History VideoGame / MiddleEarthShadowOfWar

* BloodBrothers: Orcs can have it as a perk, they get angered if their Blood Brother is hurt and will track you across Mordor if you kill him. If a Blood Brother is removed from the region (either via death or by using a Move Order to move him to your Garrison), the remaining Blood Brother will eventually get a new Blood Brother.
** Somewhat {{subverted|Trope}} in that certain orcs will inform you that they hated their Blood Brother and are only avenging them on principle, or even ''thank'' you for murdering their Blood Brother for them -- while still assuring you that you're dead meat.

** BloodBrothers will turn on Talion if for whatever reason one of them betrays Talion or is killed or shamed by him, regardless of their loyalty status with Talion. Even if they are a ''zombie''.

* DropTheHammer:
** Celebrimbor uses his smithing hammer during finishers, detonating campfires to cause explosions, or even destroy monuments in the overworld. Story-wise, he also uses it to forge the New Ring inside Mount Doom.
** One of the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) you face in combat is [[spoiler: Helm Hammerhand, the first king of Rohan.]] Appropriately for his name, he wields a massive war hammer in combat, [[spoiler:[[{{Foreshadowing}} which replaces Celebrimbor's bow Azkar after you defeat him]]]].
** Hammers are now a standard ranged weapon. They have the advantage of splash damage, but they cannot pin orcs to the ground.

** Occasionally Captains can return from the dead, and may gain new abilities and perks depending on how they died.

** A certain kill animation results in this, with an Olog tearing an Uruk's head off with his bare hands and raising it with a grin.
* DecapitationRequired: Unless you cut an Uruk's head off, he might come back, even if cut in half. Even decapitation is not guaranteed to do the trick on Ologs, who can return as 'the Stitch', who are sutured back together and apparently empowered by Talion's magic.

** Shaming orcs has chances to make them deranged, an orc can go from wise monologue to squealing like a pig.
** Some Orc captains are this way ''when you meet them'', resulting in every line of their dialogue being complete NonSequitur weirdness.

* DynamicEntry: Captain ambushes can occasionally trigger with an Orc captain bumrushing the crap out of you from offscreen. This works the other way as well. [[spoiler:Sometimes when Talion is downed, even with no last chance, a branded captain or Gondorian soldier will run in and shoulder-ram the enemy, saving you.]]

* EnemyMine: The lead duo form an unlikely one with Shelob, the malevolent spider-woman that kidnaps Celebrimbor at the start of the game and forces Talion to surrender his ring. She hates Sauron more than she does our heroes, so she provides Talion with visions of the future to assist him in his quest. [[spoiler:Notably, she never betrays them and ends up giving the ring back after he saves her life from the Ringwraiths]].

* EvenTheSubtitlerIsStumped: A character with the title The Inscrutable may speak with such a fast paced and powerful Scottish bough that the subtitles eventually devolve into question marks.
-->'''Gruk The Inscrutable:''' Not as big as they say, you, not nearly. Spected a mountain, all a got's a Ghul-mound. You speak my language, do ya? Ya speak blood do ya? Speak guts? Cause I'm da reckonin' (?????) rip ya throat out so fast it'll wistle!''

** To really spell out the nature of Celebrimbor, the game has you watch him give more than one NewEraSpeech. He rants and raves and is VERY reminiscent of old footage of Hitler and it becomes quite disturbing quite fast. It is about that moment the player will realize that this game is about helping Ghost Hitler build a slave army of psychopathic mutants so he can overthrow Wizard Satan. No wonder that [[spoiler:Talion takes a third option.]]

** Somehow, neither Talion or Celebrimbor realize that [[spoiler:Brûz The Chopper]] doesn't have a handprint on his face after his branding. Downplayed, since the brand-only prints heal and disappear over time, and [[spoiler:he is the first one the brand with the New ring; they likely just thought that it was normal]].
** The ease with which Talion can sneak about indicates that all scouts and archers have approximately 20:200 vision. Even if he's wearing bright red armor with a bright blue cloak, he can duck-walk 30 feet away from an orc and not be noticed. Justified in that he's imbued with the powers of a wraith and much of his power comes from MoreThanMindControl.

* GadgeteerGenius: Orcs are one of the more technologically advanced races in Middle-Earth, and the Machine tribe are specialists in maintaining their tech. Areas with a Machine Overlord tend to be heavily industrialized, with factories and metalworks.

* GetBackHereBoss: During the "Chase" Nemesis mission, one captain will ambush the other, seemingly alone, who flees, trying to lead the other into a trap. If you can stop the chased orc before he reaches his allies, this becomes a very easy fight. However, if they reach their support, you are in for quite a fight.

** Carnán in her dragon form uses an ice breath to fight against Tar Goroth which is extremely effective. [[spoiler:At the end of their boss fight, she buries him inside a lake of ice.]]

* ObviousBeta: Not the entire game (although there are plenty of glitches), but [[spoiler:Act IV and beyond seem a bit rushed]]. Some developer comments have implied that they ran out of time, potentially explaining many of these issues.
** [[spoiler:Dark Talion originally didn't have any lines for dominating orcs, but this has been since addressed with a patch]].
** [[spoiler:Orcs still call him the Bright Lord, although this may be intentional.]]
** [[spoiler:The missions become a lot more repetitive and grinding becomes more common. [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgemnt Whether this was to sell lootboxes is a discussion for someplace else]]. This is set to be addressed in a future patch, which promises improvements to the narrative, and the announcement hints that due to the endless siege mode, capturing forts won't be a heavy focus.]]
** [[spoiler:Undead fortresses are identical to mystic ones. Somewhat justified since Mystics are interested in magic and necromancy.]]
** [[spoiler:Talion still uses some of Celebrimbor's weapons; most notably his hammer, and during some animations some weapons actually still [[FreezeFrameBonus turn blue for a few seconds]]. He uses a more appropriate hammer in the Blade of Galadriel DLC, making it possible this one will be changed later down the line.]]

--> '''Acharn''': [[spoiler:The dagger Acharn. Forever cursed, its original owner long forgotten.]]\\

* ArtificialLimbs: Uruks can now lose legs and arms, the developers confirmed that these will come into play for Nemesis Uruks that lose an appendage (other than their head) and survive. Some Uruks can ''put back together'' after having limbs severed, being in half at the waist or even ''bisected vertically'' by Talion!

* ArtificialLimbs: Given the ability of Uruks to now lose legs and arms, the developers have confirmed that these will come into play for Nemesis Uruks that lose an appendage (other than their head) and survive. One Uruk was ''put back together'' after having been ''bisected vertically'' by Talion!

* ActionGirl: Several.
** [[spoiler:[[DarkActionGirl Shelob]] is capable of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transforming into a human woman at will]] in this continuity, and aside from easily capturing Celebrimbor and effortlessly [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing]] him in the prologue, she's capable of fighting toe-to-toe with almost all of the Nazgûl at the same time when in her GiantSpider form and armed with the New Ring.]]

** Eltariel is an Elven hunter-assassin who was dispatched to Mordor for the purpose of defeating the Nazgûl, and she implies that she's been at it for ''years''. She's even skilled enough to bring down Talion when necessary.
** Last, but probably most imposing, is Carnán, a female...''thing'' ("nature entity" is the best description we could come up with) who is capable of controlling Mordor's wildlife. She can also [[VoluntaryShapeshifting transform into various native beasts at will]].

** The Balrog Tar-Goroth is heavily featured in the promotional material and is even on the game's box art, potraying him as a major antagonist. [[spoiler:He is actually a secondary antagonist featured in only two missions, and is disposed of very early in the questline he is involved]].
** The Agonizer got his own trailer, but he follows the exact same rules as every other orc, appears at random, and it's possible to permanently kill him during your first few hours. It's also possible for the player to ''never'' meet him.

** Zog believes he can resurrect and control a Balrog, take it to Sauron and use it to give himself a KlingonPromotion.
** [[spoiler:Celebrimbor replaces the duo's RoyalWe terms with personal pronouns ("mine" instead of "ours", for example), and eventually starts believing he can enslave Sauron. [[SubvertedTrope However, the fact that]] he ''almost succeeds'' on the latter means he really was powerful enough to do so if the fates had aligned]].

** The Olog-hai are different from other Middle-Earth trolls. They're smaller, especially compared to their movie counterparts, but as said by Tolkien they were bred by Sauron to be able to stand the sun, and more importantly, in-game they are sentient and quite capable of speaking; they can even become Overlords. They are still very strong and are much faster than their bulky appearance would indicate.

* ''MainCharacterFinalBoss:'' [[spoiler:At the end of the ''Blade of Galadriel'' DLC, previous player character and protagonist [[RevenantZombie Talion]], after spending most of the game working alongside new player character [[ActionGirl Eltariel]], and helping her defeat the rogue Nazgul (in addition to spending literal decades earlier fighting and dividing the [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orcs]] of Mordor to prevent either [[EvilOverlord Sauron]] or [[EvilFormerFriend Celebrimbor]] uniting them to take over Middle-Earth), finally falls to the corrupting will of his [[ArtifactOfDoom Nazgul Ring of Power]] (helped along by [[MoreThanMindControl lingering anger and resentment towards Eltariel]] for [[NiceJobBreakingItHero being the reason why he's a Nazgul now]]), and turns against his former friend and starts fighting her. Talion is the final enemy you have to fight in that DLC, solidly reminding players that the hero we once knew [[ThatManIsDead is no more]].]]