User blog comment:Aretain King/The Seven Kingdoms and War/@comment-644222-20160211000226/@comment-644222-20160211020150

Except Genn's change wasn't a retcon. It was explained as a shift in his personality from his old ways after his son was murdered and he realized "Hey, we can't do this alone all the time". Liam was always a preacher of more amicable relations and a unified front rather than standing alone, which is something Genn had built into his head by his father. Liam's death had the effect of changing him. Also, Genn -didn't- want to join, his original decision was actually to not join until Godfrey, Crowley and Ashbury said to do so for the benefits. Genn's personified as stubborn, not stupid; Stormwind was just obliterated by a force they'd never seen in their lives. Even then, they sent token support and it was to stop an alien menace. It was an ends justify the means thing as Gilneas basically had no other choice.

Also to quote the interview you're saying retcons, it doesn't do that at all, actually, it states it's a logical change in his persona after traumatic events.

''I think you're dead on. And then when suddenly had to make a character that was going to be a racial leader, do we want that same guy that was a complete jerk? And to be honest, some of that just fell to the themes that are present in Gilneas. It's a culture that walled itself off from the rest of the world. Previously we had a said this was just to protect themselves(The Gilneans). But what kind of culture breeds a decision like that? So, to me it wasn't so much that Genn was a jerk but he was just self-reliant. He believes in the superiority of his people, the strength of his people and not asking others for help. That is a sign of weakness. His father Archibald came out of that and there's a character there. It, in a way, defined the ideals of the Gilneas culture. Because they are very advanced, it's very Victorian. They seem to have industry there, that ethos builds that industry. So he was prideful, but he gets put in a place. And that was really the point of the short story I wrote. He has to relook at his entire values. His culture has to look at its entire values system, and in that way we can make him more relatable''