Party pooper
He was probably one of the best, if not the best, written characters in the entire franchise. His entire character arc was solid from start to finish in terms of where he started from, his motivations, and how he slipped off his path and into becoming a monster.
Compare it with Garrosh, one of my personal favorite character’s, or Sylvanas and their heel turns of character development. Garrosh going from the storyline in Stonetalon where he kills one of his top generals for the atrocities he committed in bombing a bunch of Druids to the things he did in MoP was extremely jarring just to put him into that role of “villain”. There was no real logical path for how quickly his character turned and just how absurdly, mustache twirlingly, evil he ended up as.
The same can be said for Sylvanas, errr though not the evil part. She has kinda always been evil since becoming Undead in WCIII. However, Sylvanas main motivation pre-cata was to kill Arthas and get her revenge which Arthas died at the end of WCIII. At that point she had no motivation to continue on and tried to off herself, seeing a glimpse into WoW’s version of Hell, the Maw. That changed her entire motivation from “I live to kill Arthas” to “I need to live no matter the cost!” and Cata reflected this story perfectly! Seriously, Sylvanas was such a beautifully written character from the RTS all the way through Legion. Then, abruptly, BFA’s pre-patch took an absolute heel turn in her character where the character who’s motivation has been “Survive at all costs!” ever since the end of WotLK suddenly shines a spotlight on herself and practically says “Everyone, Horde and Alliance, come kill me! Look how evil I am! Oooooh~”
I get people are defending it under this guise of “Well, there are reasons that will be explained eventually!” but I argue that is bad writing to just say we have not seen the reasons yet for this decision. Compared to Arthas who had a very fleshed out fall from grace into the path he wound up on, Garrosh and Sylvanas just felt spur of the moment and random with no build up to their falls. They both had build up, Garrosh’s being growing into an Honorable Warchief and having his Orcish Rage and Pride tempered from such things as Stonetalon and Sylvanas’s being quietly taking out any threat to her survival and the survival of the Forsaken out of the picture from the Shadows in a constant fear of what awaited her.
Both of their stories take sharp unexpected turns compared to Arthas whom we can easily see how everything led to his fall from grace compared to Garrosh and Sylvanas who have both just felt spur of the moment “We need a villain!” and the latter still being written off as “We will understand eventually” which just feels bad.
4 Likes
I think you just broke my brain.
1 Like
Watch it be Gilbert Gottfried 
You are right.
I think at least Blizz started on the right foot with the Jailer by showing him already as the big bad so now they can spend the whole expansion building up to the final fight with him…
instead of “WILD N’ZOTH HAS APPEARED!”
1 Like
I would love if we only get little quiet voice lines early in Shadowlands. Like how sometimes Yogg Saron would whisper to you if you were in a certain spot in Northrend
Arthas is just a copy of Elric of Melnibone.
Very hyped for this series! Got even more hyped when they showed and hopefully it is, Garona! She’s not my favorite but she needs the spotlight in WoW for a little while.
I think, theorizing here, he has an original form when he has the ‘globe’ put back into his chest. And quite honestly it’s hard to make villains downright intimidating now-a-days unless you are 10 and playing games for the first time. It’s just people are more or less numb to it.
I do HOWEVER want him to have a very cool voice.
They did the Lich King wonders with that voice of his.
They can do wonders if they got the right voice actor, but also did the right effects etc to fit the image of the Jailer to make him more menacing.
I loved the Yogg whispers. While it fit I was still disappointed that they ended once the character got a Yogg kill in.
that’s Draka I think.
Yes it was.
Blizz has the ability to make great and downright intimidating bosses, even when the narrative leading up to their fights is not perfect.
Gul’dan, Arthas, Illidan from BC. the lead up to their fights and the characters themselves made it so epic when you finally got to face them.
I know blizz failed tremendously in BFA but hey, Legion was awesome. So I still have hopes that they will nail the Jailer and have him be a memorable villain
How can i be in there tho. The xpac not out yet.
I think that what makes a great villain are his actions and motivations more than the way he looks. The most compelling villains IMHO are the ones that think that their crusade its right and go all-in to achieve their goals; they are the heroes in their own minds.
1 Like
I guess we have different definitions of ‘intimidating’. So agree to disagree but hopefully they do the Jailer right.
At least we can agree in our hopes for the Jailer for being a memorable villain, right?
He has the potential for it, just up to Blizz to not mess up or cut corners.
Whos the female orc?