Lore Watch Episode 41: Where is Jaina Proudmoore?

I fundamentally disagree with supposition that Garrosh is entirely Thrall's fault, or that Jaina's pivot was entirely proper/made sense. You all spend the better part of an hour describing how resolute Jaina is in her convictions and then pretend that her shift toward genocide maniac makes any sense. Her anger at Garrosh and the Horde war machine under Garrosh makes sense. But her wanting to wipe out the whole city? No. That isn't Jaina. She isn't the monster that Arthas was. That was her defining characteristic. I somewhat see her immediate frustration with Thrall after Theramore, but I think blaming Thrall for Garrosh is somewhat ridiculous, I think she'd grow past it knowing as intimately as she does who Thrall is. Garrosh wasn't a meglomaniac at the time. Remember the novel, Garrosh even tries to talk Thrall out of appointing him. And Thrall's notion that Garrosh would have strong advisers in Eitrigg, Cairne, Vol'jin, and so on, made sense. It's very easy to judge Thrall in hindsight, but there was a logic to his choice and the intention was valid. Especially given his own crisis of identity coming to it's head. The pivot of Jaina to nearly cackling madwoman is one of the worst choices Blizzard has made in the story, and it was done for sheer contrivance. If she remained dedicated to the ideal of broader peace after Theramore, the Alliance would have rallied around her and they would have made a more whole peace with the Horde after Garrosh was deposed. Anduin was softening Varian, and having this bastion that remained resolute (as was her trait) to this broader notion would have been the catalyst that would have folded the faction divide. Her opposition was the one major thread at the end of Pandaria was the kept the observable strain between the Horde and the Alliance. Blizzard wanted the conflict, so they flipped the coin on her character. It was a matter of expediency and recognizable impact, and, to my opinion, untrue to Jaina's powerful resolve, heroic strength of being, and core beliefs. This is, of course, a synopsis of my beliefs on the matter. As noted, one could go for a long time on Jaina and the nuances of her history and character. And if so invited, I will gladly do so. But suffice it to say, I feel like Jaina in both story and characterization, has been extraordinarily undeserved by World of Warcraft in general. As to what I feel like she's doing now? I think they've telegraphed it pretty clearly. She's going to take the Helm of Domination from Bolvar and follow the path that Arthas laid out for her, becoming the Lich Queen that she dreamed about repeatedly in the Nightmare War. That will be either the next expansion or the one following it. Imagine, we go to Argus in the next expansion, and come home to a desolate world overrun by Jaina's Scourge, and we have to go to Kul Tiras and convince her father to help us end his daughter become monster? That has a Blizzard-ish sort of symmetry to it, doesn't it? They take what was initially the most optimistic character in the lore and play the circle of turning her into the worst of all possible monsters? I think that's why there have been occasional reports of the Scourge and Bolvar acting strange. He's under assault by Jaina.

MidnightAge