My Favorite Faction Leader is, Who?

It’s time for another WoW Insider Community Blog Topic. This week they asked, “Who is Your Favorite Faction Leader?”

First off, I have to say that I’m usually not one of those Alliance players who is constantly shouting, “Horde bias!!!” I play both sides and generally like both stories. I believe WoW is one giant story and we are somewhere in the middle of it. Therefor we can’t see the entire thing so of course there are times when one side gets more story than the other.

But…

When it came to looking at the differing Faction Leaders I noticed something right away.  There is not a single Alliance Faction Leader that makes me stand up and think, Yeah! I would totally follow them. I respect them as a leader.

Not one.

Some of them are interesting, sure.

I think Anduin might become the leader I am looking for eventually, but he isn’t there yet. The main issue is that the Alliance Faction Leaders never seem to do anything. They don’t show up in quests much and they spend a lot of time hanging out in their various cities.

So I went to the red team and found several good choices. Pretty much every Horde Faction Leader, with the exception of Warchief Douchebag, is someone I can respect. Even Sylvanas. (I’m not counting the Goblin who is nowhere in the game.)

My ultimate winner is this guy.

Once the butt of too many, “Who?” jokes, Lor’themar Theron got some fantastic character development this expansion. He went from being a nobody to being an outright badass in my opinion.

My main Horde character is a Blood Elf paladin. It feels awesome to be a Belf right now and to have such an awesome leader.

I like Lor’themar because he is smart and he is clearly trying to find the best way to help his people.

He can see that Garrosh is destroying the Horde and so he quietly goes about undermining him while following the Warchief’s orders. I love how in Tides of War he flat out tells Garrosh that he is “loyal to the Horde” when pushed to declare his loyalties. Garrosh didn’t quite get the entire meaning of, “but not to you,” that is subtly added there.

I can respect that he had some talks with Varian Wrynn to see if old alliances could be reborn. Even though that didn’t work out, it shows that he is a leader who isn’t blinded by hate and who can be pragmatic.

I really like Lor’themar’s voice actor too. He really is fabulous in an awesome snarky way. The things he says to Jaina in some of the Thunder Island solo scenarios are delightful. (I don’t think I have ever heard “Lady” sound so disrespectfully polite.)

I love some things he says to Sylvanas in spoilery 5.4 sound files too. I like that he is standing up to Sylvanas, because to me that shows he is not willing to go along with anything she says merely because her forces are stronger.

I think the Blood Elves have stood at the edges of the Horde for too long and they need to take their place as equals within it.

I think Lor’themar is going to continue speaking up to other Horde Faction leaders. I can see him continuing to improve the Blood Elves’ standing within the Horde. I really hope his days of hanging out in Silvermoon and doing nothing are over for good. It is nice to see him actively doing something.

I don’t think he will end up being the next Warchief, but I do think he could do the job and do it well. I think he will ensure that his people are well thought of no matter who takes the helm of the Horde.

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If you are curious as to how I rank the various leaders, I’ll answer that in another post. I started to add it in here but it didn’t really fit.