We all know that Anduin isn’t suited for the throne. His most notable achievements are crying, more crying, talking how much he was crying, crying himself to sleep, crying about his dad, being a living failure to the House of Wynn, doing literally nothing but sitting and talking to Saurfang about honour which he doesn’t have, and replacing one of the best characters in World of Warcraft (Varian) with one of the worst (Anduin, himself). But above all that, he just isn’t interesting and has no depth to his character. Being peace-loving isn’t an admirable character trait, it’s just boring and is poor writing. A Mary Sue of the Mary Sues. Nothing about his character is kingly. He isn’t strong, he isn’t really wise, he can’t command, he can’t do anything. He just sits on the throne and says a bunch of nonsense that no one listens to because they are too busy laughing at how much of a failure he is.
Varian, on the other hand, a literal demi-god, fearsome and unbeaten gladiator, warrior who was able to make the likes of Garrosh flee in terror, and the character who got shelved hard by Blizzard. Do you think Varian would take lip from Tyrande? No! He’d simply say no and she’d shut up. He would have easily lead the Alliance to victory by leading from the front like he always has. He was a king who demanded respect. He could lead, he could fight, he was wiser than his stupid son, and more importantly, he had character and charm.
I think we should replace Anduin with Varian. Have Anduin take Varian’s place in the Shadowlands so the Alliance can have their true king back.
Varian wouldn’t have allowed something like Teldrassil to happen in the first place, and had it happened he would’ve just had mana bombs dropped on Orgrimmar, Undercity and Silvermoon.
I like Anduin; he’s a consistently well-written character who is flawed, optimistic, and trying to do his best despite his youth and inexperience with governing.
Pretty much this. It’s clear that Anduin wasn’t ready when Varian died + he is a peacekeeper rather than a warlord, which is not perfect in a war thorn world.
But yeah, that Legion comic showed Anduin with a sweet beard, full of scars and leading everyone into some super galactic final fight, there is still hope.
Putting stupid kids in charge after an awesome leader falls is a grand tradition in fiction. Who knows, maybe in the future Anduin will use the power of the matrix to light our darkest hour, and then his voice will drop two octaves as he turns into a bright red RV with flame decals.
I don’t know if I would call Anduin a Mary Sue. He definitely has his flaws. His naïveté is a good example. He believes peace would be easily achieved between the Alliance and the Horde despite hostilities and prejudice from both sides.
I also haven’t seen him do anything that would be horrendously unbelievable. Most would say resurrecting Calia… but that required several VERY powerful priests. One of whom is Velen, who is probably one of the most powerful priests in Azeroth.
Do people not realize what a line of succession is? Its not just a fantasy plot device. Anduin was the only son of Wrynn and last of his line, he wasn’t just written in at some random point, he’s been there for a long long time. We’ve been watching him grow, mostly since MoP when his WHOLE BODY GOT SMASHED. We’re lucky he hasn’t gone rage face on the Horde.
