I’m going to do it! I’m going to defend Zovaal. The hate he gets and the hate the writing gets for Shadowlands is unwarranted. He actually was a great antagonist and all the wringing of hands was way overblown.
For instance everyone saying they didn’t understand what he wanted. I never understood this complaint. His motivations were made obvious at every stage. First it was explained that he wanted to get out of the Maw and to the Arbiter and it was mentioned he was interested in a place called the Sepulcher at the start of the expansion. Ok cool. Then we found out he was the Arbiter and wants his power back plus the four seals of the covenants, easy. Now he tells us he is going to remake and dominate all reality because he thinks it’s flawed. Easy to understand. One criticism I will grant you is that we could of learned the underlying motivation why he thinks reality is flawed earlier on but I understood every step of the way. What I don’t understand is why people say otherwise.
Another thing is it was fairly obvious to understand that Zovaal and the Dreadlords weren’t manipulating everything in the cosmos at all times in some giant master plan. In the Revendreth book it makes it fairy obvious they were to sow discord and chaos to weaken and distract the other powers of the cosmos so that when the chance arises they can free the Jailer. Eventually circumstances arose that Zovaal and the Dreadlords could enact the final steps needed to free him using the Burning Legion, Lich King, Sylvanus and Argus. No great foresight required it’s just, oh the time is right and I can predict these very obvious things happening.
I thought his powers were cool, his armor was cool though it would of been nice to see more of him in action so to speak. He gave of the vibe of a very ancient and powerful being that even the other realms of power in the cosmos feared, like he was one of the most powerful beings ever to exist. I think he was a great villain to end the Warcraft 3 saga part of WoW. I don’t think it mattered that we didn’t know about him earlier on. The all powerful Judge and then Jailer of the dead trapped and obscured from the cosmos then released doesn’t wait around to enact his plans! He just gets down to business! Zovaal was cool and badass!
I kinda liked the last patch, if we skip most of Shadowlands and go straight to Zereth Mortis and don’t touch WoW’s afterlife, then I could live with Shadowlands.
Say it’s just some interdimensional forge linked to Icecrown via the Forge of Souls. And the first ones are just some titan-like beings etc.
Hoping they retcon the crap out of Shadowlands though.
All of that? That whole block? That’s actually the entire damn problem!
A good villain actually has their goals presented to the audience up-front. Their ultimate objective is right there on the table from page one, so that the reader can think about the ramifications of what happens if they actually get that. Even something as bland as “a thousand years of darkness!” is more compelling than “…I’ll tell you later ”
Of course there can be complexities - the villain has other objectives. The villain has to overcome setbacks somehow, etc. But the ultimate goal - or at least AN ultimate goal - must be presented to the audience, to compel them into seeing the villain as, well, villainous. As an active threat in the story.
Zovaal had none of that. he just sort of loomed ominously, was sort of spooky, and was aligned with last expansion’s Big Baddie (whose own goals were even less clearly-defined.) There was a whole thing of “keeping it a secret” and trying to reveal bit-by-bit with each patch update… but that diesn’t have the intended effect, and instead made it look like the writers were just cramming stuff onto the cahracter to try to generate interest.
And taken as a whole? I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what it was, because a retrospective look is STILL vague and confused and meandering.
This is the only part I’ll agree with. And it makes me that much more confused why they opted for him to have the “bald hobo” look for most of the expansion.
He had potential… only that.
Everything else related to him either makes no sense or it is missing information to be coherent.
The only thing that is good about him is that he died a true death and is not returning anytime soon.
Yeah,OP, I am going to disagree. The whole rewriting everything in Azeroth to have been Zovaal manipulating things behind the scenes was a bit too much.
Let’s rephrase the OPs comment. Zooval had the POTENTIAL to be a great villain. But he was a nobody that blizz didn’t bother building up in prior expansions
“(Thing) had potential” is pretty meaningless. Everything has potential. Superman 4 had potential to be the best superhero movie of all time. The Oculus had potential to be the best dungeon ever. The Chicago Bears (Daaaaah BEARZ) have potential to win hte superbowl every season.
“Oh, it had potential” is saying nothing. Absolutely Zovaal had potential, though I think tying him into Sylvanas’ wretched and loathed villain arc would have been limiting no matter what. But that “potential” was never attempted or realized. Instead he was just Xerxes from “300” with a blue filter instead of sepia and a bag of lazy and ill-applied tropes.
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