The biggest mistake in Warcraft history imo is to have this character completely ruin the lore since Warcraft 2 and all that character agency to put this cartoon villain (he is the big retcon) behind it.
Sargeras being corrupted, burning legion motives, scourge, nerzul/arthas Lich king, the whole slyvanas situation and so on.
What’s next? That he was behind the void and light going at it as well?
All of that story now has a far lesser value because they did all those actions at the whim of one character.
The worst part about it is that we still don’t know why.
Another note:
If Zovaal is so much more conniving that say Nzoth, then why were we able to trounce all day in the maw and through torgast, even have conversations with the rune carver (primus), why weren’t his dread lords informing him of our actions?
The only fix imo is to have 10.0 make all of this a bad dream and we never went to shadowlands so that it stays a big mystery and Zovaal was just a figment of whatever bad juju put us in that trance.
I wish the 9.2 finale cinematic is us waking up to Nzoth laughing.
I find it pretty funny that the Jailer has so little recognition that they had to change his Hall of Fame title, because no-one actually knows who Zovaal is.
This right here is what bothers me the most. N’zoth the Betrayer as a secondary boss and Zovaal being a whole new character, which is a poor imitation of Thanos.
They literally threw old lore away to make space for a new bad one.
Honestly, if next xpac takes place on The Dragon Isles, I just hope they won’t spoil what they will retcon this time.
I think Denathrius would’ve been better for that job, the Nathrezim are his and something tells me Zooval is being used by Denathrius, or the Void.
That said, Zooval being the mastermind wouldn’t have been so bad if Blizz just didn’t shove him in out of nowhere. They could’ve been having us theorizing A LOT if they showed Zooval in the dark or mentioned him in different expansions. Even from Cataclysm. If Blizzard showed Zooval, even if in the shadows, at the end of Wrath of the Litch King, and continued giving glimpses of him in other expansions, he would’ve been received amazingly.
And while Whispers of Nzoth helped to mention him, they are incredibly vague. I am surprised the writters thought to shoehorn him like that and then dispose of him in one single expansion.
It seems the days of villains with long build up have changed, which is bad for the story as many villains won’t be memorable like Arthas, Garrosh, The Legion or Old gods.
Was it though? If zovall could dominate the primus so easily, then why was he even chained up and placed in a convenient location for us to assist him? Couldn’t zovall just rip the sigil from him once he was chained in torgast?
I thought the primus was the creator of the domination magic and yet zovaal straight destroyed him in torgast and the primus didn’t do much of anything in korthia after all his praise as the great strategist…
It just doesn’t add up, like what was the primus’s intention on the helm of domination and frostmourne?
The more layers you unfold on the shadowlands story telling the worse it gets imo.
Maybe they didn’t have him planned, its true. But could also mean they just changed the model. Just like how Tyrande had cool blue hair and they went with the usual green back then.
ha mortals. I knew you would be born to defeat the legion on argus. That is how good I am.
Really…so you planned for my birth too?
Yes I did. You live because I made sure your ancestors could make the family tree that would have you born one day. What? you looking at me like I am full of crap.
KIck him in the junk really hard.
Did you see that coming too Nostradamus? You on the ground in pain says…nope.
I agree totally with this. Want to establish him as a memorable villain and have him live up to your hype blizzard? Let this fool win, have him be the goal for us to kill for a few expansions, always just out of reach, then the culmination might be worthwhile. As of now he is a laughing stock.
The “champions of azeroth” are mary sues (and whatever the male equivalent) and the story has 0 emotional weight beyond maybe a lore character dying, we already we are going to win every time ad Infinium.
It feels more and more like a theme park experience, just pay 40$ to get your ticket to shadowlands and experience a tea cup ride of a story, compared to an impactful/emotional journey.
That was cause it was Chris Metzen, and the new team simply wanted to shove themselves into the lore. It same way in a prince taking over the castle of their father then having all the staff pain the old king out of the paintings. They want to make it clear that the king is dead and they are in charge now.