Man Turalyon has had a really awful life hasn’t he?

Lore Story Forum
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So I was complaining about how everyone infantilizes Arator and I brought up how he’s currently twice the age Turalyon was when Alonsus sent him off to war and the more I thought about it the more I realized just how royally messed up Turalyon’s life has been.

Born the last survivor of dead noble house, he was raised by church as an orphan boy until war came to Lordaeron right as he became a legal adult. So Alonsus Faol shoved him into a suit of armor and sent him to fight fel-crazed orcs that immediately shattered his faith in the Light and he had to spend the entire war soul searching while a elf took advantage of his remaining teenage hormones to string him along until he’d get too close where she’d shove him away again. (And I will be saying a LOT more about this elf I refuse to name)

Then when the war finally ended he got dumped and routinely mocked by the abusive elf because he wouldn’t join her on her self-destructive hate-fueled murder quest because he wanted to focus on rebuilding instead.

Then the orcs return but only to steal artifacts they could use to invade other worlds and Turalyon was the ONLY ONE who wanted to to fight the orcs to protect the innocents other worlds they might invade, while literally everyone else was solely motivated by either vengeance or the possibility that the orcs may return to Azeroth after conquering the other worlds.

But regardless he crossed the Dark Portal knowing he may never return and his entire adult life would have been knowing nothing but emotional abuse, existential anxiety and the smell of blood.

Then after a grueling campaign where he repeatedly had to violate his morals and beliefs at the behest of the elf who convinced him to kill baby dragons and torture death knights. (Both of which were probably good ideas in the long run but aren’t really things a paladin should be asked to do.) Then he and the other Sons of Lothar make the ultimate sacrifice to seal the Dark Portal from the other side to save Azeroth knowing they’d probably die (none of them ended up dying and a statue sculptor in Stormwind ended up wasting a lot of time, but that’s besides the point).

But instead of dying, Turalyon and the elf get scooped up by Xe’ra to fight YET ANOTHER war this one lasting a thousand years! Which is over ten lifetimes for Turalyon’s species! And he does it fueled by nothing besides altruism and the knowledge that his beloved son would be kept safe by his actions. Also he became one of the immortal Lightforged, locking in his physical age at around 20 so holy crap the fact that he looks so old now despite physically still being young adult really tells you how brutal and taxing the fighting was on his body.

Then the abusive elf against all sense and logic decides to go pursue the infamously corruptive Void, abandoning him to fight his war alone, only to return in a state where he can’t even touch her anymore and yet he still stood up to his own patron deity to protect her because he still somehow thinks this woman isn’t using the hell out of him.

Then the thousand year war is finally over and it feels like he may FINALLY get some rest after knowing more carnage and bloodshed than an entire battalion of veteran warriors combined. He might finally get to know what adult life is like beyond fighting and killing just for another war the begin AGAIN! This time against a foe that seems familiar at first glance but clearly isn’t upon a second. The last time he fought the orcs they were bloodthirsty fel crazed monsters but these ones are clearly rational people simply being led astray by the lies of the sister of his crazy elf abuser. So for the first time in his many lifetimes of bloodshed, he’s killing warriors who are fighting for the same reason he is and he definitely knows it. He even openly supported Anduin’s efforts to prevent this war from happening, even going as far as to admit he was wrong about many things.

Then that war ends finally and you think he might get to take it easy but WRONG! He is immediately tasked with tracking down his crazy elf abuser’s crazier elf sister and the earlier crazy elf once again manipulates him into using his Light to torture people, except this time the people are largely innocent but he’s his feelings for his abuser lets her convince him to do it anyways.

But it was all for nothing because it turns out the crazy elf’s sister got away a while ago so this time not only did he violate his morals but he couldn’t even cope by saying the ends justified the means!

Okay NOW he can retire and get the hundreds of years of therapy he desperately needs right? WRONG STUPID! King Anduin gets kidnapped and surprise surprise it turns out Anduin designated Turalyon as his successor, so now he has to sit on a throne that isn’t his and he never asked for, bearing the responsibility not just of Stormwind but the entire Alliance. Full time leadership he never asked for and didn’t want and when we finally get King Anduin back he just bails because of his trauma from the experience and leaves Turalyon stuck on throne as if Turalyon doesn’t clearly have his own stuff he needs to work out.

Then finally, FINALLY he gets to hop off the throne and stick retired King Genn Greymane on it instead and he plans to get married to his abusive elf GF which… fine whatever helps him cope at this point. Just for that evil woman to leave him at the altar because she spontaneously decided they were too different now because of the Void power SHE CHOSE OVER HIM!

And now the Light, one of his only two true comforts through his hellish ten lifetimes prompts him to wound the second comfort, his son’s wellbeing. And now his world is crashing down on him as his sons hates him, the manipulative abuser that made him emotionally dependent on her ditched him again and his guiding Light has caused him to wound the one thing that mattered most to him.

And yet for some ungodly reason all the sympathy from the narrative is focused on Arator WHO IS THE ONE WHO JUMPED IN FRONT OF TURALYON’S ATTACK IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!

I just want to give Turalyon a hug and tell him it’s okay. He’s done more than enough. He can stop fighting and take a break for a while or even forever if he wants. If anything happens, it’s not his responsibility, no sane person should blame his idle hand. Let us take over for you Turalyon be selfish for once in your life and live for yourself!

AND FORGET ABOUT THAT ELF ALREADY SHE’S NOT GOOD FOR YOU!

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Amen,

Does feel like he is horribly mistreated by his family when at every turn he has tried to be supportive and understanding of their issues.

Really feels like the writers just have issues with older positive male role models and need villainise them at every turn to prop up the new younger characters they created.

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Adding salt to injury: Now every time he has something to say, everyone replies with a variant of ‘ok boomer’ and tells him to count sand.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy it seeing it, but because I’m not in his miserable position.

Paraphrasing a slang in a free translation,

”Nothing remains for the lil’ beta.”

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The whole Light Rage thing is kinda dumb to me. Because ya think it’d make a lot more sense for Turalyon to be unstable because he’s been at war from age 16 to age 1,000.

Like the guy watched the closest thing he had to a father killed in front of him as a teenager. Then literally everything got worse forever. Yeah that might make a man a little broken to say the least.

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I like the broken man Turalyon is. He has lived so much crap, of course he cannot be a Disney character, he is trapped in a toxic relationship, has a son he barely knows, has suffered a lot. He needs help

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Arator just wanted his father to respec to prot. But he was like no. Once my group wiped and my bro rage quit.

Arator learned then and there that if he wants a tank, he should look no further than himself.

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He is a human paladin, doesn’t he? They all into hard slapping,

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So refreshing seeing this take publicly. Justice for my man Turalyon. The guy is a hero and he’s being disrespected at every turn.

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Which is funny because the “younger” character in this case is pushing 40.

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I remain in awe that Alleria is supposed to be a heroic character when her character traits are being toxic to Turalyon & Arator and being a short-sighted goober.

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Devs: “Don’t pay attention to that! Focus on this latest picture of Turalyon with golden eyes and stink lines we drew.”

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Amen.

I remember people saying ‘Oh, man, Turalyon is so boring, just a typical paladin’ and then they were correctly reminded that Turalyon was literally one of the original paladins. Off the top of my head, I think he’s the only one still alive.

I also remember seeing - I don’t know if it was here, or on a Reddit thread - where someone had a post saying “I just wish Arator would give his father even half of the grace he gives his mother.”

I don’t know what exactly it is that has Blizzard just acting like this man is doing the absolute worse, when he should legit be having parades thrown from him. I’m listening to Arator talk about ‘all my father did is fight’, and I’m like “…this man saved Azeroth and countless worlds, and that is not an exaggeration.”

They’re making it seem like he was just picking fights with random people in the streets, and not genuine world threatening events. And I’m watching these quests and lore get reimagined and I’m like “…no, that’s not what happened. What the heck are you talking about?”

…

…I had to take a breath before Arator deciding to face-tank a weapon in motion. It’s weird, because do you guys remember when Thrall was going to just kill Garrosh, and he was stopped because someone disagreed? Do you remember how Varian leapt in front of the Doomhammer?

Hm?

You mean Varian used his own weapon to block another weapon? The way a trained soldier would? Well, I guess that’s just the kind of thing you get with age. After all, Arator isn’t as old as–

Hm? Arator is older? And a trained paladin? Trained by Lady Liadrin? And (apparently) also trained by several notable blood elves? People who understood that flesh isn’t as strong as metal?

How weird.

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Turalyon is an old, religious white man. And to the dominant culture for the people in Warcraft’s writing room now, especially in California where Blizzard HQ is, old religious white men are the root of all evil.

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And the reason she has her power is because she dominated a Naaru (who was already being tortured by the Void btw) and forces its will.

….

And we’re somehow supposed to believe that the Void and Light have any parity in being either good or bad?

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What’s so jarring about this is that it’s not, like, just the “Light-Blindness” absolutely stupid as I think that is. They’re trying very hard to paint Turalyon as some kind of zealous warmonger because Arator - from a noble family amongst noble families - doesn’t understand that the world does not solely revolve around him.

Sweet Christmas, if my father was a Son of Lothar, I would have found out everything about the Sons of Lothar. How is he just now hearing tales from Danath, or Alonsus? He was first introduced (as far as I remember) in Burning Crusade, where he was in Honor Hold. Did he just…not ask about that?

Arator has lived a life of absolute privilege. He’s a Windrunner, for Pete’s sakes. It feels very much like he was always given the freedom to do whatever he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it.

He’s the CEO’s bratty son, coming in to tell you why you don’t really understand the thing you’ve been dealing with for decades. Because he doesn’t understand it.

If Turalyon was so damaged and unstable and all of that? Why exactly did Anduin have him on the throne? You know, Anduin Wrynn? The king who has been known for his compassion, wisdom, and foresight since he was like 10? The Alliance and Horde both respect him (I mean the lore characters, I’m well aware he can rub some people on Earth the wrong way) for those qualities.

But I guess Anduin didn’t know what he was doing and endangered the Alliance - and the world - by putting Turalyon on the throne?

Give me a break.

This is a contrivance. Contrivance on top of contrivance. This is someone who wants us to accept their character as the bestest best boy, but aren’t willing (I hope it’s just not ‘willing’ and not ‘able’) to put in the work to actually earn it.

And I could possibly stomach that if they weren’t doing it by ignoring, obviating, or outright obliterating long standing lore that they already expected us to buy into.

Bah. Not me, I say. I say thee nay. I will not abide by it.

Turalyon is the most Excellent Exarch. /salute

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I’m not sure the decision to use these characters was ever anything deeper than superficial “Alleria = Void and Turalyon = Light!” I am reasonably certain the decision to use these characters is not a deep appreciation for the characters as they existed before, evidenced by characters consistently acting like they’ve been body snatched.

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Hang on, haven’t you challenged me when I made that exact complaint?

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Alleria is the only one that seems pretty consistent with her whole Time to abandon the family and try and save the world on my own personality she’s had since WC 2

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Degenerate far-left extremist Blizzard writers are indeed the problem. They simply loathe normality, because it makes them feel weird. I hope those blue-haired woke freaks read this:

WE WORSHIP TURALYON.

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I’m glad somebody else said it but I’ll double down. Turalyon is a religious, straight white male. Ever since Blizzard got hit with the “me too” stuff they have taken the war out of Warcraft and made the characters progressively weaker and less masculine. This game is really missing a character like Varian and I to this day think it was a bad idea to kill him.

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