You did though. If we want to have a conversation that Stormwind is imperialists, we can have that conversation. I honestly agree, and have some pretty unpopular opinions about how the Alliance is really Just Imperial Stormwind and her vassal states.
But it seems like you and some others are taking issue with the “Whiteness” of Anduin, as if to imply if he were a Black character it would somehow be better than what we have.
I don’t think so, and it’s not like I would be against a Black Anduin. The Wrynn family has black characters in their family tree, after all. But it’s not like it would improve the character design in anyway.
I honestly agree, and have some pretty unpopular opinions about how the Alliance is really Just Imperial Stormwind and her vassal states.
I mean, they sort of are. This is the “Alliance” that reacted to an existential crisis taking place in one of its member nations by diverting its military towards one of Stormwind’s geopolitical pipe dreams, refused to send one iota of help when the time came to actually fulfill the Alliance’s obligations to the Night Elves, and then tried to push a peace treaty that certainly was of no risk to Stormwind, but was to the people who bordered the Horde when the problem was still very much there and very much unresolved.
Like that’s arguably why the Night Elves were given to the Alliance for WoW.
It’s parallel to how Japan was allowed a seat at the table at the League of Nations and is currently due to that legacy one of the Permanent States of the Security Council
It’s Western Empire Metaphor (Stormwind) with her vassal states (Japan-Nelves, etc).
That’s why Metzen affirmed that the “core” of Warcraft is “Orcs vs Humans”. It’s dividing Western Empire in half and giving part to each of that core.
Garrosh is German Fascism, and Sylvanas nuked the Japanese Metaphor, but Anduin gets to be Heroic Blonde Blue Eyed White Moral Highground and Genn gets to be The Racist That Learned Better Over Time.
I mean, I take issue that his skin color is even being taken into consideration. It may not be the main issue to you, but appearance is certainly an issue. As if you do believe his character would be better if he were not white.
But that’s fine if you want to backtrack.
It is pretty problematic that you have Night Elves donned in Stormwind uniforms, and Night Elves converting to the Church of Holy Light. As long as we are talking about culture rather than skin color, it is eerily similar to the Christianization of Europe, and the Westernization of Japan.
I am not really saying that is a bad plot point, but the way Blizzard writes it comes off as particularly tone deaf.
I mean, it is a bad plot point. You and I didn’t roll Night Elves to be differently colored humans whose purpose is to die and get saved by the correctly colored ones - and the homogenization and humiliation are direct attacks on what we wanted to represent in a game mode that’s very much about identity.
And, we can carry that concept to the Horde and their experience as well.
If only there was a way to describe repeating the same violent historical events to the in-game race that represents the real-world ethnoracial group that were victims of those specific events, while refusing to also write into the game parallel historical events that granted those ethnoracial groups justice and pride.
Would you still think it is a bad plot point if the cultural conflicts were more obvious in the story?
Because I do agree with you, the homogenization of Alliance races is very frustrating. It seems like Blizzard is not even acknowledging that there is a culture clash at all, and instead writing it as if Night Elves are just passively acknowledging that human culture is superior to their own, and willing to adopt it.
Now, honestly, I wouldn’t trust Blizzard to tell that story right now. They would probably end up with the PC slaughtering Night Elf Separatist groups or something. But lets say, hypothetically, that there was an emphasis on Tyrande constantly having to juggle the politics of the Alliance and Night Elf interests, and it was sometimes a real struggle to get certain groups to work together?
This is just off the top of my head, so maybe not the best examples, but I think you can get what I mean.
It isn’t just frustrating - it is in direct opposition with some of the core reasons that a person would even want to play an MMO. In that format, the playable character is central. They are the lens through which we engage with the world, and as I have shared many times, the mimesis effect describes that we subconsciously identify with them.
Further, we play games in the first place to satisfy psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy. Plug that into the MMORPG model, and we filter those feelings largely through our characters.
So, what does it mean when the gamerunner comes in from on high and mutilates your choice - the most important and most meaningful choice you get to make in this game - because they find it easier to make you the victim that their preferred choice exists to avenge and save? When they shove your option into the refrigerator because some idiot thought the pathos would be good for the story?
You get extremely dissatisfied, and/or you leave.
But, a broad part of the appeal of the Night Elves was their cultural and military independence and their ability to stand on their own two feet. I don’t mind if they cooperate with the Alliance so long as they have that - but I am sick of watching this option get destroyed for the sole benefit of human players.,
The cultural conflicts are pretty obvious enough already.
You shouldn’t need a degree in European history to immediately recognize imperialism when you play Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne and see Daelin Proudmoore building Keeps, Castles, Guard Towers, Shipyards, and Barracks all along Kalimdor’s coastline from Durotar to Dustwallow Marsh in “Old Hatreds.”
The same should hold true when an army led by Admiral Proudmoore’s daughter, a clearly-Anglo-European religious monarch (read: Priest-King), and yes, an overtly British Werewolf storms its way into a city covered in gold and ceremonial masks, and whose primary structure is quite literally a pyramid, to demand that the king turn over his multi-thousand-year old empire.
With the odd bit of looting the royal treasury along the way, of course.
Which I think obscures the Meiji Restoration and the carryover of Japanese culture into that system which led it into dreams of empire. Unfortunately, the Night Elves are more comparable to China in about this time period - which I despise.
I mean, the context is a bit different. It’s not like the Zandalari were just minding their own business, and Jaina came through and did this unprovoked. They were already well into a world war, and the Zandalari were actively supplying the enemy with ships and materials.
I see your point, but it’s not exactly a one for one comparison. Which again, is sort of revealing that the issue for you and some others isn’t just imperialism or colonialism, as much as it’s to do with the skin color of these Alliance characters.
Well, obviously you don’t see my point, since you’re still insisting that, “y’all just don’t like white people!”
I guess we should also forget about how the only reason Rastakhan decided to let the Horde into his city to begin with…was because the Alliance had literally imprisoned his daughter and prophet, and the Horde freed them.
Because “this is all about hating on white people,” right?
