A big problem with the Goblin story was their introduction puts all the agency onto the Goblin Player, which really isn’t sustainable long term for a story.
Simply put, Blizz messed up by making the Goblin PC matter so damn much. But by that same token, they also messed up by making Gallywix irrefutably evil to the point Thrall has to help us beat him but then Thrall - showcasing once again how gullible and easily manipulated he can be (“I was friends with your dad, did you know that?”) - decides to make the man he’s spent the last few minutes smacking around in charge of the Goblins.
And in the years since, Gallywix hasn’t really gotten much in the way of meaningful characterization. Meaning despite having existed in the narrative longer, he’s still a Knock Off version of Blackfuse in this Dollar Tree rendition of Mists of Pandaria that is the Battle for Azeroth.
Something like that happened with a real life vaping company recently, I believe. But, you’re right. It’s definitely not the most sensible decision the writers have made recently, in a long string of nonsensical decisions. I just don’t think this one deserves as much scrutiny. Gazlowe does have a history with the Horde, and while he works for the competition now, he isn’t tied by bloodoath to the Steemwheedles, and any loyalty he has to them probably ends the second the paychecks stop coming in.
I hope Gallywix comes back. He’s a very fun villain. It makes sense to yeet him out of the Goblin player faction, but he better be around for the long haul.
Someone once asked me how the starting zone could be improved and, over time, I think I came up with something actually pretty simple but effective:
The story is essentially the same except one small, but important thing:
You are not the Kaja-Cola CEO, Sassy Hardwrench is. You are Sassy’s best friend and her favorite and most trusted employee.
She’s the brains, you’re her brawn.
Since the majority of the quests involve you doing stuff on behalf of the company, they generally remain exactly the same, just with slightly tweaked dialogue.
At the end, you depose/kill Gallywix, and Sassy takes over the Cartel.
Then, when you arrive in Orgrimmar, Sassy sets off to get to work and gives you one final task: She wants you to prove the worth of the Bilgewater to her new Horde allies, asking you to go off on quests and adventures as her representative.
I still think Gallywix’s disappearance was largely due to just how much of a misstep making him leader of the Cartel was after the starting zone. People hated him. In MoP, he got a short story that, honestly, explained his motivations really, really well. But ultimately, he was still a villain to his own Cartel, and most people didn’t actually read the short story anyway, so he stayed hated.
RE: Blackfuse
In 5.3, the Goblins weren’t really identified.
In 5.4, they were identified as Blackfuse and then he was promptly killed off.
I figured that that was the end of it.
What was surprising was that Blackfuse’s legacy lived on past his death. Which was honestly one of the things I thought WoD did really well, engineering items in WoD weren’t all just random inventions, some of them were designed by specific Blackfuse employees.
I also support Gallywix not being killed off. We joke about Mass CCing “ENOUGH!” bits but I like villains escaping and coming back. Especially a campy villain like Gallywix.
With Gazlowe and Thrall back, and the stuff we’ve seen from the Vulpera questline, it seems an awesome time to be Horde again. So much so that I’m debating faction-changing a character or two for Shadowlands
At least we will likely be getting them as a skin and because of their existing lore, its not all too bad. Nazjatar has done wonders for Gilblin RP because now its plausible to RP a gilblin that didn’t originate from Hobart and possibly one that has superintelligence and we also know more about them.
What if the target is Gallywix’s ship, containing the fat nobbler himself and a host of NPC Sylvanas Loyalists heading to Northrend, and in amidst the flotsam we find clues that Sylvanas is heading to Northrend and Gallywix was trying to head as far away from Northrend as possible because he figured out her end game was verrrrrrrrry different from what his end game was.
As much as I detest a possible Kerrigan arc for Sylvanas, after all she’s done out of pure selfishness rather than any desire to protect those around her like Illidan did, and Arthas started to, if they try to pull a Heroic arc for Gallywix I will riot.
