[Warborn]

I actually disagree with that, I don't think they fit in at all. Warcraft is a fantasy genre that's all about stuff being badass. Huge shoulder armor, everyone is either a sexy broad or a steroid-abusing macho man, swords bigger than houses, etc etc. Pandas, meanwhile, are not badass. But... they attempted to make them badass. They didn't just say "fuck it" and run with the theme of them being fat retarded panda-men, no. Instead, they're totally badass ninja masters. It's like they were compelled to make panda bears playable, but realized people would think that was dumb and wanted to assuage those concerns somewhat by giving them super awesome karate skills.

Ultimately I'm not sure what it was. Their #1 artist, Samwise Didier, has a huge nerd-crush on anthropomorphic pandas. He's done a ton of art all about samurai/kung-fu panda bear men even before they were put into Warcraft 3 as an April Fools joke and, later, as an expansion hero. So either it's that, or it genuinely is an attempt to court a larger Chinese/Asian market share. I dunno. Either way they're pretty dumb. Warcraft has always been dumb and a stupid setting that made no sense, but even for Warcraft panda men are dumb.