Happy Father's Day

I’m taking a moment this morning to wish all of the gaming dads a Happy Father’s Day. I game with a couple of dads, and I make a point to wish them one each year.

You might remember the Lady’s post last year for Father’s Day, in which she offered up Saurfang as best in-game dad. She’s absolutely right, without any question, and frankly, Saurfang has no close competition at all. He’s The Man. Or The Orc, as the case may be. And then there was my own tear-inducing post for my own dad.

But I’m going in a different direction today; today I’m presenting a game dad that doesn’t get thought of as a dad, but usually another “d” word (hint: it’s douche) – Varian Wrynn, king of Stormwind and father of Anduin.

We’ll all agree that Varian’s a douche; it can’t be argued, it can only be excused to a greater or lesser degree. But let’s ignore the fact that he’s not exactly the friendliest of folks we run across in World of Warcraft. Today, we’re focusing on Varian the man.

He watched his own father get assassinated by an orc. He was bundled up and taken to Lordaeron (present day Undercity), had to hang out with Arthas and his family for a while. He returned to Stormwind post-war, rebuilt it with the assistance of the Stonemasons (led by VanCleef), and then watched everything start to crumble again. Nobles? Yeah, they were a problem. Shape-changed dragon lady making a mess of everything? Yup. Riots in the streets, along with a stray rock hitting your wife in the head, killing her a la Maude Flanders? Unfortunately, yes. With all of that, culminating in the death of his wife, Varian sunk into depression.

What gets him out? His son, Anduin. Varian sees what could have been his life in his son, and emerges from his depression. At this point more horrible happens (clandestine meetings gone awry, kingnapping, gladiator arenas, random lore retcons, etc), but let’s forget about that today. Today, let’s just focus on the redeeming quality of King Varian Wrynn – his relationship with his son.