Similarly, the Alliance found itself with a new leader after King Varian’s fall on the Broken Shore, but Anduin was so focused on living up to his father’s legacy that it blinded him to certain truths. Those blind spots proved costly and will be something he has to come to terms with going forward.
But my question is, how? How was Anduin focused on living up to his legacy? I mean, I can see in some instances there are references to Varian, but his actions don’t show it really. Would Varian have flooded Orgrimmar with spies? Would he have approved Tyrande sending all her forces to Silithus? Would he have told Saurfang the Alliance was to blame for Arthas?
I just didn’t see this really in the story. I saw Anduin being Anduin, with yes occasionally thinking about his dad, but not really trying to follow what his dad would have done. Like where are the blind spots that come from Anduin being “focused on living up to his fathers legacy”, as opposed to blind spots from Anduins own idealism?
This would be a fairly nuanced theme, by WoW standards, and Blizz doesn’t do nuance overly well.
While I was reading, I was attempting to mount a defense that his actions in prosecuting the war were an attempt to hold up Varian’s standard, but really, they aren’t, are they?
The BfA intro cinematic portrayed this theme, with Anduin physically acting like his father would have and failing at it, then succeeding when being true to his own strengths. But in terms of his large decisions, there’s much more Anduin there than his father.
If we had more context, internal monologues, details- things we often don’t get in WoW- these things could have made sense. We could see an internal struggle of trying to be his father versus his natural inclinations arriving at middle grounds that are not as effective as either his father would have been, or what he could have accomplished his own way.
Buuut we didn’t get that, so, we’re left asking what he’s referring to.
Exactly. Like it’s not fleshed out at all. The supposed blind spots, as the story is experienced, don’t seem to come any where at all from Anduin trying to “live up to his father”. There is just some loose references to it, such as Sylvanas mocking his swords, but it’s not emphasized as a central theme in the same way the Hordes “structure of power” was (even if they didn’t do a good job at that either).
The “correct” response would have been to tell Tyrande to stay put and send a delegation to the Horde to not weaponize this new resource.
You know… more idealism.
But the fact that Tyrande abandons her entire border with the Horde to send her forces to Silithus to beat the Horde there is pure lunacy in the first place. But thats probably what Steve means.
Andiun tried to be like his father and that opened him up to mistakes?
Rushing to create content just to retroactively attempt to add “nuance” after the story is done is not a good storytelling method. It just showcases the lack of communication between teams.
Just like how Anduin is supposedly playing 4-chess with the armistice. There no proof of it in dialogue, books or quest text. Doesn’t stop shills from trying to head-canon to prop up Anduin or put down Tyrande. Until blizzard realizes how nonsensical the alliance story is and that retroactively adding something to give it substance isn’t good storytelling.
I just felt like for that particular question there was a huge discrepancy between the answers for Horde and Alliance. Like, for the Horde, sure MoP 2.0 was dumb, but it was a clear consistent answer to what they were doing and you saw it reflected in game. For the Alliance though? It’s totally disconnected, and not much of an answer at all.
When you think about it (shouldn’t do this with wow’s lore), what is Varian’s legacy?
The man spent the first two games not existing. Then he shows up in wrath being angry and macho, sorta cools down in cata, and chills out in mop. Doesn’t do much in WoD, before dying in legion. What is Anduin trying to live up to?
Absenteeism? Anduin didn’t show up much in Legion, and then kind of let everyone else take care of things throughout BfA. Mostly does things in books, like his dad did.
I mean, I guess you could argue Varian centralized the Alliance a bit more, brought its races together more? I don’t know.
It just highlights the total disconnect and vapidness of this answer even more when you put it like that.
The answer to what was happening with the Horde in BfA is that they were exploring the cycle of hatred and the problematic nature of the Hordes power structure. Kind of an excuse for MoP 2.0, but whatever fine, it’s coherent and it is what it is.
The answer to what was happening with the Alliance in BfA is that Anduin… was trying to live up to Varians legacy and this lead to blind spots? Okay… What legacy? And how was Anduin trying to live up to it? And what blind spots did it expose? It makes no sense and is disconnected from the actual experience of the game.
I think if he wants to follow up to his father he needs to take something from elves.
Varian obtained elven sword(s) named after famous Indian director, and he received blessing from renoved nelf Ancient.
Anduin preffered to keep the sword instead of using it on Sword of Sargeras alike everyone else did to save the planet.
So that he still keeps the sword as souvenir it means that he also have to have something else from elf.
I guess he either has to hook up with Valeera or do something else that involves taking somthing from elf.
If someone didn’t notice by now it was ironic post.
It likely has something to do with Valeera. That good time gal probably enjoys his eager attempts, even if Anduin doesn’t quite fill the gap Varian left behind. Perhaps we will read about it in a steamy romance novel.
His sword wasn’t one of the Class Artifact weapons that had those common properties needed to put a cap on the Sword. It wasn’t the weapon of a Class Leader.
By the Player Canon only one weapon could do the job… YOURS.
He hasn’t, Anduin is a ruler of compassion alone, his consistency and discipline fails him. His father didn’t lack the gull it took to better his kingdom, and provide for the safety of his people, unlike Anduin. Varian was a healthy mix of compassion and empathy for his people, but a stern hand, ready to enforce the law, and demand respect for himself, and the Alliance. The game attempts to compare them to try and move us to an extent, make us see character development, but the only thing we really see is holes in their story writing.
