2012-10-26: I’m Drunk on Panda Mystery!

[Nosy Neighbordroid]

Discussion thread for I’m Drunk on Panda Mystery!

[taltamir]

I love a happy ending...

Also, I am guessing fran plays a siren (because she is magic obsessed) and naga plays a gunzerker.

[TheLastOutlaw]

I need a Monty Python quote jar.

And am I the only one who saw the Pandaria trailer and thought it was a new Kung Fu Panda at first?

[Immanio]

You know, I was about to post something about Borderlands 2 yesterday, but never got around to it. Thanks for reminding me:
Has anyone else started a Mechromancer and named her Jordan Kennedy?

[taltamir]

And am I the only one who saw the Pandaria trailer and thought it was a new Kung Fu Panda at first?

You are not alone... In fact I am wondering if they have to pay them royalties or something

[BloodHenge]

I'm pretty sure the Pandarans were a thing before "Kung Fu Panda". I think there was actually a Pandaran in "Warcraft III", although I haven't seen it myself.

[Pharazon]

Oh yes. Explanatory post time!

Pandaren started off as an April Fools' joke in 2002, before the release of Warcraft III, as a supposedly fifth race. Obviously it didn't make it in, but enough people liked it to make some references to it in the game itself, released later in 2002, in the form of a hidden area and a picture that flashed on the screen for a few seconds, as well as some pandaren mobs (simple unclad bears with a furbolg-model) in the northern continent. This was 6 years before Kung Fu Panda was released, I think?

But wait, there's more! The April Fools' (found at http://classic.battle.net/war3/pandaren/ )included Asian-clothed Pandaren with hats and swords, an introduction to their history (very few details at this point, and Pandaria is not named; only as the Pandaren Empire, which is at that point just a small empire in Stonetalon and under attack by centaurs) and some examples for classes and warrior-types for them. The Frozen Throne expansion in 2003 also introduced a brewmaster, who fought with staff and ale and breath of fire. Besides neutral heroes in multiplayer, a named brewmaster (Chen Stormstout, for those Warcraft players among you) became part of canon as a travelling hero in the Orc campaign. Their featuring in an RPG book from that same year named the island of Pandaria as their homeland, and introduced them as pikemen, swordsmen, and geomancers; changing the April Fools' story and giving us our established lore long before this expansion.

Notice anything?
No monks. No unarmed fighters. Pikemen, Samurai, and casters. Though arguably a staff-fighting Brewmaster might be related to a monk, and both it and the caster were incorporated into the Monk-class. But the truth is, Monks as a concept didn't really enter WoW (or Warcraft as a whole) before the recent expansion. So while Pandaren were already "a thing" before Kung Fu Panda, and an extension of their Asian theme might logically extend to Monks as a class, it is possible that Pandaren Monks as a combination were indeed inspired by the movie. But as for the trailer, as mentioned above, it's worth mentioning that the featured Panda (the return of old friend Chen Stormstout) was in fact the Warcraft 3 Brewmaster-class, and fought with staff. So I wouldn't tie that particular scene to Kung Fu Panda.

To summarize: yes, Pandaren came before the movie, but Pandaren Monks might have been based on it.

*bows out and goes back to lurking*

[taltamir]

Thank you Pharazon for the engrossing and informative writeup. (no sarcasm intended)

[Bytemite]

I also heard that there may have been some objection to giving an anthropomorphized version of China's favourite national animal the cultural traits of their hated enemy.

Which I believe only slightly more than the obviously untrue rumour (mostly wishful thinking for a lot of players) that Blizzard would never include Pandaren as a playable race because China is their biggest player base and the Chinese government would object to images of pandas getting hurt.

Too bad I only know the swears, I bet the Chinese reaction to the bastardization of their culture in MOP is probably pretty funny.

(I still like Pandaren)

[BloodHenge]

I also heard that there may have been some objection to giving an anthropomorphized version of China's favourite national animal the cultural traits of their hated enemy.

I also heard that Pandarans had considerably more Japanese cultural trappings earlier in the development cycle, but were altered to appear more Chinese for the actual release.