Short Summary of Shadowlands Before Dragonflight Comes Out!

[Sondrelk]

It's not that the scene is complicated or obtuse, though it is the latter, it's mostly that this is one of the few cases I can think of where WoW does this at all. I.e, presenting a situation and a pitch from a character, but having it be a deliberate setup without it later being explained in detail. If you check the Bald Man's spiel with what goes on in-game, you can see where he was economic with the truth, what was real and how it was meant to play on Sylvanas in particular. It's legitimately a good beat, well carried out. But it's also in a tie-in book and requires attention to SL itself and ain't nobody got time for this shit, especially when the pay-off is dealing with schizo In-game Sylvanas and worst villain in the MMO in-game Bald Man. The book in general has no right to be as coherent as it is, though it really falls apart on the last third, even if I appreciate things like the sheer brass balls of having 'soon you'll be with your loved ones' to Delaryn be genuinely meant.

The book captures the mix of being unscrupulous, not as clever as she thinks and locked in confirmation bias along with genuinely having some grounds for its version of Sylvanas well, but it only really works so long as it has a cohesive story going. As soon as the story turns into 'Let's fix this quest - the Novel' it melts into itself.

Really most of this wouldn't be so much of an issue if the writers would just admit that Sylvans is completely evil, instead of trying to desperately shoehorn in a redemption.

At least we can put it all behind us though, and luckily it shouldn't have any real implications on the plot going forward.

[Feanoro]

Really most of this wouldn't be so much of an issue if the writers would just admit that Sylvans is completely evil, instead of trying to desperately shoehorn in a redemption.

That would involve the lead writer not being creepily obsessed with her.

At least we can put it all behind us though, and luckily it shouldn't have any real implications on the plot going forward.

Sadly no. She's got blue eyes now, so all redeemed, don't you know? The Maw punishment will last only until the writers think the Sylvie fatigue is over, then back she'll pop like Illidan to heroically lead us against the threat only she saw, and so on and similar cliches.

[Darknessvamp]

Some major errors throughout:
1. Although the Jailer tries to convince characters his reason for being imprisoned is that he took issue with the 'Machine of Death', the process by which souls are judged and assigned to realms randomly in the Shadowlands, prior to all Warcraft lore concerning Azeroth when the Jailer was still 'the Arbiter' he took an interest in the sigils that he and the other 'Eternal Ones' were supposedly granted by 'the First Ones' and tried to gather them together but when the other paragons refused he decided to fight them for theirs (then the lore gets really stupid where he was supposedly winning and the other Pantheon members were failing to stop him and then he just lost so that it doesn't contradict the expansion's premise). The Primus then invented domination magic to restrain him and the other Eternal Ones took his sigil and anima to create the Arbiter we see in modern WoW and committed him to the Maw which they may or may not have invented just at that moment.

2. Sylvanas commited die following the Fall of the Lich King not during Deathwing's rise from Deepholm and she doesn't actually encounter the Jailer when she first arrives at the Maw, only senses his presence, before being contracted by the Nine (who aren't actually Valkyrs but Mawsworn Kyrian in disguise apprently) to 'enter her service' for some unknown deal before one his 'sacrificed' to bring her back. When her first meeting with the Jailer happens isn't actually detailed other than what she gets told by him.

3. Seems to be a lot of speculation on what happened with Argus, we don't know if Argus was corrupted by Death Magic or just happened to be a 'Death Titan' in the same way the other titans take on an aspect when 'birthed' and the Dreadlords weren't the ones who led Sargeras to the planet considering they weren't forced into the Legion until after the Eredar were corrupted and Argus (the planet) became fel-infused. For that matter we still don't know how killing Argus broke the Arbiter other than just being told "lol it happened" by a random enemy.

4. That's pure speculation on the Helm of Domination destruction, we literally aren't given an explanation why tearing it apart opened a portal to the Maw other than it just happened. If anything it's more like Sylvanas just used the power contained within it to open a portal herself, like mages, warlock and such have done in the past, but there's no confirmation on what happened.

5. It's not actually clear why Sylvanas chose to kidnap those faction leaders especially when Baine just gets tossed away and the others are stuck in Torghast but get ignored for most of the expansion till we rescue them. The fact that Anduin eventually was dominated as a pawn for the Jailer to use seems like an afterthought rather than always part of his plan.

[Super Dickmann]

Really most of this wouldn't be so much of an issue if the writers would just admit that Sylvans is completely evil, instead of trying to desperately shoehorn in a redemption.

At least we can put it all behind us though, and luckily it shouldn't have any real implications on the plot going forward.

Keeping with BFA's clown characterization of Sylvanas as a cartoon to build up characters like Sadfang or Calia would be consistent with that one expansion, but be just as ill-fit for purpose. Cutting the Bald Man entirely and having her genuinely be both able and planning to do what he only claimed to may have been a way to go about it, but there's really no way to properly suture what are essentially three separate characters together. The book does its best, but it can't leapfrog BFA Sylvanas or the shelfload of retcons required.

It is a fascinating carfire, but one we'll be free of for at least 1 (one) expansion.

[Maljinwo]

Tl,dr:

We punched death on its face and devalued the meaning of the afterlife as anyone can just visit Oribos and chill.

Also, we failed to off Sylvanas, so shes bound to return at some point when the writers need to boost sales.
Anduin is sad because he was mind controlled 5 minutes and joined her

Vol'jin still does barely anything despite being the one guy who had traveled the shadowlands before and is now forgotten in a seed to reincarnate until the writers remember he exists

[JunktownVendor]

Some major errors throughout:
1. Although the Jailer tries to convince characters his reason for being imprisoned is that he took issue with the 'Machine of Death', the process by which souls are judged and assigned to realms randomly in the Shadowlands, prior to all Warcraft lore concerning Azeroth when the Jailer was still 'the Arbiter' he took an interest in the sigils that he and the other 'Eternal Ones' were supposedly granted by 'the First Ones' and tried to gather them together but when the other paragons refused he decided to fight them for theirs (then the lore gets really stupid where he was supposedly winning and the other Pantheon members were failing to stop him and then he just lost so that it doesn't contradict the expansion's premise). The Primus then invented domination magic to restrain him and the other Eternal Ones took his sigil and anima to create the Arbiter we see in modern WoW and committed him to the Maw which they may or may not have invented just at that moment.

2. Sylvanas commited die following the Fall of the Lich King not during Deathwing's rise from Deepholm and she doesn't actually encounter the Jailer when she first arrives at the Maw, only senses his presence, before being contracted by the Nine (who aren't actually Valkyrs but Mawsworn Kyrian in disguise apprently) to 'enter her service' for some unknown deal before one his 'sacrificed' to bring her back. When her first meeting with the Jailer happens isn't actually detailed other than what she gets told by him.

3. Seems to be a lot of speculation on what happened with Argus, we don't know if Argus was corrupted by Death Magic or just happened to be a 'Death Titan' in the same way the other titans take on an aspect when 'birthed' and the Dreadlords weren't the ones who led Sargeras to the planet considering they weren't forced into the Legion until after the Eredar were corrupted and Argus (the planet) became fel-infused. For that matter we still don't know how killing Argus broke the Arbiter other than just being told "lol it happened" by a random enemy.

4. That's pure speculation on the Helm of Domination destruction, we literally aren't given an explanation why tearing it apart opened a portal to the Maw other than it just happened. If anything it's more like Sylvanas just used the power contained within it to open a portal herself, like mages, warlock and such have done in the past, but there's no confirmation on what happened.

5. It's not actually clear why Sylvanas chose to kidnap those faction leaders especially when Baine just gets tossed away and the others are stuck in Torghast but get ignored for most of the expansion till we rescue them. The fact that Anduin eventually was dominated as a pawn for the Jailer to use seems like an afterthought rather than always part of his plan.

Most of these things are answered in the Sylvanas book. She did jump during Cataclysm as she specifically thought about Garrosh ordering her to attack Gilneas before she jumped. She even has a few pages where she directly talks with The Jailer. Helm of Domination stuff comes from the fact that when whatever holds a type of magic (an artifact or a body) gets destroyed, that magic goes to its origin realm. For example, if you kill a Titan, its soul (sentient Arcane magic) would go back to the Realms of Order, as said by Danuser before Shadowlands even came out.

[Th3Scourge]

I've noticed that a lot of people didn't really get Shadowlands lore

Oh we got it. It was dogshit. Shadowlands should never have happened. It took a dump on the existing lore

[JunktownVendor]

Oh we got it. It was dogshit. Shadowlands should never have happened. It took a dump on the existing lore

I've been hearing that since WoW came out. There was same criticism for every expansion, but then years later people decide that they are fine with it :P At some point, if a story is disappointing you for decades, maybe you shouldn't keep up with it.

[Th3Scourge]

I've been hearing that since WoW came out. There was same criticism for every expansion, but then years later people decide that they are fine with it :P At some point, if a story is disappointing you for decades, maybe you shouldn't keep up with it.

Go find the the xpac that wrote in an entirely new villain that was REALLYYY behind every event in wows history, supposedly pulling all the strings and invalidating everything that came before it.

Or even like how apparently the necrolords are the progenitors of the scourge yet the scourge architecture was originally nerubian. Nah, shadowlands really was the lowest of the lows

[Sondrelk]

Go find the the xpac that wrote in an entirely new villain that was REALLYYY behind every event in wows history, supposedly pulling all the strings and invalidating everything that came before it.

Or even like how apparently the necrolords are the progenitors of the scourge yet the scourge architecture was originally nerubian. Nah, shadowlands really was the lowest of the lows

Thinking about it, didn't the devs promise that we would learn why Nerubian and Necrolord architecture looks similar?

[Super Dickmann]

Go find the the xpac that wrote in an entirely new villain that was REALLYYY behind every event in wows history, supposedly pulling all the strings and invalidating everything that came before it.

Or even like how apparently the necrolords are the progenitors of the scourge yet the scourge architecture was originally nerubian. Nah, shadowlands really was the lowest of the lows

The Bald Man's impact on prior canon is relegated chiefly to the Dreadlords and who manufactured the crown, the response to SL as some unique lore violation uncanny to Blizzard's other products is laughable. Even the nerubian bit and the tol'vir are the product of prior retcons to the Scourge.

[masterjc]

I've noticed that a lot of people didn't really get Shadowlands lore, whether because they took a break or just didn't care much for it, so I thought it would be a good idea to write out a short summary for it, just to get you up to speed before Dragonflight comes out

Minor spoilers for the Sylvanas novel!

Three important things before Shadowlands' plot happens:

1. Sylvanas killed herself somewhere around the time Deathwing came out of Deepholm, so the very start of the Cataclysm. Here she met The Jailer who promised her that they can break the cycle of life and death together. They both see it as unfair. He was the first Arbiter and saw countless people's lives judged by the rules set in place by the First Ones, that don't take context into consideration and often split families apart of eternity - he wasn't really down with that, which is why after him, a mechanical Arbiter was put in place. A mechanical Arbiter wouldn't get any smart ideas. After Jailer's servants show Sylvanas how families are separated for all eternity, something she cannot handle as family has been everything for her all her life, she is convinced too. She lost her parents and brother in the Second War and the thought of being sent to the Shadowlands where she cannot see them ever even though they are out there broke her. She is also mortified that the Arbiter sent her to the Maw for doing bad things she was forced to do by Arthas, while sending people like Zul'jin who is responsible for the deaths of her family members and countless more, by his own volition no less, to Revendreth where he can get penance. She decides to side with the Jailer, after deliberating it for years though - right around Legion when she became a Warchief.

2. The Dreadlords are created by Sire Denathrius, the leader of Revendreth who is sided with Zovaal... maybe. As you know Dreadlords are very cunning and known for being deceitful so who knows if Denathrius *really* serves the Jailer, but that's a topic for another time. What is important is that Denathrius sent the Dreadlords to all the different cosmological forces as spies, most notably, Disorder. If a creature consumes too much of a type of magic, it will become a being of that type of magic. So the Dreadlords who consumed Fel became literal demons. There was also a void sect of Dreadlords who manipulated Sargeras into starting his great Burning Crusade. They showed him the soul of the world Argus, which is a Titan. They told him that if Argus' soul was infused with Death magic, it could ressurect Sargeras' demons from the Twisting Nether much more quickly than it would have taken them otherwise. This is very important later. The Dreadlords also gave Kil'jaeden the Helm of Domination and Frostmourne which he used to imprison Ner'zhul at the end of Warcraft II Beyond the Dark Portal, but it was made by the Runecarver in Shadowlands, who later turns out to be the imprisoned Primus. It was supposed to be used as a tool for the vessel who would start the Jailer's conquest on Azeroth, but it's made quite clear that all of them (Ner'zhul, Arthas, Bolvar) were acting mostly to their own accord, besides Arthas who was often manipulated by Ner'zhul.

3. Now you remember that I said that Argus was infused with Death magic. Well, when we killed him in Legion, that broke the Arbiter because a being such as Argus was not meant for the Shadowlands (the Titans who are beings of Order have their own realm of existence) but being infused with Death he became a creature of Death, and the breaking of the Arbiter caused all souls to be sent the Maw instead of their rightful afterlife. This empowered the Jailer and Sylvanas a looot.

So, to empower the Jailer (and herself), the Jailer instructed Sylvanas to cause as much death as possible, thus the Fourth War began after Legion which is central to most of the plot of BfA. After BfA, she goes up to the Icecrown Citadel, fights Bolvar, and breaks the Helm of Domination. The Helm of Domintion is tied to the Shadowlands and every time you break an artifact of power, that power goes back to where it came from. A surge of energy burst from the Helm after it was destroyed and it literally broke the barrier between Azeroth and Shadowlands.

Now what you need to know about are the Sigils of Shadowlands. There are five of them - one for each of the covenants + one for the Arbiter. You need them all to open a way to a place called Zereth Mortis. Zereth Mortis is a literal "Cornerstone of Death", the place where the First Ones made the whole of Shadowlands. At the very heart of it lies the Sepulcher of the First Ones, which is kind of a nexus point between all six Zereth realms (one for each cosmic power). The Jailer wanted to use the Sepulcher to establish his own rules of reality. He also needed the soul of Azeroth, which is a world-soul with a lot of potential to be used as fuel for something like that. But first, the Sigils.

As he couldn't personally get the Sigils himself without going on a huge offensive, he needed pure souls that he could send to each of the realms that would gather the Sigils in surgical precision assaults. To this end, he told Sylvanas that she should choosy worthy people of Azeorth. She chose Baine Bloodhoof, Anduin Wrynn, Jaine Proudmoore, Thrall and Tyrande Whisperwind. All of them got set free in the intro for the Maw, except Anduin. All the stuff in 9.0 happens - covenant campaigns and the attack on Castle Nathria where Prince Renethal binds Denathrius inside Remornia (Denathrius' sword), hoping to give him penance as all souls in Revendreth get. During 9.0 Sylvanas tried to convince Anduin to join them as she saw her brother in him. However when all else failed, Anduin was completely dominated by the Jailer using Domination Magic, which is a twisted form of the Language of the First Ones. It was made by the Primus as a means to imprison Zovaal when he wanted to reshape Reality back when he was just the Arbiter. He also got a sweet new weapon called Kingsmourne that was made with the soul of Arthas. This is where 9.1 happens.

Anduin goes on to Elysian Hold and gets the Sigil of Kyrestia. Sylvanas launches an assault on Ardenweald and gets the Sigil from there, Denathrius gave his Sigil to the Jailer at some point before Shadowlands, and we find the Sigil of the Primus, an investigation that leads us to Torghast where it is revealed that the Runecarver is the Primus. Since we have the Sigil with us, Zovaal takes it from us pretty easily. Now all that was left was the Sigil in Oribos.

But before that, some semblance of order is brought tot he Shadowlands. The Kyrian change their philosophy of wiping memories, the Maldraxxi finally have some order after the whole civil war, Revendreth is much more stable and in Ardenweald we finally get an answer as to why Elune let the Teldrassil burning happen - she sensed the drought in Ardenweald and let the burning happen because she thought the souls of the kaldorei there would help her sister - The Winter Queen, and Ardenweald. It is also revealed that Elune is a member of the Pantheon of Life. Tyrande also lets go and is cleansed from the Night Warrior's power that could have easily killed her eventually.

Another big thing that happens is that the Dreadlords take Remornia, which still has Sire Denathrius bound inside, and take him... someplace. We still don't know where he is or what he plans to do, but it's safe to assume he will come back with a vengeance.

Before the Jailer tries to strike Oribos, the covenants unite and launch an assault at the very heart of Torghast - the Sanctum of Domination. We get to the very top of Torghast and fight Sylvanas, but before we can beat her, the Jailer sends out chains to Oribos. We chase after them on these chains, eventually ending up in the Arbiter section of Oribos, where we actually lose and the Jailer manages to obtain the last Sigil and also gets a sweet new armor. He spouts about how everyone will serve him. Sylvanas bowed to never serve anyone after the shit she went through with Arthas, and Jailer assured her before that they are partners, equal. So she sends an arrow at him in protest. Obviously it wasn't gonna do anything, it was a sign of protest. The Jailer then tells her that it's a pity, but he did help her get something that was his (the Arbiter's Sigil, he used to be the first Arbiter), so he gives her back the part of her soul that Frostmourne took and leaves for Zereth Mortis.

We manage to slowly reforge the five sigils and go to Zereth Mortis where we chase after him and Anduin. We manage to free Anduin, beat the Jailer using the reforged Helm of Domination - now called the Crown of Wills that is able to resist the Jailer's Domination magic which is like 80% of why he's so powerful, and we also make a new Arbiter - Pelagos from Bastion. He vowes to never send souls to the Maw ever again. Then comes the judgement of Sylvanas. Instead of judging her himself, he lets Tyrande do it. She sends her to the Maw where she will have to free every single soul that was ever sent there, back to the Arbiter, where he will judge them. Sylvanas jumps into the Maw and that's that.

In 9.2.5 we get some nice epilogue stories - Undercity is cleansed of the Blight and a new leadership is put in place consisting of figures high in the Forsaken society. Calia Menethil is also brought into the fold, while kaldorei Dark Rangers are allowed to return to the Alliance if they so wish. Anduin visits Sylvanas in the Maw where they talk for a bit and we find out that Anduin feels intense guilt over everything the did while Dominated. And lastly, the Winter Queen gives Tyrande a seed empowered by saved kaldorei souls that can be used to plant a new World Tree.

Regarding what might come next, there seems to be a confirmation of a Seventh power existing and that it stands in opposition to the six ones we know of. In essence, it could just be two cosmic forces and the six could just be aspects of the first one, while the second one stands in opposition. That's it for the story of Shadowlands, hope this cleared some stuff up.

This post is also available in video form if you prefer to listen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFGMZhVlynA

If you have any questions feel free to ask

there are left out some details
yet this is better storytelling than Blizzard did
kudos to you

[DarkTZeratul]

Seems to be a lot of speculation on what happened with Argus, we don't know if Argus was corrupted by Death Magic or just happened to be a 'Death Titan' in the same way the other titans take on an aspect when 'birthed' and the Dreadlords weren't the ones who led Sargeras to the planet considering they weren't forced into the Legion until after the Eredar were corrupted and Argus (the planet) became fel-infused. For that matter we still don't know how killing Argus broke the Arbiter other than just being told "lol it happened" by a random enemy.

The novel makes this explicitly clear, in the form of Mal'ganis laying out the entire scheme to Sylvanas: The nathrezim told Sargeras they could use Argus to make the Burning Legion respawn faster in the Twisting Nether. They did this by infusing Argus with death magic, with the intentional side effect that when Argus was destroyed his soul would be sent to the Shadowlands where its sheer power would break the Arbiter.

[Mustardisbad]

Dang I read the whole thing and then saw it was in video form haha. Thanks for this though, I played bits and pieces and it was really confusing what was going on.

[Caiphon]

I've been hearing that since WoW came out. There was same criticism for every expansion, but then years later people decide that they are fine with it :P At some point, if a story is disappointing you for decades, maybe you shouldn't keep up with it.

MoP and WoD were criticised because they didn't really add anything to WoW - MoP villains and events didn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things outside the obvious SoO, and WoD was basically a spinoff chapter featuring an alternate timeline that pretty much got dumped immediately afterwards. Back then people complained because they wanted to see the story of Azeroth progress, and Legion addressed this desire quite well.

Shadowlands is qualitatively different from MoP and WoD in that not only does it fail to add anything of lasting significance to the story of WoW, it actively degrades the story that has been written so far. The Arthas saga spanning from WCIII: Frozen Throne to Wrath is no longer a struggle against one of the most powerful and charismatic supervillains in the Warcraft universe but just another snip of the bald man's weird 4d chess. Sylvanas' questionable but somewhat understandable crusade to allow the Forsaken to reproduce and flourish, along with the subtle political drama that resulted within the Horde, has been reduced to the bald man's pet merely seeking to advance her master's wishes.

Even Azeroth's mightiest heroes vanquishing Argus the Unmaker has become a mere page in bald man's grand design (which just begs for the question - wtf was he going to do if Argus won the fight?). Every single major event throughout the history of the franchise that many players have experienced and loved lost a significant portion of their in-world and emotional meaning by becoming a part of bald man's badly played chess game. SL writing is basically the worst of the worst breed of fanfiction made canon, where all established lore and characters of a well loved IP are made to serve a terribly written story involving a handful of oh-so-'original' Mary Sue cast.

I don't know how Dragonflight's story will unfold (and after SL expectations are at an all time low), but I do sincerely hope they never ever attempt the 'you know those awesome/cool/terrible events that happened? Well they were all planned out by THIS GUY!' thing ever again. Leave past expasions as they are and write stories and characters that are compelling by and of themselves. Failing that, just utilise existing lore figures and continue their tale. There's still a few left that Blizzard didn't manage to kill off through the last couple of expansions.

[SinR]

Uhm no? Shadowlands is canon bud...

It's not gonna get Me'dand.

I think they mean "Forgotten" by the Lore Team.

You know, like Y'rel and the Sword in Silithus

[Skildar]

Go find the the xpac that wrote in an entirely new villain that was REALLYYY behind every event in wows history, supposedly pulling all the strings and invalidating everything that came before it.

Or even like how apparently the necrolords are the progenitors of the scourge yet the scourge architecture was originally nerubian. Nah, shadowlands really was the lowest of the lows

I guess you didn't play Mist of Pandaria or didn't follow what Lei Shen did thousands years ago. How he managed to raise zandalari power by allying his army with theirs and how they marched on Uldum and forced the watchers to purge the zones, etc. The fact that he is the one teaching zandalari how to resurrect people but they never used the power on anyone until the mist is removed.

Just like Shadowlands, they integrated these events well enough so that so bad guy is never fully in charge of these events and that history is kind of lost so it makes sense that you are not aware of them before this point. The jailer was chained during all the events that we know and the nathrezim took care of business.

If you want real criticism about Shadowlands butchering stuff, I would go for Kel'thuzad. How weak and pathetic he becomes, and how sylvanas has no animosity for him are things that bugged me a lot.

- - - Updated - - -

MoP and WoD were criticised because they didn't really add anything to WoW - MoP villains and events didn't really matter all that much in the grand scheme of things outside the obvious SoO, and WoD was basically a spinoff chapter featuring an alternate timeline that pretty much got dumped immediately afterwards. Back then people complained because they wanted to see the story of Azeroth progress, and Legion addressed this desire quite well.

Shadowlands is qualitatively different from MoP and WoD in that not only does it fail to add anything of lasting significance to the story of WoW, it actively degrades the story that has been written so far. The Arthas saga spanning from WCIII: Frozen Throne to Wrath is no longer a struggle against one of the most powerful and charismatic supervillains in the Warcraft universe but just another snip of the bald man's weird 4d chess. Sylvanas' questionable but somewhat understandable crusade to allow the Forsaken to reproduce and flourish, along with the subtle political drama that resulted within the Horde, has been reduced to the bald man's pet merely seeking to advance her master's wishes.

Even Azeroth's mightiest heroes vanquishing Argus the Unmaker has become a mere page in bald man's grand design (which just begs for the question - wtf was he going to do if Argus won the fight?). Every single major event throughout the history of the franchise that many players have experienced and loved lost a significant portion of their in-world and emotional meaning by becoming a part of bald man's badly played chess game. SL writing is basically the worst of the worst breed of fanfiction made canon, where all established lore and characters of a well loved IP are made to serve a terribly written story involving a handful of oh-so-'original' Mary Sue cast.

I don't know how Dragonflight's story will unfold (and after SL expectations are at an all time low), but I do sincerely hope they never ever attempt the 'you know those awesome/cool/terrible events that happened? Well they were all planned out by THIS GUY!' thing ever again. Leave past expasions as they are and write stories and characters that are compelling by and of themselves. Failing that, just utilise existing lore figures and continue their tale. There's still a few left that Blizzard didn't manage to kill off through the last couple of expansions.

All events of warcraft have always been part of a greater plan by another cosmic crazy. The orcs coming to Azeroth to find riches and harvestable lands were in truth manipulated by Kil'jaeden who was conducting all of this for Sargeras. The assault of the demons on Azeroth were done to destroy the world soul so that old gods couldn't corrupt it first. The lich king risen dead army is an armada of destruction indirectly at the service of the legion. Every struggle by every character is happening because of something bigger and usually that something bigger is happening because of another massive threat. All of ulduar story and vrykul stories are this.
It doesn't invalidate the saga, the struggles, and the heroism.

[Khaza-R]

All events of warcraft have always been part of a greater plan by another cosmic crazy. The orcs coming to Azeroth to find riches and harvestable lands were in truth manipulated by Kil'jaeden who was conducting all of this for Sargeras. The assault of the demons on Azeroth were done to destroy the world soul so that old gods couldn't corrupt it first. The lich king risen dead army is an armada of destruction indirectly at the service of the legion. Every struggle by every character is happening because of something bigger and usually that something bigger is happening because of another massive threat. All of ulduar story and vrykul stories are this.
It doesn't invalidate the saga, the struggles, and the heroism.

Major contrast is that Kil'jaeden was a villain first introduced in WC2 and who spanned the plot of multiple titles and stories in WarCraft. Therefore writing him as some master schemer was fine. Pulling the same move with a guy who wasn't even adequately built up in his own expansion, just for him to be removed just as fast as he came in was never going to be compelling. Which is why a lot of people probably would of preferred he just be contained to Shadowlands and not touch prior story elements other than what was absolutely necessary.

[Skildar]

Major contrast is that Kil'jaeden was a villain first introduced in WC2 and who spanned the plot of multiple titles and stories in WarCraft. Therefore writing him as some master schemer was fine. Pulling the same move with a guy who wasn't even adequately built up in his own expansion, just for him to be removed just as fast as he came in was never going to be compelling. Which is why a lot of people probably would of preferred he just be contained to Shadowlands and not touch prior story elements other than what was absolutely necessary.

Was kil'jaeden introduced in warcraft 2 ? I must have missed that. To me this character has made its first appearance in books then warcraft 3 frozen throne.

For the jailer it could have played better if we truly felt that he is untouchable and that his threat of dominating all cosmos was on the brink of being executed. But even with mind controlled Anduin, it never felt that way and it never felt like we could do shit to stop the jailer. But al of that has nothing to do with how the events that we knew are tied to him. And the only thing that ties him to these events is that they were conducted by his servants and the outcome served him, which isn't much.

Saying that this is a retcon would be like saying whatever Kil'Jaeden did is retcon since he always worked for Sargeras the moment Sargeras enters the screen. The fact that we know or don't know about a boss's boss doesn't invalidate any of the preceding events that occurred, it's kind of weird to have to state something this obvious.

It was kind of a necessity to have the Jailer tied to frostmourne and other artefact, events, etc. He will need to use domination magic to accomplish his plan, he needed azeroth to be weakened and needed agents of death in our reality (nathrezim).

[Progenitor Aquarius]

Yeah, Dragonflight is just a setback. We all know that the cosmic plot is ahead of us and that the fate is merely a form of data being uploaded for us to enjoy ourselves. Haha!