Pandemonium

So Mists of Pandaria is officially in beta and has been for a couple of weeks now. There are many announcements about new and exciting panda-stuff. We finally get to see the female Pandaren model. There are new battlegrounds. Apparently there will be an Orgrimmar raid. There will even be an eleventh character slot for everyone.

As usual with the end of an expansion, I have mixed feelings about all of this stuff. Usually that is because I'm still working on getting the end of the previous expansion wrapped up. In fact, in all previous expansions I didn't kill the end boss until months or possibly years later. It's nice that Deathwing is dead by my hand already.

I'm not excited about playing a Panda. Oh, I'll roll one up to see the starting area. But I'm not seeing myself leveling a new panda to anything resembling a high level. Frankly I've never been really interested in them, they always seemed like an in-joke tossed in because Samwise Didier has a nickname of Panda. I like my orc, bloodelf, and trolls far to much to play some sort of lame joke character. I'm also rather disappointed by how the female Pandaren look. I'm not surprised, but I am sad. It would have been nice if Blizzard kept the Panda females just as chubby as the males.

I am intrigued by the new monk class. I wish it had been Demon Hunter instead but I'll try a Monk out. Unless the play style is super awesome I'm not seeing myself switch away from Morn and her awesome Death Knight-ness.

New character slots is an excellent idea. Only one per server seems a little bit lame, but at least it is something. And I am excited about new types of BGs. Of course, I'm super excited about the new zones and story we'll get for Pandaria. I have some vague hope that we won't get a new level of professions, but then again they aren't outpacing weapon skills anymore because we no longer have weapon skills... So I'm sure there will be a new level of professions with all new mats to farm and JC tokens to grind.

I'm not pleased about the Orgrimmar raid. I'm a displeased that it was revealed immediately that Garrosh would go down. I do try to stay away from next expansion spoilers. But since it's been pretty well publicized that Garrosh is going to be a final raid boss I don't feel too bad about it.

But, what could make the Horde turn against Garrosh?

Sorry Alliance people, but I'm pretty sure that the Alliance is already quite happy to kill Garrosh. Varian has a huge grudge against him dating back to the cutscene from the Ulduar release, and that was only made worse in TOC. Then Cata pretty much sealed the deal with the various invasions.

For Horde we have a bunch of different players with various grudges.

Vol'jin: Has outright said he'd kill Garrosh. Near the end of the Troll starting area you see a replay of a conversation that Vol'jin and Garrosh had after Cairne's death. That's when you see that Vol'jin promised to wait until everyone saw that Garrosh is a failure and then kill him.

Thrall: Is angry at how Garrosh is leading the Horde. As part of helping Aggra get his elemental bits back into one body you see that he's conflicted and angry at how Garrosh has handled things. However, he relinquished the mantle of Warchief to become World Shaman. And especially now that the Dragon Aspects are mortal and used up their power I think his duty as World Shaman is even more important.

Baine: Garrosh killed his father! Ok, Magratha poisoned the weapon, but Garrosh stuck the killing blow.

Sylvanas: She's a bit of a stretch. I'm sure she'd be happy to see Garrosh out of the way. However, aside from him calling her a bitch and restricting the use of plague I don't see any specific grudge. Oh she'd be happy to join a Garrosh-hunting party, but at current I don't think she'd lead it.

Zaela: As Horde you help Zaela kill the (fel orc) leader of the Dragonmaw and establish her as Dragonmaw warchief. She is absolutely overjoyed to welcome "orcs of pure blood" and to get rid of the fel tainted Overlord Mor'ghor. Garrosh meets her right after she's executed Mor'ghor and they seem to hit it off. I was hoping that she and Garrosh would get it on. Two proud warrior leader types: it seemed like it'd be an excellent match. And maybe that would help mellow Garrosh out. But if Garrosh gets himself fel tainted I can only see her leading the charge to annihilate him. She's been under the thumb of a fel orc before, and isn't going to stand for that again.

Saurfang: In Borean Tundra you watch as Saurfang cautions Garrosh about attacking too much and leaving no defense. He promises to kill Garrosh him self if Garrosh takes the Horde on a genocidal path like that.

So, thinking about all of that I think that the most plausible story going forward would be for Garrosh to get himself fel tainted somehow. Shadow Council interference, maybe some Old God influence, or even just straight up drinking demon blood. It is about time for the Burning Legion and Kil'Jaeden to stick their noses back into Azeroth. Willfully and with open eyes Garrosh gets himself fel tainted, even though he really should know better after his father's mistake. Maybe he thinks it's the only way to defeat the Alliance or save the Horde or who knows what went on in his roid rage skull. Rades thinks it could be a completely dishonorable act that makes Garrosh think he has no choice but to accept some really horrible help.

But when the rest of the Horde found out that he'd been drinking demon blood all hell would break loose.
Zaela says "We want only orcs of pure blood here! Get your fel tainted ass out of bed, I mean out of the Horde!"
Baine chimes in "My name is Baine Bloodhoof. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
Sylvanas would be ready, "No one calls the Banshee Queen a bitch!"
Thrall says "I did not ask for this! I will not let you ruin the Horde!"
Saurfang speaks "Garrosh your day has come!"
And after Garrosh was defeated but not dead Vol'jin would appear from the shadows and shoot Garrosh. One swift shot and Garrosh falls to the ground with a pool of his own blood growing around him.

Now as silly as the above dialogue is I don't actually have any objection to Garrosh being replaced as leader of the Horde. I didn't want him as Warchief to start with! I never wanted Thrall to step down from Warchief and do his shaman thing, but even so there were many better choices for Warchief that Garrosh. Abasik Kampfire for one, but Cairne or Vol'jin would each have made an excellent Warchief.

I guess my main beef with Garrosh being ousted as leader of the Horde is that the Alliance is going to get to kill him. Both DraNgNon and I have a pretty fierce faction pride. We play Horde characters. We both do city defense whenever we see the Alliance attacking. Despite my desire to see the story from both sides I have been unable to get an Alliance toon past level 64. I just can't stand the Alliance quests in Outland and their story in Northrend doesn't seem all that interesting either. But now the Alliance is going to get to kill our Warchief?!? He may be a piss poor excuse for a Warchief, and make terrible tactical decisions (like losing the entire Horde Airfleet in the attack on Twilight Highlands), but he is still the Warchief of the Horde!