Of course he will. Anduin being a beacon of light that inspires everyone to do he right thing has been his thing for YEARS now.
He just got done inspiring Sylavans to break free of the Jailer’s influence. And even though he’s currently mind controlled, we all know it’s not going to last forever and he’s eventually going to escape and be back to being good ol’ pure Anduin.
Edit: Just rereading your post, where i just realized that by “second face” you might’ve meant the more malevolent aspects of the Light.
And while it could be interesting, I can’t imagine what torturous logic they’d use to get us to that point outside of the out-and-out mind control, and they’re already using that plot with the Jailer. At least with Turalyon, we have a battle hardened character with a history of listening to Xe’ra, so when she shows up, it makes sense that he’d be the first person to listen to her when she declares X to be the latest obstacle in her grand crusade to save the cosmos.
Ignoring his character growth and development in the process.
Turalyon listened to Xe’ra because he trusted her as a being that embodied the Light, but he learned from those experiences on Argus that she wasn’t infallible. For him to salute and willfully do terrible things just because she says so would completely backtrack on everything he’s become since Argus.
WE the audience learned that, but I don’t think he really did, as we see very little of his development after Xe’ra dies.
Although in the end, I’m pretty sure Xe’ra’s just going to resort to the fact that Lightforging gives her some kind of connection with the recipients that she can (if only temporarily for story purposes) override his usual characterization. People not being themselves because of supernatural influences as a way of bypassing actual exploration of character motivation/systemic consequences is one of WoW’s go to strategies, afterall.
Turalyon is generally not all that antagonistic, no. He is, however, prone to just going along with whatever Xe’ra does and offering little/no resistance. Turalyon under Xe’ra’s influence, was willing to see Alleria locked up indefinitely because Xe’ra refused to accept her. He didn’t like it, but he didn’t defy Xe’ra. Turalyon, under Xe’ra’s influence was the only one who leapt to attack Illidan.
He’s at best passive when dealing with Xe’ra.
And since any Light as antagonist plot would definitely have Xe’ra as the prime driving force, he would naturally be the one of all the main cast most likely to follow her. Especially if she resorts to the kind of out and out indoctrination via forced Lightbinding Ilidan seemed so afraid of and that we saw in action in Draenor.
This isn’t about what Turalyon would do by himself. It’s abou what Turalyon would be capable of when Xe’ra shows up and compels him. And there is no instance of him ever defying her to her face, let alone when she actually starts to turn the screws.
They did the same thing explicitly in the Mag’har recruitment quest. It was stated that the Draenei and Mag’har had started to get along peacefully and repelled the Burning Legion. Until AU Xe’ra showed up, started influencing Yrel, and years later, we have the Lightbound Crusade. .
I don’t know if Turalyon would go all ham and tyrannical like that even if Xe’ra told him to. He’s shown an ability to change his stance when faced with new information. I doubt it will get to a point where he is just blindly following his leader no matter what. If Xe’ra shows up and starts compelling him to do her bidding than he would be no different than Arthas under the control of Ner’zul.
The alternative being Alleria being killed. Now, if Turalyon had agreed with Xe’ra that Alleria needed to die, then I might agree with you, but that wasn’t the case.
What? The moment Xe’ra died we literally saw her influence fading from him, his eyes going from gold back to brown. He wasn’t under her influence when he attacked Illidan. If anything he was free from whatever influence she had over him.
There wasn’t really a situation that had arisen, outside of Alleria’s imprisonment, that gave reasonable clause for him to oppose her.
I just disagree. This would be a blatant betrayal of his development since Argus.
If there is going to be a “Light Crusade” arc that starts with the presence of a false prophet in the Alliance it still wouldn’t make much sense for it to be Turalyon, because he’s already demonstrated trustworthiness on multiple occasions as others have pointed out, and he has also demonstrated a willingness to listen to others and respect their wishes accordingly.
A false prophet character would be more like Daval Prestor taken to an extreme. A relatively unknown character that emerges seemingly out of nowhere with relative speed who is oozing with charisma and attractiveness and generally is someone that people take to easily. It would not be a warrior like Turalyon (whose ultimate job when it comes down to it is to dispense violence), it would be someone who can appear to be both meek and powerful simultaneously, like a noble (as Prestor was) or a church figure.
This would be someone who climbs the ranks of authority quickly, and has people like Anduin and Genn and Shaw convinced of their good intentions. They would deliver good things to their people and, between people’s desire for good things and their charisma, would have few if anyone questioning the cost, or their ultimate intentions.
Presumably, within the Alliance the player characters would follow this person for a time until some kind of narrative development starts to slowly prompt hesitation of their intentions. Groups in the Alliance that don’t have strong traditions in the Holy Light like the Night Elves, Gnomes, and Void Elves would be suspicious of this person from the start, and perhaps this person would try to subtly sow division in the Alliance in that way.
Eventually the player characters/the good guys find out this person’s true nature but by then it’s too late and they’ve started their big bad expansion-tier plan and we all need to go and get another ten levels and progress through more raid tiers to foil them as per usual.
Also as per usual people on the forums would complain that Blizzard wrote a character that deceived them as though that’s bad writing.
Yes they are. They’ve been on the Alliance’s bad side since Vanilla and that’s only grown as the Alliance and the Church of the Holy Light has gone all in on the Argent Crusade, who have the dual benefits of
Arthas had enough freedom to rebel against both Ner’zhul and his master Zovaal(who somehow got Ner’zhul working for him despite being unable to Dominate him according to Devs). Infact it seems his rebelliousness is why Ner’zhul decided to convince him to extract the last fragment of Soul inside him only for it to backfire.
So when AU Xe’ra shows up and states that the Forsaken are a threat to Azeroth and that he needs to team up with the leader of the Scarlet Crusade that’s currently hanging out in the stormwind Cathedral and that the Void Elves are a security risk and need to be contained, Turalyon’s going to defy her? When she starts getting serious and utilizing her ability to grant specific visions and bind people with the Light, he’s going to defy her?
And he immediately attacked Illidan in the aftermath. So- when AU Xe’ra shows up and that connection is reestablished and someone tries to kill her, he’s going to abide by it?
So where are we getting the idea that he knows enough to oppose her when he’s never really expressed any defiance before? And like you said, the one and only chance he had to defy her when she was wrong was a situation where he faltered.
That’s why I don’t think that Turalyon is above what happened to Yrel. I don’t think it’s the best writing, but it is a better example of good writing in the form of set up and payoff than if they made Xe’ra’s right hand on Azeroth someone we’ve never seen and who doesn’t have any actual history with her and has even less history of being her champion than Turalyon.
Not only was he free, but he was very likely just angry at Illidan for killing Xe’ra, who he respected. He quickly regained his composure and realized that killing Illidan wasn’t the answer. I think experiencing anger atfer losing an important figure like that isn’t showing that Turalyon is capable of evil, but that he’s human and has a normal compacity for controlling his emotions.
There is a representative of the Scarlet Crusade emissary standing in the Stormwind Cathedral right now. The Scarlet Crusade is actively distributing pamphlets calling for Anduin to be removed and Genn to take his place and the movement seems to be popular among Stormwind’s nobles.
If the Scarlet Crusade is the avowed enemy of the Alliance, Stormwind doesn’t seem to know it.
I think he will have learned enough from our Xe’ra to not trust AU Xe’ra immediately. I could actually see him being suspicious of AU Y’rel, and the moral here will be that he sees through Y’rel what could have happened had he let Xe’ra forcefully cleanse Alleria.
What, you think he’s going to turn against his wife, Foal, etc…? He knows what Xe’ra is now. Why do you think he would turn around and blindly serve her, when his eyes have been opened to truths Xe’ra had blinded him to for so long? The Void Elves and Lightforged Draenei work together without problem.
Xe’ra was wrong. He’s seen it with his own two eyes, been a part of proving she was wrong.
I imagine Turalyon would resist any subtle influence. If he’s going raid boss, I expect full-blown Lightbinding for him. Mindless puppet of Xe’ra sort of deal.
The events on Argus, his growth as a character since then…? Are you just going to keep ignoring how he’s changed his mind repeatedly when presented with new information? How he literally told Anduin they cannot let the Light control them?
Not every member of the Scarlet Crusade is an evil zealot. In the Sunwell Trilogy manga we are shown the good people who got caught up in the Crusade because they were just trying to reclaim their home from the Scourge.
There were also members of the Scarlet Onslaught who spoke out against the tyranny of the Crusade and were jailed by the Crusade for it, it’s those people who were saved and brought into the Church of the Holy Light by Anduin and the priests in Legion.
Saying that the Alliance supports the Crusade is such an egregious lie. The Alliance supports good people.