Hot take, but I think Anduin is written pretty well.
More so than most of other characters.
You can see that the events of Shadowlands actually caused PTSD within him. And it feels real.
His connection to the Light isn’t distorted because the Light has abandoned him, but more so because Anduin deems himself unworthy of using it and afraid that after all of committed atrocities, he is going to fail if he tries.
As much as I was upset at the survival of Khadgar (nothing against him, but I thought his death would add some drama), the moment between the Light and Anduin made sense. He had to wield it. Losing a friend would be worse than being rejected.
Realistically speaking, most of us would either kill ourselves or end up in an asylum after experiencing Shadowlands the way he did.
Anduin is the only character who is dealing with at least some of psychological trauma.
PS
Also, I thought that “The War Within” title had double meaning and it included Anduin’s inner conflict.
PS2
Most of the player base don’t like realistic writing and complains about anything more complex than one sided storytelling.
PS3
He is well written in comparison to what we get in World of Warcraft, not in comparison to outside literature.
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This is a hot take, Anduin has regressed into childhood and is a whiny little poo.
Waaaaaah I hear a Radiance song I lost the light. Life sucks get a helmet.
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With everything that has happened to Azeroth over the last couple years you’d think everyone wasn’t so whimpy.
You think it’s good writing because you’re projecting your own self onto him. But this dude faced things we humans can’t comprehend.
Do you think Space Marines get PTSD too?
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I mean, its not against the law to be wrong. Have at it.
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Anduin is great. I think their mistake is that they clearly meant for him to have done more terrible things in shadowlands than what we saw. So it creates a disconnect between his actions and the level of trauma.
Kind of like how when he met with Saurfang in the dungeon he says Saurfang had the chance to kill him at lordaeron. When though? I don’t think they ever had anything like that happen in the game.
Show, don’t tell, blizz! And if you are just telling, tell in the first place. Not afterwards.
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Frankly, quite a few characters are decently written this expansion - specifically Anduin, Gazlowe, and Renzik; like they meet the bare minimum writing wise.
You get a feel they are actual people with their own inner thoughts and their own history - instead of just being 2D caricature meant to push the story a specific direction.
It can still be cheesy at time but it’s an improvement.
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Realistically speaking, most players wanted to become unalive after experiencing it as players.
Also, it’s trash writing. Doubly so for a game with heroic figures. Or wait, no heroic figures because the writing is trash.
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It’s funny how they treat Arthas as irredeemably evil but functionally it was no different than Anduin, who is redeemable for some reason despite doing much worse things and nearly destroying reality.
Arthas oppressed others willfully thinking it was the right choice. He was seduced down an even darker path as a result of said choices as his moral character became very dark grey and antihero’ish it seems.
Now I agree about Anduin. I think they did the PTSD part fairly well, especially the part where he feels he may have even liked it. Having to work through something like that after even the events of BfA I’d think it all began to stack up for him. War apparently has a toll on others as it can be literal hell. Then you have a war for all of reality in which he was twisted and played a roll too.
So all that said I’m glad regardless he has a bit of a more weathered beaten down vibe to him. He was too jolly and cheerful anyway prior and now as a King he will show wisdom, and be able to guide his people as a result of his hardships better.
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I don’t particularly fault either Arthas or Anduin for what they did while MC’ed. How they got there though, yeah. Anduin wasn’t really given a choice. Arthas, while deceived and seduced, made his own choice to go down that path. Big difference there.
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I think Anduin’s dialogue makes sense but I still can’t help but strongly dislike seeing him because his arc is predicated on BFA and Shadowlands’s stories and the game continuing to remind me of that is irritating.
It is even stranger how they gave arthas’s story line to sylvanas at the end of shadowlands…
Arthas was the one who sacrificed everything for his people. Slyvannas got wrecked as a optional side quest because she thought her magic locket would never be found. Then turned comically evil after being raised to undeath.
Anduin just hasn’t progressed as a character since he was 10 in game. Im dreading what they will do with anduin 2.0 the purple dwarf.
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unalive??? wth is that xD
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A lot of people don’t want to watch characters go through emotional trauma. It’s Hallmark chick flick level at best.
It’s silly new generational language. Kind of like, “Demolition Man” come to life. People are so weak nowadays; they are paving the way for even greater emotional damage down the road.
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Yeah, that’s how we get chaos space marines. 
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My problem with shadowlands breaking him, seem kinda out of place.
Its not realistic, look at all he did before this all the horror both mundane and cosmic.
If you wanted realistic, everyone would have ptsd or be ended.
3 wars that raged across azeroth pre wow
Classic not to bad
The burning crusade the forces of hell are trying to re enter the world
Wrath scourge invasion
Cata deathwing attacks
Mop Garrosh trying to wreck all none loyal orcs
Warlords more garrosh and the legion
Legion even more demons
Shadowlands nipple bot of death
Dragonflight crazy cultist, primeval dragon
Tww Xal
The fact that anduin is the only one to suffer from ptsd makes it stand out. Now i will stand by a feeling ive had. That if Xal was messing with anduin and was pushing him, tricking him into life ending stupidity, his ptsd would make more sense and she would be an even better villian.
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Don’t listen to the haters. Adnuin is very well written characters with very valid emotions and trauma.
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I sort of agree. Only in the context of WoW which doesn’t have the best writing anyway. Ha Ha
The problem with Anduin is that he has a reputation with the player base as being a cry baby and so seeing him be emotional in this expansion just adds to that reputation if you already didn’t like him. I don’t mind it because I’ve always sort of liked the kid, but I get why people would find it to be too much
You cannot say “killed” on TikTok, and then it became popular on YouTube because so many TikTokers cross-post to there, even though it is perfectly fine to say “killed” on YouTube, despite some creators thinking otherwise. The combination of both platforms made it very widespread to say on the internet as slang for “killed” or “suicide”.
It is VERY jarring to see when someone is trying to have a serious conversation, though.
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