Why didn't Anduin commit suicide?

[Relo]

Have been reading mmo-c for a while, but this is the question which made me register here.

As the final chapter of campaign showed us, the Jailer's control over Anduin is not permanent, meaning he can act independently at least sometimes. Why didn't he commit suicude then? That way he wouldn't have had to protect the Jailer completing the ritual in Oribos which we got to see during Sylvanas fight, making it much easier to defeat/interrupt him. Is this an oversight?

P.S. I'm sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes, as English is not my mother tongue.

[vizzle]

Because people don't usually want to kill themselves? What kind of question is this.

[loras]

Have been reading mmo-c for a while, but this is the question which made me register here.

As the final chapter of campaign showed us, the Jailer's control over Anduin is not permanent, meaning he can act independently at least sometimes. Why didn't he commit suicude then? That way he wouldn't have had to protect the Jailer completing the ritual in Oribos which we got to see during Sylvanas fight, making it much easier to defeat/interrupt him. Is this an oversight?

P.S. I'm sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes, as English is not my mother tongue.

He would end up back there, only this time as a dead soul.
Or if he's truly like Arthas was then he might already be dead / undead, making it pointless to seek self-destruction as the Jailer can just insta-ress him immediately.
Besides it's not like the jailer couldn't have seen this coming, given the amount of experience with desperate souls the guy has by now.

[Skirdus]

Probably because his controller is literally described as a "lord of death" and would presumably be able to restrain / revive him on the spot if he attempted to do so

[Relo]

Because people don't usually want to kill themselves? What kind of question is this.

People aren't usually mind controlled by someone who wants to destroy the world. By sacrificing himself (and sacrificing suits both Anduin's character and priest theme) he could help he's beloved ones a lot.

Additionally, he doesn't seem to have a lot of hope either, as he literally says "Hope my friends will remember me the way i was", meaning it is not that far of a stretch to have suicidal thoughts at this point.

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Probably because his controller is literally described as a "lord of death" and would presumably be able to restrain / revive him on the spot if he attempted to do so

This sounds like a great explanation, thank you. Though it would certainly be better if we saw this in-game.

[Powerogue]

Because he still has H O P E!

(would put HOPE in big shiny, glowing letters but historically that's gotten me infracted.)

[Chriisto]

We don't discuss plot holes here! The WoW writers are doing an excellent job and always have

[shadowmatrix]

Because currently all souls are going to the Maw which is the Jailer's domain.

[Donald Hellscream]

I am fairly certain The Jailer can just mind control him the moment he senses that Anduin is about to off himself, I mean he doesn't even have to be near Anduin to control as is evident in the cinematic where Anduin stabs The Archon.

Aside from that he could probably just bring him back if he wants to, especially now that he is all beefed up again.

[luciano]

Because even though that would be 100% in his character (self-sacrifice for the greater good), the writing team is comprised of a half dozen high-school sophomores and a reasonably educated chimp.

It would have been nice to see the "obvious" set-up of the villain fail because the hero did something random, followed by the story taking a wildly new turn. That'd be good writing and we just can't have that.

[Dellis0991]

Have been reading mmo-c for a while, but this is the question which made me register here.

As the final chapter of campaign showed us, the Jailer's control over Anduin is not permanent, meaning he can act independently at least sometimes. Why didn't he commit suicude then? That way he wouldn't have had to protect the Jailer completing the ritual in Oribos which we got to see during Sylvanas fight, making it much easier to defeat/interrupt him. Is this an oversight?

P.S. I'm sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes, as English is not my mother tongue.

The second he tries to off himself I imagine the jailer takes controls before he would be able to actually do it. Kinda like the how the Hulk won't let Banner die.

[david0925]

he kills himself and then where does his soul go?

im usually on board with bad wow writing. Anduin not trying to suicide is not one of them

[Xorzor]

1) China doesn't like death for some reason.

2) More importantly, it doesn't seem to be part of his character. To shoehorn it in would put people off even more than they already are.

3) Sylvanas offing herself at Icecrown not withstanding, suicide seems to be a rare occurrence in video-games. If it was to be part of a game's narrative, it should be handled with care; not to avoid offending anyone, but to have it not appear like a last-minute attempt at telling the story.

[Alixie]

Because people don't usually want to kill themselves? What kind of question is this.

According to the Night Warrior storyline, you can just come right back, so dying is no big deal.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Do you realize if he did so then the Jailer would claim his soul as well since the Arbiter was no longer in use?

[exochaft]

It's a legitimate concern, as there's more ways than one to accomplish a similar outcome... especially since he appears to have his faculties in the flashback cutscene, and it would easily be considered a 'noble sacrifice' in his mind where he appears to have given up hope anyways.

Step one would be if he could actually kill himself. It's completely a mystery, and one any competent writer who knows Anduin and his tendency to be self-sacrificial would address... but they don't. I mean even Sylvannas tried offing herself when back in her early not-living days, so at least we understand why she doesn't. Beyond that, I'm not sure if we got a legitimate answer to what happens to a mortal if they die in the Maw. Does your soul get yoinked to the Arbiter? Does it just stay where your body is? Does it legit destroy the soul? There's indications and dialogue that suggest if a soul dies in the Shadowlands, it's gone for good (we even get a cinematic of this with Ursoc). I honestly don't know what the exact powers are of Anduin's sword, so I can't theorize on how he could use that to accomplish a self-sacrifice. Regardless, we don't see any attempt or dialogue stating he even tried. If anything, you could delay his plans even if your soul keeps coming back.

So if Anduin can't kill himself, the second option is to take himself out of the picture. First thing that would jump into my head in that scenario is to throw myself off the edge and into the void/beyond/whatever it is... because even if that doesn't kill you, I imagine it would be a huge deal actually trying to recover a soul from there (especially if the Jailer isn't there to do anything about it). If he's still flesh and bloody, he could try crippling himself to make himself less useful. Again, if we knew the exact powers of his sword, it could potentially be used in this method of incapacitation or crippling if it was similar to Frostmourne.

Third option, if you can't suicide or incapacitate yourself in some way, drop the bloody sword off the edge of the world and lose it. Anduin knows it's a bloody powerful weapon that he will end up using to unmake the universe, I think any sentimental attachment to the sword would be dwarfed by him wanting to not cause harm with it.

While I could make some lore reasons as to why he would not do any of the above, Blizz has not indicated any of these speculations to where I think at best they're terrible about telling the story in a way that makes sense and doesn't make us doubt character motivations and actions. However, I'm leaning more towards the worst: Anduin is doing things against his known character because Blizz has a plot they want to happen, lore/logic integrity be damned!

What does this mean? It means Anduin hasn't tried to off himself or incapacitate himself or disarm himself not because he can't, but the story can't happen if he does. I have a sneaking suspicion that Zovaal used Arthas' soul fragment to make the sword Anduin wields, so they can't have the sword disappear because we need Arthas in the future for saving Anduin, interfering with Zovaal somehow, or just straight-up fan service. When it comes to Anduin, they either need him to stick around for future plot events to happen he can be saved or used to facilitate some other plot point, and crippling/killing him beforehand would make that impossible. Now having such reasons isn't necessarily a bad thing by itself, but it's a really bad thing when you need to bend logic and ignore character traits/development to make such events happen.

Want my super-easy fix that Blizz will probably retroactively say when confronted about this stuff? While Anduin does have his mental faculties from time to time, have the Jailor always maintains some low level of control over Anduin to where he's restricted in minor ways. For example, he can't kill himself or actively work against Zovaal under this low level control. It could also explain why his eyes are still blue in the cut scene, as it's a sign of said control. Blizz nowhere has stated this to be the case, so it's just speculation, but such a thing should not be left to speculation when Anduin's actions and the major plot points revolve around such answers needing to be had. Furthermore, it's still a weak excuse because there's absolutely no reason Zovaal, as powerful as he is, cannot maintain full control over Anduin. Zovaal could instantly Dominate Jaina, Thrall, and Bolvar all at the same time... so I don't buy that he can't control one willful person. In addition, if there was even a single risk of Anduin doing something while not under full control, why in the bloody hell would you let him out and about when you don't need him? You can do mind torture funtime (if that's why you keep cycling Domination on and off) where he can't cause problems, and that solves all your issues.

Ugh, I could keep going, but it's gotten to the point where it's so frustrating watching characters do insanely silly things.

[iamthedevil]

The Jailer would just slap him and put his soul back lol.

[masterjc]

Have been reading mmo-c for a while, but this is the question which made me register here.

As the final chapter of campaign showed us, the Jailer's control over Anduin is not permanent, meaning he can act independently at least sometimes. Why didn't he commit suicude then? That way he wouldn't have had to protect the Jailer completing the ritual in Oribos which we got to see during Sylvanas fight, making it much easier to defeat/interrupt him. Is this an oversight?

P.S. I'm sorry for any typos and grammar mistakes, as English is not my mother tongue.

while not addressed in-game, probably if mortal dies in SL , spirit will be sent back to sl. in maw and thus back to Maw in to Jailer
so it makes no sense

[Irian]

Ah yes, because as we all know, the Jailer has difficulty controlling people who are dead.
Oh...wait...

[Uoyredrum]

He's already in the afterlife, what good would that do?