Custom Lore Proposal: Gallywix Must Die.

[Krent]

[video=youtube]www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebMrRxK5S3U[/video]

The other day I kicked off a discussion in Skype chat over the prospect of Gallywix. The general consensus is that he sucks, and should most likely be killed off. However, I recognize that Skype chat isn't really representative of COTH as a whole, so I wanna open it up for forum discussion.

Disclaimer: I have not personally played through the Cata goblin starting quest. Therefore, I do not know the specific details of the quest, nor do I have an idea of who should be a suitable replacement for Gallywix, should we decide to kill him off.

I have, however, read summaries of the quest line, and have seen Lets Plays of key events in it. Anyway, without further ado....

I do not like Gallywix. I do not like Gallywix at all. He seems nothing more than a cheap, zaney, cartoonishly-corrupt moustache-twirling villain that turned Goblin culture into a one note joke. The entire scenario in which he creates is nothing more than a "LOL LOOK HOW WHACKY AND CORRUPT GOBLINS CAN BE!" I mean, I understand how Capitalism has a tendency to take advantage of crisis' (Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine is an excellent analysis of this), but forcing everyone and everything into grueling slavery? That's a cheap joke.

In the realm of business, trust is everything. Trust and reputation are the two most important elements to any successful businessman. The difference between building wealth and getting rich is defined by an entity's trust and relationships. In the Skype Chat, we were talking about how Goblins--being hyper-capitalist themselves--probably have a strong grasp on this. And how, because of this, they honor contracts.

If you screw people over and betray your contracts, you might get a quick buck, sure. But your reputation amongst your peers and future business partners deteriorates. If you gain a reputation as being a dishonest, back-stabbing, totally corrupt businessman who does not honor his word, no one in their right mind will want to do business with you. Your wealth will deteriorate, and your business will crumble.

It doesn't have anything to do with "right" or "wrong," but rather just common business sense. That isn't to say that the upper echelons of Goblin Society is "good" because of this, just that they're smart when it comes to this ideal. It's in a goblin's better interest to behave in this way. This is how Goblins were mostly portrayed in the pre-Cata lore.

Corrupt and decadent? Sure. Greedy? You bet'cha! Always valuing money over everything else? Damn skippy! But, despite those traits, Goblins were always supplemented with the desire to build wealth and capital over everything else--meaning they, for the most part, would play nice with both the other races and themselves, in order to gain enough reputation and trust to make more money.

At least, they used to--until the whole Gallywix chain came up.

Gallywix spits in the face of all that. He's a cartoonishly lame villain. I understand that Warcraft, by it's very nature, isn't a really "serious" narrative. I understand that silly and ridiculous things are par the course for the Warcraft universe. Yet, when we're talking about Narrative Coherency, poorly developed characters, and character breaks, the whole Gallywix being welcomed into the Horde sums up a lot of those things.

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why Thrall would accept Gallywix into the Horde. I could understand if it was Garrosh--or someone representing Garrosh's interests--accepting someone as corrupt and dishonorable as Gallywix into the fold.

But Thrall? Thrall?! The same Thrall who grew up in the interment camps and witnessed the horrors of enslavement and confinement first hand? The same Thrall who helped lead the orcs back onto the path of honor and dignity? I can't wrap my head around it, no matter how hard I try.

Maybe there's a quest detail I'm missing, because I haven't played the Cata quest for myself, but it does not make logical sense. Gallywix's actions violate the coherency of Goblin narrative and culture, turning it into a one-dimensional cheap joke that doesn't make any logical sense. I mean, do you seriously expect me to believe that anyone--particularly members of The Horde--would trust Gallywix to do anything after the stunt he pulled?

"Oh hey, there's that guy who exploited an emergency situation to sell his entire race into grueling slavery! Haha, those goblins sure are a whacky bunch! Let's give him a position of power within our faction, and give him access to our internal workings. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?""

But it also violates Thrall's character. In ways I don't think I need to elaborate on. I mean, c'mon, it's Thrall. I can't expect him condoning any of the shit Gallywix pulled.

Now then--onto the questions for discussion.

Should we kill off Gallywix? My vote is yes. And it should be a cool event. One where we walk around in slow motion, while a Battle Without Honor or Humanity plays in the background. We can wear suits, don sunglasses, and smoke cigarettes for extra cool points.

If we do kill off Gallywix, who should take over as the head of the Bilgewater Cartel? This....I have no idea on. I think the Bilgewater Cartel should remain with the Horde, but I have zero clue as to exactly who should take the helm. Perhaps the resulting power struggle could be turned into an RP event as well? That'd be pretty neat. Goblins don't exactly do "elections" for Trade Princes--they're determined by who has LOADS'A'MONEY!!!!!!--but an internal power struggle within the Cartel could be very interesting for the RP world. I could see it being very entertaining.

Anyway, what say you all?!

[Scout]

You're not the first person to have noticed this, and there's actually a huge group of fans who wanted to replace Gallywix with a Trade Princess named Mida.

http://www.wowpedia.org/The_Trade_Princess_Movement

Blizzard actually added Mida ingame, so there's precedent for her to become the new leader of the Bilgewater Cartel.

My vote is also yes.

Addendum: It's worth noting that Gallywix actually doesn't appear anywhere ingame, while Mida does, in the Goblin Slums in Orgrimmar.

[Mathias]

Pfffffft. Damn it, Krent, I said I was sliding around to secret GM areas to plan this stuff out, and you went ahead and posted this. Ah well, would be nice to gather the opinions of the playerbase on what to do with GALLYWIX. I can share a summarized version of the goblin starting zone quests for people who don't know Gallywix and the goblin story.

Spoiler:

In the goblin questline, you are basically the second-in-command to Gallywix. You're a popular, friendly, trustworthy guy who, despite being seen as a richie rich type, has to do the work for his secretary since we need quests and exp and Blizzard doesn't accept moolah for experience. The whole time, Gallywix is around Bilgewater Port shouting at people to work, and just disrespecting you in general, because people consider you to be better than him and want you to be Trade Prince. After a short game of footbomb, Deathwing appears and decides he's going to have Mount Kajaro explode. For fun. You then start a mad dash to get money to buy passage on Gallywix's ship, doing everything from bank robbery, to steal Gallywix's prized items, to grabbing all the kaja'mite you can. But then Gallywix takes your money and enslaves you. You are then sent to Lost Isles.

On the Lost Isles, you are presumed dead for a bit but are then revived. You are then tasked with saving people in life pods, and the first is Gallywix, who says "no hard feelings", then goes around and claims that he'll help the goblin people from the likes of you. You meet orcs. You fight Alliance. You fight pygmies. Gallywix, in the mean time, is enslaving Bilgewater goblins AGAIN (both their body and mind), and using Steamwheedle Footbombers as troops. You destroy Gallywix's stuff, then you and Thrall fight him, and Gallywix begs for mercy. Thrall then declares that Gallywix will be the leader of the Bilgewater Cartel -for now-. And that is how the goblins joined the Horde.

I also say we should use Boss Mida as the stand-in for the player character in the goblin storyline.

Edit: @Scout Trade Princess Movement existed before Gallywix

Edit 2: I just noticed the Garrosh in place of Gallywix.

[Scout]

The point is that it's a thing we can use here.

[Reigen]

This came up before and to be honest, we are not ready to start replacing faction leaders at this moment in time, as it's a bit of a bold step for our first stab at custom lore. Personally I'd want to wait before we start playing leader-swap.

[Sorum]

I'd rather not change faction leaders at all.

[Krent]

You're not the first person to have noticed this, and there's actually a huge group of fans who wanted to replace Gallywix with a Trade Princess named Mida.

http://www.wowpedia.org/The_Trade_Princess_Movement

Blizzard actually added Mida ingame, so there's precedent for her to become the new leader of the Bilgewater Cartel.

My vote is also yes.

Addendum: It's worth noting that Gallywix actually doesn't appear anywhere ingame, while Mida does, in the Goblin Slums in Orgrimmar.

Yeah, that seems baller. Count me in as an official supporter of Her Tallness.

[Jonoth]

His leader story is pretty boss. I actually fell in love with Goblins a bit more after reading it.

[MstrCorvus]

"Time is money, friend." *BLAM BLAM*

Let's get rid of him.

[WindZealot]

...As a note from the discussion from the CoTH Skype Chat: Gallywix -does- do something in the lore after the questline.

Granted, it's not much, but it does subvert the claim that he does nothing.

http://wowpedia.org/Jastor_Gallywix

Refer to Tides of War, the Blank Scroll, and War Crimes, if you will.

NOW! Onto my opinion. I really think we shouldn't do this. It's too big of a change and who the heck're we replacing the fatso with? Boss Mida?

[Dae]

This came up before and to be honest, we are not ready to start replacing faction leaders at this moment in time, as it's a bit of a bold step for our first stab at custom lore. Personally I'd want to wait before we start playing leader-swap.

This could, however, be a good start for custom lore as long as he doesn't actually die. An assassination attempt would be its own way of saying that in Coth canon, he's a hated leader at least by some. If we do settle in and feel comfortable enough to kill off a faction leader at a later point, there'd be some history behind it.

[Mathias]

We all know Gallywix will kill himself by slipping on soap anyway.

[SachikoMaeda]

I think his death would happen like

[Rigley]

I suggested this in the aforementioned GM murmering, but I think a pleasing alternative might be to have Boss Mida casually usurp him in power rather than in title. So he's still the leader, but since he doesn't pay much attention to things (an explanation for his lack of overt involvment in the world) Boss Mida is calling all the real shots and fixing all the problems he makes when he does give an order.

That way Gallywix is still the lead of the faction, but a more capable and enjoyable character could be used for leaderly things. Maybe even have a power struggle between them occasionally where it becomes more obvious.

(As an aside I'm all for giving Boss Mida the role of the player in the Lost Isles storyline. Would fit nicely.)

[Grakor456]

To note in response to some parts of the OP: Gallywix isn't intended to be seen as a typical goblin. The line that I read about this is to the effect of "All goblins would consider selling their mothers for money, but only Gallywix would actually do it." He's sort of all the worst aspects of goblins ramped up to eleven, and is intentionally cartoonish, in that sense.

That doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good thing he exists, but he's working as intended.

I mentioned in the GM chat before that if nothing else, I do want to see more balance in how the faction leaders are presented, particularly between the Horde and Alliance. The Horde effectively has three villains for racial leaders, while the Alliance has one third.

Offing Gallywix may be something to do in the future, but probably not as the first step in custom lore. We need to see how other things work before then. But, if events form that deal with the goblins and it's something that may come up? Well, we'll see. I generally agree with Rigley that having Mida usurp power in subtle ways may be a better move for now, and still leaves other resolutions possible later.