Goodness, has it really been a month and a day since I posted anything here? It’s not like I have a lack of post topics - it’s really more of a lack of time to update the ol’ blog. Hopefully that’ll clear up soon - on top of (hopefully) being done with my Masters degree, I’m also starting to hit exalted on reputations with my shaman.

Did I say with my shaman? Yes, I did. My oldest existing character, who was supposed to be my main in Cataclysm, is now my raiding main in Mists of Pandaria. He’s also a brawler - thanks to a RL friend who dinged rank 7 in there, I snagged a Brawler’s Pass (stalking the BMAH for a Blood-Soaked Invitation was not paying off). Last night, after dawdling around in Pandaria a bit, I decided to head off to the Brawl’gar Arena and see what was what.

First off, I take back what I said about the arena being boring. Sure, Brawl’gar Arena doesn’t quite have the atmosphere of Bizmo’s Brawlpub, but then again, we don’t have an underground tram to have a bar underneath, so they did a pretty good job, all things considered. It’s still got a lot of character, even in the grey items that you get in your Brawler’s Purse:

There’s a lot of interesting characters in the Brawler’s Guild - from obvious Fight Club reference Robert Paulson (he needs a hug, he says) to the slightly more obscure Dirk Roughly (a nod to Dirk Gently). Volda Gan’dra insists that shoes are for the weak. And I must admit, seeing some old World of Warcraft friends again was neat - even if it was Dungeon Master Vishas, still on the hunt for Naughty Secrets that he insists on ripping from your flesh. You’ll even see Bruno Flameretardant, last seen in Azshara and Kezan, working the bar at the arena.

But for me, I was actually cracking up at was this fella. Duke Studlington.

I’m fairly certain the Duke is related to a certain other foppis–err, fashionable paladin. He follows you around Brawl’gar Arena - usually after you win, but sometimes just at random - and /flexes at you. Constantly. He also has three lines of dialogue; the last is my favorite:

• “I beat up three orcs and a tauren last night, all without breaking a nail.”
• “You want a knuckle sandwich, chump?”
• “Do you even lift, bro?”

I kept cracking up when I realized that even when I had trotted all the way to the other side of the arena, the Duke had followed me–

– oh crap, he’s right behind me, isn’t he