In Defence of Garrosh Hellscream(World of Warcraft)
I'm so glad to have found this group! I have a lot of characters "other people hate" that I like, and want to write out what I feel about them. One of these characters just happens to be the much-maligned Garrosh Hellscream of Warcraft fame. He is described by fans as an "idiot", a tool, a jerk and in many cases, a complete douchebag. Ouch! To be fair, at one point I once shared these feelings, then came Cataclysm, and he is now one of my favorite characters of Warcraft Lore. However, despite Blizzard's attempts on developing his character, there still remains those who hate his guts and hope for Thrall's return as Warchief. For this essay I will go through the major points that are laid against him and try to rebut them.
Point 1: Garrosh killed Cairne!
This is perhaps the most obvious point laid against him. Between the expansions Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, Garrosh kills Cairne, which many fans are quick to point out against him. However this is not totally true, while it is Garrosh who chose to fight Cairne to the death, it is in reality the Grimtotem leader Magatha who really killed Cairne. She poisoned Gorehowl to allow Garrosh to win in order for her to use him as a pawn, however, once Garrosh realized what happened, he actually condemns Magatha's action instead of blessing the Grimtotem for his victory. If he was truly a jerk, would he have done that? The anwser is of course no, Garrosh condemning Magatha and the Grimtotems shows that he actually has honor, instead of being the unscrupulous warmonger that he is feared to be.
Point 2: Garrosh acts like a *$#&($ to all the Horde Leaders.
As shown by the cutscene with Vol'Jin and the backstory of Baine, Cairne's son and successor, Garrosh acts like a reckless douche that views both of them in contempt, thinking that he is better then they are! Now, before you jump onto him, you have to realize that Garrosh is just new to this job. He has only heard glory stories from Thrall, about the Horde. Now, a major reason that Garrosh act the way he did was how he was brought up, he grew up with the image of his father to be a coward who betrayed his people and that made him think he was fated to do so too. Then he learned that exactly the opposite was the case, and suddenly he was all eager and full of confidence. In one moment Garrosh has a lifetime burden lifted from his shoulders, is told that he should embrace being a Hellscream, and given a chance to join an organization that idolizes his father It becomes apparent by his own words that Garrosh's view of the Horde is an idealized one. However, that's where the problem comes from this view, it caused Garosh to act recklessly to emulate the stories that Thrall told him. Now, he seeks absolutely nothing more than to be exactly like his father , to the point where even Saurfang comments on how like Grom he is....but Saurfang knows the consequences of this behavior. But every single time he criticizes Garrosh, Garrosh takes it as an praise. What Saurfang sees as a cautionary warning is from Garrosh's viewpoint the highest possible praise. After all, his father is savior of the orcs! His father is a great hero! The blame for this can only fall on Thrall. Because when he got to Nagrand and found Garrosh paralyzed by guilt, Thrall's choice was to remove that indecision by making Grom an idealized hero and completely glossing over Garrosh's very real concerns. As one can see, Garrosh is a very young Orc, with a young orc's tendency to go to extremes, and Thrall completely failed to convey any truths of Grom's life to the young orc. When Grom slew Mannoroth at the end of WC3's Orc Campaign he actually slew his own demons as well, but without the context of his own struggles and the suffering his recklessness caused him, the story loses its cautionary bite and Grom is elevated to a idol. And that's exactly who Garrosh is trying to be, the caricature of Grom that Thrall inadvertently created for him, not his "real" father. And this all stems from Thrall's tendency to glorify of the leaders of the old Horde that he met at the end of their lives, like Doomhammer, and whitewash the atrocities that they committed against the Alliance, despite pressure from the Alliance. It makes me wonder what would have happened if Thrall had sent Saurfang, who can give a more open account of what happened to talk to Garrosh. And now Garrosh has a whole nation on his shoulders, the stories that Thrall told him has given him a totally Orc-Centric view of the world. He has no real knowledge of how a Warchief should really act, so him making mistakes like this is inevitable. However, I'm pretty sure that his time as Warchief will be his high point. From there, he'll have to learn, the way his father did, that bloodlust has costs. It seems a shame that the sins of the father are to be visited upon the son who was the most afraid of them. Now that we have more to go on, it's obvious you're not supposed to hate Garrosh and think of him as a mindless tyrant or war monger, but people want to act like they had it pegged from the beginning and now things have been changed. In the end he will make mistakes, but in my opinion he will learn from them and become a great Warchief, he has been granted a warped view of society, it's now his time to change his ways.
Point 3: Garrosh is a Warmonger! He is destroying Thrall's vision of a peaceful Horde!
While that may be true, he isn't as bad as many people feel he is. It turns out that Garrosh actually wants a "clean" and "honorable" war. He publicly executes a Horde general that bombed an Alliance villiage full of innocent people (by dropping him off a cliff), and tells Sylvanas off for using the Val'Kyr to raise more Forsaken, saying she is going against nature and is no better than the Lich King. If he was as bad as people thought he would be than he would have focused on "Total victory over honor" and would have allowed these things to happen just because victory will come faster.
Point 4: Chris Metzen wants us to hate him, he wants Thrall back and nothing can stop that!
In a recent interview Chris Metzen said that "Your Warchief will return", when questioned about Thrall's return as Warchief, Metzen stated that Thrall will return, he also stated that you shouldn't be too devoted to Garrosh or hold on to him for long. This is quite worrisome for me, because I fear that Metzen may make Garrosh evil for the express reason of us wanting Thrall to return, but from posts made by other developers working at Blizzard it seems that they want Garrosh to rise to greatness! And by Catclysm we can see both forces at work, sometimes Garrosh is portrayed as badass, other times as an idiot. However, I doubt that Metzen would really pull the plug on Garrosh, he said that Ner'Zhul will be back, however someone at Blizzard said that Ner'Zhul's story is done. Now if we consider the fact that Garrosh will be overthrown by Thrall consider this, Garrosh loses and he's going to be used as a plot device to make us LOVE Thrall more, and to keep the Orcs apologizing for starting wars. If Blizzard makes us hate him so he'll serve as a plot device to focus more on Thrall, who I used to like, but I'm getting sick of, because we're focusing too much on him, too often, and he's changed too drastically from the character I knew in WC3, the change didn't feel organic or natural for me. It feels like he's had the spotlight put on him, not like he earned it. So I doubt that Metzen will actually take these risks, and it will not in fact get back everyone who is leaving WoW but will damage the storyline even more. So in conclusion, Garrosh isn't as bad as his haters make him out to be. The worst fears about his ascension, such as him killing Draenei Children have not shown up. Any reckless act that he did in the series could be justified as being told only one side of the story of his father, which lead to simplemindedness. And it is in my mind that Blizzard wants to develop him, not derail him, if they do force us to hate him for the express purpose of making us love Thrall more. I will quit WoW because that is a truly stupid thing to do. It stagnates the story and keeps it at one point just because Metzen has a pet character in WoW. My only problem is that there should be more consistency in his character development, because it seems that he has been jumping from idiot to badass from idiot to badass every time! I think people will like him more if they did.
Point 1: Garrosh killed Cairne!
This is perhaps the most obvious point laid against him. Between the expansions Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm, Garrosh kills Cairne, which many fans are quick to point out against him. However this is not totally true, while it is Garrosh who chose to fight Cairne to the death, it is in reality the Grimtotem leader Magatha who really killed Cairne. She poisoned Gorehowl to allow Garrosh to win in order for her to use him as a pawn, however, once Garrosh realized what happened, he actually condemns Magatha's action instead of blessing the Grimtotem for his victory. If he was truly a jerk, would he have done that? The anwser is of course no, Garrosh condemning Magatha and the Grimtotems shows that he actually has honor, instead of being the unscrupulous warmonger that he is feared to be.
Point 2: Garrosh acts like a *$#&($ to all the Horde Leaders.
As shown by the cutscene with Vol'Jin and the backstory of Baine, Cairne's son and successor, Garrosh acts like a reckless douche that views both of them in contempt, thinking that he is better then they are! Now, before you jump onto him, you have to realize that Garrosh is just new to this job. He has only heard glory stories from Thrall, about the Horde. Now, a major reason that Garrosh act the way he did was how he was brought up, he grew up with the image of his father to be a coward who betrayed his people and that made him think he was fated to do so too. Then he learned that exactly the opposite was the case, and suddenly he was all eager and full of confidence. In one moment Garrosh has a lifetime burden lifted from his shoulders, is told that he should embrace being a Hellscream, and given a chance to join an organization that idolizes his father It becomes apparent by his own words that Garrosh's view of the Horde is an idealized one. However, that's where the problem comes from this view, it caused Garosh to act recklessly to emulate the stories that Thrall told him. Now, he seeks absolutely nothing more than to be exactly like his father , to the point where even Saurfang comments on how like Grom he is....but Saurfang knows the consequences of this behavior. But every single time he criticizes Garrosh, Garrosh takes it as an praise. What Saurfang sees as a cautionary warning is from Garrosh's viewpoint the highest possible praise. After all, his father is savior of the orcs! His father is a great hero! The blame for this can only fall on Thrall. Because when he got to Nagrand and found Garrosh paralyzed by guilt, Thrall's choice was to remove that indecision by making Grom an idealized hero and completely glossing over Garrosh's very real concerns. As one can see, Garrosh is a very young Orc, with a young orc's tendency to go to extremes, and Thrall completely failed to convey any truths of Grom's life to the young orc. When Grom slew Mannoroth at the end of WC3's Orc Campaign he actually slew his own demons as well, but without the context of his own struggles and the suffering his recklessness caused him, the story loses its cautionary bite and Grom is elevated to a idol. And that's exactly who Garrosh is trying to be, the caricature of Grom that Thrall inadvertently created for him, not his "real" father. And this all stems from Thrall's tendency to glorify of the leaders of the old Horde that he met at the end of their lives, like Doomhammer, and whitewash the atrocities that they committed against the Alliance, despite pressure from the Alliance. It makes me wonder what would have happened if Thrall had sent Saurfang, who can give a more open account of what happened to talk to Garrosh. And now Garrosh has a whole nation on his shoulders, the stories that Thrall told him has given him a totally Orc-Centric view of the world. He has no real knowledge of how a Warchief should really act, so him making mistakes like this is inevitable. However, I'm pretty sure that his time as Warchief will be his high point. From there, he'll have to learn, the way his father did, that bloodlust has costs. It seems a shame that the sins of the father are to be visited upon the son who was the most afraid of them. Now that we have more to go on, it's obvious you're not supposed to hate Garrosh and think of him as a mindless tyrant or war monger, but people want to act like they had it pegged from the beginning and now things have been changed. In the end he will make mistakes, but in my opinion he will learn from them and become a great Warchief, he has been granted a warped view of society, it's now his time to change his ways.
Point 3: Garrosh is a Warmonger! He is destroying Thrall's vision of a peaceful Horde!
While that may be true, he isn't as bad as many people feel he is. It turns out that Garrosh actually wants a "clean" and "honorable" war. He publicly executes a Horde general that bombed an Alliance villiage full of innocent people (by dropping him off a cliff), and tells Sylvanas off for using the Val'Kyr to raise more Forsaken, saying she is going against nature and is no better than the Lich King. If he was as bad as people thought he would be than he would have focused on "Total victory over honor" and would have allowed these things to happen just because victory will come faster.
Point 4: Chris Metzen wants us to hate him, he wants Thrall back and nothing can stop that!
In a recent interview Chris Metzen said that "Your Warchief will return", when questioned about Thrall's return as Warchief, Metzen stated that Thrall will return, he also stated that you shouldn't be too devoted to Garrosh or hold on to him for long. This is quite worrisome for me, because I fear that Metzen may make Garrosh evil for the express reason of us wanting Thrall to return, but from posts made by other developers working at Blizzard it seems that they want Garrosh to rise to greatness! And by Catclysm we can see both forces at work, sometimes Garrosh is portrayed as badass, other times as an idiot. However, I doubt that Metzen would really pull the plug on Garrosh, he said that Ner'Zhul will be back, however someone at Blizzard said that Ner'Zhul's story is done. Now if we consider the fact that Garrosh will be overthrown by Thrall consider this, Garrosh loses and he's going to be used as a plot device to make us LOVE Thrall more, and to keep the Orcs apologizing for starting wars. If Blizzard makes us hate him so he'll serve as a plot device to focus more on Thrall, who I used to like, but I'm getting sick of, because we're focusing too much on him, too often, and he's changed too drastically from the character I knew in WC3, the change didn't feel organic or natural for me. It feels like he's had the spotlight put on him, not like he earned it. So I doubt that Metzen will actually take these risks, and it will not in fact get back everyone who is leaving WoW but will damage the storyline even more. So in conclusion, Garrosh isn't as bad as his haters make him out to be. The worst fears about his ascension, such as him killing Draenei Children have not shown up. Any reckless act that he did in the series could be justified as being told only one side of the story of his father, which lead to simplemindedness. And it is in my mind that Blizzard wants to develop him, not derail him, if they do force us to hate him for the express purpose of making us love Thrall more. I will quit WoW because that is a truly stupid thing to do. It stagnates the story and keeps it at one point just because Metzen has a pet character in WoW. My only problem is that there should be more consistency in his character development, because it seems that he has been jumping from idiot to badass from idiot to badass every time! I think people will like him more if they did.