Jaina's "descent" summarized in the simplest way possible

[Trassk]

Jaina doesn't feel like a central character anymore, she feels like e prop, and is now, like Garrosh was, a foil for Varian.

[Deleted]

Yeah, I'm really getting tired of the widespread, short-sighted habit WoW players tend to have where they see a character do something morally questionable or even just be slightly mean and they decide that character is next on the "goes mad, gets killed for loot" list. That so many people honestly, seriously expect Jaina to go nuts and turn on everyone is ludicrous. She's not evil, she's not insane, she's just understandably pissed off and unwilling to sit back and take anyone's shit any longer.

It's kind of sad that a character takes a step away from being your stereotypical hero guy, not into straight-up villainy but into a slightly more grey area, and suddenly they're mass-diagnosed with bad guy madness by players who can't handle their fantasy not being completely polarized.

[Deleted]

People continue to place Jaina in the "misunderstanding bitch" limelight, and it's really not her fault; it's more-so the idiots around her and she's basically become fed up with everyone's shit. She's not being a bitch. She's not being misunderstanding. She's being hardened and she isn't putting up with anyone's crap anymore.

I don't think your explanation makes sense. Jaina keeps trying to prevent retarded people from doing stupid things that gets them killed or gets a lot of others killed, and finally she decides to become that retard herself? Yeah, really classy. Perfect explanation indeed!

[Nilinor]

-image removed due to size, I find it annoying copying images over and over-

Jaina doesn't feel like a central character anymore, she feels like e prop, and is now, like Garrosh was, a foil for Varian.

I am glad I am not the only one who thought like this. Jaina was one of my favorite characters, we knew she was big and powerful, everyone knew she was, but she never acted on it because having power doesn't mean flaunt it, and she was intelligent and responsible. Just because some people are evil doesn't mean everyone was evil, thats why she and thrall (and probably with people like Vol'jin and Cairne) got along.

Then Theramore gets destroyed (which baffles me still no matter how many times I read it.. how. the hell?) Granted she had to use the focusing iris to erase Orgrimmar from the map, but still A SINGLE HUMAN MAGE had the capability to OBLITERATE an entire city with ease, the focusing iris "barely" destroyed a segment of Theramore, granted it was the most populous area, she was going to destroy an entire city, that shows how much base power she had.

I think it would have been better story writing to explain how the mana bomb detonation actually affected her mind like, rewiring. How people take blows to the head and their personality change. Not that she just completely gave up, she LET her father and all his ships get destroyed, and it didnt affect her then, so why now?

Idk anymore, I hope something good happens to her to make her likable again, even if she stays evil it really can't be that hard to make her a likable character.

I liked deathwing (not cataclysm deathwing) and he was evil, I liked Ragnaros and Nefarion, Kael'thas before the set back bs.. etc etc Just make her a character I can like again, whether good or evil

[Video Games]

That shit is kawaii.

[Deleted]

I am glad I am not the only one who thought like this. Jaina was one of my favorite characters, we knew she was big and powerful, everyone knew she was, but she never acted on it because having power doesn't mean flaunt it, and she was intelligent and responsible. Just because some people are evil doesn't mean everyone was evil, thats why she and thrall (and probably with people like Vol'jin and Cairne) got along.

Then Theramore gets destroyed (which baffles me still no matter how many times I read it.. how. the hell?) Granted she had to use the focusing iris to erase Orgrimmar from the map, but still A SINGLE HUMAN MAGE had the capability to OBLITERATE an entire city with ease, the focusing iris "barely" destroyed a segment of Theramore, granted it was the most populous area, she was going to destroy an entire city, that shows how much base power she had.

I think it would have been better story writing to explain how the mana bomb detonation actually affected her mind like, rewiring. How people take blows to the head and their personality change. Not that she just completely gave up, she LET her father and all his ships get destroyed, and it didnt affect her then, so why now?

Idk anymore, I hope something good happens to her to make her likable again, even if she stays evil it really can't be that hard to make her a likable character.

I liked deathwing (not cataclysm deathwing) and he was evil, I liked Ragnaros and Nefarion, Kael'thas before the set back bs.. etc etc Just make her a character I can like again, whether good or evil

Jaina isn't able to destroy a city on her own. She stole the focusing iris and used it's power to combine a shitload of water elementals into a giant tidal wave she planned to drown the city under. Also, it's stated in Tides of War that the mana bomb's effect on her mind was to temporarily heighten her emotions (anger and sorrow at that point mostly) but it wore off later in the book once she decided not to kill all the Orcs. Everything we're seeing now is Jaina as she is. Nothing is influencing her beyond the memory of her city's destruction and, honestly, the way it's described in the book? I probably wouldn't handle it nearly as well as she did (that's part of the reason the Kirin Tor put her in charge after all).

Basically those criticizing her actions need to have what is basically their adoptive family completely obliterated to a point where you don't even have their bodies to bury along with seeing everything you've ever worked for in the world shattered and thrown to the wind all at once. It irritates to no end how people are berating her for what she's done as if all the Horde did to deserve it was kick over her sand castle or something.

[Bathory]

Hahaha loved it.

[Nilinor]

I never said she could destroy a city on her own, although after reading I did word it not so nice. First part I said she had to use the iris to do it, but it heightens the abilities you already have, so my comment about her base power being enormous was correct. Also, why was it then she did a complete 180? What about arthas, watching Lordaeron being destroyed, the death of her REAL family, which she is partly responsible for, and the other atrocities during the burning legion invasion, why was it then she gave up all hope? I mean, I can see downgrading from wanting peace all the time to being "lets remove garrosh and replace him with someone better" but not full on I wanna to tear apart the entire horde, not just garrosh. Especially since it was said "the affects were only temporary!" she would have came to her senses, realized garrosh can't be dealt with peacefully and decided to remove him from power, but no she goes straight GRR HORDE EVIL ME BASH!

[Deleted]

I never said she could destroy a city on her own, although after reading I did word it not so nice. First part I said she had to use the iris to do it, but it heightens the abilities you already have, so my comment about her base power being enormous was correct. Also, why was it then she did a complete 180? What about arthas, watching Lordaeron being destroyed, the death of her REAL family, which she is partly responsible for, and the other atrocities during the burning legion invasion, why was it then she gave up all hope? I mean, I can see downgrading from wanting peace all the time to being "lets remove garrosh and replace him with someone better" but not full on I wanna to tear apart the entire horde, not just garrosh. Especially since it was said "the affects were only temporary!" she would have came to her senses, realized garrosh can't be dealt with peacefully and decided to remove him from power, but no she goes straight GRR HORDE EVIL ME BASH!

but still A SINGLE HUMAN MAGE had the capability to OBLITERATE an entire city with ease, the focusing iris "barely" destroyed a segment of Theramore

That's kind of what I got the "Jaina could have destroyed Orgrimmar with her own power" thing from but if that's not what you meant then fair enough. Nevermind.

I'm pretty sure removing Garrosh from the Horde without dismantling it actually was her objective at the end of Tides of War. She regains her senses and uses the tidal wave she'd put together to stop Garrosh's fleet from gaining the advantage in a battle with the Alliance instead of genociding the Orcs. Of course, that was before Aethas Sunreaver stole what had the potential to be a weapon of mass destruction from Darnassus using her city and then handed it to the Orc who seems to be making a habit of destroying the homes and people of his enemies with weapons of mass destruction before lying to her face about it and acting the victim. That's kind of a big deal.

I'm not sure I understand why the purging of the Sunreavers from Dalaran is seen as too extreme when they betrayed her and Dalaran's neutrality to aid a known war criminal get his hands on another monstrously powerful artefact. It was lucky that Anduin was around to make the Divine Bell unusable because if he hadn't Theramore probably wouldn't be the only smoking crater in Alliance territory right now. Aethas Sunreaver is a traitorous, lying scumbag (he didn't even tell Lor'themar what he was doing for Garrosh and when Lor'themar denied the Sunreaver's involvement, despite him genuinely not knowing it was Aethas's doing, it must have looked to Jaina like more attempts and deception) and his organisation's removal from Theramore was common sense considering Garrosh had already been having them violate their neutrality to help find him weapons in Pandaria and that Thalen Songweaver, an agent of the Sunreavers, was caught literally attempting to open Theramore's gates to the Horde during the attack.

All she's experienced from the Horde in recent years is betrayal, deceit and brutality. She's been given every reason to think the Horde simply aren't capable of honour anymore and to allow a worldwide superpower that (as Garrosh demonstrated) has the power to cause huge amounts of suffering to exist in which the leader's are liars and thieves? It's easy to see why Jaina believed this a bad idea hence her suggestion to Varian.

[Maximus Testiculos]

What is wrong with drowning orgrimmar? It is horde's main base of operations , it is the place all warmachines and weapons are made.

[vrsick]

I like Jaina a lot more now that she is kinda badass/ down to kill the horde.

[Enosh]

Well, she was willing to destroy Orgrimmar and kill everybody inside, innocent or not. And she would have done it if she hadn't been stopped in time.

legitimate military target just as theramore was

Anduin is one of those rare characters who is able to step outside the action and look at things objectively while still belonging to one of the warring factions.

if Anduin is objective I'm the fucking pope

[Kralljin]

I'm not sure I understand why the purging of the Sunreavers from Dalaran is seen as too extreme when they betrayed her and Dalaran's neutrality to aid a known war criminal get his hands on another monstrously powerful artefact.

The fact she openly helped to protect the Divine Bell from the Horde leaves the stench of hypocrisy there.

Neutrality means to keep your head out of a conflict or at least try bring both sides to one table, supporting one side and then go QQ mode when one of your faction helps the other side is anything but neutral.

That she purged the Sunreavers because they helped the Horde was logical, but then she should have expelled herself after putting up those wards in Darnassus.

[McNeil]

Love that angry kitten face on Arthas's waist

[Deleted]

still it's utter crap that the one who always was pacifistic and wise enough to know that the faction war is futile turns into another warmonger, no way, it's just too stupid, it's a perversion of the character and everything Jaina stood for, they destroyed the character, let's hope it's only a short phase, if not another great character is lost

[Mawnix]

I don't think your explanation makes sense. Jaina keeps trying to prevent retarded people from doing stupid things that gets them killed or gets a lot of others killed, and finally she decides to become that retard herself? Yeah, really classy. Perfect explanation indeed!

Did the comic not make sense to you then? That's unfortunate.

It mainly means this:

Jaina, before Mists, was seen as a voice of reason for both the Horde and Alliance. She wanted peace just like Thrall had. Year after year, she kept dealing with the idiocy of others; each act themselves started to take a toll on her mentallity as a whole.

Theramore was the breaking point. Jaina snapped and gained this mentallity: "I tried to stop all these idiots. This peaceful approach I've taken hasn't prevented a single thing. The Horde isn't something I can negotiate with, and at this point it doesn't even seem like the Alliance is either. I'm going to do this my way, a much less peaceful way, and no one's going to stop me because. They never listened to a word I said, so why should I listen to them?"

It makes sense to me at least. Of course representations are always different so you've probably come up with something different, but still :P.

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still it's utter crap that the one who always was pacifistic and wise enough to know that the faction war is futile turns into another warmonger, no way, it's just too stupid, it's a perversion of the character and everything Jaina stood for, they destroyed the character, let's hope it's only a short phase, if not another great character is lost

Really? Did the comic fly over this many people's heads?

[Zvinny]

still it's utter crap that the one who always was pacifistic and wise enough to know that the faction war is futile turns into another warmonger, no way, it's just too stupid, it's a perversion of the character and everything Jaina stood for, they destroyed the character, let's hope it's only a short phase, if not another great character is lost

The Horde destroyed her city and killed most of the people in it. It's not a "perversion" of her character for her to act like a human being and lose her pacifist ideals after something like that.

[Vasti]

I don't think your explanation makes sense. Jaina keeps trying to prevent retarded people from doing stupid things that gets them killed or gets a lot of others killed, and finally she decides to become that retard herself? Yeah, really classy. Perfect explanation indeed!

You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

Jaina was the hero Azeroth needed but didn't deserve. She tried to prevent so much bad things but people didn't listen.
Then she finally attempts to do something stupid, Kalecgos tries to convince her not to do it. SHE ACTUALLY LISTENS! I guess she isn't the villain just yet.

So, okay...you have just disarmed the timebomb...okay...step back...give her room to breath. SCREW LOGIC let's call her a B**** and say she is the one going crazy.

Imagine how much lives could've been saved if she was in control. Forget friggin SoO, just evacuate the orcs that are against Garrosh and instead of forming some pity offense, give her the focusing Iris and BLOW THAT DUMP TO SMITEREENS!
No Garrosh, no Iron Horde.....

Jaina for warchief!

[Aquamonkey]

Imagine how much lives could've been saved if she was in control. Forget friggin SoO, just evacuate the orcs that are against Garrosh and instead of forming some pity offense, give her the focusing Iris and BLOW THAT DUMP TO SMITEREENS!
No Garrosh, no Iron Horde.....

Jaina for warchief!

Varian wouldn't even let Thrall smash Garrosh's head in. No way he'd let Jaina nuke the entire city even if it was just Kor'kron.

[Vasti]

Varian wouldn't even let Thrall smash Garrosh's head in. No way he'd let Jaina nuke the entire city even if it was just Kor'kron.

Hence the notion in the comic that people ignore the good Jaina could've done :P