The Jailers fatal mistake was....

[TyrianFC]

... leaving Sylvanas to our mercy.

Because we will show her mercy. You know its coming, no matter how much you wished it wouldnt or want to hate the lore/story/writers. And, ultimately, that is what will lead to the Jailers defeat. Sylvanas will lead/guide/help us thwart his plans into the next raid.

In the cinematic when the Jailer smugly says Sylvanas will be left to our mercy... he did it betting she'll be shown none, because hes well aware of the evil things shes done to us. Thats the big plot twist incoming in a future patch - the jailer will ultimately be proven wrong with his bet and Sylvanas will, indeed, be shown mercy and used as an instrument against him.

It reminds me a lot of a conversation between Frodo and Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, referring to Gollum. Whereby Frodo says "its a pity Bilbo didnt kill Gollum' and Gandalf replies that 'the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of man'. Its a similar theme here but on a cosmic scale: The jailer is betting on us NOT showing Sylvanas pity(mercy), but if we indeed doso, our pity(mercy) shown to Sylvanas (and her becoming an instrument to defeat him) may save the entire fucking universe.

Yes, you probably want Sylvanas to die. You want to hate her. You probably agree with the Jailer that she shouldnt be shown mercy and just outright killed. You wish the writers would just end her story already. But the moment I heard the Jailer utter the line about mercy - I knew ^^^^ was going to be her character arc going forward, the major plot story for the next patch... and how the jailer is, ultimately, defeated.

[Lupinemancer]

... leaving Sylvanas to our mercy.

Because we will show her mercy. You know its coming, no matter how much you wished it wouldnt or want to hate the lore/story/writers. And, ultimately, that is what will lead to the Jailers defeat. Sylvanas will lead/guide/help us thwart his plans into the next raid.

In the cinematic when the Jailer smugly says Sylvanas will be left to our mercy... he did it betting she'll be shown none, because hes well aware of the evil things shes done to us. Thats the big plot twist incoming - the jailer will ultimately be proved wrong with his bet and Sylvanas will, indeed, be shown mercy and used as an instrument against him.

It reminds me a lot of a conversation between Frodo and Gandalf in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, referring to Gollum. Whereby Frodo says "its a pity Bilbo didnt kill Gollum' and Gandalf replies that 'the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of man'. Its a similar theme here but on a cosmic scale: The jailer is betting on us NOT showing Sylvanas pity(mercy), but if we indeed doso, our pity(mercy) shown to Sylvanas (and her becoming an instrument to defeat him) may save the entire fucking universe.

I do agree. As much as I want her to pay for the actions eventually, for the moment, I'm actually curious to see where her story goes.

[Jujudrood]

Of course she will be spared.
She will have some vital nugget of information that will give us, the Champions, the ability to defeat him.
I'm guessing she pulls Varian out of her ass (metaphorically, hopefully) and that will be the lynchpin to snap Anduin out of his MC, then paired with whatever she tells us, we take the Jailer down and banish him all over again.
Blizzard won't end on a sour note, so we have to take the Jailer down, and Sylvanas is one of their poster children, so she won't be executed for her crimes.

[mickybrighteyes]

I do agree. As much as I want her to pay for the actions eventually, for the moment, I'm actually curious to see where her story goes.

we're going to see a Sylvanas who is mentally back at the fall of Quel'thalas who was just slain by Arthas and totally not at all the one who did all the 4d chess moves that have been memed in the lore of the last couple expansions. wave goodbye to the Dark Lady and the Lich Queen they built... we now get to see Sylvanas Queen of Bows a totally NOT Kerrigan rip off

[Biomega]

What, a big supervillain not outright killing a main character and then ultimately losing because they spared them?

PREPOSTEROUS. Such a thing NEVER happens.

[uopayroll]

The Jailers fatal mistake was....not getting his teeth or jaw or vocal cords fixed. I mean what the hell was he saying. If his army/minions/generals/whatever do not understand him then he has no chance

[inafume]

What, a big supervillain not outright killing a main character and then ultimately losing because they spared them?

PREPOSTEROUS. Such a thing NEVER happens.

Yep. Like he didn't kill us and the Primus in Torghast. Or like he didn't kill Bolvar, Thrall, and Jaina.

Basically the Jailer doesn't kill *anyone*. Maybe it's against his code.

[BrintoSFJ]

I don't think he was being smug at all. It would be a better story if Jailer actually wanted to see whether or not mortals show mercy to Sylvanas. Why? Because he is traumatized and angry and hateful. He knows deep down that he has done some terrible things because he has been so full of anger and malice. And he knows that innocents have suffered the brunt of his anger while the first ones, who have been keeping him chained, has not even taken any notice of him. Knowing this, he wants forgiveness and a chance to make things right. He wants to see if mortals are willing to give him that chance, that is why he let Sylvanas go.

I know that it is not the case at all. But I feel it would have been a better story if this were to be the case.

[Rexosaurus]

Yeah I figured they were gonna pull some nonsense like this as soon as she started having those conversations with Anduin. Pretty much sealed the deal that I won't be returning to WoW unless they do some massive reboot/overhaul sometime in the future.

The Jailers fatal mistake was....not getting his teeth or jaw or vocal cords fixed. I mean what the hell was he saying. If his army/minions/generals/whatever do not understand him then he has no chance

I definitely had to turn on the subtitles for a couple of his lines. XD

[McNeil]

The Jailer could also have simply killed everyone in the raid rather than just chaining them up. He isn’t giving any vibe of being a menacing threat, real life school bullies are more threatening than him at this point.

[Soon-TM]

For such an EvVuUL guy such as the Blue Man, he's conveniently lenient towards those who represent a real threat to him. And yes, it's quite clear that Sylv will be key to defeating the Janitor and/or releasing Gary Stu Anduin, so everything will be forgiven.

It's all so disgustingly cliché /puke

[Hellobolis]

it's not really his fatal mistake.

if it wasn't sylvanas that told us, it would have been the primus, or arthas ghost, or bolvar, or some new npc conjured up for the purpose. many plot hooks lead to the next part of the story, and everybody would have called each of them bad writing/obvious plot device.



i also really don't think the jailer did it out of mercy, certainly didn't hear him have a voiceline about mercy. he is probably quite aware that when she gets the "good" part of her soul back she will feel quite shitty about all she has done which will be a much more effective torture for her than any physical pain. (and it's also just him keeping his word to her, getting her soul back was no doubt part of her bargain with him.)

[Gaidax]

As with every villain the fatal mistake was letting us and other notables live. Yes, it's cliche and such, but I mean we have to survive somehow so game continues.

There is really not many options for Blizz on that front, even when defeated we need to survive in some way for story to continue and they are not really going to do mistakes of TBC where they killed notables right and left either.

[Berndorf]

His fatal mistake was being the main villain in an mmo designed to kill the main villain at the end of every expansion.

[Feanoro]

Gollum was a pathetic wretch, completely enslaved by the Ring.

Sylvanas is a genocidal torturer who condemned millions to WoW hell for her personal benefit and did so in full knowledge and by her own choices.

[sighy]

I don’t want her to die, because “redemption=death” is the easy get out of jail card writers use when a bad guy turns good (see Kylo Ren for a recent example but there are hundreds). The whole, “what do we do with a villain who repents?” story is interesting.

However, I also think it doesn’t really apply to Sylvanas because I view the whole thing as her being mind controlled or having serious brain damage or something. When an old person with dementia starts yelling at and hitting loved ones, we don’t blame them. Similarly, the part of Sylvanas that kept her from doing horrible things was taken away.

To the whole “well then that means we shouldn’t have killed any of the forsaken” argument: duh, they were trying to kill us. How can people be so stupid?

Of course, this doesn’t excuse the terrible arc she took before her soul was restored, wtf was that?

It's important that they strike a balance, where the character clearly is changed, but still is recognisable as the same person. They've got an opportunity to show that they can learn from their past mistakes, by showcasing a character, who clearly acknowledges what they've done and do feel guilty, however disciplined enough to know that say sitting on your derriere sulking in a bloody sewer, until even the enemy of your people grows fed up with it enough to give you a pep talk and tell you to go do something is gonna fix absolutely nothing.

The Jailers fatal mistake was....not getting his teeth or jaw or vocal cords fixed. I mean what the hell was he saying. If his army/minions/generals/whatever do not understand him then he has no chance

a little off topic, but this comment really reminded me of this scene xD

[Arrashi]

He wouldn't be warcraft villain if he didn't make obvious mistake that is bound to bite him in his gorgeous ass.

[catalystical]

I am very sure he knows she will either be spared and tell them what she knows, or she will be coerced into telling them what she knows before she dies. Either way she will speak and he definitely has planned/plans for that. He will be waiting for us.

But you raise a good point. So what did he not expect then? What are the variables that he wouldn't have considered us finding that would help us get a leg up on him?

The Varian locket? Arthas? The Drust? Bwon samdi finding some secret from Mueh zala? Elune making her move?

[Wangming]

The Jailer's fatal mistake was being more boring than watching paint dry.

[vilememory]

She gets locked up to be pumped for information. This pisses off Tyrande who wants her dead yesterday. Her sisters bust in and break her out because Family Fast and Furious meme bullshit.