I think Jaina going from, the Horde is alright to I hate those guys is reasonable since they exploded her city. Yet it has been portrayed mostly poorly in the game and felt like the whole thing happened so that Varian can have the character development of being the good guy that doesn’t want to destroy the Horde.
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I did ‘like’ that Varian became an uber-wise master general preaching patience just for the sake of making Tyrande look stupid and childish and himself look smarter. Like… you’re what, 30 or so? She’s older than oldest ancestors, my dude.
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Let me address something about Anduin though.
It’s not as common now, but back in Cata, people on both factions HATED Anduin. And it wouldn’t bother me but the reasoning was so obnoxious. People hated, and some still hate Anduin, because he’s not the manliest man who ever manned. That used to bother me so bad.
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The word “manduin,” and the apparent accompanying concept that Anduin is more cool now because he’s been seen killing things, bothers me for similar reasons.
Possibly not everyone who uses the phrase is thinking this way, but it leaves a distinct impression.
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I say it because that boi fine as hell now.
But yeah the term definitely has some creepy, Cult of the Real Man™ connotations.
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Compassion and humanity is for British cigarettes.
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Malfurion…
I was gonna type up the usual how I thought he and Tyrande could fall into a hole and maybe everyone could just leave them there and it would be okay but I had a new thought.
Tyrande uses orc heads like tokens for her moonwell to get power. She has a big frownie face because it’s nice to have new power, but really it’s just a rehash of her usual “I’ll lead a failed and half-assed counterattack that does nothing but waste lives.”
Then she stares at Malfurion… and is all. “For…for our people my love.”
Then she feeds his head to Elune who is super tickled and makes her the the Night Warrior GODDESS who can get sh*t done.
I feel like I might actually be interested in that development.
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Basically. I got in trouble on the WrA Facebook page like two years ago for repeatedly asking someone why they hate Anduin to get that answer out of them.
“I just do.”
“Because he sucks”
“He’s annoying”
They knew what I was doing. They never said it
I had assumed a lot of that came from comparing Varian “Jaw of Steel” Wrynn to his rather soft-looking son. A Warrior, veteran of wars and gladiator arenas, sires a doughy Priest with eyes full of peace and harmony.
Of course, Anduin has since proven that he will do what is needed for his people and the Alliance, but lasting impressions based on the notions of What Is A Man (shattered glass heard in the distance) and all that.
I am pretty much in complete agreement with this. But the rest of the post above it is incorrect in a variety of ways, major and minor. On the minor side, I am pretty sure the bit about Theramore being destroyed in all realities is a misread from the book in which Baine said he could see into tears into reality and spawned a fairly persistent fanon theory.
On a more major side, Jaina wasn’t very hesitant about the Sunreavers in Dalaran during MoP. She was, in fact, downright effusive about how they belonged there, and how important it was to remember that everything was really just Garrosh’s fault. And there was never really a good lead in from the varying instances of the Horde at large being pretty fine about blowing Theramore up, or any sort of experience of hers to the contrary, that would explain that move from wanting to drown Orgrimmar, to her pre Purge stance.
It’s not her distrust and even hatred of the Horde that I find hard to buy into. It’s the interlude into very willing acceptance that I find hard to believe. Then you also have the bit in the Purge where she orders the Sunreavers to leave, then immediately swaps to imprisoning them which feels, off.
Other than the Purge ish areas, her characterization has been alright. Maybe even some of the best Blizzard manages. (Though I also understand how people come to the ‘Temper Tantrum’ line of reasoning. To a superficial reading of the story, her response to ‘The Legion will kill us all if we don’t pull together’ is ‘No, I will never work with the Horde again’, and then promptly vanishing off to do nothing. In reality, she was fighting the Legion elsewhere, as far as I know, but finding that out requires a little more digging than I expect from people, in general.)
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Adding in that this has a strange effect on Tyrande and she starts tossing a bunch of other heads (from her enemies of course, morally grey right nao) into the moonwell in greater and more frightening amounts.
Somewhere in da SPACE.
Elune: w-wat is going on down there. watching heads flop out nonstop of her donation portal
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I am still not keen on Anduin. Partly for the continuation of Stormwind as the only faction of note in the Alliance. Partly because he still comes off as a little too overtly idealistic without having to really struggle for it. But I’ve come around a fair bit. I really did not like Anduin in MoP. Mostly due to his insistence that the Horde at large was actually decent and worth saving when we literally see absolutely zero sign ever that this is remotely true.
Elune is slowly corrupted into a Blood God as more and more skulls adorn her starry throne.
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Elune is like, stop this is not a garbage disposal!!
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Tyrande please it’s really starting to smell in here and somehow I have roaches now WHAT IS IN THESE SKULLS TYRANDE
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space roaches chitter
My reaction to Theramore was:
“…But why? Why not Northwatch - the actual threat?”
If you quest through the Horde starting zones, the main (Alliance-leaning/Alliance) antagonists you see are Kul Tirans, Theramore Marines, and Northwatch soldiers, but you kind of get clued in over time that Northwatch is where the most damaging of attacks are coming from, going so far as to be a threat to neutral organizations as well.
So… why the hell didn’t they bomb the actually-threatening military target?
If I’m being fair though, I can see some strategy in destroying Theramore. Blizzard lore is very inconsistent though. In some versions, the civilians were mostly evacuated, so it mostly wiped out the military, in other versions, the civilians were enslaved. There’s not a lot of consistency no matter how you cut it.
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Because they destroyed it first with Magma Elementals?
In novels.
In novels, anything can happen. Thrall can get super powers and eye beams that turn rocks into food, thus ending the resource crisis and peace can reign throughout the land and Jaina gets a jetpack for some reason.
The novels don’t matter and they never have.
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It’s true. I would not expect that to be reflected in any upcoming appearances.
Blizzard can’t even remember what happened in quests.
I don’t look forward to the day that Blizzard finally addresses the ogres of Dustwallow, because their whole questline is about overthrowing a corrupt leader and how everyone wants to retake their old home from the dragons.
When or if they ever get a continuation, I fully expect the exiled corrupt leader to still be in charge, and for them to have made zero progress in retaking their home.
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