5. The Jailer
Even though the Jailer technically belongs to Shadowlands, he should receive a separate mention. Because no antagonist has been so poorly constructed and narrated as the Jailer.
The Jailer has only a few lines of dialogue, hardly interacts directly with the player characters, and until the end, you really don’t know: What does this guy actually want? What was his ridiculous problem?
Another problem was that the Jailer was sold as the “super-over-antagonist,” whose genius essentially triggered all events in the Warcraft story over the past 30 years. This retrospectively devalued – completely unnecessarily – the most significant historical events from Warcraft. Both the Burning Legion, the Scourge with the Lich King, and every other major event.
That he dies with a cryptic “Only a united universe can stand against what is to come” at the end, instead of clearly stating what he actually wants and why, has only further inflamed the fans’ anger.
“Bonus points” go to the Jailer for also absurdly undermining some of the most beloved WoW characters. Many perceive Sylvanas Windrunner’s development as ridiculous, and the meme that the last fragment of Arthas Menethil’s soul dissolved into 35 anima will remain in the community for many years.
At least Blizzard itself has realized that the Jailer was generally a mistake and will probably not mention him prominently for now – unlike the Shadowlands, which still play a minor role here and there, as recently in Dragonflight.
We know of course that the list is quite subjective. Especially in the story of a game, everyone places different emphasis. If you know of any other story fails that you think deserve a place on this list, feel free to let us know in the comments – and preferably a bit more detailed than just throwing out a single keyword.
Not only is the story of World of Warcraft complex, but so is the game itself – as a screenshot with 50 lines of tooltip shows how crazy it can be.
