Why Nathanos Blightcaller is actually a fantastic character (hear me out, seriously)
If you rely on the reddit comment section for the Warcraft playerbase’s opinion (don’t), it might seem like I’m in minority for liking Blightcaller. But in 12 years of WoW, I’ve only grown strangely fonder of him.
It was worth levelling to 60 on Classic WoW for the joy of getting promoted by Blightcaller - from ‘imbecile’ to ‘mentally-deficient first class’, after completing some quests for him. I wish that it was an ingame title. I’d wear it with pride.
In the end, when you kill his murderer Ramstein The Gorger in Stratholme, he even salutes you - a heartfelt finale for the quest chain.
Nathanos’s modern-WoW version is not much better than the Classic one: you still deal with an ever-cantankerous, hateful individual, with an impressive vocabulary - which he reserves exclusively for amusing insults. Those in turn are flung at Syndicate hooligans in Arathi, noisy murlocs in Darkshore, screeching filthy birds, Tyrande “tree-elf” Whisperwind, and often the player character. At anything that’s not a certain banshee, when you come to think about it.
“A beast in a hat is still a beast.”
- Blightcaller disapproves of worgens’ fashion sense.
In order to understand the attitude Nathanos Blightcaller gives, one must look into the origins of the Forsaken undead faction. From the moment the player character rises from a shadowy grave in Deakthknell, and makes their way to the nearby town of Brill, they get to come across a series of unsavoury types.
The gloomy apothecary Lydon in Southshore kills his pet frog repeatedly, for science - but mostly for entertainment. He performs various cruel experiments with venom and “small, terribly cute animals”, as he puts it. When he’s not poisoning baby bunnies, he mostly sulks around like a Marvin the paranoid android type.
“Oh, the flowers are blooming in Hillsbrad and the air is so fresh and brisk. I can’t help but to wallow in the misery of it all. I look out my grimy window and long for the day when our New Plague brings this world the death it deserves.“
- Apothecary Lydon, having yet another great day.
William Saldean, whose name might seem familiar to those who remember the Westfall human farmers family, explain his presence in Brill:
“I was here visiting relatives when Lordaeron fell, and then… well. I suppose I won’t ever be returning to Westfall, now. Sometimes I wonder if my family is still alive. More often, though, I wonder why I no longer care.”
A more extreme example would be the noble Alexi Barov of Caer Darrow, would rather see his living brother drop dead already, and actively works with the player character towards this goal.
Other undead figures change their last names as they’re raised into undeath by the Dark Lady, to signify the severing all ties with their loved ones.
For the first time in Warcraft’s history, the novel “Before The Storm” (which I enjoyed reading) and Battle For Azeroth introduced a few lawful-good, maybe even… warmer undead characters: Calia Menethil, Alonsus Faol, Elsie “Velcinda” Benton, Derek Proudmoore, Thomas Zelling. This is a very recent development in a 25-year old franchise. I’d argue that they’re an exception rather than the rule. The Forsaken are still scumbags.
Blightcaller is a prime example of the faction he represents - or at least represented originally. He is an exemplary Forsaken. Battle For Azeroth only brought him to center stage, whereas the other Forsaken jerks remained background characters. They’re all grumpy, vengeful or sadists - and I still find them fun somehow, even… relatable. This needs some explaining, I know.
In 2009, journalist and activist Barbara Ehrenreich published “Smile or Die: How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World” (review).
The book was born after Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer, and was overwhelmed by a culture of pink ribbons and shiny-happy-people holding hands. Any expression of sadness or anger about her disease was frowned upon. She was told that she’s “not helping herself” by experiencing those emotions, and that uttering the words out loud reduces her chances of overcoming cancer (she happens to have a PHD in cellular immunology, and refutes the myth that attitude supposedly increases cancer patients’ chances of survival).
Positive thinking, argues Ehrenreich, is a false billion-dollar industry of self-help books, coaching, ‘mindfulness’ classes and other equally cringe-worthy products. Optimism, like everything else in an ultra-capitalistic society, was commodified.
Being perpetually-friendly and smiley in the workplace is considered the key to professional success. According to Ehrenreich, an atmosphere that strictly prohibits critical thinking in the corporate world may have contributed to the latest global financial crisis. Employees in the major banks who pointed out that the emperor had no clothes, and that subprime mortgages are about to collapse - were swiftly fired.
Since nobody can be happy all the time, we’re left with this imperative to act like a cheerful customer service rep, lest we bother everyone with our issues and spread the taint of unhappiness. Don’t even think about answering truthfully to a standard how-are-you.
Women suffers from this culture more than men. And there’s nothing we hate more than a man telling us something like, “why don’t you smile more? You’re prettier when you smile!”
Fake-happiness translates into obedience, which fuels capitalism. Without outward anger, there can be no rebellion against the ruling classes, no labour unions, no demand to fix income inequality.
Even after business hours, we live in an increasingly fake-happy society. Open Facebook or Instagram at any given moment, and get bombarded with sunny vacation pictures, baby videos, motivational slogans in fancy fonts with photoshopped blue-sky backgrounds and engagement announcements.
Several studies published in the last few years argue that social media is actually full of unhappy, lonely people - the sadder you are in real life, the happier you act online. There’s even evidence that there’s a rise in the general level of depression in the last decade, which coincides with the rise in usage of those platforms.
I have this theory that that’s why reddit and 4chan are such aggressive and toxic platforms: people bottle up all the anger they can’t post to a wall their coworkers, forgotten high-school friends or family read; so they vent it all on more-anonymous platforms rather.
Happiness is advertised, whereas depression is to be kept behind closed doors.
It’s fascinating that Blizzard may have developed an in-game faction that is so blatantly contrarian of the culture of positivity, because they did so in 2004 - before Facebook was omnipresent. Before the real estate bubble crashed and burned. And yet, the Forsaken are a perfect antithesis to the culture of positive-thinking. They challenge the oppression of optimism. I’m pretty sure they won’t sit through a single class of mindfulness. Whether you’d classify them as evil or not; these zombies are furious. They hate you, and they’re not afraid to say it to your face.
What do they have to lose? They’re already dead, and rotting even further while continuing to exist. In Dark Mirror (excellent story), Blightcaller referred to his previous state as “a mockery of a life”. They suffered the worst imaginable atrocities, and in a way - earned the RIGHT to rant, to have a voice - without being perceived as spoiled or privileged.
“You can give voice to your pain, Sylvanas. I will give you that much. It is more than the others get. ”
- Arthas, when granting Sylvanas her banshee-wailing powers (from Arthas: Rise of the Lich King)
Perhaps some of the backlash Nathanos gets relates to the fact he’s less-undead than the rest of them, and thus - less of an underdog. The majority of the backlash, if you ask me, stems from the fact that he’s a male who takes orders from a strong female character. This grinds the gears of certain misogynistic manosphere communities.
But he’s a classic subject of the Dark Lady, as he had always been. Even in life he was portrayed as anti-social and somewhat impolite; but in undeath - he took it to the extreme. An absolutely horrible, cruel person, with a tiny glimmer of humanity buried deep down (enough to care for his queen, and to have some regrets about murdering a relative for his corpse).
It’s somewhat bizarre, but there’s almost… a positive aspect to his personal story: if this rotten asshole can find love, perhaps there is hope for us all. I think that’s what makes some of us like him.
I’m a proud imbecile, at least.
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