Originally Posted by
Danner
Kil'jaeden:
- Mostly didn't do much in the entire TBC expansion. Feels - and was - tagged on at the end of it.
- The threat he posed was credible, but lacked buildup beyond the sunwell island. Feels like a waste of a good villain.
- Threat Class: End of the world as we know it.
- Final moments: Kil'jaeden is stuck in the bath-tub, players kick him back.
- Verdict: 5/10
Arthas:
- Constant presence in the entire contintent. Several appearances. Impossible to miss.
- His master plan was a whammer, revealed only when he beat you in the final encounter. Clever, if misguided cause. Good villain!
- Threat Class: turn everyone undead, ending life as we know it, all to unite the world against the legion.
- Final Moments: Deus Ex Machina taking him out. Cheap death. Even cheaper replacement. Should have won.
- Verdict: 8/10
Deathwing:
- Insane dragon destroying the world. Literally. Backed up by cults and lots of dragon action.
- I think Deathwing lacked a cause. Which contradicts all those cultists. Never fully explored beyond "these cultists are all insane"
- Threat Class: Burn everything to death. Reasoning be damned.
- Final Moments: Epic battle on the back of a dragon. Epicer battle in the maelstrom. Mary Sue moment with Thrall kicking his ass ruining most of it. Dragonflight suddenly saying "we're done". What?
- Verdict: 5/10
Garrosh:
- Warchief breaking under pressure. Warchief breaking character as well. Personality author penmanship disaster where the Garrosh character just went to pieces.
- Master plan: defeat the alliance... by uniting the horde. By making the horde orc-only, betraying everyone for no apparent reason. Self-contradicting plan.
- Threat Class: Orcs vs everyone else. Moral loss had he won, at worst he'd made a stronghold in central kalimdor, but devoid of any friends. Isolationism and colonialism would have followed, but it's hardly the end of the world. Not that scary. Seriously.
- Final Moments: Doesn't even die. Trial? Upcoming redemption arc is too obvious, making me cringe. Didn't feel like a real evil overlord since he just didn't pose a genuine threat to anyone... except the horde itself.
- Verdict: 5/10.
So yeah. Arthas wins out of these four.
For the heck of it, let's add the other antagonists as well.
Illidan:
- Demon hunter at the height of his power, chilling out in outland, when a bunch of horde and alliance players start attacking.
- Illidan makes no personal effort to stop these events, delegating it all to the blood elves, who mess it up royally. Never even managing to mount a counter-offensive.
- Seeing how the war goes badly, is betrayed by Akama and killed by Maiev. The end.
- Threat Class: None. He was minding his own business, and we messed his life and the stability of Outland up, for no good reason whatsoever.
- Final Moments: Pretty cool, even for a death scene. The hunter is nothing without the hunt.
- Verdict: 7/10.
Wrathion:
- Goading the player into spawning war between the alliance and the horde. Succeeds.
- Master plan to have the alliance crush the silly horde, creating a unified front against the legion. Fails on a technicality.
- Threat Class: Immature brat trying to act up. Chessmaster. Will strike again.
- Final Moments: Tantrum. Pretty rewarding.
- Verdict: 6/10.
Scarlet Onslaught:
- Kill the demons! And all the undead. And associates. And associates of associates. And their village. And their pet bunny! For justice!
- Threat Class: Stereotypical rotten apple paladins. Partially made the trope.
- Final Moments: You are what you kill. Seeing the organization fall, and exposing the mastermind behind them was very rewarding.
- Verdict: 7/10.
Old Gods:
- Uh, who knows what they are up to, beside messing with us.
- Threat Class: End of the world if killed. Probably. It's hard to say. End of the world if not killed.
- Final Moments: Just dies and falls over. Which is contradictory to their threat.
- Verdict: ??/10.
Panthenon or Titans:
- Rather unwilling to blow up Azeroth for whatever reason. Yet their messengers are willing to do so. Contradiction.
- Threat Class: End of the world. Literally.
- Final Moments: Not yet happened.
- Verdict: ??/10.