Anduin with PTSD. What am I missing?

Lore Story Forum
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After having watched the Cinematic Trailer for War Within…

meh.

I can see that Anduin is really disturbed. He snaps at Thrall about his loss of faith in the Light.

Not after what he’s seen… not after what he’s DONE.

I get it, Anduin. You’ve seen a crappy expansion with a nonsensical, fragmented storyline. All of the most powerful forces in the universe amount to robots given sentience. I’d lose faith, too. Because that means the Light is likely just a LED with personality traits…

But it’s the second part of what he says that leaves me baffled. “Not after what I’ve DONE.”

So what did he do, exactly?

(I mean, aside from wiping my guild on heroic a bunch of times. But that’s not canon.)

Well, he successfully ambushed the Archon and robbed the robot of its sigil. But… well, he didn’t kill it. The robot made a full recovery.

After that, Anduin found his way to Ardenweald and sleuthed out the next sigil. The robot there decided it’d be entirely too obvious to hold onto the McGuffin personally and chose to hide it… in, arguably, the most OBVIOUS spot. He makes a bee-line to the Heart of the Forest, yoinks the sigil and yeets outta there. Detestable, Anduin! The Winter Robot took entire minutes to come up with such a great hiding place! Very bad Anduin!

Okay, so next up on his list of unspeakably horrible things… Anduin helped to mug another robot (the Primus this time) of its sigil. Didn’t maim it, either. Just took the sigil and hearthed out.

Ooooh! He’s 3-0 and he’s… Just. Getting. STARTED!! Oh, nope. That’s it.

In response, the robots band together and acknowledge what an inconvenience the loss of their sigils is. They make new sigils in no time at all and all agree that Anduin is a big meanie-head and that they won’t invite him to their birthday party.

So Anduin is suffering from crippling PTSD because he handily took a few, easily replaceable, McGuffins from some robots that the Zerith Mortis installation is all too happy to replace?

Help me out here people.

Edit for the people who say that PTSD is an element worth incorporating into an Action based MMO RPG.

So repercussions of war, then.

Heroes who recoil at the sight of their weapons, as they cannot unsee the murder and mayhem those objects have caused.

Thrall curled into a fetal position under a waterfall, unable to weild the elements. He cries bitter tears for the lives he’s taken over the years. His arm, no longer able to lift an axe.

Jaina grows old in a library, sipping tea with Khadgar and reminiscing about cantrips.

Khadgar encourages Jaina to maybe open a spellbook. Take a whirl at using arcane magic again. Jaina recoils at the mere mention of Arcane magic; the tragedy of Theramor is still fresh in her mind. The manabomb. The teacup slips from Jaina’s fingertips and shatters on the floor. She’s sobbing uncontrollably. Khadgar consoles the once-great mage. She needs time.

Maybe Baine Bloodhoof and Magni will go and visit Anduin in his retirement cottage. He’s needed so much energy lately. Even just to tend to his garden. Surely they’ll be able to add some color to his life. He’s so sad. Anduin barely gets out of bed these days…

Baine gets up out of his chair to leave and is nearly overwhelmed with a wave of vertigo. Ever since the Jailor dropped him one hundred feet in the Maw, the once-proud bull finds that, even his height gives him PTSD. Maybe he’ll visit Anduin another day… sitting feels so much better… he just needs his tent and his fire… his safe space.

The war is over and the traumatized denizens of Azeroth go about their lives, walking on eggshells and avoiding their triggers.

World of Warcraft: Safe Space.

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I think it’s just the fact he went against everything he stood for and couldn’t control it. He wasn’t strong enough, the light wasn’t strong enough, he blames himself and or the light, he’s conflicted on which.

He tries to kill you, and if you’re an Alliance player you’re someone whose been his friend since he started his journey. You’re honestly one of his role models in a lot of ways. And he tried to kill you with no control over his actions.

This is a lot for a young person to confront. A lot of people have a sort of existential crisis in their 20s. I know I sure did.

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Because Blizzard seems to think being dominated and forced to stab a single entity traumatizes someone to the point of abandoning all friends and family to wander the desert alone for 5 years.

I get losing control over your actions would be traumatizing, but we don’t need someone leading us that gets THAT lost over it.

Hell, things like depression can get the president of the US removed from office. Why the hell should we still follow Anduin if he’s showing to be an incompetent leader by abandoning us for 5 years?

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Did everyone forget that when he talked with Sylvanas he admitted enjoying part of being dominated?

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I think they should make a comic or something to clarify/show it for most players. Shadowlands did a terrible job showing it.

Pretty much like Jailer’s (Zovaal) background, the story isn’t there.

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That would cause considerable PTSD considering he didn’t establish a safe word.

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We all had to stand before Zovaals almighty nips, never forget that.

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Don’t look for literary masterpieces from MMO games.

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It was traumatic because a part of him liked it.

It’s really easy on the outside looking in to judge someone’s response. You see it all the time, sadly, in how emotionally immature people react to other people’s trauma IRL.

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Anduin brought up something that was pretty telling. It wasn’t all about what he had done, it was also about everything he had seen. To me, that means he is talking about his past traumas like losing his father. I’d be willing to bet that it’s not all about what the Jailer did to him, though that is probably what ultimately broke him.

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The point is a part of Anduin actually ENJOYED and WANTED to do it. Like he did actually kill creatures of Ardeanweald and lorewise he likely did kill some Alliance/Horde.

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he had a bad nite in moonguard goldshire ok

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He found being dominated both terrifying and exhilarating. He could not tell which was him and which was the Jailer.

And that uncertainty absolutely terrifies him.

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Not that I think this is an actual valid question, but the actual answer for those who actually are interested in the actual lore is that it wasn’t so much the actual acts he did but the fact that he low key actually enjoyed it too. That, combined with the fact his will was actually overcome and he was forced to do bad things, leaves him in a traumatized state and his faith, which is paramount to his character/identity, is gone.

Not really that much different than SA victims and the trauma they tend to go through…the feeling of being helpless and powerless…the actual acts they were forced to perform and/or go through…and even by the betrayal of their own mind/body for responding in ways that later disgust them.

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Yeah makes sense when you ignore everything else about his lore

Cmon Maizou I know you’re better than that

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You don’t understand what it feels like to be and/or feel mind controlled. I do. It’s an uncontrollable sense of dread and despair that leaves a person crippled with PTSD.

Isolation is the only response because others 100% cannot comprehend what’s going on until you experience it yourself, which I hope nobody does. It’s not something I would wish on anyone.

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It was more the fact he enjoyed the violence that was the breaking point.

All the stuff he went thru in what had to be around 10ish years his time or shorter was just the stuff that wore him down

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We seem to be forgetting everything else Anduin has been through.
From his mother dying, his father disappearing (and then later dying and not being able to get a proper burial due to not having a body). His body being crushed by Garrosh after he attempted to diplomacy.
Next we have everything that happened during BFA, and lastly Shadowlands. Where he was tortured and mind controlled.
The ptsd is completely understandable.

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Folks also forget that bit with Garrosh left him with chronic pain that gets worse around negative energy.

So yeah. He’s going thru it by the time we see him in the War Within trailer

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Wow when you put it that way, the writers are horrible. Are they even trying at this point?

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