Because I don’t think he is suppose to be Aang! If anything he is probably closer to Steven Universe flaws and all(or Kipo). Anduin when you initially interact with him in Cata feel like a younger brother tagging along. To any Alliance who has played WoW since Vanilla he is literally a person you see grow in front of your eyes.
As for being uncharming, I think you limit yourself too much to the game, which doesn’t really lend itself well to showing Anduin when he is being friendly/at his most charming. The book/s and Heroes of the Storm actually does it ALOT better because he gets to just let his regular personality out as oppose to being burdened with his responsibility.
Exhibit A:
Exhibit B, one of the most like comments about him in the video:
Anduin is both friendly, adorable and has a backbone.
He’s grown in more ways than just pixels.
At a base conceptual level I don’t mind Anduin. A fledgling King of SW and a pretty run of the mill coming of age story. Generally I find that Warcraft fans aren’t particularly fond of that sort of concept in Warcraft, with our ever aging cast … but on paper … its fine. What isn’t fine is that he’s got a few too many sue traits (accumulating more in SLs sadly), and that he’s most definitely a writers pet. He would be a perfectly serviceable, but relatively white bread character, as just the King of SW … but in his current state as the Alliance High King … he’s got a lot of problems. Though, to be fair, the High King in general has problems…
Sure hope Turalyon borks that position so royally during his tenure they do away with it.
EDIT: I do however seriously mind that Blizz has turned our High Chieftain of the Tauren into an accessory for the Boy King. Baine needs a ton of work himself, but he’s even less likely to get it as long as he’s turned into a tagalong for Anduin’s story.
Ironic since his father ended up getting peacenikked via plot magic in a book and then killed off. Every time a character has the chance to rise up and be a foil to his idealism, they find themselves at the start of a humiliation conga or killed off.
It seems like Anduin coming up as a counter to Varians war-mongering was also a distraction for Varian turning the Alliance into a lighter and bluer version of the Horde. Varian came out of the Blue™ version of a warchief and suddenly took over the entire Alliance story. Instead of formulating a original story that could run as a foil to the Horde’s just like the Alliance did in WC1-2, Blizzard decided to turn the Alliance into a watered-down version of the Horde so they didn’t have to think up a story for the Alliance outside of reacting to the Horde’s story.
He could be likeable if he actually suffered the consequences of his idealism. Part of the problem that is Anduin is that he is shielded from consequence or that other suffer on his behalf. A player race got genocided just so he could feel sad (and a horde character villainized) and so that he could sweep it under the rug because no other character could do so. Even his encounter with the Divine Bell ended up turning into spider senses.
Oh and Anduin being High King( commander of the entire Alliance military) without explanation is just Blizzard cashing in on human exceptionalism in place of writing an actual story for the Alliance. Why is a 18 year old commanding multiple military armies? Oh, because he’s the only Human faction leader.
Sorry Orcs, your participation in the Horde story just doesn’t compare to a Troll and a undead elf waifu. much less a young male human paladin.
Who likes Anduin? Well Wrathion for one… ba dum tss!
In all seriousness I agree that he comes off as very weak-willed and his desire for peace often makes him seem meek but that said I do have to admit a certain fondness for him. Like a lot of folks who played in Vanilla one of my first major memories was the big reveal of Lady Prestor as Onyxia and bishop rushing Anduin out of the throne room as things went down left an impression. Ever since I feel like he grew up in front of my character and I can’t help but feel protective of him.
I do feel that he’s perhaps not best suited for the leadership role of the Alliance that he was trust in but turning him into Lich King Jr. is kinda on the nose and not the solution I would have gone with. We will see how the story develops but I am not too optimistic.
But he wasn’t exactly. He was against the WAR itself, one that he was forced into and never wanted to fight. Because it was a stupid and needless war (they all were). But he still fought it regardless but he was determined to end it at the first opening that presented itself.
And it wasn’t the wrong decision. Say what you want about him but he wasn’t wrong, even despite a few mistakes.
I don’t like him at all. Never did nor I can even imagine for him being likeable ever.
For the simple fact that he is persistent preaching about peace and forgives is not backed up by any of his personal experience. I saw once great post on European forums where it was better elaborated but to make it short. Characters just like people IRL should have a mindset/ belief system back up by our own experiences, the lessons that we learned and mistakes we did that made us change and adapt.
But not Anduin, his own experiences keeps on proving him wrong, he never learned from them and keep on insisting on peacemongering. He comes off as annoying brat that thinks he ate all the brains and is smarter than literally anybody else. People that lived longer, people that experienced more stuff than a boy that was sheltered by most of his life in castle. He doesn’t face consequences of his actions - the other people do.
And despite having no experience at commanding armies - not even a smallest one - he is elected to be High King simply because his dad was. I cannot stress how irresponsible such a move was.
And now they’re smacking him with Arthas treatment, but it feels so shallow and so… rushed, unearned and forced.
I’m at loss of words. So they made mr. goode - two- shoe into mr edgy. Making us remind about actually good story which was in WC3 and why Arthas change to Lich King was well created and meaningful plot.
The only good thing that could come up from that would be if he died, but I highly doubt it since he is typical pet character, and he is set to be THE protagonist of the franchise. I hope I am wrong, and that the Wrynn dynasty will be finally over so ideally Hose of Nobles could return and some proper development for humans of Stormwind, because for years they were nothing but Wrynns pawns.
Indeed. I understood this argument back in MoP. What happened? Anduin had every bone in his body broken. Every single bone. He was saved off screen and suffers not a single bad consequence from it. He even got a spider sense for justice out of it.
Legion, BfA and onward had no evolution of Anduin, if anything he regressed. Perhaps he could work as a boring background character. It’s his front and center role and him being High king for no reason the story is suffering.
I really hate Anduin and the golden boy nonsense.
I guess people that like him seem to ignore Anduin is never suffering consequences (sure he had some doubts) and is regressing, not progressing.
I like the comparison to Aang from Avatar and even WC3 Trall. Those are believable characters with their own problems and growth.
Of all the stories that could be told and given focus.
Political intrigue with the Council of Three Hammers (emerging Emperor?).
Troll Reunification.
Gnomeregan reclamation.
Gilneas reclamation.
Teldrassil restoration.
Undercity restoration.
Or if needing to be more character based.
Thrall’s reconnection.
Turalyon’s zealotry.
Alleria’s control.
Lor’themar’s coronation.
Velen’s valor.
Mekkatorques’ recovery.
Talanji’'s leadership.
Gazlowe’s generosity.
Cloudsinger and Firepaw’s new dojo’s have a tournament.
Malfurion doing anything.
Baine’s bloodthirst… not happening but whatever.
Point is all these potential plot points to me are infinitely more interesting than anything going on right now. Sylvanas I’m sick of seeing. Anduin is boring and Tyrande feels like wheel spinning.
Let start with the fact Anduin has never been the only one who has(generally) been shielded from the impact of their choices. Lets use Malfurion for example.
No one has ever question his decision to sacrifice the World Tree even though every night elf is now mortal now. No one questions him allowing the Horde into Hyjal and the one group of people and their Leader Leyara, are proven to be in the wrong.
Or how about Jaina. Yes she went to a hell dimension but at the end of the day her very mother vindicated her choices.
Or heck, Gelbin even after his choice to trust Thermoplugg caused 90% of the gnomes to be killed off no one once batted and eye and ever gnome still loved him.
Going back to Malfurion, his being poised ended up turning him into a more powerful version of him and even after being hit by an axe in the back by the time of Shadow Rising he seemed no worse for wear. The fact is, I think you are unfairly targeting Anduin when his experience is more the norm for most WoW character rather then being an exception!
Malfurion saved the world. I agree it could be brought up. I’m almost sure Staghelm mentioned it.
You are right about Jaina. Let me see if I understand you correctly. No one suffers consequences in your view and because of that Anduin shouldn’t either?
Yes, it is your argument. Uff that’s so bad. It’s not even true, but it shows how deeply flawed WoW’s writing is. More on the Alliance side on this, but not only (Baine).
I don’t know. Anduin kinda makes you think that he made the wrong decision a lot. If any character in Wow was going to just walk away, I’d expect it from him. Regarding the faction war.
Or that consequences do occur but general they are not as sever as some people want it to be and more importantly for this discussion Anduin experiences the same level of consequence(which most of the time is temporary in nature) as most of the other protagonist of WoW but some people feel it is not enough.
Anduin has lost his father, he loses friends and confidants left and right, he is force to deal with the emotional weight of knowing his best was not enough to stop the Fourth War and the fact he loses the ability to just actually be a kid with a normal life.
That’s simply not true.
More so: The lose of his father did not do anything to him. No growth, nothing new. It wasn’t a consequence for Anduin’s actions.
The only thing that came from it’s potential was regression. Anduin feeling sad and getting more cinematic’s than the slaughtered Draenei in WoD.
That’s a thing around a select view characters. What were the consequences for Anduin? Getting saved at Lordaeron? Can you even compare it to Jaina? I don’t see it. Not even the same as the Pandaren leaders, non Thrall Orcs, Trolls, Marad etc.
It is a problem with WoW’s writing in general, I can agree to that. It doesn’t help the argument for Anduin though.
Note: It is only part of the problem. Not the only complaint.
Talanji went through the same. Similar ages too. Yet she has handled everything better than Anduin from accepting her father’s death, dealing with the aftermath of the Alliance sacking of Dazar’alor to lifting her nation’s low spirits.
At this point in time, even though Anduin has more experience being a leader and monarch, I’d say Talanji does it better.
Well we are now going to see the consequences of Anduin failing to stop Sylvanas in Lordearon what with him being turned into a weapon by her.
As for Anduin needing someone to save him/his forces I don’t think that suppose to be a mark against him. If anything the entire point is we ALL need to be saved. How many times has your character been freed by someone else because they felt for an obvious trap/failed? It is not generally sometime people hold against you.
You know that I read Shadow Rising and saying she handled accepting the her father’s death is totally opposite to what happened. If anything because she wanted to stubbornly cling to avenging him, her entire kingdom nearly fell. It took a while to actually change her mind about it.
Also, you clearly didnt bother reading Son of the Wolf or watching the 7.2 cinematic. Everything from his “the Alliance will not fall even if one leader falls” to how he has changed as well as his father tells me he has accepted his death and is will soldier on regardless. Hell, the cinematic clearly shows his resolve:
He was lifting people’s spirits long before Talanji was even queen.
That’s not because of his actions though. And really if anything comes from it, I would be surprized.
That’s wrong again. If anything Talanji was too forgiving. At the end of the book (not even years, only some weeks at best in lore!) Talanji was ready to make peace. Sadly.
Technically it is, or rather it is a failure on his part that now inexorable, for better or worse leads us to where we are. The difference is I don’t think you were ever suppose to blame him or anyone for that matter in the failure just as much you are not suppose to blame Jaina for not stopping a mana bomb.
She was not forgiving. If anything she just realized her dreams of revenge would have to wait.
It’s not like what Arthas did, or Grom. It’s like, if you hit me, it wouldn’t be my fault I could not prevent you from doing so. That’s what I wanted to say.
So yes, it isn’t something to blame on to Anduin, exactly.
She literally declared forgiveness at the end of the book. She only want’s justice against Jaina and only Jaina. That’s rather forgiving. She has every reason to want revenge. But she did not held on to it.
