What they done to Anduin is akin to having Garrosh Hellscream wear a dress crying all the time. Talanji crying in a corner - Tyrande not going on her Night Warrior questline but just locking herself in a room and crying - Genn Greymane not leading the Gilneans but just crying himself to sleep isolated in a room.
Weak leaders are not something to look up to. Not something to rally around. Crying on mother Faerin’s shoulder all the time. The Alliance needs a High King that can lead its people. Not to abdicate the responsibility of leadership. Yes it is a heavy burden but one that must be carried. Otherwise their people are lost.
Tyrande’s night warrior storyline was anyway annoying and self righteous it didnt really deserve any continuation at this point.
And not every leader is stoic and cold specially with modern writers they can’t do it well cause it turns into too black and white. Even stoic charachters have to show some weakness otherwise its just an power fantasy type charachter and then the opposite doesnt work either when you don’t get what stoicsm is
And again with Anduin he was never supposed to be stoic completly different growing up
If your point is that we shouldn’t call them stoic, I’d be all for that. Masculine, even hypermasculine, sure, but angry roaring and chest-beating isn’t anywhere close to stoic.
But I don’t think anyone here was really talking about stoics, and thus your point about everyone lacking flaws doesn’t really fit, I think. I mean, Garrosh and Varian were mentioned as good examples of the Warcraft action hero, and I don’t think anyone would say that they lacked flaws (or were stoics). Indeed, the violent insistence on their values and their personal righteousness was what created conflicts, where there didn’t really have to be obvious bad guys. Everyone was kind of a douche.
Going by his character debut in the Warcraft Comics he kinda was a fledgling action hero, though. There he was a plucky boy, undaunted by his father’s magical depression, and perfectly willing to take up a bow and face a dragon without fear. Then Golden basically recreated him in The Shattering, when Anduin as a character was still up for grabs, since they hadn’t made any plans for him, yet, and the devs stuck with that version. This doesn’t really undermine your point, but it does kinda underline the change in collective priorities that led to where we are. Metzen’s Anduin feels like he would have been well-suited to a cast of action heroes when he grew up.
The leaders in World of Warcraft. From race leaders to generals. Are they broken by the challenges and adversity or do they rise to meet it.
For the Horde you had General Nazgrim. Who remained loyal to the Warchief. Simply a soldier doing his duty.
For the Alliance you had Summermoon. She fought to the end to face the Horde military. But they were outmatched. At best they were police officers facing off against soldiers with combat experience.
Both were defeated. But both done what they could to rise to the challenge and occasion.
It’s just treating Anduin like a wounded baby bird in need of fixing.
Who is this meant to appeal to?
Maybe its just my bias when i see the most terribly flawed charachters or charachters that break completly and then build up to be better the most interesting
When has that ever happened in the World of Warcraft?
Varian was simply split in two. The strong will and the weak will.
Disney Star Wars think they can bring back Luke Skywalker. After the thorough character assassination that they done to him in past movies.
Overcoming challenges hardships and adversity has been a constant theme through out WoW.
I kinda think that the format is a big part of the problem for that. WoW’s patch cycle doesn’t really allow for continuous character evolution. With months between story patches, and the spotlight in these patches shared between a crap-ton of characters, it’s not exactly a thrilling ride here. We’ve basically been told that it was Anduin’s turn to be torn down and rebuild since Shadows Rising. That was more than 4 years ago. Anduin’s arc wasn’t hard to predict, so it’s not exactly fun to witness it crawling along in slow motion.
I wouldn’t say that simple action heroes make for better characters… but I would argue that it’s a looot easier to enjoy some cheap action in one patch than it is to enjoy the struggle with PTSD. A cool moment is a cool moment. A bit of crying is only carthatic as part of a whole arc.
Your assessment completely changed my mind about Anduin. You’re right. I only read Goldie’s stuff, so I didn’t know they just rewrote him. I hate retcons like that.
Luke was an charachter assassination yes, but in old trilogy he was broken and then build up but it wasnt really shown though. they assassinated whole star wars lore with the disney but there was this kind of things in past too
To put it more simplier empire strikes back ending breaks luke and the progression was between the films, there was also signs in the start of return of the jedi with the progression story but cause its movie trilogy it was hard to put it all in
That’s nice to hear, thanks. Though to be fair, the comics have a strange place in the canon anyways, with things like Med’an basically being retconned, while other stuff was just included later on… Though I’m not sure that makes your point about canon-changes any better… Well, but it is certainly an old problem of Warcraft…
Who does that apply to, exactly, given that many game companies outright declare a commitment to DEI/ESG/BRIDGE and whatever else they decide to rename it as in the future?
It’s not exactly a secret at this point and there’s many different reasons why people are opposed to it. I am gay, for instance, whilst despising tokenism and the campy stereotypes that pass as ‘representation’. So that’s my main reason for speaking out against it.
Star Wars was sacrificed upon the altar of agenda. The Disney Star Wars era killed the entire franchise. It shows what happens when the priorities change.
But the idea of breaking down and rebuilding characters does not work. Its like a glass cup. Even if you glue the pieces back together it has been compromised and will leak whatever liquid you put into it.