Non-Lore related bosses

[Deleted]

I admit that I am not a lore buff, so I may be very far from the mark here.

Am I right in saying that in the entire game there are almost no bosses in some dungeon or raid that does not have a direct connection to the major story line of the expansion? Are there any bosses that we need to fight just because they are just plain evil villains that don't care about the Burning Legion, Scourge, Deathwing, Sha?

They are just there because they are evil SOBs that deserve to die

[Hitorii]

Vanessa VanCleef and the Defias Brotherhood didn't have any connection to Deathwing during Cataclysm so you could say we kill her and her group just because they were evil

[wych]

Vanessa VanCleef and the Defias Brotherhood didn't have any connection to Deathwing during Cataclysm so you could say we kill her and her group just because they were evil

They weren't evil, they got fucked over by Stormwind after they did building work and Stormwind refused to pay them

[Ghostile]

They weren't evil, they got fucked over by Stormwind after they did building work and Stormwind refused to pay them

Then they started robbing and killing so... they were evil too.

[wych]

Then they started robbing and killing so... they were evil too.

They were forced into poverty because a kingdom refused to pay them for their labour.

Poverty leads to crime

[Talen]

They weren't evil, they got fucked over by Stormwind after they did building work and Stormwind refused to pay them

Both sides were played and used by Onyxia.

The masons demanded much more than the job was worth, the Nobles offered much less.

EJL

[Knough]

Dire Maul, I think? Blackrock Depths, Stockade, Shadowfang keep, Utgarde Pinnacle, those sort of places? Sure the Lich King is in Utgarde, but it's not lore-relevant, I'd say?

[Nivena]

Throne of Thunder had nearly nothing to do with the Garrosh Hellscream storyline; Ulduar had also nearly nothing to do with the crusade against the Lich King.

I really like when raids have separate storylines but in the grand scheme are still connected.

[Trigg]

You could say Malygos, at that moment in time he had no affiliation with the LK or the burning legion who are arguably the main antagonist/s for WotLK (Sargeras being the puppeteer behind the LK). But his downfall is linked all the way back to deathwing during the war of the ancients, so probably not what you're after.

[Deleted]

Dire Maul, I think? Blackrock Depths, Stockade, Shadowfang keep, Utgarde Pinnacle, those sort of places? Sure the Lich King is in Utgarde, but it's not lore-relevant, I'd say?

Dire Maul maybe, but all others are tied to major lore factors.

Stockades is probably the best example as Hogger has more of a fan-based fame behind it.

[The Flavour Cat]

Many of these non-lore bosses are just fodder to represent the armies of who ever commands them. Some of them might have small bits of lore behind them, but some have no lore at all. The Sha of Pride wasn't mentioned prior to the raid, but was hinted at when Shaohao's spirit mentions his pride kept the mists surrounding Pandaria. Thok, Blackfuse and Galakras have no lore to their names. Alysrazor had one or two quests in Mount Hyjal, and then she left and became a raid boss later on.
The only bosses in ToT that already had lore were High Priestess Mar'li, Jin'rokh and Lei Shen.

[Zaelsino]

Most bosses just represent a certain part of the main boss's army. Take BWD for a random example; not a single boss before Nef/Ony had ever been seen or heard of in the plot before, they were just random bad guys with various quirks and a blurb of dungeon lore to explain what role they have on the villains' side. It's not surprising though -- at the rate we chew through raid bosses we'd have no lore characters left if they were all relevant beforehand.

Places like Maraudon and Dire Maul are kind of their own threats though. I don't think either of them ever really tied in to vanilla (which admittedly didn't have a central, overarching plot) or Cata.

[Jyggalag]

I have to completely disagree OP and actually argue the opposite.
TotGC - 4/5 bosses had almsost no lore behind them and Anub'arak's origins didn't get much love.
I also felt SoO had several bosses that didn't tie in very well. Maybe that's because I haven't read the latest books? I.e. what the hell is Immersius and what does he have to do with Garrosh? You can say the same about Thok and Spoils.

That's just a few off the top of my head. So many raids/instances have filler bosses without any influence on the story.

[Demsi]

Tol barad comes to mind

[Giscoicus]

I admit that I am not a lore buff, so I may be very far from the mark here.

Am I right in saying that in the entire game there are almost no bosses in some dungeon or raid that does not have a direct connection to the major story line of the expansion? Are there any bosses that we need to fight just because they are just plain evil villains that don't care about the Burning Legion, Scourge, Deathwing, Sha?

They are just there because they are evil SOBs that deserve to die

If they are evil then they are connected to the storyline.

- - - Updated - - -

Throne of Thunder had nearly nothing to do with the Garrosh Hellscream storyline; Ulduar had also nearly nothing to do with the crusade against the Lich King.

I really like when raids have separate storylines but in the grand scheme are still connected.

Throne of Thunder was further elaboration on Titan Power that existed in Pandaria, which was created to control Y'blahblahbla. It also, on Isle of Thunder, elaborated on the escalation between the alliance and horde mages. It also elaborated on the Zandalari go will undoubtably show up again.

The Titan remnants in pandaria is why Garrosh started digging in the vale.

[Astalnar]

When Burning Legion is the Ultimate Evil one can imagine, it is hard to have an independat villain that is also evil for the sake of evil while still maintaining that Burning Legion is the "evilest" of all. Thus, no.

It is also redundant to just brand a character as evil as this greatly impoverishes the manouvering space you have in making the character good (meaning quality), you know.

There are groups in Warcraft that do not go well with what we want, simply, are in disagreement and thus ned to die. Defias Brotherhood is one of the best examples. Even if Nobles of Stormwind fucked the whole thing up, we still go and kill the ones in right. This also makes it a great story. That we as players, especially Alliance players are taking part of injustice. That we are actually fighting on the wrong side.

Try not to use word evil as easily as you do, it greatly reduces its actual meaning when you use it all the time. Evil is the word reserved for a rare few, and only on those it should be applied.

[Deleted]

The content that is always irrelevant to its expansion: Troll instances mon

[Deleted]

The content that is always irrelevant to its expansion: Troll instances mon

Surely you mean 'relevant to everything in the history of EVER mon mon monety mon'?

[Ciddy]

Did Terestian Illhoof in Karazhan actually have any lore behind him? He seemed like some random, made-up boss that just came out of nowhere.

[Ratyrel]

Did Terestian Illhoof in Karazhan actually have any lore behind him? He seemed like some random, made-up boss that just came out of nowhere.

I believe he was connected to the warlocks outside his den scavenging for knowledge and was trying to summon a greater demon (Kil'Jaeden?) using the karazhan ley line nexus. But his lore is indeed very hazy.