Just to nitpick but the ambush was designed to fail. Its whole purpose was to wear Alexandros down. It was a deal Kel’thuzad and Balnazzar made as the Ashbringer was a threat to both parties. Balnazzar however would allow KT to turn Alexandros into an death knight as compensation.
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Medan. Just…Medan.
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As others have mentioned Zovaal.
Now a personal moment for me is the fact that I had to actually have Magatha Grimtotem as follower in Legion. The fact that I couldn’t just thunder shock her off of the Maelstrom was a disappointment.
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I love in the cinimatic you only see like 4 Alliance ships but lore wise it was like all 50 Kul Tiran shots and one orc made ship out ran them
She really should’ve seen that betrayal coming.
Swamp of sorrows: Alliance commander after successfully sacking Stonard. “Okay, so we won this battle. Let’s pull back and let them regroup. Let’s not burn their encampment down. That would be mean.”
OR anything with anduin.
Taran Zhu both siding during Mists. “The victims of the attempted genocide are just as bad as the genociders for resisting.”
My favorite was when the August Celestials said. "We weren’t putting garrosh on trial. Everyone else was.
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Not really. Zovaal was excellent at manipulating those he came into contact with and the web of lies he constructed for Sylvanas was denser than most. I’m sure you’re probably aware of this, but I’ll repost a summary that I created on Reddit when someone asked why Sylvanas sided with the Jailer there.
Long post, but here’s the explanation:
Short answer: The Jailer manipulated her, lied to her like he did to so many others, convincing her of things that simply were not true.
Long answer: When Sylvanas committed suicide, the nine Val’kyr that ‘saved’ her didn’t actually do that. They captured her soul and took it to the Maw while she was being shown images of the fate of the Forsaken without her (all lies manufactured by the Val’kyr). Then when she awoke, she found herself in the Maw, being tortured by the Mawsworn until the Jailer revealed himself and ‘intervened’. He spun a good yarn, that it was the Eternal Ones that were cruel and unjust for throwing him into the Maw, and that it was the false Arbiter that sent Sylvanas to the Maw despite her many acts of heroism. He gave Sylvanas a false impression of the Shadowlands, primarily that there is no free will, that your afterlife is chosen for you and that you can never reunite with your loved ones.
For Sylvanas this was incredibly cruel, because her mother, father and younger brother were all dead and being told that she would never reunite with them because of how the Shadowlands supposedly functioned made her start believing that the Jailer was right, that breaking the cycle of life and death was important.
But she still didn’t trust him, and so when he sent her back to Azeroth along with 8 of the nine Val’kyr (one of them stayed behind to ensure that no one in the Shadowlands noticed a soul leaving the Maw) he told her that there would be five events that would transpire and when they did, she would know that his words were true. Those five events were:
- A fiery darkness would return.
- She would need to step out of the shadows and lead.
- A blade would pierce the heart of the world.
- She would hold the blood of the world in her hands.
- She would topple a king and shatter the sky itself.
Now because the Jailer had other allies he was able to manipulate events and have the ‘signs’ take place without his own direct intervention. He used the Dreadlords to prepare the next invasion of the Burning Legion (the fiery darkness that would return), he used Mueh’zala to whisper to Vol’jin and convince him to give the mantle of Warchief to her and of course Mueh’zala used the exact same words that Sylvanas heard from the Jailer, which gave the event more authenticity. This set Sylvanas quite firmly on the path, but there were three other events which he could not control. So he was gambling on Sargeras, in desperation, thrusting his blade into Azeroth, which he did.
It wasn’t really a risky gamble when it came to Sargeras’s behaviour, because he knew of how much rage he had directed at this one planet that had managed to rebuke his Legion multiple times. But he still had to gamble on the Alliance and Horde winning, which involved going to Argus. He had no way of controlling any of that, as his agents had no say in the building of the Vindicaar, or Illidan opening up a portal to Argus, or the Army of the Light eventually invading Antorus and killing Argus the Unmaker etc.
So it was extremely fortunate for the Jailer that these things happened exactly as he hoped, because Sargeras stabbing Azeroth in desperation is what led to the third of the events he prophesied coming true. After that, well, the Goblins started mining Azerite from the wound and then Gallywix gave her some of it which she held in her hand. Thus fulfilling the fourth event.
That was pretty much enough for Sylvanas to throw in her lot with the Jailer as a ‘willing’ partner rather than a mindless servant. 4/5 events that he had said would come true, came true, and the fifth one? Well she did that on her own when she defeated Bolvar and shattered the sky once she broke the Helm of Domination.
But as stated right at the beginning, it was all a lie, and when Zovaal finally got to Oribos, killed the Arbiter and reclaimed his power, he dropped the ruse, making it clear that all would serve him, that there was no ‘breaking the cycle of life and death to create a fairer system’. When she finally realized she was duped, that’s when she shot an arrow at Zovaal and turned against him, but rather than killing her, he simply returned the portion of her soul that had been stolen by Frostmourne and incapacitated her until Uther managed to get inside her mind and make the Ranger General portion of her soul realize the truth about what had happened and what it meant for her.
The alliance started both these wars. Just because Blizzard ignores their own lore doesn’t mean the community should too.
High Elf 1: What should we name our glorious GOLDEN city, powered by the magic of our mighty SUNwell?
High Elf 2: turns to the camera and smiles mischievously
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