Archimonde Fight Spoilers

Archimonde is the final boss of the Hellfire Citadel raid (Archimonde B, that is, given that our version died in WCIII, but I'll trust everyone to understand the whole "alternate universe" thing.) The fight looks pretty intense, and it definitely looks like a pretty big epic culmination of the raid, and potentially the expansion (though recent news makes me doubt that a bit.)

However, one major detail of the fight is actually a pretty big spoiler for the fate of a certain character - I'm trying to be vague here to give anyone trying to avoid the spoilers a chance to read the warning.

Got it? Ok. Spoiler Town:


During the fight, you'll be aided by Khadgar, Yrel, and Grommash Hellscream. That's right, the big bad orc on the box isn't the final boss of the expansion - he's fighting against the (possible) final boss of the expansion!

As many have been saying throughout this expansion, Grommash is a very different kind of "main villain" than what we've seen before. The Lich King and Deathwing were 100% pure, grade-A evil, both trying to bring about different-flavored apocalypses. Illidan, admittedly, was really just trying to control Outland, but the true final boss of BC, Kil'jaeden, was totally in that same category. Garrosh's vision for Azeroth may not have been a technical "everyone dies" apocalypse, but he absolutely wanted everyone under his bootheel, and had he succeeded, Azeroth would probably have become an Orwellian nightmare for those who weren't just slaughtered by him.

The point is, whether they were dictators or mass murderers, none of the main villains of any of the expansions could claim to be at all altruistic.

Grommash, on the other hand, actually thinks he's doing the right thing. Sure, it's a fuzzy line when considering his predecessor/quasi-son. Garrosh, after all, felt he was making the Horde what it was supposed to be. But morality and the well-being of his people was just not part of the equation for the younger Hellscream. Yes, Garrosh wanted what was "best" for the Orcs, but you could only call him amoral at your most charitable, and doing so would require you to ignore the hatred and viciousness that he never denied.

Grommash, however, is fighting to save his people. He formed the Iron Horde specifically to avoid what has happened due to Kilrogg's betrayal. Garrosh showed him the depravity to which the original Horde sank, and saw their eventual punishment in the internment camps following the Second War, but effectively edited out all the redeeming aspects of the Horde that we know today. Grommash was only allowed to see the evils of our timeline, and in his ignorance, rallied his people to fight against it.

Did Grommash allow horrible things to be done in the name of fighting that fate? Absolutely. In fact, by letting Ner'zhul commune with the Void, he effectively repeated Garrosh's mistake of thinking "evil, corrupting influences are fine as long as they're not demons." Grommash has been a villain. But he's a far more sympathetic villain than we've had in the past, as he's doing what he thinks is right with the information he has. He's not driven by some mad ideology, personal greed and pride (ok, maybe a little of the latter,) or a vindictive ideology that willfully ignores the value of the people he's designated his enemies.

The fate of Garrosh Hellscream was fairly tragic because there was, in fact, something within him that might have been redeemed. When we first met him, he knew that power could corrupt him, and in his early days as Warchief, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to articulate a code of honor to instill in his version of the Horde. But Garrosh allowed his impatience and his hatred to turn him into exactly what he had worried he would become (which oddly reminds me of the eventual fate of Nozdormu.)

But what's exciting about this story is that it looks like Grommash will, indeed redeem himself. Is he going to die delivering the deathblow to Archimonde as he did in our universe killing Mannoroth? Maybe. That'd be the ideal Orcish death, and it's one that is, I'm sure, tempting to the writers of the story, given how it so neatly ties up his story.

But what I think would be more interesting is if we got the stubborn, prideful Grommash to not only admit his mistakes, but actually have to live with the consequences. Redemption-by-death is relatively easy, especially for an Orc whose culture is built around the glory of war. To me, a much more satisfying ending would see Grommash now shouldering the burden of rebuilding the world his Iron Horde tore apart.