What if Zovaal isn't the final raid boss of Shadowlands?

Community General Discussion
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The thought just occurred to me, and maybe this is actual copium, but maybe the reason Zovaal is trash is because he was never planned to be the true final raid boss of Shadowlands?

What if Death Knight Anduin is actually the final boss?

Think about it for a second.

A) Most of the story of 9.0 and 9.1 is actually the origin story of “Death Knight Anduin” and building Anduin up specifically as a threat. The bits we see of Zovaal involve him forging Anduin into a weapon. Zovaal himself is present for very little of it, whereas we get scene after scene of Anduin’s plight, his torment and turn, he’s the star of the 9.1 reveal trailer, he’s the one who “defeats” the Night Fae in Ardenweald, he claims the sigil from the Primus. The cliffhanger cutscene of 9.1 basically suggests his journey to “The Dark Side” is complete. It’s almost all about Anduin. Shadowlands main arc is very much the story of “Death Knight Anduin”.

B) Shadowlands is meant to be WOTLK 2.0. Let’s be honest, Blizzard loves the idea of marketing a new Lich King. Look at the art for 9.1 - Blonde-Haired Anduin right in the middle, looking very much like Arthas. The idea of putting Anduin as the final boss to evoke that Icecrown Citadel Lich King final boss vibes… upper management probably drooling at the expected revenue of WOTK hype.

C) We already had Sylvanas as a boss themed around chains and death and what-not. I don’t think Blizzard will do that again. 9.1 is “Chains of Domination” and I don’t think they want to do another final boss who is the same thing, whose powers revolve around chaining and dominating. By contrast, 9.1’s final boss fight teases Anduin’s power - he uses traditional “Death Knight” rune powers mixed with “Heretical” light-based powers. He has a very interesting toolkit that will stand out from Sylvanas - something unique, but also evoking the Lich King.

D) Zovaal is boring and bland and I feel that as much as they have hack writers there, they can’t be this oblivious to how terrible he is… can they? *takes hit of copium*

Just my thoughts. While I think this is probably a terrible strategy for Blizzard in terms of hype for the expansion prior to 9.2 (Zovaal sucks and we still think he’s the final boss), if Anduin is actually the final boss I think it will retroactively make a lot of the previous story content looked upon more favorably and people will be more positive of the story and of the final patch (and if the final patch lasts ~12 months, then that will be a lot of time to appreciate the “twist” and the retroactive implications).

Could be wrong of course, we’ll see what happens.

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nah, idea falls apart right here. no one in the community is having the reaction to DK anduin that they had to DK arthas. Plus the new cutscene showed Anduin is still a mary sue inside his husk. Totally different. Arthas was the most beloved villain in WC history even prior to wrath coming out. The hype was there because of the Warcraft RTS story. There’s nothing like that for DK anduin. IDK how you even thought that

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Sure, but Anduin also has a long history as well. It’s also worth saying it is pretty obvious that Arthas is part of Kingsmourne. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a “Kingsmourne” phase similar to how there was a Frostmourne phase, with Arthas inside the sword instead of King Terenas. It’s kind of “cheap” in a sense to get that nostalgia but I could see Blizzard being shameless enough to do it, and it would get people hyped let’s be real.

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I will say I like speculation like this. Fun stuff for sure.

I’m interested in how anduin and varian have now a similar “dual” personality thing going on. Wonder if that will ever be directly mentioned.

Lo’Gosh and Varian and Anduin and…DK Anduin.

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Mm well the thing is Anduin’s just a possessed puppet. His power isn’t his own and whenever he has acted badly it’s because the Jailer was just MCing him. Not really that good of a final boss.

It’s kind of your own personal opinion that Zovaal is terrible. Not everyone else, or Blizz, agrees. I think he’s fine. It doesn’t seem like they want to do the “secret final boss” again this time like the last three expansions had. So far they’ve been pretty clear on who the big mastermind is we’re trying to stop.

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The Jailor is but a servant of the true evil behind it all!

Bow down before the God of Death!

The end of days is finally upon you!

(Yogg rises)

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We’re trying to stop Zovaal obviously, but we may very well just defeat him in a cutscene after stopping Anduin. Zovaal’s personality is lacking, and that may be to not overshadow Anduin as the villain - let Anduin be in the spotlight, and Zovaal is simply “the darkness behind Death Knight Anduin”, in the same way that Death Knight Arthas had Ner’zhul behind him, motivating him, prior to the whole “Arthas ate Ner’zhul” nonsense. Ner’zhul may have been defeated in the end, but Arthas was the final boss that we faced.

Old Gods feel played-out at this point. I hope when we do see the Void Lords, they’re different enough from the Old Gods.

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Like this kinda puppet??! :smiley:

…or this kind…?

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I can see where this happens. I’m not liking it, but I see it.

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That would be great, it’s about time we had an Alliance Leader as an end-boss.

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No no no no and no lol
He’s a cliched and terribly written villain once again [take a hint steve danuser].

He will be the end boss. They tried to be mysterious in BFA and they admitted that it didn’t pan out. They are going full on with the Jailer as end boss I believe. Nothing has shown me that they aren’t.

And the whole wotlk theme 2.0 thing is a stretch to make it a literal wotlk 2.0

It’s just more of them taking lazy inspiration from it to have a few tie-ins to hook some people to believe their lie of this being a wotlk… which it’s not.

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Maybe the real final boss are the friends who unsubbed along the way

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I just want this entire expansion retconned. It ruins established lore and has nothing to say.

How much do you want to bet that they have Arthas controlling him or some nonsense?

They already ruined KT, might as well!

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Arthas is almost certainly that crystal they used to make Kingsmourne.

KT always twirled his mustache and hammed it up, that was always his thing. I don’t really see what was “ruined” about him deciding to say “hey, yeah, I’m going to work for the Jailer because he was actually the power behind Ner’zhul”. Do people really think he is “ruined” as a character because he was a penultimate boss instead of a final boss? I’m not actually sure what the complaint here is.

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They changed his total and absolute loyalty to Arthas into some more “HE WAS BUT A PAWN BEFORE MASTER MISTER CLEAN, MUAHAHAHAHAAAAA”

He was a henchman, but he was a loyal one. They threw that away, it was a quirk that set him apart.

His final death is very unfulfilling for such a major character, too. He’s the weakest fight in the raid, there’s pretty much no point in him being there besides to get him out of the way, and he’s just distinctly out of character.

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They confirmed jailer was the big boss of SL.

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from Imgflip Meme Generator

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To be fair, they also confirmed that Grom was the end boss of WoD.

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He was loyal to the Lich King Ner’zhul. Arthas was just the chosen pawn of the Lich King for a long time. Then the water muddied with all this “Arthas ate Ner’zhul” business at the tail end of WOTLK, but KT was dead at that point so who knows what he had to say about that.

KT wanted to master death and never die. Given Zovaal is the true source of that power, it makes a ton of sense to me.

He’s the penultimate boss. I mean, yeah, he’s easier with this “hold DPS” strategy and that’s a bit of a bummer, but he was positioned as the penultimate boss, even beyond Ner’zhul.

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And since zovaal is too dumb to open a can of food (with a pull tab even)…we await the thing that has been guiding him.