Anduin is not my King #HeIsNotMyKing

I am not a fan of all those tearful “EH, BFA IS HORRIBLE, I CANCEL MY SUBSCRIPTION” topics, but this is my time. Described below will include mainly the plot of the Alliance, so my dear Horde fellas, excuse me for this “selfishness”.

A small preface: all the time I have been following WoW lore, I’ve always been a supporter of the unified Alliance which even my beloved NE can be a part of. Many times, I have had longdiscussions with other representatives of the NE community, who were much more radical towards the Alliance than I was.

At the same time, I have always been interested in the (quite minor in the past) history of Anduin. In BFA he got a lot of bad stuff on him, especially from NE fans, but this didn’t stop me from supporting him and some of his decisions (well, apart from his “brilliant” plan at Undercity).

However, after 8.2.5 I realized I have been wrong and naïve all this time. Let me explain why.

1.​I’m not gonna lie – I always knew if the Alliance is to “win” this war then it will forgive the Horde putting all the blame on Sylvanas and her loyalists alone. Nevertheless, I did not expect THIS. Before the final “siege of Orgrimmar” had begun, Anduin asked Saurfang what kind of Warchief he would be. Then Anduin in the capital of the Horde in front of not only the Horde members, but also his men and NE particularly proclaims Saurfang a hero who has saved thousands of lives. Well, he is right to some extent. However, you must admit, it is very amusing to watch him call HERO a person, who orchestrated the entire WoT. Well, I guess it’s a matter of taste, and Saurfang probably deserved it.

However, what surprised me the most is the end of this entire siege" - we put Sylvanas loyalists in iron (well, at least something), but what about those common and innocent Horde guys who were just following their orders? What about those who dreamed of the Alliance blood in “A Good War”? What about those who were very happy to slay NE in Ashenvaleinstead of marching to Silithus?

Why did we get an even more awkward war ending than it was in the SoO? If I remember correctly, there was information that the Horde paid some reparations after Garrosh. I’m not asking Blizzard to nuke Horde cities from Vindicaar and to commit mass genocide, but is it impossible for the leadership of the Alliance to have a parley with the Horde leadership (not just Anduin x Saurfang secret conversations), where the Horde leaders admit that they and their people also share the blame of this war, not only Sylvanas? Why can’t the Alliance leaders force the Horde to pay for its actions? I mean, at least take back Azshara, get rid off of the Horde presence in Arathi, Southshoreetc for good? Yea, I know there is Nzoth to fight, but I think it’dbe better to have some line like “We will cross that bridge later”.

So, the entire conclusion of the war campaign came down to NE being not only left with nothing, but also being bullied quite hard – I refer to the NPC dialogs where NE states he can’t get along with the Horde after Teldrassil, while some dwarf answers “Nah, it was all on Sylvanas”.

My point here is that Sylvanas was right while mocking Anduinand his “Stand as one” stuff, because in fact Anduin forced NE to shut their mouths and just tolerate his decision.

  1. And now, my favorite part. Anduin – The High King of the Alliance, who is in deep grief for every fallen soldier of the Alliance and for the tragedy of Teldrassil, in all seriousness,TELLS Saurfang that the Alliance is not much better than the Horde. I don’t get it, why we, the loyal patriots of the Alliance,have to watch yet another cinematic where a human assures an orc, that hummies are as bad as orcs after having our cities wiped out, our people used for experiments, our fellow members genocided?

“Remember Arthas, Daelin.” Very funny to hear about Daelin in the realities of the BFA, when the Horde proved him right many times. (Yes, I understand the true message of Anduin in this sentence, but still looks very clumsy). In addition, as for the Arthas – it’s just hilarious. Why didn’t Anduin go further and comforted his friend by saying that the draenei were to blame, too, since they had brought the Legion to Draenor? Eventually, the Legion is full of the draenei (eredar). Why didn’t he mention Fandral, Benedictus, Kordana and others? Hell, what about Yrel after all? Generally, it is rather a question to Blizzard: if you decided to quote edgy forum members, why did you stop just at this?

What do we get in the bottom line? NE, as expected, not only are left with nothing, but are literally fools, who don’tunderstand that it was Sylvanas’ fault, so suffer your stupidity now. Anduin with a serious face stands and calms the Orc with “Alliance is also bad, bro, relax” arguments.

What do I want to say in the end? I’m gonna say what I never thought I’d say in all these years - to hell with this Alliance, to hell with Anduin. To hell with a stupid King who doesn’tunderstand that the problem isn’t just with the Warchief. I hope Genn, unsatisfied with this ending, finally turns away from Anduin and joins the vengeful Tyrande. Sad and stupid outcomefor both of them, I know, but now I see that I’d rather die as a typical radical NE who hates the Alliance that tolerate Anduinand his hypocritical peace with the Horde.

Therefore, now it’s time for the Alliance to have its own hashtag - #HeIsNotMyKing #NotMyAlliance.

PS Oh yeah, I still can’t stop ranting about the Shalamayne. This is so ridiculous to see an ancient NE artifact in the hands of a person who was killing NE people thinking “finally, a good war”. SMH.

:zugface:

33 Likes

Amen brother, but let’s not forget at this point that the Horde suffered from plot aswell. Vol’jin dead, faction pride gone, Saurfang dead, Sylvanas gone. It even seems that Calia will be the next forsaken racial leader. This is expansion is nothing more than a bunch of bull💩!

12 Likes

Yes, sure, our Horde fellows also suffered this plot. I absolutely acknowledge that, but I had to post it from my Alliance side, since yesterday I really felt very disappointing of this conclusion.

2 Likes

Well this is not a faction issue as both were crapped upon. I blame Golden and Afrasiabi for this mess. Golden for pushing her personal belives on everyone and Afrasiabi who sacrificed Every other canon lore just to push Sylvanas plot - which in the end made her look completely insane. Far more merciful for her character would be to let her die in WotLK.

Horde got completely dismantled that day and everyone is acting like a total retard.

This -ironically united players from both factions against Blizzard. This plot serves nobody.

16 Likes

I might give Anduin the benefit of the doubt when he told Saurfang about Daeling and Arthas, perhaps as a way to help nudge the orc in the right direction. That being said, Arthus only did stuff to his own people and maybe a few dwarves before Frostmourne took over and Daelin, retroactively, would have saved countless Alliance lives if his genocide succeeded.

1 Like

What Anduin did was to remind Saurfang that the Alliance is not a holy union with no flaws, they too had their monsters.

I would also argue Arthas killed more people than the Horde but that’s just me.

3 Likes

At some point, a good leader has to realise that “an eye for an eye” is going to make the whole world blind in the end.

Neither the Horde or the Alliance have a white vest here. The Humans used to keep Orcs as slaves and butcher most non-human races without remorse.

What I am saying is, Noone is innocent here. The Horde did alot of terrible things, I agree. So did the Alliance. At some point, we have to be willing to turn over a new page, or we will just end butchering each other forever.

2 Likes

I really wished there was a choice option for the Alliance too, where I was able to join some rebel who seeks to overthrow the current Alliance government with a military coup.

Heck I wouldn’t even mind if I lost and Team Anduin imprisoned/executed me and my “”“traitor”"" friends. I simply want an option to not be this boring Alliance lapdog.

I feel like a soldier that is serving a government I hate, which I would desert in any game that let me do so.

9 Likes

But Zandalari were not part of this conflict and yet it looked like they had to pay for Horde’s WoT. I would be fine if Horde received retaliation and not kingdom which only recently came out.

3 Likes

The overarching topic is quite simple, it’s a world that has constantly been at war for quite a while. With two major factions having to unite every now and then to overcome some “external” foe, just to be at each others throats for some bullcrap shortly after.

Now there is two options:

  1. All out war (revenge etc) until just a few on one of the two sides would still be breathing.
  2. Overcome the past and go for peace.

Yes the WoT is very fresh and no one has suffered from it as the nightelfes have. Forgiveness is hard but the game actually even says so, it has to start somewhere. Anduin is trying to end further bloodshet, what he does there is politically a brilliant move. His alternative would be going for more deaths on both sides, while it seems the alliance is pretty weakened aswell so who knows how this would end.
What happened at Orgrimmar was Anduin taking a chance at peace, which totally makes sense for someone who wants to save lifes.

I am honest here, I have no idea how to get things “fixed” for nightelfes and it is incredible harsh and much to ask of them to forgive what happened. BUT those nightelfen soldiers in boralus are not wrong when some of them would rather be done with all this war and have some peace to live their lifes.

From a narrative side: WoW will never have one faction win. Seeing the drama we get from the current story I don’t want to see what happens if one side actually wins. So do we all really want an endless war that definetly no one will come to win? Imho going for peace between Horde and Alliance and aiming at external enemys seems to be a waaaaaay better narrative to go for.

4 Likes

Anduin is just a terrible character. They had it right in Mists of Pandaria where his naïveté actually was a flaw and almost got him killed, and for Legion and early BFA the implication seemed to be that he was finally going to be growing into a more interesting character.

People kept calling him “Boy King”, but the thing is that he never acts like a “boy” in BFA - he’s not rash and arrogant, he’s not easily goaded into making mistakes or led down the wrong path by his rage-filled advisors… he’s just always perfect, flawless, because no matter what the story is written so that his “naïveté” is actually just “being reasonable”. Believing the best of people isn’t naïve if you’re right.

Genn is supposed to be his advisor. Alliance leaders like Jaina and Admiral Rogers wanted to bring the pain to the Horde as well. So why didn’t they convince Anduin - the young and impressionable boy king who was trying to live up to his father’s legendary warrior status - to go to war? Instead, Anduin is always right from the start, the Alliance only defends itself, and then wins anyway.

I cringed when Anduin brought up Arthas and Daelin Proudmoore to Saurfang. It’s exactly the kind of thing that idiots on the Story forum say when people explain that the Horde is, in fact, evil - “Muh Garithos!” is another one. Daelin Proudmoore was completely right, everything he did was, in retrospect, the correct course of action but he’s the bad guy because… well, the writers say he is.

And Arthas? Arthas is Alliance now? Is he really? Because to my mind that’s like saying the Horde is responsible for Gul’dan. AND the Alternate Gul’dan too. Double Gul’dans! Arthas was of LORDAERON, not Stormwind, and his crimes weren’t even against the Horde.

The only Horde that Arthas killed -as Arthas- (IE before becoming the Lich King) were of the Old Horde, Blackrock clan Orcs who were sacrificing Humans trying to curry favour with their demon masters. Arthas wiped out HUMAN civilization in the north, he destroyed the HIGH ELVES, not Orcs or Trolls or Tauren or Goblins. How the hell is he equivalent to Blackhand, Orgrim, Grom Hellscream or Garrosh Hellscream, let alone Sylvanas and Nathanos? He’s not, of course.

But Anduin has to say that, so that Horde fanboys don’t get angry because Blizzard says their faction is evil, as though they didn’t roll the faction with the genocidal undead and demon-worshippers with all of their buildings covered in spikes! And Anduin is always right, so the writers tell us, so this now means the Alliance must feel guilty because of Arthas and therefore the Horde is absolved of all crimes, because Sylvanas was the bad guy all along and prosecuting the Horde’s leaders for supporting her war crimes for two years would just be silly!

That is Anduin’s purpose. To make peace happen even when there’s no reason for it, just like Sylvanas’ entire purpose was to make war happen even when there’s no reason for it. I think it’s perfectly fitting that those two are the faces of Battle for Azeroth - the expansion that happened when there was no reason for it.

7 Likes

Well, there was this:

Displaced Gilnean Refugee : That’s the second home we lost.

Therum Deepforge : King Anduin’s too soft. Answerin’ the summons of an orc. Grievin’ at a Horde funeral.

Kaita Deepforge : Careful. That kind o’ talk borders on treasonous.

Therum Deepforge : And what’ll he do about it? Clap me in irons? He’d never.

Kaita Deepforge : He wouldn’t. Because he’s a good king.

What a rollercoaster…
I’d punch Kaita in the face.

Kinda weird, but at least it shows Blizzard knows the issue. Even if so far they just feel like joking and teasing about it.

PS: Also this:

Stormwind City Guard (1) : Is the war ending? Our soldiers are coming home… but the Horde still stands.

Stormwind City Guard (2) : The Banshee Queen has fled. What reason is there to continue fighting?

Stormwind City Guard (1) : You think the rest of the Horde is blameless? They’re just as guilty as she is. I say we fight until the end.

3 Likes

Agreed, the Alliance right now is pathetic.

2 Likes

That’s nice I guess, but really not the same as Sylvanas Loyalist was and it probably means nothing at all (to me at least).

Same

In the end these NPC’s are nice to have since they represent different sides of the faction die, but they don’t change the fact that I as the player am forced into one single position.

1 Like

Why, Anduin Lothar was a good king.

He was never a king…

1 Like

No, Anduin Lotar was the king in classic, and Bolvar was the Highlord standing near him.

You may be confusing him with Bolvar.

2 Likes

Anduin Wrynn, mate. Not Anduin Lothar. Wrynn is the king, Lothar the champion.

4 Likes

Anduin Wrynn is the king in Classic. He’s just a child then.

Anduin Lothar, who Anduin Wrynn is named for was leader of the Brotherhood of the Horse, the Knights of Stormwind, second in command to King Llane Wrynn during the First War, and then Supreme Commander of the Alliance during the Second War until he was killed in ambush by the Orcs at the Battle of Blackrock Spire. He was never king of anywhere.

2 Likes