Why would an orc ever free Gul'dan at start of WoD?

[Deleted]

You do know that not all orcs follow the same leader and think the same? There are orcs that left the Iron Horde, orcs that followed the Iron Horde and orcs that followed Gul'Dan. Different orcs are different!

The Iron Horde lost every territory except Tanaan. Tanaan was full of Fel Iron Horde. Looked for me like most of the Orcs joined the Legion again.

[Kryos]

The Iron Horde lost every territory except Tanaan. Tanaan was full of Fel Iron Horde. Looked for me like most of the Orcs joined the Legion again.

And there are still orcs working for you in your garrisson (if you are horde)... different orcs are different. Even Grom did not drink the blood and he was their leader...

[Deleted]

And there are still orcs working for you in your garrisson (if you are horde)... different orcs are different. Even Grom did not drink the blood and he was their leader...

Frostwolf Orcs and Azeroth Orcs. There is no reason not to kill Grommash for his crimes, except that his 5 followers left would be mad.

[Deleted]

They didn't realize he was as big of a problem as he is. One of Gul'dan's strengths is letting or having people underestimate him repeatedly. Being smaller then most orcs certainly helps since many don't respect magic and intelligence nearly as much as they do brute strength and other tangible forms of strength and power.

Khadgar of all SURELY must've known the risks, he even warns us that freeing Gul'dan isn't a good idea. But he does it anyway? What the hell? Why not kill Gul'dan and close the portal afterwards? Gee, thanks Khadgar.

And Orc players must know the same thing, they are brought up with firsthand experience of what the Horde became under Gul'dan. If it wasn't for the mercy of the Humans they would all be extinct now. All due to Gul'dan's lust for power. Surely they would've known not to free Gul'dan under any circumstances. They'd rather fight the Iron Horde.

I guess Blizzard wanted to be creative in making the player character responsible for the next threat, even if unintentionally. But the writing could've used a few tweaks to make it more believable.

- - - Updated - - -

Frostwolf Orcs and Azeroth Orcs. There is no reason not to kill Grommash for his crimes, except that his 5 followers left would be mad.

Game mechanics saw Grommash hardly have any followers. Lore says different. He still had armies.

Besides, Grommash was tricked by Garrosh into believing the forces of Azeroth wanted to make them slaves. The vision showed him the Internment Camps. That's how this all began, it validated the war from the Iron Horde's point of view even if we know it was misguided. What if Grommash and his armies suddenly realize that we're not the bad guys but Gul'dan is, surely we could come to an agreement? Heck, he did help us take down Archimonde.

Yeah, the storyline could've played out a lot better (too much content cut, the storyline is missing parts) but ultimately that's what Blizzard wanted to tell us in the end cinematic. That Grommash made up for his mistakes and wants to work together with us.

[Deleted]

because it was necessary to shut down the portal..?

they had to otherwise they couldnt close the portal?

Yes, but since the iron orcs had been pushed back and orcs loved a fight, why would they want to close the portal when they can get great battle at it for free? Is it not their tradition? To fight and die with honour?

ya that was one thing that always really bothered me about the beginning scenario of WoD. Why would ANY race knowing what we know, after traveling to outlands, etc. EVER free gul'dan. I feel like even with the might of the iron horde knocking on azeroth's door, I would still rather fight a war with them attempting to come through the portal, than release guldan.

i mean look at the mess we are in now. legion is here, why...guldan...what a surprise freeing guldan led to the legion.

I thought it very strange playing through with my draenai. why on earth would a draenai free guldan either?!

You know, that's a great point for draenei, since they actually knew about orcs good and we didn't yet know of the captive draenei and all that.

Why ? Its obvious. For opportunity for a sweet orc damnation/redemption story arc !

You know, if they try to redem Gul'dan, it would be like the weirdest thing ever, it would be one story I would never believe, I'd keep wondering if it's all a big troll.

[RedGamer030]

Because he was being used to keep the portal open. However I would think ANY character would have killed Gul'dan then and there while he was helplessly restrained...

[Lupinemancer]

Because an Orc's brain pretty much works like this, "Me told to do, so me do!!!"

[Asotcha]

The question isn't why would anyone free him, but why Khadgar didn't just drop a Prismatic Crystal and go ham while he was imprisoned.

That would have been fantastic lol

- - - Updated - - -

Because he was being used to keep the portal open. However I would think ANY character would have killed Gul'dan then and there while he was helplessly restrained...

Imagine if there was some way to keep him imprisoned and cart him to a city--I'd have made him into a training dummy for lowbies

[Deleted]

i wanted to stab him in the face.
NO MORE FCKING ORCS!
burn them! kill them! SLAUGHTER THEM!

It's ok, many of us wanted to do that to Grom. Heck, I wouldn't have objected if Yrel stabbed him either, but still him being our cheer leader was... odd to say the least.

Bullshit. Grommash complimented us and through humility shown that he learned his lesson.

"I have learned my lesson heroes, thank you for that"
*heroes leave to battle the Legion*
Random Grunt: "Warchief, a draenei child has thrown a rock at an orc!"
Grom: "Arraugh! KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL!"
Grunt: "But didn't we tell the aliens that we wouldn't do such a thing an..."
*Grunt is cleaved in half by Grom*

Taking a rogue with us and letting him backstab Gul'dan immediatly after we freed him?

This is actually funny considering I did that quest on 3 chars recently and on every occasion he just passes by me. You'd think my night elf rogue could actually stab him at the very least.

Did you even watch the intro cinematic when you go through the Dark Portal to Draenor for the first time? The orcs in Blasted Lands are but a scouting party. When you get through the portal you see the massive army, and the massive weapons of war, they have ready to cross the portal. If that army crossed the portal, it would mean a lot of destruction to Azeroth. They had to find a way to close the portal, and freeing the Shadow Council was the way to do that. There wasn't even a guarantee that it would close if you just killed them. You had to remove the runes.

Yes, but the portal is still a choke point. They can only pass few at a time, so a few demolishers or cannons would wipe them out no matter if they were 10 or 10 billion since they'd come in by 20-30 at a time. In fact, that's how we deal with Legion forces (until now).

We know that this universe is not exactly the same as ours since there was no Iron Horde in our past. If we killed him on the spot, we would be punishing alt-Gul'dan for things we know OUR Gul'dan did. In this universe he appears to be a victim.

It's similar to the idea behind Minority Report. In that movie, the idea was that we shouldn't punish those for what their likely future will bring. And when we walk onto alt-Draenor we have no proof of any wrong-doings by alt-Gul'dan.

So far most in the thread has been advocating "kill him because it's too dangerous to let him live" when given no proof of guilt. That is what bad guys try to do, not what the heroes do.

I actually didn't think of it that way, thanks for pointing it out, that's a great point actually. Indeed we didn't know much of this world yet except that the Iron Horde was the enemy and Gul'dan was also their enemy.
Good point.

[Krawu]

Probably because at the time it seemed like the smaller evil.. I mean, it was that or losing all of Azeroth to another invasion of orcs, this time equipped with the newest in Goblin technology, knowledge of what to expect in terms of resistance and a coherent plan. It was bad enough when they had just axes.

But I think this is where Blizzard robbed themselves of an amazing opportunity of actually letting players SEE how badly Azeroth was being hit by the Iron Invasion. Instead we got one lame pre-expansion quest chain where we completely obliterated any Iron Horde in the blasted lands and then entered the dark portal immediately. All the while I was thinking "Why even do this? There's no urgency whatsoever!"
What they should've done is have one or two full questing areas with players doing damage control and protecting evacuees from completely destroyed towns before sending us through. Let us see some of the destruction wrought by the Iron Horde Blizzard, not just have us kill 20 orcs in a boring desert. But I guess they were too busy making garrisons...

[dokilar]

big ole hole in the plot armor if you ask me

[Deleted]

Honestly? Because Khadgar told them, plain and simple.

Plus, he's awesome dammit I would free him too and feed him Jaina even.

[Wildberry]

Some orcs see Gul'Dan as some Republicans see Donald Trump. He is the orc that will make orcs great again. He tells the orcs that his green juice will make orcs awesome and strong and ready to conquer and win the whole world. Many orcs believe him and follow him. They ignore everthing bad that comes when you become part of the Legion. They think they will become so powerful that they can even beat the Legion and conquer the universe.

"Let me just shoehorn in my distaste for nationalism into WoW lore."

If you actually wanted to make a proper comparison, Donald Trump would be closest to Garrosh Hellscream.

[Hyve]

Because the only way to prevent the invasion of Azeroth to do so?

[McNeil]

Never look to much into WoD's lore. As far as I know, we've just executed Garrosh after SoO while some imposter Gul'Dan is now trying to capture Illidan for some reason. And Legion shit happening.

How it should've ended:

*Encounters Gul'Dan*

Gul'Dan: Free me mortal... if you wish to save your world from the Iron Horde.

Player: HOLY SH*T ITS GUL'DAN! Better inform Khadgar!

*Player informs Khadgar*

Khadgar: So Gul'Dan himself is shackled to fuel the power with energy? Let me come with you, so that I can imprison him the moment he's released.

*Khadgar imprisons Gul'Dan*

Gul'Dan: FFFUUUU

After that we'd continue to steamroll the Iron Horde and avoided the Legion from invading us.

[Ornerybear]

Never look to much into WoD's lore. As far as I know, we've just executed Garrosh after SoO while some imposter Gul'Dan is now trying to capture Illidan for some reason. And Legion shit happening.

How it should've ended:

*Encounters Gul'Dan*

Gul'Dan: Free me mortal... if you wish to save your world from the Iron Horde.

Player: HOLY SH*T ITS GUL'DAN! Better inform Khadgar!

*Player informs Khadgar*

Khadgar: So Gul'Dan himself is shackled to fuel the power with energy? Let me come with you, so that I can imprison him the moment he's released.

*Khadgar imprisons Gul'Dan*

Gul'Dan: FFFUUUU

After that we'd continue to steamroll the Iron Horde and avoided the Legion from invading us.

next expansion plot confirmed. we goto the au of au draenor to stop guldan and then we get a revamped wod and stop the iron horde again.

[Melsiren]

The player of -any- race should have just killed Gul'dan then and there.

If Gul'dan was to get free, it should have been by him tricking us.

[nonameelf]

I'm pretty sure Blizzard just let the story team's 12 year old kids write WoD's story while the rest went on vacation or something. There's really no excuse for how horribly written WoD was.

[OIS]

We know that this universe is not exactly the same as ours since there was no Iron Horde in our past. If we killed him on the spot, we would be punishing alt-Gul'dan for things we know OUR Gul'dan did. In this universe he appears to be a victim.

It's similar to the idea behind Minority Report. In that movie, the idea was that we shouldn't punish those for what their likely future will bring. And when we walk onto alt-Draenor we have no proof of any wrong-doings by alt-Gul'dan.

So far most in the thread has been advocating "kill him because it's too dangerous to let him live" when given no proof of guilt. That is what bad guys try to do, not what the heroes do.

Got a good laugh out of this. While offering a good point, you ignored the fact that Gul'dan was being imprisoned alongside Teron'gor and Cho'gall. Teron'gor even thanks the player character on behalf of the Shadow Council(Shadow Council!) after he was released. Not to mention both him and Gul'dan were green skinned, meaning that they have drunk the blood of Mannoroth on that timeline as well.

Not to mention that player characters are not so heroic. Sure, we may have saved the world for a couple times, but let's not kid ourselves, we did it for gold and loot. We are mercenaries at best, no matter how much the game tries to sell us as big damn heroes, this won't change.

[Deleted]

Who even knows, orcs are not known for their brains. Dumbness is unfortunately a curse that seems to have struck everyone even remotely involved with hoard affairs.