"Pandaren have been in the game since Warcraft 3".... ?

[Vakna]

The real question is why do people believe Pandaren are "too soft" for Warcraft?

Pandaren have a rich and diverse ancient chinese styled culture with many dark and extreme facets. I mean have you seen some of the shit the Shado-Pan do to their enemies?

The only explanation I have been able to get from Pandaren haters is either "cus Pandas lol" or "copied kung-fu panda movie must be kiddie shit". Give me a real reason as to why Pandaren don't fit into Warcraft using existing races and story elements so I can prove you wrong.

[StationaryHawk]

The difference between Chen and Jaina is that Chen's entire role and purpose in WC3 was to help the Horde. You can't take one out of many things Jaina did in the WC series and use the same argument.

I'm not sure that having done good should wipe clean her blatantly treasonous actions, but I suppose that's besides the point of the topic.

My point remains that Chen's actions as an individual don't represent pandaren as a whole, given that he is not in a position of authority among the pandaren. His participation in the establishment of Orgrimmar doesn't imply that the Alliance should view the entirety of his race as hostile, especially when taking into consideration that their own people were on board. From both a lore and a writing standpoint, there's no reason that their initial appearance being alongside the Horde should lock them into an alliance with them.

[inkberry]

I don't mind pandaren as a playable race. I mind the massive resources put into an expansion that was centered around what was supposed to be an april fools joke. The writing was almost decent and the art was great but to me it was basically just a comical sideshow of an expansion, and a wasted opportunity to write something that could have actually driven the story forward in a compelling way.

[Lord Pebbleton]

This man knows <3

[Deleted]

It's 2017, and yet we have people showing hate for Pandaren....sigh....

MoP is over, you don't even need to step in it for leveling (max 1 zone), Pandas are not mandatory as race, since they do not have race specific class, why you still fill this forum with this crappy threads?

[Dismembered]

The WC3 Pandaren were so much cooler and more dangerous designed than what we had :-(

[Kanegasi]

Not gonna lie. Pandas are dumb and helped to create further dissonance in a game that could've stood to take itself a bit more seriously(and ironically did with Legion) and I'm not even talking about needing to be edgy, dark, etc but simply come across as somewhat more believable/consistent.

...That boat has sailed my friend. It's time to let it go. What's done is done. You're going to have furry fat asses runn--sorry, rolling, around and ruining the mood of everything for the rest of WoW's remaining existence. It is what it is.

Mists is edgy, dark, believable, consistent, and serious. What exactly do you find off about it, or did you just completely ignore the entire expansion and boosted through to Warlords? Most people like you see the word "panda" and completely shut down for some reason.

[Dahlia Dawnseeker]

Mists of Pandaria was great. The Pandaren was a great race. The lore, setting, story telling and overall the expansion feel were all great.

My issue was with adding the pandaren as a playable character, but that's it. I wanted them as a focus kind of NPC, and I am happy for the monk class being taught to the other races, but the race being playable, and especially in a neutral form and with a clusterfuck of a story telling where the events of the Wandering Isle took place after lv90 left a bitter taste in my mouth.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

Mists is edgy, dark, believable, consistent, and serious. What exactly do you find off about it, or did you just completely ignore the entire expansion and boosted through to Warlords? Most people like you see the word "panda" and completely shut down for some reason.

The story is fine.

The Pandaren design in of itself just completely slap-fucks everything into a state of disbelief which is saying something considering the game.

I was never able to quite look past this despite otherwise liking the expansion. Forget that they're pandas or bears and simply focus on the fact they're obese, fat fucks that make me feel like I just fell into an alternate dimension which turned out to be a kid's film. Got an Old God and a damn near literal god of thunder wreaking havoc on these alien lands and amid it all, at the core, are these belly-flopping, rolling, idgits.

Supreme evil and power defeated by the literal positive thinking of sheer thick.

No matter what anyone says I won't be able to see them differently. REALLY do not like them despite having wanted to.

[Kanegasi]

The story is fine.

The Pandaren design in of itself just completely slap-fucks everything into a state of disbelief which is saying something considering the game.

I was never able to quite look past this despite otherwise liking the expansion. Forget that they're pandas or bears and simply focus on the fact they're obese, fat fucks that make me feel like I just fell into an alternate dimension which turned out to be a kid's film. Got an Old God and a damn near literal god of thunder wreaking havoc on these alien lands and amid it all, at the core, are these belly-flopping, rolling, idgits.

Supreme evil and power defeated by the literal positive thinking of sheer thick.

No matter what anyone says I won't be able to see them differently. REALLY do not like them despite having wanted to.

So, extreme irrational prejudice. Don't worry, many humans have felt this in the past. You're not alone.

[fenixazul]

Worgens and Draeneis were not present in WC3 too (Eredars are differente since they are all evil)

BLIZZARD introduced space demons that love the light that came to Azeroth ... In a spaceship and no one is complaining about it.

I mean, draeneis Lore is more forced that Pandarean, seriously, considered that Azeroth is a medieval world. I believe that the main reason to hate pandareans is because they look kiddish because Kung fu panda movies, but I dont care, the expansion was really good, my second favorite, exploring a totally diferent continent without traveling to another planet was very cool

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I don't mind pandaren as a playable race. I mind the massive resources put into an expansion that was centered around what was supposed to be an april fools joke. The writing was almost decent and the art was great but to me it was basically just a comical sideshow of an expansion, and a wasted opportunity to write something that could have actually driven the story forward in a compelling way.

You know what is fun of this. It is suppoused that MoP was a filler story with some irrelevant lore, but it ended to be a good expansion, while WOD as centered in Orcs, the most representative race in the warcraft universe since the first Warcraft game ever and it resulted in being short, lack of content, and the story was really bad

[AzazeltheRuthless]

Worgens and Draeneis were not present in WC3 too (Eredars are differente since they are all evil)

BLIZZARD introduced space demons that love the light that came to Azeroth ... In a spaceship and no one is complaining about it.

I mean, draeneis Lore is more forced that Pandarean, seriously, considered that Azeroth is a medieval world. I believe that the main reason to hate pandareans is because they look kiddish because Kung fu panda movies, but I dont care, the expansion was really good, my second favorite, exploring a totally diferent continent without traveling to another planet was very cool

Exactly right, people complain about Pandaren all the time still. It's like have you really looked at this games lore seriously? Honestly, they are one of the more reasonable elements of the lore, and isn't the big of a deal. Here's a list of things you think is "ok" vs Panda's:
Humanoid Cows and British Werewolves that both can morph into cats.
Kalecgos mated with the Sunwell
Egyptian Cat Centaurs
Moon Goddess mated with a deer and gave birth to Cenarius.
As the person above mention space goats, that worship Alien Holy Light Relics taking on a demon army fueled by green fire.

Yeah....Kung-Fu Panda's is the most crazy things they've done....trust me...that list can be a lot longer.

[RoKPaNda]

Quite frankly, I'm discussing the lore and the atmosphere of the game. As those are primary aspects of a game.

And what was wrong with the lore? Panda lore was not cutesy in the slightest. Panda lore was some of the darkest lore up to that point actually sooooo.....?

[A dot Ham]

So whenever a constructive discussion about Blizzard's motives for MoP/creation of Pandaren as a playable race or the thought that Pandaren are too "soft" for Warcraft, the first thing I always hear as a response is something along the lines of "Pandaren/MoP isn't random/cartoony/soft, they have been in the game since WC3."

How exactly is this a popular response?

WC3 wasn't centered around pandas. Yes Pandas were in WC3 but so what?

The race was originally announced as an Aprils fools joke for WC3. They also had no real lore behind them, they were just one of the many random things put in the game to give it it's flavor.

WC3 Frozen throne also had Sasquatchs, flying sheep and pengiuns roaming some of the maps so you'd probably be ok with them making a bigfoot sighting expansion, flying sheep expansion or a Surf's up expansion?

"Roar! MY Warcraft can't have anything lighthearted. Kill, kill, KILL!"

Mages have a sheep artifact, that's not EPIC. But its cute and whimsical, and mildly comedic.

Gnomes and goblins and their creations are inherently over the top and goofy at times.

Hell even the over exaggerated weapon size of most weapons, is both ridiculous, and awesome, and iconically Warcraft.

WoW itself has been criticized from the beginning for being too "cartoony".

The Pandaren not having established Lore is kind of irrelevant, its called d e v e l o p m e n t. Its evolution of the game.

I don't recall anything about old gods or titans from WCIII, where is your objection there? Ah so you just like to pick and choose. Its okay not to like something, but who are YOU to decide whether or not it deserves its place in the WoW universe?

Samwise (Sam Didier) Art Director at Blizzard. Had been drawing panda stuff for years here and there in his concept art, and other works.


All I can say is I am glad they have undeveloped concepts in their back pockets. How stale would the game be if they just stuck with what has existed previously.

[StationaryHawk]

The story is fine.

The Pandaren design in of itself just completely slap-fucks everything into a state of disbelief which is saying something considering the game.

I was never able to quite look past this despite otherwise liking the expansion. Forget that they're pandas or bears and simply focus on the fact they're obese, fat fucks that make me feel like I just fell into an alternate dimension which turned out to be a kid's film. Got an Old God and a damn near literal god of thunder wreaking havoc on these alien lands and amid it all, at the core, are these belly-flopping, rolling, idgits.

Supreme evil and power defeated by the literal positive thinking of sheer thick.

No matter what anyone says I won't be able to see them differently. REALLY do not like them despite having wanted to.

The "supreme evil" was not, at any point in the expansion, defeated by positive thinking. The sha were manifestations of negative emotions, and were therefore kept in a dormant state by the relative lack of them. They were ultimately defeated by swords and magic however, unless we were playing two different games.

So if the primary complaint is that they're fat, I suppose that's fair enough.

[Vynny]

I have no love for pandas, but the point of saying that is to point out that they already existed in the Warcraft universe. TBH, I hate pandas as a race and wish that they never made the a playable race, but the storytelling and raiding in MoP was top notch, so I can live with pandas existing in the game.

[inkberry]

You know what is fun of this. It is suppoused that MoP was a filler story with some irrelevant lore, but it ended to be a good expansion, while WOD as centered in Orcs, the most representative race in the warcraft universe since the first Warcraft game ever and it resulted in being short, lack of content, and the story was really bad

And yet its story still has more influence on the current game than Mists of Pandaria did for WoD. They put a lot of effort into retconning something that was just a way to tell us "hey btw y'shaarj is on this continent"

[Deleted]

The story is fine.

The Pandaren design in of itself just completely slap-fucks everything into a state of disbelief which is saying something considering the game.

I was never able to quite look past this despite otherwise liking the expansion. Forget that they're pandas or bears and simply focus on the fact they're obese, fat fucks that make me feel like I just fell into an alternate dimension which turned out to be a kid's film. Got an Old God and a damn near literal god of thunder wreaking havoc on these alien lands and amid it all, at the core, are these belly-flopping, rolling, idgits.

Supreme evil and power defeated by the literal positive thinking of sheer thick.

No matter what anyone says I won't be able to see them differently. REALLY do not like them despite having wanted to.

You remember me about the "forgotten" Lois Griffin brother, the fat guys serial killer. And guess what, he was kinda crazy.

[Skizzit]

You realize by assisting the Horde in their establishment during the war between the Alliance and the Horde would label them as an ally / affiliate of the Horde and an enemy of the Alliance? This is where the entire foundation of the Pandaren lore began and this is where Blizzard got their strike one in massive holes in their stories.
f
It wasn't until MoP lore development where the Panadren were all of a sudden a "neutral" race. From a lore standpoint it makes no sense as to how the Alliance would consider any Pandaren "Especially Chen" an "Ally"

Pretty much every race in the game has some that are members of the Alliance or Horde and some that are not. Trolls? Check. Orcs? Check. Humans? Check. Undead? Check. Elves? Check. Gnomes? Check. Goblins? Check. Worgen? Check. Dwarves? Check.

As for Chen being neutral and not an enemy of the Alliance, if Thrall can become a neutral character then pretty much anyone can.

[Rudol Von Stroheim]

So, extreme irrational prejudice. Don't worry, many humans have felt this in the past. You're not alone.

Irrational? I have my reasons as to why and you can't start with the bullshit "prejudice" card on a goddamn made up race.

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You remember me about the "forgotten" Lois Griffin brother, the fat guys serial killer. And guess what, he was kinda crazy.

Again, talking about a fictional race who's biggest asset is being fat. Yeah, it just doesn't work for me because it doesn't make any sense nor is it "cool" for the sake of sheer fantasy. In fact, one might argue it is morally irresponsible to promote obesity in an unrealistic, overly gratuitous light.

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The "supreme evil" was not, at any point in the expansion, defeated by positive thinking. The sha were manifestations of negative emotions, and were therefore kept in a dormant state by the relative lack of them. They were ultimately defeated by swords and magic however, unless we were playing two different games.

So if the primary complaint is that they're fat, I suppose that's fair enough.

No, the Pandaren defeated Lei Chen once before we ever arrived and yes... the Sha were kept in check through positive thinking and a rejection of negative emotions for eons until the Alliance/Horde war came along. Many of them were still militant or laborers even well after the fact. They weren't just sitting in a thatch hut getting drunk off their asses and pounding cake for the centuries following.

Shall we try again?