Why does no one talk about Anduin? Anyone here care about Anduin's character arc?

[Friendlyimmolation]

Those are some pretty wild assumptions. That's certainly not what I am seeing in regards to Anduin's character.

Care to show where his flaws actually ever hinder him?

Complaining about your flaws but then having everything go right for you every single time is not realistic or interesting.

A guy who doubts himself, has textbook plot armor but is loved and wise beyond his years, who is also attractive and talented, sounds liked a certain type of character many people hate.

[Friendlyimmolation]

He's not Horde, so this forum doesn't care about him. Serious answer though, like all altruistic characters he is seen as lame and boring and written off before people make the effort to engage in his story. Personally he is my current favorite living character.

Once again, people don’t have a problem with him being altruistic, they have a problem with him being cardboard with no real flaws.

[Wildberry]

Can you give us an example of flaws you would write for Anduin, while staying true to his character so far? That is, he continues to be a good kid growing into a good king, but isn't perfect. How would you write that?

He's a naïve, political amateur who inherited a Kingdom (and faction) that was far from perfect (on paper, at least, Blizzard can't be asked to actually show this meaningfully in-game).

If we were to go about attempting to salvage his character (which is tough, seeing as so many mistakes have already been made), we'd have to do at least some of the following:
-Anduin's naïve idea regarding peace between factions should be shattered the moment the war starts. How he doesn't appear to have lost any political capital is beyond me. Genn & Jaina should be running roughshod over Anduin at this point.
-Anduin's home, and life really, has been marked by impoverished citizens. Shouldn't Anduin have to grapple between pleasing the commoners who presumably have been economically harmed by these nonstop wars, as they were following WotLK, and keeping Stormwind's nobility in check? The nobility didn't seem to care too much for Varian Wrynn, why are they not giving his untempered son Hell right now?

This really cuts to the heart of why Anduin is boring. Canonically, he's able to please most everyone. He can continue to be a naïve, limpwristed peacemonger, I wouldn't care terribly much for him, but I might not outright dread reading "Anduin Chapters" or having "Anduin discussions" if he were at least forced to pick between pleasing one group or another.

[Zulkhan]

He's far from all-powerful

I don't know, did ever see someone in WoW mass-healing an entire army with a single spell at the age of 18-21?

[Dagoth Ur]

He's not Horde, so this forum doesn't care about him. Serious answer though, like all altruistic characters he is seen as lame and boring and written off before people make the effort to engage in his story. Personally he is my current favorite living character.

We already had this discussion and you were told that people don't dislike him simply because he's altruistic. Velen is altruistic too and people generally like him.

[Friendlyimmolation]

He does have flaws

-he's haunted by his fathers death
-his self-doubt
-his naivety
-his lack of martial prowess
-horde leaders don't fear him when they certainly feared Varian, or at least respected in some way
-his reliance on Genn
-he's had to abandon his principles

He's far from all-powerful, and far from perfect. He just isn't an edgey anti-hero either.

And yet none of those “flaws” actually effect him negatively.

I gave Anduin a chance in MoP when his flaws actually bit him in the ass, now he’s written like he was ripped from something “ my immortal” levels of boring.

[therealbowser]

Care to show where his flaws actually ever hinder him?

Complaining about your flaws but then having everything go right for you every single time is not realistic or interesting.

Flaws:

Inexperience.
Not a warrior. What I mean by this is that he isn't seeking war, this ties into his inexperience and also increases his...
... dependence on the fellow leaders of the Alliance for guidance, who may not necessarily give the advice he needs.
As far as combat prowess goes, it's very safe to assume that he's on a much lower level than the other leaders of the Alliance... and Horde, for that matter. His ability to heal with holy magic helps, of course, but it still leaves him more vulnerable.

As time goes on I suspect we'll see him make costly mistakes, but stand strong and learn from them -- as he has been doing.

Anduin is one of the few characters with any kind of significant weakness, so to say he 'doesn't have any flaws' is ludicrous.

Assuming everything has gone 'right' for Anduin is ridiculous. That's not even remotely true.

Want some examples? For starters, MoP has a ton of them. He gets captured, causes stress and trouble for the Alliance, nearly gets killed by Garrosh, and opted to work with Wrathion who would have betrayed him in a heartbeat -- and did. I could quote War Crimes as well, but I dislike the novel's story and am not going to do so.

Then we have Legion where Velen and Genn openly show that they do not have faith in his ability to lead, he takes a risk going to the Broken Shore, and ultimately in BfA leads the Alliance into war against the Horde too late, likely leading to the destruction of Teldrissal. Even in the cinematic we see that he does not want to be there -- he's too soft. He is letting Genn lead the forces because he hates war by nature.

But I mean I'm sure none of these things count because reasons. But before you share those reasons, let's cover the main part of your post that really pertains to this topic:

The fact you are using the term 'plot armor' as a reason why he doesn't have flaws certainly paints a picture of why you find him boring. Did Varian also have plot armor? Does Sylvanas? What even is plot armor? The only character that I think we can be sure will never die is Thrall, beyond that, nothing is impossible. Blizzard recycles characters regularly in this game.

A guy who doubts himself, has textbook plot armor but is loved and wise beyond his years, who is also attractive and talented, sounds liked a certain type of character many people hate.

Lots of assumptions here. First of all, the fact you are using the term 'plot armor' as a reason why he doesn't have flaws certainly paints a picture of why you find him boring. Did Varian also have plot armor? Does Sylvanas? What even is plot armor? The only character that I think we can be sure will never die is Thrall. Beyond that, nothing is impossible. Blizzard recycles characters regularly in this game. What makes Anduin 'safe'?

But that doesn't even matter. It all just comes down to the fact you just dislike Anduin's personality. And that's fine. But that doesn't even remotely mean he's a 'perfect character with no flaws'. No matter how much you want to hate the character, it doesn't turn him into the character you want to hate.

Don't get me wrong, Anduin isn't perfect, but you are trying to paint a disgusting picture for this character that isn't close to being accurate. In the end though, how Anduin's character is developed in BfA will be the true way to tell what he will become in the future. For now, his naivete is a significant flaw that makes his character at least somewhat interesting to me.

[Dagoth Ur]

You have no data to prove that people generally like him, he's barely talked about outside of your examples.

I thought it more in "you don't see people on forums shitting on Velen" kinda way, but I'll reword it and say that I like him which still proves that being altruistic has nothing to do with why I dislike Anduin.

[Magistrate]

He's just a dull, Mary sueish character. Least his dad had flaws that made him interesting.

Varian stood on his own in making decisions, if he were alive he'd be able to relate to someone like Saurfang better then any other ruler. As people have noticed, Anduin to heavily dependent on other leaders telling him what to do, so even now he's not developed enough to stand his ground

Varian was an old clusterfuck of themes and motifs and I'm glad he's dead because they needed a redo. Like 20 years of fanfic in one character.

[Dagoth Ur]

That's you though, do you speak for everyone?

You were the first to start generalizing how people dislike him simply because he's altruistic and now you're hooked onto how I responded in similar manner?

[Wildberry]

But there's proof of my claim, in this very thread even.

So anecdotes are cool, so long as they're gathered in a haphazard manner from the thread in which the anecdotal evidence is used?

[Better]

He does have flaws

-he's haunted by his fathers death
-his self-doubt
-his naivety
-his lack of martial prowess
-horde leaders don't fear him when they certainly feared Varian, or at least respected in some way
-his reliance on Genn
-he's had to abandon his principles

He's far from all-powerful, and far from perfect. He just isn't an edgey anti-hero either.

1. Has never caused him to make a mistake, or hurt him in any way
2. See 1
3. See 1
4. He 1v1ed a Dreadlord assassin in half a second, this literally doesn't matter
5. The only evidence we've seen that this mattered for is Saurfang took longer to talk to him, oh no.
6. Well if this somehow becomes a negative we might see evidence of that in BfA
7. See 6

Then add in that he has literal plot armor because we've seen him "many years later" as an old man, still called "high king" by Velen.

Lots of assumptions here. First of all, the fact you are using the term 'plot armor' as a reason why he doesn't have flaws certainly paints a picture of why you find him boring. Did Varian also have plot armor? Does Sylvanas? What even is plot armor? The only character that I think we can be sure will never die is Thrall. Beyond that, nothing is impossible. Blizzard recycles characters regularly in this game. What makes Anduin 'safe'?

The comic that shows him as alive in the distant future, still being called high king, and still respected by Velen (Velen also has plot armor as a result)

[Dagoth Ur]

But there's proof of my claim, in this very thread even.

How is it a proof since you claim people dislike him for being altruistic, and none of us dislike him for that (us meaning people who worded why they dislike him in this thread)?

[Wildberry]

Oh get out of here you, I owned in the other thread and I'll own you in this one, it's more sad than fun at this point.

You didn't own me though, you just typed "wow just wow, like racism is never okay." You have the argumentative skills of a mid-30s cat woman who gulps down the red wine she's "totally earned," while "pwning" fantasy racists...

In seriousness, you'd have to be either deliberate obtuse or just bias to say that altruistic, good characters get more hate/ disregard than characters like Sylvanas or Illidan. We don't have a "mary-sue" term for those types of characters

I wouldn't say that at all. Those characters are largely boring and aren't polarizing. There's not much love or regard, because there's not really much to discuss about those characters. They're "good" people, who do "good" things, who get "good" rewards for being "good." I don't see how that sparks interest or even discussion.

Here's the difference though: I think anecdotes, so long as they're acknowledged to be anecdotes and taken with a grain of salt, are meaningful in certain ways. You apparently don't. So, I'm just going to quote you:

You have no data to prove that

[Dannihilate]

when blizzard gives you this


but then gets bored and gives you this

His stupid face in that cinematic ruins the whole thing for me. Just like Grom's beady-eyed pig-face did in the WoD cinematic. How do the in-game models look better than the cinematic versions, when everything else in the cinematics looks amazing?

[TheFirstOnes]

Cause there's nothing wrong about him. Hence, why we don't talk about it.

There's nothing to complain about. :/

[Better]

You have expressed a severely lack of knowledge about his character and story here. Congrats.

What, are you talking about him in MoP? The time when he got badly hurt, but then made a complete recovery? Or the time when he let Garrosh loose causing WoD, but literally faced no consequences at all for it, not even a slap on the wrist?

[therealbowser]

The comic that shows him as alive in the distant future, still being called high king, and still respected by Velen (Velen also has plot armor as a result)

A poor counter argument given that time and time again Velen's visions have been shown to be a possibility, not a guarantee. And let's not even start on the fact that Velen is no longer being led by his visions, but is instead choosing his own destiny as he learned from his experiences with Illidan.

In short, this isn't even close to being plot armor.

[Friendlyimmolation]

Flaws:

Inexperience.
Not a warrior. What I mean by this is that he isn't seeking war, this ties into his inexperience and also increases his...
... dependence on the fellow leaders of the Alliance for guidance, who may not necessarily give the advice he needs.
As far as combat prowess goes, it's very safe to assume that he's on a much lower level than the other leaders of the Alliance... and Horde, for that matter. His ability to heal with holy magic helps, of course, but it still leaves him more vulnerable.

And yet none of those "Flaws" matter because we as an audience know he will survive, therefore this is not a real flaw.

As time goes on I suspect we'll see him make costly mistakes, but stand strong and learn from them -- as he has been doing.

Anduin is one of the few characters with any kind of significant weakness, so to say he 'doesn't have any flaws' is ludicrous.

Assuming everything has gone 'right' for Anduin is ridiculous. That's not even remotely true.

Anduin has come out on top at the end of every encounter, you again fail to bring up any actual flaw of his character in legion. "I'm sad about my dad" isn't a flaw.

Want some examples? For starters, MoP has a ton of them. He gets captured, causes stress and trouble for the Alliance, nearly gets killed by Garrosh, and opted to work with Wrathion who would have betrayed him in a heartbeat -- and did. I could quote War Crimes as well, but I dislike the novel's story and am not going to do so.

Which if you were paying attention, would see that I said I like Anduin in Mop where his flaws put him in actual trouble.

Then we have Legion where Velen and Genn openly show that they do not have faith in his ability to lead, he takes a risk going to the Broken Shore, and ultimately in BfA leads the Alliance into war against the Horde too late, likely leading to the destruction of Teldrissal. Even in the cinematic we see that he does not want to be there -- he's too soft. He is letting Genn lead the forces because he hates war by nature

A lack of faith that did not matter because Anduin picks himself up, and once again has nothing actually bad come out of his 'lack of experience." He hates war but yet succesfully leads the Alliance in Lordaeron. IE, his "flaws" do not actually hinder him.

The fact you are using the term 'plot armor' as a reason why he doesn't have flaws certainly paints a picture of why you find him boring. Did Varian also have plot armor? Does Sylvanas? What even is plot armor? The only character that I think we can be sure will never die is Thrall, beyond that, nothing is impossible. Blizzard recycles characters regularly in this game.

Did you pay attention? His comic has given him effective plot armor until he is an old man. That's concrete 100% plot armor.

The comic does not state that it was Velen's vision, so I don't know where you're getting that from.

[Better]

A poor counter argument given that time and time again Velen's visions have been shown to be a possibility, not a guarantee. And let's not even start on the fact that Velen is no longer being led by his visions, but is instead choosing his own destiny as he learned from his experiences with Illidan.

In short, this isn't even close to being plot armor.

wasn't a vision, it was literally a comic that flashes forward for no reason.