Wrong Wrynn. Varian is the one who pretty much stole Thrall’s backstory. 
Like how we never saw Jaina again after she went on her Grand Journey of Emotional Healing™ back in BfA? Oh wait … 
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Yeah, she appears giving quests once in every blue moon, thats not central nor focal.
His spirit did along with Saurfang’s.
I don’t think that was Varian’s spirit though. More like a mental projection of Anduin’s memory of him, same as with Saurfang.
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According to chronicle 4 it was a vision from the light
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What do you even mean? Anduin has been shoved down our throats relentlessly since MoP. Anduin has had more screen time than Varian ever had.
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Uhm, you do realize that Anduin did literally NOTHING in WoD, right?
Wouldn’t have put it past the Devs to have had him involved in the patch with the Shattrath raid, before it was scrapped.
Anduin started out a child who just stood there, but I feel really came into his own during Cata and MoP, where he served as a foil to his violent hot-headed father. But after Legion where Varian died, the plot was lost, setting up the ####show that was BFA. You could Serve Anduin and Be Good, or NOT serve Anduin, and Be Evil.
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Honey, he’s been in the forefront of the story for 12 years. That’s more than enough time for character development.
It’s time to accept his characterization and role has not been used properly, and that a lot of people do not like him.
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It wouldn’t change a bloody thing with those determined to hate the character.
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Historically, I thought he was about as interesting as white paint. He never seemed to be actually challenged, the world warped itself to suit his narrative. That is why I find the present arc interesting. He finally was challenged internally, and forced to ask some pretty foundational questions about who he is and wants to be.
Ideally, I think it should lead him to realize he was never leadership material, abdicate, and become someone who enters and exits the story as his own person. Not feeling as if it is compulsory to see him because he is the face of the Alliance would help a lot.
…in fact the Faction Face should rotate on an expansion basis.
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She was pretty prominent in SL.
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Fair point. I doubt she will be relevant again though, not to the level she was in BFA or MOP.
I think his character got kinda ruined in BFA like Jaina did in Cata where she was engaging in all the war crime fun time while still being painted as a peace lover by the writers.
He spent all of MoP being a foil to his father and characters like Rodgers, yet the second he takes power, he basically does the same old crap but with “good intentions”.
If that had been addressed at all, it’d be one thing. Maybe they’ll get into it in TWW but from most of what I’ve seen, his trauma is all about his possession and hating war in general.
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I put that down to the writers trying to make peace loving characters in a game which was rooted in a conflict that is core to the setting’s DNA. The two things were incompatible. You have three options: The Characters need to change, the Setting needs to change, or they need to admonish others and then refuse to participate like Khadgar did for BFA.
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Jainia: I believe in working towards peace between the Horde and Alliance, so I’m going to allow Varian to build a road through my lands and let his armies march straight into Horde territory so he can attack the Tauren, traditionally the least violent Horde race!
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Yeah it would. It would resolve the single biggest problem with Anduin. He’d still have a bunch of other problems, but that is far and away the biggest one.
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I think part of the reason that Anduin is hated on the blue side of things stems from the larger issue of how Blizzard represents Stormwind as a whole. It’s something of a paradox where, on one hand Stormwind is the human-shaped focal point for the entire faction, much to many player’s chagrin. And on the other hand, Stormwind has very few significant characters that actually represent it beyond Anduin himself.
Sure, you have the likes of Gryan Stoutmantle, John Keeshan, Vanessa van Cleef, and Halford Wyrmbane, but these characters have largely been in the margins and only appear on rare occasion. Only Mathias Shaw is the real exception, but beyond him, Anduin has singlehandedly born the weight of Stormwind’s significance, and players have witnessed this duty utterly crush the character.
So Blizzard is in an awkward position where they have to develop the character further in order to shake off the last story threads of Shadowlands. But doing so risks burning out the playerbase’s dwindling good will towards the character, which is a problem, because Anduin has been repeatedly framed as the Heart of the Alliance faction as a whole.
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Most of the playerbase is focused on waiting for the next raid or trying out the new mechanics. Most of the folks who were that intent on the story…have already ditched the game mostly because of age.