Anduins abduction

Lore Story
1

Call me cynical but Anduings abduction let me think.
This reeks of bad story telling to push a conflict (to a degree from the outside) in the Alliance without involving Anduin himself at all. He’s out of the picture and no matter what happens on Azeroth to the Alliance he will be “untarnished”, still “perfect” and blameless because he was abducted and is stuck in the Shadowlands. I wouldn’t be supersized at all if this was the only, or mostly the real reason why some of the faction leads got abducted in the first place. Yes we are saving them, but it seems to work and is food for thought.

What do you think? Was Anduin taken out of the picture so the Alliance can have some drama without even involving and tarnish the golden king himself?

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2

Likely, yes. With or without a timeskip. Though I’m not sure how much of that story will be in Shadowlands.

3

I don’t know but Anduin and Thral standing side by side in “Reconing” and start fighting the next expansion will be bad story telling. Same goes for Baine and Jaina, we’ll see

4

Alliance drama doesn’t have to end in a faction war. Especially with Tyrande out of the picture anyway.

5

Perhaps he means the way the story is portraying the way how the factions are working together? I can’t really judge this yet. Working together in this situation makes sense for sure. Some more tension, or let’s call it (hard) feelings to overcome after such a disastrous war would be nice to see. Some “distance” to overcome again.

This seems to be a thing for Tyrande and the Trolls though. So it is, or could be part of the story to some degree.

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It is that or have the Horde be warmongering villains… again.

Anduin is a genuinely good character, as in, his character is written to be a goody-two-shoes through and through, not that his character is well-written. Having Anduin being portrayed villainous would, and at this point should, be because of some outside factors, such as mind-control.

The only thing you can do with a character as good-hearted as Anduin in order for him to wage war, is to have him react to an act as bad as killing hundreds if not thousands of civilians. Which again means - painting the Horde as total villains.

Newsflash, the Horde are not villains. An argument could certainly be made for the orcs, the goblins, the undead and in some sense the Elves and trolls (But that is honestly a reach).

But again, there are the elves, the tauren, the vulpera, the pandaren, the trolls. They may have sub-sects that acted badly, but they are largely good-aligned races.

So what else can one do without butchering Anduin’s character a whole lot, and also not butcher the Night Elves and worgen to oblivion.

I mean, it would not make sense for Anduin to agree to another unreasoned war, so the Night Elves and Worgen would fight that battle alone most likely. Which likely means their total demise against the Horde.

So what would we do at this point?

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I love this typo.
I too will be supersized if that’s wasn’t the real reason, he’s just a boring one dimensional good boi.

Yes, it does! War! War! War! War! War!

hmm….THUNDERDOME!

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I meant that as things are now the Alliance can have drama about if it was a good desission to stop the war. Removing those 4 creates a possibility to have some Alliance-Horde conflict. For other things there must be a build up. There are options but very speculative, not enough evidence in game to tell.

9

Seriously? Can’t there be a good individual for once? Leave Anduin alone, of course he messes up at some point, but not every leader needs to be a warmongerer. If there is drama in the Alliance, Anduin will probably end up distancing himself from it and be neutralish and both sides (Turalyon and Genn for example) will be painted in a bad light.
Also, this is pointless speculation, we do not know what happens in the Shadowlands, who’s to say he won’t have a role there?

10

Of course good meaning, nice characters can exist.

I’m not asking for Anduin to become a warmonger, or to change his character to 120%.

I can not see this happening ever and why would it? Anduin is part of the Alliance and I think he will stay that way.

Possible. But we know Blizzard. If there is a conflict, I’m almost sure there will be a “right, moral and just” side and … the villains.

Aren’t we here to discuss ideas and thoughts about the story?

11

You do realize Anduin always planned to leave Stormwind and lead the Alliance incursion into the Shadowlands, yes?

12

How does this make any difference from a narrative story telling? The important par here is: Anduin is away from the Alliance, the internal conflicts are arising while he is gone.

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13

I mean, your base argument is that he’d be blameless because he was abducted. That’s not the case, as he willingly chose to lead the incursion into Shadowlands, thus would have to be blamed if Turalyon goes mad (there’s a 1% chance of that happening, and let’s be real that’s how far any Alliance internal conflict would go).

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Not at all. It doesn’t matter if he was abducted, or if he went willingly. What really matters is Anduins absence from the Alliance. That’s the key aspect.
You could argue if he put Turalyon there and Turalyon would go mad Anduin could have “some” responsibility, but it wasn’t a horrible call.

Either way, he would be blameless after all.

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15

Except that your argument rests solely on the fact that he was abducted, i.e. he didn’t actually choose to go to the Shadowlands and thus cannot be blamed for what happened in his absence.

Just because it’s not a bad call doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be responsible if Turalyon went bad. Why do you think Thrall feels so guilty over Garrosh’s actions?

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Wrong.

You are right, that’s of course a point. My thinking here is how Golden presented Anduin so far and it seem to me like it simply is to take any possible blame from him. Self doubts and guilt is something he had in the past too, so that’s still a possibility.

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17

Uhm, not only is your title literally “Anduin’s abduction”, but you are claiming Anduin would be blameless because he’d have been abducted i.e. he never chose to go to Shadowlands and thus can’t be blamed for something that was forced upon him. What you think is a minor detail, is actually a key difference that shatters your entire argument.

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It’s the title, because Anduin was abducted. I can repeat myself but are choosing to not understand.
The important par is Anduins absence and nothing else. It doesn’t matter why he0s gone.

It doesn’t matter if went willingly or not for my argument at all.

That’s not my point.
Read.

Nope.

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19

Quite possibly.

It may also signal that Turalyon was left behind to take the bullet for the upcoming “Evil Light” expansion.
As well as any backlash regarding escalated tensions amongst the blue team.

In an overly human-dominated setting, he might represent the perfect candidate to become either a martyr or a victim for our yearly “shock” that kickstarts some new plot.
Genn also has a few flags hovering.

Why would that matter? Characters do not have free will to do whatever they want.
Writers decide where and how to put them.

And the whole point in all this, is the fact that it seems as if the story has been written to pick the character up, and put him in a safe place that shelters it from the sh!t-storm that could ensue.

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20

Why can’t you understand your own argument?

YOU SAID ANDUIN IS BLAMELESS BECAUSE HE WAS ABDUCTED.

no matter what happens on Azeroth to the Alliance he will be “untarnished”, still “perfect” and blameless because he was abducted and is stuck in the Shadowlands.

But he was NOT abducted, he willingly chose to go to the Shadowlands and entrust the defense of the Alliance on Azeroth to Turalyon. Thus if Turalyon goes bad, Anduin will take part of the blame.

It’s really not that hard to understand this. I mean, I am starting from your own argument so half the work should already be done.

Why would that matter? Characters do not have free will to do whatever they want.
Writers decide where and how to put them.

And the whole point in all this, is the fact that it seems as if the story has been written to pick the character up, and put him in a safe place that shelters it from the sh!t-storm that could ensue.

The first argument is nonsense with no connection to my point.
The second argument is also laughable when you take into account the fact that he is literally going to Warcraft’s version of Hell, currently the most dangerous place storywise.

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