Malygos is a new kind of antagonist for the Warcraft universe in that he's probably the enemy with the least actual evil we've seen so far, in sharp contrast to the Burning Legion, the Scourge, the Old Gods, and a host of others. As we've already noted, some players think he may actually be right: he wants to protect Azerothians from the magic they're dabbling in, for fear that they might end up bringing the Burning Legion back with it, except that he goes about "protecting" the people by waging war on them, which somehow eerily familiar.... Anyway, Malygos is just the latest example of an antagonist in WoW that we can almost sympathize with, a bad guy that isn't all that bad. Malygos' particular place at the other end of our attack buttons can be attributed mainly to his conflicting point of view rather than an evil and corrupted soul. His ultimate aim is still the greater good of all life -- he just believes (wrongfully, we hope) that he needs to destroy the minority of magic users in order to save the remaining majority of all other life on the world.
Illidan Stormrage is the next step down on the list of not-so-bad bad guys -- as we have seen, most of the fighting he's done since Tyrande Whisperwind released him from prison has been against the Burning Legion, unless of course that time he was working for the Legion -- against Arthas! I admit that I haven't yet visited the Black Temple and done the related quests, but from what I read, it seems that Illidan isn't so much evil as he is just ... paranoid. In fact, there is a major plot hole in this question of why the Alliance and the Horde are at war with him. Why did he have blood elves attack Shattrath, when in fact he and the Naaru have a common enemy in the Burning Legion? It would have made a lot more sense for them to work together; and clearly his mistake caused the "good guys" -- not the Burning Legion -- to be the cause of his doom. If he had not inexplicably decided to wage war on us, it would be very hard to argue Illidan is not beyond redemption.
This sort of conflict between imperfect heroes on the Alliance/Horde side, and tragically messed up villains on the other makes the game all the more interesting. With the introduction of death knights to the game, as well as comments from BlizzCon, I get the feeling that Blizzard is trying to give us the sense that "this could happen to me too. I could become a villain like those I fight against."
In fact, why couldn't I? The next step I would like to see in WoW (which only an MMORPG could take), is for players to somehow be able to take that dark path as well -- to become the very villains and raid bosses that other players must work to defeat. They joked about this idea at BlizzCon, and it's true that there would be some tricky problems to solve. You couldn't just give Frostmourne to Private Ownusohard and make him the new Lich King. It would have to be a temporary conversion to the dark side, perhaps as part of a long but repeatable quest, after which the player could be redeemed and everything would go back to normal. It would be a complicated thing to work out, so who knows if we'll actually see players becoming villains. Still, it seems to me that Blizzard is setting the stage for greater moral ambiguity in players' choices and activities, both in the enemies we fight and in the quests we undertake. Perhaps in Northrend or sometime thereafter we may find ourselves doing quests and fighting enemies, but suddenly unsure which side is good and which is evil.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-25-2007 @ 2:20PM
onetrueping said...
I actually had a thought along those lines, where they make a copy of the Lich King raid, which has Arthas as the original Lich King. However, when he's defeated for the first time, the player laying out the final blow would have his character (build, non-armor/weapon gear, enchants) copied, and become the new Lich King... until someone kills him. He'd have his original powers, plus those of the Lich King's armor and Frostmourne, plus the special abilities that the Lich King gets anyway, making the fight a tad more unpredictable.
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9-25-2007 @ 2:23PM
Urthona said...
Ner'zhul is a patriot.
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9-25-2007 @ 2:37PM
Dabizi said...
How about Scryer vs. Aldor? Who is good and who is bad? Why do the angelic good guys, the Naaru let their followers be in (often bloody) conflict?
Even farther back (new) Horde vs Alliance?
Moral ambiguity has been part of this game as long as WC3.
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9-25-2007 @ 2:45PM
BrianD said...
Evil actions = evil. That sort of rationalizing is what allows populations to ignore the evils perpetrated by their governments. Think of the Nazis...
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9-25-2007 @ 3:22PM
Nafaras said...
I have no problem killing all casters. World of Warriorcraft!
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9-25-2007 @ 3:28PM
Ben said...
#5 - Have fun with your bandages.
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9-25-2007 @ 3:58PM
Nati said...
@6 - Malygos only cares about arcane magic, the healy magics don't fall into that category.
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9-25-2007 @ 4:03PM
Wildhammer said...
It's just Mages and Arcane magic-users Malygos wants dead. Elemental magic-users are fine, as are Warlocks. Malygos, I believe, was programmed to moderate Arcane magic, not Demonic magic. The Titans never expected the Legion to come to Azeroth so they never gave him the instinct to kill Demons and Warlocks.
Druids and Shamans can lose their power whenever if Nature feels like taking it back. That, and Druidism and Shamanism are benign forms of magic, so we don't have anything to worry about.
Priests won't have to worry either, as they use Holy magic. Or, if you're a Paladin, you specifically use the Holy Light.
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9-25-2007 @ 4:31PM
Mats said...
@4 That sort of thinking is what leads to evil.
There are no "evil actions" an action is just that, an action. Intent may be evil, but it seldom is.
Killing to protect is good.
Killing for fun is evil.
Both acts are the same, the intention is what defines the good/evilness.
Since the intent is made by the person who acts, every act, no matter what it is can be both good and bad.
Only the ignorant think there exists true evil in the real world. Most acts are done to promote "good" for someone or another, think of the Nazies, they wanted to do good for the German people.
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9-25-2007 @ 5:13PM
maybesew said...
I've always thought a cool idea would be to make instances out of all the major cities. Sure people raid the major cities from time to time, but what if there was an instanced version of the city, kind of like the way Old Hillsbrad works in Caverns of Time. The land scape will all be familiar, and eventually you can kill Thrall, or whichever leader is in that city.
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9-25-2007 @ 5:19PM
Nati said...
@8, warlock magic is arcane as well. Mages and warlocks are the ones in trouble.
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9-25-2007 @ 6:05PM
Tristan said...
I would like to see it where you can choose to fight the raid boss, or assist their goals, either by helping them with what they are trying to do or helping them against another raid group or such. The reward at the end could be some kind of "boon" from the boss similar to the raid drops.
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11-10-2007 @ 9:03PM
svenhoek said...
It really doesnt matter in the end. If it a quest ends in phat lewtz the moral choice is irrelevant.
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4-21-2008 @ 5:37PM
Akmed said...
The problem is that we should not able to obtain Frostmourn coz its just a piece of trash to begin with... If you will re-play in WC3 and actually read all in-game text, you will find out that so-called Frostmourn is nothing but a simple sword that have some specifice rune's on it. All powers that sword have is to connect wielder(Arthas) with the creator of the sword(Ner'Zhul), so if Lich King will die the power of sword should die too, like Arthas was suffering when Illidan is obtained The Eye of Sargerass and tried to destroy Ner'Zhul's Frozen Throne and half-of-the-world...
Hm actually Death Knights wont be able to live or fight without Lich King's powers, so they shouldn't be attractive to any faction and instead should fight against both faction, like... erm... For the Lich King!!? ^^
But who cares actually, sorry for time i have taken from you ;-)
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