Why is Ner’zhul’s role often minimalized in the community? This is a trend I’ve noticed for a long while now, most notably (oddly enough) whenever the Warcraft movie is brought up.
It’s no secret people firmly believe that we should have gotten an Arthas movie. I’m not really going to delve into that topic but it’s cool that people put so much thought into it.
My problem: In every single Arthas movie scenario, Ner’zhul’s role is either greatly diminished or completely ignored. The few times I brought this up, the response is usually within the realm of “Ner’zhul is unimportant to Arthas story”.
What?
Consider the following:
While under the watchful eye of the Dreadlords / Burning Legion, Ner’zhul’s spirit sought out Arthas and gave him the necessary nudge to complete his heel turn (it is well known that Arthas already had an edge to him, well before Scourge came about). Under the guise that heel Arthas was needed to ensure a Burning Legion victory, only to undermine their efforts (killing a dreadlord immediately after picking up Frostmourne; name dropping the Skull of Gul’dan for the power hungry Illidan, who immediately murdered another dreadlord with it).
With all of this, it should not be understated: Ner’zhul deceived Kil’jaeden, THE DECEIVER. And one wouldn’t make a decision like this lightly.
This was meticulous, methodical.
It was awesome.
So what gives? Why is Ner’zhul given so little thought?
Is Ner’zhul truly the Rodney Dangerfield of Warcraft? Will he ever get respect?
—If you read this far, thank for indulging me on my post / rant. Have a nice weekend.—
I chalk it up to these people not really knowing much about Ner’zhul. He was a awesome character and without him, Arthas’ story isn’t nearly as interesting.
Ner’zhul is the entire reason Arthas fell down the path he did after all
I think that was Blizzard magnifying Arthas because he was more popular than Ner’zhul.
Ironic, given that Blizzard threw both Ner’zhul AND Arthas under the bus in Shadowlands to the point of destroying their souls so both end not with a bang, but a whimper.
Not everyone knows the story from the RTS games and thus for many WoW players the Lich King was Arthas. It doesn’t help that Arthas was frequently mentioned as the goal when it came to taking down the Lich King (ex: Sylvanas and Forsaken), with there being very few references to Ner’zhul himself.
I don’t think the Blizzard that magnified Arthas is necessary the same ones who oversaw Shadowlands. I think Arthas would have had a larger role in Shadowlands otherwise.
Was Ner’zhul’s spec of existence even common knowledge prior to Wrath?
Kilrogg - raid boss
Kargath - raid boss
Blackhand - raid boss
Durotan - major character in Horde questing
Grommash - major character for the whole expansion
Gul’dan - major character for the whole expansion
Ner’zhul - minor character in Alliance questing and 5-man boss
I had severe buttpain over how little of a role Ner’zhul played. It almost was as bad as my buttpain over Farahlon getting cut.
In terms of his affiliation with Arthas, Ner’zhul is already dead by time any movie would address WotLK or in WotLK itself. We see an alt universe (not even the original Ner’zhul) Ner’zhul in WoD and a movie could maybe start with Ner’zhul being stuffed into the Armor of Damnation, but he’s a big no show otherwise.
Next time we see main universe Ner’zhul he’s already twisted into a soul amalgam monstrosity as well…
It’s just VERY hard to acknowledge someone who’s not even really there in terms of story beats.
I remember someone else had an idea where AU Ner’zhul and Gul’dan’s swap story arcs from their MU counterpart. Ner’zhul helps to usher in the Burning Legion while Gul’dan goes off the deep end (or deeper end) with the void stuff and eventually gets his behind flung into AU Icecrown.
Not too sure about Lich King Gul’dan, but it was an interesting read.
I’m of the, apparent minority, opinion that since the film started with the Orcs and Humans first interaction, then Ner’zhul would / should be introduced during this point and then begin laying the groundwork for Arthas’ arc.
It was a good but brief storyline. It’s better than a long bad one, but, it does feel like such a significant Orc who breaks the mold of “BIG WEAPON WARLORDS” we dealt with through the xpac should have been more than just a leveling dungeon boss.
In War3 there were Scourge units who called out stuff like “For Ner’zhul” and “My life for Ner’zhul” but it’s unknown if the click on quotes can be considered reliable sources. Meanwhile the Horde quest to kill Amnennar the Coldbringer in Vanilla mentions that Amnennar had a direct link to Ner’zhul displaying the knowledge was present. However it’s not certain if it was wide spread knowledge or more known by a select few that Ner’zhul was connected with the Scourge.
If the former, the Horde as a whole didn’t make a big deal out of it and if the later then the Horde leadership didn’t want to advertise that Ner’zhul was connected and happily let Arthas have the face of the Scourge spotlight.
Ner’zhul deceiving The Deceiver is my favourite aspect of WC3. Kil’jaeden played him as a fool by pretending to be his dead mate. Now Ner’zhul gets his revenge by feigning service while tricking the Legion into enacting his plan (corrupting Arthas) while making them think it was the only logical plan. A direct assault failed (aka the Orcs). But to corrupt the Alliance from within, using one of their “champions”. Perfection. To the point that betraying Mal’ganis was brushed aside by the Legion as they were too deep into the plan. Archimonde was getting impatient, which put pressure on Tichondrius. They had their doubts about Ner’zhuls loyalty sure, but they had to follow through with the plan. They had no choice.
It is also why I laughed so hard when Blizzard tried to make it so that Mal’ganis was the one doing the playing when it came to corrupting Arthas instead of being played with Shadowlands. Like that was his whole motive in Wrath. Get revenge on Arthas (more so the Lich King really) for duping him. But come Shadowlands, Mal’ganis be like, “Arthas was my greatest pawn. I was never tricked by Ner’zhul and him. I was ahead of them the whole time!!!”. It makes him seem like he is high on copium.
DKs and Acolytes, for example. I loved WC3 for tons of reasons, but the little details like that is one of the reasons. Alot of the units say interesting things, and they can ring with relevance even today.
IRL, if there is a mistake or problem, I like to say: “whats done is done” sort of imitating the Undead, but no one really gets it.
But again, this goes back to my previous point, and the point in the OP - Nerzhul is definitely present and impactful in the lore, but he does not seem to get much love or discussion from fans.
Personally, I think the idea of Kiljaeden dressing up in drag to look like Rulkan is kind of funny. Reminds me of Bugs Bunny putting on a blonde wig and a dress to trick his enemies. I just picture Kiljaeden in a blonde wig and a pink dress, saying,“Oh, Nerzhul! Kill some Draenei for me, baby!”
I don’t really agree that a story’s value is determined by if the bad guy is a raid boss though. If anything I think WoW should put much less focus on raids than it does.
Ner’zhul actually appeared during the expansion, as opposed to basically every other warlord besides Gul’dan. Blackhand had the cinematic in Talador but that’s all, and Kilrogg and Kargath had literally nothing outside their bosses. Grom was also barely present. Ner’zhul had a whole zone devoted to him, which I place way more value on than whether he was killed by 5 players or 25 players.
Possibly not, but it’s like a game of telephone. The ones who oversaw Shadowlands got their knowledge of the lore from the ones who magnified Arthas, so the group that created Ner’zhul is two generations removed from them by now.
If they had more time, sure. But it’s pretty clear the movie was forcibly cut short (reportedly 20-25 minutes were cut out), and they barely had time to cover all the storylines they wanted to get to as it was.
