Why wasn't Deathwing more like Smaug?

[Repefe]

Because Deathwing was insane while Smaug wasn't.

Big difference there.

DW was stupid, not insane ... or maybe insanely stupid.

[Dominating]

Nefarian is more sinister, cunning, and interesting as a villain than Deathwing. That should tell you how badly Blizzard wrote Deathwing in Cataclysm.

He's not smart or beguiling in-game, even though he has been presented like that in lore. It's just very disappointing to see such a huge lore villain reduced to an Old God minion.

OP is totally right, Smaug's intellect and wit are character traits Deathwing in Cataclysm should have possessed.

[Madruga]

Correction.

If Blizz had given Deathwing more of a personality like Deathwing, I might have enjoyed Cata more.

Deathwing from the books, mind you.

[Sky High]

Deathwing was insane, and a dummy. I doubt how Blizz handled him would change how cata went. it had a long list of problems but DW's personality is low on the list.

[Dominating]

Harrison Jones in uldum, anyone?

A great zone rife with opportunities for fully-developed lore that was almost ruined by a needlessly prolonged pop culture joke.

This is a pretty common trait with a lot of the questlines these days: memes, pop culture references, "so randum xD" pandering. Gamon having a more dynamic role than Eitrigg or Saurfang in SoO proves this is what Blizzard would rather do with the lore.

[Chain Chungus]

It would have been so cool to have a new Blackrock wing where Deathwing was sitting on his gold hoard.

That's how he should have been implemented. I think if the movie had came out before Cataclysm they may have done something like that. Granted the book was there, but damn, seeing Smaug on screen was just so much more epic.

[Dooney]

I just think that we ought to love our villains just as much as our heroes. This was a missed opportunity by Blizz. They took great care in telling Arthas story and as the Lich King we were pumped to take him down. Deathwing was just as prominent or more in Lore and we needed more than scales and minions to attack. Why not his human form for some of the fight?

[Celarent]

Because Blizzard's writing staff isn't always what we wish they could be.

Sovereign? That's a well-written antagonist with the right balance of stage time and mystery.

[Felarion]

If we had actually gotten to fight deathwing instead of killing scabs on his back and killing some tentacles in the water, I might have liked Cata more.

This. /10 chars

[Repefe]

Deathwing was just as prominent or more in Lore and we needed more than scales and minions to attack. Why not his human form for some of the fight?

If DW was cunning dragon in human form during the expansion that would keep plotting and evading player attempts to stop him, turning into dragon for the final fight of the expansion, that would be a satisfying kill; provided we actually got to fight a dragon instead of a reskinned ship and some tentacles.

[Concequence]

Smaug is the original treasure-hoarding dragon. Deathwing was just an idiot.

Fill your body with molten lava, and then drive white hot nails into your bones to attach white hot metal onto your flesh, make it so your flesh is magical so no matter how hot it burns, you never die, you are just in constant unending agony.
Also pipe the insane demonic voices of old buried gods who scream to be released to end the world, into your head constantly.

Yeah he was just an idiot. Just your average schizophrenic cenobite dragon.

[Dooney]

Nefarian is more sinister, cunning, and interesting as a villain than Deathwing. That should tell you how badly Blizzard wrote Deathwing in Cataclysm. He's not smart or beguiling in-game, even though he has been presented like that in lore. It's just very disappointing to see such a huge lore villain reduced to an Old God minion. OP is totally right, Smaug's intellect and wit are character traits Deathwing in Cataclysm should have possessed.

Aside from all the other things we found at fault with Cata, I think we struck gold on the fact that the main villain was just not worth the trip. Hint, hint to Blizz if you want WoD to be successful.

[bionics]

They should have included more of Deathwing throughout the game's instances/quest storylines/raids much like they did with Arthas in WotLK (although not quite to that extent). To go from a villain that was so omnipresent in the storyline to one who was barely there was a glaring variance and didn't make much sense overall.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

They should have included more of Deathwing throughout the game's instances/quest storylines/raids much like they did with Arthas in WotLK (although not quite to that extent). To go from a villain that was so omnipresent in the storyline to one who was barely there was a glaring variance and didn't make much sense overall.

In Deathwing's defense, the two had glaringly different plot points for their arcs. Both wanted to bring about the end of the world (albeit in different ways), but Arthas wanted to train us and mold us into his ultimate generals. That's why he showed up so much. He wasn't actually expecting any of those plans to work, he was making us stronger so we could eventually do his dirty work for him.

On the other hand, Deathwing is a gigantic molten, metal dragon who's verifiably insane, while still possessing a vast intellect and powers of his own. He's never really been a "arrive and fuck shit up" kind of guy - none of the black dragons have been. They all stay behind the scenes and push things in directions that favor them. Intervening themselves is generally a last-resort option used when they themselves are in danger, or their plans are failing. We see this, in particular, with 3 black dragons: Sabellian, whom stays in his human form until he takes revenge on that one gronn, Onyxia, who follows in her father's footsteps and nearly succeeds in destroying the human kingdoms from within (Lady Katrina Prestor), and most notably, Wrathion, who's been behind the scenes all expansion and the driving force for other events since even before MoP.

I think Deathwing was represented suitably well (not as well as he could have been, but well enough). He disregarded us (as he should have, being more focused on the other Aspects fighting alongside us), showed up once or twice (again, generally fighting said Aspects), but it wasn't too much. I liked both, though I preferred Deathwing, since I feel we saw Arthas a little too much (to the point where it almost felt like a Saturday morning cartoon: "Curses! Foiled again! NYEH!"). Overall, I feel MoP's storyline was better than both Cata and Wrath in terms of story and in-game presentation, but that's neither here not there.

In any case, I do think Deathwing should have been represented better, and could've shown up more, but he should not have been concerned with us personally. He was an Aspect; there's no way we could have challenged him at any point (when he did show up, he was fighting persons far more powerful than us; as it is, we only defeated him because we had the other 4 Aspects backing us up, as well as Thrall channeling the power of Azeroth (elemental earth) to complete the circle of bonding, as well as a super-charged, ancient artifact that was capable of wiping out armies of demons and dragons in an instant), and we would've been crushed under his heel had he chosen to do so (Arthas could've very well done so at the same time; he one-shot all of us at the height of our power in Wrath, could've easily done so in earlier parts of the expansion - therein the "Saturday morning villain" feeling).

[Dooney]

The new Godzilla movie comes out this May, gonna stop complaining about Deathwing until I see this one (when I resume in June).

[Sal the Shieldhog]

The new Godzilla movie comes out this May, gonna stop complaining about Deathwing until I see this one (when I resume in June).

Apparently this one is closer and more faithful to the originals than the "other" one was. And from what I've seen, it's going to be.

[Dooney]

Apparently this one is closer and more faithful to the originals than the "other" one was. And from what I've seen, it's going to be.

Seems like every generation needs it own Godzilla. This year is expected to produce a lot of action, adventure, fantasy movies.

[Sal the Shieldhog]

Seems like every generation needs it own Godzilla. This year is expected to produce a lot of action, adventure, fantasy movies.

Well, aside from the abomination that was the first American Godzilla, you can't go wrong with a Godzilla movie. I'm excited for it, because it looks to be pretty faithful to the originals, while still bringing Godzilla up to "modern standards." I admit I will likely miss the charm of the old suits, but it is exciting to think of Big G being rendered fully in CGI, especially with the tech we have these days (IMAX, 3D, etc). Can't wait.

[Deleted]

[Morgromir]

If we had actually gotten to fight deathwing instead of killing scabs on his back and killing some tentacles in the water, I might have liked Cata more.

QFT 10 chars...