course of several months and hundreds of posts due to your insistence that Blizzard’s portrayals of trolls did not tie into racist Afro-Caribbean portrayals?
I’m glad you’re willing to now acknowledge that they do. That’s not sarcasm. I think it’s worth commending when someone’s willing to shift their position. Always a step in the right direction.
And now that you accept that Blizzard engages in it, the next step is to acknowledge that these racist portrayals persist into today and continue to inform/normalize what people think of real world Afro-Carribeans and practitioners Haitian Vodou. Stuff like thinking they engage in vile rituals to appease malicious gods. Stuff like cutting off dogs ears to drink their blood, burning chickens alive, and the like.
And as such, people of Afro-Carribean descent, especially those who continue practicing actual Haitian Vodou might feel a certain way about seeing instances of such tropes being perpetuated in a game they otherwise enjoy.
Honestly I always found it a little weird there’s not a race with a more Italian flavor. Between Rome and the Renaissance there’s a lot of easily recognizable stuff you could include that would slide in pretty naturally to the setting as is.
Granted a lot of that’s already been broken up and distributed piecemeal elsewhere. Highborne ruins having a Greco-Roman feel, Plague Doctor masks split between the Forsaken and apparently Venthyr, and I think I’ve seen pizza somewhere in game.
Azeroth’s an interesting setting as it’s the most well realized, poorly thought out fantasy setting I’ve ever seen. As best demonstrated by the human kingdoms. 4/6 of them speak in American broadcast accents, unless they’re bad guys in which case they’re suddenly German or Russian, and the other two are British.
