Anduin Wrynn is an Absolute Trainwreck
*SPOILERS FOR THE “LOST HONOR” CINEMATIC and probably some other tie-in material*
I love Anduin. Being gay, I really related to his story because yes it’s a coming-of-age storyline but it’s an extremely gay coming-of-age storyline and no one, not even the writers, could convince me that Anduin is straight.
Getting to my main point: Anduin is turning into an absolute trainwreck of a king. My love for his character won’t save him from my love of critiquing things. In “Before the Storm” he hears Spymaster Shaw about how he’s sending guards around the city to put down any dissent about the Gathering. And Anduin’s just. Cool with that. Doesn’t even blink.
In the “Lost Honor” cinematic, he looks like he’s on the verge of tears watching all the soldiers unload the dead from their ships. He’s been kidding himself since the beginning of this whole conflict that he’s leading a “righteous” crusade against evil crazy woman Sylvanas and her Horde. He hasn’t quite come to that “holy Light what are we doing we need to create peace ASAP” but he’ll probably get there soon. After he gets kicked square in the nuts by Vanessa Vancleef for conscripting civilian farmers to be cannon fodder, of course. But again, he doesn’t even bat an eye at the thought of drafting more people that will definitely die. He may know “firsthand the pain of loss” but he’s also causing it in spades. He’s putting thousands of children what he went through losing his parents. And he doesn’t seem to care.
Genn, Shaw, Saurfang, Turalyon, literally everyone in this expansion except Sylvanas just want to sit around and stroke themselves to a very arbitrary concept of honor while people brutally fight and die so that they can continue to stroke themselves. Anduin’s allowed himself to fall into that same trap.
There has also been a lot to suggest that Anduin is severely depressed. He’s eighteen, probably just turned nineteen during patch 8.0, and has the weight of the world on his shoulders, the deaths of so many of thousands staining his hands. He barely been given time to properly grieve for his dad. He’s been witness to some of the most horrific events in history, including ones that happened while he was king (read “Elegy” for more info on that). He’s under a lot of pressure, forced to go against everything he’s been fighting for since day one. Onyxia, the Divine Bell, his dad being kind of a shitty dad for a lot of his life, that time he fell victim to the Emerald Nightmare, and more. That’s enough to make anyone depressed.
Other people who have struggled with severe depression: I think we can all agree that we have iffy decision-making skills when we’re in that dark of a headspace. No doubt Anduin also has our decision-making ability, and when you’re High King of an entire faction, that can lead to terrible consequences. Just like it is right now!
I know Anduin had a moment in Legion, but I think that at some point he’s going to have a nervous breakdown. No eighteen year old should have his power. With Jaina as Lord Admiral, the writers could have her step up and become High Queen of the Alliance if they want to keep with the tradition of humans leading the Alliance. Either way, Christie’s been dropping quite a few hints of Anduin being having depression and/or PTSD over the course of MoP’s tie-in novel, Legion, and not BfA that I wouldn’t be surprised if she and the other writers wrote Anduin having some massive wake-up call and just completely freaking out.
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