Well folks, Garrosh Hellscream has been defeated, and the two ending cinematics are now available for public consumption. Both depict the same events, but from different perspectives.
Alliance Version:
Horde Version:
To sum up:
Garrosh is not dead. Instead, defeated, he is now being sent to Pandaria to stand trial for his crimes. I think this is fantastic. We've always had supernatural villains, but it seems fitting that Garrosh, who indeed has a soul, even if he's done his best to tarnish it, should be given a proper trial and should wind up behind bars. Who knows? At some point we might even have cause to free him if he reforms. Garrosh should have always been a soldier on the front lines. Perhaps some day that will be his destiny, where he can regain his honor to atone for his sins. Not a lot of people get second chances in Azeroth. I applaud this move.
Taran Zhu, who has always been the closest thing to a leader that the anarcho-utopian Pandaren have, gets to drag Garrosh off in chains. The Pandaren are actually in a unique position, as a group that is truly neutral between the two factions, and can be trusted to hold on to a former Warchief.
But that's just part of it. Garrosh doesn't even say anything in this ending. No, what is now important is the future of the Alliance and Horde relations.
On the Alliance side of things, there's a difficult internal conflict. Varian has the Horde on its heals. Its entire leadership (even Gallywix!) is grouped together in a room with elite Alliance forces. If he wanted to, he could claim Orgrimmar for the Alliance and, as Jaina suggests, utterly dismantle the Horde.
But Varian is sick of war, and in this Siege, he's fought alongside the Horde rebellion. He's not going to be their best friends, and he lets them know in plain language that if anything resembling Garrosh happens again, the Horde is toast, but for now, he wants peace.
Wars have to end some day, and in fact it's a lot easier to end them when there's someone who can answer for the other side.
But who answers for the Horde? Thrall led the Horde during its best years, carving out a home in Kalimdor and bringing in more allies than they could have ever expected. Yet it was not Thrall who led the Horde in opposition to its tyrant. Thrall makes up for the mistake he made before the Cataclysm and does what he should have done in the first place, making Vol'jin the new Warchief of the Horde.
The dynamic has changed tremendously. The Horde is now going to have to rebuild while the Alliance can stand proud and strong. Indeed, Varian explains that while he is hesitant to mount a massive campaign to take back Azshara or invade Thunder Bluff and the Echo Isles after such a long and costly war, he is now setting his sights on re-establishing a presence at Theramore, re-taking Gilneas, and containing Sylvanas.
Vol'jin may have just become the new Warchief of the Horde, but if there's one thing that this ending cinematic establishes on both sides, it's that Varian Wrynn, King of Stromwind and High King of the Alliance, is now the most powerful person in Azeroth.
We'll have to see what happens in the next expansion to truly know what this new world will look like, but the stage has been set for a real resurgence for the Alliance.
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