Why is Bolvar the face of the Shadowlands expansion?

[thottstation]

In all advertisements, be it the Battle.net launcher, internet adds, or the posters on the bus driving down the street, there's Bolvar as the Unmasked Lich King, alongside the WoW logo and BUY NOW advert for Shadowlands.

But... why?

I can think of several characters that have had more prominance, camera time, and effect on the story than Bolvar.

[Makabreska]

Because he is still a central character of expansion, one that was present both in cinematic and feature trailer? And because his job is still not done? BfA box cover had a generic orc and human soldier on it.

[BrintoSFJ]

Because he is still a central character of expansion, one that was present both in cinematic and feature trailer? And because his job is still not done? BfA box cover had a generic orc and human soldier on it.

I think he is asking why Bolvar is the central character and not someone with more prominence.

[deenman]

likely he has a bigger role eventualy

[McNeil]

Woud you rather see more of Sylvanas everywhere?

[LordVargK]

Woud you rather see more of Sylvanas everywhere?

No, but why not the jailer? Since when do the good guys get to be on the cover?

[Gaidax]

I imagine they wanted Lich King Bolvar bait, as some sort of WoTLK follow up expansion.

After all who else they'd put up there - Sylvanas? I think people are fed up with her bullshit, too much BFA stink. And putting Jailer would make 0 sense, he's practically nobody as far as fans are concerned, just some throwaway token bad guy we never seen before and that won't last more than one expansion.

[arkanon]

In all advertisements, be it the Battle.net launcher, internet adds, or the posters on the bus driving down the street, there's Bolvar as the Unmasked Lich King, alongside the WoW logo and BUY NOW advert for Shadowlands.

But... why?

I can think of several characters that have had more prominance, camera time, and effect on the story than Bolvar.

Honestly? Because the jailer is visually boring and generic - they couldn't have been any more generic:

Big teeth - check
body anomaly - check
evil eyes - check
Substantially larger than the player - check
Chains - check
Spikes everywhere - check

Now this is all absolutely fine IF the character has an interesting back story, well established place in the world/universe, well written, and is an integral part of the entire expansion - I say this because lets be perfectly honest - the jailer is just a Bollywood version of the LK in almost every way, and LK's design involves many of the same physical tropes as Jailer.

tldr The Jailer just isnt interesting enough to be on the cover.

[Venziir]

No, but why not the jailer? Since when do the good guys get to be on the cover?

Vanilla had a random night elf on the cover, TBC a random blood elf, MoP had Chen and BFA had random, regular soldiers. So it's not like every cover has the villain on it.

[Raghnar]

Who would fit better ?

The Jailer ? Like all characters from the shadowlands he was totally unknown from the players. In previous expac, Arthas, DW, Chen, the Warlords were all known by at least a part of the population and could bring back former players. Even the random orc & human from BFA were familiar to the players. If you see them, you think "warcraft", it wasnt the case of the Jalier or other eternals before the xpac launch.

Sylvanas ? It seems she wont be the xpac end boss.

Thrall ? Anduin ? Baine ? Jaina ? Tyrande ? They represent their factions and arent representative of the shadowlands, they are totally alien to this new world like our characters.

On the other hand Bolvar is known by a big chunk of the playerbase to be the current lich king and he isn't alien to this world. Yes he discovers it like us but his powers come from there, and well its the death world, a DK character seems more accurate than a shaman, a warrior, a priestess or a paladin.
And probably that his role will become more prominent through the xpac.

[Makabreska]

Who would fit better ?

The Jailer ? Like all characters from the shadowlands he was totally unknown from the players. In previous expac, Arthas, DW, Chen, the Warlords were all known by at least a part of the population and could bring back former players. Even the random orc & human from BFA were familiar to the players. If you see them, you think "warcraft", it wasnt the case of the Jalier or other eternals before the xpac launch.

Sylvanas ? It seems she wont be the xpac end boss.

Thrall ? Anduin ? Baine ? Jaina ? Tyrande ? They represent their factions and arent representative of the shadowlands, they are totally alien to this new world like our characters.

On the other hand Bolvar is known by a big chunk of the playerbase to be the current lich king and he isn't alien to this world. Yes he discovers it like us but his powers come from there, and well its the death world, a DK character seems more accurate than a shaman, a warrior, a priestess or a paladin.
And probably that his role will become more prominent through the xpac.

Pretty much this. The only old character who would fit would be Sylvi and she alr got crapton of screen time. So they decided to go with a "new" face.

[Dracullus]

He is basically Khadgar/Magni of this expansion, so he's important enough. And he looks cool, better than Jailer/Sylvanas to be honest.

Legion had Illidan on cover, who had role to play only during 7.2/7.3.

[tikcol]

In all advertisements, be it the Battle.net launcher, internet adds, or the posters on the bus driving down the street, there's Bolvar as the Unmasked Lich King, alongside the WoW logo and BUY NOW advert for Shadowlands.

But... why?

I can think of several characters that have had more prominance, camera time, and effect on the story than Bolvar.

Because wotlk was popular

[Lochton]

No, but why not the jailer? Since when do the good guys get to be on the cover?

The good guys have been on the cover for a lot of the releases?

[froschhure]

Arthas would have been a bit obv.

[mysticx]

No, but why not the jailer? Since when do the good guys get to be on the cover?

Probably because the jailer is even more boring than Bolvar at this point.

Bolvar gets some recognition, the jailer... less so, few WoW fans really care about him, and new or returning players really couldn't care less...

[dope_danny]

"remember Wrath? come back we changed its like the good old days and baby i mean it this time"

[Falkeshall]

If Bolvar is the face of the expansion, who's the butt?

[huth]

Arthas would have been a bit obv.

Eh, Arthas has so far also been largely irrelevant to the story beyond facilitating Uther's fall. Putting him there instead of the Bolvar would have been odd when he doesn't show up anywhere afterwards.

[FelPlague]

No, but why not the jailer? Since when do the good guys get to be on the cover?

Vanilla
the burning crusade
Mists of pandaria
(Technically wod...)
Legion
Battle for azeroth
Shadowlands.

only wotlk, cata, and (Technically wod) had villians on their front.

- - - Updated - - -

The good guys have been on the cover for a lot of the releases?

Yeah, the good guys have been on the releases more then any other.

- - - Updated - - -

Vanilla had a random night elf on the cover, TBC a random blood elf, MoP had Chen and BFA had random, regular soldiers. So it's not like every cover has the villain on it.

Legion also had illidan on it. and wod has grom (50/50 on if he is villain or not)



Not villain---Not villain---Villain---Villain
Not villain---Semi villain?--- Not villain---Not villain