#most of these political AUs i've seen are strictly sylvanas/jaina and other wlw ships

[alteredphoenix]

Been thinking about how I’d go about writing one of those arranged/political marriage AUs that are really popular on WoW AO3. It’s not the first time it’s crossed my mind, even though I’m not particularly well-versed in how such a thing works beyond “get these two people together regardless as to whether or not they actually feel something for each other so we have some form of unity and peace and quiet while we try to solve our problems in the background and/or put them on the backburner and forget they’re happening.”

This being me, though, I’d have to approach from a more...grounded POV, because both factions and everyone in them has committed war crimes to some degree (Anduin hasn’t quite gotten to that point yet, but he’s young, he has plenty of time to fuck up more), so naturally by having each group sit down at a table in Stormwind and Orgrimmar and discussing how viable pairing Anduin and Sylvanas would be, or a leader of the Alliance - let’s go with Jaina, since she’s the go-to for this sort of thing - with a leader of the Horde - Sylvanas is the go-to because she’s the central female figurehead in the Horde, but for this let’s choose, say, Baine (since he’s just as close to Jaina and Mayla hasn’t bothered to make a move on him yet, and Lor’themar and Thalyssra are off the market for the foreseeable future), or if we’re doing same-sex pairings maybe a minor leader such as Gey’arah (if you want to make her see the draenei/lightforged aren’t the same ones that glassed Draenor) or Liadrin (if you want to make Light-Void harmony as a possible focal point for marriage of convenience).

They sound like good ideas, don’t they? Until you remember everything everyone has done to each other, and what they will do to each other. I can guarantee you practically all but a few people on both sides will either laugh their asses off or grouse and proclaim, altogether, “This is a stupid fucking idea. There’s too much bad blood, Anduin is practically a kid wearing a crown too big for his head, Jaina and Vereesa still haven’t answered for the Purge of Dalaran, Gallywix is probably going to take bets no matter who we choose, half our races can’t reproduce with humans and elves, and who the hell is going to want to bang Sylvanas with ALL THAT BAGGAGE while keeping a seaforium-strong leash on Nathanos?”

Needless to say, nothing gets done about it. The talks fall through and life goes on, rebuilding from the fallout of the Burning Legion’s invasion. Everyone tries to forget the talks ever happened.

Then Teldrassil goes up like a Roman candle, and all that goes out the window. But hey, at least Genn can breathe a sigh of relief now. Sylvanas might be on the run, but all that Scarlet Crusade propaganda spreading blasphemy about his king consummating with in an undead war criminal? Burn that shit to ashes and Maw take them.