I can’t help but think of the “microwave of evil” conversation from Megamind now.
Goodness they have absolutely ruined Bolvar’s character arc this expansion. You could replace him with any other character in the Alliance or the Horde Council peacemonger group and absolutely nothing would change in this scene.
His art and aesthetic and backstory up to Shadowlands is amazing, but why waste it on such a B O R I N G character? Why turn him into such a generic toothless nothing character?
I really don’t understand C-Dev sometimes.
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Whatever is part of the plan(the Jailer, Sylvanas, Bolvar, Anduin, etc.) is made generic while whatever is decided to be expanded upon later due to popularity(Denathrius, Mueh’zala and Bwomsamdi) has personality…
The generic characters are mere cogs in the machine to make sure it moves efficiently while the interesting characters are spanners thrown in to bring chaos to the great machine of WoW!
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I have nothing to indicate this other than all the foreshadowing in BfA and prior, but if I had to wager it’s because Bolvar was meant to be the antagonist prior to rewrites and they just don’t know what to do with him as a protagonist.
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It certainly felt like they were building up to an antagonist Bolvar in Legion and BfA. If not that then everything Bolvar did after being LK was pointless.
I really do not like the Jailer as a character. The only redeeming factor would be if the Jailer was a misdirection and he’s secretly the good guy…just having him be the big baddy that recontextualizes all of the lore for the last 10+ years is really…gross.
I think tonight after seeing this interaction and reading all of the Night Elf whining in the current megathread has finally broken me. This storyline is no longer salvageable.
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He’s a non-character so far, we literally know nothing of him/his crimes/why they locked him up/how he convinced everyone to join him.
I’d hope it’s intentional with the idea to unveil it later but with the current pace of Shadowlands, I don’t know if there’s even going to be a later.
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Let’s also not forget WoW Expansions are made 2 Expansions ahead so Sylvanas, the Jailer and Bolvar’s stories(with Sylvanas and Bolvar’s stories swapped) were prepared by Afrasiabi ahead of time!
Bolvar and Sylvanas had their stories swapped at the start of BfA by decree of Ion’s Team(for whatever reason) and thus the Jailer was sloppily added in to serve as the other half of Villain Bolvar.
Of course the survival of Mueh’zala, Denathrius and Azshara with the latter two having goals beyond the Shadowlands and the Great Dark Beyond gives Danuser the means to tell his own story with those characters outside of whatever Afrasiabi’s goal was!
Afrasiabi’s story ends with either Shadowlands or the Expansion after Shadowlands!
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They’re sketched out 2 expansions ahead. The massive amounts of rewrites, cuts and reworks wouldn’t make any story work 2 expansions ahead.
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These are all reasons why I had hoped the Jailer was a misdirection because if he was just going to be a generic villain then why hide these things? Why hide his motivation or the reason he’s in conflict with the other Eternal Ones?
Why?
A well-told story should not leave me asking “What was the point???” because explaining what happened to the Jailer and why he turned on the Eternals would not prevent him from being a raid boss. So that’s not a reason to hide his motivation.
So why?
So exasperating. 
9 Likes
Compelled to commit suicide to serve a purpose? The true master of the Valkyrs is the Lord of ravens.
I think this is the point though. I mean Zovaal basically left Daddy D trapped in Remornia to be tortured by Z’rali because he had fulfilled his usefulness (sending a large amount of Anima to the maw). Given the implied ending of the raid from datamining, it would seem that after Sylvanas gets the Arbiters sigil and gives it to Zovaal, she is no longer of any use. So this way, Zovaal basically leaves her behind to die for good. The only way to ensure that happens is to have us kill her remaining 3 Val’kyr. Everyone is expendable to him.
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Its so odd that Bolvar makes up so much of the Shadowlands advertising despite the fact that he’s just a punk little b that constantly loses or needs to be saved at every turn. He seems to exist, in the Shadowlands story thusfar, as just a way the developers can show how cool and badass and awesome and totally not contrived Sylvanas and the Jailer’s power levels are.
I swear the only reason they even bothered to trot his carcass of a character back out is because he looks unique so they can advertise with him.
That and/or they can make him the Lich King again at the end of Shadowlands and wrap up the story so that it ultimately didn’t matter to the Warcraft universe as a whole in the slightest.
It would be nice if he could do something beyond getting tortured by the Jailer or beaten by Sylvanas or OHKO’d by Sylvanas, again, in the 9.1 raid. At least once?
A crazy half-dead former Lich King, former Paladin, former Highlord, kept alive by Red Dragon magic and wielding a super awesome looking 2h mace. You’d think he’d do SOMETHING cool at least once.
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That probably has been retconned by now. It’s not relevant to her anymore how many Val’kyr she has since she can just magically recreate them anyway. She definitely didn’t have 9 Val’kyr left at the end of BfA. We know that because despite the fiesta that 8.1 was, a Val’kyr died (Or well, maybe that was retconned too).
As if the writers would
- Think that far
- Let Sylvanas be the one to lose
If anything they introduced the Jailer so that Sylvanas can get away and backstab him or something.
3 Likes
Alexandros is still there in place of Darion, you can see him standing next to Whitemane and brandishing Fatebringer in the video linked in the Wowhead article. Steve Danuser made a reply on Twitter last week claiming that it’s a PTR bug: https://twitter.com/SteveDanuser/status/1390438709435125760
Seems a bit strange to me for a bug, considering that PTR version of Alexandros isn’t just hanging out with the Horsemen in Darion’s place, but also has Darion’s current title nameplate of “Horseman of the Ebon Blade” rather than “The Ashbringer.” Whatever, I don’t know anything about video game code, and I’m happy to cling to any indication that Alexandros isn’t there because something happened to Darion.
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I still have a tiny bit of hope for Bolvar, in that Illidan was the box art for Legion and yet didn’t personally appear (outside of flashback quests) and start doing things until about halfway through.
A teeny-tiny bit of hope.
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Do you have a source on this?
I’m not saying you’re wrong, because it sounds exactly like the sort of thing they’d do, but I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth.
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Sylvanas: Fools. You fight a battle you cannot win.
Bolvar: We will stop you, Sylvanas!
Sylvanas: Fordragon. A fallen king without a throne. You will answer for your defiance!
Bolvar yells: RAAAaaaarrGGHHHH!
Sylvanas: Val’kyr! You are bound to me! Strike down my foes!
(Perfectia steps forward.)
PERFECTIA
Sylvanas wait! If we kill these Val’kyr you can never come back.
SYLVANAS
I am never coming back my child.
(Sylvanas teleports out of scene)
INTERCUT PERFECTIA/VAL’KYR
PERFECTIA
You must know, the more of you that fall the weaker she’ll become.
VAL’KYR
We will not fall this day child. We have dealt with your kind before.
PERFECTIA
Tyrande is hunting her and the Jailer will betray her. If she isn’t at her full strength she will die.
VAL’KYR
We know and we will finally be released from this torment.
PERFECTIA
In the end you’re siding with him aren’t you?
VAL’KYR
That is not information we are at the liberty to explain. The time for words are over child.
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Maybe the art is, and the mechanics, but the story is definitely written as they go. There’s too many examples of cutting content or rewriting things because of popularity.
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hell, they are retconning things that was established in 9.0 with 9.1. Like the Stoneweight being an original Venthyr (as stated by Renethral himself) is getting changed to her being one of the first mortals that got sent to Revendreth and most likely was also a night warrior.
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Do you have any evidence of this? Because at bare minimum (based on her oh so lovely Arthas homage in Hel) it seemed like they were prepping Sylvie to do something truly awful when they placed her as Warchief back in Legion. You truly do not kill Vol’jin the way that they did if all they wanted from her was someone who could do the same thing he could have … by kind of more forced and worse? Especially if all you do with her after she made some grand speech about “avenging Jin” was having her go off on a personal errand in Stormheim with ONLY her Forsaken … and nothing else.
1 Like