I don’t see a lot of talk about Genn here - he seems to be an afterthought for many.
I actually think he’s probably what the Alliance SHOULD have had. He’s gritty, he’s savage, he’s someone who as an Alliance quester you can cheer on (seriously the destruction of that lantern was glorious) and he never gets all ‘neutral’ as WAY too many of the old WC3 heroes do. He’s viscerally anti-Horde and for very well-established reasons, but he doesn’t go for innocents that I’ve seen; he goes again and again for his target Sylvanas, and isn’t inclined to go for the carpet-bomb approach Blizzard too often writes the Horde having.
I find Anduin cloying and irritating.
I LOATHED Jaina from about… oh… Frozen Throne Horde Campaign until… oh… BfA. Seeing her develop nuance and regrets as well as steel has been so bloody refreshing. It was natural but man, I had to suffer through SO MANY TEARS. She was always so weepy, and a really almost misogynistic portrayal. Women up until I left in Cataclysm were pretty shabbily done. They were either weepy (Tyrande, Jaina) or crazy and evil (Sylvanas, Vashj, etc). So nuance is nice.
But Genn? I don’t have the years of gritting my teeth as he weeps tears of neutral love. He growls, he snarls, he has every reason to despise the Horde after what they did to him. His VA’s tone during the BfA cinematics was just spot on (“That’s the last of the soldiers almost sardonically they’ll be bringing up farmers next.”). This is an old, cunning king who has seen loss firsthand, not some naive idealistic teenager.
So… are we not talking about him because we’d like Blizzard to keep him where he is and not wreck this? Or some other reason?
Just wondering.
I think Genn is great. Ths said, I would LOVE for him to start to pull away from Anduin a bit and be a faction leader in the forefront and not just proping up another leader, especially one as annoying and naive as Anduin. Beyond that Genn is a ferocious warrior, a loyal friend, and someone who sticks to their beliefs. I love Genn, he’s awesome and I need more interactions with him and Tyrande.
I don’t really think much of him at all. Kinda feels like he only exists to be “roar I hate Sylvanas” and that’s it. That and the whole lukewarm portrayal of the worgen curse in general kinda leaves me feeling disappointed at best, when I think of the race at all.
I like Genn as a character. The story needs to acknowledge him beyond just having him be a foil for Anduin and a rival of Sylvanas. He’s also one of the better characters for conflict. It’s easy to see why people in-universe would not like him or even despise him, and while others would like him and even love him. He very much comes across as being the hero of another story.
I was half way expecting him to start getting closer with Tyrande following the armistice. Neither trusts that the Horde will keep the peace. Both want Sylvanas’ head on a platter. Both lost their homes to Sylvanas- for Genn, it was the second time.
I think Genn is Blizzard’s sleeper best written character. He’s the only one with clear human feelings and motivations. He’s essentially the only Alliance character that I like.
I love his character. He manages to have a hatred for the Horde without forcing that hatred to become his entire character. He has lots of other facets.
One of the points that really stood out for me in BFA was his conversation with Katherine, just as we start the questline to go out and save Jaina. He prompts Katherine to forgive her daughter and go after her, comparing it to his own experience with his lost son and saying how he would “give anything to hold my boy again.”
I think he’s great where he is, serving as that contrasting voice to Anduin in Stormwind.
He’s the contrasting voice to Anduin in the Alliance, often bringing up points that caution should be exercised whenever dealing with the Horde. In the end though he’s still the Alliance goodboi, and will mostly follow Anduin’s orders. A few occasions when he’s really angry (Stormheim) he’ll find a way to bend those orders but he’s still the surrogate god-father figure.
With Anduin getting abducted and hauled off to the Maw I can only imagine him being completely beside himself.
Consider this a half , as I was with you up until the end.
I think Genn is actually better when Anduin isn’t around. Whenever Genn is around Anduin, he goes along with everything Anduin says and does whatever Andun’d doing. Sure, he may grumble about it, but all of his concerns are dismissed because they’ll never let him defy Anduin to his face. Not even to turn to him and say, “I told you so.”
I like Genn, he’s a great character. He has had a ton of growth and satisfying character arcs. Genn can admit he’s wrong and change. I enjoy his on screen moments.
Exactly! Also the Sky Admiral in MoP made me happy. People in the WoW universe have seen HORRIBLE THINGS and I like when the Alliance NPCs are capable of being deeply scarred by those things without being ‘eebil.’
When you ask her about the Horde and she says grimly that she had family in Southshore I was like “Oh. Ew.” in real life. Cause that family likely melted… if they were lucky.
Genn is realistically angry - he’s vengeful and he will never forgive the loss of his son, but it hasn’t pushed him into insanity. As you said, he has clear human feelings and motivations.
Genn is like that cranky old grandfather, who loves his family and has no problem kicking your ârse to get the point across. He’s a great ally character, one of two I actually like
Genn’s greatest strengths is also the simplest of concepts.
He’s consistent.
His beliefs are solid and well documented in the lore and is written in a way where you may not like his stance (or you’re all for it, like myself) but you can at least understand it.
His character growth also makes sense. When he acknowledges that not all Forsaken are bad, he’s not giving the Horde as a whole a free pass, just that some of them are passable.
He’s a great example of a character who can be heroic to his own faction but villainous to the other. Something Blizzard seemed to drop the ball on when it comes to Horde characters.
I like how human genn is, the trauma of losing his kingdom and his precious son making him highly driven for revenge, but he’s also growing as a character every time we see him and seems to regard Anduin as sort of a facsimile of his own son.
I don’t like him, but that’s more so because of how Wolf Heart depicts his entry to the Alliance. Ideally I think he and the Worgen should’ve been the Alliance’s equivalent to the Forsaken, a faction that no one trust for justifiable reasons and is only in the Alliance because they need something from them and could easily abandon them when they don’t, like they did after the Second War.
him on BfA was one the MvPs, his interactions with anduin,jaina,and specially katherine where simply great. he does seem to care about his “friends” and his family.
it was super cool for me fighting alongside him and jaina in nazjatar. and his mount was sick!
he serves wells as a contrast on those who wants peace.
i hope he gets to see liam on the shadowlands to complete his character arc.
one of his biggest strenghs is that he was consistent with his portrayal, there wasn’t an unnatural change to the character.
, as I was with you up until the end. 
