Let's be real; neither Sylvanas nor Anduin are particularily intelligent. But which faction leader is the least intelligent? The hysterical edgelord Sylvanas or the all-loving brony Anduin?
Let's be real; neither Sylvanas nor Anduin are particularily intelligent. But which faction leader is the least intelligent? The hysterical edgelord Sylvanas or the all-loving brony Anduin?
The shadowy Daughter of Urthona stood before red Orc,
When fourteen suns had faintly journey'd o'er his dark abode:
His food she brought in iron baskets, his drink in cups of iron:
Crown'd with a helmet and dark hair the nameless female stood;
Anduin, naivety and inexperience weight negatively for him.
Not trying to demoralize him, just pointing out that he has shown no talent for, his trademark skills are honorable and just character with huge empathy for everyone.
While Sylvanas is known for being cunning and a veteran strategist, and now for her ruthlessness.
Last edited by Beerbill Society; 2019-04-03 at 01:16 PM.
"... And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers, and you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee." - Ezekiel 25:17
"My name is Legion: for we are many." - Mark 5:9
My characters :3
Sylvanas was a ranger general and is probably 100x older than Andiun, Andiun is Naive, and inexperienced so he's probably dumber, and sylvanas is just a crazy miserable bitch. Both aren't dumb in the slightest though imo.
Never underestimate the unknown, or some shit. *shrugs i unno*
In theory, Anduin. We are told he's inexperienced and he does constantly fuck up. But his fuckups have no consequences and everything turns out the way he wants it anyway.
Sylvanas by contrast gravitates from being the smartest person in the setting to a blithering moron at the drop of a hat. So in practice she's worse because her failures actually have consequences.
Dickmann's Law: As a discussion on the Lore forums becomes longer, the probability of the topic derailing to become about Sylvanas approaches 1.
Tinkers will be the next Class confirmed.
What a tough question. Sylvanas made a Dreadlord her second-in-command and was betrayed by countless people in less than a decade (Varimathras, Putress, Godfrey, Galen Trollbane, Stillwater...). She also made astonishingly stupid decisions such as killing Garithos instead of using him to blackmail the Alliance (then was shocked when the Forsaken were rejected) and burning Teldrassil instead of plundering it of its resources and keeping its people hostage to blackmail the Alliance. But for me the funniest moment was when she completely ignored a crazy free-willed Gilnean supremacist who was wielding a deadly shotgun and standing right next to her. What the heck was she thinking?
Anduin is another thing entirely. He didn't bring any form of Blight protection when facing cornered Forsaken, he fell right into an ambush and would have died were it not for the miraculous intervention of Alleria Windrunner and the Gnome leader, and didn't suspect anything when he saw Sylvanas just sitting on the throne, alone, wielding no weapon, and yet acting all smug. He is actively trying to fall into those traps, or he is just stupid.
Either way, both of them are a sickness of the story that must be expunged. Especially the Disney Golden Child.
The Void. A force of infinite hunger. Its whispers have broken the will of dragons... and lured even the titans' own children into madness. Sages and scholars fear the Void. But we understand a truth they do not. That the Void is a power to be harnessed... to be bent by a will strong enough to command it. The Void has shaped us... changed us. But you will become its master. Wield the shadows as a weapon to save our world... and defend the Alliance!
Sylvanas. Only because Anduin hasn't lived long enough to make as many stupid ass mistakes as she has. I'm sure we'll see a lot more idiocy from him as time goes on, it's nature of the game.
"I have the most loyal fanboys. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand by Thoradin's Wall and massacre my own people and I wouldn't lose any fanboys. It's like incredible." - Sylvanas Windrunner
"If you kill your enemies, they win." - Anduin Wrynn
I mean, on paper Sylvanas sure is smarter, but in practice Anduin has yet to powerslide on a sword thicker than him, soooo...
They're both dumb. It's just that I find Anduin's dumb more annoying than Sylvanas', considering he's being protected by virtue of being perceived as a "good guy".
"... And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers, and you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee." - Ezekiel 25:17
"My name is Legion: for we are many." - Mark 5:9
My characters :3
So far it seems like Anduin used to be pretty naive (which makes sense, since he is a new king), but is showing signs of improvement. Fairly boring story and he gets punished for his mistakes too rarely, but at least it has some consistency.
I find it hard to say anything about Sylvanas or her mental state, because her character and motivation seem to be whatever the plot requires right now and she is constantly being used as a cheap mystery building tool (Her actions will make sense later! Trust us!), so she might be really dumb, plain insane or super smart. Or just rotating through all three.
"And all those exclamation marks, you notice? Five?
A sure sign of someone who wears his underpants on his head."
Well, Sylvanas has shown brilliance every once in a while before BfA. Anduin is just so stupid it's corrosive to the lore.
Anduin has been sheltered for way to long and suddenly becomes the king of everyone in the Alliance. Sylvanas at least had some experience while trying to defend Quel'Thalas and retaking Lordaeron from the dreadlords. I wouldn't blame her for not being able to hold out against the Scourge, but trying to powerslide right into Arthas (in the Warbringers) was the dumbest thing she could've possibly done. She did some smart things as she was using her possession skills to win from Varimathras, than take out either Detheroc or Garithos by surprise during a sneak attack, than trick Garithos into giving him Lordaeron back once Balnazzar has been dealt with.
Sylvanas has higher heights than Anduin in terms of intelligence but is ultimately only as intelligent and pragmatic as the writers want her to be at the time.
Like the time she could have killed Arthas but needed to make him suffer more first buying time for Kel'tuzzad to save him. Or when she kept a pet dreadlord around who inevitably betrayed her. Or let her guard down around Godfrey, as if trusting someone who betrayed his own homeland was a good idea. Or just stood there and let Genn limp away after he broke the lantern in Stormheim. Or not taking a moment to make sure Saurfang finished off Malfurion. That was critical to her plans and they were still in a war zone. Let's not forget that many of her 'brilliant' moments also often rely on the same two OP things (val'kyr raising reinforcements and blighting the hell out of everything) or her opponents just being idiots. (Like Alleria, Genn and Jaina allowing her to walk up to Anduin in the throne room instead of immediately securing her or the Alliance strolling up with no strategy in mind for the blight.)
I think Sylvanas probably edges out though mostly because she comes across as the more cunning of the pair when they're in contact. IE she made Anduin look like a chump in the battle of the undercity. But she doesn't really come across as consistently cunning to me either.
Anduin is naive, inexperienced, needed saving from outside sources and constantly refuses to fight unless its the last option on the table.
But hey, it's not like he has to come up with complicated schemes that never work like Sylvanas.
This world don't give us nothing. It be our lot to suffer... and our duty to fight back.
If they were both in real life, Slyvanas would be by far the dumbest (particularly for her actions in BFA).
Sylvannas DIDN'T want to kill Arthas : She wanted to torture him. There was no point for her to kill him. This was the only way she could have had her vengeance.
This had nothing to do with stupidity.
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And of course the dumbest leader is Anduin : Not even expecting blight while attacking the capital of the Undeads.
Anduin, but Sylvanas' stupidity will actually have a negative effect, unlike his.