[Spoilers!] And the New Warchief Is...Follow

I didn't see that coming.


SpoilerVarian actually acting like a reasonable human being, I mean.

Meh.

I kinda like Vol'jin, but I still think Thrall should stop ******** around with The Earthen Ring and pick up the Warchief mantle again. But I guess this will give the design team an excuse to remodel Orgrimmar - again.

I want trial dramas. Some minions of an old god break him out of his jail cell or something.

Um, Jaina was only in the cinematic in like two shots. Did you freeze frame to check her facial expression or something?

I could see a Jaina vs Sylvanas story unfolding in the next expansion. That would be awesome. Cat fight!

I was hoping they'd somehow pull Rexxar out of nowhere. Wouldn't have been more unreasonable than Garrosh. And way cooler. Saurfang was a close second for me.

Vol'jin, although not my first choice is fine too. I for one am happy Thrall didn't come back. I loved him during WC3 but in WoW he never stroke me as a compelling character. Especially since Cataclysm.

I'm cool with Vol'jin. He seems like a nice guy and all.

People always talk about Vol'jin, or Thrall, or Sylvanas, or that Tauren. Nobody seems to even consider the Blood Elf guy. How do you know he hasn't got some good ideas? The Horde discriminates against pretty people.

He's not really in a huge place of power.

The BEs were only brought into the Horde as part of Thrall's attempts to play nicely with Sylvanas. At the time, the Blood Knights were their major bargaining chip, with additional magical support on top of it.

Come Wrath, they were at their apex of power in the Horde. Bringing the Sunreavers back into Dalaran was a powerful alliance for the Horde to have, and the BEs were the ones managing it. So between their Paladins and the magical support they could offer, they were highly valued.

But then comes Cata. Garrosh's agents within the Sunreavers destroy their credibility and lose the BEs that Alliance. Add in the fact that the Sunreavers quickly came to blame Garrosh as one of the people responsible for their fate (having FINALLY reached a state of credibility and relative peace in Dalaran and the Kirin Tor, which he shattered). They are a group with a great deal of power and influence in Silvermoon, but that just leaves the city divided. After all, the Blood Elves wanted Arthas dead nearly as much as the Forsaken, and Garrosh was the hero of Northrend.

TL;DR: idiggory is avoiding work.

SpoilerSo now Lor'themar is in a rough spot. The bulk of his most influential people are in an uproar, and his most powerful groups have had their credibility shattered under Garrosh's rule. He knows he needs the Warchief gone for the BEs to survive.

But he also isn't super rich in allies. The BEs and Trolls have tons of animosity left (and Lor'themar throwing his full support behind Vol'Jin is probably hurting him politically in Silvermoon, though it's probably going to do wonders for their international relations). Sylvanas would never throw her support behind Lor'Themar, because he's not someone she can trust to be her puppet, as he actually does have a sense of Justice, and the Blood Elves have begun to leave their bloodlust behind.

So... yeah. In terms of realistic options, I'd say the list looked like Vol'Jin > Saurfang > Baine > Sylvanas (through a double coup).


The thing I'm most disappointed in, though, is what they've done to Jaina. I can't find her characterization or development real or understandable at this point. She's someone who watched her home fall to an undead plague, who lost someone she loved dearly to madness, who agreed to fight against her own father for the sake of peace and the prosperity of the Horde, who continued to argue for peace even through Wrath, and was yet present at Thrall's wedding.

And in one expac I'm supposed to believe she'd become a warmonger that would call for the total conquest of the horde? That she'd agree to have Sunreaver civilians slaughtered because they wouldn't give up their allegiances? I don't buy it.

Then again, forced character development has probably been my constant complaint about the writing in WoW, so.

Edited, Sep 13th 2013 10:18am by idiggory

My guess is that he won't stay in prison for long.

Even if he breaks out, what's he going to do?

He won't have Gorehowl, I assume they exorcised the Sha from him (given the lack of sha energy on him in the video), and he has no band of proud warriors to back him up; most (all?) of them died during the Siege.

He couldn't win WITH the Sha, his band of warriors, Gorehowl, and Orgrimmar under his boot... what is he going to do WITHOUT those things, while in the heart of a continent full of people who hate him for ruining their land?

The only thing he could possibly do would be to make some sort of pact with the demons if we end up getting Burning Crusade 2.0, assuming the next expansion deals with the Burning Legion, but I'm not sure they'd be too terribly interested in him, after his abysmal failures.