Anduin, Sylvanas, and Jaina are the most popular characters according to recent polls

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Man, what is this! Khadgar should be on top! It's my boy!

[Swnem]

I think you just shattered expectations with this thread.

I am only sad to see Sylvanas so high. No one has a good reason to like her. But hey... edgelords.

[Varitok]

Who the fuck loves Anduin?

People who like consistency of character in Lore. He's one of the only consistent characters in the game.

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Yeah, something seems off about these poll results. As far as I'm aware, even most Alliance players aren't all that fond of Anduin. I know I'm not.

Assuming there's any validity to these results, I guess it just shows how much of a disconnect there is between forum-goers and your "average" WoW player.

Don't apply your person vitriol to the community.

[Powerogue]

Wow, I really expected Sylvanas, Jaina, Varian, or Thrall to hit #1.

Especially for fanfiction I expected either Wrathion and Anduin to be tied or Shaw and Flynn. :P

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Man, what is this! Khadgar should be on top! It's my boy!

Damn right.

[SirCowdog]

Jaina I can understand. She's an OG character, lots of background story. On top of that she's a very attractive, competent, relatable, and powerful woman. Which many people appreciate for an entire spectrum of reason. She's developed from your typical scantily-clad eye-candy, and into a more mature and respectable person with deep character thanks to the events of BfA.

On the other hand, Jaina is kind of a plot device these days as well. Any time the poo really hits the fan she shows up and fixes things with magic. I mean...that's kind of what wizards do, after all. But it does get tiresome.

But Anduin? Meh.... He whines a lot. And relies too much on deus-ex-machina of "The Light" to solve his problems when he's not relying on the deus-ex-machina of Jaina. The guy really needs to learn how to carry his own weight.

And Sylvanus? I don't get it. Other than the trolls(the internet kind, not the regenerating juju kind) who think it's cool to follow the villain for the lolz, I really don't see the attraction. She's a hateful bitch that has had so many retcons and plot-twists to justify her whiplash schizophrenic personality changes and motivations.....that I don't see how anyone can legitimately think she's any kind of good character. Her story should have ended with Arthas. Everything she's done after that has been an unmitigated trash fire.

[Cosmic Janitor]

Who polled that where?
Edit: Nvm, fanfiction. Obiously the sexually ambigous over-shipped twink prince has the most, a couple of years ago Whitemane, Slyvanas and Jaina would have been the most popular if they had polled the rule34 popularity .

[Eurhetemec]

Jaina I can understand. She's an OG character, lots of background story. On top of that she's a very attractive, competent, relatable, and powerful woman. Which many people appreciate for an entire spectrum of reason. She's developed from your typical scantily-clad eye-candy, and into a more mature and respectable person with deep character thanks to the events of BfA.

On the other hand, Jaina is kind of a plot device these days as well. Any time the poo really hits the fan she shows up and fixes things with magic. I mean...that's kind of what wizards do, after all. But it does get tiresome.

But Anduin? Meh.... He whines a lot. And relies too much on deus-ex-machina of "The Light" to solve his problems when he's not relying on the deus-ex-machina of Jaina. The guy really needs to learn how to carry his own weight.

And Sylvanus? I don't get it. Other than the trolls(the internet kind, not the regenerating juju kind) who think it's cool to follow the villain for the lolz, I really don't see the attraction. She's a hateful bitch that has had so many retcons and plot-twists to justify her whiplash schizophrenic personality changes and motivations.....that I don't see how anyone can legitimately think she's any kind of good character. Her story should have ended with Arthas. Everything she's done after that has been an unmitigated trash fire.

It's fan-fiction rather than actual popularity. Fan-fiction is about different things. Mostly these characters are popular because they're just appearing in WoW a lot right now, and thus more fan-fiction writers are writing about them. Come SL, if they appear less (as Jaina probably will), we'll see changes in their popularity.

Re: being a plot device, yeah this is a pitfall for any "wizard"-type character. It even happens in some pretty classic fantasy novels (Gandalf essentially transforms from a character to a plot device, almost literally, in LotR). The only way to fight it really is to focus on their humanity, which BfA did a fair bit. Writers are eternally tempted to have powerful wizards swoop in though, to resolve situations.

Re: Sylvanas I suspect SL will justify why her story didn't really end with Arthas' defeat (she could have sort of faded into the background as just the leader of the Forsaken, much like Lor'themar is just the leader of the Blood Elves), and hopefully it'll at least be interesting. I very much doubt she'll be around to bother you in a couple of years.

[bagina]

As an avid fanfiction reader, it's as expected. People like to shit on fanfiction but many of the fanfics I've read had better story and writing than WoW's own. Not like it's a very high bar but still. There are many talented writers out there.

[Amnaught]

WTH is Shaw doing so high ??

Probably fucking a ton of men

This is fanfiction we're talking about

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As an avid fanfiction reader, it's as expected. People like to shit on fanfiction but many of the fanfics I've read had better story and writing than WoW's own. Not like it's a very high bar but still. There are many talented writers out there.

Agreed. Sad, but true. Blizzard should seriously consider hiring some of these guys, or at least letting them in on a sort of Lore Beta team with NDA.

Im not at all surprised that Wrathion is so high. He could have been an awesome villain in the place of Sylvanas if you ask me, even though people love to see him as a hero.

[Mamut]

looking at it makes me believe is some random ass twitter pool

Or you know hes dead since WotLK and people just moved on?

[Maatix]

Half of the people playing the game didn't even play through Wrath or WC3 these days.

It's not surprising people don't like Arthas anymore. He's old news.

[Frozenbeef]

Lor'themar? like seriously?...

[Eazy]

The name of the thread is stupid and should be changed to "fanficiton" actually.

I am not suprised about the results.

[shadowmatrix]

People complaining about a fanfic poll while not realizing that most fanfics center on the popular characters.

[cuafpr]

nothing about that list shocks me at all for fanfic

[Sharby]

I didn't realize Genn and Shaw were so popular and I can only imagine why.

Maybe WoW fanfics are worth taking a look at..

[Syegfryed]

Or you know hes dead since WotLK and people just moved on?

with fucking shaw 200 votes behind him? especially now since thy have teased his back? no damn way

[kaintk]

those poll are stupid
those 3 character are the most popular because there is only them we see since 2 years
make the same poll at the time of lk and suddenly you'll see arthas being the first
make the poll at the time of legion and suddenly illidan and varian will be the most popular

[gaymer77]

Who the fuck loves Anduin?

Yeah, something seems off about these poll results. As far as I'm aware, even most Alliance players aren't all that fond of Anduin. I know I'm not.

Assuming there's any validity to these results, I guess it just shows how much of a disconnect there is between forum-goers and your "average" WoW player.

As others have pointed out these aren't necessarily popular characters or loved characters but popular fanfiction choices.

I'd take a guess and say gay fanfic, since he's cannonicaly gay

Where do you get he's cannonicaly gay?

[Aresk]

Where do you get he's cannonicaly gay?

In Shadows Rising, he's interested in a long-term relationship with Flynn. It's not confirmed whether he's interested only in Flynn, only in men, or the like, to my recollection. However, given that he has only canonically shown interest in one person, and that person is a man, the common assumption is that Shaw is gay.