Once upon a time, if I’d begun a post with this heading, I would’ve been ridiculed and even the mods would’ve deleted the post most likely, but if ActBliKin is serious about reforming their toxic culture, this should be wildly popular…
Anduin meant something to gay guys who game. There was the perception that Anduin was one of us. He was the King-Priest of the Alliance and the King-Twink of gayming. We had hoped that Anduin would pick a husband and nobody would say a thing about it; we had hoped to see a character who is strong in his faith turn out to be a great spiritual and political leader because that would’ve meant so much in terms of representation.
But they corrupted him. They made him weak. They used him as a stepping stone for a failed storyline that has seen more players leave than ever before.
They crushed our hero and our hopes.
Anduin can no longer be gay because he was corrupted. To make him gay after this has happened would be to covertly insist that gays are corrupt and corruptible. Anduin must become clearly, markedly, unabashedly straight like just about every other character in the game.
I can’t even play Retail anymore given all that’s happened to Anduin.
They killed our champion for the sake of who? Sylvanas? And then they blamed a former C-suite serial abuser for the failed story.
At this point, I’m not even angry anymore, just exhausted. The best thing they can do to save Anduin is to kill his character and let us mourn our hopes in peace.
The OP is right though, Anduin is cute as heck. I wanna like the character more, but blizz making him this Pure, Unshakable Know It All on morality is I think where people dislike the character
I think everyone is well aware that Anduin likes women, especially Draenei women….for obvious reasons. Still doesn’t mean he can’t be a figurehead for gay people
The way Anduin gets mad at Wrathion in that one BfA cinematic…It seems like a Affectionate kind of angry, if that makes sense. Like he seemed genuinely upset that Wrathion betrayed him personally
Look I get that this is important to you and I don’t mean to offend you, but Anduin has only been shown to be attracted to females.
There was the female Draenei shaman that briefly appeared in the Shattering novel, and while there was nothing in the novel that showed Anduin being attracted to his dwarf trainer/bodyguard Aerin Stonehand Anduin did acknowledge to himself that he had started to feel something more towards her in the scene in Before the Storm that revealed Aerin’s last name.
Furthermore in Shadows Rising, when Anduin briefly went incognito, in order to feel young again and briefly escape the weight of the crown, he noted how a barmaid named Amalia was rather beautiful.
In all honesty, and again I mean no offense, you built a fantasy in your head, ignored the signs that contradicted it, and are now angry at the idea of Anduin being gay because of the the whole Anduin controlled by the Jailer storyline. It really feels like something clicked in your mind that your idea of Anduin wasn’t in the cards, and this is your way to reject it, while lowkey blaming Blizzard.
He’s chasing (and being blown off by Taelia) Shaw and Flynn are the icons you’re looking for, not Anduin.
He’s not King-Priest. He’s a king who happens to be a junior Priest who’s especially touched by the Light sort of like WOTA Tyrande. He’s not the Hero Chin his father was, but that only makes him somewhat effeminate, not gay.
Shhh…don’t intrude on their fanfiction fantasies. Maybe they’ll keep it to their fanfic and deviantart and stop trying to insist the canonically straight pretty boy be changed to suit their 'shipping preferences. Really, this stereotype that any male who isn’t a chest-thumping, beer-swilling warmonger who expresses emotions and goals other than anger or violence MUST be gay is really tired and frankly almost toxic at this point.
For all we know, Garrosh was 100% gay, but we never learned of it because it had no bearing whatsoever with his character or motivations.
And my headcanon is that Kil’Jaeden was… ‘especially effected’ by Velen’s rejection of Sargeras’ ‘gift’ to the Eredar, ala Messala and Ben-Hur from the 1959 film.
Golden has outright stated that she doesn’t want Anduin to be gay because she believes it would perpetuate a stereotype in regards to gay men being more sensitive and ‘feminine’, and she wants a character who can embody those traits that are perceived as softer but still be straight. Sort of a pushback against toxic masculinity. I don’t necessarily agree that it’s the best way to go about that but I can appreciate the perspective.
So yeah, not only has Anduin never been gay, he’s likely never going to be retconned to be so.
Introduce interesting new characters instead of introducing more inconsistency to established characters.
Also, the notion that flaws or shortcomings are out of bounds because a character might be gay is a guaranteed recipe for a boring, eye roll inducing character. Especially where representation is asked for, relatability should be important I would think.
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