Garithos did nothing wrong.
Many people over the years have taken aim at the fact that Garithos was some racist who is the sole reason for the Blood Elves joining the Horde. He doesn’t have a good reputation among many people, especially Horde players and I think this is pretty much unfair for a number of reasons. While some of his acts could be considered questionable he has good reasons for them and many people seem lost in this through mainly generalisation of him just being a racist towards any race other than his own. Regardless let us proceed.
Lets just give a brief backstory prior to Warcraft 3, or what we know of it at least.
Garithos was a Knight in the Lordaeron army, he was sent into Quel’thalas to help defend it against the Orc and Troll forces. While up their his village was burnt down by said Orcs and he blamed the High Elves for it for diverting their forces. Later on during the Scourge invasion of Lordaeron he was one of the last high ranking persons left in Lordaeron and assumed power to try and take it back. The games picks up on Garithos during the war against the Scourge as he is rallying troops around the ruins of Dalaran along with Kael and any other forces the Alliance has sent or he has been able to raise from the various places around him.
The main reason why Garithos hates the High Elves was because they indirectly killed his family through the actions of them just not caring. The High Elves didn’t care about the Human Kingdoms fighting the Horde as they roamed the place killing anything they saw. Only Alleria saw the true threat of the Horde was. It was only until they aligned with the Armani Trolls and they started to invade their land that they started to care. Even then despite the aid that the Alliance provided them they shielded off Silvermoon cutting themselves off from the rest of their people and their allies just to make sure they were preserved themselves. So after all of this, they go and do that. After all Garithos has done, that the Alliance has done for them they just go and do this without remorse or care for anyone, anything else. Garithos put the cause and the Elves before his own family and people and look where it had got him. Most people would have this type resentment if the same thing happens to them.
Fast forward to the Third war and he is Grand Marshal, a title given to him because he is mainly one of the last people alive in Lordaeron to have some sort of claim to the throne through nobility, and is arguably the most powerful Warlord around. He doesn’t want to be the new leader of Lordaeron but because he has to. He is one of the last people left who can restore law and order to a decimated country. He is putting the needs of his people before the needs of himself. Even going as far as to allow the now Blood Elves to join his forces despite all of what they have done. Now that they have no barrier to protect themselves ofc’ they come crawling back to the Alliance for protection.
At this point I think it is best to bring up with the “racism” part.
Despite him not actually being racist considering the Blood Elves aren’t a race of Humans, funnily enough, it is quite normal in the world of Azeroth to be “racist”. The best example of this would be to bring up the Blood/High Elves. They are notoriously racist towards the Humans in most ways and a lot of them think this way. Most Blood Elves hated the fact that Nathanos was made a Ranger Lord of Quel’thalas and attempted to undermine for being a Human. Ofc’ I am not saying it was right for Garithos to be racist, I don’t think no one would say he was right for doing so despite his reasons. But the people who he was racist to also did it back to them, and a lot more of them did I might add despite all the help they have previously given.
Let’s get back on course.
Kael aligned and basically pledged himself with Garithos, which also means following his command. After arriving late Kael makes up the excuse for the reason he was late was that he was helping the Night Elves, which is true from the players knowledge but try to think of it from the average Human still living in Lordaeron. Some mystical race from across the ocean on some unknown islands made a deal with them to hunt down another person from that unknown race. Bearing in mind (from what I know at least) the High/Blood Elves never told anyone about their past and banishment from the Night Elves so this route is also out of the question. I don’t think anyone is going to believe such a tale if placed in the position Garithos was, which further draws a line in their relations.
Moving on, Garithos moves out to the front lines and Kael stays to repair the base and defend Dalaran after some minor complaining. Then Kael accepts help from the Naga which should be a completely black area not to do so. Naga have been nothing but a plague on the waters of Azeroth since the first raids and attacks on coastal settlements of near enough all races. Garithos rightfully slates him for it. He is not only in his eyes lying to him he is also working with the enemy of all nations. What is next? Going to backstab him?
So what now? Garithos has been left in a position where he is risking his men with someone who has committed treason, who lies and works with the enemy? Ofc’ he is going to get his men out of there. So he orders Kael to hold Dalaran while pulling his troops back. If Kael wants to work with the enemy then he can do so by himself. And if he can push back the Scourge and pull his own weight around for once without complaining then perhaps they can still work together, but, alas, this doesn’t happen. After Kael works with the Naga again after being warned not to do so he is arrested for doing so along with his men. They are traitors to the cause and must be dealt with. Kael knows this himself and takes full responsibility. Even some of his own people like Telestra (and most likely a lot others) realise Kael was in the wrong with this and left. Before Garithos could carry out the execution of the traitors the Naga prison break them out and escape to Outlands.
Regardless, the traitors are gone and he’ll take Lordaeron back with people who he can trust.
Fastforward Garithos and his men have been mind controlled by the Dreadlords and Sylvanas breaks him out. He then agrees to work with Sylvanas to take back Lordaeron and for her to get her revenge. Some people would find this hypocritical for him to work with the Forsaken and yet attempt to execute Kael for working with the Naga but I disagree. That is a very black and white look at things what does him injustice.
The Naga has been hostile to everyone for years and years and years and to work with them is unspeakable. Kael was warned with working with them and did it regardless without thinking about what this would do. Sylvanas and the Forsaken at least proved to Garithos first hand that they were at least willing to help and the enemy of my enemy kind of way by killing the Dreadlords and using them to kill the Scourge. The other part is the sadly) lack of vision Garithos had towards the Forsaken and Sylvanas with their betrayal. No character is perfect and had it flaws but we’ll get more into this later.
The Siege/Battle for Lordaeron begins and Garithos agrees to the plan with Sylvanas to attack from the rear. After getting back the Dwarves that were lost in the woods nearby he is the main force which takes the city. Finally, Lordaeron city is retaken and from here the Humans can fully rally behind Garithos as the saviour of people still surviving. But then Sylvanas betrays the deal and kills Garithos. She couldn’t even do it herself and had to get her little Dreadlord “friend” to rain fire on him because of how much of a threat he was. Garithos’s only flaw was a fatal one, trying to put his indifferences aside for the betterment of his people. Sylvanas’s actions not only strike a dagger into the hearts of all free people of Lordaeron but to the rest of the Alliance, the first step of Sylvanas being evil and going back on her word (which yes she was even back in Warcraft 3) and leaving the Lordaeron lands in darkness for the next 30 years or so before BfA. When the Alliance was finally able to retake the capital along with Tirisfal and parts of Western Plaguelands.
As you can tell, Garithos wasn’t that bad at all. In fact, he was a pretty well written and complex character. Putting the needs of his people before his own biases which ultimately became his downfall. He wasn’t really racist and even if you do see it from a narrow viewpoint he has good reasons for it, and it was common for a lot of people to do it as well. He was a hero to the people of Lordaeron, the Alliance and Humans in general. He wasn’t afraid to do what needed to be done and cared about his people. He has his flaws and issues here and there but no character is perfect, him not being perfect is what makes him great. But regardless he is perfect to me. And it makes me sad to see how much hate he gets because of it by angry Horde players what just see everything in black and white, which is ironic considering what is going on current but w/e that isn’t what we are discussing in this thread.
Rest in peace Garithos, we can only hope that the Light forges you back and can lead Lordaeron back into a new age once again. And finally get your revenge on them traitors what stabbed you in the back.
![:heart:](https://d1bg94bbsh66ji.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/heart.png?v=6" ":heart:")
