Forum:Who is your favourite faction leader and why?

Forums: Village pump → Warcraft lore → Who is your favourite faction leader and why?

To kick off the new lore forum, here's a quick quiz about faction leaders...

My personal choice would be Velen, as there's a lot about him we still don't know, and I think there's definite opportunity for character development in the future - if we fight off the Burning Legion, what does he do? Kirkburn  talk  contr 12:55, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

I vote for Thrall. He is (in my opinion) the far most developed leader (and perhaps even character) in Warcraft, and he works for Alliance-Horde peace, something Varian Wrynn is obviously not too fond of. Plus, he's cool. Xavius, the Satyr Lord 14:50, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Hm... Thrall is a good leader, but I hate his latest decisions. His late leadership sucks, letting Garrosh destroy everything he has worked for without reasons at all. Varian sucks because his latest attitude can't be explained, at least for now. We shall wait for the end of this arc of the comic. Vol'jin, Gelbin, Cairne and Tyrande don't do anything, their role as leaders is invisible in-game. Sylvanas is nice, but she has failed epicly after letting Varimathras betray her. Pay more attention, my beloved lady. You could be dead (again). Lor'themar is nice... no, wait, no he's not. He didn't seem to discover Kael'thas' plans until it was too late and he had stolen M'uru. So, there's only one left: Velen. Thanks god, he hasn't failed epicly. Yet. But he had his fails at Argus... well, they're nothing compared to the latest fails of the other leaders. So my vote goes for Velen. --Lon-ami (talk) 16:20, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

I'd have to vote for Sylvanas Windrunner out of all of these, but really the current lore leads me to the selection of "none". I absolutely hate Thrall and what he's done to the orc lore. Its awesome they broke free, but to over correct so far that he's on a peaceful path with the people that live so close that they pose a threat angers me. The only true great faction leaders have been Doomhammer and Lothar, one of whom got a heroes death, the other was just sloppily written out of lore. -- User:Cougrrr/sig

I defiantly have to go with King Varian Wrynn on this one. He's one of the few racial leaders (and Warcraft characters in general) that acts exactly like a real person would in their situation. Despite the myriad of reasons that he has to absolutely despise the Horde and all of its members (The Forsaken are indeed evil, the orcs destroyed his Kingdom, leading to the murder of his wife, they assassinated his father, the Wrathgate, the Broken Front, etc.), he not only strived for peace for a great many years (he was kidnapped going to a diplomatic conference, he teamed up with the Horde to take down the Lich King at the beginning, etc - his best friend is a blood elf for crying out loud). You can only push a man so far though. He's tired of the Horde's recklessness, and Thrall's inability to control the Horde at all (A demon as majordomo of one of the races? Sylvanas wanting to end all life on Azeroth? The Forsaken in general? Garrosh Hellscream? The Broken Front? The Warsong Gultch?) - and he's absolutely right. The Alliance has been fairly weak on leadership for a great many years, King Varian has finally come back to kick ass and take names. The Horde's going to have to learn that the Alliance isn't going to just roll over and accept their actions every time they do something horribly evil. The Horde needs to learn to control themselves, and stop playing victim every time someone calls them out on their B.S. Tevri (talk) 17:50, 7 May 2009 (UTC)

Sylvanas, she was the best from when she was first introduced in W3, no one else can quite get under Arthas' skin the way she does... Although exactly what happened to her and her ideas and plans since the Varimarthras thing? I got no idea... Max Krist (talk) 08:25, 9 May 2009 (UTC)

Alliance-side, it's Velen, hands-down—both for the reasons stated by Kirkburn, and because I like draenei, dammit.  Jaina would be a contender, but they need to do more with her (and she wasn't on the list anyway).  Horde-side...tie between Thrall (because he's a bad@$$) and Cairne (because he's...Cairne).

And I despise Varian.  He and Garrosh Hellscream are nearly two of a kind:  Garrosh seems more reckless, but Varian makes up for it by being an obnoxious Marty Sam.
Farseer Lolotea • talk • contrib 10:28, 24 May 2009 (UTC)

Jaina would definely get my vote if she was on the list, she's the one doing the most for the Horde/Alliance peace, she was the only Human leader that lisented to Medivh, saving thousands of lifes from the Scourge, and then founding Theramore, and she stopped Varian as he attacked Thrall in undercity. (+ Aegwynn's her champerlain.)

However, without her, i would say Sylvanas, i think shes a great leader, no matter if Varimathras betrayed her, the Nathrezim is specialized in infiltration and such. And she was the one that time by time stopped Arthas' march against the Sunwell, the one to found the Forsaken and then claim the western part of Lordaeron, fighting both the Scourge, the Scarlet Crusade and the Alliance.

Magnive (talk) 14:36, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

I would consider Sylvanas Windrunner to be the best faction leader out of all of those named, since she managed to lead her people through an obstacle none of the other leaders have faced: undeath and mindless slavery to the lich king. She thinks strategically rather than charging recklessly screaming "for the horde/alliance" but is nonetheless loyal to the people she swears allegiance to. If Kael'thas Sunstrider, however, was the blood elf faction leader instead of Whats-his-face Theron my vote would be with him. Horderoyale (talk) 23:11, 21 June 2009 (UTC)

I'm affraid of how Sylvanas' influence is great, the forsaken were released from Lich King's control with the HELP of Sylavanas, they could do whatever they would, but they chose to follow her because of her power and respect. Pudim17 (talk - contr) 14:46, 22 June 2009 (UTC)

In my opinion the best faction leader was Bolvar Fordragon, he did more then anyone when the king was kidnapped he stepped up to watch over the kingdom and Varians son sure Onyxia tricked him but who doesnt get fooled by dragons these days tricky fellas disguising themselves all the time. Bolvar even showed his leadership skills in Northrend at the wrathgate. --Lyondenn (talk) 07:08, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

I vote for King Varian Wrynn. He's tough and finally a LEADER (Bolvar was great, but he wasn't truly the leader, Anduin was) to be proud of. Sure, he's arrogant and boisterous, but at least he's not one of the "royal" nobles believing themselves high above all others, and then in a fight they get killed quick. Varian has the skills to back himself up, and his progression has only started. He's only just returned...  Vraul Jawrip (talk · contr) () 00:54, 18 July 2009 (UTC)

I like thrall, he is level-headed, not racist, and above all he accepts anyone, of any race or class. OkolorionTalk Contribs 20:40, 22 July 2009 (UTC)

Sylvanas. You can get far with good looks ;)

More seriously, Thrall. Wise and thoughtfull, but strong and assertive when it matters. -- Zeal ^(T/C)  16:01, 31 July 2009 (UTC)

I lik Thrall. It's not his fault Garrosh is a jerk. (By the way, could someone create a userbox against Garrosh? That would be good.) Thrall is for peace compared to everyone else who doesn't care or want's war. BobNamataki (talk) 12:20, November 19, 2009 (UTC)

I, too, want an anti-Garrosh user template. On topic, I'd go with Sylvanas... Who also could use a user template...
Sebreth (talk) 22:33, November 25, 2009 (UTC)

Go thank Coobra for that one. By the way, Sylvanas is too obsessed with fighting Arthas. The only ones who could compete with the Lich King are Tirion and Jaina. BobNamataki (talk) 12:24, December 1, 2009 (UTC)

And Jaina can't really compete with him either. In Halls of Reflection(?)she chases the Lich King and becomes trapped in a room with him and tries to fight him. You rescue her and she says it was a dumb idea for her to try and fight the Lich King. OkolorionTalk Contribs 01:28, December 2, 2009 (UTC)

My personal favorites aren't on the list: Jaina, Malfurion, Alexstrasza, Rhonin. Tevri made some very strong points about Varian which I totally agree with, the only thing I don't like about Varian is the way he was "inserted" into the game and story for WotLK after almost no previous exposure. I like Thrall too, he was badass in W3 and still is a good leader. Jaina has proven to be one of the coolest characters ever though, in W3, in WotLK and in her character's rare ideal's and humanity. She's up there with Tirion and Uther, kinda like a spellcasting/cloth wearing pally with boobs and no bigotry around other races. Those who read the Arthas book will appreciate how well she was sympathetically portrayed. Alexstrasza is essentially a goddess who's affectionate and personal to all life. She's also a wicked cool dragon. Rhonin did alot for Azeroth as a hero alongside the dragons, and he also shows good calm unbalanced diplomacy as Arch-mage. He's even funny and relatable. Aside from all those other great heroes/leaders, Malfurion Stormrage really is the business in my opinion. He's the most powerful "good guy" thats not a dragon in Warcraft. In fact I'm pretty sure he could probably take the Lich King on his own (that'll probably spark debate). Very wise, with a good judge of character and morality. You become very fond of him and Tyrande after reading the War of the Ancients Trilogy, and not putting him in WoW has made many people grow even fonder of him in his absence. He also was ridiculously awesome in many ways during W3. I'm very pleased to see him return in cataclysm. So I voted for Tyrande, because even though she's done nothing except help against eranikus in the game so far, she's a part of Malfurion and I know that in Cataclysm and in future expansions they will both do awesome things.

You can probably tell that most of my opinions come from reading the books, and i guess that's true. Tazmantdr Talk Contr. 23:50, December 8, 2009 (UTC)