In defense of Anduin's bones.

[Arenchac of Suramar]

A rare sentence, I know.

One thing that I've noticed is frequently used against Christie Golden is giving Anduin "Magic Bones", so I'd like to quickly give my opinion on the matter. I personally think it is actually meant to imply Anduin may have developed severe OCD out of paranoia - as someone with OCD myself, it is a very varied affliction that can take many forms or be caused by several things. Although I was born with it while Anduin seems to have developed it due to stress, I actually frequently follow similar rituals in which I take small pains or other stimuli as a sign that I should or should not take an action. In a sense, I share the same form of OCD as Anduin, though not the cause - much like him, mine is primarily derivative of paranoia based on mild gut feelings or other things of the sort that could be completely random.

It is clearly not genuine magic or prophecy (Unless you follow the theory that the Light is somehow behind the war) given that it led to him accidentally kickstarting the war due to a short-sighted following of a minor stimula derived from a prior experience in his life - and given the amount of shit Anduin went through, it does make sense that he'd start relying on pointless stimula or rituals out of desperation for some kind of guidance since his only remaining father figure is a warmonger and cannot be with him constantly like Varian could have if he lived.

Just my two cents in defense of Golden's writing.

- - - Updated - - -

By the way, sorry if the writing is kind of hard to follow - I'm tired and sweating my balls off for some reason despite it being November.

[Zandalariprelate]

Well considering his bones didn't tingling when he and Saa'ra did that necromancy ritual, maybe he is being set up to be fooled by the light or his faith being crushed which can open a lot of opportunities for development.

[seleri]

I assumed it was something like this as well. Not literal magic bones. It's just something a part of the community has taken and run with. Similar to "human potential" and "non-toxic masculinity"

[laplacedemon]

This is an interesting way to look at it, especially this part:

relying on pointless stimula or rituals out of desperation for some kind of guidance since his only remaining father figure is a warmonger and cannot be with him constantly like Varian could have if he lived.

I thought it's more of a physical manifestation of anxiety and PTSD and he needed it as a reminder of the lesson he learned.

[naeblis495]

nope , it's magic bones that warn him when he do bad . because he needed to be even more perfect and never embrace negative emotions

[Super Dickmann]

I don't buy it, considering his magic bones urge him not to start the war early, where he'd have the advantage, so if it were part of a naaru scheme to foment war, it'a pretty labyrinthine one. This is regarding the Light theory.

As for general trauma. Eh, I don't buy it either. It's faultless, as you recall. It's essentially magic moral precognition.

[Trumpcat]

... his only remaining father figure is a warmonger...

Yes, we know, if an Alliance character isn't a snivelling coward and wants to defend their people and defeat their evil enemy they are warmongers. Good Alliance is a victim.

On topic though: I don't think Anduin is going to have a mental condition although it is not without sense if he does. I think it is simply him being in tune with the Light. Also Naaru and Light aren't the same thing. While the Naaru may have a selfish agenda, the Light is an energy, much like the Arcane and likely not a sapient being.

[Arrashi]

There isn't a single writer in blizzard who would be smart enough to write something like that. Especially golden.

[Utigarde]

I've interpreted it similar to this since the book came out. It was made fairly clear that his magic bone feeling didn't actually help him at all. It never once warned him that the plans for Arathi would go wrong, or happened really at all in any meaningful way during the book. It seemed more like Anduin's way of not shouldering all the burdens of leadership. If he has some magical bone hurting juice from his injuries, then he can put some decisions on that spontaneity instead of himself.

[Rozz]

If he has some magical bone hurting juice from his injuries, then he can put some decisions on that spontaneity instead of himself.

I laughed too hard at this line

[Blizzard Moneybot]

his only remaining father figure is a warmonger

it's funny how defending your home and wanting those responsible for its desecration punished makes you a warmonger but being the rotten aggressor because you think your undeserved invasion of the world is deserving of a place upon it is just 'tryin to survive'.

[Broken Fox]

it's funny how defending your home and wanting those responsible for its desecration punished makes you a warmonger but being the rotten aggressor because you think your undeserved invasion of the world is deserving of a place upon it is just 'tryin to survive'.

Except no one says that and you're just bending words to fit your stance

[Arenchac of Suramar]

it's funny how defending your home and wanting those responsible for its desecration punished makes you a warmonger but being the rotten aggressor because you think your undeserved invasion of the world is deserving of a place upon it is just 'tryin to survive'.

Buddy, I'm faction-neutral for the most part, I like Genn as a character and find him to be fairly likeable and one of the most realistic characters in the lore, and I never said Sylvanas' acts were justified just because of Genn's warmongering.

And you have to admit that Stormheim was a pretty crazy move on his part regardless of if you think he knew what was going on at the time, given that he did attack a ship carrying an allied leader during a time of peace and unified against a greater enemy, which is about equivalent to, say, an American general attempting to assassinate Stalin in the midst of World War II.

[Al Gorefiend]

What exactly is wrong with magic bones in a fantasy setting?

JK Rowling writes about a scar that hurts when the main antagonist is nearby and people gobble up whatever she puts out.

George Martin writes about a family that can't be lit on fire for the convenience of burning away the clothing of the female cast to interest the male gaze.

But having your bones hurt because a magical reverberating bell crushed your entire body is stupid?

[Super Dickmann]

But having your bones hurt because a magical reverberating bell crushed your entire body is stupid?

It's not that his bones are magic that's the issue although it's stupid and never came up for the 4 years they were broken up until now. The issue is that they serve as a sixth sense alerting him when he's about to make a wrong decision so he can continue being perfect and too pure for this sinful world and that the only consequence of his decision to confront Garrosh and having the bell dropped on him was receiving a buff that makes him even more angelic.

[DesMephisto]

I'm happy I only have pure O ocd, the notion that any "ritual" infers the future is beyond ludicrous. I'll stick to my constant intrusive thoughts, and obsessing over literally anything.

I'm actually curious, as someone with pure O, I'll have moments where ritual does begin to infer but simple logic generally kicks that thought pattern out, does it not for you?

[Zandalariprelate]

What exactly is wrong with magic bones in a fantasy setting?

J R Tolkien writes about a scar that hurts when the main antagonist is nearby and people gobble up whatever she puts out.

George Martin writes about a family that can't be lit on fire for the convenience of burning away the clothing of the female cast to interest the male gaze.

But having your bones hurt because a magical reverberating bell crushed your entire body is stupid?

The Targaryen proof of fire thing is just a myth and Daenerys survived the fire because of dragon magic, there are lots of examples of Targeryens dying in fires and the scar of Frodo only helps to build tension and danger when there is a nazghul nearby and not to be some six sense of warning about "shit's gonna hit the fan" if it were the other way, then it would have hurt frodo everytime smeagol was nearby.

[Nefarious Tea]

Well considering his bones didn't tingling when he and Saa'ra did that necromancy ritual, maybe he is being set up to be fooled by the light or his faith being crushed which can open a lot of opportunities for development.

Plot twist: it was never the light, only N'Zoth.

[Aucald]

I don't think the "magic" of this particular relationship is intrinsic to Anduin or his bones - rather it's a curious interaction between Anduin's more or less permanent injuries from the Divine Bell incident and the power of the Light that is healing him on the same permanent basis. My take on "Before the Storm" doesn't have Anduin's bones reacting to rightness or wrongness, but rather to whether or not his emotions or decisions correspond to those aligned with the tenets of the Light. If Anduin succumbs to anger, rage, hatred or what-have-you then he distances himself from the Light - this distance interferes with the ongoing healing and causes him to feel the pain of his old wounds, whereas being in alignment with the Light strengthens the connection and the pain recedes.

This may or may not also be linked with the strange prescience the Light seems to grant some of its most attuned users, such as Velen - Anduin may feel disturbances to the vision of the Light as pain from his wounds, probably caused by the same distancing of the Light for other reasons. In this sense, the Light may be giving him a crude (and somewhat painful) form of precognition, although not one as useful as Velen's ability to actually divine possible futures.

[Zandalariprelate]

Plot twist: it was never the light, only N'Zoth.

That would actually makes sense with the boy king serves the table, N'zoth manipulates his emotion so he can get rid of enemies like the horde and weakend the alliance

I don't think the "magic" of this particular relationship is intrinsic to Anduin or his bones - rather it's a curious interaction between Anduin's more or less permanent injuries from the Divine Bell incident and the power of the Light that is healing him on the same permanent basis. My take on "Before the Storm" doesn't have Anduin's bones reacting to rightness or wrongness, but rather to whether or not his emotions or decisions correspond to those aligned with the tenets of the Light. If Anduin succumbs to anger, rage, hatred or what-have-you then he distances himself from the Light - this distance interferes with the ongoing healing and causes him to feel the pain of his old wounds, whereas being in alignment with the Light strengthens the connection and the pain recedes.

This may or may not also be linked with the strange prescience the Light seems to grant some of its most attuned users, such as Velen - Anduin may feel disturbances to the vision of the Light as pain from his wounds, probably caused by the same distancing of the Light for other reasons. In this sense, the Light may be giving him a crude (and somewhat painful) form of precognition, although not one as useful as Velen's ability to actually divine possible futures.

Seems a weird thing considering light users and even beings like Naarus have feeling of hatred, proud and anger but still I feel the whole shadow and light will play something with his bone or it will be just another idea that will be scraped like the crush of Kalacgos and Jaina because it was very criticized, also I feel the visions has nothing to do with anything, so far the visions from the powers of the arcane(elissande) the void and light always fail for x reason