Its more like it can be friendship/it can be something more. The whole friends to lover thing is a trope for a reason because if you want your character to have a lover, a friend who they normally interact with is a fairly quick way to do so.
They can be just that and sometimes they are more than that. I mean people did ship Talia/Flynn as well even though Talia had no interest what so ever.
My point is, this particular relationship can go either way. Heck if this was a Male/Female pairing I don’t think we would have this discussion about how if it happens people would say it is “forced”.
LGBTQ+ people have often not been allowed to exist outright in media until very recently. So instead writers used an approach called “Queer-Coding” to tell audiences who are keyed in to such things such as “This character is gay.” “If we could, these characters would be in a relationship.” and so on.
Intentional or not there is a LOT of queer coding in Anduin and Wrathion’s relationship, story, and individual personalities.
Again, make Wrathion or Anduin female and put them through the exact same narrative. It would have resulted in some smooching. That’s just how those kinds of relationships function in media.
I’m not disagreeing but from what I gather, and I’m no expert in the history of Wrathion but he appointed himself a protector of azeroth and that really never took off.
I think WoW is always just about silly writing and while they majorly missed the mark in BFA, what I gathered was Wrathion really only being interested in taking down the Old Gods once and for all.
He played a bigger part in BFA and as with most mediocre stuff, they shift their attention to a different group of core characters entering this new expansion.
Blizz leaves a lot off screen and doesn’t make it a habit to flesh out stories in-game but their strong suit is silly fantasy stuff and I take what I can get and enjoy myself since it’s just a game.
I do believe Danuser isn’t that great yet to lead a writing team or they may just have a lot of ‘yes men’ that approve any and all plot points.
You haven’t read War Crimes, have you? Did you try entering the Keep in the vision of Stormwind? I guess not.
I love this excuse. 99% of m/m relationships in the game are friendship, but the ONE time people want them to be a couple, it’s “WhY cAn’T tWo MeN JuSt Be FriEnDs???” You have those 99 other friendships, let us have one
I dislike the tyrande malfurion thing. And honestly I take zero meaning with what people ‘ship’ since that is fandom wishes and not unbiased observations on what is being portrayed in-game or what not.
I’m open to discuss any and all relationships, I just never saw anything between Anduin and Wrathion. Friendships are just that and what I see is them being friends for each other. What you are seeing is your own want for another flourishing romance but if that does happen, it should happen naturally, and not shoehorned in.
He essentially orchestrated the entire war between the Alliance and Horde during Mists of Pandaria, his goal being for one to eradicate the other so they world can present a united front against the Legion.
And then, as you point out, everything got muddled when Danuser asserted control and began to shift the narrative over to a certain Banshee Queen. So his plot points were dropped entirely in WoD, he was cut from Legion and replaced with Ebonhorn, and put in a token appearance in BfA to support that “protector” role.
People ‘want’.
But don’t realize that when you see how things progressed, there just isn’t anything there at that moment for it to be called a romance.
It’s people like you that see a man punching another man and automatically say they are in love…
Eh, that’s more akin to your ex walking into your house to borrow some cash. They have a history together, and if that history was written between a man and a woman, it 100% would have been a romance.
I admit I like Wranduin. Their chemistry interest me and I find it cute. I thought it was just shippers gonna ship before I read War Crimes and then I got it. But if it doesn’t become canon I can accept it. People who enjoy non canon pairings can still have fun with them and there’s no reason to be so… dismissive if they aren’t hurting anyone.
There’s other fandoms I’m in where fans obsess over noncanon pairings that I do not get at all, and even actively dislike for various reasons. Know what I do? I just move on with my life. I don’t argue with them. I let them be.
Still, I don’t have any skin in this race, but I don’t see the harm in giving the LGBTQ+ community a relationship that is actually persistent, like Thrall’s marriage, or the love triangles between Arthas/Jaina/Kael’thas and Malfurion/Tyrande/Illidan. They only given out hints and implications. There’s no harm in giving them a focus for once.
If it’s naturally evolved and not shoe-horned in like ‘‘Here’s our beloved long time character, here is this newer character… they’ve done nothing but are gay now’’ feels kind of odd but something more companies are doing.
My stance has always been on both sides, if it’s a natural thing that happens, sure… if it’s kinda done for the sake of doing, then that’s not something I’ll get behind.
As a straight man, I can still see the seeds of romance in the early Anduin/Wrathion interactions. It wouldn’t be a “Surprise! GAY!”-moment because it has been set up through, again, those suggestive hints and implications.
And it would be infinitely better that those covenant characters that were added simply to shoehorn in diversity, but will never be able to actually leave the expansions in which they were introduced. They are entirely lip service with no real commitment to representation.
If I could take Theotar with me to Azeroth I would. I relate way too much for the crazy tea obsessed vampire who screams when the sunlight touches his skin…
Subjective, but had deeper hints then that shaw flynn stuff… that for me came outta nowhere and now they intentionally released books to flesh that out which whatever but yeah I’ll agree on your take.
