She was there the whole fight, are you blind?

Excuse me?

Jaina took the cowards way out?

My apologies, but that dog doesn't hunt.

The coward's way out, the easy way out, would have been to blindly follow one's leader no matter what. Instead she chose to act on her convictions and chose the more difficult path.

Instead of doing what was expected, what was would have gotten her the accolades of Stormwind ...

Instead, she chose to do the right thing.

A hero is more that a guy with a big sword. If there was a hero or two in the Battle for the Undercity, the one person it wasn't was Varian Wrynn.

What has this done? Well from a story telling aspect it's pure genius. And like Jaina's choice, it was a choice between predictable, stereotypical black-and-white action adventure and a tale that actually questions the notion of right and wrong; the conflict triangle of Lich King-Alliance-Horde continues to be painted in many shades of grey.

Which, as players, forces us to make our own ethical and moral choices about the game's evolving story line. From a role-playing standpoint that's pure gold.

And it is in this discussion where we will find out whether or not the writers who are guiding the Varian Wrynn story are going to do more than a stereotypical action adventure. Hollywood style entertainments are fine for Saturday night and a bucket of pop corn, but a story that actually questions our values and nature, those are the tales you remember.

I happen to find the interesting parallel not Wrynn-Thrall but Wrynn-Arthas.

Both are driven, right or wrong, by a deep and passionate feeling of vengence, often to the point of blindness.

The question, I guess, is whether or not Wrynn is going to grow up enough to take down the Lich King ... or, like the strong willed King before him, become the next Lich King.

One might say that she was hoping that even a direct confrontation could lead to a diplomatic opportunity, and when that didn't happen she stepped in.