Meta-What? My Problem With Varian Wrynn
I needed to get this out, it's been stewing, and unlike my Thrall post, I have more than enough energy to hate at Varian Wrynn.
At the risk of sounding like a hipster, I've hated Varian since before it was cool. There is almost never a time in his inception that I haven't hated him. I didn't have anything particularly against him as a young child. But let's start this off, shall we?
What Original Canon Tells Us: Varian's father, Llane, was assassinated by the orcs. Specifically, Garona Halforcen. In its most original form, Garona was sane, had no specific attachment to Llane, and was doing her job. Shortly afterwards she's captured and tortured by Doomhammer, revealing the existence of the Shadow Council. It's never totally clear what happens after that, but the general stance seems to be left to die in jail and then escapes.
What The WoW Comic Tells Us: Varian witnessed his father's murder, and this sparked off his intense hatred for orcs. This basically assumes that Garona is one of the worst assassins ever if she failed to notice that there was a witness. In the novel The Last Guardian, Garona is a reasonably good person, even close to Llane, and she gets reprogrammed by Sargeras to fulfill a vision she saw of herself killing Llane. In the comic, this is out. Apparently what's in is that Gul'dan had her magically programmed so that she could not disobey his orders, and he ordered her to kill Llane.
Aside from what this does to Garona's characterization, the writers have basically only done this to give Varian angst. There are plenty of reasons for Varian to hate the orcs. Having a child witness a murder is really not required, and actually makes me think they were going for some kind of Batman-esque plot. Because Batman is totally balanced, sane, and should be actively running anything. Riiiiiiight. One of my friends noted that if Varian is aware that Garona was reprogrammed and forced to kill his father, he should, by all rights, sympathize considering what happened to him. Empathy, however, is not anyone's strong suit in this setting. Further, I would note that Llane Wrynn himself has an entire organization of assassins at his beck and call. What, did Varian think they sat around doing macrame?
What Original Canon Tells Us: Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, saves Varian (and presumably Bolvar) and takes him to Lordaeron. Varian is too young in WCII to rule his people, so Anduin is regent. However, by the time Anduin dies, Varian is old enough to rule the smouldering wreck of his country.
What The WoW Comic Tells Us (And Also Rise of the Lich King): Varian was trained to fight by dwarves in his youth. Okay… first, why? Second… when?
On the first point, what you have to realize is that as wonderfully romantic as being sent away to be trained by another race is, this is impractical for all kinds of reasons. The first is the fact that until the Second War ended, Varian had not actually experienced a time when his people had not been at war with the orcs. If Varian and his mother had been sent away somewhere safer, he would not have been in Stormwind to witness anything or be rescued by anyone. There would have been no point in sending him back to Azeroth until either the war was over or his father was dead, and since Stormwind fell immediately after Llane was murdered, it wouldn't even be like when Llane and his mother were sent to Northshire, only summoned back when Adamant died. The second reason is simply that dwarves do not fight the way humans do. They are not built the way humans are. They, as a race, do not use the same tactics. Being taught how to fight by dwarves is pretty much totally pointless. If you want him to learn how to *fight* dwarves, that's different. Each race uses slightly or very different tactics based on their own natural aptitudes. Remember, race in Azeroth isn't a matter of skin colour and ethnicity. Dwarves are half the height of a human and twice the width. Now, having said this, there's nothing per se wrong with having a non-human trainer for a human, because the basics still exist… but since it's such a huge plot point that Varian is such a superior fighter, it would have made a lot more sense for him to have particularly good arms trainers.
On the second point, as brought up in the first, *when* did Varian have the time to go to Ironforge and be trained? Consider if you will that the dwarves were not the humans' allies until the Second War. Consider that, again, the people of Azeroth have been at war longer than Varian had been alive at that point. Consider that, again, if we suppose Varian was in Stormwind to witness his father's murder *and* be rescued. Consider that the Deeprun Tram did not exist until the gnomes built it until long after the Third War. Consider how goddamn long it takes to go anywhere by horseback because they also would have had access to few, if any, gryphons. Consider that Ironforge is landlocked and they could not have sailed there. Yeah. Are you doing the math? I have. The writers, they have not. This apparently crucial part of Varian's backstory is both contradictory and nonsensical.
What Original Canon Supposes At Us: Varian was the guest of the King of Lordaeron. He hung out with his kids (mostly Arthas, apparently, because Calia only exists when they want her to be married off) and was treated very well, protected and watched over.
What Wolfheart Tells Us: Part of Varian's narration in Wolfheart is that due to his experience as a gladiator, he cannot be comfortable in nice places.
This utterly blew my mind when I read it. Aside from the fact there's no real indication that the conditions that Varian lived in were as bad as indicated in the book, Varian started out his life in Stormwind Keep, a very nice place. He stayed in Lordaeron, a very nice place. He went back to Stormwind and, presumably, once it was fixed up, he lived in a very nice place. Apparently his extremely short time as a gladiator (which he enjoyed at the time) wiped out his enjoyment of everything else. For angst.
What Original Canon Tells Us: After the war was over, he hired the Stonemason's Guild, including its primary architect, Edwin VanCleef, to design and rebuilt Stormwind City. When this is complete, Varian refuses to pay VanCleef. After multiple attempts, the Stonemason's Guild finally stages a protest which turns into a riot. Varian declares that the whole of the guild are no longer citizens of Stormwind, kicks them out of the city, and closes the doors. VanCleef takes these people and forms the Defias Brotherhood, a group of bandits that target military convoys and installations. This eventually falls apart as by the time WoW rolls around, they're attacking farms and killing farmers.
What the RPG Tells Us: An actual bill is written up. There are a few half-reasons given for why Varian didn't pay the Stonemason's guild, one of which is that he believed they were doing it gratis, for Stormwind. Other sections suggest he didn't pay them because the Council of Nobles refused to do so.
What the Tides of Darkness Novel Tells Us: When Varian is giving Turalyon a tour, he introduces him to VanCleef, and tells him that he's going to be worth every penny they pay him.
What the WoW Comic Tells Us: The riot is the direct cause of Tiffin (*sigh, eyeroll*) Wrynn's death. Varian and his other self mention that VanCleef was charging too much for his work. This is pretty much the end of the discussion and the only nod we're given.
This is the reason I hated Varian to start out with. Perhaps it's because I live in a socialist paradise (hah), but to me, probably one of the worst crimes out there is cheating people out of money they earned, and frankly, the extremely patronizing "I thought you were doing it for free! Why am I expected to pay you?" makes me want to punch him in the face. Going off topic for just a second, but my father is/was a private contractor. One of my friends works in civil engineering. My boyfriend's father taught various parts of civil engineering for a long time at a local college. My understanding is that things work in the following manner: a patron presents a project. Bids are made, and they go with the person who can get it done for the lowest price without cheating them. This is usually the estimate phase. In my father's case, he didn't need to bid, just complete the estimate. A contract is signed, agreeing to do the work for the promised price. There are usually several different parts to this estimate. One is materials. Another is man-hours. Yes, because the people who supply the materials are the builders, not the patrons. Which means that the contracted company (or guild, in this case), needs to spend its own money to actually get the project done. Additionally, you have to pay all the people who work on the project for the hours that they work. Again, this costs the company (or guild) its own money, because the people who hired them is going to pay them and put all the money back, and they make some kind of profit. Mostly, you hope to break even. Construction is a tricky business.
So, to recap, when Varian hired the Stonemason's Guild, they had to take their own money to purchase materials and pay their workers to build the city. Normally speaking, you're allowed to request a partial deposit, but this is also usually in the contract phase. Rebuilding a city is fucking expensive, and also lengthy. Varian reneged on his contract. The impression given is that if Varian claimed that VanCleef was either overcharging him or doing it gratis, he was still perfectly willing to pay the army. This led to the violence of the Stormwind Riots.
Allow me to make myself extremely clear: riots are terrible, awful things. There is no *good* reason to have a riot. Riots are not the tame things we have now. There is no pepper spray, there are no plastic riot shields. There are no calm arrests (though goodness knows, violence happens during modern riots, there's no question of that). People died during the Stormwind Riots. People would have been trampled, caught in the crossfire, killed while suppressing the riot, everything. The WoW Comic writers chose to use this riot as the time when Tiffin died. How? She got hit in the head with a rock while she was standing on a balcony. Aside from the logistics of where someone would have to stand, and where she would have to stand, there is no reason for this to have happened.
Tiffin Wrynn should not have been standing on a balcony holding her infant son during a riot. Supposedly she was supposed to be there to try and calm things, but… how did she plan to do that, again, with a child in her arms? Why didn't she, if she wanted to prevent the riot, talk to her husband and get him to pay the people he hired to rebuild the city? Why was she not immediately removed from that location when the riot started? If the comic indicated that the riot *started* with them beaning her in the head with a rock, then maybe this would make sense, but it doesn't. Furthermore, apparently despite the fact that they have a really nice cathedral district, there are no healers in Stormwind at all. Bolvar isn't actually a paladin. Why? BECAUSE NO ONE FUCKING HEALS HER. One of the things that tends to be ridiculously frustrating is that in a setting where magic is abundant and healing is available, the story utterly founders when it comes to using it. It's even worse when you get to the points where sometimes you can bring people back from the dead and sometimes you can't. Tiffin Wrynn's death honestly seems to have occurred for two reasons: 1) to give Varian angst, 2) so they can avoid actually having to write a female character.
Furthermore (yeah, I'm not done with this point yet), Varian handles the whole riot situation extremely poorly. He kicks the entirety of the organization out of Stormwind and forces them to become criminals. Again, riots are bad. If he particularly wanted to deal with the problem, he could have arrested the leaders of the riot and dispersed the crowd. He could have prosecuted these people for murdering his wife. But not, apparently it doesn't matter nearly as much as it should because he acts like a complete and total idiot. I do, in fact, consider Varian to be responsible for his wife's death. Multiple actions he could have taken would have prevented this tragedy. In addition, he doesn't seem to care nearly as much about his wife's death as his father's death. It's mentioned in flashbacks in the comic, but you'd think he would be on top of that Defias issue, but… nope.
The only thing that would have saved the situation is if my original theory, about Varian's wife dying in childbirth and him being heartbroken, distracted, and manipulated by Secretly A. Dragon caused him to make stupid decisions, and then he tried desperately to make up for them later. This does not ever seem to be the case. He's just an asshole.
What the Original Canon Tells Us: Varian goes to Kalimdor for a meeting and goes missing. Anduin is appointed king in his absence, with two regents, Katrana Prestor and Bolvar Fordragon, to act as regents. Varian went missing on his way to Theramore. He is never technically found, but returns to Stormwind later to take his place as king. Katrana is revealed to be the black dragon Onyxia, driven out and defeated.
What the WoW Comic Tells Us: Eventually, when the pieces are sorted out, Jaina called Varian to a summit in Theramore to meet with Thrall to try and reconcile Varian and the Horde, but Onyxia arranges for him to be kidnapped en route, tortured until his soul splits in half (no, really) and then the "Defias" ransom him back to Stormwind for a large amount of money. Anduin realizes almost immediately that there's something wrong with his father but no one believes him. The half-Varian in Stormwind is the one who is not overly concerned with kingly duties, and would much rather have fun, and they hint that he'd rather have fun with Katrana. Meanwhile, the other half of him, who has no memories, washes up on shore in Durotar, fights a crocolisk, gets picked up by an orc named Reghar, becomes a gladiator, runs away, has visions about his past, winds up in Theramore, Jaina helps him with his memories, goes to Stormwind, etc. etc.
The WoW Comic is bad, let me just throw this out there, but to be fair, after all of its stupidity, the first half is still less bad than the second half. It has some good ideas, I guess. It bothers me that apparently "Katrana Prestor" is able to get away with what she does without any alarm bells being raised. She's using the same name as the person who tried to claim to be an Alteraci noble to Terenas and co. I'm pretty sure Varian would have needed to at least know about the decisions the Alliance was making, being a member of it. This was can sort of put aside to draconic magic. It just all seems to be so pointlessly elaborate: why send him away to torture him and split him in half when with the level of magic she has, she can just brainwash him into doing whatever she wants? Why demonize the Defias when people already hate them? It's just as easy to claim 'he left but he never made it' without having the naga (why the *naga*?) attack his ship. Furthermore, it's not possible for Varian to have washed up in Durotar after escaping from Alcaz island. That's not how water and currents work. Alcaz is south of Durotar. He washed up on the banks of the Southfury river, which is mostly land-locked, and its source is up in Azshara. Why is Thrall allowing slavery in Durotar considering how much he hates it? Why is there a secret gladiator circle that everyone knows about to the point where people like Magatha Grimtotem have arena teams?
The 'simple' reason seems to be that they maneuvered things (in an extremely stupid manner) so that Thrall and Varian could have similar experiences. Except that it doesn't work. Varian is from a privileged background and briefly experienced something bad. Thrall grew from infancy as a slave. He sincerely believed that the abusive alcoholic who raised him would love him if he just did the right thing and acted the right way. Varian being kidnapped and tortured was horrible. Being taken as a slave could have been horrible. However, for all Reghar was a slave master, he is in no way, shape or form anything like Blackmoore. He treated his gladiators reasonably well. He did not abuse them. When Varian and Broll run away because Valeera was sold to another team, Reghar shrugs and says that they're acting as they should and just lets them go. Varian leans heavily on his time as a gladiator for how traumatizing it was, but it's a case of telling and not showing. Nothing in the material presented has made me believe that Varian suffered particularly from the experience of being a gladiator. Furthermore, the main 'point' of Thrall's story is that the world threw a lot of shit at him, but with help and support of people who loved him and cared for him (like his sister), he overcame it. In the end, when it came down to facing off against the man who abused him for years, he managed to do so without uncontrolled rage (despite the fact that Blackmoore had murdered his sister and then taunted him with it… take notes, Golden, it's from your own book). Thrall is a greater and stronger person than the slave Blackmoore wanted him to be. Varian is the complete opposite. He dwells heavily on his experience, utterly wallowing in his actual or perceived suffering. It is brought up *constantly* that he had this experienced, mostly when anything comes up that would try and sway him from his existing prejudices. Varian uses his pain as a crutch, and because he does so, he lashes out and hurts everyone around him, including his son. Especially his son. Speaking of which!
What the Original Canon Tells Us: Varian loves his son. He cares for his son. He wants to protect his son.
What The Shattering/Wolfheart Tell Us: Varian is an abusive douchebag.
I am hesitant to use the terms homophobic or misogynistic at this point, but that's how the narrative and text felt when I read The Shattering. Because Varian was trained by dwarves, he sends Anduin to Ironforge to man him up, because Anduin doesn't enjoy arms training. This is… slightly at odds with the fact that Anduin is draws as an extremely well-muscled fourteen year old (or he looks about that age, Anduin's amazing changing age is another major issue involving Varian, because if he was supposed to be ten or so during vanilla WoW, by the time Cataclysm rolls around, kid should be at least eighteen) and the fact that he's apparently a fairly accomplished marksman. To me, when you state that the only way for a boy to be a man is to be a physical fighter, it indicates several things: 1) you have no respect for people who aren't fighters, which is a whole host of people. 2) you have no respect for women, who can never 'man up'. You can argue that Varian does seemingly respect these people, but as far as I'm concerned, you can *say* all you want, but if your attitude does not reflect that, then you're just a liar and a hypocrite. Furthermore, Varian, for all he claims to love and care for his son, does not actually respect him. Anduin has been honest with his feelings and Varian has dismissed them entirely in favour of what *he* wants for his son. It is extremely easy to use 'he's doing it because he loves him' as an excuse, and it is just that, an excuse. It excuses Varian's bad behaviour. This isn't the same as telling a child they need to eat a balanced diet or that they can't stay up until midnight. Being a fighter is a lifetime investment, one Anduin isn't suited for and does not want to make. It is fortunate that, over the course of his time in Ironforge, the people he interacts with actually do care for him and respect his opinion, because his arms trainer (who is a woman) recognizes that he isn't suited to this and won't continue his training, and he runs into the High Priest of Ironforge's branch of the Church of the Light. There he learns that he's particularly gifted with the Light and will make a fine priest. This becomes important as things get worse and people need to be treated.
Once this book is over, this reflects in the canon in a few places. Anduin, during the time you escort him around Stormwind, uses a shield to protect first himself, then his father. Unfortunately, apparently Varian has no intention whatsoever of actually allowing his son to learn how to use his gifts more. He keeps Anduin constantly surrounded by bodyguards. He will not allow him to even spend time speaking to his own allies. He constantly reminds his son that he can't protect himself, even though the person who has probably done him the most harm is Varian himself. I don't want to go too much further along this line because it will lead to Mists of Pandaria spoilers, but Anduin is distinctly more capable than Varian seems to believe. Varian is simply just not capable of actually raising his son. We're led to believe that Bolvar did a lot of the early raising of his son, while Varian was incapable of doing so, and with how damaged Varian is, I don't know that he knows how to raise a child properly.
Extra Notes:
Varian does not know how to behave like a political entity. Varian is continuously insulting to his allies, behaving extremely badly during important political decisions. He oversteps his bounds repeatedly, and is willing to make the same mistakes and cause the same hurt that was done to him on his road to what he feels is his appropriate due. The major note I have about this involves the situation with Anduin, when Varian personally leads a team of assassins to kill Moira Thaurissan. He is prepared to murder her in front of her son (who is a toddler, though the makers of this game don't seem to know what the appropriate definition of 'toddler' is, amongst other things. Like tundra, swamp, marsh and hero). Anduin is the one to stop him, thankfully.
Varian is obsessive and impulsive. Varian does not seem to care at all about anything that's happening to his allies or his own people if it doesn't directly involve getting his revenge on the Horde. Even then, it's specifically the Horde in Kalimdor, as there are at least two instances where there are orc incursions into human lands and he does nothing about it (Redridge and the Northshire Vineyard). He does not care about the Defias problem in either of its incarnations. He does not care about either incarnation of the worgen problem. He does not care about the night elves. He does not care about the people of Westfall. All he cares about is killing orcs. He claims to be carrying the banner of humanity when he at no point has ever actually served to be useful to this end. His conflict with Garrosh in Northrend nearly cost them the war rather than having any positive effect. He throws lives away over and over again to get what he wants.
In conclusion, Varian is an asshole. He is not my king. He is not a hero. He isn't even a particularly tragic anti-hero. He's just a douchebag.
At the risk of sounding like a hipster, I've hated Varian since before it was cool. There is almost never a time in his inception that I haven't hated him. I didn't have anything particularly against him as a young child. But let's start this off, shall we?
What Original Canon Tells Us: Varian's father, Llane, was assassinated by the orcs. Specifically, Garona Halforcen. In its most original form, Garona was sane, had no specific attachment to Llane, and was doing her job. Shortly afterwards she's captured and tortured by Doomhammer, revealing the existence of the Shadow Council. It's never totally clear what happens after that, but the general stance seems to be left to die in jail and then escapes.
What The WoW Comic Tells Us: Varian witnessed his father's murder, and this sparked off his intense hatred for orcs. This basically assumes that Garona is one of the worst assassins ever if she failed to notice that there was a witness. In the novel The Last Guardian, Garona is a reasonably good person, even close to Llane, and she gets reprogrammed by Sargeras to fulfill a vision she saw of herself killing Llane. In the comic, this is out. Apparently what's in is that Gul'dan had her magically programmed so that she could not disobey his orders, and he ordered her to kill Llane.
Aside from what this does to Garona's characterization, the writers have basically only done this to give Varian angst. There are plenty of reasons for Varian to hate the orcs. Having a child witness a murder is really not required, and actually makes me think they were going for some kind of Batman-esque plot. Because Batman is totally balanced, sane, and should be actively running anything. Riiiiiiight. One of my friends noted that if Varian is aware that Garona was reprogrammed and forced to kill his father, he should, by all rights, sympathize considering what happened to him. Empathy, however, is not anyone's strong suit in this setting. Further, I would note that Llane Wrynn himself has an entire organization of assassins at his beck and call. What, did Varian think they sat around doing macrame?
What Original Canon Tells Us: Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, saves Varian (and presumably Bolvar) and takes him to Lordaeron. Varian is too young in WCII to rule his people, so Anduin is regent. However, by the time Anduin dies, Varian is old enough to rule the smouldering wreck of his country.
What The WoW Comic Tells Us (And Also Rise of the Lich King): Varian was trained to fight by dwarves in his youth. Okay… first, why? Second… when?
On the first point, what you have to realize is that as wonderfully romantic as being sent away to be trained by another race is, this is impractical for all kinds of reasons. The first is the fact that until the Second War ended, Varian had not actually experienced a time when his people had not been at war with the orcs. If Varian and his mother had been sent away somewhere safer, he would not have been in Stormwind to witness anything or be rescued by anyone. There would have been no point in sending him back to Azeroth until either the war was over or his father was dead, and since Stormwind fell immediately after Llane was murdered, it wouldn't even be like when Llane and his mother were sent to Northshire, only summoned back when Adamant died. The second reason is simply that dwarves do not fight the way humans do. They are not built the way humans are. They, as a race, do not use the same tactics. Being taught how to fight by dwarves is pretty much totally pointless. If you want him to learn how to *fight* dwarves, that's different. Each race uses slightly or very different tactics based on their own natural aptitudes. Remember, race in Azeroth isn't a matter of skin colour and ethnicity. Dwarves are half the height of a human and twice the width. Now, having said this, there's nothing per se wrong with having a non-human trainer for a human, because the basics still exist… but since it's such a huge plot point that Varian is such a superior fighter, it would have made a lot more sense for him to have particularly good arms trainers.
On the second point, as brought up in the first, *when* did Varian have the time to go to Ironforge and be trained? Consider if you will that the dwarves were not the humans' allies until the Second War. Consider that, again, the people of Azeroth have been at war longer than Varian had been alive at that point. Consider that, again, if we suppose Varian was in Stormwind to witness his father's murder *and* be rescued. Consider that the Deeprun Tram did not exist until the gnomes built it until long after the Third War. Consider how goddamn long it takes to go anywhere by horseback because they also would have had access to few, if any, gryphons. Consider that Ironforge is landlocked and they could not have sailed there. Yeah. Are you doing the math? I have. The writers, they have not. This apparently crucial part of Varian's backstory is both contradictory and nonsensical.
What Original Canon Supposes At Us: Varian was the guest of the King of Lordaeron. He hung out with his kids (mostly Arthas, apparently, because Calia only exists when they want her to be married off) and was treated very well, protected and watched over.
What Wolfheart Tells Us: Part of Varian's narration in Wolfheart is that due to his experience as a gladiator, he cannot be comfortable in nice places.
This utterly blew my mind when I read it. Aside from the fact there's no real indication that the conditions that Varian lived in were as bad as indicated in the book, Varian started out his life in Stormwind Keep, a very nice place. He stayed in Lordaeron, a very nice place. He went back to Stormwind and, presumably, once it was fixed up, he lived in a very nice place. Apparently his extremely short time as a gladiator (which he enjoyed at the time) wiped out his enjoyment of everything else. For angst.
What Original Canon Tells Us: After the war was over, he hired the Stonemason's Guild, including its primary architect, Edwin VanCleef, to design and rebuilt Stormwind City. When this is complete, Varian refuses to pay VanCleef. After multiple attempts, the Stonemason's Guild finally stages a protest which turns into a riot. Varian declares that the whole of the guild are no longer citizens of Stormwind, kicks them out of the city, and closes the doors. VanCleef takes these people and forms the Defias Brotherhood, a group of bandits that target military convoys and installations. This eventually falls apart as by the time WoW rolls around, they're attacking farms and killing farmers.
What the RPG Tells Us: An actual bill is written up. There are a few half-reasons given for why Varian didn't pay the Stonemason's guild, one of which is that he believed they were doing it gratis, for Stormwind. Other sections suggest he didn't pay them because the Council of Nobles refused to do so.
What the Tides of Darkness Novel Tells Us: When Varian is giving Turalyon a tour, he introduces him to VanCleef, and tells him that he's going to be worth every penny they pay him.
What the WoW Comic Tells Us: The riot is the direct cause of Tiffin (*sigh, eyeroll*) Wrynn's death. Varian and his other self mention that VanCleef was charging too much for his work. This is pretty much the end of the discussion and the only nod we're given.
This is the reason I hated Varian to start out with. Perhaps it's because I live in a socialist paradise (hah), but to me, probably one of the worst crimes out there is cheating people out of money they earned, and frankly, the extremely patronizing "I thought you were doing it for free! Why am I expected to pay you?" makes me want to punch him in the face. Going off topic for just a second, but my father is/was a private contractor. One of my friends works in civil engineering. My boyfriend's father taught various parts of civil engineering for a long time at a local college. My understanding is that things work in the following manner: a patron presents a project. Bids are made, and they go with the person who can get it done for the lowest price without cheating them. This is usually the estimate phase. In my father's case, he didn't need to bid, just complete the estimate. A contract is signed, agreeing to do the work for the promised price. There are usually several different parts to this estimate. One is materials. Another is man-hours. Yes, because the people who supply the materials are the builders, not the patrons. Which means that the contracted company (or guild, in this case), needs to spend its own money to actually get the project done. Additionally, you have to pay all the people who work on the project for the hours that they work. Again, this costs the company (or guild) its own money, because the people who hired them is going to pay them and put all the money back, and they make some kind of profit. Mostly, you hope to break even. Construction is a tricky business.
So, to recap, when Varian hired the Stonemason's Guild, they had to take their own money to purchase materials and pay their workers to build the city. Normally speaking, you're allowed to request a partial deposit, but this is also usually in the contract phase. Rebuilding a city is fucking expensive, and also lengthy. Varian reneged on his contract. The impression given is that if Varian claimed that VanCleef was either overcharging him or doing it gratis, he was still perfectly willing to pay the army. This led to the violence of the Stormwind Riots.
Allow me to make myself extremely clear: riots are terrible, awful things. There is no *good* reason to have a riot. Riots are not the tame things we have now. There is no pepper spray, there are no plastic riot shields. There are no calm arrests (though goodness knows, violence happens during modern riots, there's no question of that). People died during the Stormwind Riots. People would have been trampled, caught in the crossfire, killed while suppressing the riot, everything. The WoW Comic writers chose to use this riot as the time when Tiffin died. How? She got hit in the head with a rock while she was standing on a balcony. Aside from the logistics of where someone would have to stand, and where she would have to stand, there is no reason for this to have happened.
Tiffin Wrynn should not have been standing on a balcony holding her infant son during a riot. Supposedly she was supposed to be there to try and calm things, but… how did she plan to do that, again, with a child in her arms? Why didn't she, if she wanted to prevent the riot, talk to her husband and get him to pay the people he hired to rebuild the city? Why was she not immediately removed from that location when the riot started? If the comic indicated that the riot *started* with them beaning her in the head with a rock, then maybe this would make sense, but it doesn't. Furthermore, apparently despite the fact that they have a really nice cathedral district, there are no healers in Stormwind at all. Bolvar isn't actually a paladin. Why? BECAUSE NO ONE FUCKING HEALS HER. One of the things that tends to be ridiculously frustrating is that in a setting where magic is abundant and healing is available, the story utterly founders when it comes to using it. It's even worse when you get to the points where sometimes you can bring people back from the dead and sometimes you can't. Tiffin Wrynn's death honestly seems to have occurred for two reasons: 1) to give Varian angst, 2) so they can avoid actually having to write a female character.
Furthermore (yeah, I'm not done with this point yet), Varian handles the whole riot situation extremely poorly. He kicks the entirety of the organization out of Stormwind and forces them to become criminals. Again, riots are bad. If he particularly wanted to deal with the problem, he could have arrested the leaders of the riot and dispersed the crowd. He could have prosecuted these people for murdering his wife. But not, apparently it doesn't matter nearly as much as it should because he acts like a complete and total idiot. I do, in fact, consider Varian to be responsible for his wife's death. Multiple actions he could have taken would have prevented this tragedy. In addition, he doesn't seem to care nearly as much about his wife's death as his father's death. It's mentioned in flashbacks in the comic, but you'd think he would be on top of that Defias issue, but… nope.
The only thing that would have saved the situation is if my original theory, about Varian's wife dying in childbirth and him being heartbroken, distracted, and manipulated by Secretly A. Dragon caused him to make stupid decisions, and then he tried desperately to make up for them later. This does not ever seem to be the case. He's just an asshole.
What the Original Canon Tells Us: Varian goes to Kalimdor for a meeting and goes missing. Anduin is appointed king in his absence, with two regents, Katrana Prestor and Bolvar Fordragon, to act as regents. Varian went missing on his way to Theramore. He is never technically found, but returns to Stormwind later to take his place as king. Katrana is revealed to be the black dragon Onyxia, driven out and defeated.
What the WoW Comic Tells Us: Eventually, when the pieces are sorted out, Jaina called Varian to a summit in Theramore to meet with Thrall to try and reconcile Varian and the Horde, but Onyxia arranges for him to be kidnapped en route, tortured until his soul splits in half (no, really) and then the "Defias" ransom him back to Stormwind for a large amount of money. Anduin realizes almost immediately that there's something wrong with his father but no one believes him. The half-Varian in Stormwind is the one who is not overly concerned with kingly duties, and would much rather have fun, and they hint that he'd rather have fun with Katrana. Meanwhile, the other half of him, who has no memories, washes up on shore in Durotar, fights a crocolisk, gets picked up by an orc named Reghar, becomes a gladiator, runs away, has visions about his past, winds up in Theramore, Jaina helps him with his memories, goes to Stormwind, etc. etc.
The WoW Comic is bad, let me just throw this out there, but to be fair, after all of its stupidity, the first half is still less bad than the second half. It has some good ideas, I guess. It bothers me that apparently "Katrana Prestor" is able to get away with what she does without any alarm bells being raised. She's using the same name as the person who tried to claim to be an Alteraci noble to Terenas and co. I'm pretty sure Varian would have needed to at least know about the decisions the Alliance was making, being a member of it. This was can sort of put aside to draconic magic. It just all seems to be so pointlessly elaborate: why send him away to torture him and split him in half when with the level of magic she has, she can just brainwash him into doing whatever she wants? Why demonize the Defias when people already hate them? It's just as easy to claim 'he left but he never made it' without having the naga (why the *naga*?) attack his ship. Furthermore, it's not possible for Varian to have washed up in Durotar after escaping from Alcaz island. That's not how water and currents work. Alcaz is south of Durotar. He washed up on the banks of the Southfury river, which is mostly land-locked, and its source is up in Azshara. Why is Thrall allowing slavery in Durotar considering how much he hates it? Why is there a secret gladiator circle that everyone knows about to the point where people like Magatha Grimtotem have arena teams?
The 'simple' reason seems to be that they maneuvered things (in an extremely stupid manner) so that Thrall and Varian could have similar experiences. Except that it doesn't work. Varian is from a privileged background and briefly experienced something bad. Thrall grew from infancy as a slave. He sincerely believed that the abusive alcoholic who raised him would love him if he just did the right thing and acted the right way. Varian being kidnapped and tortured was horrible. Being taken as a slave could have been horrible. However, for all Reghar was a slave master, he is in no way, shape or form anything like Blackmoore. He treated his gladiators reasonably well. He did not abuse them. When Varian and Broll run away because Valeera was sold to another team, Reghar shrugs and says that they're acting as they should and just lets them go. Varian leans heavily on his time as a gladiator for how traumatizing it was, but it's a case of telling and not showing. Nothing in the material presented has made me believe that Varian suffered particularly from the experience of being a gladiator. Furthermore, the main 'point' of Thrall's story is that the world threw a lot of shit at him, but with help and support of people who loved him and cared for him (like his sister), he overcame it. In the end, when it came down to facing off against the man who abused him for years, he managed to do so without uncontrolled rage (despite the fact that Blackmoore had murdered his sister and then taunted him with it… take notes, Golden, it's from your own book). Thrall is a greater and stronger person than the slave Blackmoore wanted him to be. Varian is the complete opposite. He dwells heavily on his experience, utterly wallowing in his actual or perceived suffering. It is brought up *constantly* that he had this experienced, mostly when anything comes up that would try and sway him from his existing prejudices. Varian uses his pain as a crutch, and because he does so, he lashes out and hurts everyone around him, including his son. Especially his son. Speaking of which!
What the Original Canon Tells Us: Varian loves his son. He cares for his son. He wants to protect his son.
What The Shattering/Wolfheart Tell Us: Varian is an abusive douchebag.
I am hesitant to use the terms homophobic or misogynistic at this point, but that's how the narrative and text felt when I read The Shattering. Because Varian was trained by dwarves, he sends Anduin to Ironforge to man him up, because Anduin doesn't enjoy arms training. This is… slightly at odds with the fact that Anduin is draws as an extremely well-muscled fourteen year old (or he looks about that age, Anduin's amazing changing age is another major issue involving Varian, because if he was supposed to be ten or so during vanilla WoW, by the time Cataclysm rolls around, kid should be at least eighteen) and the fact that he's apparently a fairly accomplished marksman. To me, when you state that the only way for a boy to be a man is to be a physical fighter, it indicates several things: 1) you have no respect for people who aren't fighters, which is a whole host of people. 2) you have no respect for women, who can never 'man up'. You can argue that Varian does seemingly respect these people, but as far as I'm concerned, you can *say* all you want, but if your attitude does not reflect that, then you're just a liar and a hypocrite. Furthermore, Varian, for all he claims to love and care for his son, does not actually respect him. Anduin has been honest with his feelings and Varian has dismissed them entirely in favour of what *he* wants for his son. It is extremely easy to use 'he's doing it because he loves him' as an excuse, and it is just that, an excuse. It excuses Varian's bad behaviour. This isn't the same as telling a child they need to eat a balanced diet or that they can't stay up until midnight. Being a fighter is a lifetime investment, one Anduin isn't suited for and does not want to make. It is fortunate that, over the course of his time in Ironforge, the people he interacts with actually do care for him and respect his opinion, because his arms trainer (who is a woman) recognizes that he isn't suited to this and won't continue his training, and he runs into the High Priest of Ironforge's branch of the Church of the Light. There he learns that he's particularly gifted with the Light and will make a fine priest. This becomes important as things get worse and people need to be treated.
Once this book is over, this reflects in the canon in a few places. Anduin, during the time you escort him around Stormwind, uses a shield to protect first himself, then his father. Unfortunately, apparently Varian has no intention whatsoever of actually allowing his son to learn how to use his gifts more. He keeps Anduin constantly surrounded by bodyguards. He will not allow him to even spend time speaking to his own allies. He constantly reminds his son that he can't protect himself, even though the person who has probably done him the most harm is Varian himself. I don't want to go too much further along this line because it will lead to Mists of Pandaria spoilers, but Anduin is distinctly more capable than Varian seems to believe. Varian is simply just not capable of actually raising his son. We're led to believe that Bolvar did a lot of the early raising of his son, while Varian was incapable of doing so, and with how damaged Varian is, I don't know that he knows how to raise a child properly.
Extra Notes:
Varian does not know how to behave like a political entity. Varian is continuously insulting to his allies, behaving extremely badly during important political decisions. He oversteps his bounds repeatedly, and is willing to make the same mistakes and cause the same hurt that was done to him on his road to what he feels is his appropriate due. The major note I have about this involves the situation with Anduin, when Varian personally leads a team of assassins to kill Moira Thaurissan. He is prepared to murder her in front of her son (who is a toddler, though the makers of this game don't seem to know what the appropriate definition of 'toddler' is, amongst other things. Like tundra, swamp, marsh and hero). Anduin is the one to stop him, thankfully.
Varian is obsessive and impulsive. Varian does not seem to care at all about anything that's happening to his allies or his own people if it doesn't directly involve getting his revenge on the Horde. Even then, it's specifically the Horde in Kalimdor, as there are at least two instances where there are orc incursions into human lands and he does nothing about it (Redridge and the Northshire Vineyard). He does not care about the Defias problem in either of its incarnations. He does not care about either incarnation of the worgen problem. He does not care about the night elves. He does not care about the people of Westfall. All he cares about is killing orcs. He claims to be carrying the banner of humanity when he at no point has ever actually served to be useful to this end. His conflict with Garrosh in Northrend nearly cost them the war rather than having any positive effect. He throws lives away over and over again to get what he wants.
In conclusion, Varian is an asshole. He is not my king. He is not a hero. He isn't even a particularly tragic anti-hero. He's just a douchebag.