With the Siege of Orgrimmar approaching, there is a question that many people have raised: What will be Garrosh's Ultimate Fate?
In the past, the big, expansion-wide villains have been monstrous, dangerous abominations. Illidan had literally transformed into a demon. Arthas has long ago lost his soul. Deathwing had transformed into a ball of fiery rage, literally bursting at the seams with hatred.
But Garrosh is really just a man. He's not inherently evil the way that demonic corruption, soulless undeath, or the taint of the Old Gods will make you. No, Garrosh is merely ambitious, reckless, and devoted to a worldview that puts his and his peoples' well-being far ahead of any of the other mortal races.
One could argue, actually, that the fact that Garrosh is doing all this on his own volition makes him more evil. Deathwing was a champion of good and order, but his mind was rewritten by the Old Gods. Arthas had certainly done a lot of bad things before he took up Frostmourne, but at least in his mind he was doing it for the greater good. It was only after his soul was stolen from him that he began to pursue true, vindictive evil. Illidan used his demonic power to save the world twice, and it was only after he was exiled for his methods that he fell into a cycle of paranoia and power-attainment.
On the other hand, Garrosh has two factors to mitigate our opinion of him. First of all, in his mind, he may believe that he is, actually, doing what is best for Azeroth. He's seen the Scourge and led the Horde against Twilight's Hammer. He knows that strength is needed to defend the world. Granted, his pursuit of strength and power has led him to an "ends justify the means" mentality where the means are actually harming the stated ends. The other factor is that Garrosh is ultimately doing pretty much what he was told to do. Thrall chose him because he felt the Horde needed the kind of heroic legend he had heard about the Old Horde having. The problem is that Thrall's rose-colored-glasses view of that Horde made him think that people like Doomhammer and his ilk were heroes, when in fact they were brutes and warmongers who waged an unrelenting war against the native inhabitants of Azeroth. The Horde considers the Orcish internment camps to be the original sin that created their conflict with the Alliance, which is so utterly myopic to be self-delusional. The internment camps were bad, yes, but compared the the actions of Doomhammer's Horde, they were a kindness.
So in Thrall's telling Garrosh to embody that Old Horde, Garrosh has done exactly as he was told. Is this a great excuse? No, Garrosh is an individual who ought to know that what he is doing is wrong, but his internal moral compass is so weak that all he can do is imitate the stories he has heard of.
The point is: with better guidance, Garrosh could have been a hero. The question now becomes "is he too far-gone?"
If the defeat of Garrosh leads to his death, it can hardly be said that he did not deserve it. After destroying the Vale of Eternal Blossoms, nuking Theramore, and turning Orgrimmar into a police state where trolls are gunned down in the streets, there's plenty of evidence there to put him in front of a firing squad. Not to mention the fact that the last phase of his fight appears to have him willingly soak himself in Sha-energy (or, more accurately, the essence of Y'shaarj - note the colors.) After an action such as that, there may be very little of the mortal orc left to redeem.
But suppose that that essence can be taken out of him - perhaps because Y'shaarj is truly dead, and not merely dormant the way that Yogg-Saron and C'thun likely are (seeing as we don't see Sha, or rather Sar and Thu, all over Northrend and Kalimdor respectively, one can probably assume that C'thun and Yogg-Saron are still somehow alive.) If we can cleanse Garrosh and stun him long enough to talk some sense into him, what then?
Exile would be a possibility, perhaps sending him back to Garadar. That would seem a little dangerous, though, seeing as he might rally the Fel Orcs to his cause if he decided he wasn't really interested in redemption. And if he was willing to douse himself in Y'shaarj's blood, you can sure as hell bet he'll drink the first Pit Lord's blood he comes across (though that could have some interesting interactions, the Forsaken Alchemist in me thinks.) Might he be imprisoned? That would seem a better option. A kind of years-long time-out so he could think about what he had done. The Alliance would have an interest in locking him up (if they didn't just chop off his head.) If Varian drags Garrosh away in chains at the end of the raid, that would A. give the Alliance a cool thing to do for once, and B. be a potential source of contention, as the Horde would feel that they should be the ones keeping him prisoner.
If the Horde were feeling super absurdly forgiving, bumping Garrosh down to a mere soldier would be an option (something he should have been from the beginning.) Still, I don't think it would be all that wise to put him in a position with any power again, including just giving him a weapon of any sort.
So far, we haven't tended to see many successful redemptions of characters in WoW. Player Death Knights and the Knights of the Ebon Blade basically achieved this. The Forsaken would seem to be redeemed, but Sylvanas is taking them down a far more Scourge-y path. The Blood Elves were not really evil, per se, but ditching Kael'thas was a really good move on their part. The Orcs of the previous generation largely succeeded in redeeming themselves (Grom Hellscream, for example,) but their children seem to have misunderstood all the history lessons they got.
I think it would be a cool move if Blizzard could find a way to redeem Garrosh. In a future article I'll talk about other characters who could be redeemed in some way, and what it could mean for the story and the game.
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