Gul'dan is now officially one of the greatest WoW villains

[Deleted]

It's more than he just wants to be a bully, and the killing everyone has more to do with who he serves. But basically, now that Gul'dan has tasted real power, he is 100% determined to never be under someone else's boot ever again. So as long as there is someone more powerful than him, he will seek to gain more power. Serving the Legion is his shortcut to that power, which atm puts him under kil'jeadon, but he has no desire to stay there and certainly see's himself as better than any of the other servants.

You can think of it a lot like Sylvanas' taste of true death, an experience so traumatizing that she is 100% determined to find a way to never die again. I haven't played the beta but I'm going to guess that she is far more interested in the Val'kyr peoples than in finding the Pillars of Creation she's supposed to be there for.

I got the impression that he's fine with serving now that he understands that he's part of a bigger whole. He actually gave up all that power in the tomb, to serve.

[Stormwolf64]

I think he's become a ridiculous comic book villain.

[Varitok]

Illidan isn't really bad, just misunderstood. Watch the DH intro cinematic to figure that out.

He was never misunderstood until that was released. He was going insane because of his fel corruption before, its why altruis left his charge. It really is disappointing for them to come back and try to retcon a lot of his development. Just should have left it alone.

[sheggaro]

The best characters are those that you can really hate, love or feel sorry for.

It's easy to hate Gul'dan.

[rasako]

See, to me that's exactly why I find him to be a poorly written villain. Why is destroying everything so important to him and what is he getting out of it? All you ever really know is that he wants power, they don't really expand on what he wants to do with all that power. He's evil for the sake of being evil, and that's pretty boring. I prefer when there's a motive. Illidan might have been "generic" but he had a cause. His actions were all supposed to lead him to a goal, morals be damned.

Arthas was an amazing villain because there was a great story being told. He started out as a hero trying to save his people and ended up being one of the greatest threat his people ever faced. There's something very tragic and ironic about his story, but it's also hard to feel too bad for him because he was arrogant and over-zealous as well. His thirst for revenge consumed him and he made questionable moral choices that lead up to him becoming a Death Knight.

Gul'dan is one-dimensional. They add a lot to his story, but they don't develop the character itself. He's bad because he's just bad.

What are you talking about? Gul'dan is similar to Illidan in the sense that they are both power-mongers. Illidan just has some sense of a moral compass left in him, while Gul'dan just gives no fucks. Gul'dan has plenty of motivation, especially after his harbingers short.

[HHHGame78]

He was never misunderstood until that was released. He was going insane because of his fel corruption before, its why altruis left his charge. It really is disappointing for them to come back and try to retcon a lot of his development. Just should have left it alone.

It's not retconning, he was always a do anything necessary to stop the Legion guy. That doesn't make him evil.

[Varitok]

It's not retconning, he was always a do anything necessary to stop the Legion guy. That doesn't make him evil.

He was going insane, if you pay attention to the quests in shadowmoon involving him killing people and slowly getting corrupted to the point of going crazy. its the reason Altruis left and it is totally a "ILLIDAN DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!!" type of story we have now. Look at the story in Outland, He thought he defeated Arthas when he went to Northrend. It should have served as a warning to the Illidari to be strong enough to resist the voice and corruption.

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The best characters are those that you can really hate, love or feel sorry for.

It's easy to hate Gul'dan.

I think the best type of Villians are the ones you have a hard time faulting them for why they did it.

[Deleted]

I agree with you, especially after listening to the audio drama. Gul'dan is a great villian.

[Deleted]

It's not retconning, he was always a do anything necessary to stop the Legion guy. That doesn't make him evil.

Doesn't Illidan work for the Burning Legion in WC3 FT? My memory is a bit hazy on it but I'm pretty sure he is taking orders from Kil'jaden?

[Deleted]

id like to see gul'dan raise to be a lieutenant of Sargeras like archimonde and kil'jaeden kinda style, since he proved loyalty in the 4 part story blizzard did. So transform him into demon like orc version of eredar that way he is immortal like archimonde and such and can be used later even if we kill him in nighthold.

if you mean that audio thing, all it proved to the burning legion is that guldan will take everything he can get and doublecross them as soon as he feels he has enough power for it.

guldan is the typical turncoat character...he hangs his flag into the wind,not because he likes the wind, but because he wants to become the wind. There is no future for him with the burning legion and he knows it and even tho kj suspected it, he cant be anything else but certain since the events at the tomb sargeras. They both just use the other to get what they want.

kj uses guldan to conquer azeroth, apparently the only planet out of tens of thousands that cant be conquered easily by the legion and guldan is their best shot for succeeding in this, which is why guldan is still alive.
guldan will try to rake in as much power as he can before he outlives his usefullness for the legion, thats all he can do after he showed his cards in the tomb of sargeras.

[Flaks]

See, to me that's exactly why I find him to be a poorly written villain. Why is destroying everything so important to him and what is he getting out of it? All you ever really know is that he wants power, they don't really expand on what he wants to do with all that power. He's evil for the sake of being evil, and that's pretty boring. I prefer when there's a motive. Illidan might have been "generic" but he had a cause. His actions were all supposed to lead him to a goal, morals be damned.

Arthas was an amazing villain because there was a great story being told. He started out as a hero trying to save his people and ended up being one of the greatest threat his people ever faced. There's something very tragic and ironic about his story, but it's also hard to feel too bad for him because he was arrogant and over-zealous as well. His thirst for revenge consumed him and he made questionable moral choices that lead up to him becoming a Death Knight.

Gul'dan is one-dimensional. They add a lot to his story, but they don't develop the character itself. He's bad because he's just bad.

There's nothing one dimensional about guldan. There's no obvious motive behind what AU guldan and the legion are after. They are NOT after the destruction of everything. Listen to the audio drama. It explains a ton and adds even more depth than the WoD legendary questline already did to an awesome character that puts the old guldan to shame.

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kj uses guldan to conquer azeroth, apparently the only planet out of tens of thousands that cant be conquered easily by the legion and guldan is their best shot for succeeding in this, which is why guldan is still alive.
guldan will try to rake in as much power as he can before he outlives his usefullness for the legion, thats all he can do after he showed his cards in the tomb of sargeras.

Azeroth is a Titan. We don't know what the legion truly wants from us or it. Guldan has left his double crossing days behind once he figured out the legion has too.

[Shibito]

No other villain since Arthas Menethil (The Lich King) has had nearly as much development in the WoW lore.

Blizzard reduced Illidan into a generic bad guy in BC (Hopefully to be addressed in Legion). Deathwing was just "RAAARRAARRR, I'M A BIG EVIL DRAGON" and Garrosh was just a warmongering c***.

Gul'dan has been shown to be diabolical, manipulative and ruthless in his appearances. He takes delight in being evil and trying to bring his demon lords plans to fruition. Plus, what happens during the Broken Shore actually gives the players a true motive to want to kill him at the end of the Nighthold raid. All the aspects of a great villain.

Despite Warlords of Draenor being the worst WoW expansion, bar none. We can at least praise Blizzard for bringing this version of Gul'dan into the spotlight.

Who else agrees with me on this? Discuss.

How does it give anyone but the alliance players true motive to kill him? He blew apart your king not like the horde should hate him any more.

[Flaks]

sorry but no, a great villian is one you like better than the heros and thus guldan ddoesnt qualify

IMO no current hero compares to how awesome guldan is except Khadgar. All the faction leaders are lame as hell. The villains this time around are getting great focus. Love how xavius is just annihilating us at every turn in valsharah.

[McNeil]

Well first of all we have 2 different Gul'dans, I'll assume this thread is about AU. But unlike the original Gul'dan, this one is just another one of the Legions many lackeys who gets ordered around and relies most of his strength to them. Gul'dan failed epicly in WoD, he lost Cho'Gall who he needed for a secret power source, he lost in Auchindoun where he lost Teron'Gor twice, he did succeed in taking over the remaining Iron Horde who again fail all over in 6.2. And while he did summon Archimonde in time, apparently it didn't do any good for him either. This one time in Broken Shore was where he accomplished in killing 2 major faction leaders, but even then its because of the demons who were sent by his master. Gul'dan just approached Varian after he was stabbed and being unable to fight back. I can give most credit to his character design, and voice and overall his dark warlockish theme. And he's still one of my favorite villains, but I prefer the original Gul'dan a lot more.

WoW has some better villains, the most obvious one being Arthas who has a lot of depth and motivations. Illidan and Deathwing were pretty much wasted, but I do give credit to Garrosh who I think is also a better villain then Gul'dan. He was his own master and almost succeeded in conquering Azeroth for his own, while he still left some marks behind that also led us to having to deal with AU Old Horde. And then ofcourse the Old Gods, who continue to be extremely damaging to Azeroth, especially at the end of Ulduar where Algalon almost blew up Azeroth because of Yogg.

[Deleted]

Well first of all we have 2 different Gul'dans, I'll assume this thread is about AU. But unlike the original Gul'dan, this one is just another one of the Legions many lackeys who gets ordered around and relies most of his strength to them.

MU Gul'dan and AU Gul'dan are the same. That was the point of the Audio Novel.

MU Gul'dan also failed epically during the First and Second War, to the point that he betrayed the Horde just to be killed like a chump inside the Tomb. The difference here is that Kil'jaeden shown AU Gul'dan that he wouldn't stand a chance being all alone in Azeroth. MU Gul'dan didn't got that deal presented to him.

[Thrif]

He's not "one of", he is the greatest wow villain. He has been around since War1, he was the official enemy of the movie, and was the end-boss of an expansion, he well broken shore... Basically he's the harbringer of Sargeras, and Sargeras himself is more of a faceless threat than a villain.

In terms of scale, longevity, development and just general how much of a threat he is, Gul'Dan is untouchable as a villain. People might like Arthas a whole lot, but objectively there's no comparison.

[Flaks]

How does it give anyone but the alliance players true motive to kill him? He blew apart your king not like the horde should hate him any more.

Yes the horde really shouldn't care about the guy who enslaved them and made them lose their home, then try to do it again, then tried to bring back the greatest threat to the world again and succeeded.

[Segus1992]

Are you serious?
That should be a bannable offense. I hate people like you.

Wah wah. Maybe you should step outside every once in a decade.

[Darkguyver2020]

How does it give anyone but the alliance players true motive to kill him? He blew apart your king not like the horde should hate him any more.

Vol'Jin says hi.

[HHHGame78]

Doesn't Illidan work for the Burning Legion in WC3 FT? My memory is a bit hazy on it but I'm pretty sure he is taking orders from Kil'jaden?

Everything Illidan did was to get to know the Legion and exploit their weakness and learn their strengths. He was merely using them to try take them out later, until we intervened.