She may not be the only voice who gets to decide the direction of the story however she is the primary narrative writer and pens the Cinematic. Unless there is a second primary writer im not aware of writing Alternative options not seeing who else is driving this narrative forwards.
She also has included Anduin in pretty much everything she has written for Wow Since Cataclysm. Sadly it has all culminated to the story we have today, which is lack luster and predictable.
No she isnāt the primary narrative writer, she only writes dialogue for cinematics. Her job is to get the point across in as few words and as dramatically as possible. āIs he the bomb this time??ā Thatās Christie.
She also does not get to decide what she writes, she is a commissioned author. Blizzard dictates what they want and the commissioned authors they hire (which was what Christie was for most of her career until about 2 or 3 years ago) write within those parameters. In Shadows Rising Blizzardās parameters were that Anduin have a flicker of shadow for example.
Creative Development is done as a team at Blizzard and it is almost entirely dictated by gameplay concerns first and foremost. The man you are looking to blame is Creative Development Lead Chris Metzen (until he left after WoD), Creative Development Lead Alex Afrasiabi (who supposedly left over the summer, not clear on this), or in this case Game Director Ion Hazzikostas.
Can we just kill off Anduin at this point instead of constantly watching Blizzard engage in this constant torture storyline with him?
All of Legion heās just sitting around being sad or going to the Broken Shore and being sad.
All of BfA heās just sitting around being miserable, and then sad about Saurfang and the war, and then miserable about the war again, and then sad and miserable about Saurfangās death.
All of 9.0 he was being tortured and now in 9.1 heās being forcibly controlled to kill people against his will.
If theyāre going to just keep this nonsense of constantly torturing him just kill him off already. Youāve already memeified him into a trope in BfA anyway, thereās nothing good left of him as a character.
I used to really like him because he was an interesting, conflicting, force to his warmongering-like father. He was peaceloving and as he grew up and became a King he was a pretty decent (At least for WoWās writing) example of healthy masculinity instead of a toxic meathead like Garrosh.
And now theyāre just like, āNaw force him to kill people against his will, haha, arthas 2.0 go burrrrrr, jump with frostmourne 2.0 to kill the light ladyā
I know Christie Golden very likely isnāt writing all of this story about him but Anduin became a character because of her, and Iām shocked sheās just fine with this trash theyāre doing with him.
Literally his entire storyline about being tortured and forced against his will to murder people is ONLY in service of brute-forcing a half-assed redemption storyline for Sylvanas right at the finish line of her story.
Even when we or Sylvanas inevitably saves him, if the writers were even a quarter as good as they think they are, heās going to be tortured for years if not permanently from what the Jailer is going to make him do. Assuming heās even living anymore, which who knows.
What a great arc for him.
I agree with everything you said which has got to be a first. I would rather Sylvanas lead players like myself into a third Forsaken-themed faction than have Golden Boi be the reason Sylvanas suddenly realizes that what she is doing makes no sense.
This is a character that was all about taking control of her own circumstances, never letting it happen to her again, rebuilding from the ashes, doing what needed to be done in a pragmatic way.
The idea that it would take Anduin for her to finally side-eye the Jailer like Bannerbae side-eyed her is borderline intolerable.
As a Forsaken and Sylvanas first loyalist I have almost had enough of this. The finale of the 9.1 raid will make or break me.
Jainaās been tortured since WC3.
If we started killing off the people that Blizz likes to drag through the wringer, half the cast would be dead, and the other half would only be alive because no one paid any attention to them.
The idea that after all sheās done, including committing genocide, killing her own people, experimenting on civilians with biological weapons of mass destruction, betraying and murdering her allies, invading a neutral kingdom and assassinating itās crown princeā¦
The idea itās ANDUIN being forced to do something against his will is the thing that breaks her?
Give me a damn break here.
The difference is that they at least give Jaina an expansion off where sheās either happy or at least not miserable.
Youāre also comparing a very old character to, comparatively, a relatively new one. Anduin didnāt really become a true character until Cataclysm after Golden lobbied to make him one in The Shattering.
He doesnāt even become a true leader in his own right until Legion, and since that first moment heās constantly tortured.
Jaina should be dead, She should have died off in BFA during the seige killed by the Horde, perhaps they stop her destroying the city thus giving them a heroic moment. The fact that she is still alive at this point when theyāre are a number of Alliance characters who could take her place is the annoying thing.
Sadly this seems to be the way of things with the Current writing. Unless it affects Anduin its not a big deal.
Its not so much tortured but the story focuses around how things affect him more than they do with any other party in the story. He is written as the Protagonist in a MMO which is why he comes off as the center of the story where his actions matter most.
But that is exactly what his story is even if you believe heās become the Protagonist.
What has he done since becoming so? Being sad, miserable, and then tortured, and now killing people as a puppet. Thatās all heās done for the last 3 expansions.
Has He been tortured though? we are told everyone is but he looks fine to me. Yes they paint him as being sad and miserable about his station in life but that is the issue with where the writers put him because they want you to feel sorry for him.
However all they have done is make you hate the character as his pains and concerns are nothing to the people around him who are truly suffering.
I mean the story since legion does very little with the fact that his father died. The fact that his strong Masculine father had any influence on him is brushed aside.
The other 3 have been tortured, so yes itās a pretty safe assumption. Jaina nor Thrall or Baine had their models changed to look damaged or something, but we know for a fact that they were tortured. Even if you want to try and lawyer this point, heās still sad and imprisoned lol.
No, I hate the character now because all they do is torture him and exclusively use him to facilitate the storylines of the Horde or (now) Sylvanas. And worst of all, to facilitate a laughable redemption asspull at the very last second.
His role in Legion wasnāt large but it was literally exactly about this. Including the cutscene. Just because Anduin didnāt go, āIāM NOT A MAN LIKE YOU, FATHERā doesnāt mean the Broken Shore cutscene wasnāt exactly about this.
Never seen him stabbed or in pain, seem like the worst he got was having to listen to Sylvanas monolouge.
Oh donāt get me wrong I agree with the whole Redemption farce for sylvanas exactly the same. However the issue she is only responding because Anduin the protagonist is is pain. She had the same lecture from baine and instead strung him up and āactuallyā tortured him so badly he needed to recover.
Alright when was the last time he mentioned his father in the game? Last I can remember only just after broken shore. Hell he seem more upset about the Death of the archon than his own father.
Im going to admit for half a sec. I almost though Arthas was in Anduins body. Utherās reaction to Anduin made me believe this since Uther never met Anduin.
We see Anduin think about him in the Before the Storm novel, but not in the game because the game is almost exclusively used to just awkwardly brute force the plot along. Thereās almost no moment where characters are being super introspective.
They had to give Jaina an entire cinematic about it in BfA, thatās how rare it is.
Iām not sure how him not mentioning his father matters considering the plot he had in Legion was about him not living up to the measure of a leader as Varian but then finding the strength to continue on. Effectively REACHING that plot and resolving it.
By the way, even though he resolves himself to be a better King in that cutscene, several times after that we see him wavering on it and wondering if he actually is. With Teldrassil, with Before the Storm, and with Saurfang.
Although I think we might be getting into the weeds over a slight disagreement at this point, so Iāll just drop that part of the discussion.
If you continue to see Arthas in future in-game WoW cinematics you may need to ask your Holy Priest about ArthasAway. Please consult your local Holy Priest and ask if ArthasAway is right for you.
A lot of people are completely primed and on-edge to see Arthas return in full glory in Shadowlands and are seeing him around every corner. Not sure what that is about. Iām a big fan of Arthasās story in WC3. I do not think he has any real role in Shadowlands except as an easter egg reference. Bringing him back for a major role would be a disservice to his character. I mean the Jailer is already kind of pushing it.
That said I did think it could have been Arthas on some level, especially since I think they mixed the Arthas voice actor into the Jailer and Anduin voice actors during the reveal of the Jailer being in control. I think thatās just another Arthas reference, a cheeky easter egg.
Kaleaon, this is WoW. Whether or not a disservice is done means nothing if itāll get sub numbers up.
And besides, when has that stopped Blizzard in the past? Kaelāthas got villain batted twice after being a hero Warcraft III. Saurfang went from meme king of the early aughts to sad sack of the Horde.
Well thatās certainly true. Iām sure if anyone could find a way to muck up Arthas it would be Blizzard.
If they want to utilize Arthas correctly it would be as a last-minute end-boss undoing the Jailerās plans and usurping his role as the big-bad of the expansion.
Anything other than that isā¦iffy. I know some people like Arthas like I like Sylvanas and just want the character in the story at all costs. But many of Arthasās fans like Arthas because of how his story progressed and ended.
I know Blizzard doesnāt respect their characters though, I definitely know that. So good point!
Same. Iāve been wanting to for a while
Kyrestia died as she lived. An absolute jobber.
Iām somewhat worried about Sylvanas expression at the end. But hopefully itās not an indicator of anything problematic.
So all the Illgy prophecies had nothing to do with Void but death.
What is Jailer trying to open? He is clearly free to walk.
And missing keys likely are from Primus, Winter Queen and Arbiter herself.
Is Kyrestia dead? Bastion is still thereā¦