To be honest, Anduin is the cancer of story.

[RCA]

Honestly I’m very curious, who was worst in 94?

[MrLachyG]

Thrall severs Jaina.
Thrall and Jaina serve their King Anduin.
Baine?Anduin's pet!worthless!

how can Thrall and Jaina serve King Anduin if Thrall has already severed Jaina? or does he do that after?

[LauraHydra1]

Huh. I really like Anduin. I like my heroes, well, heroic. I'm not a big fan of "everybody is a morally gray asshole"
Anduin is kind, and has grown into a largely competent leader. I shall be very upset if he dies in this expansion.

[Super Dickmann]

Anduin is a black hole on the story and his only good appearances have been in first two patches of Legion where he actually acts like a well-intentioned but young king surrounded by more experienced leaders and in Shadows Rising where he's actually conflicted about what he does. Jury's out on Shadowlands, good signs so far, but we'll see. Sadly, those two good appearances don't outweigh his role as an author's mouthpiece, the lack of any lasting negative consequences for anything he does or how every character gravitates around him - everyone we're supposed to like who encounters him becomes a cookie cutter clone espousing the same positions, everyone who doesn't either eventually learns the error of their ways or becomes pure evil.

The end result of this process, past hollowing out the Horde to the point where it has no identifiable differences from the other faction and making the Alliance consist entirely of peaceniks and martyrs can be seen in the Shadowlands intro. Anduin isn't boring there - but he is in fact the only actually relevant character you bring with you. He could do everything the other characters do in every scene and nothing would change except trimming out the fat. They have no story of their own, nor would they ever encounter a situation and act differently from him. When he is gone, like Poochie from the Simpsons, all they wonder is where he might be and how they can get him back, including Thrall who's only met him once.

[Whitedragon]

I won't say I love Anduin as a character I think I liked his father more, but he has somewhat believable ups and downs, and it's nice to have some more calm leaders as well. Also considering the amount of times Anduin has failed/lost, and how much heavy lifting everyone around him needs to do, I definite wouldn't call him a Mary sue.

We have and have had far worse characters in the story leading up to this point who get away with almost everything they do or did, at worst they get a "minor setback" and continue on their marry way. I will also give him credit he's not so in your face as to be grating, he at worst just points you in a direction at lets you have at it, unlike others we have had in the past like Thrall (though even he wasn't THAT bad), Khadgar, Illidan, and Nathanos who snatch the spotlight for themselves and never let go...

- - - Updated - - -

Anduin is a black hole on the story and his only good appearances have been in first two patches of Legion where he actually acts like a well-intentioned but young king surrounded by more experienced leaders and in Shadows Rising where he's actually conflicted about what he does. Sadly, those two good appearances don't outweigh his role as an author's mouthpiece, the lack of any lasting negative consequences for anything he does or how every character gravitates around him - everyone we're supposed to like who encounters him becomes a cookie cutter clone espousing the same positions, everyone who doesn't either eventually learns the error of their ways or becomes pure evil.

The end result of this process, past hollowing out the Horde to the point where it has no identifiable differences from the other faction and making the Alliance consist entirely of peaceniks and martyrs can be seen in the Shadowlands intro. Anduin isn't boring there - but he is in fact the only actually relevant character you bring with you. He could do everything the other characters do in every scene and nothing would change except trimming out the fat. They have no story of their own, nor would they ever encounter a situation and act differently from him. When he is gone, like Poochie from the Simpsons, all they wonder is where he might be and how they can get him back, including Thrall who's only met him once.

About the only one who really felt useless during the intro was Bain (who admittedly comes in at the end so he had less time to shine). Darion, Jaina, and Thrall all felt useful in their own way.

[Super Dickmann]

About the only one who really felt useless during the intro was Bain (who admittedly comes in at the end so he has less time). Darion, Jaina, and Thrall all felt useful in their own way.

It's not so much about being useless in terms of power level (though Baine and Thrall were), but useless in terms of a lack of any story to contribute. When you meet Anduin, everything from his quest dialogue to his delivery sells you on this being someone who's suffered but is trying to hold it together for other people's sake. When you meet Jaina, she's very powerful, but there's no emotional element to it - her whole role there gravitates around her being a powerhouse. Thrall you encounter flat on his back on a rock and later having that whole Goldilocks business with the axe. And they're all unceremoniously wasted by the Jailer while Anduin catches his fancy. From their content past the intro, a lot of it gravitates around Anduin, the others are hangers on aren't challenged or develop as characters. For comparison, Thrall's story in Cataclysm was wretched, but he changed. I don't like Jaina's story in BFA, but many people did and that's because it challenged her as a character. This isn't the case for their role here.

You're right on Darion though, I meant the faction leaders with my post, but he got a lot to do that others couldn't and the business with his dad is a goldmine in the way Thrall meeting his mum yet again really isn't.

[Koward]

To be a cancer of story a character needs to be worse than boring or one dimensional. Anduin is not, at least not yet.
That title is clearly on Sylvanas. She's by far the center of tumorous action. A "living" retcon machine, with each story having a huge negative impact on story consistency.
Now it all may change of course, if they decide to instead use Anduin's character's actions and decisions more, I am sure it can become just as destructive.

Honestly I’m very curious, who was worst in 94?

At that point Warcraft like most games did not use character-focused story, which avoided the problem of inconsistent character actions.
The less you detail something, the less you risk making a mistake. So if you can't/don't have time to write something good, don't write it.
It's much wiser.

[Scrysis]

Like him or not anduin is likely the best written and most fleshed out character in all of wow pretty much every other one is underdeveloped or flip flops on developments like Jiana.

I'll support this. He's also been very consistently written.


Jaina feels like she's back to where she should have been all along. She was never a warmonger, and while the bombing of Theramore was traumatic, the change in her personality afterwards was not supported well (show, don't tell), and probably should have been taken in a different direction.


As a note, I play Horde, but I'm a bibliophile and literary nerd first and foremost. Wow's story sometimes acts like it's on LSD at times, so the one thing that must be held onto is character development. Having someone do things just for the "evuls" or the "lols" is super bad writing. Hell, it's unrealistic for both Horde and Alliance to want to war with each other at this point -- both populations should have massive amounts of war fatigue. So a peacemaker like Anduin is very appropriate, no matter how much people want to hate him for it.

[Eggroll]

Man was I happy when I was able to leave him in the Maw. I hope he stays there - forever.

The whiny spineless shit ass who betrayed his fathers promise to end the Horde if they failed to uphold honor again.
Who betrayed the night elves. I hope he rots in the Maw.

[TrueHorde]

lol,Alliance fans... of course you like Anduin,but don't forget how you used to treat Thrall.Remember guys when people used to complain how Thrall was a Mary Sue for being a powerful shaman? I wish that people were complaining now about Jaina Tyande and Anduin getting DBZ powers.BTW,Sylvanas is no longer Horde character after 8.25.

“Green Jesus this...Green Jesus that...” "Mary Sue" “Horder bias” “blizz favor horde too much” “why quest with horde npc?”"Why am I going to save Horde leader"...

you compained over and over again during cata.

after that?

Khadgar---Whitehair Jesus(6.0 pre-patch 6.2)
Velen---WhiteBeard Jesus(7.2 7.3)
Malfurion---GreenBeard Jesus(7.0)
Turalyon---Light Jesus(7.3)
Alleria---Void Jesus(7.3)
Tyrande---Moon Jesus(7.0)
Magni---Diamond Jesus(BfA)
Now we have Anduin---Jesus of Jesuses
Everyone looks like The boy king's servant.

since the Shadowland pre-patch, all 3 alliance leader show feat of strength while the horde leader just got beat over and over…We go in the maw,we found Jaina all good fighting them while Baine and Thrall are just powerless.Finally the Jailer attack them and once again the horde leader got beat while Anduin got a ‘‘heroic’’ moment.

[Daronokk]

No. He is the best character fully created in WoW and his story and character are well written.

No, that would be Garrosh.

Anduin is a Mary sue indeed. Can do no wrong, holy powers, resurrects the dead, all admire him. And last but not least, he has 'human potential' superpower. Boring!

Even Varian was a better written character than Anduin as at least he had character flaws that made him believable. And that's saying a lot for a character whose backstory is a complete ripoff of Thrall (slave, gladiator, finding his identity, etc).

[McNeil]

To this day it still surprises me that he just walks to Garrosh, casually ruins his plans and survives. Talk about plot armor.

[gaymer77]

I don't think you know what cancer is.

I sure as hell know what cancer is. Cancer is diseased cells that take over a body and spread until it takes over everything and the body dies unless you remove the cancer from the body. That describes Anduin perfectly. A goody goody does not mean that its not a disease. Many men have died for religion and goody goody types.

I shall be very upset if he dies in this expansion.

Be prepared to be upset then if the latest cutscene No More Lies is any premonition for what is to come....

Even Varian was a better written character than Anduin as at least he had character flaws that made him believable. And that's saying a lot for a character whose backstory is a complete ripoff of Thrall (slave, gladiator, finding his identity, etc).

I absolutely HATED Varian with a passion and have to agree with you 100% on this. Varian's actions can be explained by his past history no matter how wrong they were or were perceived as wrong.

[Arrashi]

Anduin is basically ultimate normie fantasy character. You just can't be more normie than him.

He always reminds me of those pseudo christian tv series back in 80s/90s when you had this big family with 20 kids ranging from newborn to adult. He would be second oldest and would have episode about drugs when he says something like "I don't need no meth for jesus is my drug of choice".

[Ardenaso]

Anduin is a far cry to his dad. I want the Night Elves and Gilneans to lynch him and Shaw

[Qstall]

He is the worst written character since 1994.He occupies a lot of story resources.

EVERY character will eventually serve this boring Mary Sue.

-----------------------

lol,Alliance fans... of course you like Anduin,but don't forget how you used to treat Thrall.Remember guys when people used to complain how Thrall was a Mary Sue for being a powerful shaman? I wish that people were complaining now about Jaina Tyande and Anduin getting DBZ powers.BTW,Sylvanas is no longer Horde character after 8.25.

“Green Jesus this...Green Jesus that...” "Mary Sue" “Horder bias” “blizz favor horde too much” “why quest with horde npc?”"Why am I going to save Horde leader"...

you compained over and over again during cata.

after that?

Khadgar---Whitehair Jesus(6.0 pre-patch 6.2)
Velen---WhiteBeard Jesus(7.2 7.3)
Malfurion---GreenBeard Jesus(7.0)
Turalyon---Light Jesus(7.3)
Alleria---Void Jesus(7.3)
Tyrande---Moon Jesus(7.0)
Magni---Diamond Jesus(BfA)
Now we have Anduin---Jesus of Jesuses
Everyone looks like The boy king's servant.

since the Shadowland pre-patch, all 3 alliance leader show feat of strength while the horde leader just got beat over and over…We go in the maw,we found Jaina all good fighting them while Baine and Thrall are just powerless.Finally the Jailer attack them and once again the horde leader got beat while Anduin got a ‘‘heroic’’ moment.

The whataboutism is strong in this one

[Varodoc]

This boy king and the other human kings like him play at leadership, when they have so few years of experience! It is in Tyrande we must place our faith, by the Light of Elune, we are guided!

For Teldrassil.

Turalyon and Alleria have 1.000 years of experience fighting the Legion, and they now lead the Alliance, so get over it.

[Dagoth Ur]

He's a mouthpiece for values whoever is forcing him so much up there wants to promote. That means that even if he gets a few moments where he's conflicted or having a hard time, in essence, they'll always be just a farce and nothing concrete will come out of it anyway.

That alone is the reason I'll hardly ever like him. I didn't come to WoW to get my moral values adjusted, I've come to have fun.

[bagina]

I just can't deal with the fact that all Alliance leaders that are powerful beings with hundreds or even thousands of years of experience under their belts report to a 19 year old kid. It's just laughable. I agree with the others that there are way better suited candidates. I have a hunch that Anduin will no longer be the King after this expansion.

I didn't like him much in BfA but I'm warming up to him in SLs. As long as he doesn't turn out to be some super duper extra special chosen one. And as long as he doesn't go back to his annoying preaching. I have to say, this worried frown he's been sporting since the beginning of the expansion suits him well. He seems more thoughtful, pensive, mature.

If I had to choose, character closest to being a Mary Sue would be Calia, she fits the definition to a T.

[meheez]

i hate when stories leave no space for personal interpretation. Specially with childish shit like Anduin.

Classic forever <3.