So I recently gave Hardcore a try and I do recommend it as it gives some much needed peril to the setting. Ascending to Dreadmist Peak to destroy the Demon Seed was nerve racking. My vision was cut off and I had to carefully lure cultists one by one to safely complete my quest. Later that day I ventured into Ragefire Chasm where the threat of permanent fatality made the Blade truly fearsome.
And it got me thinking…
Boy these guys really went nowhere huh?
Seriously they’re up there with the Defias and Scarlet Crusade in terms of early villain presentation. You fight them in the Valley of Trials and they provide some of the deadliest encounters in Durotar and are the cause of the first Horde dungeon and a personal quest from Thrall.
Then they fade into the background, never doing much. Not even a cameo in Legion. Their clan has a bit part in the Orc heritage quest but that seems separate from the multi ethnic demon worshipping terrorist group we had before.
Kinda a big ole nothing for such sound and fury at the opening gates.
What are some other villain groups or villains that made a big song and dance that amounted to diddly squat in your opinion?
I’d argue Lord Godfrey, who amounted to so little after his backstab - itself reversed immediately - that he’d have been better off sticking around as a worgen villain but a Forsaken “hero.”
Well, technically the Searing Blade and MU Burning Blade on Azeroth were pretty much just the more overtly Horde-flavored offshoots of the Shadow Council in the vein of the Jaedenar cult, the Dark Strand and the Argus Wake.
Some Warlock Artifact Weapon stuff in Legion made it seem like such groups basically recombined to rally under AU Gul’dan (though they seemingly believed it was just the Gul’dan returned from death to finally deliver Azeroth to the Legion), so in that sense the cults around Durotar were probably part of that.
Plus in MoP, Garrosh seizing Ragefire Chasm and having all of the warlocks in Orgrimmar executed probably severely damaged their operation by costing them whatever covert influence they once had in the city keeping them apprised of efforts to clear them out.
Learns his leader has become a furry
Immediately yeets himself off a cliff
Becomes undead
Shoots Forsaken soldiers
Shoots his own friend he just had you staple back together and revive
Shoots Sylvanas in the face and kills her
Takes over SFK
Refuses to elaborate
Dies
I don’t know that was pretty memorable if nothing else.
Insofar as villains who’ve been under-utilized, I maintain that the worgen and night elves would be well served by having their own worgen nemeses brought back, namely in the form of survivors from Ralaar/Alpha Prime’s Druids of the Scythe and/or Wolf Cult.
Technically the latter is still around in the form of the (ostensibly “redeemed”) Bloodfang Pack, but more could be done with the premise of there potentially still being some Cursed night elf worgen from the original group out there who continue to resent their own people (and naturally the human worgen they’ve since accepted as friends and allies) and seek to deliberately spread the Worgen Curse to create their own malevolent army of feral worgen like Ralaar did.
I always thought they could have done a lot more with the Infinite Dragonflight. They’ve resurfaced a bit recently, but for a very long time they were a one-expansion deal.
Pretty much everything we fight these days boils down to us being Heralds of Anti-Galactus Azeroth finding another “WE DRANK COSMIC KOOL-AID AND NOW BURN MUST WE THE WORLD!”
On that score, I’d probably rather old faces stay scarce until the story settles the heck down. I am curious what those enlightened Apexis ogres are getting up to, though they aren’t villainous. I would very much like to go back to high resolution conflicts with things like colonist Dwarves, cultists, undead warlords, decidedly less friendly dragons.
Same, honestly. I mentioned I’m revisiting Classic on Hardcore and while the mortal peril certainly helps it’s legitimately nice being menaced by centaur, murlocs, humans and undead again.
With this trilogy promising the final battle between yellow and purple before finishing off with something called The Last Titan I’m not exactly holding my breath for something in orbit of relatable threats anytime soon.
But I can report that if the stakes are there a damn ostrich can put fear into you in this game. So really it’s just a matter of presentation.
Honestly it’d be cool if The Last Titan was the finale to all this cosmic jibberjabber and WoW went back to being a Fantasy Adventure again.
Instead of this game where we kill LITERAL GODS every expansion. So the threat level here is just getting silly. How many DOOM OF ALL THINGS do we have to face exactly? Oh for a pirate king with a really big gun that’s ransoming port towns. Or perhaps the Burning Blade has enlisted the aid of a jobbing Pitlord and now not just Fel Orcs but Fel Humans, Goblins, Gnomes etc. seek to claim Azeroth’s resources in his name. Maybe Kel’Thuzad comes back and does nothing in particular but is just a really catty mfer when we encounter him.
At least they remembered to give Xalatath a personality beyond booming voice and dreadful portent. But seeing as her job title is Evil’s Secretary I’m sure we’ll get Voidy McMalbad sooner or later.
Alexstraza spent the first two patches of Dragon Flight hyping Iridikron. Then he showed up, told Fyrakk he was going out to pick up some milk and he hasn’t been seen or mentioned since.
Well Bene, since it’s you asking and you want villains who went nowhere? I’m’a be that kinda person.
Deathwing.
Yeah, sure, he was the main villain of Cataclysm. But between the very beginning and the very end, I mean was he?
He wreck everything, has a brawl with Alexstraza, then flies off to do flip-all, like he suddenly has performance anxiety. His son dies (again), his daughter dies (again), his girlfriend dies, and then he waits until we’re gathering his own super weapon to fly around Northrend and finally face us. Then when he’s literally getting beaten out of the sky, he’s finally ready to do his big power move to end all life on Azeroth? Like, his entire goal from the beginning??
He could’ve done this during the whole year when we couldn’t even figure out where he might be, and he’s waiting until we’re right there with his own Thrall Laser to finally pull out his ultimate doom move?
Did Deathwing legit never want to win to begin with?
More to the point of the thread though, the Arakkoa of Outland always felt like a whole lot of fluff, but without filler. We’re told they once had an advanced society. They want to ress their god. Ghosty ones even tried to summon an old god. This should all make them a pretty big deal, right?
One dungeon and a daily area that people only did because we didn’t have Netherdrakes yet, but they wanted something that wasn’t the default wyvern or bird. And then they just stopped.
I always wished Blizzard did more with them, and was pleasantly surprised to find them in WoD.
iirc they stated that he did take some significant damage from his brawl with Alexstrasza. So he retreated to recover.
But the battle wasn’t a complete failure. Deathwing was gravely wounded. I suspect he will go into hiding to recuperate. Alexstrasza has bought us time to strike!
Deathwing does show up in the Dragonwrath questline when we spy on Arygos and learn about his plans to withdraw the Blue Dragonflight from the conflict if he succeeds in being elected the new Spell-Weaver. Then there is the Charge of the Aspects short story where he baits Thrall into a trap to try and convince the shaman not to take up the position of ‘Earth Warder’, even if temporary.
Yeah, I get he got hurt and all. But unless Alexstraza kicked his butt harder than he kicked her’s, it doesn’t explain his prolonged absence. Alexstraza was up and doing stuff by Firelands. She comes to Nordrassil and everything for Thrall’s wedding.
My point being, he did a whole load of squat-all to really advance his own goals of wrecking things and depopulating Azeroth for N’zoth.
I feel like Illidan was the ultimate Big Bad. Once he died, it felt like there should have been more of an impact, how could the world just go on? I quit before DHs became a playable class so I know I missed a lot of storyline there.
Kil’jaeden feels really forgotten, other than the killed’jaeden meme.
Although, already noted in the OP, how did all the SC stuff go nowhere? Were they all swallowed by the Cataclysm? How is there not a secret sect still operating somewhere?
At least with N’zoth, his plans had something to them. Get his people into the right places, corrupt some titan machines, start trying to reformat the world and install a new operating system. At least he moved those pieces around and into those places.
What was Deathwing’s actual plan?
Ok, gotcha, fly out of the maelstrom, wreck some beloved places, pose on top of Stormwind… Try and copy Archimonde, but with already-beaten Ragnaros? Have the Twilight’s Hammer hang out and do very little but with new, slightly better elemental powers? Fail to 1v1 Alexstraza? Get mad at Thrall for taking your old job?
Ok… But why? What’s the end goal here? How is any of that bringing about the Hour of Twilight? Beyond Ragnaros trying to burn a world tree before the Horde made it cool, what of any of this actually helps his plan of wrecking the world for N’zoth?
Why not get his flight and do strafing runs over Stormwind and Orgrimmar to eliminate the most powerful armies coming after you? Why not fly just a little to the side of the Maelstrom to try and break your master’s chains? Maybe go to Northrend and melt some glaciers and cause some flooding to distract the mortals while you’re doing nothing? Or just breathe on Nordrassil yourself and burn it down?
Deathwing is like incompetent middle-manager in N’zoth’s heirarchy that got promoted just above his capabilities. He had a great start, but quickly showed he was out of his depths and only had the idea of an inkling of a plan.
I think Kalimdor Centaurs are still rather poorly used. In fact, the overall Kalimdor Rogues Gallery has been basically untouched and underdeveloped over the years to the point that most times they get an update; its dealing with an offshoot tribe on the New Island™ expansion.
