Faerin “lecturing” Anduin is less an intent on portraying her as a strong character than it is her acting as a tool for Anduin to regain his own faith and confidence. She doesn’t exist to enrich her own character but for his.
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Yes, unfortunately.
That being said, hamfisted angst is a special kind of bad writing that has extremely limited appeal. There are a few things that are best avoided entirely unless they are done well, and angst is among them.
For better or for worse, dumb machismo can be entertaining by revelling in its own stupidity.
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that’s what gnomes are for
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The only point I’m willing to give on this is that we are used to overwhelming atrocities being given the narrative weight of an oopsydoodle such that it’s jarring when people act actually human about things. Real people, good people, have been driven to the brink of suicide about impulsive thoughts they’ve never acted on. How much worse would it be when you had to act on many of them and had no idea when it would end?
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There’s the meat of the potato!
still mad about the tree
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Interesting point. But, you have to remember he was a child at that time, and children typically have outlandish dreams and do reckless things like standing up to a tyrant. He’s a grown adult now with a kingdom to rule and more than enough trauma to work through. We all grow up and realize how crappy the world actually is.
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Anduin has a reason to be fragile: he got smashed by an Orc fist into a magical several ton metal bell that then fell on him smashing his entire skeletal structure…
Now if only we could get him to stop melting into a sobbing puddle every time the Cathedral of the Holy Light bell rang in Stormwind’s Cathedral District… the poor man has his phobia eeeeverrrrrywhere.
Anduin enters Bastion with bells at every corner “Anduin? Anduin?? ANDUIN NOOOOOO! STOOOP DON’T STAB THE ARCHON! ANDUIN NOOOOO!!”
I’m still thinking about the Path of Glory in BC. I’m not mad about it, but it’s one of those incomprehensible, mythically horrifying moments that we just. Have faux-wise characters dismiss as part of a “cycle of hatred”. It factually is part of that cycle, but it’s not solved by just not addressing it. It’s a pit WoW has dug for itself needlessly over and over.
I’m okay with a bit lower stakes on the misery machine 3000 but treating them with a weight closer to authentic.
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And it’s probable that he didn’t really actually believe he could die as a kid during Pandaria. He had the faith in the light and the naive optimism of a child.
He’s grown up now, has been personally shattered, has seen the strongest fall, has been to the afterlife, and knows that death and the finality of death are very, very real.
It’s a sobering epiphany that we all go through at some point.
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Im looking foward to the posts here when Anduin becomes a light jedi in the coming expansions.
Its going to be fun to see his redemption.
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Mmm… Meaty Potato…
https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Meaty_Potato
Don’t worry anduin will be the bee that he can be
AndRuin
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All the male characters have been nerfed lol.
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Right now we’re about at the bottom, bottom left? of the hero’s journey graph
You very rarely post like this but I have to agree.
What they need to do though, is tie some emotion other than rage or awesome to strength in some way. In other words, they need to figure out a way for Anduin to win, precisely because he has a capability within him other than rage or awesome. Frankly I think that’s beyond even the best modern writers.
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It will be, actually. Assuming Blizz doesn’t screw it up, Anduin’s comeback is going to be spectacular after all this time of groveling. That’s what good character development is.
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I like him.
But he’s not on my side so I am not overly subjected to him 
He MC’d his friends. And ate the biggest windup attack in the history of ever, right in the face. That was hilarious.
edit: oh, for those who don’t remember, I’m talking the pandaland bell, when Garrosh hit kiddo with a five second cast time attack ha ha
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They have. The Fourth War ended precisely because Anduin had the restraint to listen to and work with Saurfang rather than react with prejudice and vengeance like his father might have.
He also jumped off a zeppelin to take out a ballista and give his friends a chance to escape in this very expansion, knowing full well that without access to the Light he didn’t have much chance of surviving.
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