Breakfast Topic: What's love got to do with it?
by Kelly Aarons 
Mar 2nd 2010 at 8:00AM
Let's take Miss-Too-Much-Lilac-Eyeshadow. Jaina, being not only beautiful, intelligent, and an immensely powerful human mage, has attracted the eye of more than one suitor. First, and the tender age of fifteen, a young[er] Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider desired Jaina for his own. Now, all uncomfortable social situations aside, how would that have changed Kael'thas? Remember that the wayward Prince of the Elves went into the Outlands and ended up teaming up with Kil'Jaeden instead of saving his people. You know how it goes. But what if Jaina had been there for him? Would he still have gone nuts?
What about our dear Prince Arthas? Instead of publicly breaking up with him prior to the Culling of Stratholme, what if she had stayed? Do you think she could have calmed his tumultuous heart? Made him, well, not so Lich King-y? Lastly, let's not forget the Stormrage x Whisperwind thing. What if Tyrande has chosen Illidan? Would he still have risked so much to try and impress her? To show her what a great hero he was? Maybe he wouldn't be brooding in a derelict temple in the Outlands?
Please keep in mind that I am in no way trying to vilify these women. They're all amazingly strong characters who have stood and faced great peril and responsibility. I applaud them all for thinking for themselves, but I always had to wonder: what's love got to do with it?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Shoikler Mar 2nd 2010 8:17AM
It probably says a lot more about the men that they couldn't take a little rejection. "Leave me, will you? You'll regret that when I go completely wibble-wobble and try to destroy the world! Mwahahahaha!"
Well, at least Deathwing can't claim that excuse. His consorts were still with him before and after his sanity went bye-bye.
Jostin Mar 2nd 2010 9:01AM
Actually.... he can lol. Deathwing may have kept his consorts but they were nothing more than baby makers to him. His love was Alexstrasza. We all know how that turned out. "I must have you! I will destroy all, capture you and RAPE YOU BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"....
Dan828 Mar 2nd 2010 1:31PM
I'm convinced that when all is said and done, all of the happenings in WoW well be revealed as part of Jaina's evil master plan to control the universe. Kael, Arthus, Thrall? Jaina has been controlling them like puppets.
Skarlette Mar 2nd 2010 9:13PM
Deathwing's consorts were either killed or horribly maimed when he mated with them. All that oozing lava isn't so good for a lady dragon's health.
hueloc.ggs Mar 3rd 2010 1:41AM
Shoirkler welcome your idea, I really feel thankful :)how to get your ex back
exogenesis. Mar 3rd 2010 2:32AM
Only one consort of Deathwing's actually survived mating with his molten-lava body, and that's Sintharia (AKA Lady Sinestra, as seen from Netherwing Ledge), and she hasn't exactly stuck around. She's trying to take over the world herself, AND she hates Deathwing for the disfigurement he caused (mating with him caused half her face to burn away).
So he can have that excuse ;)
exogenesis. Mar 3rd 2010 2:34AM
Actually, shove the previous post into past tense. I forgot she had died. Damnit!
(WTB an edit feature >:[ )
Neyssa Mar 2nd 2010 8:22AM
"Arthas, my love, please come back to me."
Dan Mar 2nd 2010 9:17AM
Jaina lost all credibility when she tried to melee arthas with full mana in HOR, then got teary over Varian Common sense after Saurfang jr.
Lansiron Mar 2nd 2010 11:50AM
The Frozen Halls encounter was a bit ridiculous, yeah, but I'm not sure their programming is sophisticated enough to make an NPC mage behave like...a mage. And not melee.
As for her tearing up after the Saurfang encounter in ICC: Man, fuck anyone who holds that against her as a character. We're at a place in storytelling now where women who openly show emotion and tenderness don't *exist* enough, because the "stone-cold action-girl" is the only viable option some people see to avoid implicating females as being "weak", despite how incredibly tiresome a cliche that's become.
Kudos to Proudmoore for showing emotion, for showing that she actually deeply CARES that her king isn't a raging asshole, and for being the kind of character who dares to wear their heart on their sleeve despite all the general awfulness going on around them.
Felix_NZ Mar 2nd 2010 3:45PM
I do wonder why she calls him 'My King' though, seeing as Jaina is not a citizen of Stormwind, but of Kul Tiras (which I hope to god that they are going to add in a content patch for Cat. Tol Barad but no Kul Tiras? Bad Blizzard!)
Sky_Paladin Mar 2nd 2010 8:28AM
I think this really just reinforces that those women made astoundingly good choices in not dating crazy people.
Fnord Mar 2nd 2010 8:42AM
I cannot uprank this comment enough. Jaina had a bit of trouble letting go of arthas - look at how she risks her life to see if he's truly beyond redemption in Halls of Reflection. Walking away from him in stratholme can't have been easy, but it was the right choice.
If she'd blindly followed the crazy prince Arthas, she'd probably have ended up as a Lich Queen, and from then on she'd have been a secondary plot point or end-of-wing boss at best.
Irem Mar 2nd 2010 9:25AM
Seriously. Golden's Arthas novel portrays him as a narcissist whose interest in the welfare of other people only extended as far as they affected him ("Gosh, I'm such a good person for not having my way with Taretha Foxton, who is clearly Blackmoore's abused, miserable sex slave. I was even nice enough to let her eat and stay in my room overnight without touching her! Well, I think I've earned the right to screw around with Jaina"), even where his supposed all-consuming love for his own people was concerned (It was about him desperately wanting to fit the role of "prince," not about what would actually help them). Even if Arthas -hadn't- become the Lich King and had just gone on to marry Jaina--provided he could stop having panic attacks over his loss of control of the situation long enough to go through with it--it would have turned miserable for her the moment courtship was over and she grew up enough to realize that a man asking you to "never deny him anything" in all seriousness is a BIG FAT RED FLAG.
Reinhold Mar 2nd 2010 9:35AM
I think that she realized that GREEN IZ BEST!
Joakim Mar 2nd 2010 8:32AM
The question is - what is stronger? Politics, or the heart?
It is quite a romantic notion that the Right Woman can change a man - a notion that more often than enough leads to disaster. But is it true?
Given the geopolitical circumstances both Arthas and the others have to wrestle with, it is fairly given that the love of Jaina would take, at best, second place. Though a fantasy world with at least seemingly equalistic behaviour from both men and women, it is still a feudal society where Power is the main drive behind everything, from the Bigwigs to the struggling level 1 warlock.
Once the battle between Power and Love is introduced, Power always comes out first. Would you sacrifice the chance of having Ultimate Power or Ultimate Love? Sure, the sex is probably good, but what aboout the power, the means of rasing an army (supposedly in defence of the world and even if it is undead)?
On a romantic setting, it is most likely that Arthas had managed to overcome his insanity, but in a Doomsday setting - wich is the setting of Azeroth, where there never can be peace and dafodils - insanity is a prerequisite for certain Mighty Characters. I mean, sure, Thrall is pretty lucid most of the time, but what about lesser players? Like the Eremit in Duskwood? Could a woman save his ass from the insane idea of Stitches?
And the truth is, there wouldn't be much drama if Arthas didn't get dumped and they lived happily ever after. Unless, of course ... Jaina was to join him, as a Lich Queen ...
Draelan Mar 2nd 2010 3:48PM
"Once the battle between Power and Love is introduced, Power always comes out first. Would you sacrifice the chance of having Ultimate Power or Ultimate Love? Sure, the sex is probably good, but what aboout the power, the means of rasing an army (supposedly in defence of the world and even if it is undead)?"
Well, aren't YOU a romantic? =P
Glenn Mar 2nd 2010 8:35AM
"...But a sweet old fashioned notion..."
Swifteye Mar 2nd 2010 8:42AM
It's funny this article should come up, because Kael'thas and Illidan are probably tied for my very favorite WoW characters (well, except for Cairne Bloodhoof, but he's impossible NOT to love!).
I think Illidan probably would've turned out better if Tyrande had chosen him. Don't you think it was rather cruel of her to say "after a BUTTLOAD of years of knowing you want me and just blowing you off, I'll just tell you that I chose your brother because he knows his own inner strength and you don't"?
Would it not have been more productive of Tyrande (even if she still didn't choose Illidan romance-wise) to tell him in their still-young years "You know, I see a lot of strength in you, and I just don't think you're realizing it. Let us show you how to tap into that and prove that you don't need to always bury your problems in magic!"... saying "oh hey, this is why I didn't choose you btw, but thanks for letting me take advantage of you for a few thousand years while you were still holding out false hope" just seems like more of a slap in the face than any sort of constructive criticism.
As for Kael... I dunno. I thought his whole spiral into madness thing was ultimately a result of being betrayed and sent on a suicide mission by the Alliance, of gaining any allies he could when it was a choice between that or being slaughtered, and being branded a traitor for his trouble. Perhaps he would've chosen a different path altogether if he were with Jaina, but if he had still ended up in that situation (and with Jaina still being pretty young, she likely wouldn't have gone off to war *with* him at that point), the same thing likely would've happened regardless of who might've been waiting for him back home.
Basically, I think Illidan probably would've turned out better, but not Kael. Since Illidan's ENTIRE downward spiral resulted from trying to get Tyrande to like him one way or another, if she had liked him from the start he probably would've just been a relatively normal Night Elf. But in the case of Kael... well, I'm reminded of Sully Balloo's letter; you can love someone like CRAZY but still realize the need to put that aside and put yourself at risk when your country needs you.
*shrugs*
(p.s. Didn't say anything about Arthas because I really don't care; he strikes me as a bit of a spoiled brat and I'm sick to death of hearing about him after this entire bloody expansion has been all about him x_x)
Deadly. Off. Topic. Mar 2nd 2010 10:21AM
Well, Tyrande is rather cruel and selfish when it can suit her. She cares only for herself and Malfurion. I thought it was particularly ruthless of her to free Illidan from his 1000 year prison to use him as a weapon and then nothing more.