True enough,lol
Anduin as a character is fine, itâs important to separate the character from the story theyâre plunked into, especially when the story was so clearly disjointed and slapdash. Reduce Andy to his base character, and heâs actually quite well-done in terms of personality, views, and characterization. But the meta story, particularly ones to do with a faction war, have a set ending in mind and the writers arenât good enough to let the characters drive the plot.
The Star Wars prequels are objectively bad (I do think they have their merits and I enjoy them for what they are, that said). But people still like Kenobi as a character even though he got the bulk of his characterization from the prequels.
Anduin has, by and large, the same characterization as MoP. In fact, heâs probably even more hard-edged than he was back then. The story itself is the problem, not the character. Put him in a better story, and he would be much more well-regarded.
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Now I know youâre trolling. Men DO write crap like that, along with a thousand and one Varians and Wolverines and fricken He-Mans who just GIT SO ANGY. 
SO TUFF, GRRR, ME STRONK.
The market is literally dominated by game characters like that, where everybody wants to be Gears of War LARGE⌠itâs ENOUGH. And Men DO write stories about women and how if theyâre not dead or worse, theyâre a villain (see GoT), or a traitor, or an object. âCan you imagine,â lol, NOBODY has to IMAGINE if that happened. That DOES happen, and will continue to happen, because men STILL dominate the literary world. Christie Golden can write whatever the hell she wants.
GOD I hate SundaysâŚ
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If everyone around him behaved consistently as their actual character would, Anduin would not be a High king and would actually be just one voice among many
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Heâs certainly a wide eyed nice boy who just wants to help. Which in itself isnât a bad character trait. Thatâs essentially what Zenkan is and I like him because itâs refreshing to get a PoV from someone who isnât basically a super hero.
But that just doesnât work well for Supreme Commander of the Alliance. He comes off as kind of a naive and pampered trust fund pup whoâs got a lot to learn about the world. And again, if he were a Alliance leader I think this could work well. An idealistic young man tempering the more cynical and world weary world views of say Greymane could be interesting.
But as the Alliance leader it comes off as weird. Mainly because the story keeps bending over backwards to prove him right. He didnât need to send aid to the Kaldorei in Darkshore, they sorted that out themselves. He was also right to try to make peace with the Horde as the only leader still baying for blood, Talanji, agrees to at least shelve the blood feud for the time being by the end of SR.
So weâve a soft, sweet boy whoâs so pure he literally gets a power boost from weeping at the horrors of war who is wiser than millennia old moon popes and star imams and is never wrong about anything.
Just makes for a dull character. I only really liked him in SR. He puts on a bad disguise and sneaks out for booze. Still being Anduin he has one beer and only flirts with the idea of flirting with a cute soldier. But it was at least a dumb thing a teenager would do. Everywhere else he might as well be a literal angel.
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Heâs also faced the horrors of war firsthand and remains utterly unchanged. I canât decide if he comes off as hopelessly naĂŻve or a sociopath.
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How should he change? Like, literally what should be different.
Someone being self aware is the first step. Zerde having sympathy for dejected Illidan and still seeing illidanâs behavior towards Tyrande as toxic, still has a valid opinion on toxic masculinity.
Itâs the people who think toxic masculinity doesnât exist, are the problem.
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I do not have anything to add so far about Anduin that was not mentioned in the âalliance, who are youâ thread. IMO itâs a bit early to fully judge the story of Shadowlands (although itâs state currently is rather unpleasant for me to witness).
Overall, after looking at the story (not in all possible details though) from the Legion till now (9.1 soonâ˘), I have a newfound appreciasion for what Iâve read from Stephen King:
Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribblerâs heart, kill your darlings.
Š On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
gl hf
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I sometimes wish theyâd retconned the pining for Tyrande in the same stroke of pen that retconned Rhonin teaching Illidan magic
âKilling your darlingsâ has always been a cruel sentiment. How 'bout nah? 
Iâm glad mister King can pump out ten novels a year by doing this, but I hate it.
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Dev bias (or when the story events can be explained consistently by it) is a horrible thing.
If I ever manage to write anything other than a pay check in my life, I think I shall not allow myself to like anyone other than villains.
gl hf
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Mhm, you go ahead and take a break from all that tedious check signing, and write a book series where the bad guy always wins. See how well you do.
Btw, having favorite villains still makes them your darlings. Youâre still gonna have to kill them, according to your rule. Or was that your point? You werenât very clear in your meaning.
I looked up the term and from what I read, the quoteâs not talking about characters, but self-indulgent writing in general. Itâs part of a slightly-larger bit about how if youâre writing a story and suddenly get an itch to write a whole bunch about some randomly compelling concept, to write it out and then delete it before your book goes out to print.
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I am very grateful to you for positing this topic. Anduin being decidedly bereft of toxic masculinity is something that would have been interesting if the writers actually had a handle on their toxic masculinity. Alas, they did not.
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Well thatâs quite a different concept altogether, and one I actually agree with. Iâve just always thought it meant your favorite original characters?? 
why is this comment so damn funny!
Thank you sir, have a heart.
Nah, itâs about anything that you may have put a lot of effort or emotion into thatâs ultimately not necessary to tell the story, no matter how much it means to you.
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/what-does-it-mean-to-kill-your-darlings
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Plot armour is not a good thing IMO. But I would definitely not be agains a reconstruction story like Astro City, ngl.
Yeah, if a characte is âdestinedâ to die / be phased out of the story, itâs not as bad to be attached to it as being to someone who is present throughout a big chunk of the narrative, or in the focus of it.
Totally.
I am sorry, english is not my language, so sometimes I sound harsh / not clear. But yes, I was mentioning that being attached to a character when this character is not meant to have a long lasting effect on the world is not as bad IMO.
There are different interpretations. But specifically here what I meant is that I dislike when I see in the story who are the characters that creator likes personally.
gl hf
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Thatâs perfectly sound, and literally just means âedit your story,â lol, I hate writers sometimes, always tryna be flowery with their words instead of saying what they mean. 
lovehate, not hatehate.