Get back to the roots, have people that are proactive, that have a vision and confidece and know what they want. That would be a good start.
Yeah, I was thinking maybe part of Arthas’s soul go fused to his and Anduin’s guilt is not actually over anything he did but memories or feeling about what Arthas did he can’t get rid of. They love hinting at parallels between him and Arthas or him worrying about becoming Arthas, but him beating himself up over being mind controlled for some sigils is stupid, sure he can have trauma over what happened to him, but trying to make it seem like he did terrible things is unearned and not really supported by anything they have written so far.
Unless they’re trying to turn it into a theme of “a small part of him liked being dominated”.
And when that is the case, you are seriously messed up. That’s when being mashed by a bell is a good day in comparison.
Anduin was possessed by an evil being and became unable to control his own body.
This experience is capable of deeply shaking anyone’s mind.
I agree, but what I’ll never get is why they’re going with it now instead of when the Divine Bell was supposed to leave him with lasting physical injuries.
Saurfang was portrayed more as regret rather than PTSD imo.
Except Thrall HAS seen the things he’s seen and knows what Anduin did.
Both of them (and two others) were kidnapped and dragged to the Maw.
Both were tortured and studied during their time there (Baine was the one who was rejected for the Jailer’s plans).
Thrall knows Anduin was puppeted by the Jailer and saw him in that state at least once.
Have you met anyone who was possessed after their exorcism?
No he didn’t. He wasn’t with Anduin that whole time he was being used Sylvannas style by the Jailor. He wan’t in Bastion when Anduin struck the Archon down and he wasn’t in those other places where Anduin was made to do what he did.
And he wasn’t on Anduin’s walkabout.
Sylvanas-style? Sylvanas wasn’t puppeted or possessed, Anduin was.
Read the novel. Arthas purposely left her aware while compelling her with Domination for no other reason than to increase her suffering. He took her resistance against his Scourge as a personal affront.
It was more subtle, but when they were looking for people who had been victims of domination magic, Sylvanas was one of them. Of course the Jailer also rewired her brain a bit.
All in all, I think she would understand what Anduin went through and that final cinematic before he went off drew parallels.
While Anduin wasn’t made to do what Sylvanas did (apart from PCs in the boss fight, iirc Anduin didn’t kill anyone) and Sylvanas wasn’t possessed, you’re right about the puppeteering.
True. That said, iirc Anduin didn’t kill anyone.
How do you know? Did we see every moment of Anduin’s time with the Jailor? Or his walkabout afterward?
And he most certainly killed people in the Battle of Lordaeron.
“I see you’ve gotten Daddy’s sword all bloody” not an exact quote but pretty much paraphrased in the spirit. And the blade is most certainly dripping blood when he’s carrying it into the throne room.
I should have clarified. I meant he didn’t kill anyone while puppeted by the Jailer. And we don’t see him traumatized after he kills enemy soldiers in battle during BfA. He regrets the war, yes, but not the “fraying nerves, at wit’s end” trauma we got in the latest cinematic.
It’s never really been suggested that Azeroth’s champions are canonically taking down their foes casualty-free, so it’s highly likely that he killed at least a few of them during his raid fight, and at the very least, per his abilities while Dominated he was using Kingsmourne to sever his foes’ souls and unleash hosts of other broken and enslaved souls to attack them.
So arguably his whole raid encounter consisted of Anduin being compelled to do a bunch of awful stuff while under the Jailer’s control.
It’s pretty bloody obvious that he’s been traumatized by something. And I’d bett coppers to gold that it’s one or more things that’s happened since he encountered Sylvannas on walkabout. Something that has gone as far as to sever his connection to the Light.
Really it doesn’t even need something else to have happened. The guy went through a traumatic experience, then isolated himself with all of the resulting bad thoughts and memories for several years. “He needed time” is a nice thought, but it isn’t necessarily healthy to deal with trauma by cutting off contact with everyone for an extended period of time, so you have only your own doubts, fears and regrets for company.
He may well have already lost his connection with the Light when he went to Sylvanas; he expressed uncertainty that the Light would even answer his call then, and it’s been long established that unless there’s a physiological cause (like the Red Mist for the Broken), one’s connection to the Light is only really severed if you no longer believe you’re worthy of it. After all, some truly awful people have invoked the Light, because they were still convinced that they were right to do so. At the end of Shadowlands, Anduin was clearly beginning to doubt that he deserved to wield the Light. That sort of doubt is the very thing that can cause one to lose it, and since we never saw him use it then or afterward, he may have already lost his connection to it by that point.
Anduin lost all self control and was forced to do things he didn’t want to do.
It’s completely natural for anyone in that position to have a crisis of faith.
Even Jesus had one.
He tried to kill me.
Personally.
He might have succeeded once or twice.