So I will not attempt to hide my distaste for Anduin as a character, to me he is everything that is wrong with the current story of wow.
He presents the Alliance as no threat to the Horde, thus they have no agency to want to fight him and in turn the Alliance as he is the “High King”
He also makes the Alliance seem completely pointless as he makes all the decisions regardless of what other factions want. He seems to ignore the issues the Alliance has as his only concern always seems to be world peace with the Horde.
As a character he hasn’t changed at all from when he was introduced in vanilla to the current game. He has been a one tone character that always sees the best in the Horde and ignores everything bad they do, actively defending them all the time. He also seems unlikely to ever change direction either as writers seem incapable of him having any personality outside “i want to save the horde and have world peace”
He also ruins the characters around him as they have their personalities are warped by the writers to put them inline with his new “break the Cycle” mentality. Those who don’t align with his thinking are speculated to falling to the darkside(aka Tyrande).
As long as he remains in the Alliance I see no hope that we will ever get a Satisfying story on the Alliance.
Indeed that would be a great start, it was terrible writing just placing an inexperienced leader like him in charge of the whole faction without any reason.
I mean he should have been mourning his fathers death not leading the Alliance. I mean he seems to completely have forgotten about his father as he isn’t mentioned at all after the first cinematic of the funeral.
Seems like he spends more time crying when he sees Horde dying.
apart from removing him from the high king nonsense.
he needs a rival.
or at least, he needs an antagonist. someone who actually challenge his morals.
not someone portrayed in the wrong like jaina in legion for wanting revenge for varian, someone that actually offers a different acceptable path that isn’t villain bat like probably tyrande next.
This is a good point, Turaylon would be a good option for this as he is also seen as blessed by the Light but doesn’t let it guide his decisions like Anduin does. He also seems to understand the need for protecting the Alliance from the aggression of the Horde.
It was annoying how Golden wrote him to be another Anduin shill in BTS but they could always switch him back.
Him inheriting a position that was never supposed to be hereditary was extremely frustrating, especially when he’s done some of the most stupid things for the sake of idealism.
He also needs to stop getting saved when things blow up in his face, because he clearly doesn’t learn. No more Auntie Jaina’s flying battleship, no more Alleria’s void magic ex machina. He needs to lose, hard. And people like Tyrande need to be there to shove it in his face.
Once he’s had a taste of humble pie, then sure, I may like him.
Yes this would be good, I mean the one time he stood up to the Garrosh by himself he was crushed by the bell but only seemed to get super bone powers from it.
The writers don’t seem to want to write him as a failure regardless on how many times he does. They also refuse to have other leaders point it out because they have become all Shills that are more concerned about Anduins feelings.
Agreed. It shouldn’t be Tyrande who’s the only person telling him off. Genn’s “parental” bond has run its course at this point. We aren’t supposed to be the blue Horde. Faction leaders shouldn’t just be mouthpieces for our “warchief.”
Everyone seems to love and respect him, when he’s done absolutely nothing to earn it.
It also becomes an issue when we know all leaders are aware of his stance on the Horde. He has always defended them and argued they have honor and are worth saving. Why would they let someone like that lead the faction during a time of war.
He also spits on his fathers legacy, his father had defended the Alliance against the Horde and taken the fight to them but ultimately let them live with one condition “if they fight without honor, we will end you”. He sent his son a letter before he died explaining that Anduin needs to understand when its important to fight.
Anduin disregards all this and his first action as “High king” is to reach out to Sylvanas and try to make peace after the Horde left his father to die on the broken shore. (which we now know was on purpose)
Woa woa woa wait…what? The Broken Shore was an actual betrayal? Where was this confirmed? I was under the impression that they were overwhelmed and had to pull back.
it was confirmed at an interview last blizzcon that Sylvanas had been working with the Jailer since the beginning legion. She saw it as a chance to get rid of the Alliance but leaving them to die to the Legion.
Obviously we had- we’ve seen Sylvanas through the course of Legion, and that intro cinematic, right, when the airships and everything and she’s kind of giving Varian a hand. So, as we get into the Shadowlands we’re going to be finding out a lot of Sylvanas’ motivation and what her relationship with the Jailer is and when it started and we’ll find out that it actually leads back quite a bit earlier in the timeline. You may be familiar with a story called Edge of Night in which Sylvanas lept off the top of Icecrown. And you saw part of the story there. But that was kind of the start of her interactions with the Jailer. And as for why Sylvanas would lend an arrow to aid Varian, there was a long term strategy where Sylvanas needed to get into a position where she could take over the mantle of Warchief, and she couldn’t do that if she was aggro and everyone was against her, so she had to bide her time, and now we’re seeing the fruition of that in Shadowlands.
Seems like its was all part of her plan to take control, it was her opportunity to kill varian without coming across as suspicious.
I’d accept it as one of the “Sylvanas is even more evil” retcons and just roll with it. Even I don’t think this stuff lines up with her pre BfA tenure as warchief.
Well I get that she did it to become Warchief, but I don’t really see there where it says she had intended to have Varian die. It seems more focused towards Voljin than anyone else. Also if her plan wasn’t to have people against her…why would she then intentionally betray the Alliance?
Simple, because she wanted the war and believed that it would push the Alliance into starting it.
She just hadn’t planned on Anduin forgiving the horde for leaving his father to die.
It was probably the original plan to have the Alliance to start the war because of this act and attack Lordearon to get Sylvanas. Though the writers decided Anduin wouldn’t do that and would instantly believe that the horde wouldn’t do that on purpose.
Wow, way to take any depth out of the Broken Shore. What a bunch of talentless hacks.
As for the origional topic, Anduin needs to not be high king, as well as have a healthy serving of humble pie. Also take away his reality warping powers that always bend the narrative his way. Hell, have him get Wrynnsplained for a change.
As King of Stormwind he is a acceptable ruler, as the blue warchief of the alliance, he is a cancer that is killing the faction. That’s ignoring the fact that he’s there because the writers can’t be bothered to write an Alliance story that isn’t a reaction to the Horde when its not fawning ovee how special Anduin is.
It really is because the writers are lazy, he is just an easy excuse for the writers to only write the Alliance as reactionary and ultimately forgiving the Horde again against all reason. He is the only character they could reasonably pull it off with, without it seeming more inconceivable.
BFA was simply a way for the writers to get the Horde back in a direction they wanted, however did it in the most hamfisted way possible with starting the war with Teldrassil.
The Alliance wasn’t ever supposed to be a factor in the story and Anduin was a easy tool to use to make sure it didn’t matter what happen, We would end up with peace with the Horde.
Anduin has lessons he needs to learn. He is still the idealistic child that unfortunately is still too idealistic to properly lead the Alliance. Even if the horde has honor, proving that isn’t his job. His job is to rule SW and as leader of the Alliance, coordinate with his allies to protect and support his faction. He could have ended this mess after Dazar but stayed his hand. Anduin is a peace time king and unfortunately Azeroth hasn’t had true peace since before the W1. Without a drastic shift in the horde mindset I don’t see this armistice lasting and I don’t think Anduin has the guts to truly lead a war. I felt as though in BfA his goal was to win but only by being better than the horde morally. Just my opinion.
Thing was they never explained his plan clearly, he was so focused on defeating just sylvanas that ultimately it was what lead him to failing.
The really do need to strip him of the High king title have the leaders basically point out his failures. Have if affect him so he actually goes through some character development and becomes a better leader, someone who is more believable. Get rid of his naive notions that the Horde is good and actually have him attack them and secure his home from the Horde. Maybe He could destroy the Horde settlements in the south of the Eastern kingdoms, Even perhaps capture booty bay.