Originally Posted by
The Mister Madgod
No, you don't. Not at all.
You don't have to embrace their culture, you don't have to like it. You simply have to acknowledge that they exist and that their culture exists. Whether you like them or not isn't up to the game. It simply portrays them as a likeable race... because that's what they are. They're a friendly, kind race, who by and large doesn't need to face much adversity due to the fact that they have the Shado-Pan, who make up the grittier portion of their race.
If you're feeling forced to love and embrace everything pandaren because they were featured in an expansion that uses their homeland as a backdrop, you might need to reevaluate something. If anything, what you are saying is telling me that you are uncomfortable with them being perceived as a positive thing because it conflicts with your world view. You dislike them, you outright hate them. You want that validated, but the game isn't doing that.
Except you have to help and befriend other races too.
I believe you think it's forced... but I think it's simply your bias against the pandaren. Truly. You're forced to help them the same way you were forced to help the taunka, the wolvar, the oracles, the dragons, the broken, the sporregar, the draenei, the naaru, the blood elves, and every other race you help and befriend in every version of the game.
What we do with the pandaren isn't exclusive to them. It's simply the latest iteration of a nine year long pattern.