Garrosh Hellscream was maybe the first WoW-original character to be a major player in the game. Introduced first in Burning Crusade, we watched as he took all the wrong lessons from the story of his father's redemption, became the very brutal Warchief he had feared he would become, fell from power after the Horde could no longer bear his tyranny, and finally died in an alternate version of Draenor after he had turned traitor not only to the Horde but even his own universe.
Garrosh's story is over, and his popularity or infamy among players is more or less settled - I seriously doubt we'll ever see more of him, as his story is basically told.
Leveling up my new Zandalari Shaman, I did the quests in Stonetalon Mountains and was struck by the very different characterization of Garrosh we get there.
Cataclysm marked the middle expansion of Garrosh's existence as a character, and it was as this one launched that the Horde saw Thrall step down as Warchief and give Garrosh his seat. Despite his early reluctance to do even enough to defend Garadar during Burning Crusade, Wrath saw Garrosh lead Horde forces there with impetuousness and encouraged far more reckless and brutal tactics, such as assaulting Alliance forces during a push against Icecrown that led to a slaughter of both Alliance and Horde forces that the Scourge put to use by raising the dead.
Garrosh's effect on the culture of the Horde was evident in Northrend, where players were forced to deal with warmongering officers who had clearly taken Garrosh's attitude toward the campaign.
Garrosh's ascent to Warchief saw the Horde mechanize and push their war against the Alliance into overdrive. Cataclysm saw Garrosh's influence on the culture spread globally, and this came to a head in Stonetalon Mountains, where Overlord Krom'gar ultimately decides to bomb a Night Elf grove full of what appear to be teenagers training to be druids. The grove is Cenarion Circle, not Alliance, but Krom'gar decides to have it destroyed, even killing a Tauren boy studying there.
When Krom'gar has the grove bombed, Garrosh ports in with a number of Kor'kron bodyguards and immediately condemns Krom'gar, throwing him off a cliff as punishment for this massacre, claiming that Krom'gar had failed to uphold the Horde's honor.
Now, there is a lot to be said about whether this act is hypocritical (short version: it is,) but it's striking given that Garrosh had, in most other appearances, embodied a "win at all costs and make them suffer for defying us" attitude when it comes to the prosecution of the war with the Alliance. Here, however, he has principles - lines that one cannot cross.
What would have happened if we'd gotten more of that Garrosh?
One could have imagined, for example, that Garrosh would evolve over the course of the game. Knowing little other than stories of the Old Horde, he began his career in the modern one with a sense that brutality is just how things are done. But after spending some time with Varok Saurfang, who remembers how horrible the "good old days" are, he might have started to develop a more nuanced worldview.
Still, he's a solider, and not a shaman like Thrall. He's there to win the fight. But maybe he would have dedicated his thoughts not to his literally-fascistic system of racial superiority but instead thinking tactically and strategically. Maybe this Garrosh could have learned to appreciate the Alliance - not befriend them, but understand them better and thus be a far bigger threat.
The Horde seems to vacillate between monstrously evil Warchiefs and utopian idealists. I would have loved to see Garrosh hone his warrior instincts and broaden his abilities to political manipulation. The moment he was Warchief, he already made an enemy of Vol'jin and Cairne - two of the Horde's most popular leaders. Now, you could chalk that up as rookie mistakes. Maybe killing Cairne by accidental means could have shaken him out of that mindset. It could have taught him something about the ability for a tightly bound regime like the Horde to fracture - and that could have inspired him to see how he might create fractures within the Alliance.
See, Sylvanas' gambit at Teldrassil was to divide the Alliance, and while there has been some of that - with Tyrande and Malfurion focusing their efforts of Darkshore while the rest of the Alliance is concerned with Zandalar, one never gets the sense that there is anything near the deadly game of cloak and daggers that is happening with the Horde.
Wouldn't it be more interesting if a Horde leader was willing to flash a smile of false friendship while subtly encouraging elements in the Alliance to start questioning the direction they were going?
To put it simply: what if Garrosh hadn't been some dumb roid-rager, but was instead a brilliant tactician?
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