Originally Posted by
Wildberry
Well a Troll of all things being the "Face" of the Horde, against the Alliance, which is still fortunate enough to have King Varian serve as their poster boy, I can definitely see how it's a reasonable statement.
Well actually, before Garrosh went completely off the deep end, back when he was just a young, hotheaded, aggressive Orc, it was his victories in Northrend that made him popular. Knowing how to fight certainly helped Thrall take up the mantle of Warchief.
In response to the thread in general:
I am absolutely stupified right now, and have been since the cinematics came out, Vol'jin, of all people? Hell, Lor'themar Theron would've been a better leader than Vol'jin.
Let's look into Vol'jin's history:
Pre Warcraft-WCIII
From the very beginning of his Horde membership, he has been absent for all of the major events, instead focusing mainly on the issues that affected him and his people first and foremost.
After he was fortunate enough to have himself and his people saved from the Sea Witch by Thrall, he pledged loyalty to the Horde, however, while the rest of the Horde sailed for Kalimdor, and later went on to fight the conclusive battles of the Third War upon Mount Hyjal. Vol'jin instead chose to "weather the Sea Witch's wrath" with the rest of his tribe.
The Orcs, Tauren, a few Trolls, Night Elves and Humans were fighting for the very survival of Azeroth, and Vol'jin is focused on a mere Sea Witch, way to go, Vol'jin, you certainly are doing Azeroth a favor.
After the Third War, Vol'jin settles his people upon the Echo Isles, during Daelin Proudmoore's ill-fated attempts at destroying the Horde once and for all, the only thing Vol'jin did was help Rexxar and friend evacuate the Darkspear from the Echo Isles, and tell Rexxar to enlist the Ogres to defeat Proudmoore and his marines.
Pre WoW-WoW:WotLK
What happened then you ask? Zalazane betrayed the Darkspear and started turning the Darkspear one by one, into Voodoo slaves. The important thing to note here, is that although Zalazane was Vol'jin's childhood friend, he was granted a vision during his time in first home, that showed him fighting Zalazane in a battle to the death. Even with this information Vol'jin is forced into a retreat and many of his tribe are now under Zalazane's spell. Instead of a tactical retreat and reassessment of strategy, Vol'jin plays the defensive for years, allowing for even MORE Darkspear to be dragged off from Sen'jin, to their fate in the Echo Isles, all while sitting comfortably in Grommash Hold.
Speaking of Grommash Hold, he served as Thrall's Advisor, yet the only noteworthy things he accomplished during this time, were:
1- The capture of Trol'kalar to use against the Gurubashi and Hakkar (Warned by the Zandalari Tribe) although, in the end, Zengu, the scout he had dispatched, succeeded in retrieving Trol'kalar, only to be killed by Stromgarde troops before he even left Arathi, his work undone.
2- Drawing up battle plans for the reclamation of the Undercity, a Horde city, in which he already had detailed maps for. During the battle itself, he remained outside with a handful of Grunts and Artillery, directing fire at the besieged Capital.
Years after losing the Echo Isles, during the War against the Lich King, the Darkspear Tribe weren't quite out in full force, up in Northrend, instead Vol'jin had been devising a plan to retake the Echo Isles, (This was one of Hellscream's valid complaints about the Troll.) After the Lich King's fall, he enacted his plan, he succeeded with the help of Bwonsamdi.
It took the equivalent of Divine Intervention, to help Vol'jin reclaim his peoples' first home on Kalimdor, and yet, compared to the Horde's victories in Northrend, it's such a small victory, like him or not, Hellscream's comment to the Troll during the pre-Cata, "Elemental Unrest" event, wasn't undeserved.
WoW:Cata-WoW:MoP
Speaking of Hellscream, it's time to cover Vol'jin's actions during the "Warchief Hellscream Years"
Some time during the Early weeks of his reign, Hellscream and Vol'jin have an argument. Hellscream starts off with "Don't talk back to me, Troll..." Interesting considering the fact that most like to say Garrosh was the initial aggressor, anyway, Vol'jin goes to make a death threat against the Warchief, BEFORE, Hellscream truly went off the deep end. No wonder the Trolls felt alienated.
During the Zandalari threat, a lot of people like to say that, Vol'jin actions were traits of good leadership, unfortunately, I don't think being called to a meeting, simply because of race, declining their offer, and then getting the Horde and Alliance to work together (Although it was really Blood Elves [Under Halduron] and High Elves [Under Vereesa]) to stop a potentially large-scale threat, isn't a shining example of leadership, it's a common sense solution, nearly anyone in Warcraft could and would have done it.
Interestingly enough, that we're on the topic of people praising Vol'jin where he doesn't deserve praise, right before the Tides of War chapter, because they do the same thing here. Certain posters like to claim that Vol'jin opposed the mana bombing of Theramore. Let's get a few things straight, Vol'jin didn't agree with it, and he did not go to the celebration in Orgrimmar, instead going to Razor Hill, which was where those who weren't pleased with the outcome went. Aside from that, it was Baine Bloodhoof that spoke out against Garrosh's war and plans of conquest, while Vol'jin remained silent. Baine also was the one who sent a courier to warn Jaina of the impending attack, just like he was the one to Organize meetings of those who disagreed with Garrosh's plan to let Theramore gather reinforcements. Tl;dr During Tides of War, the only thing Vol'jin did was express his disapproval in private, and call Baine unwise for openly challenging Hellscream's opinions.
Fast forward to the Pandaren Campaign and the Assassination attempt
Vol'jin is ordered to go on a mission after a public clash of opinions at Domination point, as a test of loyalty, it turns out to be an assassination attempt that he barely survives. After the battle with Rak'gor Bloodrazer, he instructs one of his "men" (A random adventurer in service of the Horde) to go seek out other like minded members of the Horde, he also has entrusted the task to Baine Bloodhoof. Nice job making Baine do the heavy lifting for your rebellion, Vol'jin.
On to "Shadows of the Horde" now.
Vol'jin, on the brink of death is granted an audience on the other side with his father, Sen'jin, and Bwonsamdi. Bwomsamdi urges Vol'jin to embrace his nature as a Troll and embark on a bloody conquest, Vol'jin is tempted by the prospect, but decides against it, simply because of the corrupting nature of things like the Flesh shaping magic he had just so recently bore witness to.
I'm going to skip over the majority of this book seeing as it is Bwonsamdi taunting Vol'jin about his place in the world, Vol'jin's introspective look at himself, and Chen Stormstout trying to tap some Shado-Pan ass, and bring up the one note-worthy point
One of the Major criticism's of Lor'themar as a potential Warchief, was that he was just about ready to leave the Horde, I'm not defending Theron's actions, but Vol'jin has considered leaving the Horde as well, twice, now actually. The first was after one of his early conversations with Garrosh Hellscream. The second was when Khal'ak tempted him with having the Darkspear be propelled to the first tribe of the Zandalari. What drove him away from the idea of joining the Zandalari was the fact that, he realized Troll history had been rather sugar coated, while they were indeed powerful in ages long gone by, the stories that the Trolls had heard nowadays weren't quite the reality of the actual Troll Empire, and thus, their dreams of restoring their peoples' "Former Glory" was doomed to fail from the start.
On to the Horde rebellion, a popular argument that is made in support of Vol'jin, is that he formed the rebellion, and got the other members of the Horde to work together, he must have what it takes to be a good leader. Here's the thing, it wasn't Vol'jin that turned the Horde against Garrosh, and revealed the truth of his actions, the only person responsible for uniting the Horde leaders to bring Garrosh Hellscream down, was Hellscream himself. He had successfully managed to piss off every faction leader. He killed Baine's father (indirectly responsible of course.), as well as ignored the Tauren's council on multiple occasions, insulted the Tauren personally, and had gone against everything that Baine considered to be "What the Horde was founded on". He was throwing away the lives of the Sin'dorei as if they were meaningless, doing the same things Garithos did to Lor'themar's people. He kept the Kor'kron in the Undercity and assigned Cromush to supervise the Banshee Queen, in addition to forbidding the Forsaken Blight. He was waging a "Total-War" on the Alliance, bankrupting the Horde in the process and going against Gallywix's desire for peace between the two factions. I mean, the rebellion was ready to assemble at a moments notice, the only thing Vol'jin did was contact the others first, and Garrosh practically had to force his hand for him to do even that.
In Closing
Overall, upon a closer examination of Vol'jin, it's not terribly hard to see why the guy isn't the best option for Warchief, there are plenty of others in the Horde who would do the job better.
As far as the argument "Everyone used to like Vol'jin, now they hate him", let me be clear here, I have disliked Vol'jin since WCIII, I have never stopped disliking him, he is a character who takes much more than he gives, and personally I think he's a piss poor leader.
Oh and a message to the Alliance: I envy you guys, I really do, you still have your Human King, would you mind if I swapped this Red Tabard for a Blue One?
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