How does Anduin have a crisis of faith?

Lore Story Forum
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Yeah, they didn’t do a great job of dealing with Anduin since SL, so these few scenes were probably forgotten about by many.

I think if you watch the actual BFA cinematic, Anduin fights on the battle field, and when attacked by a troll, he uses his father’s sword to kill him, and the look on his face is that of concern.

That’s probably one of the first times that Anduin has used the Light for force.

But then he doesn’t really embrace this idea of becoming a Paladin, hell bent on justice and retribution, that he actually throws down Shalamayne and calls upon the Light to cast Barrier and heal his troops.

When the Jailer dominated him, he was acting against his will, but the power he had during that time felt good. For the first time he could understand why someone like Arthas was drawn too it.

I think that the aspect of becoming a Shadow Priest is on the horizon for Anduin, but we really don’t have any major characters who are actually Shadow Priests and are good.

Velen and Alleria are probably the two closest main characters, and Alleria is set to play a big role with Anduin, so I assume there will be a lot of discussion there.

However, Velen 1000% should be someone who talks to Anduin, if Blizzard wants to get on a better page of solidifying their “respect” for the lore.

idk there was a short story:

Later, Anduin tried to get Velen to see what was happening outside the Exodar. The refugees were unhappy and demanded to see the Prophet; he was needed in the here and now. When Velen turned to face Anduin, he had a sudden vision of a hero in gleaming armor, leading not just the Horde and Alliance, but the dragons and naaru as well in a battle against a vast and all-consuming shadow.

When the refugees started a riot, leading to a fight with the draenei guards, Anduin rushed to Velen, begging him to stop the needless slaughter. Anduin asked what the war against the Legion meant for those fighting outside, and reminded him that every life is a universe to be protected.

Wondering how he had become so lost that he must be taught by a mortal child, Velen went outside and, in a booming voice, berated both the refugees and his fellow draenei for what had occurred, walking out onto the blood-soaked ground to help heal the fallen. Realizing that he had become so focused on the future that he had lost sight of the present, he resolved that the draenei would go out into Azeroth and help heal the world.

The Cinematic, while very well done, seemed very out of character for Anduin and Thrall.

(Though I understand it’s limited by being a game and must appeal to all people of life)

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22

He’s done some messed up things. I could imagine having a crisis of faith especially as someone so previously devout

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While I would have preferred Velen, I think Thrall works as well. Considering Thrall went through a similar crisis of faith journey in Legion due to his guilt over Garrosh.

The only part that makes Thrall feel out of place is their lack of interactions beforehand. Although I reckon the best person would have been Sylvanas (shocking I know) as it would be a call back to their conversations while Anduin was imprisoned in Torghast along with their final one in Shadowlands epilogue. Sylvanas, who tried to get Anduin to join her and Zovaal willingly now trying to bring him back to the light instead.

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Honestly, I think Greymane would have been a great character as well, especially if they reminisced about the Legion cinematic.

If you remember this, Wrynn writes a letter to Anduin, which I believe he gives to Greymane before jumping from the ship on the Broken Shore. While it was shown that Greymane gave Anduin his father’s compass, as seen in SL, I’m not sure if they shown him with Wyrnn’s letter.

I think that call back could have been really nicely done had Greymane given him that torn letter and talked with him about having an internal struggle, leading his people, etc…

For Anduin, so much has been shown as far as him being a character devoted to the Light and that strength he has always possessed, for him to be this beat up, just seems misplaced.

Edit:

While this isn’t WoW, this video narrated by Jania, of Wrynn was always amazing.

I think Jania could have worked as well, given her connection to Wrynn, Arthas, and her presence in SL.

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25

“Show don’t tell” only works when you’re able to appropriately tell. Wow doesn’t allow for much nuance in this regard because the medium is based so heavily around the game mechanics and it has so many creative chefs in the kitchen.

I honestly don’t mind how they’re treating Anduin and I don’t think it’s really that out of character for him. If anything, anduin a reaction is the ONLY lasting echo we have of shadowlands that makes any kind of sense. Everyone else was able to shrug it off already, when in reality I would have expected only DKs and Forsakken to be in that boat.

I personally know people who have PTSD from war, and I don’t feel like they’re doing the issue any injustice here. These aren’t bad people, and they defended good things, but life still took its toll. There are medics with PTSD you know, people who have never fired a shot in combat. Does that lessen the magnitude of their struggle? What about the ones on the loosing side that have PTSD? Is that somehow less important to them?

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26

For me, if someone else played my body like a puppet to even do a mundane task like opening a door would be enough to let me confused for a long time.

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It is a common hero trope to blame yourself for such things. “I should have found a way”.
‘/tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IShouldHaveBeenBetter’

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28

Thrall was the token Horde character. Blizzard has been making the plot based on Alliance Lore and has a token Horde character to pretend it involves both sides. Maybe Metzen is changing things, but at the point I’ll believe it when I see it.

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He says it himself… “You haven’t seen the things I’ve seen… the things I’ve done!”

He’s also looking almost as grizzled as Turalyon… clearly stuff has happened and given the ways of the planes, that could have been a lifetime of stuff. Somewhere along the way, he’s lost his connection to the Light as well.

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I think he is referring to what the jailor did to him. Thrall’s “time alone doesn’t heal” comment implies the time he spent since then has been to get past that.

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The cinematic makes him a more complex character. He is dealing with his soul being split and being forced to do things against his nature. He needs time to sort it out. He is no longer the boy king.

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It doesn’t matter that his actions weren’t his fault, it makes sense that he would still feel remorse and shame over harming his allies while under the Jailer’s possession since it was his body doing it.

He’s likely scared of it ever happening again and his kingdom & the Light never being able to trust him again. Anduin’s PTSD absolutely feels logical given how what he was put through went against everything he believed in. Plus his time in the Maw spanned like 2 years, so he probably thought he was never going to get out.

The only person he can relate to at the moment is Sylvanas, the one responsible for what happened to him in the first place.

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33

Man who centers entire self worth around helping others and keeping them from harm ends up not only causing harm (circumstances irrelevant) but also may have had some fun while doing so.

And deciding to just peace out for five years and talk to no one about it other than Sylvanas unsurprisingly does not help with his predicament and may have only just let the Hellthoughts rattle around a little harder.

Yeah, It passes the smell test on my end

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34

You see, here is a problem. We already had this plot in BfA with Saurfang. Why repeating same story beats? Why making him the main hero when he is meant to go through exact same thing as Saurfang did? Feels like you’re reading same story over and over again.

Use another trope, story beats. Becuase nothing apparently screams World of Warcraft than two sad figures being traumatized and broken inside, trying to find their purpose. AGAIN.

When I see people like that the more I miss Rastakhan who was full of life and was unpologetically ‘kingly’.
“Let him do the talking and hopefully he will not throw you off the pyramid”.
:rofl:
Man I loved this line, and was such a great intro.

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35

Maybe they’ll do a better job with the topic when the subject is a human character instead of “My PTSD doesn’t stop me from getting my jollies off by repeating it” Saurfang or “Arthas was right” Sylvanas.

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Because Blizzard doesn’t do new stories, they just rehash the same few over and over again.

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When they tried something different like with shadowlands, y’all complained it wasn’t warcraft enough. They go back to things people recognize and everyone still complains

Tell me, what exactly are they supposed to do?

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anduin rockin the scruffy beard look imo

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He says “Not after what I’ve done”, it’s like what did he even do? He was mind controlled and he stabbed the archon to get the sigil and she didn’t even die, then still while mind controlled he walked in and grabbed another sigil because the winter queen forgot to protect it.

I wonder if they are going to go into what he did because the cinematic was based around Anduin’s trauma/guilt and they are going to have to explain it, especially when it’s a more lore focused cinematic over a spectacle one to get people excited for the expansion. If someone was going to just go look up “wow what did this guy do that he is so depressed about?”, what would they find, just that he was mind controlled for a patch and stole two sigils? I feel like they are mixing him up with a repentant Arthas.

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40

Since arthas soul was in the blade, could be that anduin has some lingering memories ftom arthas and anduin is having trouble distinguishing his own memories from those of arthas

My take anyway

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