I find comparing Zovaal to Sargeras, not 1 to 1 or down the line of everything you list on a bullet list of story and characteristics as the same, but they’re both the same in regards only on the fact they’re both rebelling against they’re own pantheon. Even if not outright the same, they’re very similar only in this one point.
Sargeras rebelled against his pantheon and wanted to destroy all of reality.
Zovaal rebelled long ago, and was chained to the Maw for it, but doesn’t want to simply destroy all of reality but remake it.
It’s interesting to see that “Reality” is something that ought to change to 2 different people from 2 separate pantheons. That this cosmic struggle for the changing of realities is present.
I’m curious if we will see other Pantheon’s have rebellions similar to this. When and if we ever meet the other Pantheons. I think we most likely will meet them all eventually in the future of WoW.
In a way, they do have the same end goal. Yes, Sargeras wanted to destroy reality, but IIRC, it was so that whatever new formed in its place would not be corrupted (as he saw it).
So yeah, Zovaal is just Danusar trying to make his own Sargeras.
Wait!!
Danusar wanted to destroy the old lore to make better lore, from his own perspective.
Purge!
If the pantheon had won it would have been a successful revolt, since he was the leader.
If you wanted to plagiarize you could call it a ‘cultural revolution’.
I would say they are parallels simply because they rebelled against their kin to be an oversimplification of their reasons.
Sargeras did it because it feared the void and did not agree with his kin that Azeroth was safe from these “Old Gods”. Plus his fellow titans did not think the void was a big enough threat to warrant such extreme actions like killing one of their own. After all, the old gods on Azeroth were defeated.
Zovaal just wants to bend everything to his will because reasons.
Deathwing rebelled against his kin as well. But his reasons was because he came to view his “gift” as a curse. And the Old Gods were the only ones who “promised” to remove it if he did what they wanted.
Sargeras’ motives were always rooted, at least to start, in noble goals. This was even before Chronicle, at the very bedrock of the lore, the tipping point just changed as time went on.
They had the chance to do this with Zovaal in a much more nuanced way, but as with a lot of stuff in this expansion, they seem to sprint away from any plausible reasoning that works with both old lore and their new stuff. Simple changes would have made Zovaal unique enough and nuanced enough to be more than some one-dimensional villain, but despite those changes being obvious to many, the writers didn’t bother.
So, it seems one theme most or all expansion villains share one thing in common.
Illidan betrayed his people, and it’s even his subtitle!
Arthas murdered his dad, which is certainly a way to betray your people!
Deathwing betrayed his people.
Garrosh (allegedly) betrayed his people.
Grommash betrayed the drainos and in turn was betrayed by Gul’dan, so betrayalception!
Sargeras betrayed his people.
Sylvanas betrayed… Kinda everyone when she sided with Jailvaal, the Zo, Captain Nips of Mawtown, Keeper of the Chest Hole.
Jailvaal, the Zo, Captain Nips of Mawtown, Keeper of the Chest Hole betrayed his siblings.
Garrosh is the only one where there’s room to argue about whether or not he betrayed his people, but there’s undeniably a “betrayal of the people” theme.
Ok, maybe, but does it really count if you only resurrected it kinda-sorta inside your own body by eating its heart? You know, so you can wear even bigger shoulder tusks and get some nifty tentacle upgrades to whack people with and some extra eyes because your eye sight is going and maybe it’ll help and then when jerk coworkers try to sneak up on you and scare you while you’re intently trying to count 270 very rolly pills on a small tray and maybe when they do that you’ll see them and whack them with one of your tentacles, holding your tusky shoulder pad?
While there are parallels between Sargeras and Zovaal, I feel the Jailer’s true equivalent is Amon from Starcraft.
Both were chosen: Zovaal by the First Ones, Amon by a previous Xel’naga.
Both became dissatisfied with the cycle before them, with Zovaal coming to find it flawed and Amon resenting his Xel’naga way of life.
Both rebelled and were defeated: Zovaal seeking the sigils got smacked down by his siblings, where as Amon was pushed back into the void by his fellow Xel’naga after his Zerg and Protoss machinations.
Both greatly benefited from agents amongst their enemies like Sylvanas and Duran.
Personally I would compare Denathrius to Duran simply because Duran was also a Xel’naga and Denathrius being an Eternal One.
It is also possible that Denathrius was allied with Zovaal the whole time. Just when tides were turning against Zovaal leading to his first defeat, Denathrius sided with the rest of kin to save face. Like what Varimathras would do from WC3: TFT to Wrath. Where he only feigned loyalty to Sylvanas while Balnazzar could recover from his “defeat”.
Plus Denathrius had been working on stealing Anima from the other realms for a long time. We know that it was ongoing when Draven was still a General and Kaal was just Dravens underling. Like how Duran had been working on the Hybrid and finding a way to resurrect his master for a long time.
Odyn also betrayed the other Keepers when he didn’t agree that the Dragon Aspects would be enough to stop the Old Gods. Basically anyone who has ever done anything even remotely questionable has had to go behind someone’s back in this franchise.
It’s also a bit fuzzy with the Keepers, since while Odyn was eventually named Prime Designate, Ra being Highkeeper from the start suggests he was the one really “made to lead” the rest, while Odyn’s title was more specific to his role in Ulduar. Especially since Odyn doesn’t really seem to identify as such since leaving the facility behind. With how Ra unilaterally headed out to built Uldum, it never really came across like he was rendered subordinate to Odyn, but rather like Odyn’s position of Prime Designate was more of a role of interim leadership because Ra was away in the south, and any time the Keepers were all called back together (like, say, to empower the Aspects) Ra’s position may have taken precedent over Odyn’s. Even the fact that Odyn was overruled in that case could indicate that as Highkeeper Ra still outranked even the Prime Designate.
When Ra heard about the dragons and Tyrs plan, he personally made the trip to Dragonblight. Odyn was like, “Hah, Ra will side with me”. Only for Ra to agree with Tyr.
Ra basically pulled a John McCain on Odyns Mitch McConnell. That will never get old. Seeing old turtles face go from pride and joy to anger and sorrow when McCain gave a thumbs down to scrapping the ACA.